2022 EmPower Luncheon

This year's event will be on Wednesday, April 27 (Denim Day) at the Brookfield Conference Center. It will bring together some of  Southeastern Wisconsin's most influential and exciting individuals, companies, community activists, and business leaders.

Doors open at 11:00 am for networking, online auction, and raffle, then lunch begins at noon, followed by the keynote presentation from Dylan Farrow.

About (em)Power Luncheon

This event honors the courageous voices of survivors, those who advocate for survivors, and those who speak out to affect change. We aim to bring together hundreds of like-minded people to join together and stand in solidarity with survivors and to share and learn how we can use our voices and our power to create positive change and more peaceful communities.

 About Dylan Farrow

Survivor, activist, and change-maker, Farrow is all three. Dylan Farrow is an author, mother, activist, and survivor at the heart of the Emmy nominated docu-series, Allen v. Farrow. She has written about her story in essays for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. She has also spoken out in interviews for CBS This Morning and The Drew Barrymore Show. Dylan is the author of Hush and the upcoming sequel, Veil, and continues to advocate for survivors of sexual abuse; and regularly works with the nonprofit organization, Jane Doe No More. She recently helped pass SB 654 in California, which prevents unsupervised visitation with parents with a history of abuse and creates a safe process for child testimony in custody disputes.

As the situation around Covid-19 is still very fluid, we recognize that best practices will continue to evolve, and we reserve the right to make changes to our event plan accordingly. We will follow all local regulations and ordinances to plan a safe event for all and we may require additional measures that may be needed to ensure the health and safety of all guests and staff. We will continue to update our website with any changes.

What is Denim Day?

Join us on April 27, 2022, when millions of people across the world will wear jeans with a purpose, support survivors, and educate themselves and others about all forms of sexual violence.
 

The Denim Day story begins in Italy in 1992, when an 18-year old girl was raped by the 45-year old driving instructor who was taking her to her very first driving lesson. He took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, removed her jeans and forcefully raped her.

She reports the rape and the perpetrator is arrested and prosecuted. He is then convicted of rape and sentenced to jail. Years later, he appealed the conviction claiming that they had consensual sex. The Italian Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the perpetrator was released. A statement from the Court argued that because the victim was wearing very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was not rape but consensual sex. This became known throughout Italy as the "jeans alibi."

Enraged by the verdict, the women in the Italian Parliament launched a protest wearing jeans on the steps of the Supreme Court. This protest was picked up by international media which inspired the California Senate and Assembly to do the same on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento. Patti Occhiuzzo Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, saw this in the media and thought everyone should be wearing jeans to protest all of the myths about why women and girls are raped. Denim Day in LA was born. The first Denim Day in LA event was held in April of 1999, and has continued annually since.

For more information on the global movement visit https://www.denimdayinfo.org/why-denim

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