Thursday, November 10, 2005

World AIDS Day: searching for poems

Randy, who faithfully reads my blog (dear man), has pointed out that I haven't been posting lately. Things are busy-busy around here, and the November Madness of--well, everything, it seems--takes its toll. I thought it couldn't hurt to ask for a little help with one of my projects:

I'm helping to organize a reading on December 1 to commemorate World AIDS Day. Two years ago, we did this during the noon hour in conjunction with a display of panels from the NAMES Project, and it went really well: lots of folks came through the campus gallery on their lunch breaks to look at the quilt panels, and stayed for the reading. Next year, we're bringing the quilt panels back. But this year, we are trying to present a reading that showcases a multiplicity of voices: some of the multicultural student groups have volunteered to read poems or prose excerpts, and we're doing our best to find material that represents a range of voices.

Here's where I need some help: does anyone out there have any recommendations of where to find some decent-quality writing that presents a multicultural perspective on AIDS and HIV? I thought I was pretty familiar with the literature (duh) and I've been writing about the subject myself for a good long time, but finding poems that voice, for example, the HIV experience of women is proving difficult: what I continue to find are poems by women about gay (white) men. Any help is appreciated; I will track down any leads that you can suggest.

Thanks--

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do read it to.. and yes you have taken some time to post something. I haven't seen you online much either.

Anonymous said...

I can't think of any poems, but Rebecca Brown has some good short stories/essays in Gifts of the Body (fairly autobiographical, about her time as a caretaker doing home hospice stuff, if I remember correctly) about elderly straight [white] women with AIDS..

poet-scholar-professor-type said...

Ron, Hi! Long time...I found your blog on Charles Jensen's site. He raved about the new issue of West Branch. I haven't seen it yet. I realized I probably didn't give the staff my forwarding address. I've moved. So, if it's forwarded, I'll see it in a month or so.

Say hi to PA for me. Be well.

Ruth

Ron said...

Ruth, good to hear from you! Umm, lit mags aren't generally forwarded by the post office; did you send Andy your new address? Heck, send me your new address and I'll pop a copy into the mail for you.