The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
No matter how elegantly the words flowed from the speakers' mouths, there was no glossing over the painful underlying message. Their readings at times made the audience uncomfortable, but that was the whole point _ society will never change grim realities by sugarcoating them. The harsh truth addressed here, May 2 at the Hapnot Collegiate Theatre, is one far more common in the Flin Flon area than most would suspect. Presented by the Women's Resource Centre, the evening was entitled A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer. Thirteen readers took to the dimly lit floor in front of the audience, verbalizing a powerful monologue by a talented author. Each illustrated, across geographical, gender and racial boundaries, the abuse women and girls suffer. 'I think everybody took something away from the readings,' said Colleen Arnold, executive director of the Women's Resource Centre. Arnold had been hoping for a larger turnout _ 15 people were in attendance _ but she knows the event still made a difference. 'The main thing is to get the message out,' she said. 'Even though there was a few there, they will tell a few other people. That's how it kind of gets out there.' Strewn with adult language, the readings described in sometimes brutal terms the objectification of females. One story told of how violent acts could have been avoided had one person simply intervened; another of a man who came to realize the women in his life growing up had all been raped. Split almost evenly between men and women, the readers covered a broad spectrum. Lawyer Greg Bauman and businessman Vair Ellison read, as did Arnold and coworker Barb Hopkinson. Joining them were Blaine Veitch, superintendent of the Flin Flon School Division, and Chris Merasty, recreation programmer at the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Centre. Other readers were Heather French, Alex Beasse, Cal Huntley, Mary Fullerton, Mark Lucas, Amy Ruckle and Jordana Ifergan. The pieces were commissioned for the first V-Day: Until the Violence Stops Festival, which took place in New York City in 2006. The show was part of V-Day Flin Flon 2013. V-Day is an international anti-violence movement that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of the award-winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.
