The Powers of the Quilt: Fostering HIV-AIDS Literacy In and Through the Arts
Abstract
There are “powers in the quilt". This presentation is intended to promote the value of discourse and practice in teaching and learning in and through the arts for HIV-AIDS literacy. Participants will view a model of a practice-led, arts-based literacy project to gain insight into the value of curriculum as aesthetic text for HIV-AIDS literacy initiatives.
Proposal Summary
Employing a practice-led, arts-based approach in which both HIV-AIDS service providers-educators and persons living with HIV-AIDS move through the process of articulating the what, when, where, how and why of HIV-AIDS together achieves greater clarity about the disease and how it is spread for both stakeholders. In this context, the “language” and “text” of the quilt can be employed to “tell the story” of HIV-AIDS in the rural Deep South (Witzling, 2009). This kind of approach to HIV-AIDS literacy benefits both stakeholders: 1) Providing a venue for expression of the narratives, “critical aesthetic text”, of the persons most impacted by the epidemic can be empowering for them both personally and practically; 2) It can contain vital information, otherwise not articulated in a purely clinical, non-arts based context, but, which could serve the invaluable purpose of articulating a counternarrative (Pleasant, 2013). In this context, where the Deep South is place and has contributed to the uniqueness of the character of the disease for this region, a counternarrative can assist in informing practitioners which subsequent directions they should pursue in their continued effort to halt the HIV-AIDS epidemic in this specific socio-geographic context. Therefore, using an arts-based methodology to adapt and modify HIV-AIDS literacy curriculum to function as HIV-AIDS literacy curriculum as aesthetic text “throws off the covers that hide the expressiveness of experienced things” (Dewey, 1934). It can allow for a deeper articulation of “the story” of HIV-AIDS in the rural Deep South. Concurrently, the “telling of this story” can, be the information needed to solve the puzzle of why, specifically, HIV-AIDS is spreading disproportionately in this region. de Lange, Mitchell, Moletsane, Stuart and Buthelezi (2006) used visual and arts-based methodologies to explore issues pertaining to HIV-AIDS in an effort to deconstruct experiences and understandings of the disease to encourage participants in the project to create a context of action and social change. Similarly, an arts-based project model such as the one proposed can potentially facilitate an active stance and changes in approach for both practitioners and persons with HIV-AIDS so that they may come closer to identifying and addressing the specifics of the heightened epidemic for this region.
Relevance And Significance
Prevention and Advocacy
Session Format
Workshop
Keywords
HIV-AIDS, literacy, teaching and learning in and through the arts, aesthetic text, quilt, critical aesthetic text
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Pleasant, Tahirih A., "The Powers of the Quilt: Fostering HIV-AIDS Literacy In and Through the Arts" (2015). 9th Annual Rural HIV Research and Training Conference (2014-2019). 1.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/ruralhiv/2015/2015/1
The Powers of the Quilt: Fostering HIV-AIDS Literacy In and Through the Arts
There are “powers in the quilt". This presentation is intended to promote the value of discourse and practice in teaching and learning in and through the arts for HIV-AIDS literacy. Participants will view a model of a practice-led, arts-based literacy project to gain insight into the value of curriculum as aesthetic text for HIV-AIDS literacy initiatives.