Center for Sex and Culture

 

Metropolitan Community Church, 150 Eureka near 18th

 

 

The Biggest Quake brings together eight San Francisco artists with varied backgrounds in writing, performance art, music, public health, science and AIDS activism. Topics will include barebacking, pre-exposure HIV medications, crystal meth, the missing generations of trans women, being newly infected, helping people commit suicide and ACT UP. A rich brew. WE PROMISE there will be no cliches about being HIV positive and thriving and no one will tell you that men who bareback have low self esteem. In preparation for these three evenings, the eight artists created brand new essays and performance works in collaboration with one another. The location, Metropolitan Community Church, was ground zero for hundreds of memorial services during the peak of the AIDS years. The work promises to be funny, touching, harrowing, historical and controversial. The artists spent hours having conversations as a group and individually, deepening their understanding of the AIDS epidemic. The variety of voices here creates a dialogue that goes across generational, gender, and experiential lines. The purpose of this project is to generate new stories and thinking about AIDS and to spark a resurgence of artists making work about the epidemic, in terms of history, where we are now, and the future imaginary.