FDA/AIDS: Britt Gambino

"Vestment (front detail)," 1993, Valerie Caris

Visual AIDS has asked community members to share their thoughts on the recent FDA decisions, recommending the approval of Truvada as a form of PrEP, and the sale of Oraquick’s rapid, over the counter, take-home HIV tests.  Through these blog posts, we hope to encourage conversation around these current events, and inspire artists, writers, and others to consider what is going on right now in terms of HIV/AIDS.  For more information, below are links.


Britt Gambino:

Surely Quickly Oral: A Breath

The couch and not the chair.

Your hand and no one else’s.

Waiting for the clock

instead of the call.

Swab of saliva

but a prick

of blood is what

we need

since this all comes

down to cells.

Injury—self-inflicted

or otherwise—isn’t up

for debate.

Minutes do not give back.

Pacing with plastic results

forming. Downhill

sweat.

No other direction. No other.

Hand tick makes
the difference

between

the addition of another

body inside

(or not).

Void of the killer.

The silence

you asked for,

granted.

"Vestment (back detail)," 1993, Valerie Caris

I Will Not Cut for Stone

Uncertainty of chemistry
can never be sexy.

Drugs held in captivity

like the muscles of the men
we used to know. We should
slide condoms in their pockets

instead of dollar bills. Instead

of pills, give them something—

someone—they can hold. Darling,

throw the cocktail in his face,

fight for the Fra Diavolo. If only

living through HIV was no more

disappointing than a cheap wine
& dine, we could just leave

the table hungry. Prepping

for another disease we’ll solve

with very gradual change

we can believe in. We have

all the time mutation takes,

all the time to make

another mistake. 

"Vestment," 1993, Valerie Caris

Britt Gambino recently received her MFA in Poetry from The New School. Part of her creative thesis focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including a series of erasures based on Michael Cullen and Richard Berkowitz's "How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach." Britt lives in Washington Heights next to a mysterious trumpet player.

All images are from the Frank Moore Archive Project.

If you have any questions, comments, or would like to share your own reactions please email us at info@visualaids.org 

Read other posts in the series:

Charles Ryan Long 

Mark “middle” Hubbard 

Cyd Nova 

Cassidy Gardner

More information:

FDA and HIV/AIDS   

Truvada as HIV Prevention:

FDA Panel Recommends Approval Of Truvada As HIV Prevention Tool
AIDS Activists Divided Over Whether Drug Will Help or Harm Epidemic 

Take Home HIV Tests

First at-Home HIV Test Nears Approval
Federal Panel Backs Easier Home Test for H.I.V.