Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

'Monologues' Returns to PCC

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – Along with the world, Portland Community College will celebrate the ever-growing V-Day 2003.The college will host a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, "The Vagina Monologues,"at 7 p.m. on Feb. 13-15 at the Sylvania Campus Performing Arts Center, 12000 S.W. 49th Ave. In addition to the play, PCC will present two additional monologues – one created by men and one by women. Members of the community are organizing these monologues, which will be based on their vision of a non-violent world. Tickets are $10 for students and $12 for general admission. For ticket information, call 503-977-8101.V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.In 2002, there were more than 800 V-Day events around the world to educate people on the issue. According to recent surveys, a woman is battered every 15 seconds in America and is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa. In Oregon, one out of eight women is physically or sexually abused by an intimate partner."The Vagina Monologues,"which was first performed off-Broadway by Ensler, dives into the mystery, humor, pain and power that is buried in the experiences of women. The PCC benefit production is sponsored by the Sylvania Women’s Resource Center. For more information on V-Day, go to the Web site: www.vday.org. For more information on PCC’s production, call Deborah Evind, coordinator of the Sylvania Women’s Resource Center, at 503-977-8101.