Day With(out) Art 2017 | with Visual AIDS and the Schomburg Center

ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS is the 28th annual iteration of Visual AIDS’s longstanding Day With(out) Art project. This evening's screening, co-presented with Visual AIDS and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, will be followed by a discussion featuring artists Cheryl Dunye, Ellen Spiro and Thomas Allen Harris with curators Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. 

ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS prioritizes Black narratives in the ongoing AIDS epidemic with seven new and innovative short videos from artists Mykki Blanco, Cheryl Dunye & Ellen Spiro, Reina Gossett, Thomas Allen Harris, Kia LaBeija, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Brontez Purnell. The commissions include intimate meditations of young HIV positive protagonists; a consideration of community-based HIV/AIDS activism in the South; explorations of the legacies and contemporary resonances within AIDS archives; a poetic journey through New York exploring historical traces of queer and trans life, and more. Together, the videos provide a platform in which voices deeply impacted by the ongoing epidemic are centered.

In spite of the impact of HIV/AIDS within Black communities, larger artistic and historical narratives constantly exclude Black stories and experiences. In 2016, African Americans represented 44% of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States. Given this context, it is increasingly urgent to feature a myriad of stories that consider and represent the lives of those housed within this statistic. ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS seeks to highlight the voices of those who are marginalized within broader Black communities nationwide, including queer and trans people.

Click here to RSVP for this free program!