by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This article was originally published on May 13, 2012 on The Feminist Wire.

I often celebrate and lift up the names of two women–Audre Lorde and Toni Cade Bambara –who are not related to me by blood but whose metaphorical and literal presence had a profound impact on my life. These two women, one of whom I never met and one who became very, very instrumental in my life, transformed me: Audre Lorde, the self-defined Black feminist, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet; and Toni Cade Bambara, the Black feminist, cultural worker, screenwriter, author, who was my teacher, my mentor, and my Big SistaFriend for five years up until her untimely physical transition in 1995. I believe that we are still in dialogue in the Spirit world. Both of these women, their existence, and their work created a path for me to use the moving image and the written word to bring about radical progressive social change in this country and beyond.

This Mother’s Day, however, I want to pay homage to some of the women whose blood is flowing through my veins and upon whose shoulders I stand. I come from a long line of Black women who didn’t use the words “feminist” or “womanist” to describe themselves. However, these women—Lucy Goldsby, Hattie Goldsby Temple, Rhoda Bell Temple-Robinson-Hudson-Douglas, Alice Bostic Simmons, Mattie Garrett Cranford, Maggie Pagen White, Mattie Simmons Brown, Jessie Neal Hudson, Corinne Simmons Trumpler, Lula Simmons Thompson, Corinne White, Rebecca White Simmons Chapman, Juanita Cranford Robinson Watson, Ollie B. Smith, Elizabeth White Patterson, and Helen White (to name a few)—these fierce women were organizers and leaders in their churches, unions, and community organizations. They were survivors of U.S. institutional racism, sexism, and classism, which prevented them from receiving the full formal education they each strongly desired and deserved. And yet, in spite of this egregious reality in their lives, my maternal and paternal (great-great-great) grandmothers and aunts not only persevered in spite of the odds stacked against them because of their race and their gender, some of them made herstory in their communities. To paraphrase Dr. Maya Angelou, “they still rose” through their never-ending fight and struggle against racism, sexism, and classism throughout their lives. These race women carried themselves with non-negotiable dignity and they demanded respect, most especially from the White supremacist establishment.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D., my mother, was the first self-defined feminist that I ever knew. I firmly believe that my (great-great-great) grandmothers and aunts were Black feminists/womanists, even though they would never have used those terms to describe themselves. I feel extremely fortunate that I grew up in two households (my mother’s and my father’s) where the words “Black” and “feminist” were never viewed as contradictory. This understanding is a very important gift that I inherited from both my mother and my father at a young age. It shaped how I view the world today.

For many years, my mother and I have had our “mother/daughter” challenges. We consistently work, struggle, and love through dialogue and in the profundity of silence to fully understand who we each are and respect the places from which we each stand on our journeys called life.

I’m very clear that I am literally standing upon ground that she broke in the 1960s when she was on the frontlines fighting for racial justice in Amer-i-KKK-a. In 1964, a couple of months shy of her twentieth birthday, my mother became the Director of a Council Of Federated Organizations[1] project in Laurel, Mississippi. To the best of my mother’s knowledge, she was one of only two women project directors during this Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She remained Project Director for eighteen months. In response to a violent intra-racial sexual assault attempt, while fighting against some of the most vicious forms of racism with her Black male comrades, she instituted one of the first (if not the only) sexual harassment policies in 1964, on the Laurel Project.

In my feature length film NO! The Rape Documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual assault, and healing in African-American communities, she says:

“…I made it a point on the Laurel Project to say ‘NO sexual abuse of any kind would be tolerated. And any infringement of that would be grounds for being expelled from the project.’ To my knowledge it was the first project and possibly the only one, certainly during the Mississippi Summer of 1964 that any project had such a rule. Everyone had to go through an orientation that included a segment on sexual abuse and what it was and that when a woman said she didn’t want to go out or certainly didn’t want to have sex that no one better ever try to force her to do that. As a result of that I became known as an Amazon…”

She eloquently writes about her transformative experiences coming of age as an activist in From Little Memphis Girl to Mississippi Amazon, which is the opening chapter of the award-winning anthology, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC.

My mom is the womanifestation of the continuum of the powerful women who preceded and raised her. I celebrate her and all their Black feminist/womanist activism which has most definitely informed and inspired my Black feminist lesbian activism.

On April 25, 2012, FORBESWOMAN published Brooke Axtell’s “Black Women, Sexual Assault, and the Art of Resistance” article. Axtell is the creator of SHE: Survivor, Healing & Empowerment, which is “a healing community for survivors of rape, abuse and sex trafficking, as well as their allies.” So, it comes as no surprise that she would write an article exploring the specific challenges facing Black women survivors of rape and sexual assault.

Citing sobering statistics compiled by Black Women’s Blueprint, The Black Women’s Health Imperative, and the US Department on Justice, Axtell delves into the various reasons why so many Black women choose not to report their rape. She references the scholarship and activism of Lori Sasai Robinson, Dr. Gail Elizabeth Wyatt, Dr. Danielle L. McGuire, and Dr. Charlotte Pierce-Baker, who have each spent numerous years researching and writing about Black women and rape.  Axtell also places Aishah Shahidah Simmons and her documentary film NO! along a continuum of Black women’s creative resistance against all forms of sexual violence perpetuated against Black women and girls.

Black Women, Sexual Assault, and the Art of Resistance is another powerful intervention in raising awareness about the horrific impact of the intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality on many Black women rape and sexual assault survivors. Axtell writes,

[...]Historically, law enforcement has been used to control African-American communities through brutality and racial profiling. It may be difficult for a Black woman to seek help if she feels it could be at the expense of African-American men or her community. The history of racial injustice (particularly the stereotype of the Black male as a sexual predator) and the need to protect her community from further attack might persuade a survivor to remain silent.

We need more research to fully understand the scope of violence against Black women and the barriers they face to receiving support services. This requires both the political will and funding to make their lives a priority. Unfortunately, due to a long history of systemic racism and classism in the United States, the violation of Black women’s bodies is often rendered invisible.

You may read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

As of April 30, 2012, ?Black Women Sexual Assault and the Art of Resistance? has been picked up by several sites including:

http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2012/04/25/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/

http://tbann.com/blog/black-women-sexual-assault-and-the-art-of-resistance/

http://legalnews.findlaw.com/article/05Gt4B5cBggO6

http://www.ncrw.org/news-center/media-roundup

From April 23, 2012 through April 26, 2012, The Feminist Wire published Aishah Shahidah Simmons‘ four part series titled “Who Will Revere Us? (Black LGTBQ People, Straight Women, and Girls).” Through a comparison of selected cases, Simmons interrogates why Black/African-American/African descendant communities have tremendous difficulty addressing various forms of  violence perpetuated against LGTBQ people, straight women, and girls. Following is the introduction to the series.

Introduction

The title of this four part article is a metaphorical nod to the legendary jazz singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Abbey Lincoln (also known as Aminata Moseka) whose essay, “Who Will Revere The Black Woman?” is featured in the ground-breaking anthology The Black Woman. Edited by Black feminist author, screenwriter, and visionary activist Toni Cade Bambara, this all-Black woman anthology focused on the issues most pertinent to Black women and our communities. Originally published in 1970 and reissued in 2005 with a forward by Dr. Eleanor W. Traylor, The Black Woman was the literary wo/manifestation of the impact of the intersection of the Civil Rights/Black Power movements and the second wave of the Women’s Rights movement on Black women’s lives. In short, Ms. Lincoln’s ageless essay is a demand for justice and protection for Black women. In her concluding paragraph she writes,

[…]Who will revere the Black woman? Who will keep our neighborhoods safe for Black innocent womanhood? Black womanhood is outraged and humiliated. Black womanhood cries for dignity and restitution and salvation. Black womanhood wants and needs protections, and keeping and holding. Who will assuage her indignation? Who will keep her precious and pure? Who will glorify and proclaim her beautiful image? To whom will she cry rape?

In her 1983 prophetic and timeless essay, “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression,” self-defined Black feminist lesbian mother warrior poet Audre Lorde writes,

I cannot afford the luxury of fighting one form of oppression only. I cannot believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the front upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.[1]

I am struggling to find the right time to discuss inter and intra-racial gender-based violence in the midst of the justified outrage about the rampant and virulent racialized violence perpetrated against straight Black boys and men. Even with this being Sexual Assault Awareness Month, now doesn’t feel like the best time to write about the gender-based and state-sanctioned violence perpetuated against Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) people both inside of and outside of our racial/cultural communities. I fear that sharing what’s on my heart and mind, might be construed as my taking away from the “real” issue at hand in most Black communities, which seems to be solely white supremacist and/or state-sanctioned racist violence against straight Black men and boys.

Audre Lorde’s writings remind me, however, that discussions on oppression within Black communities should never be taken up within an either/or frame. The diverse herstories/histories and contemporary realities of Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ people have consistently revealed that the issues that directly impact us often take a back seat, if they even make it into the metaphorical car on the freedom and liberation highway.

There is a collective understanding among many in multi-racial, radical progressive movements, that the white supremacist, patriarchal, heterosexist, imperial, and capitalist power structure is the root of all oppressions in the United States. While I believe that to be true, even in the company of other oppressed people, Black straight women and LGBTQ people are still under attack. Too often we are caught at the intersections of race, gender, and if we identify as LGBTQ, sexuality. In spite of our shared his/herstories of oppression, struggle, and perseverance against the odds, not enough Black people view sexism, patriarchy, misogyny, heterosexism and transphobia with the same kind of activist passion that we view racism, white supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence perpetuated against straight Black men and boys.

The reality is this: when Black straight men and boys are beaten, brutalized, and/or murdered as a result of state-sanctioned and/or white supremacist violence, it becomes (as well it should be) a national issue in the Black community and in a few, definitely not all, instances, the outrage moves beyond the Black community. Yet, when Black straight women, girls, and LGBTQ people are raped, sexually assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and/or murdered as a result of misogynist, patriarchal, state-sanctioned, and/or white supremacist violence, it is too often the victim’s individual issue.

Illustrator: Shepard Fairley

There are so many egregious, known and unknown, cases of racial and gender-based violence perpetuated against all Black people, regardless of their gender, gender identity, and sexuality, that it is literally impossible to write about all of them. I want to highlight a selected few of the far too many, however, to ask Black/African-American/African descended people to consider our responses when any of us have been railroaded into the prison industrial complex, sexually or otherwise assaulted, or murdered. I want us, Black/African-American/African descended people, to consider our responses to issues that affect many as opposed to those issues affecting some of us based on our gender, gender identity, and/or sexuality.

***

Part 1, which was published on April 23, 2012, can be read in its entirety here. On April 24, 2012, Ebony.com aggregated part one. You can read it here.

Part 2, which was published on April 24, 2012, can be read in its entirety here. Part 3, which was published on April 25, 2012, can be read in its entirety here. Part 4, which was published on April 26, 2012, can be read in its entirety here.

http://afrolez.tumblr.com/post/20429587910/aishah-shahidah-simmons-and-michael-simmons-on-left-of-b

Michael Simmons, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, and Mark Anthony Neal on the set of Left of Black. Photograph by Linda Carranza

Award-winning filmmaker and international lecturer Aishah Shahidah Simmons shared the stage with International Human Rights Activist Michael Simmons who is her father/friend/confidante/comrade on the first segment of Season 2, Episode 26 of Left of Black, which is a phenomenal series hosted by Duke University Professor and prolific writer Mark Anthony Neal.

During their segment, Michael and Aishah talk about what it meant for a father to both  both nurture and support his daughter’s coming out as a Black feminist lesbian (over 20-years ago). Equally as important they discuss about their individual and collective work to address violence against women both nationally and internationally. Their conversation includes Aishah discussing about the some of the seeds planted over 20-years ago, which WOmanifested into her award-winning, internationally acclaimed film NO! The Rape Documentary.

Their segment is followed by an interview with Meta DuEwa Jones who is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin. discusses the Legacy of Jazz Poetry in her new book The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance.

Michael Simmons is the co-director, with Linda Carranza, of the Raday Salon, an independent human rights oriented program in Budapest, Hungary. The Salon is rooted in both Simmons’ and Carranza’s own individual his/herstories as international human rights activists. For more information about the Salon please visit
http://raday.blogs.com

You can view the entire Left of Black episode featuring Michael Simmons, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, and Meta DuEwa Jones, with Mark Anthony Neal by clicking HERE (http://afrolez.tumblr.com/post/20429587910/aishah-shahidah-simmons-and-michael-simmons-on-left-of-b)

***

Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

***

Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in HD @iTunes U

By Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Darnell L. Moore, & Kenyon Farrow

This article was originally published on The Feminist Wire on February 15, 2012.

http://thefeministwire.com/2012/02/why-roland-martins-homophobic-tweets-shouldnt-be-ignored-even-now/

Over and over again as racially-conscious, Black feminist lesbian and gay people, we find ourselves being told to be silent when misogyny and homophobia rears its head in order to be accepted as Black by the larger community. The most recent debacle from Roland Martin’s homophobic tweets during the Super Bowl is one of too many examples:

If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl

Who the hell was that New England Patriot they just showed in a head to toe pink suit? Oh, he needs a visit from team #whipdatass

Martin’s comments were reprehensible in any environment, but most especially during the super-macho (and super-hetero) Super Bowl. Using Suzanne Pharr’s analysis that “Homophobia [is] a weapon of sexism,” it’s also apparent that Martin’s issue with Beckham’s bikini briefs, the unmanly sport of soccer, or the fan’s “pink suit,” relies heavily on sexism to reinforce heterosexist definitions of manhood.

We can’t afford to take homophobia lightly.

For so many LGBTQ people, many of whom are Black, this is life and death. When a noted journalist like Martin uses humor to condone violence against men who appear to be gay, it is insensitive, careless, and extremely irresponsible.

Some have even argued that Martin’s fate is a result of the response of misguided people who have given too much power to words. According to Raynard Jackson, writing in response to this debacle for The Washington Post, “words have no intrinsic meaning other than meanings that are internalized by each individual.”

Words are merely words, right? No! They actually shape the climate in which someone’s “ass” may literally be beat and murdered altogether. The next day after Martin’s tweets, a video surfaced of Brandon White, a black gay man who was jumped by multiple men in Atlanta for wearing skinny jeans.  Much like Martin’s tweets, this video shows that someone’s choice of clothing, which others may view as contrary to their gender and abnormal, is a reason to be subject to assault. Our thoughts and the words that we use are reflected through actions. As a result, we need not use words that produce harm, but words that seek to ameliorate violence.

So, where are the “words” of condemnation emanating from the Black progressive establishment regarding Martin’s tweets or the numerous physical attacks on Black LGBT people that happen daily?

The deafening silence from Non-LGBTQ Black Civil Rights organizations and public intellectuals taking a stand against homophobia is unacceptable. It’s as if racism is the main/real issue worthy of being addressed, with sexism/misogyny in a very distant second place, and homophobia a practically non-existent third place on our Black civil rights platform. Why do these organizations and “leaders” continue to act as if they are not accountable to Black people who are LGBTQ? Aren’t we Black, too?

Similarly, why does GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) act is if they are not accountable to LGBTQ people who are Black? As Robert Jones, Jr., author of the Son of Baldwin blog stated, ?“I think Roland Martin deserved censure and suspension, just like Don Imus deserved being terminated. But where is GLAAD when [white gay writers like] Andrew Sullivan and Dan Savage make their racist statements? I sense a double standard and it REEKS of racism.”

GLAAD’s swift action to demand that CNN fire Martin gives us pause. Interestingly enough, GLAAD didn’t also demand TVOne, a Black-owned network, where Martin hosts a weekly show, to fire him. Clearly, based on GLAAD’s actions, they’re not very concerned about the impact of Martin’s homophobia on Black networks (if they even know the networks exist). In response to Martin’s comments, GLAAD’s website reiterates, “Our goal is to ensure better coverage that works toward ending anti-LGBT violence.”

If that is GLAAD’s goal, then why aren’t they also holding other outlets where Roland Martin has a platform accountable? Furthermore, Martin recently met with GLAAD; but none of the Black queer people who first called Martin out over Twitter was invited by GLAAD to join in such a meeting. Why is Martin only accountable to GLAAD?

Cleo Manago, CEO and founder of the Black Men’s Xchange (BMX), had this to say about GLAAD’s demand that Martin be fired from CNN: “…we are still in the process of recovering from many challenges that have resulted from being Black in America. Still, lily-White organizations like GLAAD are not in the position to complain about alleged injustice from Blacks. They clearly are not culturally competent enough to accurately interpret the voices of Black people.”

While Manago might be correct to interrogate GLAAD’s “cultural competency,” he too misses a valuable point.

The fact is: it was Black queer men and women, and not some “lily-white organization,” who were the first to call attention to Martin’s heterosexist words. GLAAD’s response, and CNN’s subsequent move to suspend Martin, followed the swift rebuke of Twitter personalities @kenyonfarrow, @Anti_Intellect, @TheFireNextTime.

The fact is: it was Black brothers and sisters who called out a Black brother. Period.

Given the facts, let’s assume that the Black men and women who rightly pointed out Martin’s violent words were indeed “culturally competent enough” to interpret Roland’s words as sexist and homophobic (because they were), where will Manago and others now point their fingers?

The claim that somehow we should ignore heterosexist remarks, particularly those spewed by other Black folk, because of the force of racism, is dangerously limited. There are no battles (i.e. calling out and resisting racism OR calling out and resisting homophobia) to choose in this regard. There is but one battle and that is our sustained resistance to oppression when and wherever it rears its head.

The idea that we should forego calling Martin out for his heterosexism because he is Black is just as myopic as thinking that we should not call out GLAAD for the lack of response to racism within and without the queer community. Both are wrong and require our resistance.

We, as individuals and organizations in the Black community, should embrace a vision of our community that doesn’t try to sacrifice any of us for the so-called progress of the majority, whether about gender/sexuality, economic status, or other complexities of Black life.  Then we might begin to make some headway with addressing the ways that multiple forms of oppression impact so many of us.

No one is free while others are oppressed.

___________________________________

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning AfroLez®femcentric cultural worker based in Philadelphia, PA.  She blogs at AfroLezProductions.com. You can follow her on twitter @AfroLez.

Darnell L. Moore is a 2011-12 Visiting Scholar in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University. He lives and writes in Bedstuy, Brooklyn. You can follow him on twitter @moore_darnell .

Kenyon Farrow is a writer and activist living in NYC. He blogs at kenyonfarrow.com.

by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This blog was originally posted on AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives on January 23, 2012.
http://afrolez.tumblr.com/post/16346483145/spoils-and-generational-impact-of-war

My paternal Uncle Reginald G. Simmons did several tours of duty in Vietnam in the 1960s. He, like thousands of US GI’s and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese women, children, and men were sprayed with ‘Agent Orange,’ which “is the code name for one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971.”

In March 1980*, Uncle Reginald died from a cancer, which ravaged his body in six months. Fast forward to the late 80s, when his daughter, my first cousin Crystal D. Simmons, was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Since that time she gave birth to and was in the process of raising three brilliant and beautiful children while simultaneously battling multiple forms of cancer that appeared to mutate (not metastasize) in various parts of her body.  Crystal had at least 40** surgeries for 23-years and multiple bouts with chemotherapy and radiation. In the midst of her own battles, her eldest daughter Christina D. Simmons died from a cancerous brain tumor in June 2007. Crystal died on December 25, 2011, and is survived by her two younger children Reggie and Courtney who are 14 and 16.   Very recently, Courtney was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a pediatric bone cancer. While coping with the loss of her mother less than one month ago, Courtney now must AND WILL battle cancer. Decisions made in the 1960s are having a generational impact in 2012.

Unfortunately my family is not unique.

Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. And, tragically this country hasn’t learned any lessons from their egregious, wretched, and inhumane errors in Vietnam. I reflect upon Grenada, Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan to name a few of the countries who, since Vietnam, have been directly invaded and occupied by the US…

Too bad (what has become) the US didn’t take heed to The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, which says, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” Instead they took deliberate actions, which resulted in the genocide of the Iroquois and millions of other Indigenous nations of this land.

No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed!!!

*In the original posting of this blog, I wrote that my Uncle Reginald died in 1979. Michael Simmons, my father, informed me that his brother’s funeral was in March 1980.

**When my cousin Courtney read this blog, she informed me that her mother, Crystal, had 40 surgeries and not the 15 that I originally listed.

——
For additional information, please read “A Black Man Fights the Draft,” Interview with Michael Simmons by Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an AfroLez®femcentric Cultural Worker (Black, Feminist, Queer Documentary Filmmaker, International Lecturer, Published Writer, Social Change Agent, Vipassana Meditator, and Global Traveler)

A Film Screening and Panel Discussion
Co-Sponsored by the Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group, and the Black Theology Group at the
American Academy of Religion’s 2011 Annual Meeting
November 19, 2011
Marriott Marquis (Session A19-407)
San Francisco, CA
8:00pm

Description
An intergenerational panel following the screening of NO! The Rape Documentary, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature length documentary, which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities. NO! also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. The featured panelists will discuss how religion, race, and politics can both negatively and positively influence attitudes and solutions to end rape and other forms of sexual violence. They will engage in a conversation that will explore some of the issues highlighted in the documentary, which include; Black feminist/womanist Christian and Islamic perspectives that address the wrongfulness of the rape of women; Black men as pro-feminist/womanist allies in rape prevention; Rape as a community issue that reinforces interlocking systems of oppression, such as racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism; and Activism and spirituality as healing modalities. Gender-based violence is an international atrocity that knows no boundary.  This panel will address these global acts of violence through the first-person testimonies, scholarship, activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. As Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple says, “If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would save itself it must complete the work ‘NO!’ begins.”

Moderator:
Rev. Carla Jean-McNeil Jackson, Esq. is an administrative law attorney, who also provides pro bono legal services in housing law. She is also an ordained minister and an accomplished vocalist, including a tour of Italy in the musical “Sister Act 2.” Her sermon, “Managing Life’s Challenges,” is published in Those Preaching Women: A Multicultural Collection, edited by the late Ella P. Mitchell and Valerie Bridgeman, with a foreword by Katie G. Cannon.

Panelists:
Aishah Shahidah Simmons, is the producer, writer, and director of NO! The Rape Documentary. Since its official release in 2006, this award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary been used as an educational organizing tool across North America, and in numerous countries throughout the world. Ms. Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian incest and rape survivor whose writings on cinematic activism, gender-based violence, queer identity from an AfroLez®femcentric perspective, and the impact of the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation on the lives of Black women are featured in several anthologies and journals. She facilitates workshops, teaches classes, and lectures extensively throughout North America and internationally.

Rev. Traci C. West, Ph.D., is Professor of Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School in New Jersey. A featured interviewee in NO!, she is the author of Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter (Westminister John Knox Press, 2007), Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence, and Resistance Ethics (New York University Press, 1999), and editor of Our Family Values: Religion and Same-sex Marriage (Praeger, 2007). She is currently working on a project interviewing activists in Ghana, Brazil, and South Africa on their strategies to address gender violence against women and girls.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in African American and Religious Studies at the University of Florida. A featured interviewee in NO!, her research, teaching, and anthologized writings focus on Women and Islam; and the role of religion in the African American Struggle for Justice. She is presently under contract with The New Press, for a volume in their new religion series titled, ISLAM does not equal FUNDAMENTALISM. Additionally, for over 45 years, she has worked globally in the areas of civil rights, women’s rights, human rights, and peace work. This work includes her 23-year tenure on the staff of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace, justice, human rights, and international development organization.

Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Ph.D., is one of today’s most provocative commentators on the intersection of religion, politics, and economic and social policy in America. He has been featured on MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, BBC, C-SPAN, PBS, and the Bloomberg Network. A former Wall Street investment executive and former seminary president, he is currently Professor of Biblical Interpretation at New York Theological Seminary and Visiting Scholar in Religion and African American studies at Columbia University. His newest book is The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church and the Body Politic (Orbis, 2011).

This blog was originally posted on Ms. Magazine’s blog
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/10/25/alice-walker-beauty-in-truth/

I am the woman: Dark,

repaired, healed

Listening to you. …

—Alice Walker, from her poem “Remember?”

For more than four decades, Alice Walker has used the written word to make visible that which has been made invisible as a result of exploitation and marginalization. Equally as important, she is a humanitarian and social-change agent who has literally put her body on the line for peace and justice. Alice Walker walks her talk. Her living example has inspired and challenged countless individuals around the world to live fully engaged, compassionate lives.

People had a problem with my disinterest in submission. And they had a problem with my intellect, and they had a problem with my choice of lovers … and they had a problem with my choice of everything … so, choose one, choose all, they just had a problem. …

Novelist, essayist, poet, short-story writer, anthologist, teacher, editor, publisher, womanist and activist, Walker is a preeminent American writer–the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 1983, for her ground breaking novel The Color Purple. She also received the National Book Award, and The Color Purple was subsequently made into both a successful film and Broadway musical.

On a very personal level, were it not for her groundbreaking art and activism, along with that of other second-wave Black women writers and cultural workers, my documentary film NO! The Rape Documentary—which unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence and healing in African American communities—would probably not exist. I, along with so many others, literally and metaphorically stand upon Alice Walker’s shoulders.

And if there were ever a time for the world to have a visual record of Alice Walker’s inspiring journey, now is it.

Internationally acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker Pratibha Parmar has joyously and boldly taken on the auspicious responsibility of documenting the life of her longtime friend in the feature-length Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth. The two women first met in 1991, when Parmar’s dear friend, the late poet and activist June Jordan, along with activist and scholar Angela Davis, introduced the two women. At the time Parmar was in production on A Place of Rage, a documentary for British television on African American women and their role in the U.S. civil rights movement. Two years later, Parmar and Walker were working together, on the poignant and powerful documentary Warrior Marks about female genital mutilation (FGM). The idea came from Walker, who at the time was completing her novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, which explored the life of a genitally mutilated African woman. Back then, voices speaking out against such atrocities were barely acknowledged in the global arena, but Warrior Marks played an important part in encouraging international AID organizations to not treat FGM as culture, but as torture. In addition to the film, Walker and Parmar co-authored the book Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women.

I don’t believe there is a filmmaker more suited or committed to make an Alice Walker documentary than Pratibha Parmar.

Since starting the film four years ago, along with her partner and producer Shaheen Haq, Parmar has captured a wide range of voices to give insight on Walker, including Gloria Steinem, Yoko Ono, Steven Spielberg, Angela Davis, the late Howard Zinn, Danny Glover, Brenda Russell, Tony Award-winner LaChanze, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Jewelle Gomez, Evelyn C. White, Allee Willis, Quincy Jones, Jack Kornfield and Arisaka Razak. But as anyone familiar with filmmaking knows, researching and producing a film is one thing; taking it through the expensive land of post-production and into theaters is another.

Parmar and Haq are now in critical need of funding to get this important documentary film across the finish line. They hope to release the film in 2012 to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of The Color Purple. They already have a broadcast deal with PBS’ American Masters, but part of the filmmakers’ agreement with PBS is that, for cinematic integrity’s sake, none of the featured interviewees, including Alice Walker, can contribute any funding towards the project.

That’s where the rest of us can step in. With their credit cards maxed, Parmar and Haq have started a crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo to raise a minimum of $50,000. Their ultimate goal is triple that, since they need $150,000 to complete the film.

I was humbled and honored to be asked by Pratibha Parmar to join the fundraising team. Alice Walker’s ongoing contributions to making this world a more humane place is profound. And while I always credit my teacher and mentor, the late Black feminist writer and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara, with helping me find myself as a Black feminist lesbian cultural worker, Parmar’s films–especially A Place of Rage–played a pivotal role in shifting my gaze and challenging me to use the moving image to make compassionately humane revolution irresistible.

To date more than 20 percent of the $50,000 minimum has been raised. Now the filmmakers have less than two months to raise the rest, so time is of the essence. Donations begin at $10 and go up to $10,000. Pledges are accepted internationally.

With most independent films, especially those made by and about radical women who do not conform to patriarchal and racialized definitions of womanhood (whatever that means!), it takes a global village to transform these womanist/feminist visions into celluloid/digital realities. If there is any doubt about the importance of Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth, I invite and encourage you to view the breathtaking trailer for the film to get a taste of what’s to come with the of the completed film.

As Angela Davis’ so eloquently says in the film,

All of Alice’s writings urge us to think differently and to think critically often about those things we most take for granted. I think that’s what can change the world.

Here’s where you can offer critically needed financial support to Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth.

Photo of (left to right) Pratibha Parmar, Alice Walker and Shaheen Haq, by Trish Govoni

A Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Thursday, October 27, 2011

6:00pm (Film screening)

7:30pm (Panel discussion)

Location: Miller Theater, Columbia University

116th & Broadway

New York, NY

As part of Columbia University’s Sexual Violence Response’s Relationship Violence Awareness Month program, please join moderator

Akiba Solomon (Writer and Freelance Journalist)

and panelists

Byron Hurt (Producer/Director Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes),

Aishah Shahidah Simmons (Producer/Director NO! The Rape Documentary), and

Ted Bunch (Co-Founder, A Call To Men)

for a lively panel discussion following the screening of this award-wining, riveting film that explores sexism and other pressing issues in hip-hop culture.

For More Information: please contact Sexual Violence Response by sending an email to lr2520@columbia.edu or by calling 212.854.3500

To RSVP for this free event contact Divine-Asia Planes at
dplanes “at” connectnyc “dot” org or (212) 683-0015 ext.215

With her FULL PERMISSION, I have re-posted the text of her essay so that people who are not on facebook will be able to read it in its entirety.

It’s also available on ?AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives blog.

Am I Troy Davis? A Slut?; or, What’s Troubling Me about the Absence of Reflexivity in Movements that Proclaim Solidarity

by Stephanie Gilmore

1.

On September 21, 2011, I joined hundreds of my friends and millions of people around the world to watch, through tears and in abject horror, as Troy Anthony Davis was executed by the State of Georgia. In the twenty years between Davis’ trial for the murder of police officer Mark McPhail and his execution, Davis maintained his innocence while witnesses recanted the testimony that sent Davis to death row. Despite conflicting testimonies and inadequate evidence, the state put aside lingering and longstanding doubt and instead, put Troy Anthony Davis to death.

On Facebook, Twitter, and other media outlets, I saw virtual and real friends declare that “I am Troy Davis.” They changed their profile pictures to a picture or image of Davis, or a black box, all in an attempt to articulate a sense of solidarity, a stand against the injustice of the prison industrial complex and a state thoroughly entrenched in the murder of a man who may not have committed the crime of murder. I agree wholeheartedly that the state was wrong in executing Mr. Davis and I grieve for his death as well as that of Officer McPhail. But in the weeks since Davis’s execution, I have been wondering if people really understand how and why Davis came to be murdered at the hands of the state. People insist that “I am Troy Davis,” but what does that mean?

In many ways, I am not Troy Davis. I am a middle-class, 40-something-year-old white woman. According to a 2008 Pew Center on the States report, one in 36 Hispanic adults is in prison in the United States. One in 15 Black adults is too, a statistic that includes one in 100 Black women and one in nine Black men, age 20-34.  Although one of my parents spent time in prison, and through incarceration joined the swelling ranks of 2.3 million imprisoned people and many more in the system of probation, halfway houses, and parole, I and my white peers do not face systemic racial injustice in the structures of imprisonment. And it does not begin or end with the prison system. Black children are suspended and expelled from school at 3 times the rate of white children. Racial discrimination in funding for education also affects children’s success in school, as cash-poor school districts are also overwhelmingly Black and Latino neighborhoods.  Schools have been and remain a pipeline to prison for many Black and Latino children, and generations of families, prison is a reality. One in 15 Black children currently has a parent in jail. People say that the system is broken, but I (along with others in the prison abolition movement) admit that the system is working exactly as it was set up to do. Can I really say, “I am Troy Davis” without giving serious consideration to the realities of racism in the prison industrial complex? Does that just become little more than the adoption of a slogan and a picture, without a real awareness of the racist realities of the prison industrial complex?

2.

On August 6, 2011, I joined Slut Walk Philadelphia. It was a beautiful day and hundreds of people moved through Center City to end up at City Hall, where even more gathered to speak out against sexual violence. I had been following Slut Walks with great delight because I see the people power in the sheer numbers of women and men who are fighting back against sexual violence.  So when I was asked to participate, and to stand with queer people of Color in a more racially inclusive Slut Walk than I had seen to date, I said “yes” because the fight to end sexual violence is my fight. And fighting against a culture that perpetuates and promotes rape; cheers on rapists; and diminishes, humiliates, and silences victims through law, education, and entertainment will demands knowledge that the system, again, is not broken. It is doing the very work it was constructed to do – sexual violence is a tool of ensuring white status quo. And if we are to end sexual violence, we must acknowledge how it operates.

I have struggled to accept a movement that does not acknowledge the very problematic word “slut” and how historically many women have not been able to shake the label of “slut.” I participated in the struggle – the movement as well as my own internal struggle – because I wanted to engage in, create, and sustain dialogue. Indeed, many criticize the apparent move to claim “slut” – how can you pick up something you’ve never been able to put down? Black women have been most vocal about the longer legacy of sexual violence done onto their bodies – often against the backdrop of slavery and colonialism — simply for being Black. But I continued to push into these bigger conversations and analyses. I listened and engaged when Crunk Feminist Collective challenged Slut Walks, when BlackWomen’s Blueprint issued their “Open Letter from Black Women to Slut Walk Organizers,” and when individual women of Color (and only women of Color) spoke publicly about racist actions within individual marches as well as racism within the larger movement. White women I know made private comments about different expressions of racism, but never spoke up to challenge individual actions or larger frameworks of analysis, leaving me to wonder “why?”

And then I saw the sign from Slut Walk NYC bearing the words “Women are the N*gger of the World.” I don’t care that the quotation is from John Lennon and Yoko Ono. I don’t care that the woman was asked to take down the sign – although I certainly do care that a woman of Color had to ask her to do so while white women moved around her, seemingly oblivious. I am angry when I continue to see so many white women defending it expressly or remaining complicit in silence, suggesting that “we” (what “we”?) need to focus on sexual violence first, as if it is unrelated to racism. And I wonder, can I really claim to be a part of the nascent Slut Walk movement without giving serious consideration to the realities of racism within very publicly identified facets of it? Can I be a part of it when so many women – my very allies and sisters in antiracist struggle – are set apart from it, or worse, set in perpetual opposition to it?

3.

My question is, how can we be in solidarity when we are not willing to be reflexive and to check ourselves, check each other, and be checked? Bernice Johnson Reagon acknowledged that coalition building is hard work, made even harder by people who come to coalition seeking to find a home. My sense, or perhaps one sense I have, is that many people came to the “I Am Troy Davis” momentum or the Slut Walk marches looking for a home, a place where they can sit back and feel comfortable in their hard (very hard!) work, and comforted by others who pat them on the head and tell them “good job.” This is not to dismiss genuine concern for the state of our world. Perhaps we’re all lonely, as the realities of social justice work have taken on different and palatable forms since WTO and 9/11. So many people are down for the immediate issue – the indefensible execution of Troy Davis, the indefensible perpetuation of sexual violence — and that matters. But I worry that many white people aren’t paying attention to the larger structures in place. They are not being reflexive about the realities of racism that undergird prison incarceration, death penalty, and sexual violence.

I am not Troy Davis; I never will be. A system built on the foundation of racism ensures that I will not confront the realities of prison incarceration in the same ways as Black and Latino people. I am a strong advocate against sexual violence, but I cannot fight in and for a movement that is not interested in the realities of racism and the ways that racism undergirds sexual violence, and instead so blindly employs racist language. (The “Occupy Wall Street” actions call for me again the realities of racism and its necessity within the existing structure of capitalism – and the insistence among white people that people of Color indulge a luxury of time and money to sit in with them is untenable and racist. Many others have pointed out that the language of “occupation” is inherently problematic because bodies and lands have been historically occupied, often through sexual violence and criminalization. The movement itself needs to be decolonized.) Even as I support openly the prison abolition movement, the end to sexual violence, and the uprooting of a socioeconomic system that ignores the 99%, I cannot do so without deep awareness of racism that is operating within and among these movements. It is my work as a white activist to speak to and be aware of these legacies and histories of racism. Women and men of Color need not be alone in the front lines of identifying racist action and reaction within the movement. Insisting that people of Color have a voice only when it comes to identifying racism perpetuates, rather than alleviates racism. As I look at the actions of some people within these movements, I am reminded again that the racism of the supposed left is even more damaging and hurtful than the naked racism of the right.

If we are to work together in solidarity, we must do so reflexively, conscious of our actions and the potential outcomes before we act. This is not a call to focus on criticism and self-reflection to the point that we are inactive. That is unproductive, to be sure. But it is a call to be mindful and vigilant about racist action and reaction, to come to terms with the fact that we must do the work of understanding racist underpinnings of prison incarceration, the death penalty, and sexual violence if we are to make significant progress. Undoing racism must be at the core of our collective work across movements. To echo Dr. Reagon’s statement, we need to be honest and ask if we really want people of Color or if we’re just looking for ourselves with a little color to it. So much of the movement work, as it stands, seems to be looking for a little color, when we need to be exploring the realities of racism as part of the problem, not an additive to the “real” issue. In the absence of reflexivity about the structural forces that are keeping us apart, we will never be able to engage in real coalition work that will be required if we are to take seriously our goals of ending sexual violence and the death penalty. These movements as they are going now may continue, but they will not do so in my name and certainly not without my consent.

So no, I am not Troy Davis. I am not a slut. I am not an occupier of Wall Street or any street. The fights are my fights, but the current methods and analyses are not mine. I cannot sit by and listen to people debate the efficacy of the death penalty without understanding that it is the larger complex of incarceration and the “elementary-to-penitentiary” path that tracks and traps Black and Latino youth by design. I am done with the handwringing and “white lady tears” of so many white women who keep defending racist approaches and actions and, at times, respond with violence when confronted and challenged. Such behavior only reinforces the fact that these movement spaces as they are currently defined are not safe. My friend, colleague, and sister-in-spirit Aishah Shahidah Simmons said it best when she commented, “It’s sobering to observe how White solidarity is taking precedence over principled responses…. ” Sobering, indeed. I will most assuredly fight to end the prison industrial complex, sexual violence, and unbridled capitalism, but I will do so from a space that centers the racist roots of incarceration, criminal “justice,” capitalism, and sexual violence.  Thankfully, those spaces already exist – even if they remain peripheral in the mainstream media (and in much of what is left of the lefty media). But it is time to pivot the center. Without reflexive analysis of racism and coalition work grounded in antiracist movement, we miss the real root of the problem as well as real opportunities to create change.

___________________________
Stephanie Gilmore is a feminist activist and assistant professor of the women’s and gender studies department at Dickinson College. For the 2011-12 academic year, she is a postdoctoral fellow in women’s studies at Duke University. She is completing “Groundswell: Grassroots Feminist Activism in Postwar America” (Routledge, 2012) and has started a new research project on how students negotiate sexual violence on residential college campuses in the United States.

By Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This essay originally appeared at AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives blog on August 19, 2011.

There have been numerous primarily Black feminist critiques of both the book and the film ‘The Help’. Most of the critiques deeply resonate with my feelings about both entities. Since it’s official release on August 10, 2011, I’ve dedicated probably too much time to reading and reposting many of the critiques by both Black and White women. While I’ve shared some of my concerns with some, I haven’t compiled all of them into one note up until now…

I didn’t like the book ‘The Help’ at all, but I believe it is ten times better than the film. If there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, I wouldn’t care at all about the film ‘The Help’. However, since there aren’t that many films out there, combined with the fact that this film will be seen globally and probably go down in cinematic history as a classic, I’m personally very, very clear about my sheer disgust about it.

I saw the movie at a sneak promotional viewing and I was horrified. Now, I thought Viola Davis’ acting was phenomenal and  Octavia Spencer’s was superb. They both did incredible work with the roles that they were given.  In spite of this, I was and am deeply disturbed by the film’s subtle and not-so subtle racism. Yes, I know the film takes place in 1962  Mississippi, and one could argue that the film was depicting the time. While some of that is true, what’s also true is that, in my opinion, the film is racist, sexist and ahistorical.

I’m the great granddaughter, great-niece, and granddaughter of Black women who worked as domestics for racist and sexist White people both in the Jim Crow South and the (allegedly liberated) North. I am the daughter of a  southern Black woman who spent 18-months (1964-1966) in Laurel, Mississippi working for SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee). Hardly any of the stories that I heard, first hand throughout my life (and I’m in my 40s) from any of the aforementioned women or their friends, matched the portrayal of the Black women and their communities in the book or the film ‘The Help.’

There are many wonderful books by Black women authors who through fiction and fact poignantly address the realities of Black women domestic workers during the same time period that ‘The Help’ takes place.  Some of those books received critical acclaim.  And yet, those books aren’t turned into films. Several of those books have been listed in previous critiques of ‘The Help’ including Jennifer Williams essay and the Association of Black Women Historian’s Open Statement to the Fans of ‘The Help.’

In addition to those books, I reflect upon the very recently released Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women In SNCC, (edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner), which really highlights those unsung, many of whom were not formally educated women who changed the face of Amer-i-KKK-a in the Jim Crow South. I’m not talking about the multiracial SNCC workers themselves (per se); but those Black women (and men) who opened their homes and lives to the SNCC volunteers… Many of who were already doing radical and subversive work in the midst of working for “Miss Ann”… So many of the testimonies captured in this anthology are worthy of film or even their own independent book. In my mind’s eye, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC tells the stories of ordinary women (and men) doing extraordinary work.

My deep pain about all of the hoopla and fanfare about ‘The Help’ has to do with the fact that we very rarely EVER see a film where the sheer White male and female supremacist terror that Black people lived under (first during enslavement -which lasted for centuries, then throughout the Jim Crow era) is depicted. From DW Griffiths ‘The Birth Of A Nation,’ til present day, Hollywood has been committed to sanitizing and making light of excruciatingly painful, wretched, and inhumane times for millionS of African-Americans.  This system has been able to do this through castigating, maligning, stereotyping, marginalizing, and dehumanizing people of African descent. There is something very uncanny and disturbing about this, to say the very least.

While some have critiqued Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and other Black actresses featured in ‘The Help,’ I understand that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s hard out here for Black women (and men) actors in the Hollywood (or Hollyweird, as Toni Cade Bambara used to call it) system. When one turns down a role based on their principles and dignity, another one will gladly accept that role. I’m sad that roles in ‘The Help’ are the options for phenomenal actresses like Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.  In many ways, it appears as if this vicious racist and sexist cycle will never ever get broken.

My questions are how do we stop this powerful system – Hollywood, which influences the world, from its ongoing cinematic racist, sexist, heterosexist/homophobic/ transphobic, and classist assaults not only on communities of African descent, but also on Latina/o, Arab, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific, Islander, Roma (Gypsy), and Southwest Asian communities…? When does ENOUGH become ENOUGH?

I’m concerned about the messages that are conveyed through ‘The Help.’ If you aren’t formally educated, you need a White woman to document and tell your story in order for it to get heard… Then the White woman leaves town to make it big in NYC, and you’re safe(?) in 1960s White Supremacist Terrorist Mississippi after getting fired for breaking your silence…? Or, your battered by your Black husband, and the White woman you taught how to cook, stays up all night to prepare the most delicious meal you’ve ever had. You were so moved by that meal, that you leave your abusive husband.

Foremost, are we really okay with these types of depictions of White women as the sole saviors to Black women’s lives, which are presented as historical fact? Equally as important, is this an accurate HERstory?  And if it is, which I doubt, how often did this happen? Was there real Sisterhood based on equality between Black women domestic workers and their White women employers? How does this story foster sisterhood based on equality between Black and White women contemporarily?

To quote Black feminist political scientist Melissa Harris-Perry “’The Help’ reduces systematic, violent racism, sexism & labor exploitation to a cat fight that can be won with cunning spunk.”

Again, if there were a plethora of films about the complexities of Black life, then ‘The Help’ would be another film… But, it’s not another film. For many, painfully similar to how the ahistorical film ‘Mississippi Burning’ became the cinematic representation of the disappearance of civil rights workers ~Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney; ‘The Help’ will be the cinematic representation of life for Black women domestic workers and their White women employers in Mississippi in the1960s.

To add insult to injury, the HSN (Home Shopping Network) has launched its on collection, inspired by ‘The Help.’ This is SO egregious and inhumane. In my opinion, it’s another example of how a painful part of African-American her/history (and what should be an embarrassing part of American her/history) has been sanitized and commodofied. To quote my Sister, Patricia Lesesne, “What are they {HSN} selling? Bullets, rape kits, nooses, tear-stained blouses, men’s dress shirts with blood spattered on them? Exactly which pieces from this time in US history are going to be sold on the HSN? Are they going to bottle up the essence of fear, terror, and humiliation in 6oz bottles and sell them as a fragrance trio gift set. What the hell is going on?”  Yes, Patricia, what the HELL is going on in 2011?

One way we can resist this insanity is by supporting (non-Hollywood supported/funded) Independent Cinema.  There are many, many filmmakers who are creating powerful narrative and documentary films, which depict the complexities of lives of people who, based on their race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, class and/or religion, are too often marginalized or worse, dehumanized by the Hollywood system.

If you see ‘The Help’, be an engaged spectator. It’s important that there is critical engagement and interrogation, even if, sigh and gasp, you LOVE the film. I think it’s important that all movie goers take time to really reflect upon the inherent messages not only in ‘The Help’ but all movies because there are always overt and covert messages that each one of us absorbs.

*******************

Beah Richards’ (unfortunately) timeless  (one-woman) play “A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood” is in my opinion, the best response to Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help”. Written in 1951, it is still most appropriate.

http://afrolez.tumblr.com/post/7967989547/a-black-woman-speaks-of-white-womanhood-by-beah

List of Critiques of “The Help” by Black Women, which are listed in alphabetical order. (I know there are more than those that are listed. This list represents the ones that I read).

1. Association of Black Women Historians’ Open Statement to Fans of ‘The Help’
   http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2:open-statement-the-help&catid=1:latest-news
2. ‘The Help’: A Feel Good Movie For White People by Valerie Boyd
   http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-help-a-feel-good-movie-for-white-people/
3. “The Help” and White Female Identity by Stephanie Crumpton
   http://www.urbancusp.com/newspost/the-help-and-white-female-identity/
4. Kathryn Stockett Is Not My Sister and I’m Not Her Help by Miriam Harris
   http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/08/12/kathryn-stockett-is-not-my-sister-and-i-am-not-her-help/
5. Melissa Harris Perry Breaks Down The Help: ‘Ahistorical And Deeply Troubling’ (by Frances Martel)
   http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-breaks-down-the-help-ahistorical-and-deeply-troubling/
6. Chocolate Breast Milk: A Review of ‘The’ Help by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
   http://phillisremastered.wordpress.com/2011/08/11/chocolate-breast-milk-a-review-of-the-help/
7. No thanks Kathryn Stockett, I don’t want to be “The Help” by Joyce Ladner
   http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/
8. I’m Good Why The Help Isn’t Needed by Tonya Pendleton
   http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles%2Fentertainment%2Fmovies%2F30500%2F1#.Tio6nUx61YI
   
9. Why I Will Not See ‘The Help’: A Rant by Rosetta Ross
   http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/4991/
10. Second (and Third, and Fourth…) Helpings: A Big Black Woman’s Thoughts on “The Help” by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
    http://www.thefeministwire.com/2011/08/19/second-and-third-and-fourth…-helpings-a-big-black-woman’s-thoughts-on-the-help/
    
11. Why I’m Not Looking Forward to ‘The Help’ by Jennifer Williams
    http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/08/10/why-im-not-looking-forward-to-the-help/
12. Love ‘The Help,’ But Please Stop Asking Me To Do The Same by Rebecca Wanzo
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-wanzo/the-help-movie_b_925550.html

List of Critiques of ‘The Help’ by White Women, which are listed in alphabetical order. (I sincerely hope there are more than those listed here. This list represents the ones that I read)

1. Reading The Help by Susannah Bartlow
   http://susannahbartlow.blogspot.com/2011/08/reading-help-reposted-from-facebook.html
2. For Colored Only? Understanding ‘The Help’ Through The Lens of White Womanhood by Claire Potter
   http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2011/08/for-colored-only-the-role-of-white-women-in-the-help/
3. ‘The Help’: Softening Segregation for a Feel-Good Flick by Alyssa Rosenberg
   http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-help-softening-segregation-for-a-feel-good-flick/243395/
4. On ‘The Help’ And Moral Reckonings by Alyssa Rosenberg
   http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/08/10/292646/on-the-help-and-moral-reckonings/

by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This essay originally appeared at AfroLez®femcentric Perspectives blog, and Ms. Magazine blog.

In 1969, Yoko Ono coined the phrase, and I quote, “Woman is the N****R of the World.” Shortly thereafter, she and her husband, the late John Lennon, wrote and he recorded a song with that same title.

According to Wikipedia (which is ALWAYS questionable), at that time (don’t know where they would stand today) Dick Gregory and Ron Dellums defended the song.

Several Black feminists, including Pearl Cleage, challenged Yoko Ono’s racist (to Black women) statement. “If Woman is the “N” of the World, what does that make Black Women, the “N, N” of the World?”

Fast forward 42-years later from when it was originally coined, and a White woman decides to create and carry a placard of the quote to SlutWalk NYC.

I’ve been informed that one of the (Black) women SlutWalk NYC organizers asked the woman to take her placard down. She did. However, not before there were many photographs taken.

My question is, Why did it take a Black woman organizer to ask her to take it down? What about all of the White women captured in this photograph? They didn’t find this sign offensive? Paraphrasing Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I A Woman (too!)?”

ERADICATING RACISM SHOULD NOT BE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF PEOPLE OF COLOR.

How can so many White feminists be absolutely clear about the responsibility of ALL MEN TO END heterosexual violence perpetrated against women, and yet turn a blind eye to THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO END racism?

Is Sisterhood Global? This picture says NO! very loudly and very clearly.

The fact that this quote originates from a woman of color, Yoko Ono, really underscores the work that we women of color must do to educate each other about our respective herstories. This photograph also underscores the imperative need for hardcore inter-racial dialogues among all of us in these complicated movements to address gender-based violence in all of our non-monolithic communities.

Co-signing with my Sister Andrea Plaid that at the fundamental level this photograph speaks to the very sobering reality that there is a level of acceptable racism going on within (some?) SlutWalkS (not a monolith).

There is something deeply uncanny that, in 2011, this White woman would think it was OK to create and carry a sigh with the “N” word at a SlutWalk. What on earth was she thinking? Who in the United States of Ameri-KKK-a doesn’t know that the “N” word is NOT okay to use, most especially if you’re not Black.

POSTSCRIPT: I have supported and still support the premise of SlutWalks. In August I participated as a speaker at SlutWalk Philly.

I discuss the reasons why I, as a Black feminist lesbian incest and rape survivor, have supported the premise of SlutWalks in fairly great detail in my September 30 interview with Where Is Your Line?

At the same time, I think it’s very important that everyone read and discuss the very important and poignant concerns raised in Black Women’s Blueprint’s “Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk.”

Clearly there is an urgent and non-negotiable need for dialogues to happen in the immediate future.

Here is a short list of selected essays by some Black (American) Feminists who have weighed in on the horrific impact of both the sign and the defense of the sign.

Crunk Feminist Collective “I Saw the Sign but Did We Really Need a Sign?”
http://crunkfeministcollective.wordpress.com/2011…

Akiba Solomon’s “More Thoughts on SlutWalk: No Attention is Better Than Bad Attention” – COLORLINES
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/10/more_thoug…

LaToya Peterson’s “Which Women Are What Now? Slutwalk NYC and Failures in Solidarity” | RACIALICIOUS
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/05/which-wome…
and
“Slutwalk, Slurs, and Why Feminism Still Has Race Issues” | RACIALICIOUS
http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/06/slutwalk-s…

UPDATE: Kimberlynn Acevedo, one of SlutWalk NYC’s organizers has posted a statement in response to the sign, and has announced plans to continue the dialogue.

Here is an excerpt:

One of our march’s participants last Saturday held up and promulgated a racist, offensive sign. She was asked to take it down by one of our organizers as soon as it came to our attention. This sign symbolizes many of the critiques about SlutWalk not being a safe space for people of color, in particular Black women. We are taking it seriously and we absolutely condemn it and are horrified by it. This sign opposes the mission of SlutWalk NYC and its message is in direct conflict with the beliefs of its organizers. …

We are meeting with many of the groups which have critiqued SlutWalk NYC directly. We are meeting with Black Women’s Blueprint. We are attending an open meeting with Sister Song. We are holding a completely open meeting on October 13 at Walker Stage from 6-8 p.m. in order to discuss how to build a fighting movement. Further, we encourage everyone to take a look at the transcripts and videos of the speeches we have posted on our website and Facebook. We know we need to grow. We have been working on growth from the beginning. There were powerful, diverse and engaging speeches at the rally, many of which directly hit upon critiques of SlutWalk. THESE are the seeds of growth in our organization. We want to start a movement that passionately wants include the voices of all people, of all survivors, of all individuals who see merit in what it is that we are choosing to combat.

We hope you will join us.

On Friday, September 30th, Aishah Shahidah Simmons was thrilled to be the interview partner for Where Is Your Line’s “Badass Activist Friday Series.”

In this very extensive interview, Aishah talked about Toni Cade Bambara, Vipassana Meditation, People of Color practicing the teachings of Buddha, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth (the film), Liberation from Within (the film), NO! The Rape Documentary, Rape, Incest, Consent, Celibacy, Palestine, Troy Anthony Davis, SlutWalk, and Wangari Maathai.

photographed by Calvin Finley

It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and?Just Start Doing.

My interview partner this week is?Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. She’s the producer, writer and director of?NO! The Rape Documentary, and she screens her work all around the world. You can follow her and her work at?@AfroLez and?@InnerLiberation.

Here’s what we talked about:

You’re a filmmaker, writer, lecturer and activist. That’s a lot of hats to wear. Why don’t you start by telling us what your day-to-day works looks like right now.

Yes, it is a lot of hats to wear, which is why I also use cultural worker. That term was taught to me in 1990 by?Toni Cade Bambara, who was a Black feminist cultural worker extraordinaire, my teacher, and my Big Sista-friend. Every day is literally a new and different day. However, there are some things that rarely change. I’m a practitioner of?vipassana meditation. Part of my practice is to meditatively sit twice a day, every day for an hour at each sitting. I used to be and, at times, I still am very resistant to sitting because I viewed it as a time obstacle to my doing my cultural work. Life experiences, however, consistently show me that sitting is a non-negotiable resource that enables me to do my cultural work. After sitting, I do some form of exercise (walking or swimming are my preferences) and then I’m usually able to begin the external work. I check my email, facebook, and twitter accounts. I also check various blogs and other sites. If I allow it, the aforementioned can very literally consume my entire day and night because it’s non-stop action on the cyber highway…

CLICK HERE TO READ IN ITS ENTIRETY

http://whereisyourline.org/2011/09/badass-activist-friday-presents-aishah-shahidah-simmons/

by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

Originally appeared at The Feminist Wire on September 23, 2011

http://thefeministwire.com/2011/09/gloria-steinem-and-no-the-rape-documentary/

Gloria Steinem is a Second Wave White Feminist pioneer who, for over 40 years and counting, has been at the forefront and often a spokesperson for women’s rights in the United States and globally. Since the late 1960s, Steinem has either founded or co-founded several women-led organizations, which have impacted the lives of millions of women across this country and internationally. These organizations include:the Women’s Action Alliance,the National Women’s Political Caucus,the Coalition of Labor Union Women,the Ms. Foundation for Women,Choice USA, and most recently theWomen’s Media Center. A co-founding editor of Ms. magazine in 1972, she still serves as a consulting editor in 2011.

Throughout the majority of her activist life, Steinem has had strong alliances and been engaged in political and professional partnerships with a wide range of known and unknown Black women activists and writers. In the August 15, 2011 SFGate article Gloria Steinem had strong influence on [B]lack women, Black feminist author Evelyn C. White wrote:

As national treasurer of the 1970s-era Free Angela Davis campaign, Steinem was a critical link in the legal defense of the Oakland scholar then jailed for her radical politics. She crafted the television speech that black Rep. Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) delivered in her historic 1972 bid for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. And it was at Steinem?s direction that Ms., in the early 1970s, began to publish Alice Walker and later appointed her one of the first black editors at the magazine. This, long before the author won international acclaim for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple

Steinem’s activism and journalism have played a pivotal role in co-creating a feminist lens on a wide range of issues including but not limited to reproductive rights, political activism, union organizing, politics of representation in media/journalism, opposition to wars in Vietnam and the Gulf (past and contemporarily), lesbian and gay rights, female genital mutilation, pornography, and same-sex marriage. Her essays, articles, and bestselling books are viewed as classic feminist writings from which many view as road maps on their own activist journeys.

I am a 42-year old Black feminist lesbian who identifies as a member of the generation of Third Wave Feminists. I was raised in two households (my mother’s and my father’s) where women’s liberation was never viewed as being in contradiction to Black liberation. My mother,Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, was the first self-identified feminist I ever knew. I would definitely say that based on how they lived their lives, my grandmothers and great-aunts were feminists, though they never used that term to describe themselves. As a result of my rearing from both my mother and my father,Michael Simmons, I always thought both women?s liberation and Black liberation were necessary. Since adolescence, I’ve understood that I could not have one without the other. I have been consciously pro-choice/pro women’s reproductive freedom since I was ten years old. I have called myself a feminist since I was a teenager.

Additionally, in both of my homes, a subscription to Ms. magazine was as important as a subscription to Essence magazine (this was in the 1970s and 1980s when Essence was a much more radical magazine than it is today). Gloria Steinem’s writings occupied space on the bookshelves in both of my divorced parents’ homes. When I came of age as a young woman, I purchased Gloria’s books for my own emerging library(along with the books of numerous Black feminist writers including?but not limited toToni Cade Bambara,Audre Lorde,Alice Walker,ntozake shange,Barbara Smith,bell hooks,Pat Parker,Beverly Guy-Sheftall,Toni Morrison,Sonia Sanchez,June Jordan, andPearl Cleage). I also subscribed to Ms. and Essence magazines. Up until 2004, I don’t believe I had any direct contact with Gloria Steinem, but I certainly was inspired by her activism and followed it closely.

I virtually met Gloria Steinem in the fall of 2004 through Kevin Powell, a dear friend, comrade, and one of the earlier supporters of the making of my documentary NO!. At that time, I was in my tenth year of financially struggling to make this feature-length documentary, which would unveil the realities of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African American communities. I literally thought I was at the end of my rope; and couldn’t take another step further. I wrote and sent out an email to group of people including, definitely, Kevin. The email was a serious cry for help. In response to my plea, Kevin forwarded my email to a select group in his network of friends and colleagues with the hope that someone would be able to financially assist me and help push me either closer to or over the finish line. Gloria Steinem was one of those people to whom Kevin forwarded my email.

Upon receiving the email from Kevin, Gloria immediately reached out and applauded me on my efforts and commitment to forge ahead in spite of the resistance. She reminded me that feminist truth telling is very rarely easy and hardly ever rewarded. Gloria also shared information about the Gloria Fund at the Ms. Foundation for Women, a possible funding source. Now, I need to underscore that while I knew who Gloria Steinem was, I did not know Gloria and she did not know me. Gloria wrote me without having viewed a trailer or the rough cut of NO!. To the best of my knowledge, other than reading Kevin’s email introducing me followed by my email, she had no additional information about NO! (i.e., no proposal, brochure, flyer, etc.). And yet, she responded to her friend and comrade, Kevin Powell’s, call to support a Black woman making a film about addressing and ending sexual violence in African-American communities. She wrote me to offer moral support and to strategize about how I may be able to secure funding.

There are many instances on my 11-year journey to make NO! where I was completely humbled. Many of those instances include receiving support, both behind and in front of the NO! camera lens and from trailblazing women whose activism, scholarship, and cultural work literally broke the ground upon which I stood. Gloria Steinem reaching out to me was one of those profoundly memorable moments.

I received a post-production grant from the Gloria Steinem Fund of the Ms. Foundation for Women, which literally kept me from failing financially. Equally as important, Gloria’s email in response to my email via Kevin (which I have in my NO! archives), arrived in my inbox at that right moment. I will always be grateful to Kevin for his unwavering support of NO!, expressed in a myriad of ways, including his introducing me to Gloria Steinem. I also remain grateful to Gloria Steinem for reaching out to a stranger trying to and ultimately completing her Black feminist documentary.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to view Gloria: In Her Own Words, during its broadcast run on HBO. Unfortunately, I don’t have HBO. I look forward, however, to viewing it either online with a friend/colleague who has a subscription to HBO, or when it’s available on DVD. I have, however, made note of my Sister Shelby Knox’s appreciation of the HBO documentary while also wishing for a deeper treatment of Gloria Steinem’s philosophy and activism. Additionally and again admitting that I have not seen the program, based on what I read about the documentary, by Dana Goldstein, I’m concerned that there may not be many voices (not solely archival footage of) of women of Color who worked with Gloria over the past 40-years.

Clearly, there have been and are struggles around race and (mis)representation in the mainstream feminist movement. As a result of these struggles, tremendous inroads were made in this movement over the past 40-years. I believe that is a testament to the multi-racial metaphorical and literal kitchen table gatherings where some of the most difficult and at times painful dialogues took place. Gloria initiated some of those dialogues. She existed as an integral part of many of those dialogues. Furthermore, she has been challenged and, as a result, has changed because of those dialogues. This is a part of Gloria’s legacy that younger feminists of all races need to know, as many of these struggles remain as real today as yesterday. One need not look any further than the overwhelming Black feminist critical responses to the recent release of the film The Help in comparison to the minimal White feminist critical responses to the film.

As a documentary filmmaker, I know the power the moving image to document her/histories. While I’m elated there is a documentary film that chronicles significant parts of Gloria’s journey called life, I most definitely agree with my Sister Shelby, who is almost twenty years younger than I,when she wrote “those of us who consider ourselves active duty members of today’s feminist movement, would be better served with more information about Gloria the radical, forward-thinking activist that she continues to be than about ‘St. Gloria.”"

If you missed Gloria: In Her Own Words, and have a subscription to HBO, it is available for viewing online through HBO Go until December 31, 2011. If you’re able, view it and join the Women’s Media Center’s ‘In Your Own Words,’ campaign.

“Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society’s definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference – those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older – know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths.”

— Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider —

Black. Lesbian. Feminist. Mother. Warrior. Poet. Audre Lorde’s written words taught me that my silence will not protect me, and that silence is not golden.  I am a Black feminist lesbian who is a survivor of incest and rape.  When I was ten, my paternal (step)grandfather molested me over a period of two years; and when I was 12 the eldest son of a family friend fondled me. My rape happened when I was a soon to be 20 year old sophomore in college.  I was on a study abroad program and broke all of the university-enforced rules to go out, very late at night, with the man who would become my rapist. In spite of my having second thoughts about going out with this new acquaintance, I was both afraid to articulate them and to turn around because my friends were covering for me.  In the hotel room, for which I paid, I told my rapist “I don’t want to do this. Please stop.”  I didn’t “violently” fight back. I didn’t scream or yell to the top of my lungs” because I was afraid. I didn’t want to make a “scene.” I blamed myself for saying, “Yes”…for breaking the rules…for paying for the hotel room.

The morning following my rape, I went back to where the school housed us and lied to my friends. I didn’t tell them that I was forced to have sex against my will. In an effort to both deny what happened on the night of my rape and to be in control of my body, I had consensual sex with another man that evening.  When it was time to return home to the United States, I was pregnant and didn’t know which of the two men was the biological father. I was fortunate to have a safe and legal abortion at the Elizabeth Blackwell Health Center for Women in Philadelphia, PA.

And, before I continue, I want to be explicitly and unequivocally clear that I am NOT a lesbian because I was molested and raped. I am a lesbian because I’m attracted to and love women.  So, please do not walk away making the homophobic and heterosexist comment “Oh, that’s why Aishah is a lesbian. It’s because she was molested and raped.”

WRONG.

If molestation and rape made women and girls lesbians, then most of the girls and women in the world would be lesbians. Just check the global statistics on molestation and rape.

I share what some of you might view as personal, private—and perhaps—seemingly unnecessary because the personal is directly related not only to the political but also the professional in my life.

Now, I admit when Executive Organizer Hannah Altman invited me to be a speaker at SlutWalk Philadelphia, I was very, very apprehensive.  However, after quite a bit of thought and deliberation; and in spite of my many conflicting feelings as a Black feminist lesbian whose contemporary reality and ancestral lineage has been rooted in the legalized name calling/marginalizing/denigration of mind/body/spirit for centuries without too much recourse, I accepted the invitation to be a speaker.

I am here today because I want to see an end to the victim-blaming in my lifetime, and I’m 42-years old. No, victim-blaming is not going to stop because we are all here participating in SlutWalk Philadelphia. If only it were that easy. However, I believe it is important that the faces, voices, and perspectives of women of color (inclusive of all sexualities) and trans people of color are seen and heard. Documented herstory and contemporary reality has shown us that more often than not, it is our bodies that catch the most hell not only by the State but also by people in and out of our communities (however we define them). It is our bodies that have a demonstrated track record of being on the frontlines of the movements to end all forms of oppression.

I believe words are very, very powerful. At the same time, I really struggle with many who are hostile to the “SlutWalks” because they say it gives the wrong message. What is the right message? I think about Take Back the Night, which was founded in the early ’70s, when I was a toddler.  As strange as it may seem today, especially now that Take Back the Night has become an “acceptable” movement throughout this country and globally, I know there was resistance. I’m sure some, if not many people took the position, ‘What do you mean take back the night? You shouldn’t be out at night!’

Personally, I do not embrace the word Slut at all… And, at the same time, I will not say or subscribe to the patriarchal and misogynistic thinking that “we can’t do this or that type of behavior; or wear this or that type of clothing and not expect to get harassed, fondled, and/or raped.

There are some places in the world that would say that presently, I’m not properly covered in what I view as very modest attire (by most US standards). There are many in the United States; and throughout the world who believe I should be raped, assaulted, and/or harassed for the mere fact that I’m an unapologetically OUT Feminist Lesbian.

Where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be rape, assaulted, harassed, and/or called vicious and vitriolic names? Why are we okay with RAPE being the penalty for ANY type of behavior (including heterosexual women having multiple sexual partners) or for wearing ANY type of attire of clothing (including thongs and bustier? ). This line of thinking is inhumane, egregious, wretched, and should be unacceptable.

Sexual violence is one of the only crimes where the victim behavior’s determines if a crime happened or not. I could be in a drug-infested neighborhood with a lot of money on my person and even bragging about my money and showing it off. If someone steals my money, they are a thief, plain and simple. Yes, one could say “Aishah, what were you doing with all that money in that neighborhood. Are you crazy?” And yet, at the same time, it would be clear that I was robbed.  If I left my macbook pro in Starbucks and someone stole it, we may think I was dumb for leaving it there, but that doesn’t take away the fact that someone stole my macbook pro.

How can we have more empathy for the loss of money or even the loss of a computer than the (hopefully, temporary) loss of one’s body for a few seconds, moments, hours, or even days? Why do we tend to be clear about the impact of the loss of material possessions in ways that we don’t want to be clear about the impact of the loss of the right to ones own body. For too many, rape has become a word, almost devoid of the horrifying experience from which too many of us never ever fully recover.

There is something very disturbing and painful that there is this widespread (as in global) notion that material possessions are worth more than a woman’s body… There is something wrong that too many of us believe that a woman doesn’t have the right to show or flaunt her body, if she desires… That a woman doesn’t have a right to agree to one form of sexual activity and not agree to another form of sexual activity. That she doesn’t have the right to say “yes,” and then have the courage or even the audacity to change her mind and say “no.”  Whose body is it anyway? Contrary to global belief, it’s not the perpetrators body. And yet, too many of us defend the perpetrators RIGHT to violate the body of another.

When will we stop treating boys and men as if they are wild beastly animals or innocent toddlers (not sure which one) who can’t control their words and/or actions? When will we put the blame on the perpetrators? When will we stop saying “Well, women have to take some responsibility?”  Take responsibility for what, men and boys being unable to control themselves resulting in them violating a woman or girl’s body because of what she said, wore, and/or did?

Really.?!

Again, I ask where do we draw the lines of who can and can’t be assaulted, harassed, and/or raped? As long as there is any group of people including but not limited to adolescent and teenage “fast” girls, women, trans people, queer people, and sex workers who are marginalized, then all of us are vulnerable both because it’s all subjective; and the lines of the margins shift all of the time. Who’s acceptable today may not be acceptable tomorrow.

We must stop subscribing to this notion that rape is the justifiable penalty for ANY type of behavior or attire of clothing that we may not like or even disapprove of.

We must centralize the margins of the margins of the margins of society so that ALL of us are free from assault, harassment, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed. NO ONE IS FREE WHILE OTHERS ARE OPPRESSED.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the producer/writer/director of NO! The Rape Documentary., the internationally acclaimed, award-winning feature length film, which examines the international atrocity of rape and other forms of sexual violence through the first person testimonies, scholarship, activism, and cultural work of African-Americans. You can follow her on twitter, connect with her on Facebook, and/or read her AfroLez®femcentric blog.

“When poet and speaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons addresses the crowd, she comes on like a lion. “History has shown it is our bodies that catch the most hell,” she says.” Though she does not identify as a poet, Simmons most definitely spoke with passionate fire about ending all forms of sexual violence.

The Philadelphia Weekly was one of few media outlets (WHYY, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Philadelphia Gay News being the others) who gave SlutWalk Philadelphia appropriate coverage.

Click here to read Philadelphia Weekly’s “SlutWalk Rally in Center City Seeks End to Culture of Victim-Blaming”.

Click here to view Philadelphia Weekly’s “Philly’s SlutWalk Photo Gallery”.

On the eve before the SlutWalk Philadelphia, Aishah Shahidah Simmons expressed absolute clarity about who is responsible for sexual violence ~ the perpetrators.

In an August 5, 2011 WHYY NewsWorks article, Simmons said “Shame or blame should never be on the survivors. It should be put on the perpetrator. Words like slut and whore should not play a role in how we view women who have been raped or assaulted. That’s what happens: she’s a slut, she’s a whore, she deserves what she gets. For me it’s really challenging, this name-calling.”

Click here to read “‘SlutWalk’ Protest set for Saturday in Philadelphia” in its entirety.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/24345

On August 5, 2011, the eve of the SlutWalk Philadelphia, journalist Akiba Solomon really explored the relevance of the SlutWalk movement for Black feminists in America in her “Is the SlutWalk Movement Relevant for a Black Feminist,” article for ColorLines. Part of Akiba’s exploration features an interview with filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons about her involvement with the SlutWalk movement.

Here’s what Simmons had to say:

One of the common critiques of SlutWalk is that it isn’t racially inclusive. How did you get involved with the Philly march?

The organizers reached out to me and asked if I was willing to be one of the speakers. [At first] I was indifferent to the SlutWalk movement. I kind of cringed at the title. But the more I read about it, the more I was like, ‘Yeah!’

What bothered you about it?

Well, black women have been called sluts, whores and skank whores from the beginning. So I wondered why we would embrace the term ‘slut’ [without] any kind of analysis about what it means for all women, but especially women of color. Also, I just wasn’t sure if this was a multiracial movement. But it’s grown a lot; there’s a SlutWalk in the works in Malaysia, a Muslim country where a lot of the women are covered!

Click here to read Akiba Solomon’s article in its entirety.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/08/since_late_may_various_people.html

On August 4, 2011, award-winning filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons and noted journalist and author Rebecca Traister engaged in a very lively dialogue with host Marty Moss-Coane and callers about the SlutWalk movement on WHYY’s Radio Times. Philly hosted their first SlutWalk on Saturday, August 6, 2011.

Many of the poignant issues raised and discussed on the program are very relevant to anyone interested in addressing and ending all forms of gender-based violence globally.

Click here to listen to this very provocative program.

http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2011/08/04/slut-walk-feminists-fight-back-against-rape/

Recently, I was invited to be a speaker at SlutWalk Philadelphia, which will be held on Saturday, August 6, 2011. After quite a bit of thought and deliberation; and in spite of my many conflicting feelings as a Black feminist lesbian whose contemporary reality and ancestral lineage has been rooted in name calling/marginalizing/denigration of mind/body/spirit for centuries without too much recourse, I accepted the invitation to be a speaker. I accepted the invitation because I want to see an end to the victim blaming in my lifetime. No, victim blaming is not going to stop because I agreed to participate in SlutWalk Philadelphia. If only it were that easy. However, I believe it is important that the faces, voices, and perspectives of women of color (inclusive of all sexualities) and trans people of color are seen and heard. More often than not, it is our bodies who catch the most hell not only by the State but by people in and out of our communities (however we define them). It is our bodies who have a demonstrated track record of being on the frontlines of the movements to end all forms of oppression.

I?m absolutely positively thrilled and honored to share the SlutWalk Philadelphia stage with Stephanie Gilmore who is a radical feminist scholar/activist and Qui Alexander who is a radical trans activist/educator of Color. These two individuals have a demonstrated track record of tackling those issues that very few of us want to tackle and address. I believe that SlutWalk Philadelphia’s invitation to each of us shows their understanding of and commitment to ensuring that both this ?Walk? and the issues addressed are not seen as only relevant to mainstream (read White and heterosexual) feministS. It is not until the margins of the margins are centralized that any of us will truly be free.

No One Is Free While Others Are Oppressed

On May 19, 2011, Black feminist writer and professor Jennifer Williams, Ph.D., wrote on the sobering prevalence of rape, sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence in the United States for the Ms. Magazine Blog. Using NO! The Rape Documentary as the backdrop to this peace (piece), Professor Williams delved into the victim blaming coverage of the Cleveland, TX gang rape of an adolescent girl, the growing incidences of sex trafficking; and the successful ?feminist campaign to get colleges, universities, and K-12 schools to take take preventative measures against sexual violence.

Following is the excerpt of the article…

“It took filmmaker and activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons 13 years to fund, produce, direct and release her inspirational and defiant NO! The Rape Documentary. NO! brings together archival footage, testimonies of rape survivors, performances and interviews with activists and scholars to examine rape in African American communities through a black feminist lens. The international acclaim for the film?it?s been screened in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as South and North America?confirms that black women?s stories resonate across all borders. In spite of differences in culture and language, many women see NO! as telling their own stories.

NO! isn?t a new film?it came out in 2006?but in a climate in which rape makes daily headlines as a tool to subjugate and terrorize women, it?s as timely as ever. When DOXA invited Ms. magazine?s global editor, Robin Morgan, to guest curate a film for this spring?s festival in Vancouver, Canada, she immediately chose NO! And when the Spring issue of Ms. magazine challenged the FBI?s dangerously narrow definition of rape in bold neon letters, I too thought of NO! and Skyped Simmons to talk about her groundbreaking film, the FBI?s archaic definition of rape, the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX, sex trafficking and many other issues.

‘NO! gives voice to the experiences that the majority of us have had ?and I speak as a victim and survivor of acquaintance rape,’ said Simmons during our conversation…”

CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2011/05/19/rape-is-still-rape-and-no-still-means-no/

On June 9, 2011, Aishah Shahidah Simmons was the featured guest on Shawna Renee’s “Cocoa Mode” radio program, which is hosted on SiriusXM Satellite Radio 128. During the 45-minute interview, Shawna Renee and Simmons discussed the controversy surrounding Rihanna’s ‘Man Down,’ and NO! The Rape Documentary. The interview ultimately turned into a wonderful opportunity to really engage in an in-depth dialogue between Ms. Renee and Ms. Simmons; and with calls from listeners about gender-based violence.

CLICK HERE to (re)view Rihanna’s music video and to listen to the archive of the radio program.

http://cocoamode.podbean.com/2011/06/14/icymimandown/

“How have you explored discovering and understanding your own pleasure in your life?” ~ The Consensual Project

“As a survivor of incest, molestation, and rape, discovering and understanding my own pleasure has been and still is a work-in-progress. For the most part, throughout adulthood, I?ve been fortunate to have partners who I was able to consensually explore my own and their own pleasure. This has occurred through talking about pleasure and what that means in the context of being a survivor, where certain acts can trigger me. My understanding my own pleasure occurred during consensual trial and error to see what worked and what didn?t work.” ~Aishah Shahidah Simmons

This interview was conducted in May 2011, which is ancient in this fast paced social media world. However, the fundamental human right to consent is still viewed as rocket science. Therefore, this interview and more importantly, The Consensual Project is as relevant as ever.

CLICK HERE to read the interview in its entirety.

at 2011 DOXA Film Festival

Feminist activist, prolific author, and former editor of Ms. magazine Robin Morgan guest curated NO! The Rape Documentary for the 2011 DOXA Film Festival. DOXA is Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival. This is an important honor for NO! for two major reasons. One, founder/leader of US contemporary feminism, Robin Morgan has also been a leader in the international women’s movement for 30 years and counting. She has published over 20 books including the now-classic anthology Sisterhood Is Global. In her essay, “NO! A Film of Sexual Politics – An Art,” Morgan writes:

“…Since the invitation to be a guest curator, I’ve thought of so many films crucial to the flowering of global feminism, to the coming to voice of women -more than half of humanity- that my list was more than enough for a complete festival… But at heart I knew from the first what my choice was going to be: an extraordinary, feature-length documentary 11 years in the making, the creation of one stubborn, visionary woman, Aishah Shahidah Simmons. Simmons conceived, wrote, directed and produced NO! The Rape Documentary, a ground-breaking film that explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault…”

Two, it is really an honor for Robin Morgan, an esteemed and internationally known feminist activist/author/activist/organizer to curate NO! for DOXA, a highly respected international documentary film festival five years after NO!’s world premiere at the 2006 Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Click HERE to read “NO! A Film of Sexual Politics – and Art,” by Robin Morgan.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons will present NO! The Rape Documentary at DOXA on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 4pm at the Vancity Theatre.

For more information about the presentation of NO! at the 2011 DOXA Film Festival, click HERE

The State of Things | WUNC Public Radio | 91.5FM

Most cases of rape and sexual assault never make the news. But in recent weeks, horrific stories about victims of sexual violence have created national headlines. Some language used in the reporting of these cases and public reactions to them has caused controversy. How we articulate ideas about rape sheds light on American perceptions of violence, gender and race. On Wednesday, April 6, 2011, Host Frank Stasio discussed the language and the law surrounding rape with a panel of guests including documentary filmmaker (NO! The Rape Documentary)?Aishah Shahidah Simmons; Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University; Melissa Harris-Perry, associate professor of politics and African-American Studies at Princeton University; and Mary R. Block, associate professor of history at Valdosta State University.

Listen HERE

Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Collection

In February 2011, the Ford Foundation launched JustFilms, which is both a new initiative; and new online archive of social justice films that Ford has supported over the past 30 years. NO! The Rape Documentary is included in this prestigious collection, which represents the Foundation’s “commitment to groundbreaking documentaries that inform, inspire and advance change.”

The goal of the archive and new initiative is “to advance social justice worldwide through the talent of emerging and established filmmakers.”

For more information about JustFilms, please click HERE

From the early evening of the 16th of October until the early afternoon of the 18th of October, I was very fortunate to be able to participate and attend the historic Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church’s her/historic (founded in 1867), groundbreaking, transformational, uplifting Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Church’s Call to Silence Sexual Violence conference in Richmond, VA.

I was raised Sufi Muslim and I practice Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin. My most recent ancestral maternal and paternal roots, however, are grounded in the Baptist and African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Churches. Through my journey called life, I have witnessed and experienced the universality of the Ultimate Truth. As a result, I embrace all spiritual and religious traditions that teach and practice the Ultimate Truth.

I have been fortunate with countless opportunities to attend and present at numerous amazing and life changing conferences throughout the United States and internationally in Europe, Africa, and Asia. For the first time, however, I was invited by a Church to share the literal and metaphorical sacred space with Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, who as the first African American woman ordained by the Presbyterian Church, is a ground breaker, mapmaker, trailblazer who has paved the way for so many womanist/feminist Religious Scholars, Ethicists and Theologians globally; and my Sister Survivor Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman whose visionary text The Dinah Project: A Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence, is being used at churches, colleges, seminaries, universities, throughout the United States.

This conference was the embodiment of Rev. Dwylene Butler’s Master’s Thesis “Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Dance of Redemption for Survivors of Sexual Violence,” which she developed and wrote under the guidance of Rev. Dr. Cannon, who was her advisor at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond. In 2008, when Rev. Butler shared her Thesis with Pastor Tyrone Nelson, he asked Rev. Butler to host a conference so that their church could break its silence about rape and other violations of women.

In less than 14-months, an entire weekend, which included a performance of “The Heart of the Matter: A Journey Toward Healing” Monologues,” followed by a discussion facilitated by Rev. Patricia Jones-Turner; a screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary, an interactive healing talk/presentation, led by Rev. Dr. Monica Coleman, on The Dinah Project, eight workshops facilitated by clergy, rape crisis counselors, cultural workers, scholars, and activists from which participants were able to attend three, The Dance of Redemption- Mimes, Liturgical and Praise Dancers from Richmond and surrounding areas gathered to minister in movement to songs of healing, strength, deliverance, and redemption; the entire conference concluded with the morning worship, where Dr. Katie Cannon as the guest preacher gave a powerful sermon titled “Project For A New Day.”

Women and Men were active participants with the organization of this conference, which, from my point of view, ran seamlessly… There wasn’t a division of labor based on the traditional gendered norms. That is to say, that Men played an active role in providing childcare and helping with the preparation of the food. Women played an active and visible leadership role throughout the weekend.

During Sunday morning’s worship service, the liturgy was taken from Sister Rev. Dr. Monica Coleman’s powerful “Dinah Project.” Statistics about rape, domestic violence, and other forms of violence against women and children we talked about from the pulpit during worship service on Sunday morning. Pastor Nelson invited both Sister Rev. Dr. Monica and I to offer some additional words about our work from the Pulpit during Sunday morning’s worship service. We both spoke to the entire congregation about our healing work from the perspective of survivors of sexual violence.

Equally if not more important Pastor Nelson declared a commitment, from the pulpit, on the part of Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church to be an active participant of the movement, in Richmond, VA, to addressing all forms of violence perpetuated against women and children. He stressed that the work had just begun at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church with the conference while being explicitly clear that this work would be an ongoing effort. This would not be something that only happened once a year at an annual conference but a consistent effort because violence against women doesn’t only happen in October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month and April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Church’s Call to Silence Sexual Violence was truly an inter-generational conference where people who participated and attended ranged in age from teenagers to over 70-years of age. What was especially powerful for me is that the visionaries for this conference Rev. Butler and Pastor Nelson are both several years under 40-years old. This is very important to note because the ongoing lack of respect for the visions of leaders/visionaries who happen to be young adults is still very pervasive in this country in all communities regardless of race/culture/ethnicity. And yet, I would argue that it is precisely because of Rev. Butler’s and Pastor Nelson’s ages, in this moment and at this time, that they had the vision for this conference. I want to be clear that the conference was made possible through a collaborative effort of many who are very diverse in age. In fact, it was Sister Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon who strongly encouraged Rev. Butler and Pastor Nelson to invite Monica and I to present at their conference. So, this is not about not honoring/paying homage to those who are our elders. It is solely about recognizing that vision/knowledge/wisdom isn’t solely based on one’s age.

It’s very important to underscore that this entire conference was FREE. This included free day care and free food for everyone. Everyone was welcomed and no one was turned away.

The main plenary sessions were videotaped. The workshops/small group sessions were not recorded out of respect for people’s privacy/confidentiality. If/when those sessions that were recorded are made available to the public, I will most definitely spread the word.

To say that I was moved the entire weekend by what I witnessed and experienced is a major understatement. The reality that most victim-survivors never go to a rape crisis center or seek therapy own their own. If they are religious, they tend to turn to their places of worship to try to find solace. Based on this, I believe it’s critical and should be non-negotiable that all leaders of religious institutions (Churches, Mosques, Synagogues, Temples) should take a very vocal and visible stance against all forms of sexual violence perpetuated against women, men and children. Then perhaps from there victim/survivors will not view going to a rape crisis center or seeking therapy as an “either/or” with regards to their spiritual/religious practice. It is a fact that victims take much longer to heal if they do not receive the proper support and tools that they need.

Through their demonstrated actions this past weekend and expressed commitment from October 18 forward, The Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, VA took a bold, courageous and necessary step in playing a direct role in ensuring that victims of sexual and domestic violence receive all of the help and support that they will need on their journey to becoming survivors.

I am grateful, honored, and humbled to have been both a witness and a participant.

While it took a village to make the conference a reality, I want to personally express my heartfelt gratitude to Rev. Dwylene Butler, Pastor Tyrone Nelson, Sister Regina Pettaway, Sister Lynne Lancaster for their direct, metaphorical hands on support of my and NO!’s presence at the conference.

From October?16 – 18, 2009, the historic Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, VA, will host the her/historic, groundbreaking “Holistic Hurt, Wholistic Healing: The Church’s Call to Silence Sexual Violence” conference. The featured keynote presenters are Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, who is a leading Christian ethicist in United States, and the first African American woman ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman, is an ordained elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Chruch and the author of The Dinah Project: a Handbook for Congregational Response to Sexual Violence; and Sister Aishah Shahidah Simmons who is the producer/writer/director of NO! The Rape Documentary.

THIS CONFERENCE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

While NO! The Rape Documentary has definitely been purchased by and used as an educational healing tool in Churches and Mosques across the United States and internationally, this conference is the FIRST time that Aishah Shahidah Simmons has ever been invited by a church or mosque to both present NO! and engage in dialogue about the critical role that religious institutions must play in addressing and ultimately ending sexual violence. She is both honored and humbled that Rev. Tyrone Nelson, Pastor, and Rev. Dwylene Butler, Church Business Administrator, invited her to present with Drs. Cannon and Coleman; and to participate in what she believes will be powerful, soul stirring, and healing weekend.

“October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October 16-18, we invite you to Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church for a life changing conference. Join pastors, ministers, Women’s Ministry leaders, Youth leaders, college students and others in this conference exposing the prevalence of sexual violence in our communities and what we can do to silence sexual violence.”

For detailed information about this FREE conference,?please click here?(http://holistichealing.weebly.com).

Aishah Shahidah Simmons was the featured guest on the September 26, 2009 edition of Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys, which is featured on Blog Talk Radio. In 30 commercial free minutes, Keys and Simmons covered the waterfront on the sobering reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence in African-American communities. Keys and Simmons engaged in a very lively and passionate conversation about these often difficult and taboo issues while offering solutions on how to heal from the trauma and equally as important on how to stop it. Click here to listen to the program in its entirety.

NO! The Rape Documentary was among the invited 50 documentary and short feature films from 22 countries, which were featured in the Open Frame Film Festival, which is organized by the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PBST) in New Delhi India. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the festival but was there in spirit through NO!. This is the second international film festival in India where NO! was featured. In 2008, NO! received the Best Documentary Award at the India International Women’s Film Festival.

Click here to view the Film Festival line up.

Click here to read an article on the film festival.

“NO! deserve a resounding YES for it’s bold approach to confronting the taboos, controversy and horrors of the sexual assault of Black women/girls. NO! is a potent healing balm and a fierce weapon. NO! is a vital tool for soul revival and spirit restoration amongst sexual assault survivors, advocates and educators alike. Accept love-preview NO!”

Skye Ward, Freelance Writer and Blogger

NO! is a critical tool for all public health educators and practitioners concerned with women’s health. The medical and public health consequences of trauma related to sexual violence are profound and alarming. Moreover, there is a connection between trauma and HIV which makes this film particularly important for HIV prevention work. I highly recommend it to medical professional and public health professionals examining this intersection.

Mehret Mandefro, M.D., MSc
TruthAIDS, Founding Director

Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar
University of Pennsylvania

“Did I ever tell you how utterly superb I found NO! The Rape Documentary? My god, it’s not only a doco, it’s a work of art. Truly devastating. Yet hopeful. Even beautiful. And deadly. Thank you for having the guts and vision to have seen it through. It really is one helluva remarkable work.”

Robin Morgan, is an award-winning poet, novelist, political theorist, feminist activist, journalist, editor, and best-selling author. A former editor-in chief of Ms. magazine, she is founder of The Sisterhood is Global Institute and, most recently, a co-founder and Board Member of the Women’s Media Center.

Harriet Hirshorn, Producer/Director, Our Lives Our In Our Hands

Estoy tan agradecida que una mujer afrodescendiente lo hizo una prioridad decir la verdad, clamorosa y clara, sobre la violencia sexual que sufrimos. Aishah Shahidah Simmons debe ser reconocida como héroe por todos los y las afrodescendientes, porque su documental fue un labor de amor que puede ser el catalizador que necesitamos para empezar a sanar nuestra comunidad entera-mujeres y hombres, niñas y niños. ¡No más vergüenza ni miedo! ¡Gracias, Aishah!

Lori Robinson, Editor
VidaAfroLatina.com
editor “at” vidaafrolatina “dot” com

NO! is one of the most powerful documentaries of our time. Finally an uncompromising film that speaks the truths of African-American women’s lives. Aishah is a pioneer and visionary and I was proud to be a part of this documentary that is affecting and will continue to affect women around the world. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual significance on the consciousness of African-American women and anyone who dares to look at this film is undeniable. I am delighted that Aishah birhted this documentary out of her womb spirit despite the labor pains it took to give birth to it. I applaud you for your perserverence and hard work to produce a torch for the next generation of girls and women. Aishah as a revolutionary I salute you and as my sister I bless you. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this groundbreaking work and giving me a platform to share my story with others. If you are interested in human rights and the advancement of humanity you must see this film!

Rev. Reanae McNeal, International Performing Artist, Motivational Speaker, & Trainer
Imani Revelations

NO! challenges the viewer to reflect about a reality that, although obscure for some, continues to affect several women in our communities.

Besides, NO! is a healing tool that helps all of us in the Americas and beyond become whole by integrating feelings of guilt or shame that may have been buried for a while. It is a jewel that must be watched, discussed and appreciated by all.

Maristela Duarte Smith, MSW, Portuguese Translator of NO!

Je suis fière d’avoir pu participer à ce grand projet en effectuant la traduction française de NO!. Ce documentaire, puissant par ses témoignages, donne la force aux femmes et lesbiennes de tous les pays de lutter contre les violences intracommunautaires souvent cachées, souvent tues par peur d’affaiblir la famille, le clan, la communauté. NO! est un outil pour ouvrir les consciences. NO! est une arme pour les militantes et les militants. NO! est une source d’information importante non seulement pour les femmes mais aussi pour les hommes qui veulent combattre la violence sexuelle et toutes les formes de violence contre les femmes.

Carole Crawford
Militante, travailleuse sociale et traductrice française de NO!

I am so grateful that a Black woman made it a priority to tell the truth, loud and clear, about the sexual violence we experience. Aishah Shahidah Simmons should be recognized as a hero by all Black people, because her film was a labor of love that can be the catalyst we need to start healing our entire community–women and men, girls and boys. No more shame or fear! Thank you, Aishah!
Lori Robinson
Author, “I Will Survive: The African-American Guide To Healing from Sexual Assault”

NO! é um documentário imperdível! Ele trata da temática do estupro intra-racial com profundidade e elegância. A discussäo é enriquecida pelos depoimentos de vários intelectuais e ativistas do movimento negro, que corajosamente, nos expõe a aterroziante realidade do trauma e às possibilidades de transformacão do sofrimento em uma arma de luta contra a opressão.

NO! desafia o expectador a refletir sobre uma realidade que, talvez obscura para muitos, continua a afetar milhares de mulheres em nossas comunidades. Além disso, com-paixão NO! nos leva a integrar sentimentos talvez reprimidos por medo, culpa ou vergonha; nos ajudando a restaurar um pouco do que foi perdido e assim nos tornar mais inteiras.

NO!, pra ser visto, discutido e apreciado pela jóia que é.

Maristela Duarte Smith, Assistente Social, Tradutora de NO! para o Portugues

The 17th Internation AIDS Conference is taking place in Mexico City on August 3rd to August 8th.  Bringing together scholars, activists, organizers, and policy makers from around the world, the conference’s aim and focus is the following according to it’s publicity on the site:

“AIDS 2008 will provide many opportunities for the presentation of important new scientific research and for productive, structured dialogue on the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS. Conference organizers are developing a wide variety of session types that meet the needs of various participants and support collective efforts to expand delivery of HIV prevention and treatment to communities worldwide. Central to many of these sessions will be the transfer of knowledge and sharing of best practices.

In addition to the conference sessions there are a number of activities, including satellite meetings, exhibitions, the Global Village and the Cultural Programme, that are integral to delegates’ experience at the conference.

NO! will be screened on Wednesday, August 6th at 4pm. Although we will not be present, we will certainly be there in spirit and look forward to hearing about the conference from our friends and allies who will be present.  The links between violence against women and the AIDS epidemic are clear.  We hope that the conference continues the work of bringing these links to the forefront of everyone’s attention.

I’m proud to announce NO! will be screened on

*Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women*

Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl. During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black community.

Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied. Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly’s absurd defense and find “reasonable doubt” despite the fact that the film was shot in his home and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible for it.

We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence surrounding this verdict.

We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship; we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even recognize child molestation when we see it.

We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single, unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious: that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already damaged our families, relationships and culture.

We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to change our lives and our communities.

This is about more than R. Kelly’s claims to innocence. *It is about our survival as a community*. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end.

We ask that you:

o Sign your name if you are a Black male who supports this statement:

http://www.petitiononline.com/rkelly/petition.html

o Forward this statement to your entire network and ask other Black males to sign as well

o Make a personal pledge to never support R. Kelly again in any form or fashion, unless he publicly apologizes for his behavior and gets help for his long-standing sexual conduct, in his private life and in his music

o Make a commitment in your own life to never to hit, beat, molest, rape, or exploit Black females in any way and, if you have, to take ownership for your behavior, seek emotional and spiritual help, and, over time, become a voice against all forms of Black female exploitation

o Challenge other Black males, no matter their age, class or educational background, or status in life, if they engage in behavior and language that is exploitative and or disrespectful to Black females in any way. If you say nothing, you become just as guilty.

o Learn to listen to the voices, concerns, needs, criticisms, and challenges of Black females, because they are our equals, and because in listening we will learn a new and different kind of Black manhood.

We support the work of scholars, activists and organizations that are helping to redefine Black manhood in healthy ways. Additional resources are listed below.

Books:
Who’s Gonna Take the Weight, Kevin Powell
New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal
Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, Pearl Cleage
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Films:
I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America, by Byron Hurt
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by Byron Hurt
NO! The Rape Documentary, by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

Organizations
The 2025 Campaign: www.2025bmb.org
Men Stopping Violence: www.menstoppingviolence.org

NO! The Rape Documentary unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in Black communities. Through the testimonies of the featured women survivors, Violence prevention advocates, theologians, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and other leading scholars and human rights activists NO! is a rape prevention tool.

“NO! is a MUST SEE for any of us who are concerned about raising happy, healthy Black families and ultimately fucntional Black communities.” — Dr. Denese Shervington

Denese Shervington, M.D., MPH, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry of Columbia University Medial Center, who divides her time between Columbia’s HIV Center in New York and The Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, the New Orleans based-non profit organization, which she co-founded in 1990, where she is presently developing a post-Katrina mental health recovery division. Dr. Shervington had the opportunity to view NO! and participate in the dialogue following the screening, at a New Orleans community-based screening, sponsored by the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Click here to hear Dr. Denese Shervington’s NO! testimonial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu8NIbhRr2M

Order your organizational or institutional copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.

If your insitution or organization is interested in bringing Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and facilitate dialogue or a workshop around the issues addressed in NO! please click here for more information.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.

College campus rape survivors share their stories in NO! The Rape Documentary and Breaking Silences: The Supplemental Video to NO!. Both of these works, which compliment each other, feature riveting testimonies of women who experienced rape, other forms of sexual violence, and/or battering in college and university settings both in the United States and on a Study Abroad program. Their testimonies are supported by men and women activists, scholars, theologians, and cultural workers who work towards ending all forms of violence against women.

“This is such a taboo issue to talk about it. Not only for the African-American community, but for White communities, Asian Communities…all communities.” — Tonya Schmidt

Following a screening and discussion, facilitated by Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Dillon, with college administrators and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tonya Schmidt from the Office of Dean of Students, said “‘NO!’ was entirely empowering” and she encouraged all college students and any administrators or staff that work with college students to view NO! The Rape Documentary.

Click here to hear Tonya Schmidt’s testimonial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyk20FpjHDI

Order your institutional copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.

If you’re intersted in bringing producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! or Breaking Silences and facilitate dialogue or a workshop with the students at your campus or university, please click here.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.

“Aishah Shahidah Simmons and I met over ten years ago in Washington, DC when she was dating an old friend. We spent a Saturday night with friends dancing at the Hung Jury and talking about our future goals. I remember thinking that she was intensely passionate and I followed her career. I had not seen Aishah since that fun night until I ran into her this past fall when she attended the event to celebrate Katherine Acey’s 20th Anniversary with the Astraea Foundation. I knew that I wanted to talk with Aishah about her work and journey to becoming an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, and activist living in Philadelphia…

What is your passion?

My passion is centralizing the margins of society. Making the invisible, visible. Documenting the lives of women of color globally. I am an activist. The camera lens is my medium to make social change irresistible.

What motivates you to do your work? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this work?

Injustice in the world motivates me. Injustice fuels my passion to make change. Anytime when I feel that I can’t do it, there is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed. An issue very dear to my heart is violence against WOMEN.

I am survivor of violence. It is personal. I know more women here in the United States and abroad who have been impacted by violence than those who have not. Whether it was being the victim of violence or witnessing domestic violence and other forms of violence. It has impacted so many women…

Click here to read the interview in its entirety. http://www.passionlife.net/artmay08.html

Nancy Schwartzman, Independent Filmmaker, 5th Floor Walk Up Films www.nancyschwartzman.com

While NO! predominantly focuese on rape and sexual assault, half of the featured rape survivor stories talk about being physically battered by their perpetrators who were their intimate partners and friends. NO! makes the link between domestic violence and sexual violence.

“I really loved this film!” — Jennifer Young

In her video testimonial, Jennifer Young of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks about how “incredibly powerful” NO! was and that (Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Dillon) were “phenomenal” in talking about the intersections of classism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression on any college campus or organization in the world. Ms. Young was also deeply impacted by the discussions, in NO!, about the direct ole of religion in violence against women in communities of color and hopes that NO! will provide a space for all women and men to tackle the issues of ending domestic violence, rape and other forms of sexual violence against women.

Click here to hear Jennifer Young’s testimonial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfJkxwinhe0

Order your institutional copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.

If you’re intersted in bringing producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and Breaking Silences; and facilitate dialogue or a workshop with the students at your campus or university, please click here.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.

NO! examines rape and other forms of sexual assault through testimonies, cultural work, activism and scholarship of African-Americans. It is an educational and organizing documentary that is also a very valuable training tool on college and university campuses.

“I thought NO! was a really phenomenal film.” — Laura Klunder

Laura Klunder is Residence Life Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She works with 1100 first year students and a core group of 16 third year students/juniors. In her video testimonial, she talks about how NO! will speak to the students with whom she works. She also talks about the importance of students, on a predominantly White university campus, having the opportunity to hear the rape and sexual assault survivor stores of women of Color because it’s both a learning and training tool on how to centralize the margins especially for the anti-sexual violence activists on campus.

Click here to hear Laura Klunder’s testimonial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2poF_Ak_lU

Order your institutional copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.

If you’re intersted in bringing producer, writer, and director Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and facilitate dialogue or a workshop with the students at your campus or university, please click here.

Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.

The power of rape survivor testimonials as featured in NO! the Rape Documentary, play a very critical role in both educating and organizing communities around ending violence against women and children. Through nine different rape survivor testimonials ranging from intimate partner to complete stranger, viewers of NO! The Rape Documentary are given the rare opportunity to hear the un-interrogated voices of women rape survivors who broke their silence with the hope that by breaking their silence, more rape survivors will publicly disclose what happened to them.

“EVERY organization that works with young women, works with women’s health, works with community healing, should see NO! [and] use it as a teaching tool and to spark discussion… NO! is the path to healing that we all need.” — Lisa Richardson, Ph.D.,

Lisa Richardson, Ph.D., is the Chief Development Officer of The Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, a community-based national organization in New Orleans that has been a pioneer in developing innovative information, education, and communication projects and training opportunities to promote sexual and reproductive health awareness and activism for and by women and youth of color.

Click here to hear Lisa Richardson’s testimonial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjRW5wzk0Zc

Order your institutional or organizational copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.

If you’re insitution or organization is interested in bringing Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and facilitate dialogue or a workshop around the issues addressed in NO! please click here for more information.

Together we can end violence against women and children.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ NO! forces us to deal with the lasting trauma Black women survivors have to endure, but also forces us to confront our own ambivalence about the rape of Black women as men, and an entire Black community.

This film gives us the language and the context by which we can examine the racism, sexism and homophobia within the Black community, but also helps us see the way Black women have struggled to heal, and what we as allies to Black women can do to end sexual violence in our communities.

NO! is a gift to those of us who who know that there can be no Black liberation where women cannot be self-determining.”

Kenyon Farrow, essayist, organizer, media and communications specialist, and board co-chair for Queers for Economic Justice.

Will us boys ever learn that power
can’t be pulled from the meat of our third leg
like the last taste of malt liquor sucked from the
bottom of a bottle? Will we ever cease to find
our torsos slow-dragging with death, our dance
a series of grenades aimed at the bellies of our
mothers’ daughters? Will us boys ever break ranks
with the devil, his bible telling us it is mad cool
to rape women because the master does it, and
don’t we, too, yearn to be masters? Will we ever
be able to glue back the hair, unswell the eye,
dab away the blood, and stitch up the holes of the women
we have knifed, repeatedly, with our hatred and
fear? Will us boys ever be able to admit that
some of us have become predators, our prey the
neighbor, the girlfriend, the wife, the sister,
the niece, the granddaughter whose life is an
unguarded prison cell loaded with screams,
paranoia, and a body unsure why it now eats itself?

Friday, December 31, 1999

*Kevin Powell is a political activist, poet, journalist, essayist, hiphop historian, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is running, as a Democrat, for a seat in the United States Congress in the 10th Congressional District here in Brooklyn, New York.

Osizwe Eyi di yiye, M.S. Ed
Educator/ Consultant
African American & Women’s Studies, Temple University

I want to say thank you so much for creating NO!. My life has changed after seeing it along with my commitment to ending violence. I don’t feel like I have the proper tools to really thank you but, I just need you to know that your film was amazing. Having the heart and passion for what you created is inspirational. I will take your message and spread it as far and as much as I can. Thank you. Your Sister, Iris“

Nermin, Albania

Shout Out: Women of Color Respond To Violence
Maria Ochoa & Barbara K. Ige
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.”

In January 2008, Seal Press released the powerful anthology Shout Out: Women of Color Respond To Violence. Shout Out doesn’t allow readers to be passive spectators. No, this compelling anthology will take you on a transformational journey that challenges you to be involved in the multi racial, anti colonialist, transnational movements to end all forms of violence perpetuated against women.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ choreopoem, “A State of Rage” which was conceived in 1994, in a Toni Cade Bambara scriptwriting workshop at Scribe Video Center, is featured in Shout Out. This choreopoem served as the literal roadmap on my eleven year journey to make my documentary NO!.

As with Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology, Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence, is another ground breaking, riveting, anthology, which creates the critically needed space for women of color activists, cultural workers, scholars, and practitioners, to document the violence we face everyday, while celebrating our resistance, expressed in a myriad of ways, against all of the odds.

Buy your copy today!!!

Beverly McPhail, Ph.D., LMSW, Director, Women’s Resource Center
University of Houston

Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara
Linda Janet Holmes & Cheryl A. Wall, editors
Temple University Press ©2008

“I was fortunate…blessed to have Toni’s presence in my life at such a critical time in my life. In February 1990, at the very ripe age of 20, I shared my feelings of alienation, and inadequacy at Swarthmore College combined with my frustration with the racist and sexist Eurocentric film department at Temple University– things like watching and critiquing camera techniques, without any social commentary, of films like “Birth of A Nation” and “Imitation of Life with Toni.” After hearing my frustration and disappointment with my undergraduate studies at Temple University, Toni told me to come to a place called Scribe Video Center to take her scriptwriting workshop. I told Toni I didn’t have any additional money to take a scriptwriting workshop. Her response was “I didn’t ask you if you had any money, I told you to come to Scribe Video Center and take my scriptwriting workshop.” Toni’s response forever changed my life…” -Aishah Shahidah Simmons-

From 1990, when I was 21 years old, through 1995, I had the absolute privilege to know and learn from Toni Cade Bambara who was an award-winning author, screenwriter, organizer, activist, teacher. Her “hands on” influence on some of the most prominent writers and filmmakers spans two generations. Personally, were it not for Toni’s profound presence in my life at a critical period in my life, I don’t know if I would be a documentary filmmaker today. I wrote about my herstory with Toni and her pivotal role in my becoming a documentary filmmaker, in my featured essay “Asserting My In(ter)dependence: The Evolution of NO!”

As the editors the timeless and celebratory Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl Wall have done a magnificent job of gathering a chorus of well known and lesser known diverse voices who sing a praise song for Toni Cade Bambara, one of the preeminent cultural workers.

BUY YOUR COPY OF “SAVORING THE SALT” TODAY!!!!

“Brilliance, courage and joy are what I knew of Toni Cade Bambara. Savoring the Salt mirrors her exhilarating intellect and the reach of her incomparable talents. Clearly, in these pages, the impact of her life and work—on family, friends, artists, students, colleagues—is as profound as it is forever”
—Toni Morrison

The extraordinary spirit of Toni Cade Bambara lives on in Savoring the Salt, a vibrant and appreciative recollection of the work and legacy of the multi-talented, African American writer, teacher, filmmaker, and activist. Among the contributors who remember Bambara, reflect on her work, and examine its meaning today are Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, Pearl Cleage, Ruby Dee, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Nikki Giovanni, Avery Gordon, Audre Lorde, and Sonia Sanchez.

Admiring readers have kept Bambara’s fiction in print since her first collection of stories, Gorilla, My Love, was published in 1972. She continued to write-and her audience and reputation continued to grow-until her untimely death in 1995. Savoring the Salt includes excerpts from her published and unpublished writings, along with interviews and photos of Bambara. The mix of poets and scholars, novelists and critics, political activists, and filmmakers represented here testifies to the ongoing importance and enduring appeal of her work.

“This is a moving tribute to a seminal figure of American literature whose work continues to resonate.”
—Booklist

“Toni Cade Bambara is one of the great literary figures of the late 20th century. She deserves more serious attention and sustained scrutiny. This magnificent volume is a first step toward this necessary effort!”— Cornel West
“Toni Cade Bambara was a genius of language, an artist of connectedness, a lucid, inspired artisan of human freedom. This collection in many voices, hers threaded throughout, is a gift to her memory, a continuing rediscovery of her visionary work, and an important historical document.”
— Adrienne Rich

“Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Pearl Cleage and other African American luminaries remember the late writer and activist [Toni Cade Bambara]. What emerges is a portrait of a brilliant wordsmith and tireless revolutionary who 10 years after her death, is missed, says Cleage, ‘each and every day.’”
— “Ms.” Magazine

“The breadth of outstanding contributors to this collection is evidence of Toni Cade Bambara’s enormous influence on writers, filmmakers, scholars, and community activists. Bambara’s artistry, insight, and lived example create a directive for 21st century artists: Tap into the genius within, stay rooted in local communities, and use culture as a tool for progressive social change.”
— Louis Massiah

BUY YOUR COPY OF “SAVORING THE SALT” TODAY!!!!

About the Author(s)

Linda Janet Holmes is a writer, independent scholar, and activist. She is also co-author of Listen To Me Good: The Story of An Alabama Midwife.

Cheryl A. Wall is Professor of English at Rutgers University, and the author of Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition, and Women of the Harlem Renaissance. She is the editor of Zora Neale Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings and Changing Our Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing by Black Women.

Panelists:
Naomi Klein – Author, Shock Doctrine
Ursula Price – Organizer, Safe Streets Strong Communities (New Orleans)
Monique Harden – Director, Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (New Orleans)
Suha Dabousseh – Organizer, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Aishah Shahidah Simmons – Filmmaker: NO! The Rape Documentary
Moderator: Aletha Strong – American Friends Service Committee

BIOS:
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, syndicated columnist and author of the international and New York Times bestseller The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Published worldwide in September 2007, The Shock Doctrine is slated to be translated into seventeen languages to date. The six-minute companion film, created by Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children of Men, was an Official Selection of the 2007 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and a viral phenomenon as well, downloaded over one million times. Klein’s previous book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies was also an international bestseller, translated into more than twenty-eight languages, with over a million copies in print. A collection of her work, Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate, was published in 2002. Klein’s regular column for The Nation and The Guardian is distributed internationally by The New York Times Syndicate. In 2004 her reporting from Iraq for Harper’s Magazine won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. The same year, she released a feature documentary about Argentina’s occupied factories, The Take, co-produced with director Avi Lewis. The film was an official selection of the Venice Biennale and won the best documentary jury prize at the American Film Institute’s Film Festival in Los Angeles. Klein is a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics and holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King’s College, Nova Scotia.

Monique Harden has provided legal counsel and advocacy support that have helped community organizations win important environmental justice victories. In 2003, Ms. Harden, along with Nathalie Walker, co-founded Advocates for Environmental Human Rights. Ms. Harden is a graduate of The University of Texas School of Law (1995), and received a B.A. from St. John’s College (1990). Ms. Harden has authored and co-authored numerous reports and papers on environmental justice and human rights issues. Her advocacy work has been featured in television, radio and print news, as well as books, magazines, and documentaries.

Ursula Price is Outreach & Investigations Coordinator for Safe Streets/Strong Communities, a community-based organization that campaigns for a new criminal justice system in New Orleans, one that creates safe streets and strong communities for everyone, regardless of race or economic status.

Suha Dabbouseh is a Palestinian American social justice activist for the last 10 years in human rights, including six with Amnesty International USA’s Southern Region as a Field Organizer and Acting Deputy Director for two regional field offices. Suha served at the lead organizer in developing events and campaigns on human rights issues such as racial/ethnic profiling, violence against women, police brutality and “war on terror”, and is currently the National Organizer for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning African-American feminist lesbian independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia, PA. An incest and rape survivor, she spent eleven years, seven of which were full time, to produce write, and direct NO! The Rape Documentary. This groundbreaking documentary explores the international reality of rape and other forms of sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, activism and cultural work of African-Americans.

The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival: Twelve days, more than fifty films, more than thirty filmmakers, performers, organizers, and other guests. For more information, see www.nolahumanrights.org.

By Salamishah Tillet | TheRoot.com

http://www.theroot.com/id/45742 

April 10, 2008 — Given the staggeringly high incidence of sexual violence in black communities it is fair to ask why this problem has not risen to the level of a crisis in the public consciousness

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Perhaps one of the truest and most tragic lines in American film is spoken by the character Yellow Mary in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust(1991) when she sadly declares that “the rape of the colored woman is as common as fish in the sea.” As a rape survivor, I speak on behalf of the 1 in 4 women who will experience sexual assault in her lifetime.

Moreover, since April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I hope to bring awareness to the fact that even though African-American women make up about 7% of the U.S. population, we currently constitute 18.8% to 28% of the reported sexual assault victims. These women are ,and have always been, our grandmothers,our daughters, our partners. And our friends.

Given the staggering statistics, I cannot help but wonder why this pandemic does not constitute a crisis within both African-American communities and the larger American body politic. African-American women have consistently spoken out against social ills such as the War in Iraq and racial injustices experienced by black men — from lynching to police brutality to racial profiling.

And yet, they have had to confront their own experiences with race and gender-related sexual violence without the support of many African-American leaders. Today, most rapes are intra-racial. The vast majority of rape victims, almost ninety-percent, report that a member of their same racial or ethnic group sexually assaulted them.

Unfortunately, because many African-American female rape victims do not want to perpetuate racial stereotypes about the black male rapist (created and used by white mobs to justify the lynching of economically and politically mobile black men) and the black male criminal (now used to maintain racial disparities in the criminal justice system), they often do not press charges against their assailants because they fear further criminalizing African-American men.

Like most rape victims, many African-American women understand that public disbelief, sexual double standards, and sexist stereotypes such as the “gold-digger” will greet their accusations of rape. But even more egregiously, African-American women know that they risk being labeled a race traitor by some who view their actions as airing “dirty laundry.”

And yet, there is a long tradition of African-American women speaking out about sexual violence, and mixing their anti-rape discourse with anti-racist activism. In 1866, a group of African-American women testified before Congress about white mobs who sexually assaulted them during the infamous Memphis race riots. Following suit, African-American activist and journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett continually linked her anti-lynching crusade with her clarion call to end sexual violence.

Today, we can turn to African-American women novelists such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, entertainers such as Oprah Winfrey and Gabrielle Union, writers such as Charlotte Pierce-Baker’s Surviving the Silence(2000) and Lori Robinson’s I Will Survive (2003) to locate models of anti-rape activism.

We should look at filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons’s groundbreaking film NO! The Rape Documentary which details the history of African-American women and sexual violence and watch photographer Scheherazade Tillet’s [Full disclosure: She's my sister] multimedia performance SOARS (Story of A Rape Survivor) which brilliantly uses the visual and performing arts to document the journey of recovering from and healing after rape.

In order to end the sexual violence experienced by African-American women, we need to recognize sexual abuse as one of the most important issues facing black America today. We need to encourage and include the voices of African-American women in mainstream activism against rape. And we need ensure that our demands for political and racial justice include calls for an end to sexism, sexual violence and homophobia. Until we begin supporting and believing African-American rape victims, we will always be engaged in a half-hearted fight for racial equality.

Salamishah Tillet is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of the non-profit organization, A Long Walk Home, Inc., which uses art therapy and the visual and performing arts to document and to end violence against underserved women and children.

By Melissa Harris-Lacewell | TheRoot.com

http://www.theroot.com/id/45744

April 10, 2008 — Remixing the racial rule of silence.

I witnessed something truly astonishing on Monday night: a public discussion of black women’s experiences of sexual violence at the hands of black men. It was an intergenerational group of black men and women, gay and straight, survivors and perpetrators, all grappling with the legacy of rape and race.

The experience was unusual because black people rarely talk about sisters being raped. We talk about all kinds of things: trivial, critical, humorous, serious, political, painful and frivolous. But as we observe Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April, I am reminded that there are things we don’t talk about.

We are silent about black women as victims and survivors of sexual assault by black men.

In African American communities rape narratives are not women’s stories. They are men’s stories. Rape is tied to the historical legacy of white terror. Strange fruit hanging from Southern trees has led to a legacy of disbelieving women who report sexual violence and intimidation.

Black women raped by black male perpetrators often remain silent because they are alone. They don’t want to confirm white racial stereotypes; their own families and communities tell them to shut up; they have little reason to think that authorities will take their cases seriously; they fear the devastating ramifications of a manhunt in black communities if they are believed; and in the history of lynching white women have been adversaries, not allies, on the question of rape.

Recovering from rape is burden enough without having to shoulder this vicious legacy.

I do not want to diminish or deny the pain, agony, recovery and triumph of survivors who are not black women. I do not want to claim that all black women survivors have parallel experiences or that all black women experience the same traumas in the aftermath of rape. I only want to claim there is often a different dynamic that operates for black women who have been violated by black men.

As a sexual assault survivor and advocate I know the debilitating effects of silence. That is why I was so moved by Monday night’s gathering in Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY. Together we watched Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ NO! The Rape Documentary. Then Simmons, who is herself a rape and incest survivor, talked with us and answered questions to help us process the grief, anger and confusion that her exquisite film provoked.

But here was the most surprising part of all: the gathering was organized by a community group called Black and Male in America. Under the leadership of writer, activist and Congressional candidate Kevin Powell, this group of men arranged a screening of Simmons’ powerful film. Let me say this again. A group of black men arranged for an honest, difficult, intense, public discussion of intra-racial rape.

Filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons revealed that it has been difficult to find wide distribution for her film because so few people want to grapple with black women’s sexual victimization. Simmons was joined on the panel by Kevin Powell and Quentin Walcott from ConnectNYC. Sitting next to these men, Simmons acknowledged that brothers from the hip-hop generation, a generation that has been critiqued as universally commercial and misogynist, have been among her strongest supporters.

Simmons said, “It’s also very important for me to note that this and many other community-based screenings that have been organized by Black men are men from the hip-hop generation. I share this because there are many justifiable critiques of hip-hop. However, hands down, the overwhelming majority of the men who have supported NO! and spread the word about NO! are from the hip-hop generation.”

Organizer Kevin Powell is certainly a central figure of the hip-hop generation. As a first season Real World cast member, Powell helped usher in the age of reality TV. As a writer and poet he has reflected on and critiqued hip-hop. Powell also has his own difficult past as a perpetrator of domestic violence. But rather than being silent and demanding silence from others, Powell has written movingly about his own awakening from violence. On Monday night he and other men of this Brooklyn organization helped provide space for sexual assault survivors to speak and be heard.

We are right to focus on and criticize the elements of hip-hop that are complicit in the violence, abuse and degradation of black women. But we are also compelled to acknowledge the possibility that some men of the hip-hop generation just might have something to teach their elders about passing the mic and being quiet while sisters share their stories. Maybe, just maybe, this generation of men will create a different path.

Reflecting on what this new path might look like Powell said, “What we’ve found in our work with black males is that many of us brothers are completely clueless about what manhood should be. So we swallow whole what society, our communities, our families, our fathers, and, yes, our mothers, tell us it is, even if that definition leads us to hurt or destroy black females or other black males. Or ourselves. There is a growing recognition, now, among many hip-hop generation black women thinkers, leaders, and artists, and a growing number of us black male counterparts, that if we do not deal with the multiple insanities we as a community have internalized, then we are doomed as a community. It is really that serious.”

Monday night’s event helped us to remember that rape is complicated by race. For many black women there is a sense of betrayal that exists alongside the personal humiliation, pain and fear. Intra-racial rape can feel like a rift between a woman and her people. The survivor is cast into silence not so much a by a desire to protect those men who perpetrated, but to protect the black men in her life who she loves, respects and trusts. As Simmons’ NO! reminds us, survivors often feel that by fingering the attacker we might somehow accuse our own fathers, husbands, friends and sons of possessing this same capacity for violence.

So it makes a huge difference for black men to stand with us and encourage us to tell. The Brooklyn gathering was a model of how black men can help create safe spaces for us. It was a reminder that men can exert power and reclaim manhood by standing with black women, bearing witness to our stories and holding one another accountable. It was a testament to the reality that men can stop rape by saying NO!

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University.

Violence Against Women Documentary Featured on Joy of Resistance Program on WBAI Pacifica Radio Network | Women’s History Month

On Thursday, March 27, 2008, NO! The Rape Documentary and Aishah Shahidah Simmons were featured guests on Joy of Resistance Multi-Cultural Feminist Radio, WBAI Pacifica Radio Network in New York, with co-hosts Fran Luck and NOW-NJ President, Maretta Short, to raise awareness about rape, other forms of sexual violence, healing and feminist activism during Women’s History Month. Monica Dillon’s powerful song “No,” which is a call to action to end violence against women is featured throughout the program. Please download the audio or listen to it, here on the blog.

length – 61 min

right click to download here

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.

Free Admission and Parking in Lots 20A and 20C.

Directions: From I-45 take Spur 5 and take a right at the first light, which is University Drive. Free parking is on the right in Parking Lots 20A and 20C. You must then walk across Calhoun Street and straight down University Drive, which dead ends into the Cullen Performance Hall. If you wish to park closer, paid parking is available at either the Welcome Center at the corner of University and Calhoun or in the underground parking under the Hilton hotel. For futher directions, click here.

Click here for a campus map.

This event is generously underwritten by the Tenneco Lecture Series.

For more information, please visit http://www.uh.edu/wrc/Nodocumentary.html. Alternatively, you may call the University of Houston’s Women’s Resource Center at 713.743.5888; or the Sanfoka Pan Afrikan Student Organization at 832.894.5015.

Sexual Assault Documentary Featured On WBAI, New York

On Monday, April 7, 2008 Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Kevin Powell were featured guests Wake Up Call with host Esther Armah on WBAI, 99.5 in New York to promote the screening of NO! at Browne Memorial Baptist Church. It was a wonderful turn-out and an amazingly intense evening. There will be additional posts about that powerful event soon. Please download the audio or listen to it, here on the blog.

length – 37 min

right click to download here

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.

I do, however, critique, the media, including many progressive and even some White feminist outlets, who celebrate Sister Diablo’s decision to work as a stripper to support herself while writing screenplays but castigated, maligned, and marginalized my Black Sister Survivor who was hired by members of the Duke University Lacrosse Team to perform for them. Yes, I know that had she not accused those innocent White men of sexually assaulting her, we probably wouldn’t even know she existed. However, since she did accuse them of sexually assaulting her, the media presented her as another Black woman stripper/whore who was a liar. In fact, in her very specific instance, stripping was frowned upon and demonized as a viable option for her to earn a living to support herself and her two children while she was an undergraduate student at North Carolina Central University.

When it comes to rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women, sex workers are some of the most vulnerable employees. This sobering reality transcends the race, class, and national origin of all sex workers.

I know that Sister Diablo hasn’t publicly accused anyone of sexually assaulting her and very hopefully she isn’t one of the three women in the world who has experienced some form of sexual assault on her journey called life. So, I’m definitely not implying that her situation is the same situation as with my Black Sister Survivor in North Carolina.

I do, however, question and challenge the media’s sexist (and I would argue racist and classist) grotesque duplicity when it comes to their deciding which women should be celebrated for making “a smart decision” to strip to support themselves; and which women should be punished for making “a dumb decision” to strip to support themselves.

It’s also very important to note, that the media’s celebratory attitude towards Sister Diablo stripping is not unlike their celebratory attitude towards White middle and upper class single women who decide to have children without getting married or having a male partner, which is often viewed and presented as a chic/hip feminist statement. While on the other hand, poor African-American single women who decide to have children without being married or having a male partner are viewed and presented, by the media, as pathological…

But, that’s another piece/peace for another day.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the producer, writer, and director of the internationally acclaimed feature-length documentary NO!, which explores the international reality of rape and sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, and activism of African-Americans. This award-winning documentary also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. During April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, she is traveling with NO! to continue to raise awareness about all forms of violence against women. Please visit www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org and www.AfroLezProductions.com for detailed information about her schedule.

From April 15, 2008 through April 17, 2008, Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Monica Dillon will be featured guest lecturers, workshop facilitators, and performers at University of Wisconsin – Madison as a part of their Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming. In addition to screening NO! The Rape Documentary and meeting with studens and faculty, they will perform “For Women and Men of Rage & Reason, a cinematic, poetic and musical journey from victim to survivor and activist in the international movements to end violence against women.

An extra highlight to this experience is that Tiona M., the fierce producer, director, photographer, and editor of the ground breaking documentary black./womyn.:conversations… will document Monica and Aishah’s performances and presentations. Tiona will also screen the black./womyn.:conversations trailer, which features the voices of over 50 lesbians of African descent, including Monica and Aishah, and talk about the process of making this important film.

Aishah and Monica are so very excited to be performing and presenting with other again. Each time they present and share together with students and faculty they learn more and more about each other as cultural workers, eradicating violence against women, and of course, what’s on the mind of students right now.

For detailed information about the two major events that are open to the public on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 and Thursday, April 17, 2008, please visit http://www.today.wisc.edu/events/view/3933 and http://www.today.wisc.edu/events/view/3183

“As a survivor of rape myself I found [NO!] to be very powerful and thought provoking. I am truly blessed to have been able to see a screening of this film and meet the wonderful woman that made this film possible.”
Rebecca Spellmeyer, Ms. Heartland US

Aishah Shahidah Simmons, an incest and rape survivor who is the producer, writer, and director of NO!, along with New Orleans-based mental health care professionals, will be present to facilitate the creation of a safe environment for the discussion immediately following the screening.

Copies of NO! and her supplemental materials (Breaking Silences, and Unveiling the Silence) will be on sale at the screening and discussion.

and Discussion about

NO!

a documentary about rape, sexual assault,
and violence against women and girls

www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org

featuring

AISHAH SHAHIDAH SIMMONS
Writer, Director, and Producer of the award-winning film NO!

QUENTIN WALCOTT
Anti-violence activist; Director, CONNECT Training Institute (CTI)
and the Community Empowerment Program

KEVIN POWELL
Writer, Activist, and Author of the essay
“Ending Violence Against Women and Girls”
(visit www.huffingtonpost.com to read the essay)

plus a special creative piece by
TOYIA TAYLOR
Poet and Community Activist

MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008

Doors open at 6:30 pm

program begins at 7:00 pm

at BROWN MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH
(Pastor: Rev. Clinton Miller)

484 Washington Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(at the corner of Gates Ave. | Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY)
A or C to Clinton/Washington stop

Admission is FREE, no RSVP needed.
Seating will be on a first-come basis.

This program is open to females AND males of all ages.
Counselors will be on site to field questions from rape,
sexual assault, and domestic violence survivors.

Copies of the NO! DVD will be ON SALE.

PLEASE BRING a PEN and NOTEPAD
and PLEASE COME PREPARED
TO WORK, LEARN, AND SHARE…

For more information call 718.390.3520 OR
email us contact@blackandmaleinamerica.org

Visit us on the web at www.blackandmaleinamerica.org

PLEASE NOTE THAT BAMIA’s regular monthly empowerment workshops are for MALES ONLY. We will return to that format
on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 7pm (same locatoin).

The workshop leader will be KENDRICK B. NATHANIEL.
Topic: “Taking Care of Your Physical Health”

Vanessa L. Malcarne, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology,
San Diego State University
Organizer of the Association for Women in Psychology’s Film Festival for 2008

©2004, Susan J. Ross, photographer

“I start with the recognition that we are at war, and that war is not simply a hot debate between the capitalist camp and the socialist camp over which economic/political /social arrangement will have hegemony in the world. It’s not just the battle over turf and who has the right to utilize resources for whomsoever’s benefit. The war is also being fought over the truth: What is the truth about human nature, about the human potential? My responsibility to myself, my neighbors, my family and the human family is to try to tell the truth. That ain’t easy…We have rarely been encouraged and equipped to appreciate the fact that the truth works and it releases the Spirit and that it is a joyous thing. We live in a part of the world, for example, that equates criticism with assault, that equates social responsibility with naive idealism, that defines the unrelenting pursuit of knowledge and wisdom as fanaticism…“-Toni Cade Bambara-

During the week of March 24, 2008, there will be two major celebrations of the life and legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, internationally acclaimed, award-winning Black feminist mother, author, teacher, organizer, activist, filmmaker, cultural worker.

The first event will be held at the Brecht Forum, in New York City, on Tuesday, March 25, 2008, which is the 69th anniversary of her birth. Linda Janet Holmes and Cheryl A. Wall, editors of Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, along with sister contributors Salamishah Tillet, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, and others who have had the opportunity to know Toni personally and/or through her work will read from and sign Savoring the Salt, which is a praisesong to one of the ultimate cultural workers who walked the talk of using one’s work to make (radically progressive, left of center) revolution irresistible.

This celebratory event will be held at 7:30pm. The Brecht Forum is located at 451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets), New York, NY 10014. Their phone number is (212) 242-4201. For more information, please visit http://www.brechtforum.org/node/1514?bc=

“I was fortunate…blessed to have Toni’s presence in my life at such a critical time in my life. In February 1990, at the very ripe age of 20, I shared my feelings of alienation, and inadequacy at Swarthmore College combined with my frustration with the racist and sexist Eurocentric film department at Temple University– things like watching and critiquing camera techniques, without any social commentary, of films like “Birth of A Nation” and “Imitation of Life with Toni.” After hearing my frustration and disappointment with my undergraduate studies at Temple University, Toni told me to come to a place called Scribe Video Center to take her scriptwriting workshop. I told Toni I didn’t have any additional money to take a scriptwriting workshop. Her response was “I didn’t ask you if you had any money, I told you to come to Scribe Video Center and take my scriptwriting workshop.” Toni’s response forever changed my life…” -Aishah Shahidah Simmons-

Toni Cade Bambara Scholar-Activism Conference, Spelman College, 3.28- 3.29.08

©2004, Susan J. Ross, Photographer

“The second opportunity to celebrate Toni Cade Bambara’s life and legacy will be at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA where they will host the 8th annual Toni Cade Bambara Scholar-Activism Conference. The theme of this year’s conference is “Black Feminisms on Fire!!!” Pre conference activities begin on Thursday, March 28th at 11am. On Friday, March 29, 2008 at 6pm, there will be a Savoring the Salt reception, book reading and signing with editors Linda Janet Holmes, Cheryl A. Wall and contributors Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Rudolph Byrd, Sue Ross, Valerie Boyd, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons. On Saturday, March 30, 2008 there will be a morning plenary on Toni Cade Bambara followed by workshops on a myriad of topics including: reproductive rights and women’s health; images of women in the media and popular culture; black feminisms; women’s art and creativity; women’s global & transnational activism; gendered economics and other topics that inform our internal and external world

Co-founded by Dr. Bahati M. Kuumba, associate director of the Spelman College’s Womens Resource and Research Center, this conference is the culminating activity of the Toni Cade Bambara Writer/Scholar/Activist Program and Collective which sponsors an annual lecture and workshop series; a student collective; and an annual newsletter, Sisters of the Word.

For detailed information on this conference, please visit http://www.museum.spelman.edu/about_us/distinction/womenscenter/tonicadebambara.shtml

The two photographs of Toni Cade Bambara

NO! The Rape Documentary will have her Turkish premiere at the 6th International Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels. Featuring 46 films from 13 countries, The festival’s theme this year is “Women’s History: Obedience, Rebellion, Feminism.”

The festival will be held in Istanbul from the 14th through the 22nd of March. Afterwards, the festival will travel to 28th-29th of March at Eski?ehir, 4th-5th of April at Tunceli and 11th-12th of April at Van, after Istanbul, making the festival more accessible to audiences in Turkey.

Read a March 15, 2008, article, in the Turkish newspaper “Today’s Zaman” about the festival, which features a photograph of Aishah Shahidah Simmons and mentions NO! along with several other featured feminist films and documentaries from around the world.
Click here to read the article online.
Click here to download a pdf of the article.

In their ongoing commitment to bring atention to the unique needs of children and youth who have experienced domestic violence, the Florda Caolition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) will host their “2008 Children and Youth Institute” from March 27-28, 2008, at the Regal Sun Resort in Orlando, Florida. The theme for this year’s Institute is “Imagine, Impact, Involve, Teaching Our Children Well.”

On Thursday, March 27, Aishah Shahidah Simmons will deliver the morning keynote titled “From Victim to Survivor to International Activist.” She will host the discussion following an evening screening of NO! on that same day.

On Friday, March 28, The Youth and Adult Researchers of the Youth Researchers Program, Caminar Latino Inc. will present the results of the research study they have conducted using participatory action research strategies, during their morning keynote titled “Por qué?: Latino Youth as Researchers of Domestic Violence”

Immediately following the morning keynote on March 28, Aishah will facilitate one of the morning workshops titled “Breaking Silences: Using Film/Video to Initiate Dialogues about Sexual and Domestic Violence With Youth.”

For detailed information, including a full listing of all of the workshops, please download this pdf.

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.

Little did I know that my vision and commitment would be tested over and over and over again on multiple seen and unseen levels. Nor did I know that it would take a full 11-years before my vision would wo/manifest.

The funds received from that first paid engagement enabled me to film Essex Hemphill perform his very powerful and (unfortunately) timeless poem “To Some Supposed Brothers,”which is featured in his book ground breaking book of poetry and prose Ceremonies. Five months later, Brother Essex made his physical transition into the metaphysical world due to complications resulting from AIDS. Brother Essex transitioned eleven years before NO! was officially released. And yet through the power of film/video, Essex lives on, not only in NO! but through cinematic masterpieces produced and directed by (the late) Marlon Riggs, Isaac Julien, and Shari Frilot.

Almost 13-years later, I came full circle when I returned to the University of Michigan in January 2008 to screen my completed, award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary NO!. My return to the University of Michigan began in June 2007 with my meeting Erika McCollum and Puneet Sohdi two fierce feminist activists in the anti-sexual violence movement, who are undergraduate students at the University of Michigan, at the very radical and not to be missed Allied Media Conference. When I met them, they were in organizing and strategizing mode about bringing me and NO! to the University of Michigan. Through Erika and Puneet, I met Alexis M. Watts who, on behalf of Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, worked tirelessly in collaboration with many of her anti-sexual violence activists/comrades to bring me to University of Michigan.

The travesty about coming full circle with NO! is that it is as relevant and critically needed as a completed feature length documentary in 2008, as it was when it was when it was barely a work-in-progress in 2005. The flip side of this sobering reality is that there are more and more survivors, activists, and/or advocates of all ages, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations who are working tirelessly to end all forms of sexual violence.

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

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

Aishah Shahidah Simmons will not be present at the screening. However, Michael Simmons, who has definitely screened NO!, more than Aishah, throughout Europe and the Middle East, will both host the screening and facilitate the dialogue following the screening.

For more information about the screening and equally as important for upcoming events at Raday Salon, please visit their site (http://raday.blogs.com).

“Our Salon is dedicated to the proposition that all people are fascinating individuals, and everybody has a story to tell.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons, Co-Founders, Raday Salon

If you ever find yourself in Budapest, Hungary, definitely get in touch with both Linda and Michael. They definitely walk their talk.

“[Aishah Shahidah Simmons'] political and artistic approach which questions at the same time the oppression of race, sex, gender, and class seems relevant to make visible, at all levels and mainly in the African American community, the violence against [Black] women, lesbians, and girls.”
Amnesty International, French Section

“I’m moved by the healing messages NO! provides African American women who have been affected; the information it provides African American men about the impact of such experiences for our sisters, mothers, partners and friends; and the consciousness raising it offers the entire African American community around this issue.”
Oliver J. Williams, Ph.D., Founding Director,
Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community

“In the spring of 2006 the National Sexual Violence Resource Center selected Aishah Shahidah Simmons, documentary producer, as the 2006 National Sexual Assault Awareness Month award-winner in the category of media & communications. Shortly thereafter I had the privilege of seeing her and her documentary NO! in Philadelphia. As part of that viewing, the audience participated in an enthusiastic community discussion about the impact of rape and ways we can all work together to prevent it. This well-done documentary had a powerful impact on all who were present, and the post-viewing community discussion was so inspiring that the NSVRC designated showings of NO! in community settings as the Featured Event for its 2007 national Sexual Assault Awareness Month campaign.”
Karen Baker, LMSW, Director, National Sexual Violence Resource Center

*** The National Sexual Violence Center is the comprehensive collection and distribution center for information, research and emerging policy on sexual violence intervention and prevention in the United States.