From “Viejito Enfermito Grito (Old Man Sick Man Shout)” by Dolissa Medina and Ananias P. Soria
Since 1989, the New York-based Visual AIDS has organized an event coinciding with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The day of remembrance and awareness includes multiple events, including screening, testing and, at three local venues, presenting the annual A Day With(out) Art film.
Visual AIDS, the only nationwide arts organization dedicated to AIDS and HIV awareness, commissions artists to create a video on a theme at the intersection of HIV and AIDS for what is now called A Day With(out) Art. For its 34th year, six artists — including one from Texas — reflect on this year’s theme, “Everyone I Know Is Sick,” intended to create connections between HIV and AIDS and other forms of illness and disabilities.
This year’s artists are Dorothy Cheung from Hong Kong, Hiura Fernandes and Lili Nascimento from Brazil, Beau Gomez from Canada/The Philippines, Dolissa Medina and Ananias P. Soria from the U.S. and Kurt Weston from the U.S. Medina has lived and worked in Brownsville for more than 20 years.
You can, and should, read more about the five movies here and follow along with an excellent resource guide here. I take an hour of my day and attend a screening at the Modern every year. It is experimental, frequently emotional and tough to stomach.
You have to see it. And you can at three DFW venues:
In Dallas, check it out the Oak Cliff Cultural Center, 223 West Jefferson Blvd. at 7 p.m. It will be introduced by Dallas’s Tamera Garrett, who featured in last year’s Here We Are: Voices of Black Women Who Live with HIV. A mobile STD testing station provided by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation will be present.
In Fort Worth, The Art Galleries at TCU’s Moudy Gallery, specifically Room 132 inside the Moudy Building, 2805 S. University Drive on the TCU campus, will screen it from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (You can find info on free parking here .)
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell Street, hosts an 11:45 a.m. screening event in partnership with Tarrant County HIV Administrative Agency on World AIDS Day and the BEAT HIV Art Contest.
You can find a list of screenings across the world here.
— James M. Russell
