Chewing the Fat about AIDS - Arts Today "Artery" asked four articulate critics of film, dance, visual art, and literature to ponder two general subjects: The state of AIDS-art, yesterday and today, and their own necessarily subjective positions when writing criticism and commentary about AIDS-related work. In other words, they allowed us to put them on the spot by agreeing to explain and critique themselves. Imagine a (virtual) panel discussion at which the moderator introduces the symposium with the following comments: "We're now nearly two decades into the AIDS epidemic and have seen 10-15 years’ of artistic representations of it. As a critic and commentator, how do you evaluate and respond to works of art about HIV/AIDS? Does the sero-status of the artist or author or choreographer affect your response? Does your own sexual orientation or HIV status have an effect? Has your general openness to such work changed over the past decade? Do you see changing trends in artistic representations of HIV/AIDS in your fields of interest, especially in the works’ emotional or ideological "temperature?" Are there varied generational perspectives to the epidemic? Is the AIDS emergency over in the US, although pressing public-health issues obviously remain?" Now for the "panelists'" - Chris Dohse, Stephen Holden, Eileen Myles, and Nancy Princenthal. We hope that their thoughtful and provocative responses will inspire those of you in the virtual audience to respond, as well. To do so, click the "Send to the Visitor Forum".