On the anniversary of Day With(out) Art, a day when cultural organizations raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, remember people who have died, and inspire positive action, the Museum and the Princeton Garden Theatre invite you to a screening of Everyone I Know Is Sick. This program of six videos was commissioned by Visual AIDS to generate connections between HIV and other forms of illness and disability. Introduced by Art Museum Director James Steward.
This screening is free and open to the public. Reserve your free ticket on the Princeton Garden Theatre’s website.
Following the screening, join the film director Beau Gomez and James Steward for a discussion of Gomez’s video This Bed I Made. The video presents the bed as a place of solace and agency beyond just a site of illness or isolation. Through the shared stories of two Filipino men living with HIV, the video explores modes of care, restoration, and abundance.
Inspired by a statement from Cyrée Jarelle Johnson in the book Black Futures, edited by Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew, Everyone I Know Is Sick examines how our society excludes disabled and sick people by upholding a false dichotomy of health and sickness. Inviting us to understand disability as a common experience rather than an exception to the norm, the program highlights a range of experiences spanning HIV, COVID-19, mental health, and aging. The commissioned artists foreground the knowledge and expertise of disabled and sick people in a world still grappling with multiple ongoing pandemics.
