Get Ready for One Billion Rising in Second Life!

On 14 February 2013, 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!

On February 14th 2015, we called for a revolution for change.

Now, on February 14th 2016, we are escalating the call for revolution!

One Billion Rising in Second Life 2016

One Billion Rising: Rise for Revolution 2016 is an escalation of the first three stages of our campaign – One Billion Rising, One Billion Rising for Justice, and One Billion Rising: Revolution.

We’ve danced. We’ve demanded justice. We’ve demanded changes.

This year we are enlarging, deepening and expanding the revolution.

And we need to focus on the most marginalised women and girls to bring about true, long lasting change.

Change can happen if… Grassroots movements and marginalised communities are in the lead.

Change can happen if… We demand accountability – making sure our justice calls are realised
We will continue to demand justice, and we will continue to highlight the issues surrounding the social injustices inflicted on women, and to keep highlighting where these issues connect. We will continue to challenge institutions, governments, policies, laws – and make these systems, which are responsible for creating situations of poverty and violence, accountable.

Change can happen if… We harness our creativity and energy
We will keep highlighting, creating and envisioning new, brave and radical artistic initiatives to bring in the new revolutionary world of equality, dignity and freedom for all women and girls. THERE IS NOTHING MORE POWERFUL THAN ART AS A TOOL FOR TRANSFORMATION.

Change can happen if… WE ACT NOW. AND WE ACT TOGETHER.

In Second Life, we will be marking the occasion (as we did last year) with a twenty-four hour one day event that will allow women and men to gather. There will be music, there will be art installations and exhibitions, there will be poetry sessions, there will be storytelling events, there will be live dance  performances, there will be dancing – and there will be information kiosks that will share information about organisations devoted to promoting justice for women across the globe, and stories of events that will be happening around the world.

The Second Life event will feature a four-region stage where 200 people can come together, surrounded by an area of art installations and informational exhibits. A variety of performers will play over the 24-hour period, enabling people all over the world to attend this virtual event no matter their timezone. The regions will have a General maturity rating to allow all residents an opportunity to participate. Pictures are welcome on the event’s Flickr group.

This is not an event to raise money – although you will find information about organisations that need funding. But our primary goals are to draw people together and to raise awareness.

What can you do?
You can attend the event!

You can send us information about groups known to you that we can add to the informational kiosks. How can you do this? You can write to 1billionrisinginsecondlife@gmail.com or post on our Facebook page.

You can spread the word about One Billion Rising in Second Life amongst your friends, your communities and through social media.

You can volunteer to help us organise the event – by completing this form. We need greeters, security, stage managers, media liaison and information processors, who will help build the information that will go into our displays.

You can add your reasons for rising to our special Why I’m Rising page.

If you would like to be a sponsor for the event, contact Samantha Ohrberg.

If you would like to be part of our special Press Day, you can complete this form.

We look forward to seeing you all in 2016!

Additional links:
Our website: https://onebillionrisingsl.wordpress.com/
Our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Billion-Rising/493344827375934
Our Second Life Group: One Billion Rising
Our Twitter Stream: https://twitter.com/OBRinSL
Our Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/2169739@N23/
Main One Billion Rising for Justice page: http://www.onebillionrising.org/

About One Billion Rising
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. The campaign, launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.

On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. On 14 February 2014, One Billion Rising for Justice focused on the issue of justice for all survivors of gender violence, and highlighted the impunity that lives at the intersection of poverty, racism, war, the plunder of the environment, capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. For the third year of the campaign, One Billion Rising’s global coordinators chose the theme of “Revolution” as an escalation of the demand for justice, and to build upon the massive efforts of communities worldwide that also looked at the roots and causes of violence as part of their call for justice. On (or around) 14 February 2015, millions of activists in over 200 countries gathered to Rise for REVOLUTION, to change the paradigm, demand accountability, justice and systematic CHANGE. We are rising to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.

In 2016, the theme of Revolution continues with a call to focus on marginalised women and to bring national and international focus to their issues; to bring in new artistic energy; to amplify Revolution as a call for system change to end violence against women and girls; to call on people to rise for others, and not just for ourselves.

The campaign has been covered widely by media in all corners of world including The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and many more.

Visit www.onebillionrising.org to learn more.