67 extraordinary individuals came together during this intense and complex week for two afternoons to fire up a national HIV and employment advocacy movement, in the first-ever National Convening on HIV & Employment, a project of the National Working Positive Coalition, co-sponsored by the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus, and the Pennsylvania State University, made possible through the generous support of ViiV Healthcare.

 

One clear message that emerged from the Convening, within a context of ongoing injustice and the COVID-19 pandemic, is that we are committed to collectively build critically needed responses to the employment needs of people living with or placed at greater vulnerability to HIV.

 

Below, and attached (listing contributing authors), is the collective poem inspired by the Minds and Hearts articulated by the powerhouse group of participants in this week's National Convening on HIV & Employment. TODAY WE ARE was created by the amazing poet/artivist Jackie Loweree, from the responses in Zoom chat to the culminating call for expression of heart and mind reflections from facilitator extraordinaire Julie Simpson.

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Today We Are

 

Today we are unleashed and intentional because it is 

hard not to feel weary, motivated by fury that 

no man should beg for pay. 

Value should lie in the life you live, capital in the love you give. 

Unto all we wish gain, and not the servitude of pain; 

It’s time to take our space and make ourselves VISIBLE!

 

Today we are inspired by our power to change create. 

The well of wisdom in the community is bottomless. 

Gratitude for the wisdom, 

gratitude for these moments, 

for when they come again,

new challenges will have befallen us 

but we will know, because we are wise, 

that all intractable problems can be cracked.

 

Today we are aiming to go far, together, 

relishing in our inclusivity, equality, our diversity, 

breathing the collective impact from our shared love, 

because brilliance has no one face, as such 

we are moving together, talking together, uplifting together.

 

We all need each other. 

 

Today we are inspired by what already exists 

Hope prevails! 

Because there is hope when people care. 

And these are our people, 

and as long as we show up, we are never truly alone. 

The brilliance is in our people; 

it always has been; it always will be. 

 

Today we are doing, not trying. 

Community. Connection. Love.

As we conceive them, we will achieve them. 

And when we get there, 

we will have these people to thank. 

So, let everyone at the table rejoice 

chanting: love and liberation to all of us!