How AIDS activists used art to fight a pandemic
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Greg Ellis
“Like everything to do with AIDS, I didn’t set out to become any of the things that would eventually define my life,” says Greg Ellis, archivist, curator and creator of Ward 5B, which takes its name from the first AIDS ward in the world, established at San Francisco General Hospital in 1983.
Growing up in the notorious Tenderloin neighbourhood of San Francisco, Ellis saw the effects of heroin on family and friends — as well as the early cases of AIDS spreading among intravenous drug users (IVDUs).
In 1986, Ellis and a friend moved into an old Salvation Army building in SoMA, a San Francisco neighbourhood long known for its history of radical queer sex clubs and working-class community.
“Our loft space quickly became a central meeting place for the cabaret performers, artists and musicians that would come to represent the AIDS activist community, and served as a de facto shooting gallery for our friends who were IVDUs,” Ellis says. “It was also the set for numerous straight and gay porn films.”
After suspecting contaminated syringes were causing seroconversions, Ellis met with a local pornographer that supplied cases of fresh syringes at a time when it was illegal to obtain new needles without a doctor’s prescription in California. From this stroke of genius, the Needle Exchange Program was born.
“We began giving out free harm reduction kits consisting of cotton, one oz. bottles of bleach, syringes and condoms,” Ellis remembers. “They were humble beginnings, but would eventually branch out onto the streets and our efforts eventually were recognised San Francisco Mayors Art Agnos and Frank Jordan.”
“Our entire way of living in the world was predicated upon the assumption that we were on our own, that the government didn’t give a shit about us. We were right, as it turns out.”
Embracing the DIY ethos of punk, these early AIDS activists set out to use art as an integral tool to build, educate, and support the community during the early stages of the pandemic that would eventually claim 30 million lives worldwide.
“Art helped many of us transcend the trauma and disassociation that set in during the plague years,” Ellis says. “It offered psychological sustenance, provided emotional context and informed our relationship with death. Art gave us a sense of the sacred.”
“We erected memorial shrines in our homes, made xerox fliers, and spent the night out on the streets wheat-pasting. We built sets for campy theatrical productions and had local bands writing the music for the soundtrack to our disaffected plight. We had our own galleries, clubs, music, erotic photography, zines, journalism, virus friendly pornography, and artists documenting our lives.”
“We knew we were living through historical times. None of us thought we’d make it out alive. Our outrage at the society that had turned their backs on us, added to the creative flow and ability to live freely. It’s easy to tell the world to go fuck itself when you’re dying.”
Learn more about Greg Ellis and Ward 5B on Instagram.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
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