Opening Reception with reflections:

Thursday, January 26, 6:30­–8:30 PM

Exhibition Hours:

Thursday, January 26­ – Sunday, January 29, 2017, 1 PM–7 PM
 
For LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN 2017, artists, activists and HIV+ women will come together at Dieu Donné’s paper making studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to create hundreds of unique handmade paper valentines which will be mailed to women living with HIV around the world. Visual AIDS, the Fire Island Artist Residency, Dieu Donné and the International Community of Women Living With HIV (ICW) are hosting three papermaking valentine workshops on January 18 to show their love and support for women living with HIV internationally. The LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN Valentine Pop-up Exhibition at the Bureau of General Services Queer Division will display a selection of the valentines, and directly after the reception, these artworks will be mailed to women internationally and will arrive for Valentine’s Day.

Women living with HIV as well as invited artists—including Chitra Ganesh, Carrie Moyer, Marlene McCarty, Travis Boyer, Jesse Harrod, Jarrod Beck, Pamela Sneed, Natalie Frank, and many others—will make paper valentines for women living with HIV around the world. The valentines will be mailed with personalized messages as a gesture of love and support in the hopes of lessening the stigma experienced by women living with HIV.

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN is an ongoing project established by Visual AIDS artist member Jessica Whitbread in 2013. “Why not do something nice for the women most forgotten about?” says Whitbread. “Taking the time to do something for someone else is really beneficial to society as a whole. Don’t underestimate the value in something as simple as sending a valentine to a stranger.”

LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN (LPW) is an international series of grassroots events that uses Valentines Day as a backdrop, creating a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV. Working from a place of strength, LPW focuses on the idea of interconnectedness, relationship building, loving oneself and loving ones’ community.

Women living with HIV can sign up to receive a valentine by sending their name and mailing address to: lovepositivewomen@gmail.com