Rae Shaw

Rae Shaw is a Black female writer, filmmaker, and artist whose work is interdisciplinary (social sciences, sciences, cinema, and humanities) and exists over multiple mediums (film, writing, and fabric design), and has been evolving to stretch the boundaries of how Black women see and are seen in the world. Her work concentrates on lifting the experiences of Black women and women of color through media to tell stories that challenge stereotypes in spaces that have sought to confine, exploit, punish, and diminish women through demeaning stereotypes.

Shaw’s screenplays have won honors at top screenwriting competitions in the world including Academy Nicholl Fellowship and the Austin Film Festival; her film work has screened at some of the top film festivals in the US including the Academy nominating Reel Sisters of the Diaspora and Slamdance Film Festival.

​As a teaching artist, her current work seeks to defy category, challenge impossibility, build safe spaces for women and people of color to be vulnerable and authentic; and to play with the lines of genre, form and time. She is the recipient of a number of grants and fellowships including a recent Mellon award, a patron of the libraries, and currently teaches at San Francisco State University.