Archive on Luv 'til it Hurts

Relatoría Sesión #6 – Disidencia Sonora

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas

Relatoría 24 Agosto

sesión #6

disidencia sonora

artista invitado: Mauricio Rivera Henao

lugar: Adorno – Liberia

Relatoría:

Mauricio Rivera es artista sonoro, también trabaja con video e instalaciones. Tiene una pregunta constante por el territorio.

Disidencia = contra hegemónico

Obra: un diálogo con el lago Titicaca

Paisaje sonoro: retratar los paisajes en término sonoros. Volver plástica la materia sonora. Habla de tener conversaciones con insectos o minerales como gesto contra hegemónico ( disidente ).

Character Development à la Proust

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*I totally misunderstood what you wanted me to do with the ‘Proust Questionnaire’ and just answered the original. I get it now … you’re gonna ask me these questions in a new fresh way. Is that it? Go ahead, and we’ll link my new fresh answers here!]

hey ego sum frank (aka Dr. Prof. ego sum frank),

I want to commend you on your new pursuit. While I’ve not yet visited the offices of MetaMorphineMachineFuriosaXXX, I imagine it to be a hybrid pharmacy and yarn shop. I even heard you all make quilts there. But before I would normally digress, let me answer these 35 questions that Proust used to ‘size up’ a character. I would like to assume the character of the difficult artist. I suppose this is somehow the real me; I’ve been called it with great regularity since I began the Luv ’til it Hurts project just over a year ago. I am starting to believe it, and therefore I’m ready to answer this particular MMMFXXX inquest.

LUV is an Endorser of the HIV2020 Conference in Mexico City

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

HIV2020: Community Reclaiming the Global Response
Mexico City, July 6-8, 2020
www.hiv2020.org

-–Background—

Human rights conditions in the United States of America (U.S.) have worsened, since the presidential election of Donald Trump. This is especially true for immigrants from Muslim, African, Caribbean and Latin American countries, as well as for people of color, people who use drugs, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and sex workers. Legal travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. on sex workers and people who use drugs, will make it very difficult for our communities to enter the country.

Relatoría Sesión #4 – Arte / Fronteras

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas

Relatoría 27 Julio

sesión #4

Arte y fronteras políticas

Invitadas:

Melissa Guevara

Artista

Laura Echeverri

Abogada derechos humanos

Relatoría:

Melisa Guevara es artista Salvadoreña. Habló del libro “Luciérnagas en el Mozote” que contiene narraciones y testimonios sobre la masacre (1981) mas grande que ha sucedió en américa latina, 900 muertos perpetrados por el ejercito.

También nos habla del proyecto 24 Horas de fronteras abiertas, realizado por el colectivo del que hace parte, comprendido por dos colombianos, dos salvadoreños y un salvadoreño en NY. El proyecto se trata de grabar 24 capítulos relacionados cada uno a diferentes perspectivas sobre fronteras y migración, visto desde el punto de vista académico, artístico y de los inmigrantes mismos.

HIV+ in São Paulo

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve all heard about the gay content shows being cancelled or censored all over Brasil. Maybe you heard of the Sexualities show at MASP a couple years back as well. MASP is a big institution. It gets big-named curators. And a lot of attention.

Just now there is a theatre piece on HIV being censored in São Paulo.

I came up with the Queer City (or Cidade Queer) a project within Lanchonete.org as a response to contracting HIV in São Paulo a few years before. I am happy with how Cidade Queer performed as a project. During its span in 2015/16, research would have been done for the forthcoming Sexualities show at MASP. In 2017 we were still making programming with a strong Canadian partner. I had a part-time job with that organization, resulting from a ten-year grant-receiving relationship during which I also served as creative director to some major foundation programs. I deployed a 20-year global cultural network to each program I took on for the Canadian organization. I forgot my HIV meds on one of my many international trips in 2017 working for the foundation. I asked for a ‘cost of living allowance’ /COLA-related increase on my next contract near the end of 2017. It was related to the cost of international travel insurance that would cover medication replacement. I was pouting about this once over dinner with a friend, an HIV+ medical doctor. He responded that he’d lost his medical post the week after he presented ideas on a panel at the Queer City finale, an international ball and awareness-raising day on a range of ‘queer’ issues. In that I understood that I was not alone. I recently got to go to Egypt and on way back met an exiled Egyptian activist living with his partner in Paris. He raised his voice about the government stalling his HIV meds, and he was beaten up one night in his apartment. Other serious danger signals happened: threats. They left to Paris and began advocacy work on the situation in Egypt and Middle East. I spoke to a Mexican artist who moved to Berlin after falling blind due to lack of access to HIV meds. These stories pile up as I survey my peers on their regions and conditions in preparation for Luv ’til it Hurts.

Relatoría Sesión #3 – Arte / VIH

Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas
Relatoría 13 Julio

sesión #3
Arte / VIH

Invitados:
Fernando Arias
José Fernando Serrano
Juan Betancurth

Relatoría:

Fernando habló de su proyecto de residencias Más arte más acción. Dice que para el arte debe accionar. También habló de la importancia de la crítica

En diálogo con José Fernando se tocaron los siguientes temas:

Activismo / Violencia / LGBTI / proceso de paz / activismo LGBTI en Colombia / LGBTI con la paz (ahí se trabajó el tema Venezuela)

Luv Letter, # complicated

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A guy from Mexico contracted HIV. We had condomless sex. I remember this well. Some four years after our hook-up he contacted me because of Luv ’til it Hurts. He wanted to catch up. He wanted to know when I contracted HIV. He needed to dispel an idea that maybe he had carried HIV since the night of our lovemaking. I needed to react with annoyance. I did not. I needed to allow this. Also. It seemed. I had allowed it before in fact. This inquisition into memory and desire and night and sex and lovemaking. It was in a graveyard, a detail I should probably leave out.

Sesión #2 - Memoria Léxica

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Relatoría Sesión #1 - Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Laboratorio Luciérnagas
Relatoría 15 junio

sesión #1
Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes (para artistas y no artistas)

Escuchamos la pieza sonora de John Cage “canción para Marcel Duchamp”.
Hicimos cuadernos de notas para tomar anotaciones.
¿Por qué del laboratorio? Lineamientos.
Cada uno habló de cómo se relaciona con los contenidos del laboratorio

Contexto del cuerpo en las artes:

Body art, Arte Conceptual, Performance, Danza, otros. El cuerpo como material.

Some remarks before I make the video

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Deza,

I’ve been thinking about something and I’d like to share it. Perhaps these are thoughts that go into the production of a short video clip. While I don’t pretend to know how to edit such a thing, and barely know how to turn my camera on (something I don’t often do for skypes). I don’t like to give away my ’eye power’ so much.

I wanted to start with something I recently read. In Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Art, one of his citations suggest that an artist will often attract attention to her/his/their self in order to then re-direct it somewhere else. Without re-reading or reading into the statement too much, I get it. Given my interest in art history, it is quite easy to think up of various incidences and artists to which this idea pertains.

1st 'About' page: A discussion to be accountable to

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A discussion to be accountable to …

Luv ’til it Hurts is about HIV and stigma.

Discussion, campaign, mechanism, agency.

All of these words describe the vision for Luv ‘til it Hurts. Yet, if it becomes nothing more than a discussion to be accountable to, then it has succeeded.

It should have this accountability first and foremost. And, thereby, remember the work (art and otherwise) that came before it.

As a porous container, it aspires to ‘hold’ people together long enough for essential introductions and exchange of ideas.

Think Twice Questions for Luv

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My name is Todd Lanier Lester and I started the project, Luv ‘til it Hurts, a two-year project on HIV & stigma. The Think Twice Collective has agreed to join the LUV ‘coalition’ … I’ll explain what that is along the way, but just wanted to say thanks for being in an open-ended conversation with me. The last project I co-made, Lanchonete.org was a five-year investigation of the right to the city in São Paulo, and also took a collective form. I enjoy the pace and other characteristics of collective decision-making. freeDimensional, a 10-year project on free expression and artist shelter was the first of a three-project set that have spanned almost 20 years. What connects the three projects is that they are all durational, rights-focused and open to multiple stakeholders.

The Gathering

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Company - S_elf Portrait_
1998, silver gelatin print, 20x16 inches

Introduction

In “A Conversation with Eric Rhein,” an interview on this website, Eric was asked about some writing he’d done: a text which corresponds with many of the themes in his recent exhibition, Lifelines. Eric followed-up with this memoir, written in 1998, and we are happy that he’s shared it with us here.

The Gathering
by Eric Rhein
(1998)

what's the connection between Luv & CHAOS?

Fri, 06 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Deza,

Luv ’til it Hurts is a two-year project focused on HIV and Stigma. CHAOS is a campaign about mental health. As a person who has a chronic mental health condition as well as HIV, it is easy for me to consider and ‘internalize’ how my mental state and HIV ‘get along’ within me. As an artist who makes public, multi-stakeholder projects, I would like to ’externalize’ a range of topics that pertain to HIV and stigma. I am using my own experience to ask how others contend with the two ‘co-morbidities’ (as the doctors call them) of HIV and depression.

Venezuela, Bogotá

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luciérnagas Laboratorio: Arte | fronteras | VIH proyecto de arte por Daniel Santiago Salguero

Querido Todd. Respondiendo a tus preguntas del último correo te cuento: Efectivamente la crisis Venezolana ha traído una cantidad inmensa de personas de Venezuela a Colombia. Es la migración interna más grande en la historia reciente de Sur América. Se habla de hasta cuatro millones de venezolanos que están ahora en Colombia. Esto ha transformando el territorio cultural. Han llegado a asentarse en todas las ciudades de Colombia, inclusive en las islas del Caribe o en territorios rurales distantes de las ciudades. Muchos vinieron en una primera ola, quizás donde hubo más oportunidades o eran personas con preparación profesional. Ahora no es así, vienen las personas más pobres y en las situaciones más difíciles. Vienen inclusive hasta Bogotá caminando desde Venezuela. Atraviesan páramos y se enfrentan con la actitud xenófoba de muchos colombianos que no toleran su situación. No recuerdan por ejemplo que fueron los colombianos lo que emigraron a Venezuela en nuestra crisis económica y de violencia en los años noventas. Se dice que han regresado más de 300.000 colombianos que vivían en Venezuela. También se dice que la situación acá para los Venezolanos está tan difícil que muchos se están regresando a su país, se dice que se ven personas caminando por las carreteras hacia Colombia y otras ya regresandose a Venezuela. La relación específica y que interesa con respecto al VIH es que en Venezuela ya no hay medicinas para atender el virus. Así que quienes tienen VIH en Venezuela deben salir del país en una situación aún más vulnerable que las de los otros migrantes. Deben además de buscar techo, trabajo, arraigo, buscar su medicina, que es muy costosa y que el gobierno colombiano solo suministra a personas nacidas en el país a través del sistema de salud público. La situación está desbordada por muchos lados. Por ejemplo hasta la semana pasada se dio nacionalidad colombiana a más de 24.000 niños que habían nacido de padres venezolanos en territorio colombiano y que hasta ahora no tenían nacionalidad, ya que los consulados venezolanos están cerrados o no existen mas. Cómo vez, son muchas las aristas y hechos por analizar en medio de la debacle. Se dice que esto traerá muchos cambios sociales, y culturales, como se ha visto que ha sucedido en las grandes migraciones a nivel mundial y local. Ayer oí en la radio, están entrando alrededor de cincuenta mil venezolanos diariamente por la frontera a Colombia. A través del laboratorio estamos desentrañado estas historias, informaciones, estadísticas, subjetividades. Entender y encontrar información nos ayuda a situarnos en el territorio que habitamos. Desde el laboratorio intentaremos dar voz y espacio para reflexionar sobre estas urgentes temáticas.

A Conversation with Artist Eric Rhein

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

New York based artist Eric Rhein speaks about his two exhibits, Lifelines, which
have been on view in his home state of Kentucky.
Lifelines is an exhibition at two locations in Lexington: at Institute 193 through
July 27 th , and the Lexington’s 21c Museum Hotel, through the end of August.
Todd Lanier Lester, of the Luv ‘til it Hurts campaign, asked Eric about the
shows—and his current and ongoing concerns.

A Discussion between CHAOS + LUV

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TL: Hi Deza .. we’ve known each other for over a decade now and met through my beloved Cameroonian network and when I was making freeDimensional. You are based in Paris and FULL STOP, I admire your work. When I met you, you had just placed beautiful portraits on Paris city buses of people that challenge our notions of what it means to be ‘able’…that opened a discussion on ‘ableism’ in Paris and far beyond. Do you have a link to that previous work you can share here?

Thank you to Lois Weaver (ample version)

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Conceived by Luv ’til it Hurts participants during a design workshop in Port Said, Egypt, the LUV_GAME is inspired by The Long Table, a performance process by Lois Weaver. The game is designed for art world and non-art world venues … public, private and super private spaces. At the same time it may be available online one day. The game pieces will be downloadable from the LUV site by World AIDS Day, December 1, 2019. Each time the game is presented in a new language, the translated ‘instructions’ will be made available from the site. The game can be played in black and white or in color.

Fault Lines

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ’til it Hurts is the third in a series of durational, multi-stakeholder, rights-focused art works: freeDimensional (2003-12), Lanchonete.org (2013-17), and LUV (2018-20). In Why Make an ‘Open Work’? I discuss some of the logic around stakeholder recruitment. Between the first and second, the first and third, and the second and third projects, I have invited cross-over stakeholders. For example, Adham Bakry who is working on ACT I has worked on design outputs for all three projects. There is a practicality in doing so: to learn to work with another artist or designer ‘practices a muscle’ that gets stronger through repetition. If it works, it really works, and can reduce some of the time needed to train production staff on a project that includes a ‘cross-over stakeholder’ and for which they are contributing a similar skillset offered for a past project. Design is an easy example to use here.

Interview With Ankh Association

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

TL: A mutual friend and queer activist in Cairo was helping me find a place to stay in Paris only a few days before my trip. I somehow end up sleeping on your couch in the suburbs of Paris.

You two make the Ankh Association that supports LGBTQQI and HIV+ folks in the Middle East through an arts advocacy campaign. Can I ask, how you got here? Back in Paris and making Ankh?

Pour La Libération Immédiate de Malak El-Kashif!

Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Lundi 1er juillet, à l’initiative de l’ Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human rights), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et avec le soutien d’EuroMed Rights, la Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de L’Homme, et la Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, s’est tenue une conférence de presse au siège de la LDH pour réclamer la libération immédiate de l’activiste transsexuelle égyptienne Malak El-Kashif.

Why Make an ‘Open Work’?

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I launched Luv ’til it Hurts, a long-considered project on HIV and stigma in July 2018. The project goes through the middle of 2020 officially, and yet I’m also quite interested in the afterlife of projects. DURATION is important to me for reasons I’ll explain later, and based on specific methods drawn from the community organizing field. Luv ’til it Hurts follows a five-year project on the right to the city, site-specific to the center of São Paulo called Lanchonete.org and a ten-year project, freeDimensional on free expression and artist safety (and shelter) in pre-existing artist residencies around the world. Given that an afterlife is expected and having experimented with different forms of archiving (or the project reporting on itself) with both freeDimensional and Lanchonete.org, Luv ’til it Hurts attempts to externalize a ‘record’ of the two-year process in various ways, such as the project’s website as ‘scrapbook’… and even an annual report.

Eric Rhein: Lifelines

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Our partner Eric Rhein opens a beautiful exhibition at Institute 193, showing from June 19 - July 24. Don’t miss it!

See: Institute 193’s Facebook event

House of Zion Debut at Luv 'Til It Hurts Launch

Sat, 08 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

[*Before Pony Zion took part in Cidade Queer and Luv ’til it Hurts, I had the opportunity to attend one of his workshops in Lecce, Italy. xot]

In his own words, Pony Zion describes his motivation for sharing his dance performance and choreography on the occasion of Luv ’til it Hurts’ NYC launch:

“This is one of those extremely special moments in time when we get to connect in artistic communication and celebrate one another through the expression within our gifts and on top of important platforms that were built to Lead, Learn and Love. Together, let’s explore our imagination, share our minds and live by our talents by engaging in our Luv ‘TIL it Hurts.”

Luv 'Til It Hurts

Thu, 16 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ‘Til It Hurts: the Launch

Mon, 29 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Luv ‘Til It Hurts was formally launched October 27, 2018 at the historic LGBTQ Center in New York City. In keeping with Luv ‘til it Hurts stated mission,

‘’to be a porous container, it aspires to ‘hold’ people together

long enough for essential introductions and exchange ideas’’

for me at the time of this writing, April 2019 it has already been a ravishing success. I launched Every Where Alien [my arts culture and content producing brand and company] in January 2019. My first project is in the form of a narrative documentary and requires travel to São Paulo. I’m thrilled Luv ‘Til It Hurts, found Every Where Alien’s project worthy of support.

Chateau Truvada

Thu, 25 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When I was raped, first he bought me cigarettes.
Both of us hilariously drunk, he followed me
into the bathroom, came up behind, then yanked
my pants down and pushed me into the tub.
This was at some rich girl’s apartment downtown.
When we were invited to the same wedding
(years later) and I told the groom why I didn’t want
to see him again, same boy texted me about
“what you think happened that night” because
he never realized what he did, maybe, scarily
easy to believe how obliviousness works.
But I remember: days later, going to the clinic,
telling them I was assaulted, getting tested.
“Oh honey, why didn’t you go to the police?”
Back then I didn’t fuck sober and loathed my body.
In 2012 the FDA approved Truvada as PrEP.
Antiretroviral medicines were used as post-exposure
prophylaxis on an “occupational” basis for nurses
stuck with needles, risked by strange blood. Now
taking pills as prevention was becoming a thing.
I researched the drug and went to Callen-Lorde
where a tidy doctor shot me down, denying the script
because “you’re not a sex worker” and telling me,
“Just try not to hook up with guys when you drink.”
I thought I’d hate him when I seroconverted.
There was an unreasonable terror situated bone- deep that belied comprehension, the magical
thinking convincing me a virus could possibly
render you less worthy of love. What a fucking lie.
I realize that stories about HIV don’t have to be
couched in medical concern or whited moralization.
Nothing othering will gain subsists reputedly,
as a game tide of men turns on the axis of knowing.

We Do Not Tread The Way That Is Conducted By Reason

Mon, 22 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We do not tread the way that is conducted by reason!

The white-born reason, from white Greece… So pale and thirsting for blood…

Reason built insane asylums and raised prisons…

It is necessary to be very rational to calculate punishments, as long as productivity does not decline, and faith remains… Yes, even faith becomes inebriated by rationality, to collect awards in the gelid and quiet sky…

Reason divided us between the superior (those gifted by reason) and the inferior (those lacking in reason)… In this hierarchy the one who occupies the top dictates who can live and who must die…

Mandala Art and the Story Behind How I Made It

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

By Ayu Oktariani

I was living with HIV for 8 years when I decide to pregnant. It’s been a long journey to make that decision. Waiting for the man who understand each other and want to take responsibility of having a child free from HIV. My husband is HIV Negative, so of course it’s easier for me to planning the pregnancy. I’m very nervous. It’s been 10 years after my first born. We have sex, no condom this time. But before planning to get pregnant, we always used the condom. I feel uncomfortable if we don’t use it, yeah you know… because of the HIV.

HIV/AIDS Testimonial Art Story

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Joyce McDonald is an artist in many senses of the word. She is, of course, a literal artist: a talented painter and sculptor whose works often capture in stark relief the gamut of emotions she’s experienced throughout her colorful life. Joyce is also a weaver of words: not just as a poet or a songwriter (she is both), but also as speaker for her church’s AIDS ministry and assistant director of its children’s choir. We are celebrating her for Love Positive Women 2019.

Breathing Seeing Life

Tue, 12 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My art practice has always been tied into what is happening around me. I am constantly seeing and hearing things that really need to be manifested as visual. In any given day I probably get 30 ideas for pieces.

That’s the easy part but what’s more difficult is trying to decipher if it merits the attention and energy I will would put into it.

I used to kind of flip around from concept to idea to concept, but now I tend to work longer and more intensely with one to three areas at a time. Right now, my focus is on disenfranchised older women, rage, and always, some concept of beauty. Generally this manifests as nature.

Luv Til It Hurts

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I am grateful for community. For me, I find the most healing when I find community with others living with HIV. When I can share and hold space with another survivor (anyone still living with the virus is a survivor). It means the world to meet another person, who is a survivor of all the shame, guilt, and trauma that comes with being HIV positive. Healing happens when you find another person who is willing to trust you, and share that they are HIV positive. I find healing when I can share, hold space, and facilitate a discussion with 3 other young people living with HIV. I find healing when we can talk about our shared struggles, and support one another without any filters, without any judgement, or without any shame or stigma in the room. When I am in this kind of space, I don’t need to explain to anyone what it’s like to be living with HIV. Everyone in the room just gets it already, no explanations necessary. A space that is affirming, and truly free from the feeling of: “sometimes it feels like HIV negative people will never get it.” That is a very rare space to find.

Sex Work-as-art, Sex Worker-as-artist: the art of Dinah de Riquet-Bons.

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Nic Holas for The HIV Howler: Transmitting Art and Activism

“Build bridges with groups made invisible to society because of fear, phobia, racism, discrimination and stigma. Trans sex workers of colour are the most vulnerable and least consulted. Building bridges means sitting at the table when decisions are made."

Those are the words of Dinah de Riquet-Bons, who this week should need no introduction. Any AIDS 2018 delegate at the Monday night opening ceremony would not be able to forget her opening address, alongside Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Sigrid Kaag. So impressive, so moving, was de Riquet-Bons that Kaag implored her to commence a career in politics, telling her “need more women like you.”

Sanandome

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

L’Orangelis Thomas Negron
January 31st
San Juan, Puerto Rico

Lo más práctico que aprendí del amor, fue durante el proceso de sanación de la última depresión que sentí después de verano. El proceso de la sanación es, para mi, un ciclo de apoderamiento sobre conciencias, herramientas, narrativas y poderes, que nos mueve de un punto a otro, para recordar sin dolor, más con aprendizaje. En aquel momento varias cosas se entrelazaban; las muy personales, los asuntos políticos y de activismo, la situación por la que cruza el país, y aquellas más espirituales y de transiciones que no siempre una entiende. El proceso de salir de ahí, fue un trabajo arduo, de estar constantemente presente en mi, ser paciente conmigo misma, darme el permiso de sentir lo que tuviese que sentir para moverme de punto “A” a punto “B”, escoger en qué cosas, momentos y personas iba a poner mi energía, entre otras.

More Than Thirty Years

Fri, 08 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

For more than Thirty years,

The same doors swing open,

While rusty ones slam shut.

I am and have been HIV-positive 11,000 days.

Why is this virus different than a cold virus?

Why do rules bar me from certain pleasures?

What difference did it ever make to most people?

How come the world forgot to set off fireworks

The night I discovered that I was no longer infectious?

No longer able to transmit, this virus?

Arts Empowerment

Thu, 07 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

By Wanda Hernandez Parks

Chair on the board of Directors of Vocal-NY, cofounder of the Women Empowerment Art Therapy group, with Shirlene Cooper. I have encountered many great organizations, but only one connects art and activism. I became a member of Visual AIDS in 2014, when I attended the Love Positive Women event. I immediately fell in love with Visual AIDS and their mission and I am taking in every opportunity I can to leave a legacy behind.

ON LOVE

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It is nothing new that there is a project of extermination on course, it did not begin yesterday and it will not end tomorrow… a project that aims at profit and that is managed by the market… In which some bodies are more “dieable” than others. The subject with rights is the cis-hetero-white man, and what is left for everything else that does not fit into this, is the enemy’s criminal law. And we are the enemy.

Love Heals

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Being invited to write as an artist, to be celebrated for the campaign Positive Affirmation Day, felt great. I had a sense of pride, a warmth, a worthiness, feelings that I am learning to cultivate, so sure, I’ll support Love Positive Women, tell me more…

“Luv til it hurts”

“Ummm”

Now I feel unsettled, confused, triggered.

I breathe,

I am a survivor of intimate partner violence,

Olive Edwards and The Jamaican Community of Positive Women: Quilting to EmpowHer

Mon, 04 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Written by Jessica Whitbread for The HIV Howler: Transmitting Art and Activism

In 2012, Olive Edwards supported the Jamaican Community of Positive Women (JCW+) in establishing a quilting club to support women living with HIV to engage in dialogue about their trauma in relation to HIV. In 2016, this arts based method for establishing peer to peer connections was developed into a 2 day workshop to enable for the process to be shared and replicated in three other countries in the Caribbean region (Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tabago).

Catwalk4power

Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The definition of an artist collective is, an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together to achieve a common objective, this is also the definition of “Catwalk4power”.

That most of the women involved would not describe themselves as artists or link the development of the most “empowering evening ever” to a shared creative process, is exactly why it worked.

Catwalk4power was ignited by the spark “We want to make women visible, how about a fashion show?” and with each contribution, suggestion and inspiration it has grown into a fierce fire and a force for positive engagement. Starting with a focus on what strengths women had, meant existing skills were realised and honed, and leaders allowed to emerge. Everyone involved had a stake in the project, and there wasn’t really a plan, it just grew organically, there was no right or wrong way to do anything, we just did it.

How do you love yourself!

Sat, 02 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Deloris Dockrey

How do you love yourself!

When you are told that you are worthless, no good and lazy.

When you are told that you are fat and useless.

When you begin to internalize people’s opinion of you.

You rise above people’s opinions and you rely on you.

You see the beauty in your life.

You see the joy of your family.

You experience the love of family and you revel in their warmth.

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN

Fri, 01 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN (LPW) happens each year between February 1st–14th. It is a global project, conceptualized in 2012 and implemented in 2013, raising awareness about women and girls living with HIV using social media to link local grassroots gestures of love. Using Valentine’s Day as a backdrop, Love Positive Women creates a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice, Love Positive Women is call to action. It requires participants to spend time reflecting about how they, as either a woman living with HIV or an ally, will commit to loving women living with HIV. Through action, change can be made. Working from a place of strength, Love Positive Women focuses on the idea of interconnectedness, relationship building, loving oneself and loving one’s community. By starting from a place of love, there are endless ways to build strong communities. While Love Positive Women is active primarily between February 1st–14th, it remains a symbol of how the world can be different throughout the year. Groups in over 45 countries have participated in shifting lives and making a difference through acts of love. LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an ongoing project established by Visual AIDS artist member Jessica Whitbread.

$oropositiva

Mon, 28 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Piece: $oropositiva**
Collage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy
30x 40**

Micaela Cyrino, 30, is a visual artist and militant of sexual and reproductive rights, blackness, and HIV / AIDS, in her artistic work and in her participation in groups such as Coletivo Amem. She graduated in Visual Arts from Santa Marcelina University. (São Paulo, Brazil)

Luv 'til it Hurts

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Across generations of continents
What do it mean to be haunted?

by a virus. A bluegrass
grandma in Sparta, Tennessee died today;

So did Ntozake Shange.

I wonder is it was they knew each other?
Ntozake and grandma?

the yellow / the red / the Asian pacific islander /
the poor poor white / the black / the trans girl /
the doula / the woman / the social worker / the rich /
the nuyorican / the new yawker /the southern belle /
the global south /Brasil / the brown-black / AMEM
and thank you /the activist / the artivist / the Zion / the poet /
the visual artist / the scholar / the writer / the shunned /
the convener / the loved / the forsaken

AIDS 2018 Journal

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

“It is just another coin in the pouch. Sometimes it comes out heads; it’s a blessing. Sometimes it comes out tails; it’s a curse”. — Frederick Weston.

As I have struggled at the many crossroads in my life, I have never thought one day I will embrace such thing that I used to disregard in my everyday life, and even carry it go on a journey for staying alive. To continue my research on HIV/ AIDS, I traveled to the city which is 12 hours different from my motherland, selling myself to explain my story and my project often and often, like the endless stage. There were happiness and disappointment in this unpredictable magical script; sometimes I even feel like I might have already seen it all, but of course, I have not, since I am merely a human being who is trying to find the connection as the lifeline to keep going. It seems like the world did hear my hunger, once again I had the opportunity to visit a new land where I have never been, I flew to Amsterdam for the 2018 International AIDS Conference from the surreal life in New York.

“The Cure for AIDS is Kindness….”

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My community mother, Darien Taylor, was one of the first women living with HIV to do direct action with AIDS ACTION NOW! in Toronto in the late 80s – she’s seen a lot. Darien said that I was a love warrior, and what I advocate for was people being and feeling loved. Which I guess is different than people being accepted because being loved, feeling sexy, being desired, or getting fucked ultimately come with a sense of feeling good and at a deeper level change our quality of life. I had a conversation with a taxi driver in Johannesburg once who asked me if there was a cure for AIDS, I told him yes – kindness. For many people living with HIV and those who are marginalized by ability, age, class, and so on life really sucks sometime and through my projects such as LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN, Tea Time, and No Pants No Problem I aim to change people’s sense of wellbeing at both the micro and macro levels. I believe that role modeling how to be a good friend, lover, family member or service provider has effects that ripple through our communities. People notice. People feel it. I feel it.

Coletivo Amem - São Paulo <> NYC

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Coletivo Amem is a São Paulo-based artistic collective that promotes festivals, performances and debates focusing on race, class, gender, and public health.

Coletivo Amem ‘occupies’ São Paulo’s Container Theatre during Virada Cultural 2018.

https://youtu.be/B4iXEe_PNFg

For the last two years Coletivo Amem and House of Zion (Brasil) have visited NYC during Black Pride and #HouseLivesMatter.

The House of Zion in Brasil came about during a 2016 visit to São Paulo by New York’s Pony Zion.

Embroidery and curating non-artists

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

photo: Cadu Oliveira

My upstairs neighbor, Carué is a medical doctor and AIDS activist. While he doesn’t front as artist, he has a cool project (that occurs to me as artistic) by which he asks for a piece of clothing. He takes it to a local shopping mall, Galeria do Rock where a lot of young people hang out in the center of São Paulo and a specific embroidery shop in the busy arcade. He pays for ‘HIV+’ to be embroidered somewhere prominently on the piece. He then tells you where to pick it up. One need not be HIV+ to receive this gift. Recently I asked him if I could include a photograph of his embroidered work in a museum show that I’m co-curating. For a range of reasons, the curatorial group first used a cropped image of his suit coat without his face, and agreed that I would ask him if he preferred a different image. Carué insisted that we show his face, and so we replaced the ‘suit coat’ with a new image he provided. It was an easy decision to come to, perhaps because we have already acknowledged both the need to personalize (or put a face to HIV) against the subtext of using the face of a white man for this particular theme (and in the Museum of Sexual Diversity’s location in a busy metro station). Since these topics were already ‘on the table’, the curatorial group was able to easily balance the topic of HIV/AIDS with other themes; reconsider the prominence and placement of non-white faces and voices in the small space; and adjust the ratio of women, men, trans (men and women), and non-binary folks participating in the show. As a curator, artist and HIV+ downstairs neighbor, I found it a unique learning experience. And, I also understood why Carué required me to pick up my gift, when the lady at the embroidery shop asked me to repeat more loudly what was embroidered on the piece as she shuffled through past orders in the back of the shop. ‘HIV+’ I said, and tipped my head to the guy behind me in line who was waiting on us to finish the transaction. She found it, holding up a green linen button-up with fluorescent orange embroidery.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREEN:

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

PORTRAIT OF AN ORAL HISTORY BETWEEN

KARION LIU & THEODORE (ted) KERR

**A.
**He is an artist and I am a writer. We call each other Kai and Ted. We are both short, cis-gender, gay men. He has black hair. I don’t have hair. We are from different parts of the world. I am from Canada, he is from Taiwan. But we both grew up in complicated families where violence was present and we both like cinnamon raisin bagels topped with vegetables. We are about a decade apart in age, with Kai being born after me.

Letter Report

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Hi all this is a report that the musician that worked with me producing and thinking the music of my last completed worked named “Fantasia casi soneto después de una lectura de dan(c)e” sent me after going to ArteBA Focus (version of the big art fair in Buenos Aires done by the same people):

Hi, Dudu, how’s it going?

I was on ArteBA Focus for a while, all right. I give you a brief report: The work was in a plasma TV of acceptable size, but had no headphones, and the environment was too noisy to be heard well with the speakers of the device. Also, when I went, the video had a jump, a line of slight horizontal digital noise, which appeared cyclically and affected everything, video and audio. Still, it could be said that, given the context, the work was “intelligible”, and in fact, I saw several people stop to look at it for a while. Very good photos of you too, I liked them.

Statement on Humans As Hosts and the artwork of Kairon Liu

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Our DNA, the map of our genetic information (our growth, development, functioning, and reproduction), is 99.9% the same for each and every one of the 7+ billion people living on Earth. That said, while we share common genetic bonds, our social, cultural, and emotional experiences are unique. This duality is significantly addressed by two of the foremost figures in developmental psychology: Jean Piaget (1896-1980) and Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). The research of Piaget and Vygotsky signified that it is a combination of ‘Nature’ and ‘Nurture,’ that accounts for a person’s development. In other words, while we all have the natural ability to learn and develop, how we perceive the world largely depends on our experience and education.

A discussion to be accountable to …

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A discussion to be accountable to …

_New generations of HIV/AIDS strategies
_6-8:30pm, Saturday, Oct. 27th

See video of the House of Zion debut performance that preceded the panel discussion.

Free and Open to the public

The Center
208 W 13 St
New York, NY 10011
212.620.7310

A discussion to be accountable to … is a part of Reimagine End of Life in NYC, a week of exploring big questions about life and death. The story goes that two artist projects focused on HIV—Humans as Hosts & Luv ‘til it Hurts—‘met’ in NYC, and Reimagine End of Life festival is the context for an intimate chat and hanging out with friends. Making new ones. Seeing a new piece by Pony Zion. It looks like a panel, but it’s more like a ‘discussion’… on stigma and HIV in different parts of the world. New networks. New strategies. Right now.

Luv Till It Hurts by Kairon Liu

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 18 from 6-8pm
Exhibition dates: October 18-28, 2018
Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, 12-6pm

El Museo de Los Sures
120 South 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
(Between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street)

Curatorial Advisor: Adam Zucker, Theodore (Ted) Kerr

Organized by Luv ’til it hurts, and collaborating with more than 150 others to co-create Reimagine End of Life 2018.

Today, medical treatments help people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) have prolonged and ordinary lives, as well as prevent further transmission, but they can never kill the virus hiding within. Despite these advances, moral condemnation and discrimination against the disease continue. The consequences of this stigma are mental illness and distress, often generating greater suffering than the physiological disease itself. Until a true cure is found, shame, insecurity, and trauma will continue to afflict those diagnosed with HIV until our societies and communities change the ways in which we consider and support them.

Archive on Luv 'til it Hurts

Relatoría Sesión #6 – Disidencia Sonora

Character Development à la Proust

LUV is an Endorser of the HIV2020 Conference in Mexico City

Relatoría Sesión #4 – Arte / Fronteras

HIV+ in São Paulo

Relatoría Sesión #3 – Arte / VIH

Luv Letter, # complicated

Sesión #2 - Memoria Léxica

Relatoría Sesión #1 - Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes

Some remarks before I make the video

1st 'About' page: A discussion to be accountable to

Think Twice Questions for Luv

The Gathering

what's the connection between Luv & CHAOS?

Venezuela, Bogotá

A Conversation with Artist Eric Rhein

A Discussion between CHAOS + LUV

Thank you to Lois Weaver (ample version)

Fault Lines

Interview With Ankh Association

Pour La Libération Immédiate de Malak El-Kashif!

Why Make an ‘Open Work’?

Eric Rhein: Lifelines

House of Zion Debut at Luv 'Til It Hurts Launch

Luv 'Til It Hurts

Luv ‘Til It Hurts: the Launch

Chateau Truvada

We Do Not Tread The Way That Is Conducted By Reason

Mandala Art and the Story Behind How I Made It

HIV/AIDS Testimonial Art Story

Breathing Seeing Life

Luv Til It Hurts

Sex Work-as-art, Sex Worker-as-artist: the art of Dinah de Riquet-Bons.

Sanandome

More Than Thirty Years

Arts Empowerment

ON LOVE

Love Heals

Olive Edwards and The Jamaican Community of Positive Women: Quilting to EmpowHer

Catwalk4power

How do you love yourself!

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN

$oropositiva

Luv 'til it Hurts

AIDS 2018 Journal

“The Cure for AIDS is Kindness….”

The Social Practice of Jessica Lynn Whitbread

Coletivo Amem - São Paulo <> NYC

Embroidery and curating non-artists

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREEN:

PORTRAIT OF AN ORAL HISTORY BETWEEN

Letter Report

Statement on Humans As Hosts and the artwork of Kairon Liu

A discussion to be accountable to …

A discussion to be accountable to …

Luv Till It Hurts by Kairon Liu