INSIDE/OUT: HIV/AIDS PRISON ACTIVISM AND PEER ORGANIZING

INSIDE/OUT: HIV/AIDS PRISON ACTIVISM AND PEER ORGANIZING
Multimedia and Archival Exhibit

Curated by Kat Cheairs, Inside/Out: HIV/AIDS Prison Activism and Peer Organizing is an archival and multimedia exhibition using primary source archival materials from the Judy Greenspan Papers at The Center Archive to highlight the impact of HIV/AIDS peer organizing in prisons.

A vast network of individuals inside and outside of prisons throughout the U.S. and Canada organized to demand healthcare and human rights for incarcerated individuals living with HIV & AIDS. The AIDS Counseling and Education (ACE) program, a focal point of this exhibition, is part of an entire constellation of people, organizations, and publications dedicated to HIV/AIDS prison organizing and advocacy. The legacy of this work is present in current conversations around prison health and the impacts of mass incarceration.

The exhibit is dedicated to the fierceness and timelessness of this work, and has included audio interviews conducted by Kat Cheairs, with current activists involved in prison AIDS activism and organizing.

DETAILS

On view: January 6-May 26, 2023
Fourth Floor

AUDIO INTERVIEWS

Brian Carmichael
Trigger Warning: A portion of the interview contains an experience of sexual violence.

Brian Carmichael has been an activist, organizer, and educator on all things related to HIV/AIDS for more than 35 years. His work in the 80’s and 90’s helped revolutionize HIV health care for prisoners in California that led to the first-ever hospice being opened in a prison. This endeavor ultimately set the standard for treatment of HIV+ prisoners nationwide.

Terry McGovern
Terry McGovern currently serves as Harriet and Robert H. Heilbrunn Professor and Chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health and the Director of the Program on Global Health Justice and Governance at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Terry founded the HIV Law Project in 1989 where she served as its executive director until 1999. Terry successfully litigated numerous cases against the federal, state, and local governments to expand HIV-related disability criteria so that women and other excluded individuals could qualify for Medicaid and social security.

Waheedah Shabazz-El
Waheedah Shabazz-El is an African American Muslim woman and retired postal worker who was diagnosed with AIDS in 2003. Waheedah is a founding member of Positive Women’s Network – USA and currently the Director of Community Engagement for The National Reunion Project that is building a national alliance of HIV-affected long-term survivors. She has held the position of Goodwill Ambassador for Philadelphia FIGHT for over 15 years.

Roslyn Smith
Roslyn Smith was arrested at age 17 and served 39 years in prison at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. She was released and returned home at the age of 56. Roslyn was part of the ACE program at Bedford Hills and is currently busy building a new life for herself as a mother. Roslyn is dedicated to making a contribution to various issues faced by women impacted by incarceration.

Teresa Sullivan
Teresa Sullivan is the Director of HIV Prevention and Education for Philadelphia FIGHT. As a community organizer, Teresa spearheads direct outreach into communities deeply affected by the crisis of mass incaraceration, and helps organize neighborhood-level steering committees to address their specific reentry needs.

ARCHIVE MATERIALS

ACE Cover PinkACE (A.I.D.S. Counseling and Education) Program Poetry, Art, Prose Publication Cover Art. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. Illustration by A. Rivera; Edited by D. Bell, K. Boudin, D. Romeo. Judy Greenspan Papers, LGBT Community Center National History Archive.
ACE Out FlyerACE OUT Flyer linked women to peer counseling services upon release from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. Judy Greenspan Papers, LGBT Community Center National History Archive.
At War2nd Annual ACE Walkathon Publication (1994). Judy Greenspan Papers, LGBT Community Center National History Archive.
Cell Count CoverCell Count is published by PASAN in Canada for incarcerated and formerly incarcarated individuals. It is still an active publication that started in 1995. PASAN conducts HIV prevention education programs in many adult institutions in the southern Ontario region. Judy Greenspan Papers, LGBT Community Center National History Archive.
Katrina HaslipKatrina Halsip was a co-founder of ACE (AIDS Couseling and Education) at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. Haslip was instrumental in advocating for women's inclusion into the definition of AIDS. Image: Courtesy of Terry McGovern
Voices of PWAsArt work published in 2nd Annual ACE Walkathon Publication. Judy Greenspan Papers, LGBT Community Center National History Archive.

prev next

ABOUT KAT CHEAIRS

Katherine “Kat” Cheairs (she/they), MFA is a filmmaker, artist, educator, curator, and community artist. Kat is a co-curator of Metanoia: Transformation Through AIDS Archives and Activism, an archival exhibition focusing on the contributions of Black women, trans women of color, and women of color HIV/AIDS activists from the early 1990s to the present. Kat is the producer and director of the documentary, Ending Silence, Shame & Stigma: HIV/AIDS in the African American Family (2012) and Visual AIDS: Day With(out) Art 2021 commissioned experimental video, Voices at the Gate (2021).

Kat has appeared and presented on panels at the Tribeca Film Institute, BAM, Pratt Institute, The New School, New York University, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Poster House, BAM, The Aperture Foundation, and UnionDocs. Ms. Cheairs holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Tufts University. Kat was born in Buffalo, NY, grew up in Atlanta, GA, and now lives in Harlem, New York City. Kat currently serves on the Archive Committee for Visual AIDS and is the Founder of Makeda School for Art, Media and Humanities.

Building Hours