By Susan Tallant/managing editor

   NE Campus will join hundreds of colleges across the world to fight violence against women with a benefit production Friday-Saturday, Feb. 10-11, to raise money and awareness.
   The NE Players will present The Vagina Monologues, a play by Eve Ensler, celebrating female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery.
   Ensler interviewed women about their memories and experiences of sexuality, and her play gives real accounts of women’s intimacy, vulnerability and sexual discovery.
   Ensler, who performs the play in small towns and large cities around the world, has seen first hand how violence against women causes personal, social, political and economic destruction.
   Hundreds of women told her their stories of rape, incest, domestic battery and genital mutilation, so it was clear that something dramatic needed to be done to stop the violence.
   Every year in the United States an estimated 4 million women suffer abuse by their husband or boyfriend, and an average of eight women each day are killed by their abusers.
   In 1988 a group of women in New York joined Ensler and founded V-Day, a catalyst that promoted events to increase awareness and raise money for anti-violence organizations.
   V-Day distributes funds to grassroots and organizations that work to stop violence against women and girls and is growing at a rapid pace around the world with 81 countries participating.
   Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce performances of The Vagina Monologues to raise funds for anti-violence groups in their own communities.
   V-Day was named one of Worth magazine’s “100 Best Charities” and has raised more than $30 million in the past eight years.
   The College Campaign is a means for colleges and communities to increase awareness by holding benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues on campuses on or around Feb. 14.
   V-Day’s 2006 theme is Vagina Warriors: The New Revolution. Proceeds from the NE Campus event will be donated to the Battered Women’s Foundation.
   Other area colleges participating in V-Day include the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University and Texas Wesleyan University.
   The Texas Wesleyan event will be Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. in Martin Hall. Triesha Light, South associate professor of psychology, will be honored at the 7:30 performance for her work with Women in New Roles.
   The NE Campus presentation, student directed and produced, will be in the NFAB Theatre. Tickets are $10 and can be reserved by calling 817-515-6687.
   For more information about the V-Day Tarrant County College NE event, call 817-515-6365. To learn more about the V-Day campaign, visit www.vday.org.