Black GRRRL Healing: Interviews, Poetry, Experimental Audio and Films

Black GRRRL Healing (2015 - 2018) was a multimedia project spanning many disciplines both academic and artistic. The multi-year creative endeavor began with a mixed-media poetry anthology released in 2016. The release included a limited-run of hand-sewn zines accompanied by a mix tape featuring shah’s recitation of the poetry over ambient and soothing instrumental beats. The collection was featured in number of artist residencies at galleries and storefronts, including Regina’s Door (2015), PIF Gallery (2016), and Omiroo (2017).

The project also lived a simultaneous life in the research and scholarly work that would lead to shah’s Masters Portfolio in the Spring of 2017. This book-length thesis featured interviews from three Black women living and working in Oakland who’s lifework embodying the Black feminist praxis of care and healing towards liberation. The portfolio also included theoretically grounded research papers, which have been published in the anthologies Color Theory (2019) and The Black Aesthetic (2017). Finally, the project included multimedia aspects such as one experimental audio podcast and two short film productions.

That same year, shah was interviewed for a project in conjunction with the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California.

While the project has been archived and is no longer available to the public, its impact live on as the foundation for shah’s current research, tentatively title Black GRRRL Rising.