About AIDS

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Needed: Stories From the Streets

The painful parts of history, like the adventurous parts or the pretty parts, often give rise to profound and articulate expressions of our shared humanity. "How will future generations understand the culture of AIDS?" author Patrick Moore asked last year in The Washington Post. "Most likely ... through the arts of our time. It really doesn't matter if the art is good or bad. It is a historic record of this extraordinary time." Indeed, the AIDS epidemic has given us dramatic representations which help us to understand the profound disturbances of the past two decades, through prose, poetry, drama, movies, television, the visual arts, and music.

Austin's creative community has addressed AIDS in varied ways -- Zachary Scott's local production of Angels in America; Sally Jacque's long-running annual performance piece, Body Count; Dottie Curry organizing an AIDS poster exhibit by school students, to name just a few.

Brad Lindgren, prevention outreach specialist with AIDS Services of Austin, has begun a project to give voice to a population not often represented: He works with the homeless and chemically dependent. Today, especially for women and people of color, the HIV epidemic cannot be separated from these parallel issues. Brad is compiling a book of stories, poetry, and drawings about life experiences of homelessness and substance abuse. His vision is that any net proceeds which the book may generate will be used to support services to this deeply-affected population.

So Brad needs the life stories and drawings from folks who know what it's like. Submissions may be sent to: Brad Lindgren, c/o ASA, Box 4874, Austin, TX 78765.