One Billion Rising in Second Life ~ part four

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art, awareness, emotions, One Billion Rising, Photos

artist Romy Nayar; Spain/France

These two pieces touched me the most. If I’ve gotten any of the information wrong in these posts, I’ll fix it when I’m aware of it.

artist Romy Nayar; Spain/France

personal ~ warning: possible tmi

On the One Billion Rising in Second Life website there’s an invitation to leave a comment about “Why I’m Rising.” No way was I going to do that. I blog about stuff I do in Second Life and places I visit. That’s all.

I’ve been burnt out from causes and I don’t have much “pushing against” energy left although I do make thoughtful choices. When I became aware of this project in Second Life, first I was surprised, partly because of all the awful attitudes and behavior I’ve witnessed in the roleplay community.

Then I noticed I wasn’t finding any of the usual objections that I have about what I see as misguided “fights against whatever.” Dancing is healthy and moves energy. Art and music are healing.

I visited the OBR preview this afternoon and later briefly looked at the “Why I’m Rising” page on the website and became aware that I’m too afraid to write anything there. I’ll tuck this away here where by persistence and chance someone might see it. I’ll possibly edit this out later.

I’ve experienced the harassment at work and the humiliations that are part of life that we’re supposed to just shut up about. I’m aware of the violence that goes on in the world.

But two things I want to mention:

1. The effects of having had concussions and ptsd are something I live with every day.  The way people look at me because I startle so easily. When I’m struggling with cognitive problems and neurological difficulties, I can become terrified about inconveniencing someone or angering them because I’m so inept and they might freak out and become violent.

2. Both of my younger sisters are dead. The oldest of the two would have a birthday this coming Tuesday. She was raped in our very small hometown where that really isn’t a big deal, nothing was done about it and no one seemed to care.

I left my job and home to care for her in another state during the last six months of her life, with the help of hospice. There are other reasons, known and unknown, why things came together for her to suffer from cancer but having something so horrible happen and find that it doesn’t matter, does takes a toll. It’s hard to keep going in a world that doesn’t feel safe. She had rarely spoken of the incident or the fact that the rapist is still walking around but she wanted to talk about it during the last week of her life.

The sad thing is, there’s absolutely nothing unusual or unique about what I just wrote. It’s got a lot to do with why I’m so determined to choose to live as though what happens to me matters, to do what I can with what I have.

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One Billion Rising Art in Second Life ~ part three

Tags

art, creativity, destinations, One Billion Rising, Photos

artist Solkide Auer; Italy

Walked around in this one too.

artist Daco Monday; Italy

I took a photo of his work for a blog post several months ago. Again, photos do not do these justice.

artist Maya Paris; UK

This was fun! You’re instructed to set the sun at midnight, turn local sound up, and “sit” floating way up where you can dance. There’s also a fembot avatar you can have.

artist Nessuno Myoo; Italy

Yes I ought to learn more about photography, but why don’t you go see these for yourselves.

artist Haveit Neox; USA

These all look amazing when you’re right there.

OBR Preview ~ part two

Tags

art, awareness, creativity, destinations, One Billion Rising, Photos

Even more landscaping will be added

The sim looks beautiful and more landscaping will be added during the hours it’s closed. Over 100 volunteers, both women and men worked on this project. The landscaping is by Heart Garden Center. This isn’t a fund raising event; it’s to raise awareness. Sixteen sponsors paid the tier for the week and I really wanted to make note of who they are. Their signs are tastefully displayed and everything looks really well integrated.

another view of the stage

MadPea

On Thursday at two scheduled, and also at random times, you can be photographed here and MadPea will make a stand of your avatar.

me and avatar stands

These are some previously made stands by MadPea. The signs have text and graphics.

Wall of Shame by US artist Lorin Tone

The Wall of Shame is a multi-media build about Womens’ Rights issues focusing on recent developments in the US, which truthfully are not pleasant. It’s a very well-put together, awareness raising build.

Gracie Kendal ~ USA

This photo doesn’t do the art justice. One of the wonderful things about Second Life art is that you can walk around inside of it, as I did this colorful and beautiful work in order to experience it in many of its variations.

You can learn more about these artists here.

One Billion Rising Preview~Photos!~part one

Tags

awareness, destinations, One Billion Rising, Photos

For my non-Second Life readers, a 24 hour event to coincide with the real world One Billion Rising campaign is being held inworld on February 14th. An awesome video has been made, easily found on Youtube or if you explore the topic here at wordpress.

press preview on the One Billion Rising stage

This afternoon the organizers invited bloggers and journalists to preview the event sim and I was fortunate I had time to attend. Here, the women and men involved made themselves available to answer questions and provide links and information about the event.

The stage for dancing

The stage is huge. There are no stairs; it’s wheelchair accessible. You can pick up an OBR goodie box at the base of the ramp. It includes t-shirts for both men and women in 3 mesh sizes, in black or white. There’s also an OBR rising gesture. I picked up my t-shirt yesterday evening in front of Prim Perfect Headquarters as well as a clickable poster that gives an informative NC. I searched inworld for the teleport to PPH and landed in the water nearby, but I’m a girl who feels the sea instead of getting wet so it was fine.

I had to try out the dance machine!

I really like the dance machine; it has dances for singles as well as couples, dances for tinies and there are dance balls in the water under the stage for MerPeople. The water below can be seen thorough heavy glass in the dance floor.

The 24 hour event will be photographed and it will also be live-streamed. The schedules and details are well-covered on the One Billion Rising in Second Life blog.

No giant avatars, rlv restraints or leashes; there are plenty of other places available for those inworld. The event is General Maturity so those who are 16 and 17 may attend.

resting after looking at much of the art.

Besides the stage, there’s beautiful open space. I rested to gather my thoughts in a quiet corner of the sim. There is a script counter nearby and fortunately I’m almost always very low in scripts. Lag is something we all like to prevent as much as possible, no?

you can follow the walkway to see the art

There are 18 amazing artists who’ve displayed work here. The green kiosks,  like the one in the left of the photo, are clickable to get NCs with bios of the artists.

I’ve taken photos of some of the art but I was enjoying my exploring and need to check my info as I was being somewhat of a sloppy reporter. There will be another two, possibly three posts about this preview because I took a lot of photos I’d like to share.

The sim will be open from midnight tonight until about noon tomorrow for residents to look at the art.