SHANNON JOY SHIRD

SHANNON JOY SHIRD is a writer, producer, cultural curator, yoga instructor and abolitionist. Shannon is born and raised in Baltimore City, MD. Westside to be specific.

While studying international affairs in New York, Shannon, naturally, realized she wanted to work in the arts. She has served as outreach producer on award-winning documentary film, Black and Cuba (2014), and COMPLICIT (2017). She also produced BLOOM a documentary short set in Negril, Jamaica.

Shannon curates public art projects, intimate gallery shows, and produced educational and cultural events for organizations like Brooklyn Arts Council, MoCADA, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Andrew Freedman Home, Black Alliance for Just Immigration and ARTrepreneurship, which she also co-founded. She also crafts thoughtful and specific educational and workplace trainingsfor all ages around topics of racial justice, media literacy, abolition 101, transformative justice, and emotional intelligence.

Shannon has organized mixed media cultural projects in NYC, South Africa, and Japan with 1Future and is an active member of the Venceremos Brigade, a Cuba Solidarity Organization. She’s also producing a podcast: Let’s Get Back To Queer, coming December 2020.

In 2015 she wrote a short story that became the short film, BodyMore. She serves as the film's writer and executive producer. Shannon takes care of Operations for House of Ease. She holds a BA in History and International Affairs from Smith College and a MA in International Affairs from The New School in NYC.

Follow her on Twitter & IG @MissShird.