Rarely does an organization devoted to people living with HIV encourage the use of fiction to help transform their lives. That’s part of the beauty of THRIVE SS located in Atlanta. THRIVE dedicates itself in service primarily to Black same-gender-loving men, as well as Black women living with HIV. The group hosts a speaker’s guild for people “who wish to better tell their stories through written speeches, poetry or any other form of spoken communication,” says Larry Scott-Walker, THRIVE’s co-founder and himself an author and poet. Hence, he knows whereof he speaks about the transformative power of fiction. In December, the group presented a dramatic reading of a play by THRIVE member Tony Price, The Tables Are Talking, his take on a Black family’s homecoming for Thanksgiving and coming to terms with sexuality (watch it on the agency’s YouTube channel). THRIVE members are talking, and writing and sharing. Three of their poets are presented here. THRIVE’s name itself is poetic: Transforming HIV Resentments into Victory Everlasting. —Enid Vázquez
Michael Morris was born in Bakersfield, a city just outside the Mojave Desert in the southern California Valley, and relocated to Atlanta in 2005. Shortly after relocating, he served for a term with the AmeriCorps program Hands-On-Atlanta. He taught computer education to elementary school children in a Title I school for Atlanta Public Schools. The involvement there gave him insight into the realities of intersectionality and the impacts of the social determinants of health on everyday lives.
Timeless Tate (she/her/hers) was born in Montgomery, Alabama, home of the Civil Rights Movement. The historic city taught her the true meaning of fighting for Black liberation, voting rights and honoring our ancestors who paved the way. In 2014, she co-founded AMPLIFIED, the first Black LGBTQ student organization at Alabama State University. In 2015, along with Meta Ellis, she founded the first LGBTQ community center in central Alabama, the Bayard Rustin Community Center. She graduated the following year with a bachelor’s in communications. During her college years and since then, she has worked for nonprofit organizations that support transgender communities, including Planned Parenthood, ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, URGE in Washington, D.C. and Open Health Clinic.
Larry Scott-Walker, a Baltimore native, is an author, poet and proud Black gay man living with HIV. Shortly after coming to grips with his sexuality, Larry was introduced to the works of James Baldwin, Marlon Riggs and Essex Hemphill. He fell in love with their passion, persistence and use of language to call attention to the injustices faced by Black people. Larry’s passion for community would land him working at various community-based and AIDS service organizations before co-founding Transforming HIV Resentments into Victories Everlasting Support Services (THRIVE SS) in 2015. THRIVE has cultivated the largest support network for Black gay men living with HIV in the U.S. and has made tremendous strides in redefining what support, linkage to care and HIV stigma reduction looks like for this vulnerable community. Larry often says that “there is no pill to rebuild will,” meaning that no biomedical intervention can reverse the damage done by stigma and hate, and it is the community’s responsibility to love, heal and fortify itself.