Aishah Shahidah Simmons

At-a-Glance

Awarded the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for her anthology, love WITH accountability.
Founder and President of AfroLez® Productions since 1992.
Directed the acclaimed 2006 feature film, NO! The Rape Documentary, which addressed sexual assault in the Black community.
Author of the 2020 Lambda Literary-award winning anthology, love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse.
Served as a Sterling Brown Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College and held professorships at Temple University, Scripps College, and the University of Chicago.
A trauma-informed, certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher and a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher.

Biography

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an American documentary filmmaker, author, educator, and activist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She serves as Founder/President of AfroLez® Productions and Creator of #LoveWITHAccountability®. Her work integrates cultural production, activism, and mindfulness practices to address sexual violence and trauma, aiming to break silences and offer healing paths.