Lovepositivewomen on Luv 'til it Hurts

Candles & Hearts #LPW2020

Wed, 19 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*Working together with the City of São Paulo office of Human Rights, George Ferraz prepared (styled) two downtown cultural spaces for Love Positive Women 2020 with the theme of Yemanjá and using the posters designed by Thiago. A message from the Office of Human Rights was distributed along with Valentines Day cards. The Human Rights flier encourages HIV+ women to use the city’s three citizenship centers for meetings any time of the year, and provides a QR Code to find more info easily. Both Tapera Taperá bar and esponja spaces in São Paulo hosted Love Positive Women-related info / set-ups. Thiago made the candles for an event in NYC held on February 9th. George helped with the event too, making some more cloth hearts, like the ones distributed in São Paulo and Khartoum. There were extra hearts and we mailed them to Puerto Rico with Valentines cards. Some also went to the cast of I, OF COURSE, WAS LIVID, a Love Positive Women-affiliated event at Housing Works bookstore. And, about 15 leftover candles go on to the VisualAIDS Women’s Empowerment Art Therapy Workshops. Thanks guys! xo, Todd]

Scrapbook, Love Positive Women 2020 (#LPW2020)

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*When I asked NYC-based artist Thiago Correia Gonçalves if he’d like to help make a Love Positive Women event, he proposed making Bobó (shrimp and cassava stew) for Yemanjá, the goddess for fishermen who is celebrated on February 2nd in Brasil. When I asked poet Brad Walrond to participate, I’d already seen a poem ‘Yemaya’ in his forthcoming book Every Where Alien. He offered his 1986, Yemaya and other poems. DIG Ferreira, Jesse Hawkes, Livia Alexander, George Ferraz and others helped out. George made another batch of cloth hearts for attendees to the February 9th, NYC event. In addition to Bobó, Thiago made dendê or palm oil-infused candles that each guest would light upon arrival and then take home as a keepsake from the night. Thiago let me help a little making the wax and filling the candles the night before … and puréeing the cassava. xo todd]

Certain Things between stigma and love #LPW2020

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

About fifteen years ago, my friend Dani called me to help her with the costume for a short film. She asked me for red clothes and accessories—specifically, an old brooch of fake ruby she knew I had. “Why red?” I asked. “Because this is a story about HIV,” she justified and quickly briefed me about the project, called Certas Coisas (Certain Things). Here is the synopsis: the protagonist, who just found out he was HIV+, dives into a feeling of loneliness and isolation. It was like his individual timeline had been drastically interrupted, and he couldn’t go forward or take the path back. Instead, he would have to forge his own way, apart from the others—or, the ‘other’ was now him. The frustration of the perspective of a solitary life takes him on a daydream in which, through the lens of special glasses, he can identify HIV+ people by a red mark on their faces.

'Maidei', Scenes 9, 10 #LPW2020

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Daniel Santiago Salguero interviews Jacqueline Sanchez for Luciérnagas #LPW2020

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

DSS: Buenas tarde, Jaque, gracias por estar aquí y colaborar con esta entrevista. Te voy a hacer unas preguntas que ya conoces. Si no quieres responder o te sientes incómoda podemos parar y no hay problema.

¿Hace cuánto descubriste que tienes VIH? ¿Cómo ha sido todo desde entonces?

JS: Bueno, yo descubrí que tengo el virus del VIH desde noviembre del 2015. En un centro asistencial de mi barrio estaban en una campaña y me propusieron hacer la prueba, ahí me enteré. Para mi ha sido un poco complicado pero quiero salir adelante, surgir. Esto ha cambiado mi vida notablemente.

‘Maidei’, Scenes 6, 7, 8 #LPW2020

Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Viral Love #LPW2020

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*I first met Oma working in the legal aid clinic for Iraqi refugees in Cairo set up by Barbara Harrell-Bond back in 2007. To read more about our background, check out A series for LovePositiveWomen2020 and What do a Sudanese Mom Search the Internet for?, as well as a description of LUV’s ACT 1.5 (LovePositiveWomen2020). Thanks for being there, Oma! xo Todd]

Viral Love, Unconditional One!

Friend’s Love

I enjoyed having a very special and unique friendship with few yet very unique persons. As a Sudanese woman, it is not a frequent thing to happen. That adds more allure to the whole thing, it is such a blessing, a grace, and a gift from the greatest lover ever: “Allah,” I muchly thank for his almighty!

'Maidei', Scenes 4 & 5 #LPW2020

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Behind the Curtain #LPW2020

Sat, 08 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Behind the curtain

“أنا مريضة إيدز ونفسى أتعامل كبنى آدمة، معملتش حاجة غلط علشان المجتمع ينبذنى ولما بمرض مش بلاقى دكتور يعاملنى كويس، وبقيت أخاف من الناس فاضطرت لارتداء النقاب خوفا من تعرف الناس على شخصيتى عند اللجوء لتلقى العلاج. "

“فى عام 2006 ظهرت الأعراض الأولية كإسهال وترجيع وسخونية، وفقدت الكثير من وزنى فبعد أن كان 83 كجم أصبح 45 كجم دون أن أعلم السبب، وعلى الرغم من أنى أجريت الكثير من الفحوصات والتحاليل التى حيرت الأطباء وشخصها الكثيرون بأنها مشاكل فى المعدة أو مرض الدفتيريا”.

'Maidei', Scene 3 #LPW2020

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Interview with Cadu Oliveira on LGBTQIA+ organizing in São Paulo #LPW2020

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

LTIH: You have been involved with LGBT and HIV activism for some time now. How long have you been doing this in São Paulo?

CO: My trajectory with activism began from 1996 to 2007, in Jundiaí, with people who have lost their homes. At this point, matters such as HIV/Aids and drug abuse were already present in my life. It was in this scenario that I began to act in intersectional militancy, although it was still less centralized on LGBTs and, instead, oriented towards this population’s more structural conditions. However, I had already done research for LGBT news outlets, notedly for SuiGeneris Magazine.

'Maidei', Scene 2 #LPW2020

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Emanuel Brauna-Lechat interviews Momô de Oliveira #LPW2020

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

EBL: Momô, qual a sua avaliação sobre o cenário cinematográfico de um modo geral no Brasil?

MO: Vejo o cenário cinematográfico no Brasil com muitas incertezas, apesar de sabermos recentemente que para o ano de 2020 grandes nomes do STREAM irão injetar alguns milhões no setor, o que é muito positivo, não teremos, por outros lado, políticas públicas neste sentido e, naturalmente, a comunidade mais carente não será tocada por essas ações do setor privado. Ao meu ver, faltam mais projetos que envolvam a parcela menos favorecida da população.

'Maidei', Synopsis + Scene 1 #LPW2020

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Bobó for Yemanjá #LPW2020

Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*When I asked Thiago if he’d like to make a meal in NYC–something we’ve done together a few times in São Paulo and once in Bamako–he said yes and immediately suggested making an offering to Iemanjá. We’ve worked together since 2012 (usu. on Lanchonete.org projects), and I imagined that the idea would be good. When I heard Iemanjá and given the date of our NYC performance (Feb 9), I immediately thought of making it a Love Positive Women 2020 event. It’s gonna be really cool. George saw the NYC design around the time that both esponja and Tapera Taperá (cultural spaces here in São Paulo) agreed to be styled for Amem Mulheres Positivas/Love Positive Women 2020. So then came Portuguese and Spanish versions of the same poster, pared down. If in São Paulo, drop by esponja or Tapera Taperá, and in NYC, let us know if you’re free on the 9th. xo todd et al]

Feasting with Panthers (and Palestine): Edmund White's Jean Genet #LPW2020

Sat, 01 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If writing is a committed utopian action, then the Jean Genet of Edmund White’s engaging, impressive, transformative Genet: A Biography was the epitome of manic depression. Genet wrote his five novels in five years, from 1942-47. After seven years of sadness and silence, he wrote his three best known plays in two years. The subsequent 1960’s were filled with death as his lover, Abdallah (a high wire performer) committed suicide, his agent and English translator Bernard Fruchtman committed suicide, and Genet himself tried to commit suicide. Then he entered into the other utopian endeavor: activism. From 1970 until his death in 1986, Genet was aligned with oppressed people and supported them in energetic ways, on their terms and on his own. White calls him “an apostle of the wretched of the earth.”

A series for LovePositiveWomen2020; #LPW2020, pre-C

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Image: $oropositiva, by Micaela Cyrino for LovePositiveWomen2019
Collage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy
30 x 40cm

In some ways the whole LUV experience has geared us up for Love Positive Women 2020. In March 2019 I visited Egypt and afterwards, Paris where I met the Ankh (Arab Network for Knowledge on Human Rights) Association. The Ankh guys moved to Paris after a long period of activism on access to HIV meds in Cairo. From Paris they made the Points of Life exhibit that featured artists and activists from Egypt and the Middle East living with HIV. ‘Behind the Curtain’ is an image and text by Iman, an artist living in Egypt. Daniel Santiago Salguero’s project, Luciérnagas began with the idea to consider the changing situation–HIV info, support and medication access–in Bogotá with new arrivals of Venezuelans in the wake of that country’s financial crisis. It ended as an experimental performance in Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens. I met Jackie during the project’s conclusion in October 2019. Daniel interviews her for LovePositiveWomen2020 and further reflects on the Luciérnagas process.

Love Positive Women in AR/PT/ES

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[*It is very exciting (and an honor) to get to imagine and implement ideas for Love Positive Women 2020 in Khartoum (Sudan), New York City (US), São Paulo (Brasil) and other places in South America. Designer Adham Bakry (Port Said/Cairo) came up with a version of the Love Positive Women insignia in Arabic and Gustavo Marcasse in both Portuguese and Spanish. Love Positive Women is a project by Jessica Whitbread. xo Todd]

INGABIRE “Gift” (2005); #LPW2020, pre-A

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Watch: INGABIRE “Gift” (2005), by Jesse Hawkes.

For its first Rwandan Film Festival in 2005, the Rwanda Cinema Centre helped several young directors and groups of actors to make films on important issues in Rwanda. The film “Ingabire” was based on an original musical theatre piece that was created by a group of high school students at an HIV Prevention conference earlier in the year. It was based on true stories from their lives and lives of their friends. The film still resonates today. During a recent Global Youth Connect workshop, I showed this film and the participants insisted that “stigma against people living with HIV does not exist in Rwanda today.” Little did they know that there was a GYC delegate from Rwanda standing in that room who didn’t disclose their status among these peers for fear of stigma. Apologies for the subtitles, but we created it in two days, and English was not one of the key languages of the staff at that time. Rwanda has since shifted from French to English as its official second language of instruction in schools after Kinyarwanda, which is the language you hear in the film.

What I'm learning about participatory art; #LPW2020, pre-B & Elpenor method, #2

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This year Love Positive Women is so big for us it constitutes an ACT … Act 1.5 to be exact. The acts are dramaturgically useful for steering Luv ’til it Hurts toward its endpoint in mid-2020, and in that way reveal various ‘assemblages’ (or intense clusters) along the two-year course. While the ‘business plan’ of ACT II is about to be revealed (around Feb 14) with a graphic poster by Brasilian illustrator, chef, Umbandista and cat lover, PogoLand (who says artists don’t make worlds?), the co-making of activities in São Paulo, Khartoum and NYC for Love Positive Women 2020 and sequencing 14 days of women-authored and -focused online content took on a life (or ‘act’ as it were) of its own. Working with Canadian artist, Jessica Whitbread and using her ‘open source’ model for the Love Positive Women fourteen-day holiday has been a labor of LUV. And as such, we’ve learned some things. When we first started talking about her work in 2018, Jessica sent me the 2018 Love Positive Women holiday implementation guide (please download and use). I have written before on the LUV site about making (or why making) an ‘open work’, which is a reference to Umberto Eco’s writing at length on the prospect. Whether duration is called out by name or not, an open or open source work must consider duration and endurance. And, I think, whether it is growing in the intended direction over time. I’ve made three durational, rights-themed, multi-stakeholder projects for 10, 5 and 2 years respectively. So, I am familiar with the vernacular and semantics–and a new phrase, ‘articulation curve’–involved in the creation of a long-term project, and in this case a new 14-day holiday to celebrate positive women.

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)