Reminder: The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS... @ Thu Jun 27, 2013 8:30pm - 9:30pm (Queer Things)

more details » The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS epidemic in Berkeley The Biggest Quake: New thinking on the San Francisco AIDS epidemic BOTH SHOWS FREE! TUESDAY JUNE 25, 8pm Magnet, 4122 18th St. between Castro and Collingwood THURSDAY JUNE 27, 8:30pm Subterranean Art House, 2179 Bancroft Way Berkeley, CA Writing and performance by Mark ABRAMSON, Justin CHIN, Brontez PURNELL Carol QUEEN (25th), Kirk READ, Julia SERANO (25th), Ed WOLF Curated by Kirk Read The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. Topics will include barebacking, pre-exposure (PrEP) HIV medications for HIV-negative people, crystal meth, being newly infected, helping people commit suicide in the 1980s and getting arrested with ACT UP. A rich brew. WE PROMISE there will be no cliches about being HIV positive and thriving and no one will tell you that men who bareback have low self esteem. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The artists spent hours having conversations as a group and individually, deepening their shared understanding of the AIDS epidemic. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational and experiential lines. The purpose of this project is to generate new stories and thinking about AIDS that is not mediated by public health messaging or non-profit politics. We aim to spark a resurgence of artists making work about the epidemic, in terms of history, where we are now, and the future imaginary. See the videos of last summer's original shows here: June 14, 2012 - Kirk Read The Biggest Quake: www.vimeo.com/album/1975177 June 15, 2012 - Kirk Read The Biggest Quake: www.vimeo.com/album/1976963 June 16, 2012 - Kirk Read The Biggest Quake: www.vimeo.com/album/1977205 Facebook page: SF show: https://www.facebook.com/events/135293953342574/ Berkeley show: https://www.facebook.com/events/460509750699575/ Artist bios: Mark Abramson was a Midwestern farm boy who joined the great gay migration to San Francisco in the 1970s. His writing has appeared in the gay press as far back as Christopher Street, Fag Rag, Gay Sunshine and Mouth of the Dragon. Like the central character in his best-selling "Beach Reading" series, Mark Abramson grew up in Minnesota and worked as a waiter in the Castro, but Mark is better known as a bartender and co-producer of "Men Behind Bars," an annual AIDS benefit and the huge dance parties on San Francisco piers called "Pier Pressure" and "High Tea." Justin Chin's third book of poetry, Gutted, received the Publishing Triangle's 2007 Thom Gunn Award for Poetry, and was a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards, and the Assoc. for Asian American Studies Book Awards. His other books of poetry are Bite Hard, and Harmless Medicine, a 2002 Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards finalist. He is also the author of three collections of essays: Burden of Ashes, Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes & Pranks, and Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms; and most recently, the short story collection, 98 Wounds. Brontez Purnell is a zinester, writer, dancer and musician, who now lives in California. Brontez was originally from Triana, Alabama, then moving to Huntsville, Alabama, and then to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he released Schlepp Fanzine while still living at home. He then relocated on his own to Oakland, California, where he released his next zine, Fag School. He is also the mastermind behind the band The Younger Lovers and is an ex-member of queer electro band Gravy Train!!!! Brontez has written for various publications, including the on-line edition of Jigsaw, and has also written a column called "She's Over It" for Maximum Rock 'N' Roll. He has read his work at Lit Quake in San Francisco. He is currently working on his first novella "Johnny, Would You Love Me If My Dick Were Bigger? (Diary of an American Waiter Bored at Work). Kirk Read (curator) is the author of the coming out memoir "How I Learned to Snap" and created the solo shows "This is the Thing" and "Computer Face." He has toured with the Queen's English, Sister Spit and twice with the Sex Workers Art Show. He is passionate about the intersection of art and public health. Over the years he has produced over 250 nights of performance and literature, including events addressing crystal meth, barebacking, computer addiction, sex work and HIV/AIDS from the perspective of artists and writers who create work from lived experience. He helped organize the Gay Men's Sex Summit and the first two national Gay Men's Health Summits in Boulder. He worked as a phlebotomist and HIV counselor at St. James Infirmary, San Francisco's free clinic for sex workers. At St. James, he also started a support group for male sex workers. He cohosted the long running queer open mic K'vetsh with Tara Jepsen and cohosts Smack Dab with Larry-bob Roberts, a queer open mic on third Wednesdays at Magnet. He started Army of Lovers, an organization that curates queer art events. He started Formerly Known As, a festival of male sex worker performance, now in its fourth year. He believes in the power of art to shape and guide social movements. Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, performer, and activist. Julia is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Seal Press, 2007), a collection of personal essays that reveal how misogyny frames popular assumptions about femininity and shapes many of the myths and misconceptions people have about transsexual women. Her other writings have appeared in anthologies (including Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape, Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and Word Warriors: 30 Leaders in the Women's Spoken Word Movement) and in feminist, queer, pop culture and literary magazines and websites such as Bitch Magazine, AlterNet.org, Out, Feministing.com, make/shift and Clamor. In recent years, Julia has gained notoriety in transgender, queer, and feminist circles for her unique insights into gender, and her writings have been used as teaching materials in queer and gender studies courses across North America. Ed Wolf has been working continuously in the HIV/AIDS epidemic since 1983, as chronicled in the award-winning documentary "We Were Here." He has developed HIV-related curriculum and trainings for a large number of national and international organizations and institutions, including the California State Office of AIDS, the Shanti Project of San Francisco, UCSF AIDS Health Project and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles. He's facilitated trainings for counselors working in clinical trials in Lima, Peru as well as South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. His stories and articles have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Christopher Street, the James White Review and Prentice Hall's Discovering Literature. Ed has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was awarded the HIV National Educator of Year Award from the body.com. The Biggest Quake was made possible in part by a grant from The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by generous grants from the William Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. Additional support was provided by The Queer Cultural Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the California Arts Council and the Zellerbach Family Foundation. When Thu Jun 27, 2013 8:30pm – 9:30pm Pacific Time Calendar Queer Things Who • larrybob - creator

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