The Vagina Festival

In addition to the aforementioned benefit, Ilene also participated in the Vagina Festival. The Vagina Festival was a performance and art event that took place February 16-18, 2007, at the Agni Gallery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Organized by Alexandra Jacoby, the Vagina Festival was held in conjunction with V-Day, an enormous project born out of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues which focuses on ending violence against women. Two performances of the Vagina Monologues took place at the Vagina Festival. I was one of several presenters who did informational, as opposed to arts, presentations. I gave a short introduction to Fertility Awareness, entitled “Do You Know What’s In Your Underwear?” It was a unique and fun experience to give my talk in the presence of 60 or so V-Portraits, photos of vulvas, taken by Alexandra. She is working on a book of these portraits. For more info about her work, and to learn about upcoming exhibitions, see her extensive website:
http://www.vaginaverite.com/

For info on Vag Fest 2008, visit the website and sign up for the mailing list:
http://www.vaginafestival.com/index.html

(Astute readers of the vaginaverite website will notice that Alexandra often uses the word “vagina” instead of the anatomically correct term “vulva.” We have had extensive & interesting conversations about this and she discusses this on the anatomy page of her website.)