V-Day to Present VOICES: A SACRED SISTERSCAPE, New Audio Play

V-Day's new audio play, VOICES: a sacred sisterscape, will be available for streaming across all audio platforms beginning June 11, 2024. VOICES, spearheaded by Grammy-nominated poet aja monet ("When The Poems Do What They Do"), is an audio experience featuring stories written by, narrated by and centering Black women across the diaspora. 

VOICES is the newest artistic project and campaign from V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against all women, gender expansive people, girls and the Earth. It was founded by V (formerly Eve Ensler) in response to the overwhelming number of stories of violence heard in reaction to her play, The Vagina Monologues. For over 25 years, V-Day has unleashed vast grassroots, anti-violence work on college campuses and in communities – visionary work that has been survivor-led and focused, all the while revealing the power of art and activism to change culture and systems. When VOICES began in 2020, it was commissioned as a new play and campaign to move into the spaceThe Vagina Monologues once occupied in the V-Day movement. The VOICES interdisciplinary performance art project and campaign is grounded in Black women's stories of the African continent and diaspora brought to life.
 
“At a time where so many are being encouraged to speak, to voice, and tell their stories—we find it just as important if not more to listen. It is critical to facilitate art that encourages radical listening for the sake of connection, compassion, and community. This art piece is a celebration of the interior lives we embody and less about fixating on our identities or appearances. We seek to encourage and establish a culture that fosters radical truth-telling love and solidarity," shares aja monet, Artistic Creative Director of VOICES at V-Day. 
 
“I am so moved by this extraordinary piece that will be a new artistic centerpiece for the V-Day movement. What's different about these stories is that Black women are telling them through their lens. There's no monolith, there's no one story – the stories are rich, intricate and complex. They are specific, yet universal and they are necessary. And we, the audience, are invited to listen in a whole new way,” stated V (formerly Eve Ensler), playwright, activist and founder of V-Day.

When V-Day reached out to monet about this project, she began by inviting Black women to share their stories and participate in a call for their submissions. After receiving over 800 submissions, more than two years of gathering stories, collective study, and collaborating with Black women actors and musicians, a selection of poems was curated into a powerful audio play. An initial event for the piece was held in 2022 in Accra, Ghana where these stories were celebrated live at a joyous festival. VOICES is produced by Hollis Heath and V-Day.
 
LeahAnn “Lafemmebear” Mitchell, a Grammy nominated producer, has composed new music to accompany the audio play. In 2021, she etched her name in history as the first black trans woman to produce a record featured on a Top Ten charting album with her remix of Reba McEntire's "I'm a Survivor". 

VOICES will premiere at two listening launch events at The Apollo's Jonelle Procope Theater at The Victoria (233 W. 125th Street, New York, NYC ) on Friday, May 31, one of which will be hosted by Anna Deavere Smith (Fires in the Mirror, “Nurse Jackie”), monet and V for a shared listening experience in anticipation of the launch. $20 tickets will be made available to the public to attend the evening launch session. The audio play will be distributed by Blackstone Publishing and made available digitally in all markets on June 11. V-Day will host an accompanying website featuring a solidarity toolkit as a guide for listeners as they experience VOICES. 

For more information, please visit http://www.visforvoices.org/ and follow the journey at @visforvoices and @vdayorg.

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