Victory Gardens Theater, Art AIDS America Chicago and Center on Halsted have announced the two-day World AIDS Day event. "We're Still Here: HIV/AIDS Then & Now."
"We're Still Here: HIV/AIDS Then & Now"an HIV/AIDS arts and cultural impact panel and performanceis scheduled to take place on Wed., Nov. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. It is free and open to the public.
The panel will include exhibit co-curator Jonathan Katz, Director of Exhibitions Tony Hirschel, Victory Gardens Theater's Director of New Play Development Isaac Gomez, with Hutch Pimentel as moderator. The panel will be followed by Queer, Ill + Okay performances by Phillip X Blacknbrilliant and Joan Giroux, as well as a short film by Xena Ellison and Elizabeth Mputu.
On Thursday, Dec. 1, a curated tour of the Art AIDS America Chicago exhibit at the Alphawood Gallery, 2401 N. Halsted St., will start at 6 p.m., followed by a pre-show reception and storytelling performances at 7 p.m. at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. The evening will conclude with a performance of Karen Hartman's Roz and Ray at 7:30 p.m. at Victory Gardens Theater.
This temporary space has been created in a former bank by the Chicago-based Alphawood Foundation to bring the exhibition to its only Midwest venue.
Art AIDS America is the first exhibition to explore how the AIDS crisis forever changed U.S. art. Since the first reports of mysterious illnesses in the early 1980s, HIV and AIDS have touched nearly every resident in some way. The Chicago presentation of Art AIDS America will feature more than 100 significant contemporary works in a wide range of mediafrom oil on canvas and photography to three-dimensional installations and video.
There are additional events as well. On Saturday, Dec. 3, at 10 a.m., "How AIDS Changed American ArtAn Illustrated Lecture" will take place at Alphawood Gallery. The free lecture will be delivered by Jonathan Katz, co-curator of Art AIDS America and director of the visual studies doctoral program at SUNY; the opening will be a spoken-word performance from avery r. young.
On that same day, at 12 p.m. at Alphawood, a "Disruption/Repression: How AIDS Changed America" panel will take place. The panel will feature University of Chicago Professor of Medicine Dr. Renslow Sherer; Robert Vazquez-Pacheco, artist and member of Gran Fury; Peter Carpenter, independent choreographer and associate professor at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago; Mary Patten, professor of visual and critical studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Jeanne Kracher, executive director of Crossroads Fund; and Stephanie Stebich, executive director of the Tacoma Art Museum. The moderator will be public-health advocate Lora Branch. In addition, Chicago-based Defibrillator Gallery Director Joseph Ravens will present "Condom Cloud" at this free event.