Virtual Political Grief Workshop led by What Would HIV Doula Do? collective

What Would an HIV Doula Do? collective will hold a virtual workshop on Sunday, November 9 that engages participants to think about personal grief, political grief, and anticipatory grief (for the future) as a braided collection of individual and group memories and expressions.

The event is connected to the art installation, HOLDING PATTERNS, currently on view in Los Angeles at ONE Archives at USC Libraries and in NYC at the Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library at The Center. HOLDING PATTERNS considers the specific and interlocking patterns of the media we use to hold onto people and their memories, actions, and desires. To see documentation of the exhibition, click here. A free learning guide is available here.

You are invited to watch the experimental documentary, Please Hold (70 mins) in advance, but this is not required for participation in the workshop. You can up for a (free) screening here: https://pleaseholdvideo.com/engage/screening-request. Many of the ideas of the workshop were generated by thinking with this documentary about loss, grief, community, conversation, and HIV/AIDS.

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What Would an HIV Doula Do? is a community of people joined in response to the ongoing AIDS crisis. We understand a doula as someone who holds space during times of transition. We understand HIV as a series of transitions that begin long before being tested, that continue after treatment and beyond. We know that since no one gets HIV alone, no one should have to live with HIV alone. We doula ourselves, each other, institutions and culture. Foundational to our process is asking questions.

This workshop was supported by a small grant from the Knowledge of AIDS, National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Studies (STS) program (NSF, #2240822; #2240637; #2240673). The views presented do not necessarily represent those of the NSF or any other funder.

Images from the first, hybrid, iteration of the workshop, held in person at ONE Archives in LA and also on Zoom. The Nov 9 version is fully online.