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.
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.”
Violence Against Women of Color |The INCITE Anthology
March 12, 2008
Womens History Month | Stopping Violence Against Women of Color
Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology
South End Press © 2006
What would it take to end violence against women of color?
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
March 12, 2008
Violence Against Women| Screening of NO! at Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
After a long hiatus of screenings, book signings, and lectures, the Raday Salon kicks off its 2008 season with a screening of NO! The Rape Documentary to commemorate Women’s History Month. This is not the first time that Raday Salon has hosted screenings and discussions of NO! The Rape Documentary both as a rough cut and now as a completed documentary to standing room only audiences. However given the horrific and unfortuante global manifestation of sexual violence, combined with requests from people who have not had the opportunity to view the documentary, Linda Carranza and Michael Simmons, the Salon’s co-founders, are hosting an encore screening.
“...We have developed many new ties with folks who are new to Budapest or just new to our Salon, who have expressed an interest in seeing the film. We would be happy to see both old and new Salon friends at this showing, especially as the discussion is always different and brings up new observations every time we show the film…” will be an encore screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
March 12, 2008
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
On February 7, 2008, there was an almost standing room only screening NO! The Rape Documentary at the Brecht Forum. Immediately following the screening there was a very lively panel discussion with Ejeris Dixon, the Program Coordinator of the Safe OUTside the System Collective, Ebony Noelle Golden, poet and organizer, who is a founding member of UBUNTU and other groups in the Durham area after the Duke lacrosse case, and Michael Simmons, who is an international human rights activist and a featured interviewee in NO!. Unfortunately, due to illness, Salamishah Tillet, who was scheduled to moderate the discussion, wasn’t able to participate in the conversation.
One of the people who attended is a member of an organization called “SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape)“, an advocacy group in the US which works to improve universities’ response to sexual assaults in the campus environment. After attending the event, she wrote two reaction pieces on the SAFER organization’s blog, which you can read by clicking the following two links.
NO! A Documentary about Rape
NO! Part 2
Coming Full Circle with NO! A Documentary About Rape
February 25, 2008
Almost since the conception of the idea for the documentary that has evolved into NO!, I’ve been on the international road raising awareness about rape and sexual assault; and the critical non-negotiable need to end it.
In June 1995, my sister-survivor-comrade Janelle White, who was a graduate student at the time, brought me to University of Michigan for my very first paid NO! speaking engagement. At that time, I hardly had any footage. What I had was a vision and a commitment, as a survivor of incest and rape, to use the moving image to address a global atrocity, through the herstories, testimonies, scholarship, activism, poetry, music, and dance of predominantly African-American women.
Black Womyn:Conversations With Lesbians of African Descent
November 30, 2007
black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent, an important and ground breaking two-hour documentary that was produced, directed, photographed, edited, and predominantly funded by Tiona M., a Black lesbian video and filmmaker, originally from Greenville, South Carolina and presently based in Philadelphia.
I had the opportunity to meet and work with Tiona, in 2005, during my artist-in-residency at the Digital Moving Image Salon at Spelman College. Since that time we developed a friendship and camaraderie, which includes her working as 2nd camera woman and graphic designer for my next project, which is a global documentary by and for women of color in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe affected by Violence Against Women (VAW) and HIV & AIDS.
