>> hinojosa: her play, the vagina monologues, has been performed and banned all over the world, and her global campaign to end violence against women and girls has motivated millions to take action. playwright, author, and women's rights activist eve ensler. i'm maria hinojosa, this is one on one. eve ensler, playwright, author, activist; welcome to our program. it's great to have you here. >> well, i'm so happy to be here. >> hinojosa: so if people don't know, the thing that you are most well-known for is your play the vagina monologues, and

what's amazing is-- because as i was prepping for this, i was thinking and i was reading everything and i was like, "my god, you know, ten years ago, that word-- 'vagina'-- would have not been said, you know, on public television." so when you sit back and you think, "wow, i really have had an impact," i mean, on many levels, but on that particular issue-- the fact that you have changed how one word about a woman's most intimate anatomy is seen and discussed. what does that mean for you? >> you know, it's really hard to evaluate what you've done, you know, and it's actually not for me to figure out... >> hinojosa: and you're such a humble person, i know that, but... >> what i feel good about is that people seem to say the word more, and what is significant about that is it means that vaginas actually exist, and if they exist, then we can have agency and rights over our vaginas, and we can know what gives them pleasure or doesn't give them pleasure, and we can say "no" when we mean no, and we can... we can actually create a reality so that bad things don't happen to them in the dark-- and

that's exciting to me. >> hinojosa: because essentially, you know, your generation, my generation-- it was just something that you never, ever, ever talked about, ever looked at, ever discussed, ever thought about. >> and also never had any pleasure around. you know, we were talking about-- the other day, friends of mine-- when we were brought up, we weren't taught that sex was something that could give you pleasure, or that emboldened your life, or that was a central part of who you were; it was something you did to have babies, or something you did and you didn't talk about it, or you just "got through," like an exam, do you know? and the idea that women now can actually know their bodies and know their vaginas and know their clitoris and know what gives them pleasure, so that men and women can be in this-- or men... or women and women, or whatever people choose to be in partnership with-- but that our sexuality's part of our life, and not something that's embarrassed, or hidden, or censored or muted. it's our life force; it's where our energy comes from. >> hinojosa: so when you look out into america, let's-- because you do a lot of international work, and we're going to get into that in a second-- but what do you see?

because i always feel like it's constant contradiction, you know? on the one hand, a sense of younger women feeling empowered-- being able to talk about their vaginas, et cetera-- on the other hand, it feels like, you know, very crude; that somehow women who are, you know, more sexually "out there" are using it in a way that maybe is not the... what do you see when you look out? >> you know, i know this is a general way of seeing it, but-- and the word is still not the best word-- but patriarchy is still alive, you know? we're still living within a patriarchal structure. >> hinojosa: so define "patriarchy" for our viewers. >> to me, patriarchy is really the notion that there is a father... kind of omnipotent father state, and the mechanisms of that are kind of occupation domination. i think it means that values that are not necessarily attributable to a man or a woman but maybe called feminine-- values of cooperation, values of emotions, values of connecting

to people and doing things through invitation, and doing things on the basis of agreement rather than domination, or, you know, just even the way see the earth, for example. that the earth is something alone to us. she's... she's a gift to us, and we are to honor her, and to cherish her, and to replenish her, and to think of all the ways we can keep her sacred and alive. patriarchy is about how you take from the earth, and get from the earth, and plummet the earth, and plunger the earth, and reap what you can in the moment so you'll have the most power, and the most resources, and the most money-- and the most power. >> hinojosa: and be the biggest guy. >> the biggest, the strongest... >> hinojosa: the biggest country on the block. >> right, and so it's all about power, isn't it? it's all about keeping yourself in a place of domination, and keeping yourself in a place where you're on top. and i think, for me, as long as that paradigm is still the paradigm that we're living in, women will always be stifled, muted, objectified, because

that's part of how that paradigm keeps in place. >> hinojosa: well, what about when you have more women who are kind of owning their power, let's say politically? >> i think what happens very often in this culture is that women think the way to get ahead is to mirror themselves on the basis of men who are in power, and so, often, when they come into leadership positions, they still operate the way men operate. and actually, sometimes, they're actually more vigilant in that role because they have to prove that they're more men than men are. and so sometimes they end up becoming more oppressive in those roles. >> hinojosa: more of a bully? >> more of a bully. and i think, what does it mean for a woman to be in power? that's a really... what does it mean for someone to be in power in their feminine empowered self? and that can be true for a man too, and i think... michelle obama, to me, kind of epitomizes that. she is somebody who creates dialogue, she's somebody who's not afraid to get on her knees and hug children, but you see she doesn't lose her power by doing that. she's someone who's not afraid to look at a world of... whether

it's racial injustice or economic injustice or whatever it is, and call that out and say, "how are we going to find a new kind of form of justice?" and i think, to me, she embodies someone who's a very strong woman, who's a very, very... i think one of the reasons people are so scared of her bare arms, to be honest, is because they're... they're bare. there's a vulnerability at the same time as this incredible strength, and to me, she's just... she's a woman, you know? and to see that in that kind of leadership role, to me is very, very helpful. >> hinojosa: so i want to talk about you personal story, but before we get to that, let's talk.... because there are probably a lot of people who maybe have never seen the vagina monologues, don't know anything about what you created after the vagina monologues, which is something called v-day. let's start with the vagina monologues. you decided... you started talking to somebody about menopause.

>> right. >> hinojosa: a woman. >> yep. >> hinojosa: and that led you to just start talking to a lot of women about their vaginas... >> yeah. >> hinojosa: ...and then you put it together in a play that had an extraordinary outpouring. it... how many countries has it played in now? >> 130. >> hinojosa: and it's still... where is it... is it... >> oh, it's running... this year on v-day there were 5,000 productions of it. i mean, it's running all over the world. it's been running in paris and mexico city for ten years. >> hinojosa: i know, i was like, "really?" >> i know. >> hinojosa: non-stop. >> yeah. >> hinojosa: so after... after the vagina monologues, you said one of the things that happened was that you had a lot of women coming and talking to you not about feeling empowered about their sexuality; they were actually coming to you and sharing stories of abuse... >> mm-hmm. >> hinojosa: ...of sadness. and so then what did you decide to do with all of those stories? >> well, i think when i did the show, it brought up so much stuff for women. and at first, i thought, "this will be great. women will share their wonderful sex lives, their great orgasms," and... no. what happened was... >> hinojosa: literally, you were thinking that? you were like... >> no, i was thinking, "i'll get new stories; it will be..."

and what happened was 95% of the women-- and they would literally line up after the show with this kind of desperation-- 95 were there to tell me they'd been raped, they'd been incested, they'd been beaten, they'd been mutilated... it was overwhelming. >> hinojosa: and you were totally not expecting that. >> well, i knew there was violence against women. i'm a survivor-- i knew. but i... i had no idea of the epidemic proportions. i had no idea of the centrality of it. i had no idea how... how many women; the global nature of it. that has been the huge awakening, and as i said to a friend of mine who works on this issue as well yesterday, it's the thing that's in the center of everything-- it's the big story that no one wants to talk about. i was in prison yesterday with women who i've been working with for a long time. i hadn't seen them in a while. you know, 95% of women in prisons are there because of violence against women-- women who are homeless, women who can't hold jobs-- and we can go down the list-- women who are depressed, women who are having diseases, women who can't stay in relationships, women who end

up being batterers or are abusive to their children. if you really look back, you will see women who were raped as children, who were incest as children, and by the way, i think it's going to end up being true about men, as well. i think, if we really want to look at what's going on with men and why... and not every man, by any means, is a perpetrator. i would say most men are not perpetrators. the problem is the men who aren't perpetrators don't stand up to speak out to their brothers and fathers and uncles and sons who are perpetrators. >> hinojosa: and say things, for example, when they are in a conversation, they don't stop them and say, "don't talk like that around me." >> exactly. >> hinojosa: "don't use that terminology." >> exactly. they don't break the brotherhood. they don't risk losing their stature and their power in the circle of men. and i think one of the things that's really important is that we help everybody begin to identify how traumatized they are. men are traumatized and humiliated and ashamed, and what they do is they become more

violent, and they become more macho, and they become more proving, you know, how sure of themselves they are. women are... end up, often, on the end of that. and i don't want to demonize anyone. i think when i started this movement, you know... years ago, being a survivor, i had a lot of my own anger and a lot of... at my father, at, you know, at men in general. i don't feel that anymore. i feel we're all in this struggle together. i want men to be with us; i want men to own this issue; i want men to see this is theirs so that we work in partnership to stop the violence, you know? >> hinojosa: so eve, you wanted to focus on men, but actually, right after the vagina monologues, you really focused in on women by creating v-day. there are probably some people who are watching this who are saying, "v-day; what is that?" >> well, it began, actually... once i discovered all this violence, i was going to stop doing the vagina monologues, because i felt immoral to see all these women expressing and telling their stories, and not intervening on their behalf.

so in 1998, i got a group of friends together and i said, "look, i have this play. how could we use this play to stop violence against women? not manage it; not contain it; but end it?" and we came up with this idea of v-day, which was valentine's day, vagina day, ending violence against women day. and we said, "we'll do one event in new york, and we'll ask every great actor we know, and see if they'll, you know, perform." and, you know, we asked everyone from rosie perez to glenn close to susan sarandon to whoopi-- everybody said, "yes," it was... not everybody, two people didn't. but we did this we did this performance, and it rocked new york. 2,500 people came; you could just feel the earth move. and really, from that point to now, which is 11 years ago, this movement has just taken off. and, you know, i look back-- 11 years ago, we were in one city, you know, one event. it's now 11 years later; this year there were 1,400 places in the world that did 5,000 events. we raised $70 million...

>> hinojosa: wow! >> ...and that's all happened through grass-roots activists in their local communities standing up, finding their vagina warrior power to end violence and take back their bodies. and, you know, i wish you could see some of these women who have been doing the show and doing, you know, v-day for maybe five years-- they're fierce, and they're loving, and they're funny, and they're sexy, and they're alive, and they're into pleasure, and they're running for office. and they're, you know... and they're coming into power in a whole new kind of way. >> hinojosa: well, i guesshi ado ry. yowewing up in, what you like to call a won secure, suburban america-- scarsdale, new york; white picket fence, the whole thing... >> literally. >> hinojosa: literally. but there wasn't a lot of dialogue about what was happening behind that white picket fence. >> no, and i think that's the sham, right? that's the sham. you know, inside my house, you know, i had a father who was,

like, a corporate president, and meanwhile, he was violent; he was a perpetrator. my life was completely violent, you know? >> hinojosa: from the time that u were five... >> mm-hmm. >> hinojosa: ...to ten. >> well, five to ten was the sexual violation, and then that continued in the form of physical violence until i left. and if i look at my life, i really was a consequence of violence. like, everything about my life was determined by violence in some fundamental way. so i was crazy. >> hinojosa: but you weren't talking about it, right? >> nobody was talking about it. nobody was talking about it. i had to act like everything was happy and, you know, i was privileged , and white, and everything was beautiful. and meanwhile, i was destroyed inside and i became crazy with drugs, and crazy... very promiscuous, and very wild, very young, very self destructive. i wanted to be dead. i was on a very, very suicidal trajectory. >> hinojosa: and what were you doing... i mean, when you knew that you, kind of, had this history but you weren't talking about it... >> burying it. burying it. burying it.

because, you know, as i said to a friend of mine the other day, to tell your story, you risk the end of your family. you know, it's kind of... i have a good friend who used to say to me, "it's either your integrity or your family," you know? >> hinojosa: that's a really hard choice. >> it's really hard... you... to tell the truth, often it means you will be exiled from the tribe. it doesn't matter whether it's talking about the palestinian/israeli conflict; whether your talking about any kind of truth that is real, you will be exiled from some club, some tribe, some form, and that means you have to essentially live your life from that point on as a nomad, which i'm very happy with now. like, i am a vagina nomad traveling the planet, and i am happy. but early on, to risk the loss of that feels like the end of your life; and that's why it's so difficult for so many women to come forward and tell the truth. like in the congo, where we're spending... >> hinojosa: you are... have now spent a lot of time there. i remember you talking about the fact that you felt like bosnia

was a place where you needed to be, and now it feels like you need to be in the democratic republic of congo. you have spent so much time there; you've testified in front of congress. why has the congo now become such an important part of your life? >> well, you know, it's funny. this morning i got an email early this morning about a little girl who's three-- her name is chantel-- who was on her way to the hospital. she had been raped by a gang. >> hinojosa: she was three years old... >> yeah. >> hinojosa: ...and raped... >> ...by a gang, and she died on the way to the hospital. now, just imagine what kind of rape that has to be to murder you. when i first heard the stories from the congo from an extraordinary man named dr. mukwege, i literally couldn't believe it. like, i have been in bosnia, i've been in afghanistan, i've been in haiti; i've been in some pretty rough places where there's enormous violence, but maria, what's going on in the congo... and it's an economic war. it is fueled by the west's need for coltan and other minerals which actually fuel our cell phones, fuel our computers.

so basically, it's the west, again, doing a kind of economic colonialism which is plundering the minerals of the congo. and the way that happens is that the militias go in and they rape and destroy the communities, the communities flee, and they take over the mines. >> hinojosa: so if... if someone like you, who's not an expert political scientist or an ambassador per se-- you know it easy; you've just explained it in a minute-- where is the resistance to moving forward? >> well, it is a huge question. look, the conflict in the congo has been going on for 12 years; six million people have died-- six million. it is estimated that probably between 200,000 and 500,000 women have been raped and tortured, okay? in bosnia, that conflict happened and within two years, those rape camps-- you know, it was estimated 20,000 to 40,000-- it was stopped. white women, eastern europe. we're talking about... i have to say it. like, having now campaigned for

two years on this, and you really hear the most horrendous, horrific stories of my life-- to the point where i don't really sleep very much anymore, because once those kind of stories enter you, and you feel the people, and you hug the people, and you hold the girls, and you hug... they're in your soul forever. they're in your soul forever. why isn't the world responding? why? what is stopping... and i can only believe, on some level, that it's racism; that we have an attitude towards black people in particular-- and black women in particular-- that somehow, the destinies of african women have already been decided, do you know? they've already been written off, you know? people in the congo, well, that's... that's the heart of darkness. that's... i think it's actually the heart of racism. i think it's... the people in the congo are some of the most beautiful, extraordinary people i have ever met. and that country is central to africa-- it is central to the heartbeat of africa. to have allowed, as an international community, this kind of level of atrocity to go

on for this long is on all our backs. it's on all our heads, particularly when we're using cell phones that have that kind of blood on them. >> hinojosa: but i'm sure that there are some people, eve, who hear you and they think, "it just sounds too overwhelming, and i'm not even sure if i even want to hear the stories, if eve, who goes there and is in the country and comes back and can't sleep because she's hearing this." what about women-- and men-- who just say, "it's too much, it's too big, it's too far, it's too overwhelming, and i can't." >> it's a really good question, and here's what i have to say: look, i don't see the world as such a big, huge-- i see it as a very small world. everything each one of us does impacts somebody at some moment, whether we use our cell phones and that colton is here... we're all so interconnected now. you can't say, "it's too much for me to bear," because if it were happening to you, how would

you feel if other people said, "it's too much to bear?" you know, when i went to afghanistan in the 1990's and i saw what the taliban was doing to women, i came back and i had, literally, a video that the revolutionary association of the women of afghanistan had taken under their burkas, where they documented the atrocities in a stadium where a woman was shot in her head for flirting. i brought that to every... >> hinojosa: for flirting? >> for flirting. i brought that back and i took that to every media outlet in america, and you know what they said to me? "no one cares about the women of afghanistan." i said, "listen to me. you better care, because when you see something that is that immoral and is ending rights so severely, you know it will impact you eventually." look what happened-- 9/11. i will say the same thing about the congo. if we, as human beings, allow this kind of atrocity to happen to our sisters and brothers anywhere in the world, it will eventually impact all of us. it's already impact all of us-- even if we pretend we don't know it in our consciousness, do you know? i remember, in the reagan years,

when there were many, many homeless people on the street-- and i was already involved with nuclear disarmament; working all these issues-- and i just couldn't deal with homeless people. it was like, "i can't take it in." and my friend kept saying to me, "i want you to come to this shelter; i want you..." i kept saying, "i don't want to, because once this door opens, i know..." but i got progressively depressed, because every time i would walk past a homeless person, i'd have to shut some part of myself off, so my energy was getting... and then one day, i finally went to the shelter, and i met the women, and i sat with the women, and you know what? i felt pain-- but i felt alive, because i was in connection with them; and my energy came back, and my... and that's what i would say to people. you know, yes, it's painful to feel other people's pain, but it also is the road to your own life force; the road to your own humanity-- which is the only thing that gives us any kind of life. >> hinojosa: so what happens, eve, though-- and i love the fact that you talk about the fact that you say, "look, i live with this darkness.

sometimes i cry on an hourly basis," other days are great days when you feel entirely empowered. but what happens when you leave these countries? when you come in, you open the door-- there's talk. these women are able to unload, but then you leave. >> but i don't leave. i mean, v-day doesn't leave. i mean, one of the... i think the great things about the movement is that v-day is women everywhere. right now, we now have v-day congo where we are in partnership with many, many local groups on the ground who are really motivating the v-day movement and motivating the campaign-- women who have been working there forever to empower women and stop the rapes, and i'm coming late to the party. we now are opening a huge facility called the city of joy, which will be for women survivors to turn pain to power, to create leaders. we've created a massive campaign all through the congo-- through eastern congo-- and all over the world. if you go on the v-day website you'll see the v-wall for congo, where women and men across the planet have written letters and

sent in pictures for the women that just got printed and put up on the walls of the hospital in bukavu, where all the rape survivors are. so we don't leave. there isn't one country, because v-day is the local women. it's not like we're somebody outside the country coming in-- v-day only exists if women in the country take the movement and make it theirs. >> hinojosa: and what happens to these women who are then in their countries, kind of opening this up? >> they get powerful, and more powerful, and right now, we've done... they've done breaking the silence events there, where they've told their stories publicly. we're just about to do another event in kinshasa. there's been mad, powerful street demonstrations. i predict to you, in three to five years, they'll be a major women's movement that will take over the congo, if we keep going. i do. i think it'll happen. the women are so fierce and they're so resilient, and all they need is a little support to direct their own destinies, to take agency over their bodies, over their countries, and they will turn that country around.

>> hinojosa: so tell me, eve, how do you handle it? i mean, you take all this stuff in; you're managing amazing projects, you're in the prisons-- you're also working with women in prison-- you're traveling... what do you do with it all? >> you know... >> hinojosa: i mean, you said you don't sleep, which worries me... >> well, sometimes i don't sleep. sometimes... you know... i'm an emotional... you know, i have a new book called i am an emotional creature-- the secret life of girls around the world-- i'm an emotional creature. i... my life, you know... i have days when i'm wildly happy, and i have hours where-- like this morning i was on the phone with chantel who's three years old, who didn't make it to the... hospital. i was just... destroyed. but you let that move through you and you let yourself... you let yourself be connected to the river of humanity, and swimming in that. i swim that river, you know? i want to be in that river; i don't want to be outside the river. i don't want to live in a mall. i don't want to live, you know, with things that protect me from human beings. this is what we're here to do; to engage with each other, and sometimes that's a glorious

process. sometimes my heart feels so much pain for what's going on in the congo or in haiti or afghanistan. sometimes i see the victories of women. you know, we're seeing incredible victories of women all over the world who are having rights change, or having laws change, or coming into power... >> hinojosa: so there's progress for you? >> there's incredible progress! look, people... you know, when the floggings happened in pakistan a few months ago, within 24 hours there was everyone online-- here, there-- and the government, 48 hours later, stepped in. that didn't happen eight years ago, ten years ago. there is incredible progress happening. we have huge movements. there were 5,000 v-days this year-- that's a lot of v-days. >> hinojosa: okay, so here's what i want you to leave our audience with. imagine that there's a young woman or a girl who is having... you know, who needs to break; who needs to tell the truth. what does she do? >> i think she finds one person

she can trust in her community, and she tells her story-- because when you tell your story, that's the beginning. when you hear your story, when you know your story, when you manifest your story in a way that makes you exist. so much of what violence does is end our existential reality and rob us of meaning and existence, and i think, for young girls, it's so important that they tell their stories and they find a community of girls in which they're safe enough to tell those stories and then transform those stories. >> hinojosa: eve ensler, thank you for telling your story, and for transforming all of us. >> thank you. >> hinojosa: continue the conversation at wgbh.org/oneonone. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> garrison keillor: toi

derricotte grew up outside detroit. with the poet cornelius eady, she cofounded cave canem, an organization committed to cultivating and supporting the work of african american poets. she says, "truth telling in my art is also a way to separate myself from what i have been taught to believe about myself-- the degrading stereotypes about black women." >> blackbottom. when relatives came from out of town, we would drive down to blackbottom. drive slowly down the congested main streets-- beaubien and hastings-- trapped in the mesh of saturday night. we were freshly escaped, black middle class. we snickered and were proud; the louder the streets, the prouder.

we laughed at the bright clothes of a prostitute; a man sitting on a curb with a bottle in his hand. we smelled barbecue cooking in dented washtubs and our mouths watered. as much as we wanted it, we couldn't take the chance. rhythm and blues came from the windows, the throaty voice of a woman lost in the bass, in the drums, in the dirty down and out-- the grind. ♪"i love to see a funeral, then i know it ain't mine." ♪ we rolled our windows down so that the waves rolled over us like blood. we hoped to pass invisibly, knowing on monday we would return safely to our jobs, the post office, and classroom. we wanted our sufferings to be

offered up as tender meat, and our triumphs to be belted out in raucous song. we had lost our voice in the suburbs, in conant gardens, where each brick house delineated a fence of silence; we had lost the right to sing in the street and damn creation. we returned to wash our hands of them; to smell them whose very existence tore us down to the human. ( applause ) thanks so much.

i'd like to know whether god exists. i'd like to know about god. i'd like to know god. i've gone through many ways of knowing - and still i do not know. perhaps my search has been limited. perhaps my western, judeo-christian vision of a personal, perfect being is misguided?