Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

V-Day College Campaign returns to PCC

Photos and story by James Hill

PORTLAND, Ore. – V-DAY is coming back to Portland Community College.

The Sylvania Campus (12000 S.W. 49th Ave.) will host the production of Eve Ensler’s, “The Vagina Monologues,” as part of the nationwide V-Day College Campaign.

The performances will be at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9 and Saturday, Feb. 10, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11 in the PCC Sylvania Performing Arts Center. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 for general admissions, $12 for students, and groups of ten or more get a discount rate of $10. Tickets are available through the Women’s Resource Center (503-977-8101) and In Other Words Women’s Bookstore (503-232-6003).

A special aspect of this year’s event is that Board Director Denise Frisbee will perform Friday, Feb. 9 and Sylvania Campus President Linda Gerber will perform Saturday, Feb. 10.

It’s the seventh year that the Sylvania Women’s Resource Center has joined the global effort to stop violence against women and girls by producing V-Day Portland Community College 2007. The benefit production will raise funds for the PCC Illumination Project and the V-Day Campaign, “Women Living in Conflict Zones.”

“This year we have set the goal of raising $10,000 for our beneficiaries,” said Deborah Evind, coordinator of the Sylvania Women’s Resource Center.

This year’s production of “The Vagina Monologues” includes a cast of 33 women, all PCC students, staff, and faculty. Hailed by The New York Times and The New York Daily News, “The Vagina Monologues,” was first performed off-Broadway by Ensler. It dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women’s experiences. Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world, from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, and Jerusalem to Oklahoma City.

“Last year, I performed in ‘The Vagina Monologues’ and I was so moved by women’s stories of pain, struggle, courage and heroism that I was compelled to take a more active role in working to end violence,” said Sundance Henry, student advocate for the Women’s Resource Center and V-Day organizer. “I am incredibly proud of the work we are doing and I am thrilled to have the chance to do this important work.”

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. It raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of this play. In 2006, more than 2,700 V-Day events in 1,150 communities and colleges took place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised more than $35 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it. V-Day has funded more than 5,000 community-based anti-violence programs, reopened shelters, and funded safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.

Portland Community College is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon, serving approximately 88,200 full- and part-time students. For more PCC news, please visit us on the Web at www.pcc.edu/news. PCC has three comprehensive campuses, five workforce training and education centers, and 200 community locations in the Portland metropolitan area. The PCC district encompasses a 1,500-square-mile area in northwest Oregon and offers two-year degrees, one-year certificate programs, short-term training, alternative education, pre-college courses and life-long learning.