Xpress Yourself Group, pub by Omnigen, £5 ppbk, ISBN 1-904164-07-2.
Order through your bookshop.
This anthology of 46 works of prose and poetry is comprised of “unbridled
expressions of occurrences, experiences, emotions, observations, impressions
and fantasies,” hails the book’s cover.
Written by a group of HIV positive men and women who attended a writing course held by Brighton’s Open Door organisation, many of their revelations, however, do little to dispel the negativity attached to Aids and HIV infection.
The stories and poems are frequently depressed or downhearted - often describing the horrific side effects of antiretrovirals, the misery and the anxiety.
“You could have loved me, you could have lived. But with your throat cut, I watch you bleed, A love not started, The dying seed. Goodbye my love, I wish you well, As the maggots eat you, As you burn in hell”
Nevertheless, some of the other excerpts stand out like shining lights, among a particularly black collection.
The pieces by Mike Nelson are generally the least melancholic, and the most positive in their outlook. In one poem (‘Definition of life and love’), he says:
“Love will hail us as two conquered heroes standing proud
Together on the internal battlefield
Our colours flying high
The spark of love and life
Still burning bright in our eyes.”
 Nick Boston (l) and Andrew Hanuman (r) from Brighton's Open Door HIV support group celebrate the launch of T Cell Chronicles with Omnigen's Paul Sanford. |
The writings clearly demonstrate the therapeutic effects of writing - and undoubtedly helped the individuals to release plenty of pent-up anger and frustration over their diagnosis. Eliza’s piece. for example, on living with TB and HIV in The Devil’s Alliance is an eye-opener. Other contributions like Andrew Hanuman’s short piece, The Leather Bar, will certainly strike a chord with the club scene boyz.
Although it has to be said it makes for grisly reading at times, T-Cell Chronicles does provide a fascinating insight into the minds and thought processes of positive people. And it clearly highlights the need to broadcast a message of positivity to the masses of depressed individuals dealing with life and HIV. Laurence Gibson
£19.95 hdbk, Published by Chris Boot with Autograph; ISBN 0-9542813-2-2, 146 photos mainly colour
Sunil’s recent exhibition, Pictures from Here, is being published in
book form and there will be a London talk and book signing on Tuesday 30 September
at Gays the Word bookshop. The collection includes 20 years of Gupta’s
photographs, with his own story from the perspective of a gay, HIV positive
Indian artist in ‘exile’ in North America and Europe.
The book is published in association with Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers.
Available from Gays the Word, art bookshops and Waterstones.
John Morgan Wilson. Available from Amazon, £3.95 ppbk, £12.50 hdbk, published by Doubleday Books.
If murder mysteries are your thing, try out this HIV positive detective novel,
which the author described as a ‘milestone in publishing’. The
book is American author, John Morgan Wilson’s, fourth in the Benjamin
Justice series. This addition continues Wilson’s exploration of the dark
depravity that hides from the glaring Californian sun as Benjamin Justice tries
to come to terms with his HIV status while solving new murder crimes. Wilson
previously won the Lambda Literary Award for the best gay-themed mystery of
1999.
By Helena Christensen (left). Commissioned by ELLE magazine and Levi’s®501®Jeans.
Proud Central Gallery, 5 Buckingham Street, The Strand, London WC2. Until
4 October.
 Pictures by Helena Christensen for ELLE Magazine’s 18th birthday issue. On show at London’s Proud Gallery. All auction proceeds to THT. |
Helena Christensen’s first solo exhibition of People & Portraits takes place at The Strand’s Proud Gallery and features celebrities wearing Levi’s 501s photographed by the former supermodel to celebrate ELLE’s 18th birthday. REM’s Michael Stipe gives us a full-frontal pose, naked to the groin except for a casually open jean jacket, Robbie Williams looks ‘hard’, and Marianne Faithfull as ever is a diva.
Proceeds from the auction sales of the ELLE/Levi’s portraits go the
Terrence Higgins Trust. The exhibition was commissioned by ELLE and Levi’s
501 Jeans. The portraits feature in this month’s ELLE to mark their
anniversary and Levi’s 150th year.
Christensen launched her modelling career with a photo shoot for ELLE, starred in MTV’s Sexiest Video of All-Time with Chris Isaac (remember Wicked Game?), and now pursues photography which she’s done since her youth. Also at the exhibition are photographs from her own private collection; these include many intimate gems.
To bid for the ELLE/Levi’s portraits, visit: www.tht.org.uk and click on Fundraising for Us link which gives the exhibition auction details.
From Serpent’s Tail: Marks of Identity, Serpent’s Tail, £7.99,
ISBNs 1 85242 767 1, State of Siege £8.99, 1 85242 839 2. From Verso:
Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife, £15, 1-95094-555-X
Two new paperback editions are available in translation of Goytisolo’s acclaimed novels. Marks of Identity stands out as Goytisolo’s revealing comment on exile (part autobiography, part fiction), shocking even now as it was when first published 40 years ago. State of Siege, the author’s newest novel, follows a labyrinth of metaphysical investigations through the siege of Sarajevo and is also available as a paperback original. In Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife, now also in paperback, you can follow his emotive snapshots and memoirs through childhood, war, dictatorship and homosexual discovery. This two-volume autobiography has been hailed: ‘a striking portrayal of politics and sexuality in twentieth-century France and Spain.’ “Goytisolo writes like no one else, except maybe Genet,” raves critic Neil Bartlett.
