Play Smart IV

The fourth edition of Play Smart features artists, writers, organizations, and activists working together.

Starting with the artists: Benjamin Fredrickson with Silvia Prada, and Carmine Santaniello with Jayson Keeling, each created their own artwork, and then as a pair collaborated on an image together.

This round of Play Smart includes four cards with information on the back. Visual AIDS worked with Streetwise & Safe, and Sero Project on topics such as: “No Condoms as Evidence”, “HIV is Not A Crime”, "Testing" and “Prevention Beyond Condoms.” Each pack also contains a fun "fill in the blank" game card so people can play together.

Programming for Play Smart included:

• Why We Fight Film Series screening: Safety First, with a Sneak Peek of "Play Smart IV"
• Condom Pack Making with Ella Boudreau, Timothy DuWhite, Zachary Frater (click here for photos)
• Personal Essays by Dee Borrego, Jim Eigo, Ricardo Gamboa (click on names to read)
• Launch and Panel Discussion with Benjamin Fredrickson, Jayson Keeling, Richard Renaldi (click here to watch event on YouTube)
  
  

Play Smart IV Bios:
Devarah 'Dee' Borrego, a 30-year-old transwoman living with HIV originally from Denver, Colorado, who grew up mostly in suburban Connecticut, acquired HIV at age 20; the same year she began her transition. She has lived in the Boston area since 2004, working with and at a number of different community organizations in the area, including JRI Health, TransCEND, the Boston Living Center and Cambridge Cares About AIDS.Dee is also a polyglot, speaking Spanish, French, Norwegian, American Sign Language, and a variety of other languages to various degrees. Dee was also a founding member of the Positive Women’s Network USA (PWN-USA), an organization led by and for American women living with HIV to address the way HIV disproportionately affects women in the US.Dee currently serves as the national Secretary for PWN-USA.She also sits on the Boards for the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance (HIV PJA) and that of the Global Network of People Living with HIV – North America (GNP+ NA). Dee has also been a blogger about her experiences as a transgender woman living with HIV in a variety of online spaces, including at “A Girl Like Me” and The Body. In 2010, Dee spoke at the Opening Plenary of the US Conference on AIDS (USCA) to discuss how HIV disproportionately affects and impacts transgender youth.Dee made her international speaking debut at a number of presentations and press conferences during AIDS 2012 held in Washington, D.C. in July 2012.

Ella Boureau is a writer, teacher and translator living in Brooklyn. She is the recipient of the 2013-2014 Queer Art Mentorship and runs the online magazine and reading series: In the Flesh. You can see her work there, as well as on The Rumpus, Huffington Post, Pretty Queer and Fullstop.

Timothy DuWhite likes to describe himself as simply one raucous heart just trying to unlearn all of the noise he has made. Through mistakes, short-comings, and failures Timothy has been able to fashion himself a body of work that speaks directly to the value of transparency and self-accountability. Timothy works as the newest Program Coordinator at Urban Word NYC; a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting literacy in the youth through the use of writing workshops and Hip Hop as a means of pedagogy. Timothy has dedicated his journey of both artist-hood as well as person-hood to the preservation of story, to our stories. Timothy believes that by sharing our individual experiences and maintaining a dialogue of honesty amongst ourselves we can better navigate this behemoth we call life.

Jim Eigo has written on theater, dance, art, literature, sex and the design of clinical trials. He helped design two reforms of AIDS drug regulation, accelerated approval and expanded access, reforms that facilitated the delivery of many treatments to people across the world. His short fiction has appeared in such volumes as Best American Gay Fiction #3, in such periodicals as The Chicago Review and at such online venues as Cleaver Magazine and Bohemia. His first published art work appears in The Poetics of Space from Intima Press. In January 2013, after an absence of twenty years, he returned to ACT UP NY to work (mostly) on HIV prevention.

Zachary Frater is an artist, writer, curator and performer. He curated the exhibition, HARD OPENING for HONEST BODIES, art and writing by queer artists of color and allies.

Benjamin Fredrickson was born in Minneapolis, MN, in 1980, and is an American photographer whose work centers on portraiture of subcultural taboos. Fredrickson studied at the Paris College of Art before earning a BFA in photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2003. Since, his work has been shown extensively in international photography zines, gallery exhibitions, and websites, as well as presented a solo program at the Museum of Arts and Design (NYC) in 2011. Fredrickson has had editorial commissions from publications including Apartmento, BUTT, Dazed & Confused, Document Journal, Garmento, Maker Magazine, Metal Magazine, and PIN-UP. He currently resides in New York City.

Ricardo Gamboa is an artist, activist and academic working in his native Chicago and New York City. In Chicago, Gamboa was Founder and Artistic Director of Teatro Americano, Company Member of Barrel of Monkeys, and worked with the city's most notable directors. In New York City, he was a fellow with the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics EmergeNYC program, launched his Border Jump-Off Short Film Series, is a Company Member of the critically acclaimed New York Neo-Futurists, and performs at a range of independent and institutional venues. He is recipient of several acting, directing, playwriting, and filmmaking awards. His first feature film Maydays premiered this past year at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. He was selected as one of Chicago's Featured Artist for 2013 city-wide Chicago Artists Month. Gamboa has worked with over 5,000 young people in the U.S. and Mexico. He received his M.A. Arts Politics from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in American Studies at the university's Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Jayson Keeling creates artwork, using photography, video, and other related media, that provoke and dismantle pop iconography and the accepted politics of sex, gender and race. He has been included in exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio, La Mama la Galleria, The Andy Warhol Museum, Exit Art, GBE@passerby, Apex Art, Real Art Ways, Queens Museum of Art, The Bronx Museum, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Keeling has been awarded residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2009 and 2007, as well as the Apex Outbound Residency in Ethiopia, 2009.

Silvia Prada is an artist that goes straight to business. Her work as an illustrator is a monochromatic and geometrical celebration where the Queen of Pop (and her daughter) intertwine with other Pop Stars, ex-child stars, Hollywood demigods and the latest top model and dance group du jour while sharing paper space with manga creatures, the Looney Tunes, comic-strip type onomatopoeic screeches and hot thugs, or chulazos, as they are known in her native Spain.

Carmine Santaniello was born in Queens, New York in 1955 and has been creating art since he could hold a pencil. His formal education includes the High School of Art and Design and The School of Visual Arts, and he holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design. Just as influential as his formal training is the time he spends traveling in Italy, where he says “everything is beautiful” as well as time spent exploring Mexico, painting and drawing throughout the country. “The surrealism of Mexico is so apparent that you cannot help but have all your creative energy heightened,” he explains. His work has been exhibited around the world including Germany and across the United States.

HIV IS NOT A CRIME

People with HIV have been unjustly prosecuted for not disclosing their HIV statuses to their sexual partners, even when transmission of risk was minimal or non-existent. For people living with HIV, a misunderstanding, a bad break-up, or a brush with the law, can result in a lengthy prison sentence and even sex offender registration.Below is information and tips from the Sero Project about how to take care of yourself.

If you have been accused of an HIV-related crime, the SERO Project suggests:

DO NOT:

• Volunteer information
• Acknowledge your HIV status
• Sign any documents
• Provide:
  • access to medical records
  • bodily fluids
  • take medical tests

DO:

• Tell them you want a lawyer

The State must provide you with a lawyer if you cannot afford one. Finding a knowledgeable lawyer can be difficult. Visit seroproject.com to learn more and about how you can help stop HIV criminalization.

CONDOMS ARE NOT EVIDENCE

Condoms have been unjustly used as evidence by law enforcement and prosecutors as evidence of prostitution, especially among LGBT youth of color. Sound public health policy would encourage condom use by eliminating the fear that caring a condom will be used against you or anyone else by police or in a court of law. Below is information and tips from Streetwise and Safe about how to take care of yourself.

DID YOU KNOW condoms have been used as evidence in prostitution related offenses?
This practice has had a devastating effect on LGBTQ youth of color, who are the most at risk for HIV, because law enforcement often profiles us as being engaged in deviant behavior regardless of what we are doing. Condoms are not only used to press charges against us but often law enforcement will use them as a way to harass us about our gender and sexual identities during Stop & Frisk encounters.

A WAY TO PROTECT OURSELVES when a cop approaches you and starts talking:

ASK: “Am I free to go?”
If they say YES, walk away calmly.
If they say NO, give name and ID if requested.
If they say NO, and you feel safe enough, ASK: “Am I being detained?”
If they say NO, ASK:“Am I free to go?”
If they say YES, then you are being detained. SAY: “I am going to remain silent”
Stay silent until you are able to speak with a lawyer!

Cops want you to answer questions so that they can use the information you give as evidence or admission of a crime.
If you feel like a cop is sexually harassing you, you don’t have to respond or give them any personal information.

Join Streetwise and Safe in putting an end to the practice of collecting condoms as evidence in New York State by going to NOCONDOMSASEVIDENCE.ORG because carrying a condom should not put any of us at risk for criminal charges!

PrEP and PEP involve taking HIV medications to prevent transmission of HIV.

PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis) is taken within 72 hours AFTER exposure to HIV and consists of a moth of treatment. If you think you have been exposed to HIV, go to a hospital or see your doctor right away. More info at www.pep411.com

PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a daily regimen taken BEFORE exposrue to HIV to reduce the chance of infection. PrEP shouldn't be used if you are HIV-positive, so it's important to get tested before considering starting PrEP. Some people may benefit from PrEP more than others - like those in relationships where one person is HIV-positive and the other is negative, those who don't have access to condoms, and those who are unable to use condoms with their partners.

For yourself and your partners, get tested for STDs and HIV every 3-12 months, depending on your sexual activity. Early detection and treatment of HIV can help you stay healthy. Find a testing site near you: hivtest.org

If you would like access to pre/post-test counseling, inquire about the availability of these services at your chosen test site or nearby health clinic.