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Kia LaBeija performing with dance and spoken poetry
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The photographs in this gallery are produced by the Sudden Flowers which is the first AIDS art collective in Ethiopia. Sudden Flowers art collective consists of children between the ages of 9 to 17 in the Shiromeda neighborhood of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia who lost their parents to AIDS. The creator of Sudden Flowers, Eric Gottesman started the collective in 1998 to offer children of Addis Ababa a creative outlet to navigate feelings of grief and loss after being displaced from their families. Through the works produced by the Sudden Flowers collective, we are able to center children in dialogues and scholarship about AIDS/HIV.
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This photo, titled Mourning Sickness, was created and taken by Kia LaBejia. The photo is showcasing the intimate moment of mourning for her mother and the illness from side-effects felt while taking medicine for HIV/AIDS and pictured in a very personal location, the restroom.
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A picture of migratory workers in Belle Glade, FL.
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Quintara with her HIV negative children
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This photo, titled Eleven, was created and taken by Kia LaBejia on the anniversary of her mothers passing, and at the doctors office both her and her mother went to. Her doctor is taking blood in real time, and the photo is showcasing the intimate medical care HIV/AID patients have to experience.
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.Figure 1 (below) depicts a summary of newly diagnosed cases
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African Americans are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than any other group of people living in the United States. “In 1986, 25% of HIV/AIDS cases were among African Americans. By 2001–2004, African Americans represented 51% of newly diagnosed infections. The wide-spread impact of this disturbing epidemic is intensifying”. Many reasons are cited for the disproportionate increase if AIDS among Blacks, but, the closest correlation we have is the alarming incarceration of African Americans since the 1980’s. According the NAACP Organization (naacp.org) between 1980 and 2015, the number of Blacks incarcerated in America increased from roughly 500,000 to over 2.2 million. At the same time HRSA (hrswa.org) reports in 2011, that of the 2.2 million people affected with the HIV/AIDS virus over 500,000 were African Americans.
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News Article written about the death of Eric Wright and his announcement of being HIV positive.
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