Performance Artist

Vocalist

Poet

(Intimacy) Director

Dr. Ayshia is a performance artist, vocalist, (intimacy) director, and award-winning poet from Brooklyn, NY. With an MFA from CalArts and a PhD from UMass Amherst, she uses performance and media to investigate race, sexuality, health and human rights. She has been writing and directing Black theatre for twenty years and is the founder of “racial justice theatre” (not to be confused with anti-racist theatre). As an interdisciplinary scholar, her critical and creative work appears in Routledge, Black Camera, Qualitative Inquiry, Boston University Press, International Review of Qualitative Research, Theatre Topics, Howlround and Research in Drama Education. Dr. Ayshia’s most recent publication, Intimacy Directing for Theatre: Creating a Culture of Consent in the Classroom and Beyond, was released by Routledge in August 2023 and is the first intimacy directing textbook for teachers. Dr. Ayshia has intimacy directed and/or led workshops for productions at The Huntington, Fresh Ink Theatre, Jewel Box Theatre in NYC, Arts at the Armory (Somerville), LSU, Northeastern, Company One Theatre, Stage Source and the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival. You can check out her performance work here: www.youtube.com/c/DrAyshiaTV