The two-woman play In the Continuum, running at New York City’s Primary Stages from November 18, 2005 to February 11, 2006, maps with power, humor and precision the parallel experiences of African and African-American women with HIV. Here, one woman reacts to her diagnosis.

“Its better to be alone—love between a man and a woman seems to end in death around here…. People say you can’t do anything without a husband in Zimbabwe—but I will try anyway. At least like this, I can say I know who I am, where I am going—I know what I am working for. I am moving forward, forward, forward, not like this or like that but forward. Maybe I stand alone, but I know who I am—Mary Chigwada—not Mrs. So-and-So What-What in laws, bride price, going to his village to cook at funerals—just me Mary Chigwada.”