Texts

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 cinta roja en tu cacerola. Necesitamos que se hable del VIH con nombre propio, con nosotrxs, que se deje de hablar –lo poco que se habla POR nosotrxs y SIN nosotrxs-.

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)

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, well, except your costuming friend (Daniel). I would love to publish a text or reflections on process by her for the 2020 Love Positive Women holiday (Feb 1-14).  We will be putting up 14 days of woman-authored content on those days early next year. Can you ask (or work with) Jackie to make a text? Let’s do in Spanish, but also we can translate on our side. If you will agree to interview her for the site, then you can also be a bit instructive w/ your questions. Just make it about the lab process. In that way you both support Love Positive Women. 

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. 

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. The benefits went to حملة اعرف اكثر - Campagne ‘Pour en savoir plus’ - ‘Know more’ campaign .

Nic/Taha:
Hope the event in Colombia went well! I just wanted to send you a short feedback of our event in Grenoble yesterday. It went really well, a lot of people attended and they were all really interested by the project and the discussion was really interesting as well.

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, community organizers, organization makers, filmmaker, bartender, health worker, fashion designer, poets, performers and couple who make a Centro club and art space called Um55. Our first Sarau Transante was on Saturday, November 30th at Um55, the day before World AIDS Day. 

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 of AIDS Day … the acts, walks, talks, performances and such. It’s a lot for one day. It’s a lot to pay attention to all at once. That’s why I like so much the project by artist, Jessica Whitbread called Love Positive Women … it creates another set of days (Feb 1-14) during which positive women are commemorated, interacted with … thought of. This relates to the cloth hearts. 

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 screened at the event at El Parche on October 30th in Bogotá. I also really enjoyed being a part of the Laboratorio Luciérnagas performance and intervention at the Botanical Gardens on October 25th. The whole trip was amazing for me, and reminded me why I’m making the Luv ’til it Hurts project. 

Bodies containing Fireflies that wander through the nocturnal jungle, emitting calls and small sparks of light for courting and to find copulation. They remind us that in the jungle there are no limits or borders. Migrating, as many do out of necessity, or as a virus does from one body into another, is a fluid process. The spectator is invited to use the space to take a break, breathe, and rethink of him/herself as an individual body, and as a gear in a collective body in constant movement. In AIDS and Its Metaphors (1987), Susan Sontag proposes a relationship with illnesses that is not of pity. Instead, she suggests approaching the illness by recognizing it as being a fundamental part of living organisms. Sontag’s intake emphasizes the necessity of confronting the illness with compassion, which implies understanding what happens to the other as if it was happening to yourself. In Survival of the Fireflies (1992), Georges Didi-Huberman proposes these light bugs as being metaphors of resilience, especially during convoluted political moments. These are some reflections that have opened up in the Luciérnagas lab of research and creation.