AIDS Activist Legacies: Richard Berkowitz in conversation Linda Scruggs and Ivy Kwan Arce

Visual AIDS presents the premiere of Love is the Drug, a short documentary film by Liz Roberts. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Roberts and Heather Edney, moderated by Blake Paskal, Programs Manager, Visual AIDS.

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Love is the Drug tells the story of Heather Edney’s drug user organizing which began in Santa Cruz, California, while she was caring for MyLeia Loya, a child who was born HIV positive. The film brings together a trove of archival materials: Edney’s appearances on television, photographs, zines, flyers, and community health education videos with more recent 16mm footage of Edney and Loya in Santa Cruz. Love is the Drug ultimately asserts that the archive is not a scene of redemption, but rather a cinematic apparatus that can teach us about durational love.

This panel discussion is part of the exhibition Love Rules: The Harm Reduction Archives of Heather Edney and Richard Berkowitz on view at MoMA PS1 from April 24 to October 6. Following the discussion, visitors are welcome to explore the exhibition and converse with the panelists. 

Biographies:

Richard Berkowitz is an author and activist based in NYC. In 1983, Berkowitz co-authored How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, a 40-page pamphlet which went way beyond condom use to demonstrate how many forms of sexual activities could be made safe or safer. How to Have Sex... is widely regarded as the invention of the first sexually explicit safe sex guidelines. His 2003 book, Stayin’ Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex inspired the 2009 documentary, SEX POSITIVE which won the Grand Jury prize for Best Documentary at OUTFEST L.A. He is the last surviving co-author of the “Denver Principles”, an historic 1983 document that redefined the doctor/patient relationship and has been celebrated by the United Nations, the World Health Organization and governments around the world where healthcare for all is a basic human right.