A Public Philosophy Symposim Explores New Politics of Racial Uplift
April 14, 2008
Stand Up! The New Politics of Racial Uplift
A Public Philosophy Symposium
Temple University
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
9am to 5pm
Rape is a Crisis in Black Communities by Salamishah Tillet
April 10, 2008
It’s A Crisis
Remixing the Rule of Racial Silence by Melissa Harris-Lacewell
April 10, 2008
Rape and Race: We have to talk about it.
University of Houston’s Women’s Resource Center Hosts Screening & Discussion of NO!
April 9, 2008
In recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month
On Thrusday, April 10, 2008 at 7pm, The Women’s Resource Center at the University of Houston will host a screening and discussion of the award-winning, feature length documentary NO!, which is about rape, other forms of violence against women, and healing. Producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons will introduce the documentary and facilitate a question and answer session immediately following the screening.
black./womyn.:conversations featured in New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival
April 9, 2008
Black Lesbian Feature Length Documentary has New Orleans Premiere on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 4pm
tiona m.’s ground-breaking, revolutionary, feature-length documentary black./womyn.: conversations…, which features the voices of over 50 lesbians of African descent throughout North America including featuring powerful voices such as Def Poet Staceyann Chin, poet/activist/scholar Cheryl Clarke, and filmmakers Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Michelle Parkerson will have it’s New Orleans premiere at the Fifth Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. Scored by New Orleans-based musician Monica Dillon, the screening and discussion with tiona m., Monica Dillon, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons will be held on Sunday, April 13, 2008, 4pm, Zeitgeist – 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.
Linking Struggles on Human Rights in New Orleans and Around the World
April 9, 2008
The Fifth Annual New Orleans Human Rights International Film Festival is hosting “Our Struggle is Your Struggle: A Panel Discussion on Human Rights in New Orleans and Around the World.”
This lively and interactive panel will feature a diverse chorus of voices engaged in local, national, and global movements for human rights for marginalized and disenfranchised people in New Orleans, throughout the United States and across the globe.
Sex Workers and The Media
April 7, 2008
A Tale Of Two Strippers…
by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Sometime last fall Michael Simmons, my father and comrade in the international struggles to end violence against women, called me to share his passionate rage about all of the positive hype around Diablo Cody’s, (the very talented Academy Award® Winning screenwriter of the film Juno, directed by Jason Reitman) herstory as a stripper to support herself while writing screenplays. Media outlets, from National Public Radio to Entertainment Tonight, raved about “the stripper turned Hollywood screenwriter.”
Before my feminist sisters get upset, I want to be clear that Michael’s (and my) passionate rage isn’t about Sister Diablo Cody. This is not an anti-sex worker piece/peace. While I, as a Black feminist lesbian, critique a patriarchal, sexist, and misogynist world where sex work is, for countless women in the world, the only viable option to make a living, I do not and will not ever critique women for “choosing” sex work to financially support themselves.
Alice Walker Lovingly, Compassionately, and Critically Supports Barack Obama
March 30, 2008
Following is a powerful “open letter” written by Pulitzer Prize Winning Author, and Global Social Change Agent Alice Walker. For those of us based in the United States, I’m a critical supporter of Obama who has been in search of (because I, like too many of us, haven’t made the time to write something ourselves) essays by feminists/womanists of color who support Obama. As a Black feminist lesbian, I’ve been and am sick and tired of how all of the discussions about the democratic primaries have been looked through a Race = Black (Man) and Gender = (White) Woman lens, without any regards for millions of us who are both Black, Red, Brown, Yellow and Woman. Sister Alice’s open letter is a Black feminist/womanist loving, compassionate, and critical praise song for the candidate that I hope will become the next president of the United States of America.
LEST WE FORGET, An Open Letter To My Sisters Who Are Brave
From Alice Walker
Talking about Race and Gender in the Democratic Primaries
March 20, 2008
All the Men Are Black, All the Women Are White, and Some of Us Vote: A Remix by Salamishah Tillet
I spent the better half of Tuesday afternoon, listening to and reading the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech on “race.” Obama’s address was thoughtful, progressive, eloquent, brilliant, moving, and insightful. He did all the things I wanted him to do, acknowledged the founding “sin” of American slavery, shifted the burden of racial reconciliation from the shoulders of African-Americans to the larger American citizenry, and spoke about the past and present consequences of white rage and black disillusionment.
Violence Against Women of Color |Shout Out Anthology
March 14, 2008
Women’s History Month | Women of Color Speak Out Against Violence
Shout Out: Women of Color Respond To Violence
Maria Ochoa & Barbara K. Ige, Editors
Seal Press ©2008
“How do so many women survive the violence of their daily lives? Where do they find hope? How can this violence be allowed to continue? Shout Out address these troubling questions and more. This powerful collection provides a range of responses to the injustices that women sustain in their dialy lives through critical examiniations, creative non fiction, visual art, and poetry. Shout Out provides living testimony for the need to put an end to Oppression and violence.”
