7:00 - 9:00
United States
Director, author, educator and survivor, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, leads a film screening of her film NO! The Rape Documentary, followed by discussion and Q&A.
The internationally acclaimed documentary unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence and healing in African American communities.
NO! The Rape Documentary is the 2006-released Ford Foundation-funded, groundbreaking, film about intra-racial rape, accountability and healing in Black communities. Produced, written and directed over a period of 12-years, by child sexual abuse and adult rape survivor Aishah Shahidah Simmons, this internationally acclaimed, award-winning film also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia.
“If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would heal itself, it must complete the work this film [NO!] begins.” —Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize and National Book award-winning author and human rights activist
Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian cultural worker, who, for over 25-years, has examined the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and sexual violence. Her creative work, published writings, international lectures and independent scholarship are informed by her lived experiences as a child sexual abuse survivor, adult rape survivor and Buddhist practitioner committed to disrupting and ending the inhumane scourge of sexual violence, humanely. Simmons is the editor or Love WITH Accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse anthology, which she was named co-winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award (Lammy) for Best LGBTQ Anthology.
Connect - #LoveWITHAccountability® Project | NO! The Rape Documentary | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | @loveWITHacocuntability
Film & Video
Watch party and film discussions.
One City One Book
Events and workshops curated around SFPL’s One City One Book selection. One City One Book: San Francisco Reads is a citywide literary event that encourages members of the San Francisco community to read the same book at the same time. For more information, see sfpl.org/onecityonebook.