WDN Goes to the Apollo Theater

Published on: June 24, 2010

Written by: WDNStaff

To commemorate the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, VDay*, Ashé Cultural Arts Center** and the Women Donors Network will present the New York premiere of Swimming Upstream on Monday, September 13th at 8 pm at the iconic Apollo Theater in Harlem. Shirley Knight and Kerry Washington, as well as the original cast of New Orleans performers (and one other celebrity performer tba) will be reprising their roles from 2008.


Swimming Upstream is an original docu-drama co-produced by Eve Ensler and Carol Bebelle that tells the raw and soulful stories of women who lived through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita with grace, rage, humor and great resiliency. It premiered during the V to the Tenth celebration in New Orleans in April, 2008. WDN members contributed almost two-thirds of the initial production costs and over 50 members and their friends and family attended. SU played at director Kenny Leon's Atlanta-based theater for an eight day, highly acclaimed run in November, 2008.

"Swimming Upstream" — written by a group of New Orleans women insistent on having their say about Hurricane Katrina — is the poetic equivalent of a breached levee. What begins as a flood of raw human emotion becomes a source of healing, transcendence and new beginnings. - Atlanta Journal

Swimming Upstream is no mere docu-drama. It is a testimony, a prayer, a blues ballad, a hallelujah, an affirmation, a nightmare, a battle cry, a eulogy, an incantation, an epic poem... - Eve Ensler

*VDay is the nonprofit established by Eve Ensler after the success of the Vagina Monologues. Proceeds from US and international performances provide support for programs that address violence against women and girls. To date over $75 million has been raised.

**Ashé Cultural Arts Center is a community-based art and performance space in New Orleans that has led the way in revitalizing the Central City neighborhood.

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