Washington Blade - May 26, 2006
Katherine Volin

"There haven't been too many options for us to be able to express ourselves in public about what we experience because of this whole down low craze," Wolfe, 31, says.

Wolfe decided to change the cultural paradigms by working with two other gay black artists, Tim'm West and Erik Chambers, to create Brave Soul Collective, an arts, education and outreach organization for black gay men with HIV/AIDS.

"One of the places that a lot of organizations have failed in addressing HIV is they often don't deal with the holistic person," spoken-word artist West, 33, says.

The organization, which is open to everyone regardless of race, gender or HIV-status, will use its website and public gatherings to hold discussions and artistic performances about the experience of being black, gay and HIV positive. Brave Soul Collective holds its first meeting during D.C.'s Black Pride celebration over Memorial Day weekend.

Although that meeting will be invite only, Wolfe says he plans to host a public gathering in June.

"The Brave Soul website is going to be a place that encourages interaction," West says. "[Visitors] can ask questions and not necessarily disclose who they are. There's currently no place where you can do that."

WOLFE SAYS ONE of the motivating factors for Brave Soul Collective was the absence of discussion on the subject.

"Nobody's really talking about African-American men with HIV/AIDS," Wolfe says.

West, who has been an AIDS activist for 15 years and was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1999, says he was tired of being an isolated voice in the face of high statistics of black gay men with HIV/AIDS. In June 2005, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released a study that showed 46 percent of black men who have sex with men in five major American cities tested HIV-positive.

"Because black gay men are seen as expendable, as men that don't necessarily contribute to their community, people allow those statistics to exist without being angry," West says. "I've been pretty angry that I've been one of a few speaking out about this thing."

Despite being HIV-positive for 13 years, Chambers, 30, was one of the silent voices until Wolfe disclosed his own HIV status.

"[The Brave Soul Collective] morphed into more of a movement and a goal for us to try to help people feel comfortable in sharing their own truths because for such a long time I didn't," Chambers, a writer, says. "It took a good friend of mine, Monte, finding out he was positive to do the same things for myself."

The hype of the down low phenomenon has overshadowed the plight of gay black men, West says.

"It was kind of interesting to me that our society would reward this romance of down low instead of applaud those who under not great circumstances choose to be out and vocal about a disease that's been stigmatized," West says. "At some point, maybe Oprah [Winfrey] will do a Brave Soul show instead of a down low [episode]."

HONESTY IS A core value of the Brave Soul Collective, Wolfe says.

"I think that because of the fact that I'm an artist there was a desire on my part to be free and be as completely honest about my experience as possible," Wolfe says.

Chambers has written part of an autobiography that stops when he reaches the age of 18. In it, he details coming out to his mother twice as a teenager: once as gay and then, four months later, as HIV-positive. It's the sort of artistic expression that someone might see at a Brave Soul Collective gathering, he says.

"It's pieces like that are going to help people in general with their own truth, if that's coming out as far as being gay or coming out as far as testing positive," Chambers says.

Ron Simmons, executive director of black gay AIDS organization Us Helping Us, says that, due to a grant, Us Helping Us at one point used theater as therapy.

"I do appreciate how you can use art in therapy, particularly the dramatic arts in therapy," Simmons says. "We used to do that a long time ago in a group setting."

Alan Sharpe, who is a black, gay, HIV-positive playwright and director of African-American Collective Theater, has worked with Wolfe several times in productions.

"Something that's providing a safe space, resources and a sharing of community is always going to be valuable to people in those positions," Sharpe says about Brave Soul Collective. "The dialogue needs to be maintained and there's just as much work to do as ever."

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