Southeast Missouri State University will observe V-Day Feb. 14 with benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, hosted by Southeasts Campus Violence Prevention Program and Counseling and Disability Services.

V-Dayevents represent an opportunity to raise awareness around the intersection of violence against women and healthy sexuality, said Donna St. Sauver, coordinator of the Campus Violence Prevention Program. We invite the Southeast and local community to these two artistic uprisings as well as our survivor speak out, SEMO Rising.

Southeast students will present a production of A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer at noon Feb. 14 on Kent Librarys main floor near the south entry. This groundbreaking collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights, edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle, examines the insidiousness of interpersonal violence at all levels brutality, neglect, a punch and even a put-down. Southeasts production is directed by first-year graduate student Holly Lynn of Scott City, Missouri, who is pursuing her Master of Arts in English.

That evening, Southeast faculty, staff and students, under the direction of student Alex Burke, a senior theatre major with an acting option of Jackson, Missouri, will present a one-night benefit reading of Eve Ensler’s award winning playThe Vagina Monologues at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 in the Robert. F. and Gertrude L. Shuck Music Recital Hall at Southeasts River Campus.

The Vagina Monologues, first performed off-Broadway and in locations around the world, dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement in womens experiences. V-Day grew out of the play, which exploded onto the scene in 1998, breaking taboos about womens sexuality and shattering the silence around violence against women and girls. This production contains adult content.

Southeast will celebrate SEMO Rising at 7 p.m. on April 25 at Academic Terraces.

In 2012, Enslers added One Billion Rising to her global campaign, and SEMO Rising is the local event where we create a safe space to empower survivors to share their narratives, St. Sauver said.

In addition to the survivor speak out, SEMO Rising will feature a community dance and a candle vigil for survivors who lost their lives to violence. Over the past two decades, communities and college campuses in more than 200 countries and territories have stagedV-Daybenefit performances, artistic works, campaigns and risings.

Donations collected at each performance will be used to support the Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence (SEMO-NASV) and the global One Billion Rising campaign.

For more information about Southeasts V-Day events, call (573) 986-6899 or email cvpp@semo.edu.

To learn more about V-Day and its campaigns, visitwww.vday.org.