A TIME TO LISTEN:
ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Alysia Abbott is an author, advocate, and writing instructor based out of Cambridge, MA. Her 2013 book, Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, was a winner ALA Stonewall Award and the Madame Figaro "Prix Heroine" and was a finalist for a LAMBDA and the Goodreads Choice Award. Her essays and reviews can be found in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Slate, OUT, and elsewhere. In 2015, she cofounded the Recollectors Project, a storytelling community dedicated to remembering parents lost to AIDS. For this work she was honored with the Unsung Hero Award by The National AIDS Memorial. She currently leads the Memoir Incubator program at GrubStreet in Boston. (Episode 6)

Jennifer Brier, PhD, is a researcher and teacher at the University of Illinois, Chicago where she focuses on the historical intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. Her first book, Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Response to the AIDS Crisis, provides the opportunity for us to understand the social and political history of the 80’s and 90’s through the response to the AIDS crisis in the US and globally. Along with her work on Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics, and Culture, she curated work with the Chicago History Museum, and is currently working with the University community to create a mobile gallery called History Moves, for activists and community organizers to share their histories. She is a collaborator on I’m Still Surviving, an oral history project in which women in a long term survivors study interviewed each other about their lives and experiences living with HIV. (Episode 4)

Cheri is a native New Yorker, born in 1971 in the Brooklyn Union Hospital, the middle of 5 children. She was married for 10 years until her husband passed from renal failure due to AIDS, and is the mother to two daughters and two grandchildren. She tested positive for HIV in 1995, while pregnant with her oldest daughter and has been living with the virus for 26 years. She is a member of SisterLove 2020 and a Ministerial Assistant with the Haven International Ministries. She is also a collaborator on I’m Still Surviving, an oral history project in which women in a long term survivors study interviewed each other about their lives and experiences living with HIV. (Episode 4)

Timothy DuWhite is a Black/queer poet, actor and activist based out of Brooklyn. His essays and poetry can be found in The Rumpus, The Root, Afropunk, Black Youth Project, The Grio, and elsewhere. In the summer of 2018, Timothy debuted his one-man show NEPTUNE as the headliner for Dixon Place's annual “Hot Festival” and following rave reviews and sold-out performances, it was restaged as the 2019 kick-off event for Brooklyn Museum’s acclaimed “1st Saturday" series. Timothy was named a “Black LGBTQ+ playwright you need to know” by TIMEOUT.com. He is an alumnus of the Public Theaters' #BARS program and is a current member of the Public Theaters' Emerging Writers Group 2020-2022 cohort as well as an artist in residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. (Episode 6)

Kenyon Farrow is an American award-winning essayist, activist, cultural critic, journalist, director, and educator noted for elevating the visibility of progressive racial and economic justice issues as they pertain to the LGBTQ community. Currently the Co-Executive Director at Partners for Dignity & Rights, he was most recently the senior editor of TheBody, which publishes vital HIV-related information, news, support, and personal perspectives. He has a distinguished track record working in communities impacted by HIV as an activist, writer, and strategist. Kenyon's work has been recognized by many institutions, including Out Magazine's "Out 100" and The Advocate's "40 Under 40." He was also named a "Modern Black History Hero" by Black Entertainment Television. (Episode 1)

Cecilia Gentili is an activist, advocate, actress, and storyteller who serves as Principal Consultant of Transgender Equity Consulting, which she founded in 2019. Originally from Argentina, Cecilia came to the United States for a safer life as a transgender woman and lived undocumented for 10 years. During this time Cecilia earned a living through sex work, which came with drug use, for which she was continually targeted for policing.  After multiple arrests and an immigration detention, she accessed recovery services and, with more control over her life, fought and won asylum. Cecilia has held a number of community services roles including at GMHC where she was Director of Policy. Her success in policy inspired her to found Decrim NY, a coalition working towards the decriminalization, decarceration, and destigmatization of people in the sex trade, and was instrumental in the development of two statewide bills to provide survivors of trafficking with record relief, and to end the criminalization of ‘loitering’ - a charge overwhelmingly leveled against transgender women, regardless of their involvement in the sex trade. She was also a key proponent in the passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in New York State in 2019. As a performer, Cecilia has appeared in a number of roles including on FX’s award-winning drama Pose. (Episode 4)

Dave Harper has served as the first Executive Director of the New York City AIDS Memorial since June 2019. He joined the Memorial as an experienced cultural programmer, curator, nonprofit administrator, and fundraiser. He holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MS from Pratt Institute, both in the History of Art. Previously, he has held both curatorial and development roles at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY), ACRIA, and Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), among others. Charged with moving the Memorial into its next phase, Dave has been excited to develop cultural and educational programming, partnerships, and to support the Memorial’s vital mission to honor all New Yorkers impacted by HIV/AIDS, including as a co-creator of A TIME TO LISTEN, part of a larger program called HEAR ME: VOICES OF THE EPIDEMIC, which will premiere at the Memorial in December 2020. The New York City AIDS Memorial, born as a grassroots effort in 2011 by two young New Yorkers who never knew a world before HIV/AIDS, was dedicated on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2016. (Episode 1)

Stephen Hicks is a writer based in Washington, DC with a love for music, history, art, and culture. He's also a trained public health professional with 10 years in HIV, sexual health, and harm reduction.  His work has been published in The Body, Architect Magazine, Noisey, HuffPost, and Style Weekly. (Episode 3)

Theodore (ted) Kerr is a Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based writer, organizer and artist whose work focuses on HIV/AIDS, community, and culture. Kerr's writing has appeared in Women's Studies Quarterly, The New Inquiry, BOMB, CBC (Canada), Lambda Literary, POZ Magazine, The Advocate, Cineaste, The St. Louis American, IndieWire, and other publications. In 2016, he won the Best Journalism award from POZ Magazine for his Hyperallergic article on race, HIV, and art. Previously, he was the Programs Manager at Visual AIDS where he worked to ensure social justice was an important lens through which to understand the ongoing epidemic. In 2016 / 2017 Kerr performed 10 interviews for the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project. Kerr is a founding member of the What Would An HIV Doula Do? collective, a community of people committed to better implicating community within the ongoing response to HIV/AIDS. Kerr earned his MA from Union Theological Seminary where he researched Christian Ethics and HIV, and his BA from the New School where he was Riggio Writing and Democracy fellow. Currently, Kerr teaches at The New School and is the co-creator of A TIME TO LISTEN. (Episode 2, Episode 5)

Danny Krivit grew up in Greenwich Village in the 1960s where he was surrounded by music. By 1970, Danny was already a vinyl junkie & an amateur DJ, and by 1977, Danny was becoming part of the underground scene, meeting some of the greatest DJs of the time including DJs Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian (Francois K) of the Paradise Garage, Danny’s main stomping ground until it closed in 1987. In his five decades, Danny has DJ’ed at clubs including Area, Danceteria, The Ice Palace, Laces, The Limelite, Red Zone, Save The Robots, Tracks, The Tunnel, The World, and many others. Danny’s talents and reputation have grown immensely and his Producer-Editor-Mixer credits are found on well over 1,000 tracks. Earning a status of “King Of The Re-edit” since the early 80’s, he’s been a major force in bringing attention and world acceptance to the art of editing, even spawning an onslaught of imitators. He has also contributed to many historical films & literature such as: “Maestro”, “Love Saves The Day”, “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life”, Mel Cheren’s “My Life & The Paradise Garage”, “Downtown Calling”, “All Hopped Up and Ready To Go”, and "The Disco Files.” (Episode 3)

Donja R. Love is Black, Queer, HIV+, and thriving. A Philly native, his work examines the forced absurdity of life for those who identify as Black, Queer, and HIV-positive –  a diverse intersection filled with eloquent stories that challenge the white supremacist, heteronormative structures that exist in American culture. He's the recipient of the Antonyo's inaugural Langston Hughes Award, the Helen Merrill Award, the Laurents/Hatcher Award and the Princess Grace Playwriting Award. Other honors include The Lark’s Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, The Playwrights Realm’s Writing Fellowship, and the Philadelphia Adult Grand Slam Poetry Champion. He's the co-founder of The Each-Other Project, an organization that helps build community and provide visibility, through art and advocacy, for LGBTQ+ People of Color. Plays include soft, one in two (The New Group), Fireflies (Atlantic Theater Company), Sugar in Our Wounds (Manhattan Theatre Club, Lucille Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Nominations), and The Trade. He’s a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School. (Episode 5)

Ann Northrop is a veteran journalist and activist. After a long career in mainstream journalism, she quit in 1987 and took a job as an AIDS educator to New York City teenagers. At the same time, she joined ACT UP, and got arrested numerous times doing civil disobedience, most famously inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Ann currently combines journalism and activism as the co-host of the weekly TV news show, Gay USA. Ann is one of the organizers of the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s Queer Liberation Marches in 2019 and 2020. (Episode 1)

Sheldon Raymore is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation. He's a multidisciplinary performance artist, actor, choreographer, cultural consultant, costume designer, fashion designer, visual artist, and an award -winning grass dancer. Sheldon starred in ABC’s television series Born to Explore, “Legend of Dance” with Richard Weiss, where he was the featured grass dancer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. And recently Sheldon was awarded the 2019 First Peoples Fund Cultural Capital Fellowship. (Episode 5)

Mathew Rodriguez is an award-winning Afro-Latinx writer, essayist and journalist. He is currently the associate editor at TheBody and TheBodyPro, HIV/AIDS news sites. In the past, he has been a staff writer at Out Magazine, INTO and Mic. His writing has been featured in Slate, Teen Vogue, The Village Voice, MEL Magazine and more. He is currently writing a young adult graphic novel for Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. (Episode 6)

Kiara St. James is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the New York City Transgender Advocacy Group. St. James has been a community organizer and public speaker for over 20 years. She has been instrumental in changing discriminatory shelter policies that affected the Trans community, and has presented workshops concerning marginalized communities at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria and the United Nations, as well as many other conferences and academic institutions.  St. James was instrumental in the passage of the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in New York State in 2019. (Episode 2)

Krishna Stone is the Director of Community Relations at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). She originally connected with GMHC in 1986 as a walker in the first annual AIDS Walk New York and in 1993 joined the staff. She works to organize community events such as rallies, vigils, press conferences, dance parties, panel discussions, and site visits for people all over the world. In 2014, she received an award from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for “her outstanding dedication to combating the spread of HIV.” For the past 20 years, she has been a volunteer announcer along the route of the annual NYC LGBT Pride March and in 2017, Krishna was one of the four Grand Marshals for the NYC LGBT Pride March, and received a proclamation from Governor Andrew Cuomo. In 2019, she was awarded the Sam Ciccone Community Service Award by the Gay Officers Action League New York. She is a huge fan of disco music and the proud mother of her 25-year-old daughter, Parade. (Episode 3)

Jason Walker serves as the Civic Engagement and Public Education Project (CEPEP) Consultant for The NEW Pride Agenda; As an experienced community organizer, Jason focuses his engagement with the LGBTQ community through an intersectional lens or race, class, and gender. Before joining the team, Jason was the HIV/AIDS Campaign Coordinator for VOCAL New York, where he organized homeless LGBTQ youth and people living with HIV for nearly seven years. (Episode 2)