CAM St. Louis is proud to partner with Visual AIDS, Project ARK, and Vivent Health for Day With(out) Art 2023, presented on the 35th occasion of World AIDS Day. We share the same goal as millions around the world—to “Remember and Commit” to ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.

This public event presents the opportunity to gather in dialogue, creative expression, and community building. Day With(out) Art features a community conversation, tabling from local organizations, free HIV testing provided by Vivent Health, a portion of the AIDS Memorial quilt, response wall*, raffle, and the creation of a collaborative painting led by artist Tyler Harris.

Schedule

• 6:30 pm Welcome comments: Crystal Ellis (Owner, Crystallized Sexuality; Sexual Health Training Coordinator, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri)
• 6:45 pm Reception and activities
• 7:30 pm Community conversation led by Lawrence Hudson-Lewis (Director of Prevention, Project ARK) and Leigh Braxton (Prevention Supervisor, Vivent Health)
• 8:30 pm Raffle

* The response wall provides prompts for reflection and conversation around the videos and broader conversations of HIV/AIDS. Questions include:

• What can we learn from the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics?
• Name differences you notice between invisible and outwardly visible illnesses or disabilities. What impact can illness and disability representation have on your physical, emotional, and spiritual health?
• How do you think the AIDS epidemic has changed over the last forty years, and what differences exist between younger and older generations of people living with HIV?

From December 1–3, CAM dedicates a screening space to a looping presentation of video works commissioned by Visual AIDS.

• City of St. Louis Department of Health
• MO Ho Justice
• What Would an HIV Doula Do?
• Novus Health

Video Synopses

Dorothy Cheung, Heart Murmur

• Heart Murmur is a poetic dialogue between the filmmaker and Dean, a young man living in Hong Kong. In reflecting on his experience living with a congenital disability and HIV during the first years of the COVID pandemic, Dean expresses his sense of self in the face of regular medical challenges.

Hiura Fernandes and Lili Nascimento, Aquela criança com AID$ (That Child with AID$)

• That Child with AID$ tells the story of Brazilian advocate and artist Lili Nascimento, who was born with HIV in 1990. Lili has worked to expand narratives about living with HIV beyond the limited images and ideologies that permeate the AIDS industry.

Beau Gomez, This Bed I Made

• This Bed I Made presents the bed as a place of solace and agency beyond just a site of illness or isolation. Through the shared stories of two Filipino men living with HIV, the video explores modes of care, restoration, and abundance in the midst of pandemic pervasion.

Dolissa Medina and Ananias P. Soria, Viejito/Enfermito/Grito (Old Man/Sick Man/Shout)

• Ananias, a San Francisco Bay Area artist and immigrant, performs the folkloric Danza de los Viejitos (the Dance of the Old Men). Originally from Michoacán, Mexico, where the dance originates, Ananias interprets its movements through the lens of his spirituality, his long-term HIV-related disabilities, and his search for a place in the world.

Kurt Weston, Losing the Light

• Losing the Light reflects the artist’s bitter battle to stay in this world as a long-term survivor of AIDS who has lost his vision to CMV retinitis. An experimental self-portrait, the video evokes the dissolution and fragmentation of the artist’s body, representing the impact of blindness, long-term HIV infection, and the cumulative effects of decades of antiretroviral medication.