Tag: aids

  • songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: queen’s “there are the days of our lives”

    songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: queen’s “there are the days of our lives”

    The early 1990s were a pivotal era in popular culture, significantly marked by the escalating AIDS epidemic. For Queen, one of the most celebrated rock bands of the 20th century, the impact of AIDS was deeply personal. By the release of “Innuendo,” Queen’s fourteenth studio album, Queen had established itself…

  • TINA TURNER

    TINA TURNER

    i dreamed about my mother for the first time in a long time last night. waking from those all-too-real dreams used to leave me wallowing in the quicksand of regret over the loss of control over things we had no control of. but not this time. i spent the rest of…

  • National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: Carlos & José | Gran Varones Fellows

    National Latinx HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: Carlos & José | Gran Varones Fellows

    When you’re living with HIV, finding community can be hard. When you do, sometimes having HIV is the only common factor. When you do come across a group of people who look like you, around your age, had similar familial backgrounds, history, traditions, traumas and triumphs, you finally feel like…

  • Gran Varones Fellows

    Gran Varones Fellows

    Last weekend, the second convening of the Gran Varones Positive Digital Arts Fellowship took place in Washington, DC. Since the start of the fellowship, varones from six different cities and just as many states, organized events, held community get-togethers and created digital content that amplified the experiences of Latinx folks…

  • 30 Years Ago, I Discovered Who I Was and Who I Would Become Through Music

    30 Years Ago, I Discovered Who I Was and Who I Would Become Through Music

    i love anniversaries. they provide a moment of celebration and reflection. and as person who loves history, especially that of pop culture and music, anniversaries are a huge fuckin’ deal for me. why am i sharing this? well, 1990 in my opinion, is the best year in music. DON’T @…

  • Fernando | Chicago, IL

    Fernando | Chicago, IL

    I would pass by the clinic but I would never enter, standing in front of the door I would think, “Do I go in or not.” I made five attempts before going in. And when I entered, I sat down, and next to me someone sat down. The older gentleman…

  • CBS News New York Tweets HIV-Phobic Headline

    CBS News New York Tweets HIV-Phobic Headline

    on this 8th day of the new decade that is 2020, cbs news New York tweeted a headline, in all caps i might add, that read in: “RELEASED AFTER HIV ATTACK: A judge has let a suspect back onto the streets after police at LaGuardia say the attacker spit into…

  • German | Philadelphia, PA

    German | Philadelphia, PA

    As I child I grew up unable to be myself due to the things I was forced listen to about being gay. I was bullied by my uncles because they always called me gay. I lost so many chances at life. I held myself back from so many opportunities because…

  • Mathew | Philadelphia, PA

    Mathew | Philadelphia, PA

    when i was diagnosed, it changed my life completely. i was a 17 year old boy barely coming to grips with my sexuality. i was already struggling with aspects of myself that i was scared to share with the world in fear of judgment and now this happened. it stopped…

  • José, Puerto Rico

    José, Puerto Rico

    every intersection of every group is like a small world – latino, gay, (hiv) negative. i’ve been in so many small groups. like my art, i have been highlighted as an hiv artist, latino artist, a puerto rican artist, as a gay artist. at the beginning, i was like, “no.…

  • From Under a Rock: Surviving the Reagan Crack Years

    From Under a Rock: Surviving the Reagan Crack Years

    My mother began smoking crack in the summer of 1986. At that time, it was widely known as “crack rock.” I was 9 years old and I already had mastered the art of secrecy. I didn’t call it art or survival; it was just life under the “rock.” I learned…

  • HIV Isn’t A Crime…

    HIV Isn’t A Crime…

    The weaponization of HIV infection: in this case, the use of bodily fluid/s for use as a weapon and the assumption of infectiousness, has a long and storied history in the United States and globally. This refers to enacting HIV-specific statutes that criminalize people infected with HIV and often doesn’t…