Two Words, One Answer.
Eve Ensler
 The Vagina Monologues $19.98 I loved the vagina monologues. It is so freeing and honest and painful. I believe it is truly a gift and I am lucky to have seen it. It can be a bit shocking and would certainly turn some people off. For me, however, I feel it is a work of art. What a powerful way to address unspoken topics!! I didn't give it 5 stars because it is not something I would watch over and over again--which is usually the criteria I would use for buying a DVD. However in this case, I felt the material was so good that even if I only watch it a few times, it is worth owning. (I think I have watched it 3 or 4 times). Thank you Eve Ensler for you work. I am grateful.  Necessary Targets: A Story of Women and War $12.95 I was fortunate enough to see this play performed live, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was already an Eve Ensler fan, having performed myself in a college production of The Vagina Monologues, but I am also a harsh theatre critic, attending 8 or more professional productions a year (for the last 15 years) and often finding them lacking. Neccessary Targets is one of the best plays I have ever had the honor of finding myself engaged in. The characters are female archetypes we are all famillar with, and yet they each have their own unique stories. During the course of the play, they find themselves stomping bravely or furiously down paths they never even supposed were out there, hovering just off the beaten track...leaving the geographically familliar for the foreign, the psycholgically comforting for the disruptive, finding peace in sorrow, and joy in chaos. For anyone wishing to expand their understanding of how women in the global South or women in war-torn nations subsist psychologicaly--this is your play. Eve Ensler is a goddess. In this play, her creations range from an elderly woman who longs for her long-gone beloved cow, to a teenage mother, unwilling to acknowledge the loss of her newborn infant, from an uptight/urban therapist who needs to learn how to feel compassion and forget about wrinkle-free clothes, to a freedom-fighting hiking-boot-wearing all 'round adventurer with an intense insecurity complex. It's a must read and a must see.  Insecure at Last: A Political Memoir $14.95 Eve Ensler bares her soul in this book. Weaving her personal history and thoughts about her abusive father along with interviews with women from around the world who have been violated, you get a sense of the magnitude of the problem of violence against women around the globe. Her writing is so vivid that you feel like you are there with her or with the women she has interviewed with respect and compassion. It is difficult not to be affected: you can almost see their pain, fear, rage, and hope. She explores the subject of security, via her reporting of the women whose stories you read, who have been violated, either individually or their loved ones. From Bosnia to Pakistan to Mexico to our own US prisons, Ensler brings you into the lives of women who've been violated, often with little or no safety net. She also shares the stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors, as well as activist Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in the Iraq War. All are equally compelling stories, combined with Ensler's own thoughts on her relationship with her father and the notion of security. Or insecurity. Like The Vagina Monologues, this book has ignited my indignation at the ongoing problem of violence against women. Thanks to Ensler, TVM and V-Day have awakened the world to stop the violence. She has inspired many activists and activists-to-be, such as myself, to bring about change in small and big ways. Her work is for everyone who respects and values the women in her/his life. |
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