A Way to Remember Who You Are

Actress Vanessa Lengies MCing Women Over Dinner event in Los Angeles

by Vanessa Lengies

Since the creation of its simple three-round format, Women Over Dinner (WOD) has fed 475 women a hot plate of nutritious food and the sweet taste of liberation. The mission of the WOD movement is to feed unconditional freedom to 100 million women, one dinner at a time. So far, we’ve had 19 dinners in 14 cities worldwide from Los Angeles to London to Abuja, Nigeria.

This woman’s movement I speak of is in no way “new,” even though Women Over Dinner is in its infancy. In fact, if the Women’s liberation movement were an aspect of Mother Nature, I would call her an ancient, wild, roaring river. I picture her flowing through the eras of time, down majestic mountains through jaguar prowling jungles all the way to the concrete jungles of our urban cities. She is a timeless river bringing life and nourishment to everything she wets. The best part is she doesn’t need us. She flows for us with or without a march, a rally, or a pink pussy hat. Historically we tend to forget that entire generations of women before us poured their blood, sweat, and tears into her same waters, fighting so hard for freedom, yet somehow losing something in her current, a few million witches perhaps. Unwavering, she waits and welcomes the next wave of women to jump inside her again, as if she rose up to meet us, raised by the dam of damning the feminine.

I think of Women Over Dinner as a modern vessel for that ancient river to flow through and use us as she pleases. It’s very special that WOD is a project under the umbrella of Unconditional Freedom. Unconditional Freedom creates the conditions for the restoration of dignity to the marginalized through Prison Monasteries and Free Food programs. UF knows that once dignity is reclaimed, people naturally find the desire to contribute their unique gifts to society. In this way, the Women Over Dinner format creates the conditions for women to naturally remember our power. It reminds women that we are the river, free and unstoppable. We have the force to build a new world, without the need to fight the existing one. We carve out new grooves and lay new paths in resonance with Mother Nature, together, one dinner at a time.

For more information about the movement, visit our website.

To join our next Women Over Dinner online fundraising event, click here.

Vanessa Lengies is a passionate advocate for sexual liberation and a talented actress with a thriving two-decade career. Driven to be a beneficial presence on the planet, she is currently helping launch the global Women Over Dinner movember, which offers women the conditions to plug into their power.