Jelousy, Miss Gay San Francisco 1994, wins my sweepstakes for the best interview I've conducted in multimedia? Why? Not only because she's sweet, funny, articulate and compassionate. Others in the business have a little of that. Not only because she understands and participates in The Brothers Project interactive kiosk.
Many people worked on this project. Rather it's because her time is devoted to helping her peers and sharing hope and encouragement with the people who walk through the door of the Brothers Network.One evening after work I walk the six long blocks up O'Farrell from Market Street, looking for #625. The neighborhood changes dramatically the further you walk in that direction. Number 625 is an ordinary storefront with some plants, some sofas, a desk, a computer, some literature on a table. Three black men are sitting there. They greet me but don't say too much. I say I'm there to meet Steve Feeback. One young man calls him in an adjacent building but he's not there. I say I'm also there to look at the video of the Brothers Project. A tall narrow kiosk stands in the corner of the room. They turn it on and I have to stand up to look at it. In front of these three strangers I am watching three male characters and a woman discussing safe sex, going home with new partners, rapping, singing.
Suddenly I am this white woman of a certain age in a room with three strangers watching a black guy put a condom on a false rubber penis with his teeth, as an example of how to make safe sex more fun. Well folks, at that moment I felt like all my life experiences came to the fore (never mind what they were). I turned around, much to everyone's amusement, and started talking to these three guys.
One man, somewhere around thirty, was named John. He laughed and smiled whenever I spoke to him, but he wouldn't talk. John is a volunteer at the Brothers Project which serves gay and transgender African American men in the battle against AIDS.
"We give information on sex and relationships, methods and ways to maintain safer sex, and outreach. We work in bars where we put HIV information on a table with condoms and lubricants and we work in homeless shelters and residential facilities."
At this point I ask his name. "Jelousy," he replies. "I'm in the video." I hope a light bulb doesn't' go off over my head as the similarities of the man in front of me and the woman on the screen hit me. Jelousy on the video has a huge mane of curly brownish hair, gorgeous white teeth, full red lips and the best eye make up I've seen. She wears sexy clothes and she talks to you in a seductive voice. Well the teeth are the same, the figure is similar, but Jelousy has her hair back in a pony tail and plain black pants and shoes and sweater. She looks like many young men in San Francisco who have interesting jobs and will never see a corporate straight jacket.
About this time the third man in the room begins to speak. He is thin, handsome, probably middle-aged. From his appearance he could be a laborer or perhaps someone a little down and out. My already blasted stereotypes blow out the door when this man speaks. His speech is clear, articulate, expository, compassionate, humorous. His diction and vocabulary are so sophisticated that he could be addressing any audience in the world and I feel honored that he is giving me his full attention. This is Reggie Pulliam, a full time employee of the Brothers Network. Later, when he gives me his card, he says this was the first time he had a business card. It is hard to imagine that with his speaking ability he hadn't been a success all his life.
Reggie tells me that Jelousy really cares about people. "Tell her the story about the guy down the street."
With great modesty they tell me about a woman apartment manager on O'Farrell Street who called them to say there was a man in his apartment who hadn't been out for a long time, who was very sick, who hadn't paid the rent for several months. She didn't know how to take care of him. Jelousy went to see the man. He was too ill to leave the house, suffered from weight loss and fatigue. Jelousy went to the various assistance agencies in person (no point in using the phone), obtained and completed all the paperwork for this man, set up a money management program for him, made a million phone calls and generally ran around until the man got some structure and direction back in his life.
Jelousy told me a lot of this but Reggie kept prompting him and adding some more things he had done. By this time it is clear that these two men are committed to helping people with what they need, not with some agency guidelines and not just behind a desk. Reggie says "In the regular agencies there are not enough people to go out and see clients. You can't even find a case manager anymore. This man needed someone to do the legwork. No one had been coming in to check on him. He needed someone to come in and take over. "We train people to be volunteers here," Reggie continues. "We give practical and emotional support to people and we befriend them."
Jelousy grew up in Baltimore in an abusive atmosphere. She was already a female impersonator there and one day she up and left and arrived in San Francisco. She was homeless, penniless, lived on GA (general assistance). She managed to get into a therapy program at the Center for Special Problems where she "got answers to what was going on. She learned that she was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. Jeloousy went through a lot of counseling and learned a lot about what had happened to her. Now Jelousy has the title of Miss Gay San Francisco. "I'm doing what I want to do. I tour other cities as Miss Gay San Francisco and perform in clubs. I've been doing lip sync and I'm ready to try singing."
Reggie Pulliam was born in Richmond, Virginia, but he has no southern accent. In the past he's been in the army, fallen in love, been with crazies, attended UCLA, done drugs, been in alcohol treatment programs. "But if I hadn't done those things then, I wouldn't be here now. I'm HIV positive; this is a growing evolutionary process for me from a wild uncensored person to someone with a narrow frame. Now I'm aware of my own needs and desires instead of throwing caution aside and acting crazy. I have a sense of person.
"AIDS doesn't frighten me. In the beginning it did. I moved to San Francisco for the third time in 1991 and spent a year feeling sorry for myself and watching TV. I was angry and arguing with everyone. Then in August 92 I came to the Brothers Network out of desperation. They gave me lots of support and I volunteered for small jobs and now I'm doing counseling. I would have been another HIV statistic. But now I have a different attitude. You have HIV, let it be there and go on with your life. I look at HIV as an opportunity to do things you wouldn't have done otherwise and be in places you wouldn't have been. And in that way I give a lot of help to other people. I try to communicate to them that they can learn from their situation, they can live in the present, they can go on and their life can be very rich in experience even with this illness. "But other days I'm crazy and rant why me why me. I'm human. When I have a bad day people walk in and see everyone hugging me and they say, "Reggie's having a bad day today; Reggie's dealing with his HIV today.
"When I was first diagnosed I was on AZT for along time and then I read that it should only be used for 16 weeks. I showed this article to my doctor at UCSF; she didn't know and so I went off it. Now I get acupuncture and use Chinese herbs, but I'm also suffering from emphysema and we take care a lot to prevent PCP. I'm often not comfortable.
"This is the hugggiest, loveliest place I have ever been. I really feel at home."
Reggie also explains some other aspects of the Brothers Network. "People need a place to hang out. It takes a while from when you realize you have AIDS until you find a place where you're comfortable. Here you come in and be whoever you are. We try not to judge anybody. We work hard at doing this.
"It's special to me because I came in as a client. I was raised as a Southern Baptist and I had judgments to make about everything we see here.
"I appreciate the degree to which I was allowed to grow. Here's a place in San Francisco to have it your way instead of having to dance to someone else's music like you have to do at so many shelters.
Reggie and Jelousy explain how the kiosk works when clients or would-be clients come through the door. "We encourage them to watch the video; they can stand there and push buttons on the touch screen. Just doing that causes them to calm down and it diffuses a lot of their anxiety. Also with the rapping and everything it's entertaining. Even if they don't follow the instructions, they get some information and the seed is planted. Eventually they'll be back for more. When they're just standing there, they don't have to give up anything to get involved."
Jelousy sees the kiosk as one step that just makes the long process of helping and healing easier. People come in the door and it helps.
The kiosk project was a collaboration between the Interact Program of BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition) and the Brothers Network which is part of the National Task Force on Aids Prevention. The kiosk on O'Farrell street is a prototype which will lead to funding for many copies to be put at sites around the city. This prototype has been in bars, in homeless shelters, and in residential programs - all of which are sites for outreach and counseling by the Brothers Network. Although we usually name the producers of an unusual project, so many people worked hard to make this happen that we suggest you try and see it and read the credits (about sixty people) at the end.
The actual program has four main characters who embody different aids issues and behaviors. When you touch one of the characters, a video dialogue ensues addressing questions of safe sex, responsible practices, AIDS information. Characters say "Why don't we go to my place," and then various possibilites for safe or unsafe sex are raised. The Diva comes on when you decide to engage in unsafe practices and gives you practical information.
From a multimedia point of view, the program is not revolutionary: there are touch screens with just a few choices; there are video sequences; dissolves move you from one segment to another; there are sections of text with information about where to go for help, etc. The piece is attractive and well-executed. What is interesting is the street rapping with Kevin Brooks, the real life characters, the absence of white people and authority figures, and the directness of the treatment of the subject matter.
Special thanks to Jelousy Jigget and Reggie Pulliam for their time and kindness, not to mention all those hugs.
©1995. Sherry Miller is the trail boss at SherryArt.com. Selected as both internet hot spot and cool spot of the day, it has also recently acquired those funny little yellow glasses next to the url on Yahoo.