Overview
Photographs From Plague In The Shadows is a new collection of portraits of people who were at the center of the early years of the AIDS epidemic in New York City. They include Valerie Reyes-Jimenez, an HIV-positive woman, activist, and city organizer; Maxine Frere, a retired nurse who spent the entirety of her 40-year career at Harlem Hospital and was the head nurse of the pediatric AIDS unit; Governor David Paterson, and Terry McGovern, lawyer, and Senior Associate Dean at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, and founder of the HIV Law Project. Their stories, and Kia’s, can be heard on WNYC studios and the HISTORY CHANNEL’s podcast Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows.
No tickets required, exhibition open during programs at The Greene Space or by appointment.
Leadership support for The Greene Space’s Artist in Residence program is provided by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. Additional support is provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Kia LaBeija’s residency is also supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Kia LaBeija
Credit: Photo by Valerie Reyes-Jimenez
Kia Michelle Benbow, known professionally as Kia LaBeija, is an image maker and storyteller born and raised in the heart of New York City, Hell’s Kitchen. She composes theatrical autobiographical works ranging from photography, live performance, text based mediums, and film. She’s presented work at The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Tate Modern, The Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Museum of The City of New York, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The International Center for Photography The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, and the Performa ’19 Biennial.
Heavily involved in New York’s Iconic House and Ballroom scene for over a decade, Kia was a member of the Royal House of LaBeija from 2012 to 2019, serving as the Overall Mother from 2017 to 2019. She received a BA from the New School University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Fine Arts. She is a 2019 Creative Capital Awardee alongside her partner Taína Larot.
Event Details
Free and open to the public
2 hours
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