OXFORD, Miss. – In recognition of National Sexual Assault
Awareness Month, the University of Mississippi’s Sarah Isom
Center is co-sponsoring a week of events to mark National
Crime Victims’ Rights Week, Saturday through Thursday
(April 12-17).
Other sponsors include UM’s Feminist Majority group and the
Family Crisis Center of North Mississippi. The Feminist
organization is “an equal rights group that focuses on
women’s rights and equality regardless of sex, race and
gender,” said Feminist Majority’s president Meghan Oswalt.
The week kicks off Saturday at 10:30 a.m. with the Square
Books Junior Book Reading and Craft Project. Throughout the
week, workshops about the Clothesline Project, a program
that addresses the issue of violence against women, are
planned. These workshops are scheduled in the Student
Union. Monday evening features a sexual assault awareness
presentation with the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
To end the week, a candlelight vigil in recognition of
National Crime Victims’ Awareness Week, followed by a
dramatic reading of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,”
begins at 8:30 p.m Thursday in the Ford Center’s rehearsal
hall.
The reading is a first for this series of events, said Mary
Carruth, director of the Isom Center.
“What’s distinctive this year about the ‘Monologues’ is
that they are being read by members of the Ole Miss chapter
of the Feminist Majority, who will have just returned from
the V-Day’s 10th anniversary events in New Orleans April
12,” Carruth said.
V-Day is an effort to bring the issue of violence against
women and girls “front and center in the culture and
community,”says the event’s Web site, http://www.vday.org.
Thirteen members of the Feminist Majority will be attending
the conference in New Orleans, Oswalt said.
“We wanted to see a different version of the play so that
we could gain insight into the various monologues and
different ways of performing them,” she said.
The latest production of “The Vagina Monologues” features a
new segment “written in honor of the women who were
affected by Katrina,” Oswalt said.
ickets to the program are $6 for students and $10 for
nonstudents can be purchased at the UM Box Office in the
Ole Miss Student Union, in person, online or by telephone
915-7411; Ford Center Box Office; and at the door (arrive
at 8 p.m.). All proceeds go to Family Crisis Services.
For more information about National Sexual Assault
Awareness Month, go to
For more information about the Sarah Isom Center for Women
and Gender Studies, visit