Vanessa L. Malcarne’s Testimonial on NO!
March 24, 2008
“NO! is a thoughtful and thought-provoking documentary that powerfully expresses the complexities of sexual violence within the Black community. NO! prompts viewers to question longheld assumptions about women’s experiences of and responses to sexual violence, but then moves beyond that to explicitly challenge viewers to take action and break the silence that has allowed sexual violence to devastate individuals and communities. Watching this excellent documentary is a powerful and somewhat painful experience, but one that ultimately leaves viewers informed and empowered. I selected NO! as a featured film for the 2008 Association for Women in Psychology film festival, because of its focus on women, social justice, and activism, because it’s an outstanding film, and because I knew that it would have a powerful impact on the audience. People are still talking about it!”
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
Tamara K. Nopper’s Testimonial on NO!
March 20, 2008
“When I attended a fundraising event for NO! in New York several years ago, I watched an African American woman scholar artistically explore her survival of sexual assault. As a graduate student who has spent most of my professional life in academia, I had by that time observed how badly Black women are treated at all levels of the university. And I knew that this treatment was not isolated to academic spaces. Having seen, listened, and read about how Black women are racistly and sexistly perceived by men, women, and children of all races and sexualities, I was familiar with many of the themes in NO! Perhaps this is why I had such an emotional political response to watching this Black woman scholar talk about her sexual assault. I knew it was a great risk for her to draw attention to how she was attacked when racist and sexist imagery of Black women declares that they are unable to be violated because they are supposedly over-sexual. And having been in front of a classroom myself, I know that students pick you apart, watch your body, and judge you at every turn. Most students evaluate non-white teachers–and particularly Black teachers–with no remorse, and often in sexualized ways. So to watch a Black woman scholar demand documentation of her pain, to draw attention to her body, to tell her side of the story was simply…everything in the world. This is what NO! does: along with sharing the powerful stories of those in the film, it creates a space for those of us watching it to locate ourselves. In the process, NO! forces you on an emotional and political roller coaster ride. In my case, I left that fundraiser knowing I could no longer act as if what I knew I did not know, and what I saw I did not see. That’s perhaps the most beautiful and scary part of viewing NO!–once you watch it, there is no turning back.”
Tamara K. Nopper, educator and writer
Celebrating the life and legacy of Toni Cade Bambara in New York & Atlanta
March 20, 2008
Black Feminist Cultural Worker Extraordinaire
©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 at Filmmor Women’s Film Festival in Turkey
March 15, 2008
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.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons Will Deliver Keynote Presentation at FCADV’s Children & Youth Institute
March 13, 2008
Stopping Domestic Violence Against Youth
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.
Sexual Assault Education | NO! @ University of Michigan Thirteen Years Later
March 12, 2008
Sexual Assault Education | NO! @ University of Michigan Thirteen Years Later
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.
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
March 12, 2008
Black History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ The Brecht Forum
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
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
March 12, 2008
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! at Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
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.
Booklist Reviews NO! A Documentary On Sexual Assault
March 11, 2008
“This DVD helps raise awareness about sexual assault and violence. Especially useful for counselors working with high school and college students facing similar pressures and situations.”
Booklist
David Naguib Pellow’s Testimonial On NO! A Documentary On Sexual Assault
March 10, 2008
“NO! is a force to be reckoned with. This film’s message is painful yet soothing, terrifying yet somehow comforting. NO! speaks truths that are unsettling but ultimately crucial for all of us to hear and know if we are to continue sharing this fragile world of ours. I will make sure that my son studies and absorbs the wisdom and hopeful vision within this wonderful work of art. Simmons has offered us a gift of immeasurable value.”
David Naguib Pellow, Professor of Ethnic Studies,
University of California, San Diego
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