Every year near Valentine's Day, Tufts Voices for Choice (VOX) hosts "The Vagina Monologues," a play intended to bring more women into discussions about their bodies and sexuality. VOX also throws "Vulvapalooza" on so-called "V-Day" as a fundraiser and as a way of raising awareness.
And this year, VOX is adding a new technique for drawing awareness and money: knitting for a cause. The organization will call on students and other community members to knit and donate homemade scarves, which VOX will sell to benefit charity.
"One of our directors, [sophomore] Bekah Gilbert, brought the idea up casually, and we got really excited about it," senior "Vagina Monologues" co-producer Becca Katz said. Katz is coordinating the knitting project.
While knitting itself is nothing new, the knitting fundraiser idea is a product of Jumbo imagination.
"[The idea for the knitting project] came from us talking about ways to make more money, raise awareness and get more people talking about 'The Vagina Monologues,'" Katz said.
By hosting events this semester and selling scarves to students, VOX hopes to further inform the Tufts community about the play's philanthropic purpose.
"The V-Day mission statement is to prevent violence against women and girls," Katz said. "The goal of the performance [of 'The Vagina Monologues'] is to raise money to go to a local charity as well as to contribute to the global cause."
According to Katz, scarves donated to VOX will be sold at several events this semester to raise money for Kol Isha, an organization in Boston that works with Jewish and Russian-speaking women to take them out of violent homes.
Katz said the knitting project will also allow more people to be involved in the production of V-Day.
"The scarf-knitting project is to raise money and also to get more people involved in the 'Monologues,' because we can only have so many actors and producers and directors," Katz said. "If people are knitting anyways, then this is a way we can get them involved."
Katz hopes that the scarves will generate more interest in V-Day and its charitable roots: "People think of ['The Vagina Monologues'] as a feminist performance and a chance to talk about vaginas; and it is that, but it's also about getting women out of violent situations," she said. "We try to think of things we can do before the show that will augment the show itself."
So far, the project has met with success.
"We've had about 10 people respond to [the Tuftslife.com] announcement fairly quickly, and people who don't know how to knit have donated yarn," Katz said.
"We've already had two girls donate scarves, and eight girls are knitting," Katz added. "It's surprising! We didn't really expect [such a response]."
The knitting effort has extended beyond the Hill as well.
"My mother has been knitting like crazy and talking to her friends, which is really cool," Katz said. "My mother isn't so into 'The Vagina Monologues,' because it's kind of taboo, but she knits on a regular basis and she's already knitted about six scarves."
Scarves will be available at several VOX events throughout this semester. "We're probably going to be selling them for $10 to $20 depending on the scarf, nothing too outrageous. We're trying to sell them in the campus center before the holidays, because it's a great gift for Christmas or Hanukkah," Katz said.
VOX has modest hopes for the amount of money the fundraiser might generate: "We don't have any expectations of how much we're going to make - anything is great," Katz said.
The first opportunity to buy scarves and begin participating in V-Day preparation will be tomorrow night at the Pussy Poetry Party.
"The Pussy Poetry Party is another event to psych people up for 'Vagina Monologues' and to spread education about what we do and why we're doing the monologues," Katz said.
And everyone - from singers to poets to V-Day supporters to scarf shoppers - is invited. "Anyone is welcome: men, women, faculty, students. We're going to try to have an a cappella group sing and have people read poems they've written," Katz said.
The Pussy Poetry Party will take place on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in the Lewis Hall Lounge.
