On 14 February 2013 – V-DAY, one billion people in 207 countries rose and danced to demand an end to violence against women and girls. On 14 February 2014, we escalated our efforts, calling on women and men everywhere to RISE, RELEASE, DANCE, and demand JUSTICE!
Elise’s song BREAK THE SILENCE has been featured each year at Atlanta’s V-Day. Elise was joined by students from the Global Village Project, a school for teenage refugee girls, where Elise serves as Artist-in-Residence.
ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE is a global call to women survivors of violence and those who love them to gather safely in community outside places where they are entitled to justice – courthouses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not. It is a call to survivors to break the silence and release their stories – politically, spiritually, outrageously – through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, testimonies and whatever way feels right.