Author-Activists Eve Ensler & Anne Lamott: In Conversation

On Sunday, October 29, UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance presents Tony Award-winning playwright, performer and activist Eve Ensler and bestselling author and essayist Anne Lamott: In Conversation.

Eve Ensler is best known for the Obie Award-winning "The Vagina Monologues," which has been translated into more than 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. She is the author of "The Body of the World," "I am an Emotional Creature," "Insecure at Last" and many other plays and books.

Ensler's experience performing "The Vagina Monologues" inspired her to create V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. Ensler wrote in her newest piece for The Guardian Australia: "Now more than ever it's time to tell the crucial stories and say the words, whether it's vagina, 'my stepfather raped me' or 'the president is a predator and a racist.' When you break the silence you realize how many other people have been waiting for permission to do the same thing. We will not be silenced again."

She will be joined by Anne Lamott, bestselling author of "Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy," "Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace" and "Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith." Lamott writes and speaks about subjects that begin with capital letters: Alcoholism, Motherhood, Jesus. "What the children hear will save us. They accidentally blurt out the truth, the scariness and beauty of these times, the sirens and the birdsong, and that they need us to stay close by," Lamott posted recently.

Both women are fearless warriors and literary pioneers who have bared their souls and brought issues out into the open that, if discussed at all, were formerly only discussed in whispers behind closed doors and never in mixed company. Among the topics they have liberated are sex, religion, alcoholism, violence against women, orgasms, motherhood, lesbianism, cancer, genital mutilation, social and political injustice and death. They address these issues with compassion, pathos and humor to help bring the people of the world -- both male and female, young and old, rich and poor - a little bit closer together.

CAP UCLA's Words & Ideas series continues with Zadie Smith & Michael Chabon (Nov. 30, Royce Hall), Andrew Solomon (Jan. 18, The Theatre at Ace Hotel), Tony Kushner & Sarah Vowell (Feb. 22, Royce Hall), and Colson Whitehead (April 19, Royce Hall).

Single tickets: $29-$59. Royce Hall box office: open 90 minutes prior to the event start time.

CAP UCLA presents "Eve Ensler & Anne Lamott: In Conversation" will be held on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at Royce Hall, UCLA.