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 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] 

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 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”.

“استمرت الأعراض وفقدان الوزن المحلوظ، و فى شهر 5 عام 2007، تم حجزى فى مستشفى القصر العينى لمدة 3 أيام فى قسم الباطنة، ونتيجة لاستمرار الإسهال وبعد إجراء الأطباء جميع الفحوصات لم يتعرفوا على السبب، فمكثت بالمستشفى لمدة 21 يوما، ولم يتم التوصل لتشخيص المرض، وبعد حيرة الأطباء فى التشخيص قرروا إجراء تحليل الإيدز وظهرت النتيجة إيجابية ثم بعد ذلك طلبوا من زوجى إجراء التحليل أيضا، وعند ظهور النتيجة لم توجد أى سرية فى المستشفى وتم إخبار جميع الأشخاص المتواجدين بها وإخبار أهلى وأهل زوجى الذين كانوا متواجدين معى”.

“بعد 21 يوما عندما تم التعرف على إصابتى بمرض الإيدز، تم عزلى فى آخر العنبر وإحاطة المكان الذى أتواجد به بالستائر، ثم بعد ذلك قاموا بإفراغ غرفة الغسيل التى يقوم فيها الأطباء بتغيير ملابسهم ووضعونى بها، خوفا منى، كما أن الأطباء كانوا يرون مواعيد حضورهم من بعيد من خلال الإضاءة بالكشاف وتم تركى 4 أيام معزولة فى غرفة الغسيل، وتم تحويلى مرة أخرى إلى حميات العباسية حتى يجرى التحليل بالمعامل المركزية وظهرت أيضا إيجابية.”

___________________

« Je suis atteinte du SIDA, et j’aimerais pouvoir me comporter en être humain. Je n’ai rien fait de mal pour que la société me rejette comme ça, et quand je tombe malade je ne trouve pas un médecin qui me traite convenablement, et j’en arrive à avoir peur des gens. C’est pour ça que je me suis mise à porter le niqab, de peur que les gens n’apprennent ma condition lorsque je vais récupérer mon traitement. »

« En 2006, les premiers symptômes sont apparus: diarrhée, vomissements et fièvre. J’ai perdu beaucoup de poids, je suis passée de 83 à 45 kg, sans en connaître la cause. J’ai fait de nombreux tests et examens, mais les médecins et autres spécialiste étaient toujours dans le flou, pensant que c’était des maux d’estomac ou la diphtérie. »

« Les symptômes et la perte de poids ont continué à se développer, jusqu’en mai 2007, où j’ai été admise à l’hôpital de Asr El-Ayny pour 3 jours au service d’hépato-gastro-entérologie en raison de la diarrhée persistante. Après avoir encore réalisé tous les tests possibles et imaginables, les médecins n’arrivaient toujours pas à en déterminer la cause. Je suis donc restée 21 jours à l’hôpital, et puisque les médecins n’arrivaient à aboutir à un diagnostic, ils ont finir par prescrire un test du Sida, qui s’est avéré positif. Quand le résultat est arrivé, ils ont également demandé à mon mari de faire le test. Lorsque les résultats sont sortis, le secret médical n’a absolument pas été respecté, toutes les personnes présentes à l’hôpital à ce moment-là ont été mises au courant, de même que les membres de ma famille et celle de mon mari qui étaient présents. »

« Au bout de 21 jours, quand nous avons enfin eu le diagnostic de l’infection par le Sida, j’ai été placée à l’isolement dans une chambre, bien cachée derrière des rideaux. Ensuite, ils ont vidée le vestiaire, la salle où les médecins se changent, et m’ont déplacé là-bas. Ils avaient peur de moi. Ils venaient vérifier leurs horaires de loin, et avec une lampe torche. Ils m’ont laissée 4 jours isolée dans la buanderie, avant de me transférer à l’hôpital de Abbasseya, pour que je puisse faire un autre test au laboratoire central, qui s’est également avéré positif. »

___________________

“I am sick with AIDS and I’d like to treat myself like a human being. I didn’t do anything wrong for society to reject me; and when I get sick, I can’t find a doctor who treats me well, and I’ve become afraid of people. This is why I had to wear a niqab for fear that people would get to know my condition when I come to take my treatment. 

In 2006, the initial symptoms appeared as diarrhea, vomiting, and heat. I lost a lot of weight; I went from weighing 83 kg to 45 kg, without knowing the reason. I conducted many tests and analyses that puzzled doctors, many diagnosed stomach problems or diphtheria.

Symptoms and weight loss persisted, until May 2007, when I was admitted into the Al-Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital for 3 days in the Hepato-Gastro-Enterology Department as a result of the continued diarrhea. After the doctors performed all possible tests, they still did not find the reason. So I stayed in the hospital for 21 days, the diagnosis of the disease was not reached and the doctors were confused. They finally decided to perform an AIDS test, and the result appeared positive. Then they asked my husband to perform the test as well. When the result appeared, there was no medical confidentiality whatsoever, the whole hospital was informed, as well as my family and my husband’s family who were there.

After 21 days, when I was finally diagnosed with AIDS, I was isolated in a ward and surrounded by curtains. Then, they emptied the laundry room where the doctors used to change their clothes and they put me there. They were afraid of me. When the doctors needed to check their schedules, they were doing it from afar and with a flashlight. They left me for 4 days isolated in the laundry room, then I was transferred again to the Abbaseya hospital where another test was done in the central laboratories and it also appeared as positive.”

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 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]

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 Spanish. Love Positive Women is a project by Jessica Whitbread. xo Todd]

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 we live, work, share and survive the different LGBT+ stories and realities. The mini-documentary “Cidade Queer / Queer City”, directed by Danila Bustamante, takes its name from a 2016 site-specific, collective curatorial process in São Paulo, Brazil. 


[*The Cidade Queer film was made from footage of the last two weeks of a year-long project of the same name. The Canadian foundation that partially funded the Cidade Queer project decided to fund a film on it during their site visit and the closure of the year-long project. Recently when I was making my artist profile on the Visual AIDS website, and receiving help from a staffer, I was asked how the Cidade Queer film is related to my own art work. Because I’m currently making a ‘multi-stakeholder, rights-focused, durational’ project on HIV and stigma, perhaps it was a good opportunity to explain how I work to a respected organization. This ‘multi-stakeholder, rights-focused, durational’ way is how I’ve done things for almost 20 years now, starting with freeDimensional. Lately, a colleague, Ismar Tirelli Neto and I have been discussing the idea of ‘minor literature’ proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, and from it I get some ideas on ‘minor production’. Over this 20-year period (of my art practice), I’ve made a few things that don’t get my name directly stamped on them. And the Queer City film–within the Cidade Queer project that was within Lanchonete.org–is a useful ‘item’ to dissect and analyze for this. The film and these memories are tagged in Field Notes because they offer me an opportunity to reflect on broader questions on ‘crediting’ at the intersection of art worlds and social justice frontiers. xo todd]

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 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.  

[*When I wrote the piece, remembering my first AIDS work, which proceeded to ‘remember’ all my HIV/AIDS work, I actually forgot an important episode, which is when I first met Jesse Hawkes in Kigali (Rwanda). Jesse was there working on a project he founded called Rwandans & Americans in Partnership Contre SIDA /RAPSIDA, and I was helping to start a film festival. I studied film and remembering first meeting Jesse in Rwanda, I can easily remember the excitement and momentum that took me all over the African continent researching 3rd Cinema when I was in my twenties. I helped make a young filmmakers workshop (in which INGABIRE featured) during the inaugural Rwanda Film Festival, an idea I co-created with Rwandan filmmaker and founder of the Rwandan Film Center, Eric Kabera after meeting at the Zanzibar film festival in 2003. Ahhhh … nostalgia. Fast forward to September 2016, I am reminded of the documentation of the last month of a year-long process, Cidade Queer in São Paulo, and the eponymous film it generated at the hands of filmmaker Danila Bustamante. Jesse Hawkes is helping to make an event for Love Positive Women in NYC on Feb. 9 called ‘Bobó for [LUV] Iemanjá’, which is a part of Luv ’til it Hurts celebration of Love Positive Women 2020. xo todd]

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 ao tema HIV/Aids, realizei a minha segunda saída do armário: vivendo há 10 anos com HIV, criei a performance “Por favor, toque-me”, revelando meu status positivo e convidando o público a ressignificar a imagem pré-concebida de um corpo positivo.

EN

Instigated by a workshop that was realized in the Itaú Cultural Institute, on stigma and the contemporary artistic production in relation to the theme of HIV/Aids, I realized my second coming out of the closet: living with HIV for over 10 years, I created the performance “Please, touch me,” revealing my positive status and inviting the public to resignify the preconceived image of a positive body.

PT

A performance-instalação “Por Favor, Toque-me” reelabora, no contato entre criador/performer e público, as possíveis imagens pré-concebidas a cerca de um corpo que vive com o HIV. Característica ou estigma, a soropositividade de Alberto Pereira Jr., é autodeclarada em seu vestuário, tornando-se física e passível de toque. Tocar para apreender, para expurgar, para reumanizar? Cabe ao público participante investigar suas novas ou antigas convicções. Integra a parte instalativa da performance, um tapete costurado tal qual uma colcha de retalhos, com peças de roupas de pessoas que vivem com HIV.

EN

1) Activity title: Please, touch me

a) Objectives: The performance/body work “Please, Touch Me” re-elaborates, in the contact between creator/performer and audience, the possible preconceived images about a human body living with HIV.

b) Description of activities: Characteristic or stigma, the seropositivity of artist and activist Alberto Pereira Jr. is self-declared in his clothing, becoming physical and susceptible to people’s touch. Touch to seize, to purge, to rehumanize? It is up to the participating public to investigate their new or old beliefs about human relations, about HIV and the prejudice that follows people
living under this stigma.

c) Material: There is an installation part of the performance, a rug sewn like a quilt, with garments of people living with HIV, inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

d) Format: The performer’s body will be touched and he will touch as well the people who touch him. The encounter between the audience and the artist will provoke a new narrative of infinities possibilities.

e) Expected Outcomes:Wherever the performance is performed, it generates empathy, listening and affection. A moment of resignification of preconceived ideas from the public and also of empowerment for the artist, who has been living with HIV for 10 years.

f) Experience/expertise: Alberto Pereira Jr. is a Brazilian social artist, who seeks intersection between theater, audiovisual, body work and literature for a dialogue and friction of contemporary themes such as blackness, homosexuality, HIV and affectivity. He created and directed “I now pronounce you…” (2012), documentary about LGBTQI + families in Brazil, awarded and funded by the São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture. Born and raised in the outskirts of São Paulo city, he is the founder of Domingo Ela Não Vai, one of the biggest street Carnival groups called blocos, part of the official line-up of the city. He also organizes various cultural events, such as Queermesse, a party that reunites LGBTQI + collectives. He created Subtle Lashes Festival of Margins Arts, sponsored by Levi’s. In its first edition, held in April 2019, the festival had a line-up with only black, trans and cis women, LGBTQI+ community protagonism, with music, talks and free workshops. As a journalist, he worked for six years at Grupo Folha Publishing Co., one of the biggest Brazilian media outlets. Currently, besides performing in theater, he has been working as a screenwriter and creative manager for TV and film projects, producing content for Discovery Channel, MTV, Fox and others.

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 photo-taking for some design work on a concept I sent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Socket Wrench.]

BREAKING NEWS:  Beldan & I retrofitted our unsuccessful Gates proposal (and design) for Visual AIDS: Postcard from the Edge Benefit!  Here’s more about the event!!

For my 40th birthday, I designed a condom!  I had read about a challenge by the Gates Foundation to Develop the Next Generation of Condom, and figured, why not?

I put forward a proposal to design a condom that emulates the feel of an uncircumcised penis.  My friend, artist, Beldan Sezen helped to design a prototype of the condom to go along with my hypothesis.  In the application, I offered a concrete, non-rational-choice-influenced innovation toward improved condomization.  I also thanked the Gates Foundation for being progressive in the field of public health while asking them to transcend their hetero-normative, scientific-model constrained approach.  See their open call and guidelines.

While Beldan and I were cooking this up across timezones (she’s in Amsterdam), I became nostalgic thinking about a project I did back in 2002 right after I finished my Peace Corps service in Cameroon:  While in the Peace Corps, I worked with organizations such as UNICEF and Population Services International (PSI) to make a community radio series on youth sexuality and other issues in the rural province where I was stationed. One night I was at a party with the PSI director in the capital city, Yaoundé and he asked me what I was doing next.  I didn’t know what I was doing next and therefore he proposed that I go to Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic and make a radio spot and TV commercial for the rebranding of their socially-marketed condom.  So, for the next three weeks that’s just what I did.  The resulting product was a bilingual (French and Sango) marketing campaign that consisted of radio and TV content and billboard images; however just after I left civil war erupted and the marketing campaign was never used … Guess what I just found on VHS tape?

You can find original content here.

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