Professional papers, 1976-2023

Scope and content:

The professional papers of Aishah Shahidah Simmons. The first few sub-series focus on her production company AfroLez® Productions and on her filmmaking, particularly her feature-length, award-winning film 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 documents from Simmons's search for funding; 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 has shown and discussed her films. Many of the institutions and events were specifically for lesbian and other queer audiences and/or the African American community. The AfroLez® Productions correspondence is on AfroLez® Productions letterhead or through the AfroLez® email account and traces discussions about Simmons's filmmaking. The last two sub-series contain press and 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of essays, articles, and speeches Simmons has written, but also present are chapter contributions to anthologies and an unpublished memoir titled Afrolesfem Perspectives. Some of these works are present in multiple drafts, tracing their development over time. There are a few documents for her love WITH accountability® project. There is a sub-series 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 activites, including conferences, workshops, and symposiums she attended and/or presented at as well as writers' 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. Of note may be 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 was not related to AfroLez® Productions. Some of these are about her work with the American Friends Service Committee and about 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. It includes a number of publications aimed at both popular and academic African American 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.

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