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Evénements
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Philadelphia, PA 19102-8085
Phone (215) 735-7372/Fax (215) 972-8109/E-mail Afrolez@aol.com
Bio on Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Aishah
Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian independent
filmmaker, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia,
PA.
Through her professional, artistic, and political work, she is committed to
addressing issues that have a negative impact on disenfranchised people with
a particular emphasis on Black women and girls. Ms. Simmons is the producer,
writer, and director of "NO!," the forthcoming feature length documentary
which will expose and address the collective silence of the Black community
when Black women and girls are raped by Black men and boys. "NO!"
will create a sacred space within which Black women and men, outraged about
intra-racial rape and sexual assault, challenge the Black community to look
inward and confront this issue, through their testimonies and art. Looking
at Black women's lives though a holistic lens and understanding that there
is no such thing as partial freedom, "NO!" will simultaneously address
the violent manifestations of racial, gender, and sexual oppression. Through
narrative, archival footage, interviews, music, dance and poetry, "NO!"
will delve into how the act of committing rape or sexual assault, physically
and/or verbally, against Black women and girls is a race, gender, class, and
sexual orientation issue.
Her internationally acclaimed shorts "Silence…Broken," "In
My Father's House," and "NO! (A Work-In-Progress)" explore
the issues of race, gender, homophobia, rape and misogyny. For three years
Ms. Simmons was a co-producer of two television programs for a PBS affiliate
in Philadelphia, PA.
Ms. Simmons' essay "Creating A Sacred Space of Our Own," on her
herstory as an activist in the anti-sexual violence movement; the difficult
journey to make NO! a celluloid reality; and the impact of racism, sexism,
and heterosexism on Black women survivors of rape and sexual assault; is included
in the anthology Just Sex: Students Rewrite the Rules on Sex, Violence, Equality
& Activism edited by Jodi Gold & Susan Villari (Rowman & Littlefield/January
2000). Her writings have been published in The Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia
Gay News, Sojourner: The Women's Forum, Hembra, Women In The Life Magazine,
and Crossroads. Her work and activism have been documented in local, national,
and international publications including Essence Magazine, Between the Lines,
The Philadelphia City Paper, The Black Scholar, At The Crossroads, The Philadelphia
Weekly, Lesbia Magazine, The New Nation, Women In The Life Magazine, LA Weekly,
Filmmaker Magazine, Gay Black Female, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
She has screened her work and/or lectured on the impact of the intersections
of oppressions, on African-American women's lives, in Spain, Mexico, South
Africa, England, France, Canada, the Netherlands, and at several colleges/universities
and conferences across the United States. Ms. Simmons has been a recipient
of several grants including Studio Film & Tape, Evangelical Lutheran Church
of America, Bread and Roses Community Fund, The Deleware Valley Legacy Fund
of The Philadelphia Foundation, Funding Exchange, Womens Way Discretionary
Fund Grant, three grants from the Valentine Foundation and two grants from
the Astraea Foundation. Her numerous awards include the 1994 Philadelphia
Gay Pride Award; the 1995 Atlantic City Black Film Festival Filmmaker Award;
the 1998 Audre Lorde Legacy Award of the Union Institute Center for Women,
the 1998 NAACP Exemplary Citizen Award, Finalist, the 1998 Roy W. Dean Grant,
and the 2000 Bread & Roses Community Fund's Waters Award for Intergenerational
Activism.