featured gallery for February 2019

LOVE POZ WOMXN

Will anyone ever want to have sex with me again?! After I figured out that, in 2010, I was not going to die from AIDS (as long as I continue to take my medication), this was high up in my most pressing concerns after diagnosis. Words like contagious and dirty bounced around in my head as descriptors for who I am now as a woman. I felt tainted. Much of my journey these past eight years has been a conscious reclaiming of my sexuality and worthiness of intimacy in the face of the stigma that weighs so heavily.

The Inspired by Another Poet Poem By Kelly Gluckman

Here lies rage
in the rupturing claw of self-hatred.
-Sandy Jeffs

She walks with three letters
following closely
persistent
like browser cookie advertisements
or a computer virus

No
she is v-i-r-a-l
but not the good kind of viral
you know
the kind that makes people popular,
famous.

No
this kind of virus requires medication
her pharmaceutical savior of sorts
a daily reminder that
she is cont-A-I-D-S-gious

she promised herself
she would not grow bitter
but ill-tempered outbursts
reveal cracks in her mask
divulge what is normally so well kept
internal(ized stigma)
she fancies herself unworthy

…but she’s always so
cheer(full of shit)
…but she seems so
confi(denigrating towards herself)
…but she’s always so
bubbl(ing just under the surface)

an elastic band can only be stretched
so tight
for so long
before it snaps
she is fucking a-n-g-r-y

As I browsed the images in the artist registry, I saw very clearly that I’m not the only one in rebellion against society’s stripping of our right to feel sexy and loved. I chose these works as a love letter to my community of womxn living with HIV, inclusive of trans feminine identity. We are all deserving. Please enjoy this celebration of the diversity within feminine form, expression, and eroticism, as well as an exploration of identity, intimacy, sexuality, and self-empowerment through the darkness.