centerpieces
Teaching AIDS-Arts Activism
by David Román

Teaching college courses about AIDS and the arts is no simple task. Few colleges or universities offer them and in order to initiate one a professor must first petition a traditional academic department and then a larger university curriculum committee for approval. I began teaching a decade ago and before I designed entire courses about AIDS, I would introduce units on AIDS into my literature and gay-and-lesbian studies classes. I taught my first course about AIDS at Yale in 1994. What follows is the story of this experience, and a subsequent one at the University of Southern California, where I currently teach. 		Yale students from "The Literature of AIDS" seminar on stage at Yale Cabaret with playwright Rebecca Ranson for the tenth anniversary staged reading of Warren for World AIDS Day 1994.


At Yale, I was a visiting assistant professor hired to teach lesbian and gay studies. I proposed a course on "AIDS and Literature" that set out to investigate how literature and the arts helped shape our understanding of AIDS. We studied works by a diverse group of critically acclaimed writers, artists, and performers such as Paul Monette, Marlon Riggs, Sarah Schulman, and Tony Kushner along with some lesser known figures and arts collectives such as LA's "Artists Confronting AIDS," one of the earliest AIDS-arts collectives founded in 1986 by Michael Kearns and Jim Pickett, and "Love Like This Theatre Project," an educational theatre program sponsored by San Francisco's Asian AIDS Project and one of the first and most effective AIDS-arts interventions within the Asian Pacific Islander community. We also considered the work of community-based writers and artists such as Rebecca Ranson, Gregg Bordowitz, and Richard Fung. Finally, we read a number of AIDS cultural theorists and activists--such as Michael Callen, Douglas Crimp, and Cindy Patton--to frame our discussions of the role of artists, writers, and performers within the AIDS activist movement.

The course enrolled about 20 undergraduates from a variety of academic backgrounds: literary studies, art history, biology, and women's studies among them. We were a racially diverse group of men and women with a strong queer component. Two of the students were involved in a campus AIDS education group, and a few of the students had experienced the death of a relative or friend from AIDS. I was impressed by the level of commitment the students brought to a class outside their academic majors and our discussions were lively and intense.

Yale University students enrolled in "The Literature of AIDS" seminar present the tenth anniversary staged reading of Rebecca Ranson's play, Warren, for World AIDS Day 1994.


As part of the course, I asked the students to organize and present the tenth anniversary production of Rebecca Ranson's 1984 play, "Warren" for World AIDS Day 1994. The idea behind this project was two-fold. I was drawn to the archival aspect of this assignment and how it would call attention to Rebecca's important work. Rebecca wrote the play in honor of her friend, Warren Johnston, who died of AIDS in San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 5B, one of the first AIDS wards anywhere. The play opened in 1984 at Atlanta's Seven Stages Theatre, a year before Larry Kramer's "The Normal Heart" and William Hoffman's "As Is," the two 1985 plays widely regarded as the first to address AIDS on stage. By 1985, "Warren" was already being presented throughout the United States, educating local communities about AIDS and helping fund the emerging AIDS support groups of the day. In writing "Warren," Ranson was less interested in achieving fame and fortune than in raising AIDS awareness. Producing a staged reading of "Warren" at an Ivy League institution such as Yale in 1994 would call attention to Rebecca's historical contribution, while providing the students an opportunity to revisit an important but forgotten period in AIDS cultural history.

The second reason I chose this assignment was because I wanted the students to work collaboratively on an AIDS cultural project on their own campus. At first they resisted. And for good reasons. Yale boasts one of the most impressive theatre programs in the nation and only one of my students had any theatrical experience. A few of them even raised concerns about the merits of the play itself. If I was asking them to make fools of themselves in front of their peers, couldn't they at least present a play with a reputation like "Angels In America"? Unlike most of the other works they had read in class, Ranson's play remained unpublished. The students were working from a xerox of Rebecca's final production draft, a play that no one had ever even heard of except for me, their professor. They felt certain to fail.
Professor Alvin Novick, Professor David Román, and playwright Rebecca Ranson at Yale Cabaret for the tenth anniversary staged reading of Warren in observance of World AIDS Day 1994.

In the midst of these anxieties, I asked my students to consider a different set of criteria for evaluating "Warren" and to set for themselves a different goal. Drawing on our study of community-based arts and early AIDS activism, I asked them to focus less on their own artistic experience (or lack of it), and more on the larger campus intervention that "Warren" would enable. Their project would be the main AIDS event on campus that year and would follow the local AIDS candlelight vigil. Their production of "Warren" would not only honor Rebecca Ranson's important artistic intervention, it would also provide them---in this moment and on their campus---the opportunity to honor the play's legacy of raising AIDS awareness. We invited Rebecca, an Atlantan, to participate in our project.

The students enrolled in the "AIDS and Literature" course did all of the work to put together this event. Everyone was involved either in the actual production or some behind-the-scenes function. Initially, the students wanted me to help them secure the performance space, write the press release, contact the playwright, and even direct the play. Instead, I helped them identify the necessary tasks that needed to be addressed and facilitated the formation of committees to get them done.

On December 1, 1994, the Yale Cabaret was buzzing with energy and anticipation. The overflow audience was composed of friends and colleagues of the students in my class and students involved in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Cooperative, which cosponsored the event. Students from other progressive organizations on campus were also in attendance as were some members of the New Haven AIDS community. The students in charge of publicity had made contact with AIDS Project New Haven and "Warren" was therefore included in all of the local press for World AIDS Day. In the program notes, the two codirectors introduced the evening with remarks that included the following:

" Warren was written a decade ago by Rebecca Ranson....The participants, students in Professor David Román's "Literature and AIDS" seminar, have little to no experience in theatre. This 10th Anniversary staged reading of Warren is not an attempt at aesthetic excellence.... Because the script is dated, we have chosen to present 'Warren' as a community ritual. We believe that the production of this play in 1994 performs two vital functions: it provides a public space to address the issues of personal grief and mourning surrounding AIDS, and it commemorates a decade of AIDS awareness and activism. We are honored to have Ms. Ranson in attendance at this evening's performance."

Backstage, students were beginning to feel the excitement of their collaborative endeavor. Rebecca, a veteran of Atlanta's community-based arts projects, helped put us all at ease. She'd often worked with nontraditional actors in creating community cultural rituals. Right before the performance, she generously assured the Yale students that "Warren" was now their play. And it was. The event brought AIDS awareness to the Yale campus and positioned these students as AIDS educators and activists. It helped them reconsider their own relationship to AIDS activism as something students could participate in, as well study. They, too, became part of the larger history of AIDS activism through the arts.

For their final assignment, I asked the students to write a paper assessing the reading and factoring in what they had learned from their involvement in the project. One student, the only theatre major of the group, wrote "Warren made me realize what a perfect match theatre and activism are--both demand a commitment of both the body and the soul that goes beyond recognition by others." Another wrote that the World AIDS Day event was, in her words, "the perfect way to end our class. We spent all term sitting in a classroom discussing activist art. With 'Warren,' we were no longer onlookers. We were a part of the activism." Another student shared the following insight: "I have always mistakenly associated AIDS politics with a singular form of activism, that of anger and confrontation. However, "Warren" is political in a different sense. The play provided a voice for AIDS when there was mainly silence. In 1984, when the play was written, little was said about AIDS and Rebecca Ranson took a step a forward to discuss the epidemic. It is important to realize that even ten years later, in 1994, preventing AIDS from remaining a silent disease is the only way that it can be overcome. In fact, by dealing directly with AIDS, the play succeeds in what is the main tenant of AIDS activism, to potentially save lives."


Two years later, in the fall of 1996, and now at the University of Southern California, I offered another version of the Yale course. Once again, the topic was "The Literature and Art of AIDS." We read many of the same authors but I also added some new works to the class syllabus including Abraham Verghese's "My Own Country," Rebecca Brown's "The Gifts of the Body," Mark Doty's "Heaven's Coast," and Jonathan Larson's "Rent." As a group we also attended dancer and choreographer Neil Greenberg's "The Disco Project," a work addressing Greenberg's own sero-positive status. When it came to thinking about a World AIDS Day event, I chose to do things a little differently this time. I invited the students to come up with their own campus event for World AIDS Day. Once again, however, I made them entirely responsible for it.

The group was substantially different than the Yale students. First, they were all women. Second, even though this was an English class, many of the students were health sciences-, social work-, and education majors. Nonetheless, these students shared a similar set of anxieties with the Yale students. How were they to pull off an event for World AIDS Day when they had little or no experience productions such actions? On top of this, these students had the extra burden of not being from Yale. They took no comfort from the fact that the Yale students had been able to achieve this two years before. In fact, they were intimidated by that.

We spent a considerable amount of time together thinking through their options. At first, the students were interested in doing something creative and community-based: an exhibition of new AIDS art at the university museum, an oral history project with local people with HIV, a videoducumentary on USC students' responses to HIV/AIDS. Increasingly, however, the students were interested in moving away from activist art per se. Since they were all women, some students were drawn to working primarily on an event that would focus on women and AIDS. Other students, however, challenged this on the grounds that it would alienate half the campus. Debates were inevitable and frequent. For most of September, we set aside 15 minutes of each class period to hold these discussions. In order to help them focus their efforts, I assigned them the following paper topic: [

"Write a 7-9 page paper that begins to address HIV/AIDS at USC...Identify the HIV/AIDS support services, curriculum offerings, educational campaigns, health services and/or cultural events available to students, faculty, and staff. Canvas a diverse group of people on the topic... include a discussion of how you conducted your informal survey of HIV/AIDS at USC as well as a discussion of the areas you feel need most immediate attention on campus."

While conducting their research, one of the students learned that the Student Health Services Center stopped offering free anonymous HIV testing in 1993. Beginning in 1994, students were required to pay $20 for this service. They also learned that the Health Center did not allocate enough money to supply year-round free condoms to the students. The condom supply generally ran out sometime in February. The students quickly and unanimously decided that they would focus on these twin issues for their World AIDS Day event. As students, they felt it was important that they could accomplish two things: educate their peers about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and challenge University HIV policies.

The students inaugurated a letter campaign to the more than 180 different student groups and organizations on campus alerting them of their intention to petition the student government and the university administration to reinstate free anonymous HIV testing and increase the funds allocated for condom distribution. They sent press releases of their action and its goals to various local and regional media. And they postered the campus publicizing their World AIDS Day project.

On December 1st, the students set up a table in front of the statue of Tommy Trojan, the USC mascot, which is situated in front of the administrative building in the heart of campus. Between 11 am and 2 pm the students gathered over1000 signatures for the petition, and they provided their fellow students with an HIV fact sheet, red ribbons, and one-on-one peer discussion of campus AIDS issues. The USC student paper, "The Daily Trojan," ran a front-page article with the headline, "Students Petition For Free HIV Tests" on the day of their efforts. The following day they ran a front-page picture of their action. It was the paper's only coverage of World AIDS Day.
(click to enlarge article)

I watched with pride as these 18 young women canvassed other USC students and staff to sign their petition. Within the course of the semester, they had formed a peer-driven, activist collective. Each of them had performed a major role in making the event successful. Based on their work, the student government voted in support of the petition and thereby altered the budget for the following year. In 2000, four years after their action, the Health Center allocates enough money for free, year-round condom distribution. My students were unable, however, to completely change the HIV testing policy at USC. The Health Center has returned to charging the $20 fee for anonymous HIV testing, although it is waived during the month of February. If it weren't for these students, none of this would have come to pass.

Throughout the last decade, I've encouraged my students not only to study AIDS activism and art, but also to participate in this continuing history of AIDS activism. In teaching courses on AIDS and American culture, I've also learned from my students the importance of intergenerational discussion and exchange. While my students are often curious to hear about my own personal experiences with AIDS activism and the reasons I'm drawn to teaching such courses, I always remind them that they, in fact, are the ones who have chosen to enroll in the class. They have already made the choice, therefore, to educate themselves about the history of AIDS and to confront the challenges AIDS poses to their lives.
David Román is Associate Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of "Acts of Intervention: Performance, Gay Culture, and AIDS" (Indiana UP, 1998), which received the 1999 Oustanding Book of the Year Award from the Association for Theatre In Higher Education, and coeditor with Holly Hughes of "O Solo Homo: The New Queer Performance" (Grove, 1998), which received the 1999 Lambda Literary Award for Drama. He lives in Los Angeles.