Ed note: This post is our submission for the SoMe Awards, recognizing the best social media campaigns of 2012-2013.
One Billion Rising was the largest ever day of global action - online and offline - protesting violence against women and girls. Tens of thousands of flashmobs in hundreds of cities in every country on earth were planned by local activists to focus global attention on the issue on the occasion of V-Day’s 15th anniversary.
Free at last (German version of “Break the Chain” - One Billion Rising)
Lyrics & Voice: Eva Ulrike of Weltzien
Recording: Philipp Kudelka, L-tone Studio Munich, www.l-ton.de
(Intro)
I lift my face
and set fire to my light
Deep under my skin
I’ve built a castle out of power
Run - Dance - Get up!
Run - Dance - Get up!
Come take my hand and run with me
From the walls of your pain
Nothing can hold more but you
Tear the fear out of your heart
No one owns you, and nothing is right
What you wounded and what makes you powerless The power is in you, get up and dance with me We survived, we are still here!
Dance against your fear
Dance you see light (dance with me!)
Dance until you can breathe
Dance until you’re free (come with me!)
Dance on a Volcano
Just dance, at the World
Run, break the chains
We dance and are free at last - (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm - Free at last
Dance - Get up! Yeh-eh-eh-eh …
Dance - Get up! Yeh-eh-eh-eh …
We are dancing through the storm and into the night We shine brighter than the stars Come with us to the world, enlightens For love, which is our power
We belong to us alone
We believe what we do, and no always means no!
We are vulnerable and we are wonderful
We give life but also we are here!
Dance against your fear
Dance are you see light (come with me!)
Dance until you can breathe
Dance until you’re free (dance with me!) Dance on a Volcano Just dance, at the World Run, break the chains We dance and are free at last - (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last (come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm - free at last!
Break Inst
Yeh-eh-eh-eh …
Come on get up and dance! Dance! -
Come and go with me! Run-
Come on get up and dance! Dance! -
Come and go with me! -Stand up! -
Come on get up and dance!
Come and go with me!
Come on get up and dance!
Come and go with me!
Yeh-eh-eh-eh …
Dance! Stand On!
We belong to us alone
We believe what we do, and no always means no!
We are vulnerable and we are wonderful
We give life but also we are here!
Dance against your fear
Dance are you see light (come with me!)
Dance until you can breathe
Dance freely to you (Dance with me) are
Dance on a Volcano
Just dance, at the World
Run, break the chains
We dance and are free at (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last
(2x)
Hmm … (Come with me, come with me, come with me!) - Mhm Free at last
One Billion … Rising!
Two US sailors were sentenced and sent to prison in Okinawa, Japan on Friday for the rape and robbery of a young Japanese woman, refueling long-standing anger against the occupation by the American military in Japan.
Read the full story here.
We step into our lives
Bright beads of hope
One woman threaded to another.
The thread of hope
Catches on a slash of pain
Breaks, knots, flies up again.
The thread of loss
Its gnarled old presence
Calling to the strength of us.
The thread of rape
scars corrupt kindness
recovery a long slow shape.
The thread is PAIN
The thread is STOP
The thread is SET
And we will STAND
Thread by thread, hand by hand
In Africa and in Asia
In the West and in the East
And we will dance
And we will sing
And we will shake the earth
Our very lives depend upon
We will give our huge thundering heart
Back its ancient pregnant roar
WE WILL STAND ACROSS THE WORLD
WALK OUT
DANCE
RISE UP
SOAR
FOR WE ARE ONE BILLION BIRTHING
One billion rising
Holding the thread
Breaking the chain
We are Lucille Clifton’s
“lovely line of women
stepping without fear
or guilt or shame.”
We are Eve Ensler’s Girl Cells
And the Song of Songs
The cry of Hallelluya
The transforming of all wrongs
we are Mothers and we are Daughters,
Sisters and Wives
we are Everywoman and each Woman
distinct beneath the skies
We are beginnings and we are ends
We are wisdom and we are ripe
We are One Billion Rising
A current set alight.
John Amidon, an activist from Veterans For Peace, wrote this thoughtful piece on the recent clearance of women on the battlefield’s frontline.
“Please forgive me, but I don’t want you to have the same opportunity to participate fully in the murderous conduct of our species. I don’t want you to kill women, children, and men who are noncombatants and return home only to wake up to a new nightmare far worse than the nightmare of combat.”
Read the full article here.
“Engaging a collective movement, like One Billion Rising, by using dance as the expressive outlet, brings attention to the healing power of moving with one another front and center,” writes Christina Devereaux, Ph.D., BC-DMT.
Read the full article here!
