Dr. Denese Shervington | Ending Violence Against Black Women | Healing Black Communities
June 12, 2008
NO! The Rape Documentary unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in Black communities. Through the testimonies of the featured women survivors, Violence prevention advocates, theologians, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and other leading scholars and human rights activists NO! is a rape prevention tool.
“NO! is a MUST SEE for any of us who are concerned about raising happy, healthy Black families and ultimately fucntional Black communities.” — Dr. Denese Shervington
Denese Shervington, M.D., MPH, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry of Columbia University Medial Center, who divides her time between Columbia’s HIV Center in New York and The Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies, the New Orleans based-non profit organization, which she co-founded in 1990, where she is presently developing a post-Katrina mental health recovery division. Dr. Shervington had the opportunity to view NO! and participate in the dialogue following the screening, at a New Orleans community-based screening, sponsored by the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Order your organizational or institutional copy of NO! and Breaking Silences today. Click here for more information.
If you’re insitution or organization is interested in bringing Aishah Shahidah Simmons to present NO! and facilitate dialogue or a workshop around the issues addressed in NO! please click here for more information.
Together we can raise awareness and works towards ending rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women and children.
Passion Life Magazine | NO! The Rape Documentary
June 12, 2008
Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Independent Documentary Filmmaker interviewed by Sonya Shields
“Aishah Shahidah Simmons and I met over ten years ago in Washington, DC when she was dating an old friend. We spent a Saturday night with friends dancing at the Hung Jury and talking about our future goals. I remember thinking that she was intensely passionate and I followed her career. I had not seen Aishah since that fun night until I ran into her this past fall when she attended the event to celebrate Katherine Acey’s 20th Anniversary with the Astraea Foundation. I knew that I wanted to talk with Aishah about her work and journey to becoming an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, published writer, international lecturer, and activist living in Philadelphia…
What is your passion?
My passion is centralizing the margins of society. Making the invisible, visible. Documenting the lives of women of color globally. I am an activist. The camera lens is my medium to make social change irresistible.
What motivates you to do your work? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this work?
Injustice in the world motivates me. Injustice fuels my passion to make change. Anytime when I feel that I can’t do it, there is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed. An issue very dear to my heart is violence against WOMEN.
I am survivor of violence. It is personal. I know more women here in the United States and abroad who have been impacted by violence than those who have not. Whether it was being the victim of violence or witnessing domestic violence and other forms of violence. It has impacted so many women…
Click here to read the interview in its entirety. http://www.passionlife.net/artmay08.html
Kevin Powell’s Poem “NO!” Addresses Violence Against Women
May 1, 2008
NO!
for Aishah Shahidah Simmons
By Kevin Powell*
Will us boys ever learn that power
can’t be pulled from the meat of our third leg
like the last taste of malt liquor sucked from the
bottom of a bottle? Will we ever cease to find
our torsos slow-dragging with death, our dance
a series of grenades aimed at the bellies of our
mothers’ daughters? Will us boys ever break ranks
with the devil, his bible telling us it is mad cool
to rape women because the master does it, and
don’t we, too, yearn to be masters? Will we ever
be able to glue back the hair, unswell the eye,
dab away the blood, and stitch up the holes of the women
we have knifed, repeatedly, with our hatred and
fear? Will us boys ever be able to admit that
some of us have become predators, our prey the
neighbor, the girlfriend, the wife, the sister,
the niece, the granddaughter whose life is an
unguarded prison cell loaded with screams,
paranoia, and a body unsure why it now eats itself?
Friday, December 31, 1999
*Kevin Powell is a political activist, poet, journalist, essayist, hiphop historian, public speaker, and entrepreneur. He is running, as a Democrat, for a seat in the United States Congress in the 10th Congressional District here in Brooklyn, New York.
Iris’ Testimonial on NO! A Documentary on Rape, Sexual Assault and Healing
April 29, 2008
“On March 9, 2008 I watched your documentary with a group of my friends, all women of color. This was the second time viewing for me and I was impacted just as much if not more than the first. I sat with my girlfriends after watching it and discussed our own feelings, experiences and sadness. Following our viewing we ate a meal together, laughed and expressed love for each other. Our pain and sadness was thankfully nourished by communal care and good food.
I want to say thank you so much for creating NO!. My life has changed after seeing it along with my commitment to ending violence. I don’t feel like I have the proper tools to really thank you but, I just need you to know that your film was amazing. Having the heart and passion for what you created is inspirational. I will take your message and spread it as far and as much as I can. Thank you. Your Sister, Iris“
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