Eve Ensler

V's memoir In the Body of the World was released on April 30, 2013. Booklist reviewed the book, saying, "This is a ravishing book of revelation and healing, lashing truths and deep emotion, courage and perseverance, compassion and generosity. Warm, funny, furious, and astute, as well as poetic, passionate, and heroic, Ensler harnesses all that she lost and learned to articulate a galvanizing vision of the essence of life: 'The only salvation is kindness.'".^[27] On February 6, 2018, she premiered a theatrical version of her memoir, which she performs as a solo monologue, directed by Diane Paulus, at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City.^[28]

She contributed the piece "Theater: A Sacred Home for Women" to the 2003 anthology

From October 2005 to April 2006, V toured twenty North American cities with her play The Good Body, following engagements on Broadway, at ACT in San Francisco, and in a workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre.^[30] The Good Body addresses why women of many cultures and backgrounds perceive pressure to change the way they look in order to be accepted in the eyes of society.^{[citation needed]}

V's play, The Treatment debuted on September 12, 2006, at the Culture Project in New York City.^{[citation needed]} This play explores the moral and psychological trauma that are the result of participation in military conflicts.^{[citation needed]} It stars her adoptive son, Dylan McDermott.^{[citation needed]}

In 2006, V released her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World (Villard; Hardcover; October 3, 2006).^{[citation needed]} In Insecure at Last, she explores how people live today, the measures people take to keep themselves safe, and how people can experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of "protection".^{[citation needed]} In 2006 V also co-edited A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer, an anthology of writings about violence against women.^{[citation needed]}

V's work I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around The World, a collection of original monologues about and for girls that aims to inspire girls to take agency over their minds, bodies, hearts and curiosities, was released February 2010 in book form by

V was a consultant on feminism and women's issues for the 2015 action film Mad Max: Fury Road.^[32]

In 2019, V published the book The Apology, where she imagines what her now dead father would say if he was able to apologize for the sexual and physical abuse he inflicted on her as a child. After completing the work, V said that she had ceased to feel any bitterness towards her father, but that she no longer wished to carry his name, inviting people to call her V.^[21][22][23]

Activism

V is an activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls. In 1998, her experience performing The Vagina Monologues inspired her to create

V is a supporter of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and went to Afghanistan under the rule of the Taliban. She supports Afghan women and has organized many programs for them.^[35] She organized one event named the "Afghani Women's Summit For Democracy".^{[citation needed]}

V has led a writing group since 1998 at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, which was portrayed in What I Want My Words To Do To You.^[36] Judy Clark, Kathy Boudin, and Pamela Smart were among the writing group's participants featured in the film.

In 2011, V-Day and the Fondation Panzi (DRC), with support from UNICEF, opened the City of Joy, a new community for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). City of Joy provides up to 180 Congolese women a year with an opportunity to benefit from group therapy; self-defense training; comprehensive sexuality education (covering HIV/AIDS, family planning); economic empowerment; storytelling; dance; theater; ecology and horticulture. Created from their vision, Congolese women run, operate and direct City of Joy themselves.^{[citation needed]} The City of Joy celebrated its first graduating class in February 2012.^{[citation needed]} The story of the City of Joy, including V's involvement, is portrayed in the documentary City of Joy, screening on Netflix.

In 2012, along with the V-Day movement, V created One Billion Rising, a global protest campaign to end violence, and promote justice and gender equality for women. On February 14, 2013, V-Day's 15th anniversary, women and men in countries around the world held dance actions to demand an end to violence against women and girls.^[37][38][39]

In 2016, V co-signed a letter to Ban Ki-moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with Warren Buffett, John Legend and Elizabeth Warren.^[40]

In 2017 in an opinion piece in The Guardian V voiced criticism of the newly inaugurated president of the United States, Donald Trump, referring to him as a "self-confessed sexual assaulter" and "our predator-in-chief".^[41]

In 2020, V endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders for President of the United States in the 2020 election.^[42]

Selected awards and honors

Ensler has received numerous awards for her artistic and humanitarian work:

• Tony Award – In 2011, V was awarded the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 65th Tony Awards, which recognizes an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of humanitarian, social service, or charitable organizations.^[43]
• Guggenheim Fellowship Award in Playwriting, 1999^[44]
• OBIE award for The Vagina Monologues in 1997^[45]
• Olivier Award nomination for West End Production of The Vagina Monologues^[46]
• Lion of Judah by the
  United Jewish Communities, 2002^[47][48]

• Conviction
• Lemonade
• The Depot
• Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man
• Extraordinary Measures
• The Vagina Monologues
• The Good Body^[49]
• Necessary Targets^[50]
• The Treatment
• Emotional Creature
• O.P.C.
• In the Body of the World
• Wild (
  book)^[51]

• The Vagina Monologues New York: Villard, 1998.
  OCLC 37492271
• Necessary Targets New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service, 2003.
  OCLC 54060045
• The Good Body New York: Villard, 2004.
  OCLC 56096678
• Vagina Warriors New York: Bulfinch Press, 2004.
  OCLC 474721443
• Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World New York: Villard, 2006.
  OCLC 70129196
• The treatment, New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2007.
  OCLC 163587396
• A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer New York: Villard, 2007.
  OCLC 862089179
• I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World New York: Villard Trade Paperbacks, 2010.
  OCLC 958697162
• In the Body of the World: A Memoir New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013.
  OCLC 811597425
• The Apology Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2019.
  OCLC 1100557521
• Reckoning Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2023. Parameter error in {{ISBN}}: Missing ISBN.

Filmography

• City of Joy (2016)
• Until the Violence Stops
  (2004)
• What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices From Inside a Women's Maximum Security Prison (2003)
• The Vagina Monologues (2002)
• Fear No More: Stop Violence Against Women (2002) – interviewee

References