Eve Ensler taught us to say vagina out-loud, in public, in mixed company, on stage, to shout it, describe it, embrace it, and claim it with pride as part of who we are, we women.

Much of Eve Ensler’s childhood paralleled my own. Surely someone switched me at birth and I’d been taken home from the hospital by the wrong family. Mom said I was incorrigible, out of reach, out of control.

AN ODE TO EVE ENSLER BY CYNTHIA CLOSE 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 29

Eve Ensler taught us to say vagina out-loud, in public, in mixed company, on stage, to shout it, describe it, embrace it, and claim it with pride as part of who we are, we women.

She wrote the stage play Vagina Monologues. This has become an international phenomenon, an institution, an archive of women’s pain and courage and survival. She is the founder of V Day—the global movement to end violence against women and girls—which has raised over 90 million dollars for local groups and international activists.

She recently published a memoir, In the Body of the World, that chronicles her battle with cancer. As expected, Ensler does not shy away from vivid descriptions of bodily functions, those functions now driven by c…