Poetry by Nahshon Cook I think I may have just experienced one of the most prophetic prayers ever: men, women and ladyboy prostitutes parading down Beach Road and onto Walking Street, dancing, and singing, and carrying signs (written in both English and Thai) demanding equal access to treatment for everyone afflicted with AIDS. To which I said Amen before crossing the sour milk and piss stenched, clogged stream-like thoroughfare so that I could begin my nightly walk along the sandy seashore, where I listened to [...]

by Chris Hicks The foundation you built Rested on grass Sewn together and stretched out So Washington could see, so we all could see How much memories mean How much silence costs The foundation you built Grew solid as granite It’s the foundation where my family now stands Secure and free to be who they are And when I am asked where my inner strength comes from I have a simple and honest reply It comes from you Chris Hicks, a writer/musician based in the [...]

by Antonio Gomes gliding hand in hand to bed, night was a dark flower a trail of roses sunflowers the autumn breath of their lives together the final hour Antonio Gomes lives in New York City and works at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City, where he is Professor of Medicine, and Director of Consultative Services and Senior Consultant, Cardiac Electrophysiology. He has published extensively in Medicine and has published a collection of poems entitled, Visions from Grymes Hill (Turn of River Press), [...]

by Ekweremadu Franklin Uchenna since no blade fits to shave its locks it steals into our territory hiding like weed amongst wheat it snipes at our soldiers and unbars our gates to guests it drives us mad with cares and turns us into monsters which frighten our kith and kin it bags a million plaques each a prize for a hundred souls that has fallen by its sword Ekweremadu Franklin Uchenna is a young writer, currently living in Kaduna State in the North of Nigeria. [...]

[FILM] The Test Directed by Gary Strieker Cielo Productions Part-documentary, part-strategic communication, The Test shares the success of the CarePack Demonstration Project, which sought to lessen the impact of HIV, malaria, and diarrhea on the lives of Kenyans. The film is lovingly photographed and offers a diversity of voices—it makes a good case for its suggestion to scale up these efforts. The suggestion is partial: The film and the campaign were created by Vestergaard Frandsen, makers of emergency response and disease control products who follow [...]

[BOOKS] Dream of Ding Village by Yan Lianke Grove/Atlantic This novel has been banned in the author’s native China. Yan Lianke is from Henan Province, the site of a devastating HIV outbreak during the 1990s after rural villagers were encouraged to sell blood at newly-established collection facilities. Improper practices led to widespread infection and to many children being born with HIV. In this novel, HIV (called “the fever”) spreads with the greed and materialism that Yan sees as the prevailing ethic of contemporary China. Narrated [...]

According to the press release from AIDS Project Los Angeles, War Diaries is “a new collection of words and images that highlights the impact of HIV and AIDS among people of color, featuring perspectives from LGBT members of the African Diaspora.” Edited by writers Tisa Bryant and Ernest Hardy, the ninety-page softcover volume features poetry, memoir, critical essays, and photograpy and art-based photographic images that portray and preserve the many kinds of voices from the HIV and black communities in the United States. In a [...]

by Carolyn Agee I am the latest in a line of who knows how many women. I’ve accepted that. He says he loves me. That much I believe. If he loved himself, he’d get the test. How can you love someone else, if you do not love yourself? Maybe, once he’s wrapped around me, this won’t matter. But I know better. I am worth the cost of $15.75: the dignity—respect of a blood test. Carolyn Agee is an actress and author living in the Pacific [...]

Poetry by Timmothy J. Holt “You cry but harm nothing in yourself.” —Tony Kushner, Angels in America Part Two: Perestroika Those tears aren’t real they’re not from your well only borrowed and now returned like rain on a sunny day noticed but soon gone not even sufficient to nourish growth. Go ahead though, cry return what’s not yours we can use the water. Don’t pretend it’s grief don’t think you really know don’t tell me of sorrow don’t mention a word look elsewhere with your [...]

The Book of the Dead by Kgebetli Moele Kwela Books Kgebetli Moele is a South African novelist who has won several prizes. Not surprising, given his passionate prose. In this new novel, he’s clearly angry about the HIV pandemic so predominant in his country. Unfortunately he’s written a strange work: artful but so angry as to exclude the characters from compassion and the reader from full engagement. The first, quite readable part of the work traces the trajectories of Khutso and Pretty, who rise from [...]