Pots and pans clink,
a door creaks open and shut again, and in a nearby shack a child
squeals. "I'll show you around my neighbourhood",
says 19-year-old Thembi as she steps outside in South Africa's
Khayelitsha township. "It is a bright, beautiful day. People
are all out. They're starting to wash their laundries, putting
them on the line. Music is coming from every house."
With candid neighbourhood sounds, Thembi could be leading a
visitor by the hand through details of her young life. But,
in fact, she is thousands of miles away. As a broadcaster for
the New York-based Radio Diaries, Thembi carries a microphone
through her daily routine, recording a unique amalgam of youthful
vibrancy and solemn silences. Her exuberance-a smile so wide
you can almost hear it-shines through some of the most difficult
situations imaginable. She is one of the staggering 29 per cent
of Khayelitsha residents infected with AIDS. In addition, according
to Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), the estimated 500,000 township
residents also suffer from high unemployment and poor living
conditions.
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| PHOTOS
FROM THE Y-PEER PHOTO ARCHIVES |
"There are a lot of us here who are sick", Thembi
tells her audience. "But people don't disclose it because
they are scared of discrimination. People talk, they point and
whisper. Sometimes if they hear that someone has HIV, they burn
the house down, so that you can't stay there anymore."
Despite this oppressive stigma, Thembi's strength and determination
to be heard prevail as she confronts her disease head-on. Her
22-minute broadcast takes listeners into her doctor's office
and finds its way into her mother's house and into her private
talks with her boyfriend, Melikhaya. "She has a kind of
quiet poetry", says Radio Diaries producer Joe Richman,
who stumbled across Thembi while working on another project
in South Africa. "You lean in closer when she speaks. She
draws you in."
Twenty-five years after the first AIDS diagnosis, activists
face the challenge of reaching a public already saturated by
the disease's grim statistics. But the epidemic, as Mr. Richman
points out, has long remained a voiceless issue, especially
in the developing world. For example, much of the sub-Saharan
region, the epicentre of the AIDS virus, lacks the educational
and communicative infrastructure needed to fight widespread
infection and counteract the stigma. A new wave of narrative-style
activism has begun to appear in some of the most impoverished,
socially restrictive and remote communities.
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| PHOTOS FROM
THE Y-PEER PHOTO ARCHIVES |
Combining art and media activism, youth radio programmes and
theatre are slowly taking a prominent role in the development
programming of local non-governmental and major international
organizations. AIDS activism reflects a progressive mix of creative
expression, education and social support-networks designed to
help communities deal with the epidemic on a deeper, more lasting
level. Like Thembi, the young people who are taking the reins
in telling their stories often have shockingly poignant points
of view. Their diaries and performances can be blisteringly
angry, passionately determined, even funny, all at once. They
can grip a listener who thinks he has heard all there is about
AIDS. Moreover, experts are discovering that it is not just
audiences that benefit from such candid, interactive expression;
storytelling can be powerfully healing to both the tellers and
the communities that surround them.
With the adoption of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
developing nations are at the forefront of international debates.
Ways to break through the many barriers to development, such
as poverty, ignorance and AIDS, are of high priority. While
narratives like Thembi's have been broadcast, photographed and
performed for decades in many cities worldwide-from the gritty
urban sounds of Chicago's famous 1993 radio documentary "Ghetto
Life 101" to theatre performances chronicling events like
the 1992 Los Angeles race riots-the concept of interactive projects
as a social tool has not, until recently, reached places like
the former Soviet Republics, the Middle East and South Africa.
In bringing unique arts methods to these regions, activists
face unique challenges. Stigma is strong. HIV-positive people
run great risks by just disclosing their status, let alone performing
in public. Adapting arts activism has been a challenge, but
specialists come armed with a long history of interactive social
arts. They have learned what works and does not work. Today's
activist art reflects the successes and failures of years past.
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| PHOTOS FROM
THE Y-PEER PHOTO ARCHIVES |
Storytelling projects, in which affected individuals speak directly
to an audience or re-enact their life events, are based loosely
on the "edutainment" work of behaviourist Albert Bandura
and Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed". Mr.
Bandura suggested that people learn how to behave by watching
and empathizing with others who are similar to themselves-a
theory that has helped many AIDS activists understand how to
reach young people. Mr. Boal, whose "legislative theatre"
resulted in 17 new laws in Brazil, wrote in the Marxist tradition
that the creative, interactive power of art should be returned
to community members. In fact, the question of community art
has long been a controversy in social activism. In Western culture,
art has long been seen as removed from the routine of daily
life, as transcendent in some way. "We are used to having
stories filtered, mediated in some way", says Mr. Richman,
explaining why listening to a young person's own diary is often
so moving. Art activism returns to people like Thembi the creation
of art and communicates a message to the audience. Art is based
in a particular localized context and is made accessible to
those who need it. Many scholars believe that this shift is
the key to engaging art as a functioning process in society,
instead of just something to admire from afar.
"Art has many roles to play", says Helene Vosters,
co-Director of the Activism and Social Change Department at
California's New College, who believes that creative arts can
be informational and practical, as well as emotional and transcendent.
She became interested in the benefits of performance and interactive
storytelling through dance, which she learned could be used
as a tool for everything, from healing to negotiating social
conflict. But as many scholars have done, she is quick to criticize
even the most innovative art activism if it lacks lasting social
support. "It's important to recognize that there are intersections
between artists, activists and scholars", she states, adding
that in much of her work, partnering with local educators and
community organizations is crucial. Often, putting up an exhibit
alone has not left a lasting impression on the community, she
says, but putting it up with follow-up events and discussions
has. "It's important to recognize the roles that different
components play."
Strong backing from local educators and organizations is especially
essential in AIDS activism in the developing world, where stigma
is an oppressive, often dangerous, force. Ms. Vosters believes
that art activism can play an especially important role in regions
with conservative leadership and with many taboos concerning
sex and AIDS. Tapping the personal aspects of the epidemic is
one thing that art does best. In places where AIDS is little
more than whispered gossip, giving it a human face can be infinitely
valuable. But, she believes, the first real step is giving the
local HIV-positive population a safe space to come to terms
with the disease. "Arts bring these people out of silence
and marginalization. There's joy and there's meaning. They aren't
reduced to their illness."
Blue Chevigny, producer of the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF) Radio's Digital Diaries programme, agrees that interactive
programming can boost the self-esteem of those involved and
that the communities surrounding local artists can benefit from
their experiences as well. "They learn that their voices
are important", she says, noting that community members
are more likely to learn about practical issues, such as safe
prevention methods against AIDS, from a nearby neighbour than
a stranger in a white lab coat. Radio is a well-suited tool
for this mission, according to Mr. Richman, as it is cheap and
widely available, even in the remotest regions. In fact, local
radio stations in the developing world have begun to partner
with groups like Health Unlimited and the BBC, recording specialized
soap operas focused on AIDS and translated into dozens of languages.
With local themes and relatable characters, these soap operas
hope to target the rural poor, who have trouble receiving information
from other sources.
UNICEF currently runs about a dozen digital diary programmes
with teens across the world; two in Namibia and Jamaica focus
on living with AIDS. The resulting diaries, says Ms. Chevigny,
are truly special. "Kids are spontaneous. They're better
talkers." UNICEF Radio's goal is to identify young people
interested in the art of storytelling and work with them to
disseminate their message on various issues. While she admits
that the project is still in its infancy, she would like to
see it branch out further to young people, out of the "usual
circle" of educated, urban youth, to the poorer, younger
and more rural children.
In partnering with Radio Diaries, UNICEF helped bring Thembi
to the United States in 2006. During her five-city tour, she
spoke at UNICEF, the National Public Radio, CNN and several
colleges and high schools. Panel discussions, seminars and debates
have followed her tour and will continue to do so as she greets
her native South Africa in February and March 2007. Radio Diaries
is preparing to distribute informative AIDS education compact
discs and other resources to students during the tour. It will
have its own documentary tool kit designed to teach the young
to start their own diaries. Global support has deeply enriched
the programme's wider human qualities. It is something that
people everywhere can relate to-and in this, the personal and
universal aspects of Thembi's story are essential.
Another UN agency that is deeply involved in AIDS activism is
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which runs the Youth
Peer Education Network (Y-PEER). Working in the Middle East,
North and East Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, where
the disease is spreading faster than it ever has before, this
successful youth initiative not only trains young people to
write and perform their own narratives in theatre productions,
but also encourages peer-to-peer interaction and significant
long-term relationships with the programme. Aleksandar Sasha
Bodiroza, who is a technical specialist for HIV/AIDS and adolescent
sexual and reproductive health at the UNFPA Division for Arab
States, Europe and Central Asia, says Y-PEER is a highly flexible
programme that seeks the most effective measures in each community,
whether it's integration with local media, follow-up discussions
and events or partnering with local educational groups, to work
against AIDS on a local case-by-case basis. While AIDS activism
needs to be aggressive, he says, it also needs to respect the
realities of each particular region. Working with a community
is essential to the initiative's success.
"We are talking about a complex problem with many layers",
says Dr. Bodiroza. The most innovative goal of Y-PEER is to
address all aspects of the AIDS crisis at once. The social,
environmental, educational and psychological aspects are targeted,
with "constant reinforcement of the message", always
through the prism of young people. Y-PEER focuses on youth as
the next generation of local leaders and parents, believing
that their views and voices will prevail in the coming years.
It also hopes to create a next generation of AIDS advocates,
who will take activist roles in their regions and at the helm
of international organizations worldwide. "We really act
the way we preach", says Dr. Bodiroza. Lately, the face
of AIDS activism has changed drastically in many of the Eastern
European and former Soviet regions where he works. Y-PEER has
begun to partner with recognizable brand-name companies like
MTV. For example, "EXIT Festival", a recent event
with pop music star Billy Idol, drew a crowd of more than 300,000
in Serbia, and some 80 per cent of young people involved with
Y-PEER in that region said that MTV drew them to the project.
Arts activism in Eastern Europe shows how important local context
can be in reaching people on the subject of AIDS.
Flexible, localized activism with deep-rooted infrastructure
may change the landscape of HIV in the developing world. It
may change people's minds about what AIDS means and how they
can protect themselves. With interactive, creative arts leading
the way, it can give people the agency and self-worth when life
looks bleakest. After all, both art and activism are designed
to create hope where none existed before. "Art's greatest
gift", says Ms. Vosters, "is in its relationship to
the imagination. How can we change the world if we can't imagine
it beyond this moment?"
(For more information, please visit www.radiodiaries.org/;
www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/
and www.youthpeer.org/)
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