aja monet
‘Voices’, an audio-play and campaign exploring the stories of black women and non-binary peoples of the African continent and diaspora, is set to be launched in Accra on December 18, 2022.
The theatre-based event is produced by V-Day, a global non-profit movement that has raised over US$100 million for groups working to end violence against women.
It is directed by aja monet, Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, who has been working as a community organiser, gathering stories, engaging in collective study and collaborating with black women and non-binary actors and musicians across the African continent and diaspora.
She told DAILY GUIDE that V-Day had decided to shift away from its ‘Vagina Monologues’, an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler, as part of the organisation’s 25th anniversary, to create space for more voices for black women.
“Two years ago, Eve Ensler invited me to come and create a new play that would focus and centre stories of black women from the continent and the diaspora and build such a bridge with the world with the new plays.
“Plays have been around so long and there are more stories to tell, and we need to create those spaces for the stories to be told,” Monet indicated, and added, “I was brought in specifically to create a new play and campaign for that will be totally about black women and black women’s stories.”
She explained that the V-Day movement wanted to find a way to focus on the letter ‘V’ and “apparently, we thought of what more do women have and how do we get people to not just think about us as black women, but understand that we are more than our bodies and that there are other parts as women that are important to focus on.”
“The voice is another force of creativity and reckoning, power and strength. In the voice speaking, the thing we wanted to highlight was women’s voices. What is important is that because we just want to focus on women’s voices does not negate men’s voices too. We need our brothers; we need men to be in solidarity with us. That is why we are doing this play as we want to activate solidarity,” she noted.
According to her, solidarity is crucial to every movement for change, freedom, liberation, equality, and justice, asserting, “You can’t do anything alone. We need people to be in solidarity with you.”
“Everyone is implied when we focus on women because women are a big part of how we have come to be in the world. We want to highlight the changes that are happening in our communities.
“This is because no society will be successful if women are suffering and are being silenced and oppressed,” Monet explained further.
By Social Desk Report