Vaginas around the world, rejoice! A day of celebration is upon us. The vibrant, versatile and vivacious vagina is the guest of honor at this year’s V-Day-Of -Action.

The V-Day campaign launched One Billion Rising: A Global Call to Challenge and Shatter the Acceptance of Violence Against Women. Feb. 14, 2013 will be V-Day’s largest day-of-action in its 15 years as a global activist movement.

Organizers expect men, women and children on every continent around the globe to “Strike Dance Rise” in solidarity this Valentine’s Day to shake and shimmy the world into a new consciousness.

Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning playwright, performer, activist, V-Day creator and author of “The Vagina Monologues” said in a recent interview for OneBillionRising.org, “When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women. Now, we are both stunned and thrilled to see that this global action is truly escalating and gaining force, with union workers, parliament members, celebrities, and women of all backgrounds coming forward to join the campaign.”

Also joining the V-Day movement is the Students Active for Ending Rape Campus Accountability Project, or SAFER. This partnership works to address the prevalence of assault and rape of female students at colleges and universities across the United States.

According to the New York University Student Health Center website, 1 in 5 college women are raped during their college years and approximately one-third of sexual assault survivors are first year students between 17 to 19.

Thousands of students around the globe have hosted V-Day events through V-Day’s College and Community Campaigns. Performances of “The Vagina Monologues” and other artistic pieces have raised money for local organizations working to end violence against women and girls, as well as heightening awareness in their communities about the global epidemic of gender-based violence.

This year’s One Billion Rising Campaign concept arose from another alarming statistic: 1 out of 3 women will experience violence in her lifetime which translates into 1 billion women worldwide according to the United Nations. This violence against women and girls, includes rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery.

Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview last month with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “We have a long way to go…in many parts of the world the deprivation women face, the discrimination, the abuse, rape as a tool of war, sexual violence as a means of keeping women in their place, we have a lot of work to do and I’m determined to continue that when I leave [office].”

In the words of Pulitzer Prize winning author, women’s history expert and Harvard professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.”

We can no longer sit in our homes, our classrooms, our workplace, “well-behaved”, and expect the world to change. We must come together, 1 billion strong, and demand an end to this insidious violence perpetrated on over half the world’s population and one of it’s most precious resources – women and girls.

Rise and dance with the 1 billion survivors of gender-based violence – women and girls around the globe who protest the apathy and acceptance of the status quo and demand an end to this violence.

Why dance? As Ensler expressed so profoundly in her “Welcome to V-DAY 2013” video, “Dancing is so powerful, the women of Congo have taught me that. Women who have suffered the worst atrocities, I have seen how they have turned their pain to power, to strength, to generosity, to courage, through dancing, through their bodies…when we dance it’s holy, it’s sacred, it’s sexual, it’s dangerous, it’s spontaneous, it’s transcendent.

Rise and dance on V-Day’s 15th Anniversary on Feb. 14 to demonstrate strength through global solidarity.

Looking for a Bay Area V-Day event to unleash your wild side and join One Billion Strong to Strike Dance Rise? Go to www.onebillionrising.org.

This reporter will be attending Grace Cathedral’s V-Day event in San Francisco where I will rise and dance with the Dholrhythms Dance Company on Feb. 14 from 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Look for my follow up story in next month’s edition of The Inquirer.