Comparing post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans to a vagina might not be the most politically correct way to describe the disaster zone, but that is just what Eve Ensler does in the newest addition to her set of monologues, The Vagina Monologues.
The Lost Flamingo Company will debut Ensler's Katrina-inspired monologue, Welcome to the Wetlands
along with several of Ensler's original monologues tonight and tomorrow. It presents the 10th anniversary of The Vagina Monologues as part of V-Day.
V-Day, Feb. 14, is an international day of awareness about violence toward women and girls. Organizations all over the world present The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and money for groups that support ending this violence.
This year's Welcome to the Wetlands monologue is about how New Orleans is the vagina of America said Jen Hayes, an Ohio University senior English major who performs Welcome to the Wetlands.
It puts an interesting spin on the whole post-Katrina situation and linking it to women she said.
One OU faculty member can relate to this monologue directly. Susanne Dietzel, a women's studies professor and director of the Women's Center, experienced Hurricane Katrina first hand while living in New Orleans.
A former professor at Loyola University New Orleans, Dietzel evacuated the city with her partner and young daughter when the levees broke in late August 2005 and spent several months living with Dietzel's family in Jackson, Miss. They didn't return to New Orleans until Thanksgiving of that year. Although her property remained mostly undamaged, the disaster had a huge effect on her family's life.
Even though I didn't lose anything
I still lost my city
Dietzel said.
Ensler's monologue is based on a lot of personal interactions with women who have been through the storm. Pam Jenkins, a professor of sociology at the University of New Orleans, presented a speech about women's roles in post-Katrina New Orleans Tuesday night at OU. Jenkins said the disaster resulted in an increase in women's already hard work in the area, from providing nursing services in the Louisiana Superdome to taking care of elderly strangers. The greatest loss to women was their sense of community with each other, she said.
When people lost their neighborhood
they lost their family
said Jenkins, who was displaced from her home for 18 months.
Along with the devastation of homes came the devastation of battered-women's shelters in New Orleans. Before the storm, five battered-women's shelters operated throughout the city. But most of them crumbled, and only one was left.
This year's presentation of The Vagina Monologues will donate a portion of all proceeds from every production worldwide to the Katrina Warriors, a group of activists in New Orleans dedicated to helping women and girls rebuild their lives. Dietzel was one of about 20 founding members of the Katrina Warriors.
Each year, Ensler chooses a charity to donate profits to that coincides with the topic of her newest monologue, said Kate Krushinski, an OU senior sociology/criminology major and director of Lost Flamingo's The Vagina Monologues. Ten percent of the proceeds of their show will benefit the Katrina Warriors, and the other 90 percent will benefit My Sister's Place, a battered women's shelter in Athens.
Lost Flamingo Company also will show the documentary Until the Violence Stops, a film that shows how The Vagina Monologues has touched many lives, on Sunday and Monday nights, Hayes said. The proceeds from the two showings will also benefit My Sister's Place.
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Caitlin Price
