Aishah Shahidah Simmons papers, 1937-2023, bulk 1992-2009

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Access restricted. By donor request, the raw footage of NO! interviews are closed until 2049 and personal correspondence, journals, and notebooks are closed until 2059. Access restricted. The...
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Summary

Creator:
Simmons, Aishah Shahidah
Abstract:
Aishah Shahidah Simmons identifies as a Black feminist lesbian writer-filmmaker. She is also an educator and activist. Through her AfroLez® Productions company, she created the films Silence...Broken (1993), In My Father's House (1996), and her feature-length, award-winning NO! The Rape Documentary (2006), which addresses sexual assault in the Black community. Her papers reflect her documentary filmmaking career, her production company AfroLez® Productions, her writings, professional activities, and personal life. The collection contains writings, correspondence, working files, and an extensive collection of audiovisual materials documenting her life and work. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture, and Duke University's Archive of Documentary Arts.
Extent:
39 Linear Feet (22 Paige cartons, 2 Hollinger boxes, 3 half Hollinger boxes, 4 shoeboxes, 8 flat boxes, 1 oversize folder)
Language:
The majority of materials are in English. A few publications are in Spanish, Basque, and French.
Research Center:
Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
Archive of Documentary Arts
Collection ID:
RL.13134

Background

Scope and content:

The papers of Black feminist lesbian filmmaker, writer, and educator Aishah Shahidah Simmons reflect her documentary filmmaking career, her production company AfroLez® Productions, her writings, professional activities, and personal life. The majority of the collection documents her decade-plus endeavor to complete her feature-length, award-winning film No! The Rape Documentary.

The files are arranged within each series/sub-series chronologically; audiovisual materials are grouped by material type. The Photographs series remains unprocessed and is closed to research as of August 2025.

The Personal Papers series contains materials documenting her personal life. The largest sub-series contain her correspondence and her personal notebooks and journals. These are restricted until 2059. Her personal records include information about her education as well as awards she has received. The Family and Friends sub-series includes writings by and about her mother Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons as well as a few documents about her father Michael Simmons and her grandmother Rebecca White Simmons Chapman. Also in the Friends and Family sub-series is a notable collection of programs from memorial services that document the funeral rites and customs of the Black communities Simmons has belonged to. The Activities sub-series focuses on travel, religious activities including those related to her Buddhist faith, and theatrical and dance performances she attended.

The first few sub-series within Simmons' professional papers focus on her production company AfroLez® Productions and on her filmmaking, particularly NO! The Rape Documentary. Materials include: scripts and treatments, most related to NO!; AfroLez® Productions financial and legal records, which include release forms from participants in the documentary; grant research, applications, and paperwork to fund the work; and working files that include documents about cast and crew, the NO! soundtrack, webpage design, and survey responses about the film. The Screenings and Events sub-series documents the many film festivals, schools, universities, and other institutions where Simmons showed and discussed her films. Many of the institutions and events were specifically for lesbian and other queer audiences and/or the Black community. The AfroLez® Productions correspondence is on AfroLez® Productions letterhead or through the AfroLez® email account and consists of discussions and administrative work about Simmons' filmmaking. The last two sub-series contain press/clippings about the films and reference files of materials that influenced the creation of NO!.

The Writings sub-series mostly consists of essays, articles, and speeches Simmons has written, but also present are chapter contributions to anthologies and an unpublished memoir titled Afrolesfem Perspectives: Tales of Race, Sexuality, Gender, and Independent Filmmaking. Some of these works are present in multiple drafts, tracing their development over time. There are a few documents related to her love WITH accountability® project. The South African Election Observation sub-series is devoted to Simmons' role as an election observer in the 1994 elections in South Africa through the American Friends Service Committee. A small sub-series focuses on Simmons' participation in higher education; it consists of correspondence about appointments at various institutions and course information for a class she taught at Williams College entitled "Black Legacies: Feminist Filmmaking, Women Writers, and the Imaginings of Black Experience."

The Organizations and Activities sub-series reflects a wide range of Simmons' professional activities, including conferences, workshops, and symposiums she attended and/or presented at as well as writers' gatherings and film festivals she attended but which did not screen one of her films. There are also a few files for organizations she was a member and/or leader of including ImageWeavers, Black Radical Congress, and various coalitions and commissions for human rights and against sexual violence. This subseries also documents her participation in events honoring her mentor Toni Cade Bambara. Most of the documents are programs, pamphlets, resource guides, and other ephemera connected to the events.

The Professional Correspondence sub-series is composed of professional correspondence that is not directly related to AfroLez® Productions. Some of these focus on her work with the American Friends Service Committee and on the publication of her writings. The Press and Clippings sub-series contains press and clippings about Simmons, and the Reference Files reflect her wide-ranging interests, especially in lesbian culture, sexual violence and its prevention, and Black filmmaking. This sub-series includes a number of publications aimed at both popular and academic Black audiences, photocopies of book chapters and articles, information from university courses, and writings by friends and acquaintances, including an original script for Spike Lee's 1990 film Mo' Better Blues when it was still called Love Supreme.

The Audiovisual Materials series includes raw footage from interviews for NO!; these are restricted until 2049. The bulk of the material consists of video cassettes (VHS, Betacam, Hi8, and mini-DV formats) but also present are audiocassettes and optical discs (CDs and DVDs). There are masters in various formats of In My Father's House and Silence...Broken as well as a variety of different drafts (rough cut, trailer, subtitled, work-in-progress, etc.) of No!. A number of the audio and video cassettes contain of interviews, radio programs, and recordings of events that Simmons participated in; a few reflect on her time in South Africa. Those labeled "National Office Staff Meeting" are from the American Friends Service Committee. There are also video and audio recordings of family and friends, including events or interviews featuring her mother Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, her father Michael Simmons, her mentor Toni Cade Bambara, and documentaries and music created by acquaintances. Some others are recordings of healing workshops and "readings." There are also unlabeled audiovisual materials whose contents could not be readily determined.

The Photographs series contains a wide variety of mostly loose photographs from Simmons' personal and professional life. These are currently closed to researchers as they are currently unprocessed.

The final series consists of ephemera and artifacts and includes a number of posters that Simmons has collected, many from events featuring her, but also some she attended, that her mother participated in, or that are autographed. Other ephemera from such events include buttons, ID tags, a bracelet, and stickers. A large quilt-style fabric banner made at a feminist anti-violence gathering in 2000 was created from contributions from participants. Another textile is a scarf from the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe; an ink print by Nigerian printmaker Bruce Onobrakpeya was a gift from Toni Cade Bambara. There is also a decorative box made by Aishah Shahidah Simmons.

Biographical / historical:

Aishah Shahidah Simmons identifies as a Black feminist lesbian writer-filmmaker. She is also an educator, activist, and teacher of Insight Meditation (Vipassana). The daughter of Civil Rights activists and scholars Michael Simmons and Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, Ph.D. and the sister of Tyree Cinque Simmons (DJ Drama), she grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her wife is Sheila Alexander-Reid.

Simmons founded AfroLez® Productions in 1992 while participating in a scriptwriting workshop at Scribe Video Center taught by her mentor, Toni Cade Bambara, where Simmons wrote Silence...Broken, which she developed into a film in 1993. The company later produced In My Father's House (1996).

Her feature-length, award-winning film NO! The Rape Documentary (2006) addresses sexual assault in the Black community; it was funded by individual donors, community-based funders, grant providers such as the Ford Foundation, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and the Valentine Foundation. The film its world premiere at the 2006 Pan African Film Festival. Her films have been included in film festivals around the world and screened by many educational and activist organizations.

Her writings have been published in media such as USA Today, The Root, Ms. magazine, Lion's Roar, Black Perspectives, and Left of Black, as well as in newspapers in Philadelphia and Chicago, among other cities. Her anthology love WITH accountability received the 2020 Lambda Literary award.

She has also held artist-in-residence and guest faculty appointments at universities including Williams College, Temple University, Scripps College, Spelman College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, Morgan State University, Metropolitan State University Denver, and Collegeville Institute. Since 1995, she has led over 400 workshops and dialogues in the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Acquisition information:
The Aishah Shahidah Simmons papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase from Aishah Shahidah Simmons in 2024.
Processing information:

Processed by Ren Bickel, July 2025.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 2024-0080

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in five series: Personal Papers (1937-2023); Professional Papers (1976-2023); Audiovisual Materials (1987-2023); Photographs (1960s-2023); and Ephemera and Artifacts (1994-2020).

The Personal Papers series has five sub-series for Personal Records; Family and Friends; Personal Correspondence; Activities; and Journals and Notebooks.

The Professional Papers consists of eight sub-series for Filmmaking (further sub-divided into Scripts and Treatments; Financial and Legal Records; Grants and Grant Applications; Working Files; Screenings and Events; AfroLez® Productions Correspondence; Public Relations and Press; and Reference Files); Writings; Simmons' 1994 South African election observation; Teaching; Organizations and Activities; Professional Correspondence; Press and Clippings; and Reference Files.

The Audiovisual Materials series contains two sub-series. The raw footage of interviews for the No! documentary are restricted until 2049. The remainder of the audiovisual materials are currently available for research.

The Photographs series consists of currently unprocessed photographs.

The final series contains Ephemera and Artifacts.

Files are arranged chronologically within each series except for audiovisual materials, which are grouped by material type. The majority of folder titles and titles for audiovisual materials originated with the creator.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access restricted. By donor request, the raw footage of NO! interviews are closed until 2049 and personal correspondence, journals, and notebooks are closed until 2059.

Access restricted. The Photographs series is closed pending processing.

Access note. Collection contains some fragile audiovisual formats that may need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the Rubenstein Library's Citations, Permissions, and Copyright guide.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Aishah Shahidah Simmons papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

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