WHITE [hope]
The first thing I want to say is ‘thank you’ to all the people–artists, non-artists, poz and negative folks–who took part in Luv ’til it Hurts for the past two-plus-years. While I’m still putting final touches on both RED & BLACK, I would like the last words on the site (and perhaps the first to…
RED [luv]
In WHITE I exclaimed how nice it was nice to put the final touches on the LUV archive in December only 6 months after the ‘official’ closing in July 2020, but three months have now passed and this one particular RED piece resists being finished … perhaps because it’s the only outstanding element on the entire RED…
BLACK [strength]
“Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a series of encounters, dinners, residencies, and performances, and “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” reconfigures these moments into a new form, extending the inquiry trans-nationally.”…
Bienal Party
As is stated prominently, LUV is an HIV ‘scrapbook of sorts’ and as such influenced by my stream of consciousness, as well as that of other key participants. Basically anything that happened within the past three years is fair game to consider HIV against. Back during Cidade Queer we worked on HIV issues, trans issues and issues that cut…
A blade of grass (instead of a video)
[*In Some remarks before I make the video, I say I’ll make a video for the launch of E&H Lab’s CHAOS project. Instead I decided to reconsider some ‘grant language’ from the recent Luv ’til it Hurts process. — xo Todd] Perhaps this piece should be termed ‘denouement to funders’ or ‘divorce in funder-land’, but…
Looking for Lesbians
A collection of essays, artistic contributions, and two inserted zines, “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” was developed as part of an 18-month inquiry in São Paulo. Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a series of encounters, dinners,…
Can a mestizo asshole speak?
A collection of essays, artistic contributions, and two inserted zines, “Cidade Queer, uma Leitora” was developed as part of an 18-month inquiry in São Paulo. Initiated by Lanchonete.org and ArtsEverywhere/Musagetes, the Cidade Queer program was a broad collective inquiry into how can we understand the contemporary city through a queer, intersectional, non-normative lens. The program included a…
SOY PAISAJE (I AM LANDSCAPE)
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at.– Oscar Wilde[1] Words by Horacio N. Roque Ramírez (1969-2015); presented as part of Cidade Queer and the Deviant Quito Graphics Lab, Edições Aurora, 2017. Since 2013, artists and activists have been invited to participate in an arts showcase as part…
Cruising Quito: Notes on Grindr, Queer Codes, and Post-AIDS
Cruising Quito was a project that I developed in the framework of Cidade Queer Quito, from June 28 to July 8, 2017. The project included a residency at No Lugar, along with an experiential research and reflection on the different spaces and technologies of gay cruising in the city of Quito, following the distinction that I have…
A NEW BOOK OF BEAUTY, INTIMACY, LOSS, AND RENEWAL: ERIC RHEIN: LIFELINES
Institute 193, the innovative gallery and publisher, has announced the publication of Eric Rhein: Lifelines This is the first book from artist Eric Rhein: a unique monograph-memoir spanning three decades of his life and artwork. It features intimate photographs taken between 1989 and 2012—including self-portraits and images of friends and lovers from the period between…
Homage to a working group
Luv ’til it Hurts was at first a two-year project, and is now something much more. I admit that I don’t want to limit its future potential by saying what it is/isn’t or what it’s become. However, there are three ways to clearly ‘see it’. In a recent grant application, I described our group of three…
LUV Fund$
Image: PogoLand As early as the 1st ‘About’ page: A discussion to be accountable to, the creation of a ‘philanthropic device’ was mentioned, and again in an interview with the Think Twice Collective. Most often over the course of LUV’s first two years, this idea of raising funds for artists and activists working on HIV related stigmas…
LUV, a timeline
Image by Sebastien Sanz de Santamaria In January 2018 and speaking on freeDimensional, I was invited to give a co-keynote address on day two of the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Centre for Applied Human Rights @ York University [see download]. And while I now realize the ‘second day’ programme (of thinkers from the art camp vs. the…
If I had a bit more time…
Image by Todd Lanier Lester In Why Make an ‘Open Work’? I begin to discuss DURATION, and why a project like LUV would have an initial, formal (albeit arbitrary) two-year timeframe. Lately, I’ve been sifting through scraps of paper, contacts and ideas for articles. Luv ’til it Hurts is in the process of transforming itself into a new…
On Pedagogical Turns and the Use of Time
[*In 2017 whilst participating in Capacete’s mobile school project on the occasion of Documenta 14 ‘Learning from Athens’, Gian Spina edited a series of articles Documenta in Athens, and co-authored a couple of them. And, I got the chance to work with a friend (in a publishing capacity) on the series. I took particular interest in the two he co-authored, On Pedagogical Turns…
Waiting for the After-Effects of Documenta 14 in Athens
[*In 2017 whilst participating in Capacete’s mobile school project on the occasion of Documenta 14 ‘Learning from Athens’, Gian Spina edited a series of articles Documenta in Athens, and co-authored a couple of them. And, I got the chance to work with a friend (in a publishing capacity) on the series. I took particular interest in the two he co-authored, On Pedagogical Turns…
Paula Nishijima on LUV (red site)
[*In the process of making Luv ’til it Hurts (starting with a two-year staged impersonation by its alter-ego, Luv Hurts), I began working with fellow artists, Paula Nishijima and Brad Walrond. Paula reviewed my organization of ideas & content from its 2018-20 archive (a.k.a. the red site) using her ‘swarm’ methodology to understand patterns, and…
Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84
The author and activist Larry Kramer at an AIDS conference in New York in 1987. In the early 1980s, Mr. Kramer was among the first people to foresee that what had at first caused alarm as a rare form of cancer among gay men would spread worldwide and kill millions of people. Credit: Catherine McGann/Getty…
Every Where Alien’s POETICS + PANDEMICS
Pictured: Brad Walrond and Alberto Pereira Jr. poetics & pandemics is conceived as a Quarterly virtual publishing & performance platform that takes seriously the role of word, voice, ideas, and semiotics in framing how pandemics like HIV & Covid-19 root themselves in cultural landscapes. We will curate a quarterly open mic that features the written…
HIV 2020: Aprendizajes para narración audiovisual con voz propia
[*For HIV2020, Juan De La Mar screened his autobiographical film, De Gris a POSITHIVO as part of a panel on 1st person narration along with Mariana Iacono, Jorge Garrido and Erick Cid.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqDEXTEgBRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWYMLOM9ro “De Gris a POSITHIVO” es un documental autobiográfico sobre mi experiencia y la de mi familia tras ser diagnosticadx VIH+. Compartiré…
Biography – Leaves
Eric RheinFrank the Visionkeeper (Frank Moore 1956-2002)(from Leaves, an AIDS Memorial)2013, wire and paper, 16”x13”x2” 1. There are more than 300 individuals represented in Leaves. I say more than 300 because I know that there are more than 300, but it’s challenging for me to keep track. When I started the project in 1996 I set…
Biography – Hummingbirds
Eric RheinHummingbirds – Installation of Six2016, wire and paper, (each one is 16”x13”x2”) For Eric Rhein there is a metaphysical aspect to creating his wire drawings of hummingbirds and having them go out into the world. “The Aztecs believed that hummingbirds were the reincarnation of warriors, and that their presence had the ability to transform…
LUV is messy
LUV is messy, a can ‘o worms … NO, rather a diorama encasing the heart, leaf, spaceship, firefly, hummingbird & ankh, symbols that advance its plot. The HEART symbol came first. It was carved into a tree at the same time as the words, Luv ‘til it Hurts. The spelling of luv was changed forever,…
Exquisite Corpse
[*The working group that comprises Luv ’til it Hurts–Brad Walrond, Paula Nishijima & Todd Lanier Lester–asked designer / installation author, Jakub Szczęsny to tailor Exquisite Corpse expography to the first 15 artists featuring in a traveling show on HIV and related stigmas. We envision that Exquisite Corpse will change from location to location. Szczęsny’s exhibition…
One luv ends and another begins; HIV2020; etc.
Originally HIV2020 was to be held in Mexico City as an alternate meeting to AIDS2020 that was to be held in San Francisco. The biennial AIDS conference is a big show, and cities compete to host it for its business. There’s a tenet of the meeting that it alternates between ‘north’ and ‘south’ countries. AIDS2018…
luv rules
When I first put out tent pegs for Luv ’til it Hurts (LUV), I framed it as a two-year period of R&D. The duration of the R&D is the (art) work. This is because I could guarantee to perform ‘research and development’ for a period that I determine duration. I aimed the process at a…
Codename: Exquisite Corpse
[*When the project began, I wrote a piece entitled Why Make an Open Work? where I used some borrowed ‘game storming’ graphics to show the chaos needed within a project before it comes to a point. This logic showed up again when Adham Bakry made LUV’s first design elements (see image). While I don’t imagine…
Game of Swarms descends upon LUV
Game of Swarms will be thus a communication device as well as a register of the artistic research upon how dynamics of networks in nature can be used as a tool to understand new ways of relationality among humans and non-humans—based on the distribution of agency, rather than the centralisation of powers. *** Collaboration is…
1986: An Elegy for Our Coldest War
Could Be The Ballroom was always our Nuclear optionA rock scrabble bunker become a threshing floorHow we survived our Coldest War A Mother a Father an entire house full of babiestucked into mangers woven out of street corner filamentlimber enough to parent those of us: born with and with out parentswith and without islands begat…
More instructions for afterlife (next-LUV) designer
[*In February and back before Covid19 suspended travel (and life as we knew it) a group of LUV peeps met in NYC to work on the ‘next-LUV’ or an afterlife for Luv ’til it Hurts, a project that I originally charted for only two years. Those two years are almost up. We received some instruction/planning questions…
Learning from We (SOMOS)
[*Back at the end of 2019, a group of eight called SOMOS (or ‘SOMOS Mais’) formed in São Paulo to coordinate activities for December 1, International AIDS Day. The idea at first was that a collective might form to continue working together on our HIV-related artworks after the big holiday; however, the group didn’t stay together.…
A Visit With El Santo Taller de Cerámica (Bogotá)
*Spanish below EN LTIH: Do you prefer being called Sergio or El Santo? ES: You can call me anything, I like both, Sergio is the name that my parents gave me, and El Santo is the name that I gave to my work, I’ll tell you a little bit more about the story of El…
A preamble for shifting gears
[*After some meetings in NYC in February (2020), the LUV team set about a visioning process that should yield the project’s next phase–with a new level of clarity–by the middle of the year. We asked Brad Walrond to help us come up with a new introductory text (something like an artist statement), and we are…
What would you do tomorrow if it was the last day of your life (VIHda)?
“De Gris a POSITHIVO” Documental Autobiográfico de Juan De La Mar que hace parte de Luv ’til it Hurts, se encuentra seleccionado para “Media Library 2020 – Visions Du Réel, Festival Internacional de Cine de Nyon”. “De Gris a POSITHIVO,” an Autobiographical Documentary by Juan De La Mar, who is part of Luv ’til it…
A pre-Covid 19 estimation of LUV
Brainstorming in New York at the Goethe Institut [*From February 9-11, 2020, Luv ’til it Hurts was busy in NYC. LUV participated in Love Positive Women (a project by Jessica Lynn Whitbread) with a poetry and food-inspired event ‘LUV YEMANJÁ’. Food and a series of handmade porcelain candles were offered by artist Thiago Gonçalves and…
Still
Eric RheinCommunion with Oak (self-portrait)1998, gelatin silver print, 20”x16” I walk with the shadows of the men I’ve known, and loved, and tasted, and feel, even still, the warmth of their breath against my skin. Eric Rhein 1992 _____________________ Eric Rhein is an artist living and working in New York. He has exhibited widely…
I wanted to elaborate more on the concept of ‘transcendence’
Image: ‘Hummingbirds’ (Installation of 6), 2016, by artist Eric Rhein I wanted to elaborate more on the concept of ’transcendence’, mostly because I have some reservations about it. BUT, the fact that HIV is a disease that you live with took me to the place of transcendence. I departed from Eric’s work and paid especial attention to it. The aesthetics…
Fresh Designs for Love Positive Women 2020
[On the occasion of Love Positive Women 2020, a project by Jessica Lynn Whitbread and partners around the world, Colombian graphic artist, Power Paola offered some new Spanish-language designs, which can be used for years to come as well. I met Power Paola through Daniel Santiago Salguero, who convened the Luciérnagas laboratory. Thanks Daniel and…
Conversa com Vinicius Couto (PT/EN)
[*Early this year I got the chance to talk to Vinicius Couto in São Paulo about three strands of his work. The article contains images from a performance he made in São Paulo, Rio and Cairo. I was particularly interested in his idea of getting HIV+ people together, as well as what he says on…
A Re-imagination of Policy and Health (2 of 2)
[*The Arts-Policy Nexus, a Health-Focused Artist Roundtable (A.RT), and this policy paper are all ideas – a program and two of its byproducts – I came up with as an artist and then found institutions with the capacity to help me realize. The goal of this policy paper (originally published by the World Policy Journal…
ART, POLICY, AND WELLNESS (1 of 2)
[*A few years back, I created a meeting concept called Artist Roundtable (or A.RT) … I want to resuscitate this particular discussion on health and wellness in order to share a unique policy paper that came thereafter as byproduct. This article was originally published by the World Policy Journal on June 9th, 2015. xo Todd]…
Steal This Game
‘Stealing’ the LUV Game is a bit easier than Hoffman’s book. It is free to begin with. I tell the story of how the LUV Game came about first as an idea from a young Egyptian designer in a description of ACT I, considering how one might discuss (or signal a safe discussion on) HIV in a place like…
Coming Out of the Web 2.0 Closet
[*Five or so years ago Canadian artist Niki Singleton and I made a Facebook project called Coming Out of the Web 2.0 Closet. We both had a story whereby ‘friends’ or family members had used social media to shun us or tell us we were going to hell or something similar for being gay, and out. A couple…
artHIVism, Condom Art & a lifetime of caring
[*A longer EN language interview is available below for download; Todd Lanier Lester interviews Adriana Bertini for LUV.]TLL: We met first in Barcelona at the 14th International AIDS Conference in 2002. I don’t remember too much about the trip, except that I was presenting a poster with a colleague on community sensitization work on HIV/AIDS we’d done…
Relatoría última sesión Luciérnagas – Last Luciérnagas Session Report
Image taken at Oct 25 (2019) Luciérnagas performance Before the presentation we did some in situ rehearsals, although they were never enough, we did them. The Botanical Garden is a very bureaucratic institution and it was difficult to manage the space for more preparations. For these last sessions we got together Eudes Toncel, a Guajiro Colombian…
Candles & Hearts #LPW2020
[*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…
Scrapbook, Love Positive Women 2020 (#LPW2020)
[*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…
Certain Things between stigma and love #LPW2020
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…
Daniel Santiago Salguero interviews Jacqueline Sanchez for Luciérnagas #LPW2020
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…
Viral Love #LPW2020
[*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!…
Behind the Curtain #LPW2020
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…
Interview with Cadu Oliveira on LGBTQIA+ organizing in São Paulo #LPW2020
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…
Emanuel Brauna-Lechat interviews Momô de Oliveira #LPW2020
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…
Bobó for Yemanjá #LPW2020
[*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…
Feasting with Panthers (and Palestine): Edmund White’s Jean Genet #LPW2020
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…
Love Positive Women in AR/PT/ES
[*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…
A series for LovePositiveWomen2020; #LPW2020, pre-C
Image: $oropositiva, by Micaela Cyrino for LovePositiveWomen2019Collage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy30 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…
What I’m learning about participatory art; #LPW2020, pre-B & Elpenor method, #2
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…
Cidade Queer, a film
Watch: Queer City / Cicade Queer, by Danila Bustamante. Bodies that listen, dance, resist, manifest and become visible in our contemporary city. Bodies that dance the sounds of funk music, rap, samba, voguing, waacking, among other sonic styles of contestation, resistance and struggle. Through talks, dinners, experiences and exchanges, a city seeks to discuss how…
INGABIRE “Gift” (2005); #LPW2020, pre-A
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…
What Does a Queer Urban Future Look Like?
[ *Back during the making of Cidade Queer (an inquiry opened by Lanchonete.org), I got the chance to ask some colleagues their views on queerness and a right to the city. I asked Sarah Schulman if ‘the urban’—yes, cities as well as urban encounters…but also the space and right(s) to live in, work in, and…
Please, touch me (PT/EN)
[*Alberto Pereira Jr. first made ‘Please, touch me’ for a 2019 workshop in São Paulo. His production notes are the third in a series that also includes a project abstract #movingtarget and creative writing, ELE. xo, Todd] PT Instigado por um workshop realizado no instituto Itaú Cultural, sobre estigma e produção artística contemporânea em relação…
Instructions from next-LUV designer for NYC mtg
[*Polish artist and architect, Jakub Szczęsny is helping to lead ACT III. LUV’s denouement is gonna be a blast! Stay tuned!!]
Astraea’s Multi-Gendered Work (repost from 2011)
WHERE: USA – New York I first encountered the work of Astraea in 2007. I was living in Egypt and met some of the sexuality rights movement-builders from the Arab region when they passed through Cairo. One such pioneer, Rauda Marcos, co-founded Aswat, a Palestinian Lesbian Women’s organization. She told me about Aswat’s work, which…
Democracia é o tema da Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo em 2020 e HIV/AIDS é o tema de 2021
A Associação da Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo, ONG responsável pela maior Parada LGBT do Mundo, vem comunicar que após reuniões realizadas nos meses de Novembro e Dezembro/2019, com a participação da Sociedade Civil (mediante convite e inscrição prévia) e das Pessoas Associadas, onde resultaram na sugestão e seleção de dois temas como…
ELE
I. Levantou-se. Dentro da privada, mescla de prazer e necessidade. A. se viu refletido no espelho pela primeira vez. Olhos ainda vermelhos, cabelo desgrenhado, suor na face e no torso nu. Ela abriu o chuveiro e, dessa vez, foi ágil ao manejar a temperatura da água. Sorriu. Pegou a primeira toalha disponível. Macia. Enxugou-se sem…
Socket Wrench
[*A few years ago (2013), graphic artist Beldan Sezen was in the Netherlands and needed some quick photos of a historic scene. The graphic short she was making is called HOMOE, set in 1964 pre-Stonewall NYC, about a man remembering the homophobic murder of his neighbor “back in the day.” We decided to trade my…
considering attach-ability (#2)
hi guys,So, I’ve had an idea for you both for around 6 months now and have regrettably failed to share it in a robust form. I would like to do so now. We may thank Brad Walrond for texting with me overnight (why he was awake, I do not know:). Jonathan, Brad archives Pony’s work and/or…
remembering my first AIDS work
I cannot remember what was my first AIDS work. It was either flying from Cameroon to South Africa with my wife (at the time) to attend and volunteer at the Durban AIDS Conference in 2000, or walking with Minette and ‘her girls’ on International AIDS Day (1999 or 2000?) on the dirt roads of Batouri in…
#movingtarget
alvos desde sempre porque não hegemônicos corpos reclassificados incômodos inconformes marginais seculares preto feminino não-binário trans intersexual refugiado positivo imigrado expulso indígena . sacrificado . Mas em movimento! . Body Work and conception: Alberto Pereira Jr. @albertopereirajrBody Art: DIG Ferreira @digferreiraImages: Flavio Melgarejo @ffmelgarejo See also, by Alberto Pereira Jr: #ELE Please, touch me (PT/EN)
hiv / art / establishment (#1)
[*The pink elephant image is borrowed from a Facebook intervention made by Niki Singleton and Todd Lanier Lester several years ago called Coming out of the Web 2.0 Closet.] There is definitely an HIV art establishment. I have met it in a few forms over the first 3/4 of Luv ’til it Hurts, a two-year…
Dora Não Cansou de Viver… [A film in the making]
[Emanuel Brauna-Lechat is a filmmaker from Maceió. ‘Dora Não Cansou de Viver…’ is a short film about many things, including access to healthcare and the precarity of daily life in Brasil. Manu needs some help finishing the film before April 7th, World Health Day 2020. One simple way to share holiday cheer (and some dough)…
Some tenets of Elpenor thought (part 2)
[* For the LUV site, this is part two of a set. Let’s call it the Elpenor Set. See part one, here.] 1) It never ceases to baffle and amaze me whenever an association between Elpenor – a decidedly minor character in Homer’s Odyssey – and an idea of methodology crops up in my presence.…
How LUV is research, in part (part 1)
[* For the LUV site, this is part one of a set. Let’s call it the Elpenor Set. See part two, here.] The purpose of this ‘entry’ is to introduce Ismar Tirelli Neto. I’m writing a book right now. It’s called Variations in Worldmaking. I can’t wait until it’s finished because it might be driving me…
Capitalismo Viral
[*Bruno Mendonça e Felipe Caprestano – Terra Falsa (parte do projeto “Nenhuma Intenção Revolucionária”)] O uso da palavra vírus para além do campo das ciências biológicas teve início a partir da década de 1980 com o desenvolvimento da cultura hacker, assim como ao longo da mesma década foi sendo assumido por outras áreas.Essa passagem conceitual…
1001+ Japanese fighter pilots
I vomited tonight … earlier today.I had taken an ecstasy pill. I may have used a couple other things as well. I’m a Taurus ‘control freak’, I’m told. So, while the idea of drugging up for going out may seem a bit careless, I also monitor my anti-depression medication, and not so long ago decided…
Act 1 is Over
[ACT I entailed a lot of things, and one of the most significant outputs is a GAME made by project members and artists/designers in Egypt. There is also this very cool GIF made by Brazilian designer, Gustavo Marcasse. Overall, ACT I was meant to be rather playful! Now, we’re working on ACT I.5 in support…
اكيد فى امل (THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE)
[Abazar Hamid was forced to leave Sudan for singing peace songs during its civil war and the Darfur conflict. I met him when I was working for freeDimensional in Cairo (Egypt) through a collaboration with the Townhouse Gallery called TADAMON (solidarity) that organized with Cairo’s various refugee communities. Cairo is where Abazar first went into…
What do a Sudanese Mom Search the Internet for?
Sudanese like other people of this planet, search for many things, some are really important researches and of course there are other things that are also important, …,etc!For me I am a Sudanese, I search every day about jobs for Home Based or Remote Arabic Web Content Writers. Secondly in order come searches for guides,…
drugs
We take drugs. A colleague of mine, Carué Contreiras gives away spices and herbs in his HIV med bottles. Artist Kairon Liu ( 劉仁凱 ) makes portraits in which he asks pill bottles to be among other memorabilia (signs of life). I luv mine. But actually I’m talking about party drugs and entrée to harder ones. George and I were…
No quiero una cinta roja en tu cacerola: Latinoamérica.
No solo un día al año, no solo el primero de diciembre necesitamos que pongas en tus perfiles cintas rojas y recuerdes todos los grandes personajes que nos ha arrebatado este virus, que nos ha arrebatado el silencio, que nos ha arrebatado la complicidad del Estado y de la industria farmacéutica. No solo necesitamos una…
The ideas for Partner Tiles
The original idea for an iconic tile came from Saouf in Port Said. He imagined what it would be like to walk into a Cairo cafe and see an iconic tile on the back of a laptop. A tile that let him know (if he so desired) he could talk to this person about HIV.…
Using one ‘project’ to see another
This article is a field [luv] note to Luciérnagas and friends in Bogotá. I was there for a project by Daniel Santiago Salguero and his HIV+ peers. Fireflies, this is the word in Spanish for fireflies. Speaking of fireflies, I met some luminary folk while in Bogotá Like Jackie … as far as I know she is the only woman in Luciérnagas,…
New Toolkit by CLAC and MPact for Access to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria
In order to facilitate access to funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Community Leadership and Action Collaborative (CLAC) created a toolkit for key population-led grassroots organizations, which can be downloaded for free online. Read more at: https://mpactglobal.org/new-global-fund-toolkit-by-clac-and-mpact-on-increasing-accessing-to-resources/ Download the toolkit here (English)
LUV game feedback from São Paulo + Somos Mais + AIDS Walk
About a month before the São Paulo AIDS Walk (now in its 3rd year), which was also on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2019, a group of positive folk and peers began meeting on Tuesday nights for a drink. The idea of a Sarau came quickly after the name of the motley group, Somos… or Somos Mais. We are visual artists,…
LUV game feedback from Bogotá + Luciérnagas
As I detail in Relatory Bogotá, I got to take part in the final piece of Luciérnagas with artist Daniel Santiago Salguero, offering me up-close access to a performance intervention in Bogotá’s Botanical Gardens on a Friday night with thousands of people around enjoying the cool night.
LUV game feedback from Grenoble + Ankh Association
The first public presentation of Exposition Points de Vie, organized by Ankh Association and dedicated to people living with HIV in Egypt, took place on October 26th in Grenoble, France. The exhibition gave light to their experiences, joys, and difficulties. It involved the interactive game by Luv ‘Til it Hurts, a Falafel party, and Karaoke.…
Medicine Man
“Medicine Man.” (40×30 inch), by Issa Nyaphaga.(Mixed media) paint from 2013 – 2014.Santa Fe, NM – USA. “HIV-AIDS Stigma Free.”- Issa Nyaphaga Photo by Oumar Mebouack
puppy luv + cloth hearts
So George and I had this idea for an intervention in the São Paulo AIDS Walk, which happens on or around World AIDS Day, December 1 (yesterday). A group of us (somos) made a poetry, film and performance sarau, Somos (Mais) Sarau Transante was on Saturday evening, November 30 to get us in the mood for the intense day…
Wrap love in latex – Interview with Juan De La Mar
TL: Hi Juan, If memory serves this is a line in your film, De Gris a POSITHIVO … ‘wrap love in latex?’. I think it is when you are walking in the streets of Bogotá (all wrapped in plastic wrap). Juan, first, I really appreciate your film, and furthermore it was great to have it privately…
Relatoría Sesión #6 – Disidencia Sonora
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…
Character Development à la Proust
[*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…
LUV is an Endorser of the HIV2020 Conference in Mexico City
HIV2020: Community Reclaiming the Global ResponseMexico City, July 6-8, 2020www.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,…
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Relatoría Sesión #4 – Arte / Fronteras
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…
HIV+ in São Paulo
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. …
Relatoría Sesión #3 – Arte / VIH
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:…
Luv Letter, # complicated
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…
Relatoría Sesión #1 – Contexto del cuerpo en las Artes
Laboratorio LuciérnagasRelatoría 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…
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Some remarks before I make the video
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…
1st ‘About’ page: A discussion to be accountable to
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…
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Think Twice Questions for Luv
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…
The Gathering
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…
what’s the connection between Luv & CHAOS?
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.…
Venezuela, Bogotá
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…
Thank you to Lois Weaver (ample version)
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…
A Conversation with Artist Eric Rhein
New York based artist Eric Rhein speaks about his two exhibits, Lifelines, whichhave been on view in his home state of Kentucky.Lifelines is an exhibition at two locations in Lexington: at Institute 193 throughJuly 27 th , and the Lexington’s 21c Museum Hotel, through the end of August.Todd Lanier Lester, of the Luv ‘til it…
A Discussion between CHAOS + LUV
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…
Fault Lines
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…
Pour La Libération Immédiate de Malak El-Kashif!
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…
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Interview With Ankh Association
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…
Why Make an ‘Open Work’?
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…
Eric Rhein: Lifelines
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
[*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…
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Luv ‘Til It Hurts
See also: Luv ‘Til It Hurts: the Launch, by Brad Walrond
Luv ‘Til It Hurts: the Launch
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,…
Chateau Truvada
I. 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…
We Do Not Tread The Way That Is Conducted By Reason
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…
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Mandala Art and the Story Behind How I Made It
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…
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HIV/AIDS Testimonial Art Story
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…
Breathing Seeing Life
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…
Luv Til It Hurts
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…
Sex Work-as-art, Sex Worker-as-artist: the art of Dinah de Riquet-Bons.
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…
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Sanandome
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…
More Than Thirty Years
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…
Arts Empowerment
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…
ON LOVE
. 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,…
Love Heals
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,…
Olive Edwards and The Jamaican Community of Positive Women: Quilting to EmpowHer
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…
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Catwalk4power
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…
How do you love yourself!
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.…
LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN
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…
$oropositiva
Piece: $oropositivaCollage on greaseproof paper and serigraphy30x 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
1. Across generations of continentsWhat do it mean to be haunted? by a virus. A bluegrassgrandma 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 /…
AIDS 2018 Journal
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.
Letter Report
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
“The Cure for AIDS is Kindness….”
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.
Coletivo Amem – São Paulo <> NYC
Coletivo Amem is a São Paulo-based artistic collective that promotes festivals, performances and debates focusing on race, class, gender, and public health.
Statement on Humans As Hosts and the artwork of Kairon Liu
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.
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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GREEN:
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,…
Embroidery and curating non-artists
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.
Luv Till It Hurts by Kairon Liu
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 18 from 6-8pm Exhibition dates: October 18-28, 2018 El Museo de Los Sures 120 South 1st Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
A discussion to be accountable to …
Event: New generations of HIV/AIDS strategies 6-8:30pm, Saturday, Oct. 27th The Center 208 W 13 St New York, NY 10011
