Artivists
Meet the group of Seattle-based HIV-positive artist-activists, known as “artivists.” The Seattle-based artivists will tell their powerful stories for Discovery Center visitors and school groups several times a week virtually.
Alora (she/her) is originally from San Diego, but has been living in Seattle for six years. She is a mother of two beautiful,tiny to mid-sized humans, as well as a dog, cat, and lots of plants. She is what we call a ‘vertical’, meaning she contracted HIV from her mother, either at birth or through breastfeeding. Standing strong and proud at 35 years old, she is also a long-term survivor having lived through the early days of the AIDS crisis when there was no known medication to effectively treat folks who carry this virus.
Alora has been public about surviving with AIDS since 1992, right after her diagnosis at seven years old. In her long career of speaking and advocacy since, she has shared her story with hundreds of school groups, church groups, and in community settings. She has also participated in media storytelling with wide-reaching outlets such as The New York Times, The Body, Seventeen, and YM. She has documented her story and served as a board member with The Positive Project, and presented at a variety of conferences, national and local. While all of this is certainly impressive, Alora says that experiencing mutual storytelling and empowerment in spaces of community with other folks who are living with HIV/AIDS is the most important part of her work.
Alora currently serves as a Family Pandemic Crisis Manager, and prior to the Fall of 2020, she managed a peer-led program serving HIV positive women in Seattle. These days, she feels that her most notable accomplishments are occasionally finishing a book while parenting, advocating for her kids in the school system, supporting other HIV positive folks, learning to prepare more than five dinners in a night, remembering to take her meds, seeking support for her mental health, and continually pushing for a life she can survive and thrive in.
By joining Through Positive Eyes as an artivist, she is most excited to explore photography as a new medium to share her story, but most of all, she feels honored to work alongside her fellow artivists. She says, “To meet, learn from, and work alongside this phenomenal group of humans is an experience beyond measure.”
Andrew (he/him) is originally from Portland, Oregon, and has been living in Seattle for 14 years. He prefers to avoid labels, however he does feel comfortable stating that he is “a man who loves men.” He has been public about his HIV-positive status right from the jump when he was diagnosed in 2004. In 2011, he was featured in a short documentary about living with HIV in Washington state called “HIV: WA and from 2010 to 2019.” He shared his story with middle and high school students in the Seattle Public School system as a part of a program that serves as a complement to their comprehensive sexual health education and HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum.
Andrew served in the army for four years— from 1996 to 2000— and holds an MBA and M. Ed. Currently, he works as a mental health counselor practicing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy with his clients. He is passionate about exploring practices which support his holistic healing, as well as participating in social and political movements that push for equity, inclusion, and justice for underserved and underrepresented communities.
This is his first time sharing his story through photography, so by joining Through Positive Eyes as an artivist, he’s looking forward to exploring how the spoken word can flow together with imagery. Andrew is also excited to share how his narrative has evolved since he first became public about his HIV-positive status, and to present his story as it is in the present moment.
Bill (he/him) is an Alaskan native, originally from a small fishing village called Hoonah. He has been living in Seattle off and on since 1971. He is a Tlinget Indian of the Raven Clan. He identifies as a gay man and a community advocate for the Native American community on HIV. A long-term survivor, Bill has been living with HIV/AIDS since 1986, and has been public about his positive status for 25 years.
Bill has come to believe that his journey to becoming an advocate for the Native American community on HIV was by design. He started by volunteering for various AIDS organizations, which led him to join community advisory boards. This then exposed him to a vast education on AIDS research, and how services for people living with AIDS are developed. Through his involvement with these groups, he realized that the reason Native Americans were the most underserved community with regard to HIV, was that no one was speaking up about it. This bothered him greatly, so he dove right into his advocacy.
He has worked with media outlets, high school students, conferences, and has participated in various other speaking engagements. A calm and intentional speaker, Bill shares the story of systemic oppression and cultural erasure of Native communities and how it ties into his diagnosis and journey into advocacy.
By becoming a Through Positive Eyes artivist, Bill is most looking forward to having a new platform to showcase the importance of, and to amplify the work that HIV/AIDS advocates do. His message is for the Native community at large, as well as anyone else who will listen, that AIDS is still here, and it is still killing people. Our collective action is still needed.
C.L. (she/her) is originally from Texas and has been living in Seattle for three years, off and on. She self-identifies as a nonbinary transfemme and has been living with HIV for eight years. She is currently studying psychology, and is an ayurvedic practitioner and a licensed massage therapist. She also serves as the president of the Queer Astrology Club and as a teacher at Portland School of Astrology.
A wildly creative and passionate multimedia artist, writer, and poet, Through Positive Eyes is C.L.'s first time including her life with HIV/AIDS in a form of self-expression that she shares with the world. Her story is a profound journey of radical self-discovery, and she’s excited to share the “neurobiological mechanisms I’ve begun to employ to deal with chronic psychological stressors” with the audiences. As a Through Positive Eyes artivist, she sees her work as another way to grow in her healing journey.
Edward (he/him) was born in St. Louis Missouri and has been living in Seattle for one year. He self-identifies as a heterosexual man and has been living with HIV since birth. Edward became public about living with HIV/AIDS in 2012 when he shared his story of being criminalized and imprisoned for his status with the presidential advisory committee for HIV and AIDS under the Obama administration. His work as a Through Positive Eyes artivist is the first time he’ll be sharing his story publicly since that occasion. As a very visually expressive individual, Edward is most excited to explore and express himself through the photography aspect of this project.
Hugo (he/him) was born in Havana, Cuba in 1954. He lived in New York City from the age of 12, where he attended The High School of Art and Design, Pratt Institute, and The Fashion Institute of Technology. In New York, he held various graphic design positions in advertising and publishing. He relocated to Miami, Florida in 1999, where he returned to school and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida International University (FIU) in 2006. His work has been exhibited throughout the USA and the Caribbean — including at the IX Havana Biennial, in Havana, Cuba, and at the First Ghetto Biennial in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He relocated to Seattle in September 2014 with his husband of 29 years — Bellingham, Washington native, Cameron McKenzie. Through Hugo's productive and exciting career, he has come to self-identify as a “Queer Cuban-born American Cultural Worker.”
Hugo tested positive for HIV in 1987 and has been open about his status with his peers, family, and coworkers since. His positive status has never been a source of shame. However, Through Positive Eyes is his first time sharing his HIV/AIDS story with live audiences. He is most excited to reach and engage with the youth and find out what they know and think about the AIDS crisis that he, so intimately, experienced as a young man.
Julene (she/her), is a native New Yorker, who moved to Seattle in 1989. She identifies as a bisexual. She has a long history studying Chinese and Western herbal medicine; she is certified as a green witch in the Wise Woman Tradition; she wild harvests and makes medicine for personal use. She went officially public about being a long term survivor in 2017 when her second full-sized poetry book was published, truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS. A finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, her book won the Bisexual Book Award, and four Human Relations Indie Book Awards.
An experienced speaker and advocate, she has shared about living with HIV on panels, in poetry readings, and with the AIDS Memorial Pathway. She advocates for medical and educational systems to grow their awareness so engage with HIV/AIDS communities. She facilitates writing workshops and presents at conferences. Her book, truth be bold, was taught in English college courses at Long Island University - Brooklyn.
Julene worked for twenty-one years in AIDS services, eighteen of them as a case manager and adherence counselor, then in AIDS education. She was one of the founders of Babes Network, served on their Board, ran the committee that came up with the slogan "A sisterhood of women fighting AIDS together," and was the first columnist for their newsletter’s Health Corner. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and is writing a memoir about her work in AIDS services while living with HIV/AIDS through the heart of the epidemic.
Julene is a fun-loving human with a warrior spirit. If she could leave you with one message after being in her presence and hearing her story, it’s this; “One can survive and thrive living with AIDS.” And boy has she.
Kelly H. (she/her) was born in Anacortes, Washington, and has been living in Seattle for 15 years. She has been living with HIV for 20 years, and has been sharing her story publicly for 19 of them. She went public with her story to show that the H in HIV stands for ‘human,’ and while most folks have a stereotype in mind about who gets HIV, truly anyone can contract this virus, even a heterosexual white woman.
Kelly has spoken with students in Seattle Public Schools, juvenile detention, women's prisons, and colleges. She’s also had her story published in local newspapers and magazines, and has participated in a theatre project focusing on the stories of women living with HIV.
The proud mother of a radiant 19-year-old, Kelly is passionate about her work as a mental health counselor for clients who live in supportive housing. She is a firm believer that housing is healthcare.
Nineteen years of sharing one's story in the same way over and over again can become quite tiresome. By becoming a Through Positive Eyes artivist, Kelly is most excited to explore the many stories within her story, and to take a different direction than she has before with what she shares with audiences.
Kia (she/her) was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She has moved to other places, but has always come back home to the Emerald City. She currently serves as the Lead Peer Case Manager at the Babes Network, assisting women who are living with HIV into getting the care and social support they need to live a long, healthy, and happy life.
Kia self identifies as an African American woman and a married lesbian diva. Kia dropped out of high school and later earned her General Educational Development (GED). She also attended school at TSU, however, the trauma of her HIV diagnosis took her out of her studies and into a little detour. Kia says that, “Life follows no schedule, it’s all about growth and repeating lessons until you get them and are able to move forward.”
She has been living with HIV/AIDS since 2001, and after 19 years of keeping this part of her life to herself and her inner circle, she is speaking out publicly for the first time as an artivist with Through Positive Eyes. She has overcome insurmountable obstacles to come out on the other side to live her most fabulous life.
Kia’s words carry profound power to create positive change in the world, and she has grown to become well aware of this. For Kia, right now is simply the time to come out of the shadows and to stand proud amongst her peers. What an honor it will be to witness this beautiful transition!
Positively Positive (they/them) Positively Positive Education Productions, LLC and {multiply marginalized} black, queer, transgender, HIV+ since birth, Asexual, Aromantic and a survivor of childhood violence.
Positively Positive is {asexual} typically they do not experience sexual feelings, desires nor are sexually attracted to anyone. Positively Positive is {aromantic} because typically they have no interests or desires for romantic relationships.
{Asexuals} and {Aromantics} are a demographic {part of the LGBTQ community} missing from the overall conversation so Positively Positive bridges that gap.
Pat (she/her) has been living in Seattle since 1978. A long-term survivor, Pat is a pioneer in the Seattle HIV/AIDS community. She is one of the founding members of BABES Network and has used her story and expertise in sexual health and HIV/AIDS to educate middle and high school students in hundreds of Seattle classrooms.
Pat’s photography work in Through Positive Eyes is a study of textures and landscapes that poetically illustrate her grit and fortitude, with just a few selfies and images of her pup sprinkled in to punctuate her dry humor and show off her beautiful humanity. She speaks of a life filled with love, and while she has experienced an immense amount of grief and loss, her words inspire a sense of reverence and gratitude for those who have passed. We should all be so wise to develop this perspective on life.
Programming Host & Coordinator
Kelly G. (she/her) was born and raised in Los Angeles and has been living with HIV since 2010. Part of her healing after diagnosis was sharing what she was going through with her friends. After noticing that person after person would go get tested after their conversation, Kelly decided to come out publicly as a person who is living with HIV. Since 2012, she has been featured on far-reaching platforms such as HIV Plus Magazine, A&U Magazine, HIV Equal, Bustle online, the CDC, MTV, and on an episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians. In 2017, she was featured in the POZ 100, celebrating women living with HIV doing advocacy work in and for the community, as well as honored to be awarded the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship. She has also been honored to uphold Dame Elizabeth Taylor’s HIV/AIDS activist legacy by representing her Foundation as an official ambassador since 2015.
The accolades above are what started out as a form of liberation and seeking of significance through self-expression. However, the heart of Kelly's work has turned into a lifelong communally engaged arts activism practice. She currently serves as the Project Coordinator for Through Positive Eyes, a photo-storytelling project that empowers people who are living with HIV to share their story in their own way through photography and spoken word. She thrives in facilitating arts empowerment and sexual health education workshops and sharing her story for 'anyone who will listen' to her. Her mission is to do her part in creating a world that is more healthy, creative, and compassionate.
