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Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian independent filmmaker, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia, PA. Through her professional, artistic, and political work, she is committed to addressing issues that have a negative impact on disenfranchised people with a particular emphasis on Black women. Ms. Simmons is the producer, writer, and director of “NO!” the forthcoming full-length experimental documentary which will expose the collective silence of the Black community when Black women and girls are raped by Black men and boys. Her internationally acclaimed shorts Silence…Broken, In My Father’s House and NO! (A Work-In-Progress) explore the issues of race, gender, homophobia, rape and misogyny.

Ms. Simmons is also the associate producer of “Ed Hamilton: Molding Yesterday Into Tomorrow.” Produced and directed by Joan Brannon, this forthcoming 60-minute documentary will highlight the creative genius of world-renowned African-American sculptor Ed Hamilton. This documentary has received major funding from the Kentucky Educational Television Independent Production Fund. For three years Ms. Simmons was a co-producer of two television programs for a PBS affiliate in Philadelphia, PA.

Ms. Simmons’ essay "Creating A Sacred Space of Our Own," on her herstory as an activist in the anti-sexual violence movement; the difficult journey to make NO! a celluloid reality; and the impact of racism, sexism, and heterosexism on Black women survivors of rape and sexual assault; is included in the anthology Just Sex: Students Rewrite the Rules on Sex, Violence, Equality & Activism edited by Jodi Gold & Susan Villari (Rowman & Littlefield/January 2000). Her writings have been published in The Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia Gay News, Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, Hembra, Women In The Life Magazine, and Crossroads. Her work and activism have been documented in local, national, and international publications including Essence Magazine, Between the Lines, The Philadelphia City Paper, The Black Scholar, At The Crossroads, The Philadelphia Weekly, Lesbia Magazine, The New Nation, Women In The Life Magazine, LA Weekly, Filmmaker Magazine, Gay Black Female, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

She has screened her work and/or lectured on the impact of the intersections of oppressions, on African-American women’s lives, in Spain, Mexico, South Africa, England, France, Canada, the Netherlands, and at several colleges/universities and conferences across the United States. Ms. Simmons has been a recipient of several grants including Studio Film & Tape, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Bread and Roses Community Fund, and two grants from the Valentine Foundation and the Astraea Foundation. Her numerous awards include the 1994 Philadelphia Gay Pride Award; the 1995 Atlantic City Black Film Festival Filmmaker Award; the 1998 Audre Lorde Legacy Award of the Union Institute Center for Women, the 1998 NAACP Exemplary Citizen Award, and she was named a finalist for the 1998 Roy W. Dean Grant.