A piece of Queer Art History from the AIDS Era
Long thought lost in the aftermath of September 11th, this is a 33-year-old VHS print of my first Christmas show with The Animal Ensemble, "Animal's Positive Christmas; A Viral Celebration", recorded December 1992 at The Lennon Studios, Dore Alley, South of Market in San Francisco.
Based on the Lutheran Advent liturgy, scored for flute, French horn, trumpet, harpsichord, piano, percussion, voice, and African drums, this was the first of four Christmas shows designed to counter the "death sentence" culture of viral apartheid that cast people with HIV and AIDS as damaged goods in the LGBTQ+ community and the world at large.
Each Yuletide from 1992 through 1995, this show made a radical and rare statement for the time - a show about AIDS where nobody dies! - and in those dark days before the "HIV cocktail" of miracle drugs came out in 1996, in the heart of the Leather District of San Francisco, hit first and hardest by AIDS, we had the nerve to light a flare of hope and joy.
Some of us lived, many were lost, but in that moment, in that place, together, our hearts were filled with life and light, and two generations later, that light endures, that fire burns, we are alive.
Walk with me as I go forward.
(My thanks to Mark Lentczner for the tape, for teaching me the African drums, for sharing my stage then and for inspiration today; and to @chrisgylee and @aslanimal and @oncewewereislands for putting me back to work and lighting my path ahead.)
