Women's Events

For Immediate Release
Joanna Foley

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New York, N.Y.~"I wasn't just selling vibrators," says Dell Williams, 89, the 1974 creator of Eve's Garden, New York's first erotic boutique for women. "I was selling freedom. If a woman is connected to her sexual energy, she can be a stronger version of herself, able to take a stand in the world for equality and women's rights."

Taking a stand is what Williams is still doing today as a feisty octogenarian on the Upper West Side. She will soon appear onstage in an upcoming benefit production of The Vagina Monologues on April 8th and 9th.

Eve Ensler's award-winning play will appear at Fourth Universalist Society, a Gothic gem of a church at 160 Central Park West at 76th. V-Day 4thU, one of 40+ local V-Day groups around the city, offered Williams the juicy (ahem) monologue of "The Flood," a humorous and sad story of one woman's teenage kiss which led to disastrous consequences.            

"This old actress couldn't refuse a role like that," said Williams. She acted and worked as an ad agency executive before launching Eve's Garden. This monologue and the others in the play are based on interviews the playwright conducted with over 200 women. After The Vagina Monologues appeared on the New York stage in the late 90's, it went on to tour the country and then to spawn a worldwide activist movement called V-Day.            

"What Eve Ensler did was absolutely fabulous, bringing to the public in such a dramatic and realistic way the violence that women have been subjected to," said Williams. Each V-Day group chooses local beneficiary organizations which are working to end anti-female violence.

The year V-Day 4thU's beneficiaries  are the Center Against Domestic Violence and Men Can Stop Rape. Both organizations offer violence prevention programs to young people to enable them to avoid the roles of victim or victimizer. At the national level, V-Day's International beneficiary will be the V-Day Haiti Rescue Fund, offering support and hope to the women and girls of Haiti as they recover from the 2010 earthquake.             

Williams's own journey into sexual activism began with workshops with Betty Dodson, whose best known work is Liberating Masturbation. After studying with her mentor, Williams sallied forth to Macy's to purchase the Magic Wand, as recommended by Dodson. "The salesclerk asked what I wanted it for," remembers Williams, "and thinking quickly, I said for my back!" When she found the department selling massagers, she turned on the Golden Wand and felt everyone in the store knew what she was buying it for. That's when she conceived the idea of Eve's Garden to offer women shoppers more privacy in shopping for sexually oriented products.            

Among many anecdotes Williams shares about the experience of Eve's Garden customers, she fondly remembers the mother and daughter who showed up at her shop separately, unaware of each other's planned shopping adventure. "Both were shocked for a moment," Williams recalls, "then they recovered and laughed merrily together."            

One of the many slogans created by Eve's Garden is "An Orgasm a Day Keeps the Doctor Away." Williams proudly sports a button bearing this slogan and notes that in 2009, the British National Health Service agreed publicly with this advice, creating a storm of controversy.            

The upcoming benefit is the third  benefit production of The Vagina Monologues in which Williams has appeared. Tickets are $25 and $12 for seniors and students. To purchase, www.4thU.org/VM or call 212-595-1658, x 21. Fourth U is accessible to persons with disabilities. The show will have ASL interpretation throughout.