WARNING: EXPLICIT IMAGERY & COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE. 

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) & Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

What is Real Stories Gallery ?

Real Stories Gallery Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, facilitates contemporary storytelling and collective witness through the ARTS for the purpose of raising awareness and evoking social change. Through artistic storytelling, Real Stories works to break the silence surrounding the trafficking & transmission of human rights violations in today's HIVAIDS pandemic. Foreword by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Winner).

THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL bringing awareness of the International Sex Trade in Boys. HIVAIDS.

"i believe you" : SHOW ME YOUR LIFE by Rachel Chapple, PhD (Founder, Real Stories Gallery Foundation 501c3)

THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL has flowed out of TRISTAN'S MOON, a collaborative Real Stories Gallery Foundation & Cinematheque Films HIVAIDS art installation; an HIVAIDS and Human Rights advocacy initiative created by peer mentors, students and guides participating in the online safe house art program known colloquially as SHOW ME YOUR LIFE. The program gives small video cameras to boys at risk for HIVAIDS, so they may express themselves, find their voices and lead each other to safety through an exchange of knowledge. The quality of ART & STORYTELLING the boys create in this ad hoc experimental program of Witness Art, is highly creative and sophisticated and will survive for when some distant generation turns to ask: what were they doing, what were they thinking, how could they allow this to happen on their watch?

Over the past few months I have come to realize that the words "i believe you" are very difficult for many people to offer boys, who are being raped and infected with HIV in the international sex trades. I am always so astonished when I realize my neighbour will only consider speaking these words, if they are offered EVIDENCE. I suppose it is because they feel that raping a boy and buying and selling a boy in the international sex trades is a crime, and the concept of crime & evidence become entangled. Thus, begins the Kafkaesque dialogue surrounding the international sex trade in boys, and ALWAYS begins with: Who is the boy, what is the boy's real name, how old is the boy, where is the boy living?

I wonder to myself in such moments, what will YOU DO with this knowledge if you come to own it. Will YOU share the information with anyone you happen to meet, or with someone you TRUST because you feel you know that person exceptionally well or have thoroughly checked out his/her “story’ and that of their friends "stories;" for they will surely pass on the conversation, albeit in various manifestations. This is after all how social human beings operate; human beings find it difficult to survive in isolation and instinctively share stories with each other. In the context of sexualized violence directed at boys and the international sex trade in boys, as a mother of four young children, I personally do not think it is a good idea to OFFICIALLY IDENTIFY a boy who is participating in our ART & STORYTELLING advocacy initiatives. It makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I will not share a boy's personal or medical records unless I am 100% sure the boy will be offered a appropriate and consistent protection in a SAFE Safe House, judicial, medical and social services. I also personally believe that boys whose lives have been and are harnessed to the international sex trades have been hurt enough, by adults' behaviours and perceptions towards sexualized violence directed at boys and surrounding the stigma and trauma of HIVAIDS in our communities. In short, I truly believe that adults have failed these boys over and over, and it breaks my heart to know that boys breathing in the world today are being raped and subjected to outrageous acts of violence.

These advocacy conversations, and particularly during the moments when an adult appears to be ticking off some sort of mental questioner so they may decide whether they believe boys are being raped, bought and sold and infected in the international sex trade, I am rarely left believing the person with whom I am speaking will choose to facilitate for a sexually violated boy to find a SAFE safe-house and appropriate and consistent nutrition and medications. What usually happens is the person expresses deep concern and shares that they think it is a good idea to encourage our communities to break the silence & taboo surrounding sexualized violence directed at boys and bring an end to the international sex trade in boys. Their gut instinct leads them to the conclusion that such suffering and trauma is a terrible wrongdoing.

Then, just as I feel the conversation is moving forward towards a space in which the adult may choose to share their voice, skills or professionalism to bring awareness into their localities, another conversation frequently swings into action... "Surely if this is true our police and politicians and educators and religious leaders and community leaders would be doing something, saying something. Our judicial and healthcare and social systems would be doing something and saying something. You are not an expert in this field, you are a mother, an anthropologist, a designer. What are your qualifications and experience for working in this field. Why do you believe the ART & STORYTELLING created by boys. They are children and children tell stories. If this were true I cannot believe that we would not know about it. I can see you feel passionately and are a good person, but I'm sure it's not as bad as you say it is, and certainly not in The United States of America. Thailand perhaps, India, Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Africa, YES. But not in America. You are English. We have many laws in America that protect our children."

I personally believe that my lack of knowledge is not good enough evidence for me to turn away or justify not attempting to employ the few skills I have to raise awareness. I also feel it is inappropriate for me to turn away whenever I find the adult behaviours boys are subjected to personally very difficult to stomach. So how do ordinary people like myself, for there are indeed many of us who feel desperately concerned that boys are being raped and bought and sold in the international sex trades, gather more knowledge. And how do we share the knowledge with each other and encourage those around us to assist in bringing about social change on our watch... One idea, which as an academic anthropologist also strikes me as being a pretty good idea, is to turn to the boys who obviously KNOW everything there is to collectively know about being sexually violated physically and psychologically, about surviving in the international sex trades, and are also highly experienced at watching boys survive in appaling conditions and die as a result of being infected with HIV and developing AIDS related opportunistic infections and diseases. Finding out what these boys think and feel and experience, and what they believe is needed to ensure their peers around the world find access to a safe space, nutrition and antiretrovirals, seems pretty sensible to me.

The ART & STORYTELLING created by boys whose lives are affected by the sex trades, are surviving with HIVAIDS and participating within SHOW ME YOUR LIFE, suggests that when adults state "I'm sure it's not as bad as you make it out to be in America," such a pronouncement is an unrealistic judgment call. 

SHOW ME YOUR LIFE was designed as a peer mentoring program for boys at risk for HIVAIDS. Let us assume that boys, who are not believed or protected by adults and are surviving in abusive adult environments, for some extraordinary reason decide to find a way to access a medium that allows them to share their experiences and bring awareness to the communities in which they were born and within which their minds and bodies are sexually violated and bought and sold in the sex trades. What medium could they possible employ that will allow them to protect themselves and their peers, whilst disseminating urgent knowledge to prevent more boys being sexually violated and bought and sold in the international sex trades. We have found during our experimental ART & STORYTELLING initiatives that ART & STORYTELLING is one of the few such avenues open to the boys. Whether they choose to continue allowing their ART & STORYTELLING to serve as a heuristic device for advocacy purposes, will I would imagine depend largely on the response of our communities to TRISTAN'S MOON and THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL that are flowing from the boys' photographic collages, poetry, video art and storytelling, which to my mind are Museum Quality.

The boys' stories and imagery, I would suggest, serve as a heuristic device that prompts adults to pause and to ask: Could it possibly be true that thousands of boys in our communities across the world are experiencing sexualized violence, and being bought and sold in the international sex trades? Why do our communities rarely speak of such trauma and human rights violations experienced by boys? Why do the boys and their mentors use pseudonyms and change names of localities in their ART & STORYTELLING? Why, Why, Why do the boys not turn to our communities' leaders and law & order, healthcare and social service personal for help? Why are 1 in 6 boys sexually violated by age 16 in North America and Canada? Why does the boys' ART & STORYTELLING suggest the vast majority of men who sexually violate, and sell and buy boys in the sex trades, are married men, often with kids of their own? Why, Why, Why did President Obama say it was embarrassing the USA has not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child? WHY, WHY, WHY has America not yet established a coordinated Federal plan to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child’s optional protocol: Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, which they signed up for in 2000 and everyone working on the front line knows clearly is a superhighway for the trafficking and transmission of HIVAIDS and human rights violations. Perhaps some may even be prompted to ask: WHY is the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography an OPTIONAL protocol; a set of ideas attached to the main Convention that each United Nations Member State may choose to ratify or otherwise. Why is the Convention on the Rights of the Child not displayed in every public library and educational facility, or in our religious spaces and community centers?

THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL is a catalyst, an artistic experiment to prompt that little voice of conscience that asks: WHY, WHY, WHY... and if not, then WHY, WHY, WHY. If this is not great art then I personally have no idea what is in today's HIVAIDS pandemic, which affects the health and well-being of sexually violated boys and boys in the international sex trades.  And, of course, everyone who happens, knowingly or unknowingly, to be placed in the chain of social relationships that facilitate the trafficking and transmission of HIVAIDS and human rights violations.

My personal, and biggest, question today: WHY would adults ask or expect THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL or TRISTAN'S MOON to place in the public gaze a real living and breathing and feeling boy, whose life has been SMASHED as a direct result of sexualized violence and the international sex trade in boys. How can people be so unaware, after 30 years and millions of dollars being spent across the world on HIVAIDS awareness and prevention, that normal people are very dangerous indeed. For a child surviving with HIVAIDS, even being exposed to the FLU VIRUS can result in extreme consequences for his health. As for any suggestion that a boy be procured to speak in public and raise awareness about the international sex trade, I am simply left flabbergasted. How exactly would this work... what sort of show would need to be designed to ensure the child is placed in a caring environment and ensures the child is not stared at by an audience of strangers.  What would be the purpose of such an art and advocacy event. Haven't the boys made enough photographic collages and video art and poetry to ingeniously compel strangers to FEEL, and to kick start their ART & STORYTELLING audiences' imaginations and empathy. I would argue strongly that the boys' ART & STORYTELLING is a valuable gift, and that it is time now for adults to turn to their peers, ask questions and challenge any wrong doing taking place on our watch.

WHERE ARE THE BOYS (THE SMASH STREET BOYS FESTIVAL) http://www.facebook.com/TheSmashStreetBoysFestival

S-MASH STREET BOYS

(voice/Horses/Satyagraha/Cinematheque; imagery/Cinematheque/Show Me Your Life)

Thank you to all ingenious mashup artists breathing TODAY and expressing those moments when it feels our humanity is convulsing from within. BOYS hurt HARD. http://le-too.tumblr.com http://showmeyourlife.tumblr.com

Sexualized Violence directed at BOYS - Rape Sale Prostitution Pornography - are all superhighways for the trafficking & transmission of HIVAIDS, and related & ongoing human rights violations, taking place in the heart of ALL our communities. Our health and well-being is dependent on the health and well-being of the communities around us. 1 in 6 males is sexually violated by age 16 in the USA (figures for other countries is not available at this time). Boys surviving in the international sex trade are rarely tested or treated for HIVAIDS. The use of condoms is also inconsistent, due to a profound lack of awareness amongst men who pay for sex with BOYS. BOYS are at high risk for HIV and being re-infected with new strains as the virus mutates, due to their vulnerable developing immune systems and the ease with which their young bodies legion and tear. The VAST majority of men who pay for sex with BOYS are married men who have money to spend. Anyone who happens to be linked to the international sex trade of boys, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is at high risk for being infected with HIV; a socially transmitted virus that does not discriminate as to which human body it will infect. Breaking the Silence creates public health awareness. Breaking the Silence protects our humanity. Breaking the Silence acknowledges the BOYS whose minds and bodies are bought and sold in our communities, and here today have generously through their ART & STORYTELLING found an ingenious way to share their knowledge and raise awareness.

It’s never just HIV. There is more of an awareness today.

We know about poverty, access to health care, the cost of HIV meds, stigma. We know about ALL of this. None of these things are secrets.

But there is one thing no one talks about.

Violence.

What is the relationship of violence to HIV. How does violence affect the diaspora of disease.

To leave VIOLENCE out of the very broad picture prevents us from understanding how a pandemic moves.

"LOCKDOWN LEGACY" by Kareemah El-Amin (Real Stories Gallery founding poets)

LOCKDOWN LEGACY shows the effects incarceration has on not only the incarcerated, but the true victims of this legacy; family members, the community and society at large. LOCKDOWN LEGACYS raw and powerful story shows young black men, and our society, we are feeding a corrupt system, once you’re incarcerated, you become a number, just another brother in prison. The legacy you leave is witnessed here.

My Name is Not Those People by Julia K. Dinsmore (read by Danny Glover)

Tim Barrus: This video is exactly where I am at with The Smash Street Boys Festival.

Love the name.

My name is not “Case.”

No one is a case. No one has a number.

These are the boys social workers FAIL so don’t get in my FACE with your precious MSW, Sweetheart, because it does not mean jack shit in my world. Get OUT of my face with your CRAP. You are the PROBLEM.

You are a suit. You represents suits. I don’t give a flying fuck what you did in college or where you did your stupid internship.

White College Girl With Your Forms, go suck your cunt dry, do-good bitch.

These are the boys you can’t even find because you are so deeply embedded in the system, you ARE the system. What the fuck.

They would run if you walked in the door. The street can hide them. Believe it.

They will chew you up.

They get where you would put them with your strained resources you do not fucking know strained resources.

And do not feed me the tired old shit about how you care. You would incarcerate them, and let’s pretend you do. Let’s pretend. You TELL ME how quickly will it be that they get their HIV medication.

Or will there be a wait for that, too.

Oh, poor you. And your strained resources.

White College Girl, you keep the cracks open they fall through. You wouldn’t last one minute in their midst.

Get this through your MSW CUNT head. You are irrelevant. You don’t matter. You don’t belong here. You have nothing of value to add to anything. You have not one goddamn thing to bring to the table.

The only way you even get your cunt close is over my dead fucking body.

Suck my cock. My name is not Your Friend.

A Fire in My Belly by © David Wojnarowicz (visual poet, USA; shown with permission from PPOW Gallery)

When did it become a CRIME to NOT believe in HOPE, such a convenient illusion.

There are three million homeless children in America today. Almost half of them identify themselves as gay.

More than half of that figure is male.

Get a clue. They are kicked out of homes all over this culture for either coming out or being dragged out.

So you find yourself out of the street.

Doing sex work to survive. You are open prey to traffickers and pimps.

I am anecdotally informed by boys doing exactly that -- prostitution is a crime -- that they get approached by organized crime anywhere from half a day to three days (depends on their location) after they hit the streets.

These become the adolescents who are now at risk for being trafficked. Trafficking isn't CONNECTED to organized crime. Trafficking IS organized crime. These kids are seen as being potential victims because they are potential victims. In fact, being kicked out of your house is to victimize any kid.

These are now the adolescents who are at risk for HIV/AIDS.

"We do not believe this. We do not see them. This is a problem for the police."

Yada, yada, yada. Same old tired excuse that we don't really give a fuck, and Tim Barrus is a bad, bad man.

Grow up.

I am here to tell you that you do not see these kids  because you are not looking.

Kids doing survival sex are at risk for HIV in two ways.

1.) In sex work, there is a anti-condom attitude on the part of the men buying sex that says: if you drop the condom, I'll pay you more. These are kids who will take the pay raise. 

2.) Kids are not going to jail with HIV. They're coming out of jail with HIV. The police can be the PROBLEM, and the problem is NEVER the solution.

My critics can blame Tim Barrus until the cows come home. It's meaningless. It's called cultural denial. You get to deflect. You get to keep sweeping the real problem under the rug. What are the solutions to the problem.

The problems are not that intransigent. It begins with respect.

It begins with advocacy. Not blaming an individual.

The act of blame, blame, blame gets you whatcha got. A pandemic.

The reasons why LGBTQ youth are subjected to higher rates of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and substance abuse in the home are unknown, but one thing is clear: this history of trauma contributes to increased negative outcomes for these youth, particularly once they start living on the street.

“We had been cast away as freaks or had fled from dangerous homes only to emerge into an environment where the hostility and danger were merely less personal than at home.” – Transgender youth, San Francisco.

Not only do LGBTQ youth face greater rates of victimization in their homes, but current research suggests that they are also exposed to higher rates of victimization while on the streets when compared with their heterosexual peers. These risks include physical and sexual assault, including hate crimes.

LGBTQ youth are more likely than other youth to be robbed (29% vs. 21%), physically assaulted (28% vs. 18%), and sexually assaulted or raped while on the streets (22% vs. 7%).15 Harassment due to sexual orientation or gender identity contributes to the challenges these youth face. Thirty-three percent of LGBTQ youth report being a victim of a hate crime since entering life on the street.

“I lived in terror of sexual assault while living on the streets since I had been attacked and abused previously by several different people during childhood and early adolescence.” – Transgender youth, San Francisco.

This population more frequently engages in life-sustaining activities that may present a risk to their physical or psychological health than their heterosexual peers, including activities such as exchanging sex for food or shelter, panhandling to provide an income, and illegal camping to obtain temporary shelter.

In fact, LGBTQ youth are more than three times as likely to be involved in survival sex as their non-LGBTQ peers, further increasing their exposure to trauma while living on the streets.

“Because queer youth can’t get jobs and often don’t have the training to get anything beyond an entry-level position, we are often forced into the street economy which means drug selling and trafficking, sex work and survival sex.” – Youth Program Coordinator, San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Center 

LGBTQ

Gay youth face a greater number of public health risks when compared with their heterosexual peers. LGBTQ youth report higher rates of hard drug use (cocaine, heroin, and/ or methamphetamine) over the course of a year (30% vs. 19%), including intravenous drug use, which further places this population at risk for diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.

In addition to substance abuse issues, LGBTQ youth also experience higher rates of certain mental health disorders, and suicidal ideation. LGBTQ youth are nearly twice as likely to report having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder as non-LGBTQ youth  and are more likely to meet criteria for Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In short, the disproportionate representation of LGBTQ youth among the overall homeless youth population, as well as the increased risks and negative outcomes these youth face, strongly suggest the need for targeted community and policy action to assist these youth.

“I wish there were more places for LGBTQ youth to hang out and watch movies and keep us off the streets and have something to eat.” – Gay male, 20, San Francisco

When considering policy strategies that will improve the lives of LGBTQ homeless youth, it is important to take into consideration the strengths these youth bring to the table in order to build upon them and improve future outcomes.

The biggest issue facing this community is sensitive housing. This continues to be a barrier, as do sensitive services in general, but housing is the most pressing issue. There needs to be a gay-friendly attitude and culture.

Otherwise, these kids run.

Their records are not confidential. Record-keeping is a major institutional problem. If a kid registers with a housing unit, those records are available to courts, judges, police departments, parole officers, and school districts. School districts will slap a special education label on the kid and refer him to a psychiatric-based program. This is inappropriate and punitive.

These children are not crazy. They are abused. There is a difference. As the director of Show Me Your Life, I get homemade videos from kids that is so utterly violent, I could never show them. Some kids secretly record their own abuse. The system blames the kid. It is a crime to run away. Virtually every state juvenile code contains a provision that blames the kid.

It makes kids wary of interacting with the system in any way. The people the kid ends up interacting with are tricks and organized crime.

There is a need for a SAFE environment (safe even from family members) where kids are not abused, are not necessarily directed into juvenile detention or jail, and where they can receive services. There needs to be a SAFE option for kids to get off the street; this would include children who are wary of the criminal justice paradigm which doesn't work anyway because even when the child is placed in foster care, they typically run away again.

The problem is not Tim Barrus. The problem is in recognizing that these kids exist, and they're out there doing sex work, they're sucking cock, and usually the cocks of married men from the suburbs who pick them up in urban settings. 

"You don't believe it."

Then you are living in a privileged bubble.

Blaming me is patently absurd. How convenient for you. It's ridiculous.

These kids are not only at high risk for HIV, but they're at high risk for passing it on. The term SAFE has to extend itself to a confidentiality that is not subjected to the child being exploited by any cog whatsoever in the systems run by the state. The same kind of confidentiality that is SAFE and is offered to kids in relation to the treatment of sexually transmitted disease needs to be offered in relationship to being homeless and at risk for HIV because the kid is doing survival sex on the street.

There has to be something in it for the population at large in terms of these kids getting off the street. The foster care system is entirely inadequate. The criminal justice system is not the right fit. Jail is not the solution. Kids coming out of jail (and they will) now subsequently infected with HIV, incarceration is a hot bed for it) will cost society an arm and a leg. What's in it for the population at large would be public policy that acknowledges that the problem of HIV and the spread of this disease must be met with alternative paradigms where children have the opportunity to thrive in environments where HIV can be the manageable disease it is. What's in it for you is the distinct possibility we could make a dent in this disease.

STOP AND STARE (real stories mash)

Young Artists are Selling Everything TODAY to save their safe-house art program. If our visitors would like to make a donation to acknowledge their extraordinary ART & STORYTELLING that raises significant awareness of the international sex trade in boys, we warmly welcome your support.

We must speak of the sexualized violence directed at men and boys if we are to prevent our humanity from dying of embarrassment.

RAPE. The sexualized violence directed at men and boys, is taking place within all our communities throughout the world. 1 in 6 males is sexually abused by age 16 in the USA (1in6.org). Numbers for other UN Countries have not been made public. Stories emerging from distinct localities around the world suggest few people are willing to standup with men and boys, who have experienced sexualized violence, and demand for this social practice to end. The trauma has long-term physical and psychological consequences for each boy and man, and for ALL those around them; the vast majority of men who pay to have sex with boys are married with kids of their own.

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and trauma have been found to be highly prevalent and associated with HIV transmission and acquisition across the diverse HIV risk groups and particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). Thirty years in to the epidemic, there is a large and growing body of research documenting the complexity of the associations between childhood trauma and subsequent HIV risk taking: these pathways include increased difficulties appraising risk, confusion about sexual identity, depression, anxiety, hostility, dissociation, and substance and alcohol abuse.

The problem of male-directed sexual violence remains largely undocumented. We do not know about the relationship between conflict-related violence and sexual violence within institutions such as militaries, police forces and penal systems.  The reluctance of many men and boys to report sexual violence makes it very difficult to accurately assess its scope.  In the last decade, sexualized violence against men and boys – including rape, sexual torture, mutilation of the genitals, sexual humiliation, sexual enslavement, forced incest and forced rape – has been reported in 25 armed conflicts across the world.  If one expands this tally to include cases of sexual exploitation of boys displaced by violent conflict, the list encompasses the majority of the 59 armed conflicts identified in the Human Security Report (humansecurityreport.info).

Sexualised violence against adult men and boys can emerge in any form of conflict – from interstate wars to civil wars to localized conflicts – and in any cultural context.  Both men and boys are vulnerable in conflict settings and in countries of asylum alike.  Both adult men and boys are most vulnerable to sexual violence in detention and during military operations in civilian areas and in situations of military conscription or abduction into paramilitary forces.  Boys, are also highly vulnerable in refugee/IDP settings.  The issue of disclosure is further challenged in localities where homosexual activity attracts legal penalties. 

Sexual violence is a mechanism by which men and boys are placed or kept in a position subordinate to other men and has no relationship to homosexuality as a consensual relationship between male partners.  

Heterosexual Anal Sex

In absolute numbers, it is hypothesized that more heterosexual couples have anal sex than homosexual couples. There is a common misconception that anal sex is practiced almost exclusively by gay men. This is certainly not the case. (Dr. John Dean and Dr. David Delvin).

Heterosexual Anal Sex: An Under-recognised Risk Factor for HIV Transmission: by Zoe Duby (Doctoral Research Fellow, Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation): Only scant qualitative and quantitative data are currently available on prevalence and practice of, and attitudes towards heterosexual anal intercourse. Non-judgemental and non-discriminatory service provision addressing anal health is largely unavailable. Health care providers are ill-equipped to deal with anal STIs and ill-prepared to discuss anal sex (both heterosexual and homosexual). Reasons for heterosexual anal sex are various and include pleasure, adventure-seeking, greater physical intimacy, peer pressure, female submission, contraception, virginity maintenance, menstruation, pregnancy and money. Commercial sex workers receive higher prices for anal intercourse than vaginal intercourse, especially without a condom. Anal sex is often not considered to be "real sex" and many young girls choose to engage in anal intercourse in order to maintain 'technical virginity' and as a form of contraception. Due to a lack of information, people are choosing to practice unprotected anal sex as a form of "safe sex.” Evidence shows that condom use for anal sex is universally lower than for penile-vaginal sex. The risk of HIV transmission during unprotected anal intercourse is estimated to be as much as 18 times higher than during unprotected vaginal sex.

"sometimes the world is difficult to understand" Moitshepi Madibela (Botswana)

Moise (Show Me Your Life, République Démocratique du Congo)

Moise was SMYL's first student. He died aged 12, in March 2011. Moise was forced to violate his mother and watch his family being murdered. Moise was then raped and slashed with machetes: "Sur la rivière. Ces vidéos sont dangereux à faire. Je dois arrêter de les faire pendant quelques jours."

Moise died. Why, Tim, why. And not from AIDS but from his infected machete wounds, so in the end it was AIDS that became a warzone. I know he felt trapped. By the virus that is violence. By his survival and running. By seeing his family killed like that. By soldiers on one side and soldiers on the other side (Show Me Your Life student).

Raymond Fils: Moise I am your Show Me Your Life mentor. The video you have sent is shocking. I have never seen a human being beheaded before. At first, I did not know what to say. I do not see how we can show a human being beheaded by soldiers. I am sorry. I am sorry you had to see this. I am sorry you are trying to run from these soldiers. We can still tell this story that you are fleeing soldiers, who are raping and killing people village to village. Please be as safe as possible. I am in awe of your ability to survive this. Your friend, Raymond.

SMYL Friends: Dear Moise, I go to school in America. I am nine. I like playing with WWE action figures. I think you need to find somewhere safe to go. I would be so scared. I am sorry you are hurt. Your friend, Henry // Dear Moise, I live in America. I am seven. I like eating ice-cream and swimming. My brother says you need to go somewhere safe. But we don't know where is safe. May be you can ask someone. But I don't know who you can ask. I would be scared also. Your friend, Princess. (**Princess is not my real name, I chose it for this letter. My brother chose Henry for his letter).

In, the shadow of your shadow by Rachel (Show Me Your Life)

 

Sight without confronting the past” by Carolyn Srygley-Moore (USA)

How can we see Africa without confronting the past.~~ Tim

 

Children murdered by soldiers in the Congo. One child.

 

You held his hand his camera held....a vision, gestating.

One sees the animism

one sees the transcendence           the black, black skin

 

of which the whites were innately envious.

We are fashioned of school paste.               I ask you

 

How do we stop writing of trauma when trauma

exists      meteors of trauma

 

flesh entering the atmosphere of hatred of stupidity

of mistrust

entrails burning         until the rock makes

 

its mark in the canyon.

I cannot see a piece of glass          in any manner

as I once did          a piece of wood

 

blood on a medicine man's doll: what is white magic

what is darkness           called upon

 

as the gold skinned snake is called upon

mid-apocalypse     ?      My brother who traveled the 3rd world

 

extensively once said all who live in America are

spoiled. I wonder.

 

How does one speak of Africa           indeed of life at all

without speaking of the past?

I peel my chalked skin

 

it does not make me weep          the pain

my own pain is nothing.

 

I hear the voices of the damned

those damned   by humanity

 

those tangled in the apparati of the penal colony.

I hear the voices of the damned

 

paired with flute violin brushes heaped with color

such are the voices of the damned

 

ripely coiling upward          strangling tree strangling

what does not permit them to reach sky.

Nuit by Lusala (Show Me Your Life, Southern Sudan)

The average price to purchase a boy-slave in Southern Sudan is $35. Boy-slaves are repeatedly gang-raped by their Arab Masters. The United Nations took the firm position that genocide and slavery were world crimes, should be eradicated and those engaged in it should be put on trial by the world court in The Hague, (Resolution 260 (111 A), UN General Assembly). This action has been the modis operendi in the case of Kosovo. The crimes being committed in Southern Sudan have not been addressed. YET.

Dear Tim Barrus (Director, Show Me Your Life). You do not write enough. When you write, I listen. Sometimes I grow very dark inside in order to listen. But I listen. When you said Show Me Your Life you had my complete attention. I have never believed that white people wanted to know anything about my life. You white people were the teachers, the lawyers, the doctors, and the law. All my life. We were there to shine your shoes, and kiss your white ass. You don’t need to know who I am. Know this, white boy. I do not believe and I do not know anyone who believes that if you just work hard enough, it’s going to happen for you. My work will never be anywhere near the center. It will only happen at the edges. The edges where slavery is no abstraction, and abstraction is exactly that.  When I heard that you were doing Show Me Your Life I thought you do not mean me. Exchanging places. Is it about how I made this as a black man who has no access. Or is this about what story is being told and has been constructed as metaphor and images. White people won’t like it. Black people will not like it anymore than white people. Or maybe it is not about race at all. I suspect it is far more about voice than anything. I feel like my voice is always dancing in the darkness and the best I will ever do is called just barely hanging on. Lusala.

Je suis Saqer. La danse est ma vie. J’habite à Laâyoune. Je suis un danseur (Show Me Your Life, Western Sahara)

Ne me quitte pas (Do not leave me now/ We must just forget/
 Yes, we can forget/
 All that’s flown beyond/
 Let’s forget the time/ 
The misunderstandings/
 And the wasted time...
)

**Laâyoune (Layoun, meaning ‘the water sources’ in Arabic), is a city in Western Sahara administered by Morocco and a territory with unresolved sovereignty. It is claimed by Morocco and also by the Polisario Front as part of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

 

Show Me Your Life

Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again

And interesting

And modern

 

The country is grey

And brown and white and trees

 

Snows and skies of laughter are always diminishing

 

Less funny, not just darker

Not just grey

 

It may be the coldest day of the year

What does he think of that

 

I mean, what do I

And if I do

Perhaps

I am

Myself again

 

"Mizu" (water) by Michio and Joseph

Tim Barrus (Director, Show Me Your Life; Founder, Cinematheque Films): Michio is a 12-year-old boy from Japan. We have recently been talking a lot about the idea of struggle and the idea of survival. Michio has been working with Joseph for Show Me Your Life, and they have put together this video Michio calls “Mizu.”

Abusive adult environments, shaped by a lack of awareness, limited resources and much fear, are not safe places for at-risk kids to survive. It is inhumane to expect these kids to wait quietly or find ways to survive, whilst responsible adults attempt to discuss with each other, lobby with each other and decide with each other, what to do exactly that will alleviate so much trauma. The message being transmitted to kids in distinct localities is not a HOPEFUL one. The reality is there are simply not enough SAFE safe-houses for acutely at-risk kids in our communities, because no one wants to step up and pay for them to be created. Added to this is the cultural taboo assigned to the concept of kids looking after themselves; an idea that makes many adults become skittish and nervous. The traumatic results, borne of perceptions and behaviours within this Kafkaesque context (albeit often germinated and derived from good intentions), are the lived experience of too many kids surviving in the heart of our communities. In moments of great humanitarian emergency, practical and common sense leadership is called for to break the status quo and silence. To this end, a few young men have stood up with guts and ingenuity to DO something to alleviate their trauma and that of their peers. We have much to learn from their hard work and compassion and sense of fair play. Throughout history young men possessing a wisdom far beyond their years have emerged within our communities and brought about social change. Today, when all else has failed, we would do well to listen to the young Show Me Your Life artists.

 

"Cornered" by Jasha (Show Me Your Life, Russia)

I am always feeling cornered. By death. By the life that encircles me with walls and cubicles and boxes and the weight of history and the gravitas of definitions and old dead bones. I feel trapped in languages and with Tim translating as we attempt to work together and bridge what is human to the two of us —

Tim, what does this mean please write it down I do not understand — what does death mean, what does life mean now. I hear, but I do not know what anyone means anymore. Moise died. Why, Tim, why. I know he felt trapped. By the virus that is violence. By his survival and running. By seeing and feeling his family killed, like that. By soldiers on one side and soldiers on the other side.

This video is for Moise. I learned a lot from you. Tim says learn one. Do one. Teach one. This is the doing. I do not know what “Cornered” says. The video is my voice. The images themselves are only stories. Narratives like the Russian doll inside the doll inside the doll inside the smiling doll. It’s all a prison. We are imprisoned. We all have bars that keep us caged. I grew up disassembling all those dolls. Now, I only want to reconstruct them so I can understand what was actually on the inside. It’s only important that we see what was on the inside of the doll is the doll. There are no answers to a Russian mystery. That is what HIV and AIDS are to most Russians. Another mystery and maybe it is not real. We suspect everything. To only reveal a litany of dolls that that are pulled from my bad dreams of being chased and scars and outer shells. I told Moise he would have great scars when he healed. But then he said, “They will kill visual poetry." And they did that. They killed Moise.

 

"there are as many stories in a dance as there are dancers to tell them"

 

Suicidal: by Adrien (Show Me Your Life, USA)

Adrien is a 15-year-old bipolar sex worker who lives in Los Angeles and who struggles with cyclical, clinical depression. When living on the street, Adrien is unable to maintain his medication.

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience (Mahatma Gandhi)

 

Once a month we stand in the long line at the AIDS pharmacy clinic for our antiretrovirals and medications that keep us alive. If they don’t have what we need, they don't have what we need. And that's it. We leave empty handed, wait for the next month's line in excruciating pain. The AIDS clinic pharmacy shelves are becoming bare in the USA. The drugs are not reaching us. And no one at the pharmacy knows why. It is insane public health policy. Taking appropriate antiretroviral medications consistently reduces a person's infectiousness by 95%, prevents the retrovirus from mutating and can extend the quality and length of a person's life. Can you imagine what it feels like to stand in line for hours each month for your medications and then be told there are none for you. Can you imagine how vocal Obama or Clinton would be if this was their experience, or their children's experience. It's unimaginable, unthinkable, that they and their children should have to ever experience such PAIN in the United States of America in 2012.

Hospitals and Graves by Ikeema (Nigeria); Echoed by rachel

(an experimental artists' workshop Poetic Echo; Show Me Your Life students)

Is it responsible to transmit the message of HOPE in a pediatric HIVAIDS pandemic.

Hope is an emotional state, the opposite of which is despair.

Hope promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

HIVAIDS Prevention and Awareness Campaigns have spent millions of dollars educating children and adolescents in our communities around the world. The widely disseminated message - ARVs if taken appropriately and consistently will extend the length and quality of a person's life - carries a message of HOPE.

In a moment when technologies permit messages to cross borders without a passport and to travel further and faster than ever before, we must pause to consider the humanitarian consequences of transmitting HIVAIDS messages of HOPE.

BEING AWARE of this magnificent knowledge and then reaching in vain for such life transforming medications is a brutal blow to a young person's spirit, especially when they yearn to live and yearn for those they love to live.

How does it feel to be a young person watching and listening and experiencing messages of HOPE designed to play with their emotional state to promote belief in a positive outcome during today's HIVAIDS pandemic.

POETIC INVITATION: Show Me Your Life is inviting young poets experiencing life within an HIVAIDS pandemic to express their ideas as together this peer group emerges into adulthood.

POETIC ECHO: Friends around the world are invited to pause, listen and explore the poetry created by the young Show Me Your Life poets. We look forward to posting your creative responses as we collaboratively acknowledge what HOPE feels like for young people living and surviving in today's HIVAIDS pandemic.

 

Escape From the Sewer Hole by Les Garcons de Cinematheque Films, 2012

Aither is a 13-year-old filmmaker with Cinematheque Films. Show Me Your Life.
"Escape From the Sewer Hole: Some portraits of my friends who still live back in the sewer hole. I do not live there no more. It is hard to leave your friends."

Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (2000). Today 57 UN Member Countries have NOT yet ratified this significant set of ideas designed to protect our communities' children. Countries that have ratified this optional protocol are responsible for ensuring their judicial, healthcare and support systems serve the best interests of each violated and infected child (under 18 year olds) living in their territories.

Inside the Void by Les Garcons de Cinematheque Films, 2012

 

What is a Safe House by Les Garcons de Cinematheque Films, 2012

"At the end of the day, what young people remember is how you made them FEEL..."

How does it feel as a young male to be alive today in the United States of America during an HIVAIDS pandemic and surviving without the protection offered by Convention on the Rights of the Child (the USA has NOT yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child). How does it feel as a young male to be repeatedly sexually abused, tormented, subjugated, trafficked, bought and sold, prostituted, practice survival sex, to be stigmatized, to inject intravenous drugs and sniff glue to dull the horror and stave off hunger and cold, to be criminalized, incarcerated and punished again and again. How does it feel as a young male to be infected with HIV and search in vain for appropriate and consistent supplies of antiretrovirals, medical care, nutrition and SAFE safe-houses to treat AIDS related cancers, dementia, night sweats and nightmares. How does it feel as a young male to survive in an abusive adult world and constantly hear the words "i don't believe you" or worse still "THEY will never believe you." 

ANSWER: It feels like VIOLENCE.  What does socially and culturally sanctioned VIOLENCE experienced by these young males FEEL like. Perhaps the remarkable storytelling, poetry, photo-collages, choreography and video ART created by the ingenious and creative young male survivors participating in Show Me Your Life permits us to imagine... And also prompts us to ask: WHY has the United States of America not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and WHY after ratifying the CRC's optional protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography has the USA not yet implemented a coordinated Federal criminal justice & healthcare response that best serves the interests of each violated & infected child in today's HIVAIDS pandemic. Children watch carefully the messages communicated by adults.

 

Violence by Tim Barrus & Les Garcons de Cinematheque Films, 2012

 

Sins and Secrets by Les Garcons de Cinematheque Films, 2012

 

“forbidden fruit” by Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel, Vatican, 1508-1512)

"AIDS Genocide" by Tim Barrus, 2011

Society fails to understand and recognize that male children practicing survival sex and harnessed to the commercial sex industries, are simply highly stigmatized links in the broad networks of HETEROSEXUAL transmission of HIVAIDS. The vast majority of Men Who Have Sex With Boys present themselves within their communities and families as married men with children of their own; often employing violent and derogatory language in a public forum to distance themselves from the role they play and seeking to unjustly blame and further stigmatize responsible adult homosexuals. It is time to rip down the cultural net curtains that permits so much HURT. Is it really so embarrassing to speak of the sexual violation of young males. If so, our humanity is surely dying of embarrassment.

 

I now know boys doing sex work from home (low profile on the drugs). The same homes they would have been kicked out of a couple of years ago. As punishment for the crime. What has changed. Simple: they’re the only people in the family who have work. It keeps the lot of them in food. But that is about it. It will not keep them in the home they are desperately clinging to. So your son is getting fucked for bucks. Where his daddy can’t get or keep a job. So Daddy is dependent, because no one wants to pay to fuck him.

Untitled by Kara Walker (USA; Art For Humanity)

 

My Birthday Wish by Kareemah El-Amin (USA; Art For Humanity)

He said he doesn't want to die, my hymen for his life
I've saved 100 lives since birth
Between my legs is his salvation
He speaks of love and understanding, piety and grace
With his penis in my face
Gifting me with the sacrament of his unholy communion
I turned nine today
Blow out the candles, and make a wish
"Father, please forgive my sins...
Let me join you before I turn ten"

 

Translations coordinated by Dr Maria Letsie

Zwine Nda Tama Nga Duvha Langa La Mabebo (Tshivenda translation)

O ri ha todi u fa, vhusidzana hanga ndo vhu vhulungela vhutshilo hawe
Ndo vhulunga matshilo a dana tshe nda bebwa
Vhukati ha milenzhe yanga ndi phuluso yawe
U amba nga ha lufuno na u pfesesa, vhudikumedzeli na tshilidzi
Na vhudzimu hawe khofheni hanga
A tshi mpha tshiga tsha tshilalelo tshivhi
Ndo fara minwaha ya tahe namusi
Ndi dzima makhandela nda bula itsho tshine nda tama
"Khotsi, nkhangwele zwivhi zwanga...
Kha ndi vhe na iwe ndi saathu u fara minwaha ya fumi"

Keletso ya Letsatsi la me la Matsalo (Setswana translation)
O rile ga a battle go swa, sesupa-bosetsana ba me ntlheng ya botshelo jwa gagwe
Ke bolokile matshelo a 100 fa e sale ke tsalwa
Mo gare ga dinao tsa me ke poloko ya gagwe
O bua ka lorato le tlhaloganyo, ineetseng tumelong le tshegofatso
Bonna ba gagwe mo sefatlhegong sa me.
A neela sakaramente ya selalelo sa gagwe se se tlhokang boitshepo
Ke na le dingwaga tse di robong gompieno
Butswela dikerese le go dira keletso
"Rara, ka kopo intshwarele dibe tsa me...
A ke go sale morago pele ke dira dingwaga tse lesome"

Takatso ya ka ya tsatsi la matswalo (Sesotho translation)
O itse ha a batle ho shwa, sesupa-borwetsana ba ka bakeng sa bophelo ba hae
Ke bolokile maphelo a 100 haesale ke tswetswe
Pakeng tsa maoto a ka ke pholoso ya hae
O bua ka lerato le kutlwisiso, boineelo tumelong le mohau
Botona ba hae bo le sefahlehong sa ka
A mpha sakramente ya selallo sa hae se sa halaleleng
Ke na le dilemo tse robong kajeno
Tima dikerese, le ho etsa takatso
"Ntate, ka kopo ntshwarele dibe tsa ka ...
Ntumelle ho tla ho wena pele ke eba le dilemo tse leshome"

Takat·o ya matswalo a ka (Sesotho sa Leboa translation)
O rile ga a nyake go hwa, haemene ya ka go bophelo bja gagwe
Ke pholo·it·e maphelo a 100 go tloga mola ke tswalwago
Gare ga maoto a ka ke pholo·o ya gagwe.
O bolela ka lerato le kwe·i·o, go ikokobet·a le kgaogelo
Le setho sa bonna bja gagwe sefahlegong sa ka
A mpha sakramente ya selalelo sa gagwe seo e sego se sekgethwa
Ke nale mengwaga e senyane lehono
Tima dikerese o bolele seo o sedumago
Tate ntshwarele dibe t·a ka hle...
A ke be le wena pele ke fihla mengwaga e lesome

Tifiso tami telusuku lwekutalwa (Siswati translation)
Utsite akafuni kufa, ngifunga gebuntfombi bami
Ngisindzisee timphilo letili-100 solo ngatalwa
Emkhatsini wetinyawo tami kunensindziso yakhe
Ukhuluma ngelutsandvo kanyenekuvisisa, kukholwa kanye nemusa
Ngendvuku yakhe ebusweni bami
Ngiphiwa ngemusa lokungakalungi
Ngihlanganisa iminyaka leyimfica namuhla
"Babe, ngicela ungitsetselele tono tami...
Angihlanganyele nawe ngingakabi nelishumi leminyaka''

Isifiso sami ngelanga lamabeletho (IsiNdebele translation)
Uthi akafuni ukuhlongakala, ngizilondoloza ngizilondolozela ipilo yakhe
Ngiphephise amaphilo ayikhulu kusukela ngibelethwa
Hlangana nemilemze yami kukusindiswa kwakhe
Ukhuluma ngethando begodu, nokuzwisisana ukurhawukela nomusa
Ngomthondo wakhe ebusweni bami
Angipha isipho sabelana ngenolwana.
Ngiba neminyaka elithoba namhlanjesi
Qima amakerese ube nesifiso
"Baba ngibawa uthethelele izono zami...
Ngibawa ukuhlanganyela nawe ngaphambi kobana ngibe neminyaka elisumi"

Ku navela kanga ka siku ro velekiwa (Xitsonga translation)
U te anga lavi ku fa, mbewu ya nga ya vununa ya vutomi byakwe
Ndzi ponise vutomi bya 100 ku suka eku velekiweni
Xikarhi ka milenge yanga i ku ponisiwa ka yena
U vulavula hi rirhandzu na ku twisisa,vukhongeri na musa
Hi vununa byakwe exikandzeni xa mina
A ndzi nyikela hi twela vusiwana xilalelo xa yena xo nyama
Ndzi fikisile nkaye namutlha
Tima makhandlela, u vika ku navela kaku
"Tatana,ndzi rivalele swidyoho swanga...
Wo ndzi ku joyina ndzi nga se fikisa khume"

 

Untitled by Biljana Jankovic (Serbia; Art For Humanity)

A Simple Life by Anietie Isong (Nigeria; Art For Humanity)

I am a woman who just wants to live a simple life.
I am a simple woman who just wants to live a simple life.

He was conceived in May.
Perhaps his father was the

junjaweed who sliced my left ear.
Or the peacekeeping soldier whose teeth were the
colour of rotten pear.

Maybe the boy's father was even the frail aid worker
who cried: "Forgive me, it's this war. Pray, let
it be over!"

He was born in January.
I dug his grave, and lowered him in tenderly.

The baby cried. I cried:

"Forgive me, dear. It's the bloody war. Oh, Lord I've
tried"

His elegy is engraved on my heart:
'Here lies a child of many fathers, a child of Darfur,
a child of hurt.'

Let the rains fall, oh Lord, let it fall.
Let the flood wash away the sins, the blood.

Here I am at your doorstep, in search of refuge.
An immigrant, not a piece of refuse.

Please, let me come in. Let me stay.
It will be well with your household, I pray.

Mpilo Engebukhuni (Zulu Translation)

Ngingowesifazane ofisa ukuphila impilo
engebukhuni.
Ngingowesifazane ongebukhuni ofisa
ukuphila impilo engebukhuni.

Ngazethwala yena ngoNhlaba
Mhlawumbe uyise

wayewuhlobo lokhula olwaqoba indlebe yami
yangakwesokunxele.
Noma isosha elidala uxolo elimazinyo ombala
wepheya elibolile.

Mhlawumbe nokho uyise wayengumsebenzi
osiza amachoboka
Owakhala: "Ngixolele, yilempi. Khulekela
ukuba iphele!"

Wazalwa ngoMasingana.
Ngemba ithuna lakhe, ngamehlisa ngokucophelela.
Ingane yakhala ngakhala
"Ngixolele, wethu. Yilesi silingo sempi Ewu,
Nkosi ngiyengazama!"

Inkondlo yakhe yosizi ibhalwe enhliziyweni
yami
'Ilele la ingane yobaba abaningi, ingane
ka-Dafur, ingane yosizi/yomunyu.

Mazine izimvula, ewu Nkosi, mazine.
izikhukhula zayo zihlanze izono, igazi.

Ngila emnyango wakho, ngifisa ukukhosela.
Ngiyisihambi kule lizwe, hhayi ingxenye
kadoti.

Ngiyacela ngivumeleni ngingene, ngivumeleni
ngihlale.
Kuzoba kuhle kwenu, ngiyakhuleka.

 

 

HURT by Jan Jordaan (South Africa; Art For Humanity)

 

Inspired by Bernedette Muthien (South Africa)
 

i want to write

about love

again

 

love that slaps me

in my tracks

a derailed train

without passengers

or other superfluous

cargo

 

love that flashes

miniscule silver stars

just before i bleed

like a slaughtered cadaver

fairy dust

in earth’s abattoir

like a full moon

too far gone

 

love between aunt

and niece

mother and

adopted child

elder

and ordinary

 

the love of neighbours

thru post-op care

breast cervix

slashed & slithered fantasies

 

love

so different

to the ways i know some want

platters pain

to mimic the torture

in eyes empty

as politician’s lies

 

not what i imagined

before

the fictions of lifetimes

of hatred

 

which i erase

rubber on charcoal

as nanoseconds to aeons

 

there’s more to lightyears

and enlightenment

like love

 

can you feel it –

            love

                        light -

                                    everywhere…

 

 

“If they tell me I am HIV positive, what will you do then?” by Rachel (UK)

What will I do then?
I shall stand in front of you
And let my fingers
With invisible trembling
Undo the buttons of your shirt.
And when it falls open
I shall lean forward to place,
Within the small of your neck
This kiss.

The kiss that has been filling my lips with longing
Since the day we fell in love.
The kiss that I shall carefully place
And re-place
Along the contours of your shoulders
Until,
Pausing for whispered air
My hands, heavy with wanting,
Allow your shirt to fall.

In our closeness
I shall will my fingers forward
So they may touch your body.
Leaving the softness of prints
To claim our future.
And, whilst my guided palms
Come to rest on you,
I shall inhale my awakened breath
As I look into your eyes with nervous smiles
feeling your butterfly heartbeats,
And lean forward, once again.
This time,
So my lips may reach so shyly for yours.
 
That is what I shall do then...

"Jodi ora bole amar H.I.V. hoyeche, Tokhon tumi ki korbe?" (Bengali Translation)
Ki korbo ami tokhon?
Tomaar saamne ese daaraabo
Aar aamaar kaapa kaapa aangulguli
Tomaar jaamaar botaam aalgaa korbe
Tomaar kholaa golaay ghaare
Aamaar aei chumbon eke debo
Aamaar aei chumbon
 
Jedin prothom tomaar premay pori
Sedin theke audhir aabege
Aamaar dui thot aupekkha korchilo
Aamaar sei chumbon aami sojotne eke debo
Aabaar ebom aabaaro
Tomaar ghaare er khaje khaje saubkhaane
Aar taarpor ruddho svase
Aamaar dui haat somosto kaamona niye
Tomaar jaamaa dure phele debe
Aamaader aei kaachhe asay
Aamar aangulguli ejiye jaabe
Tomaar sorr sporsa krte
Norom choyaay taader bhobisyot
Daabi korte
 
Aar jokhon aamaar korotol
Tomaar opor aasray pabe
Aami praanbhore svaas nebo
Tomaar chokhe chokh rekhe
Bhiru hasi niye
Thoro thoro hridoye
Aabaar tomaar dike egiye jabo?
Aar aamaar lajjaaraangaa thot
Chhobe tomaarthot
 
Aei tobe ami korbo tokhon...

 

Suburban Ghost Slayers/ Our voices will become whispers quiet as a virus/ by Tim Barrus

When people are first diagnosed, what they need the most is support. What is support. And, what is not support. Listening is support. Judging is not support in any way, shape, or form.

the first thing you needed to know after being first diagnosed was would you look the same/

they will lie and say yes/

i will tell you the truth that you will be changed forever/

as if until you closed your eyes and the body's loneliness creeps no touch they will no longer touch you/

and leaves a human being without meaning and alone foundering in the hall/

 

Fotos of Whores by Trix (2012, USA)