The Women’s Center is presenting the “Pillow Talk Monologues Project” Friday in the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center. The fourth annual event will feature monologues, poems and essays on gender, sexuality and identity.

The event will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is sponsored by the CONTACT Rape Crisis Center, Marshall University’s women’s studies program and the Women’s Center. The public is invited to attend and there is a suggested donation of $5 for students and $10 for non-students. The proceeds will benefit the CONTACT Rape Crisis Center.

“The women’s studies program, CONTACT Rape Crisis Center and the Women’s Center have been doing versions of the vagina monologues for quite a while,” Kristen Lillvis, of the department of English, said. “This is the fourth year those entities have created their own monologues project, so it’s not necessarily related to Eve Ensler’s ‘Vagina Monologues,’ which is a long established theatrical program.”

Lillvis described the “Pillow Talk Monologues” as a local project that involves people from Marshall, Huntington, the tristate area and more discussing issues related to identity, sexuality and culture.

“Everyone who is performing in it is local, but the writers are not all local,” Lillvis said. Students will see the work of writers from north-eastern Ohio performed during the event, as well.

Not all the speakers are students either. Students of Marshall, faculty, students from other nearby universities and community members will be speaking.

“It’s really fun, and really funny,” Lillvis said. “Because it’s all about identity and often sexuality, there are serious pieces that talk about serious issues like sexual assault. But then there are also really funny pieces that talk about also serious topics, but in a comical way.”

There will be pieces presented about virginity, coming out with sexuality, going to the gynecologist and more issues of sexuality and identity.

“It is funny, sad and it’ll make you think,” Lillvis “said It’s a really good time.”

Kara Callison, graduate assistant in the service learning department, said the performance includes original monologues, poems and essays on a variety of topics.

“The material has a wide range of content and a way of tugging at all of your emotions,” Callison said.

Callison has attended the event for several years in the past.

“I am extremely excited to perform a piece this year,” Callison said. “I believe it is something everyone should attend. It is a great opportunity for individuals’ stories and experiences to be shared. I think it is extremely important that these experiences are heard and this is a way to hear them in a unique way.”

Alexia Lilly can be contacted at [email protected].