An Intimate Conversation on Atonement, Justice, and Freedom with Tony Award-winner Eve Ensler and Harvard’s Timothy Patrick McCarthy
From Eve Ensler, author of one of the most influential works of the twentieth century—The Vagina Monologues—comes a powerful, life-changing examination of abuse and atonement. Like millions of women, Eve Ensler has been waiting much of her lifetime for an apology. Sexually and physically abused by her father, Eve has struggled her whole life from this betrayal, longing for an honest reckoning from a man who is long dead. After years of work as an anti-violence activist, she decided she would wait no longer; an apology could be imagined—by her, for her, to her. The Apology, written by Eve from her father’s point of view in the words she longed to hear, attempts to transform the abuse she suffered with unflinching truthfulness, compassion, and an expansive vision for the future. Remarkable and original, The Apology is an acutely transformational look at how, from the wounds of sexual abuse, we can begin to re-emerge and heal. It is revolutionary, asking everything of each of us: courage, honesty, and forgiveness. Please join us for this one-night-only event, an intimate conversation between Eve and her dear friend Timothy Patrick McCarthy, one of Harvard’s most celebrated teachers.
Co-sponsored by the American Repertory Theater, Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Women and Public Policy Program, Theater, Dance & Media, Studies of Women, Gender & Sexuality, and Committee on Degrees in History and Literature
About Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is the Tony Award-winning playwright, activist, and author of the Obie Award-winning theatrical phenomenon The Vagina Monologues, published in over 48 languages, performed in over 140 countries, and recently heralded by The New York Times as one of the most important plays of the past 25 years, among numerous other honors. Her plays include Lemonade, Extraordinary Measures, Necessary Targets, O.P.C., The Good Body and Emotional Creature, and Fruit Trilogy. She recently finished performing In the Body of the World as a one-woman show which she adapted for the stage from her critically acclaimed memoir to rave reviews at Manhattan Theatre Club. Her newly released and celebrated best-selling book, The Apology, has been called “transfixing,” “revelatory,” and “cathartic,” and her writings appear regularly in The Guardian and TIME Magazine. Ensler is founder of V-Day, the 20-year-old global activist movement which has raised over 100 million dollars to end violence against all women and girls—cisgender, transgender and gender non-conforming—and founder of One Billion Rising, the largest global mass action to end gender-based violence in over 200 countries. She is a co-founder of the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of violence in the DRC, along with Christine Schuler Deschyrver and Dr. Denis Mukwege, all of whom appeared in the award-winning documentary film City of Joy, released globally on September 7 as a Netflix Original in 190 countries. Ensler has been named one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.”
About Timothy Patrick McCarthy
Timothy Patrick McCarthy is an award-winning scholar and educator, public servant, and social justice activist who has taught on the faculty at Harvard University since 2005. He currently holds a joint appointment in the undergraduate honors program in History and Literature, Graduate School of Education, and John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he is Core Faculty at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Twice named one of Harvard Crimson’s “Professors of the Year,” he received the 2019 Manuel C. Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Kennedy School’s highest teaching honor. The adopted only son and grandson of public school teachers and faculty workers, McCarthy was educated at Harvard and Columbia, where he received his Ph.D. in History. A noted historian of politics and social movements, he is the author or editor of five books from the New Press, including the forthcoming Stonewall’s Children: Living Queer History in an Age of Liberation, Loss, and Love. A frequent media commentator, he served as guest editor for The Nation’s historic “Reclaiming Stonewall 50” forum in June 2019. McCarthy is also a board member for the Tony Award-winning American Repertory Theater, where he hosts and directs The A.R.T. of Human Rights and Resistance Mic!.