Intimacy Director

Activist

Scholar & Writer

Dr. Ayshia is an intimacy director, activist and award-winning writer from Brooklyn, NY. She writes and directs stories on intimacy and sexuality for the stage. With an MFA from the California Institute of Arts and a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst; Dr. Ayshia uses performance to investigate human rights, race and sexuality.

Her critical and creative work have appeared in Howlround, Black Camera, Qualitative Inquiry, Boston University Press, Open to Interpretation, Imaginary Friends Press, A Gathering of the Tribes, International Review of Qualitative Research, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, and is forthcoming in Research in Drama Education and Theatre Topics.

Dr. Ayshia has directed productions at The Huntington, Fresh Ink Theatre, UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center, Jewel Box Theatre in NYC, Arts at the Armory (Boston), Davis Square Theatre, The Rockwell, and the DC Black Theatre & Arts Festival. She is Assistant Professor of Art & Performance Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana.