This is a weird flex.
It imagines *universal* access to PrEP at an "exclusive" party?
It imagines the club scene in the 80s MADE BY ppl living with HIV as if...if would have been better without them?
And what good is PrEP access to ppl who were homeless, jobless?
It imagines *universal* access to PrEP at an "exclusive" party?
It imagines the club scene in the 80s MADE BY ppl living with HIV as if...if would have been better without them?
And what good is PrEP access to ppl who were homeless, jobless?
The grotesquerie of capitalism: everything—EVEN AIDS!—is a marketing opportunity.
Ppl living with HIV in the 80s faced almost certain death. Which formed "futurity," queer theory & NYC culture (including NYC night club culture). These things couldn't have happened withOUT people living with HIV.
I think I get what Ocean wants to do: imagine a world without AIDS.
But you can't imagine the WORLD AIDS MADE by imagining it without the horror, existential death and, YES, the death by AIDS those fierce, creative worldmakers living with HIV endured.
But you can't imagine the WORLD AIDS MADE by imagining it without the horror, existential death and, YES, the death by AIDS those fierce, creative worldmakers living with HIV endured.
Like, it's great to imagine the early 20th century without racism.
But you can't imagine the blues coming into being by non-Black ppl, nor by Black ppl who didn't endure Jim Crow.
It was Black brilliance AND Black abjection that forged music out of pain that made the blues.
But you can't imagine the blues coming into being by non-Black ppl, nor by Black ppl who didn't endure Jim Crow.
It was Black brilliance AND Black abjection that forged music out of pain that made the blues.
It's disappointing to see an artist such as Ocean falling into a technocratic lie (the interlocking conditions leading to AIDS can't be addressed simply by a pill) and pushing a marketing scheme for what feels like a branding opportunity.
AIDS isn't a lifestyle backdrop.
AIDS isn't a lifestyle backdrop.
I was thrilled to see that, after hearing from @actupny (active now for 32 years & going), @angiecthomas changed the name of her production company. While AIDS has sadly been a cash cow marketing opportunity for drug companies, it needn't be for artists.
@actupny @angiecthomas There are many beautiful ways to imagine a world without AIDS.
But imaging away the people living with HIV (and dying from AIDS) who gave us futurity, queer theory & the Pyramid Club's best dance-like-you-may-die-tomorrow-cuz-you-might nights ain't a good one.
But imaging away the people living with HIV (and dying from AIDS) who gave us futurity, queer theory & the Pyramid Club's best dance-like-you-may-die-tomorrow-cuz-you-might nights ain't a good one.
@actupny @angiecthomas And it shows a lack of imagination for an artist to think of eradicating AIDS with just one (mostly privately controlled and for profit) tool like PrEP. As Zoe Leonard put it so well, 
@actupny @angiecthomas Here's a page from my dissertation INFECTIOUS BLACKNESS, in which @gregggonsalves (via @actupny Oral History) explains how AIDS politics works in many directions.
We are now seeing a similar dynamic with HIV/AIDS companies influencing contemporary artists & popular culture.
We are now seeing a similar dynamic with HIV/AIDS companies influencing contemporary artists & popular culture.
Also find if interesting (if depressing) how pharma culture pervades gay culture so blatantly.
You wouldn’t see a chemotherapy or antibiotics or statins or beta blockers advertised as sexy/fun/hip to any population.
But “gay drugs” are so a part of gay culture they’re “sexy.”
You wouldn’t see a chemotherapy or antibiotics or statins or beta blockers advertised as sexy/fun/hip to any population.
But “gay drugs” are so a part of gay culture they’re “sexy.”
For those asking about the concept of "futurity" & where it comes from, I recommend reading NO FUTURE by Lee Edelman (coined the term) + "Mourning + Militancy" by the late Douglas Crimp (academia.edu/5756612/Mourni…) + DISIDENTIFICATIONS and CRUISING UTOPIA by the late Jose Muñoz.
.@TheodoreKerr1 "1 of the negative impacts of saying the un-nuanced statement " WE LOST AN ENTIRE GENERATION TO AIDS" is—it erases the lives that were lived, the ppl that did survive & who are living now. We need —a different way to talk abt. the devastation of AIDS then & now."
Update: Interesting write ups by @MikelleStreet on Ocean’s PrEP+ party in @outmagazine, which sounds like a basic “party”...out.com/nightlife/2019…
...also, @mynameisjro of @actupny went, and shared important observations
A final couple of thoughts on all this: Thx to everyone who tweeted, texted & talked about this w me this week. I’ve had the BEST, most thoughtful & critical convos about AIDS, culture & nightlife this week—with friends, my students, strangers & scholars & DJs & activists...
...these have been wonderful, edifying conversations. And I’m reminded of the power of this space. It’s amazing to be able to do the kind of critical pedagogy work bell hooks dreamed all of us could do decades ago in “Cultural Criticism & Transformation”
The Twitter+ @outmagazine + offline convos have been phenomenal. We’ve been able to teach each other about critical thought history & activism. None of this was a “dragging” or a “mob.” Rather, it was all of us thinking critically on what we were meant to eat without thinking...
...and saying to a each other, “Let’s not just accept what this marketing machine is telling the world about AIDS, nightlife & PrEP. Let’s think deeply about what was is really going on, and figure out what is really TRUE.”
Thanks for going on this journey with me. 🙏🏾
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Thanks for going on this journey with me. 🙏🏾
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Post script: Frank Ocean responds frankocean.tumblr.com/post/188432009…
Ocean denies any of this is for PR when there is literally branded PrEP merchandise & the whole thing was produced by his (grossly white supremacist sounding) branding company, “Blonded.” (I think again @kenyonfarrow of how Larry Levan fought exclusion)
Re Ocean’s statement: it doesn’t matter if Gillead paid or not. Gillead has bought into culture so effectively, the frame this queer artist used to imagine a world w/o AIDS is a drug, an exclusive party & merch—NOT a world w/o AIDS creating conditions (racism, poverty & war)
As in 1996, when @gregggonsalves noted the polyvalent ways pharma exerted influence upon gay politics, we are seeing how (as @MarieMyungOkLee noted) pharma culture has influenced “influencer culture” & the thinking of culture setters BEYOND direct sponsorships. Pharma Dividends!
