how to survive a plague (2016)
In how to survive a plague, dancers Orlando Zane Hunter, Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine of Brother(hood) Dance! express generations of Black life with HIV, honoring the ways that people, including themselves, thrive, survive and—at times—die with HIV. Throughout the performance, the names of people with the virus are evoked, and near the end, a soul train is formed. Members of the audience join the performers, glowing with sweat, onstage to dance. how to survive a plague provides ritual, education and celebration. Similar to Day With(out) Art, Hunter and Valentine’s performance is an example of how memorials can be less about a physical place and more about a process that reflects aspects of the crisis itself—which is to say, it is collaborative, involves risk and shared vulnerability, is replicable while also being disruptive, educational and able to change, thereby accumulating meaning, stories and history over time.
Click here to read an interview with Brother(hood) Dance!
