Shirlene Cooper + Lucas Michael
Recorded April 14, 2022 in Lucas Michael’s studio in Manhattan, this video features artist and activist Shirlene Cooper and artist Lucas Michael in conversation about a wide range of topics—from their HIV diagnoses and compounded pressures of living through both the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics, to their art practices and moments of shared joy. The pair’s optimism and mutual admiration is a powerful testament to the strength of long-term survivors.
Shirlene Cooper
Shirlene Cooper became a Visual AIDS Artist Member in 2013. She felt an instantaneous attraction to Visual AIDS’ annual LOVE POSITIVE WOMEN papermaking project, while collaborating with other self-identifying women working to build community, fight stigma, and demand affordable housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. She is the recipient of Visual AIDS’ Artist Materials Grant and used her grant to follow her dream and start the Women’s Empowerment Art Therapy Group. The Group is based on the three 'A's: AIDS ACTIVISM & ART, utilizing art as a tool for mental health and depression amongst her peers.
As a long-term survivor, Shirlene has lived with HIV/AIDS for 27 years. She started her career as a peer educator in hospitals and communities where HIV/AIDS is on the rise. She later became an outreach worker for a syringe exchange program to raise awareness of the importance of clean needle exchange in reducing and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS. Afterwards, Shirlene became a community organizer to advocate for more and better housing for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. She recruited and mobilized over 3,000 members at the New York City AIDS Housing Network. Through her advocacy, Shirlene persevered and became lead organizer, deputy director, then Co-executive Director and the first black woman in leadership at the New York City AIDS Housing Network.
Shirlene is the first African American Women living with HIV/AIDS to be called to duty on the New York City HIV/AIDS Service Administration Advisory Board. She has maintained her position for 20 years, served three terms under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, two terms under Mayor Bill DeBlasio and is currently serving Mayor Eric Adams. During her tenure, she launched campaigns such as "HASA FOR ALL" and "30% RENT CAP" that supports over 50,000 New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.
Shirlene’s outreach extends to local, regional, national and international communities around the world. She attended six International AIDS Conferences in Bangkok, Thailand; Mexico City, Mexico; Washington D.C., United States; Durban, South Africa; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Montreal, Canada. She was a member of Grassroots Global Justice and attended three World Social Forums representing Global AIDS in Caracas, Venezuela; Nairobi, Kenya; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. Shirlene has traveled to 46 of the United States and 32 countries in her life’s work to bring an end to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Shirlene has been featured on the front page of the New York Daily News, appeared in articles in the New York Times, and her story has landed on the cover of POZ Magazine. Shirlene has received many awards and recognition for her HIV/AIDS advocacy efforts, including The Peer Education Award (2003), POWER ACADEMY Award (2005), Merit Recipient of The Volvo for Life Awards (2006), Risk Takers Award (2007), Being The Difference Novel Biography (2008), The Willie Ortiz Award (2013), 2020 Leading Women Award (2017), Outstanding Service Award Human Resources HASA Advisory Board (2018).
Today Shirlene continues recruiting and leading women in the Women’s Empowerment Art Therapy Group in its sixth year.
You can view Shirlene’s artwork on the Visual AIDS Artist Registry here.
Lucas Michael
Born in Argentina in 1965, Lucas Michael moved to New York City in 1982, and received a B.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1988. From 2000-2010 he lived in Los Angeles, California—where in 2008 he co-founded Artist Curated Projects. While placing pressure on the integrity of the art object, through an interdisciplinary practice he seeks to explore, speculate, and question issues of identity, gender, sexuality, and the division/multiplicity of the self, and the relation between language and the written word as generative material for code and mark-making. His work has been exhibited and screened at The Hammer Museum and Getty Center in Los Angeles; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Bahia Blanca, Argentina; S.M.A.K. Museum, Gent, Belgium; Leslie Lohman Museum, Apexart and White Columns in New York City, among others.
You can view Lucas’ artwork on the Visual AIDS Artist Registry here.