Memories of a Supernatural AIDS Crisis
Dossier
A hundred years from now, Detroit has been transformed by strange biomedical dust and stands as Earth’s last refuge. This queer sci-fi drama follows a Black trans cybernetic heroine and an ancient vampire as they fall in love and inhabit memories from AIDS history.
In a journey through surreal landscapes and unstable timelines that are animated by Detroit’s post industrial landscape and house music scene, the play interrogates the city’s unique struggle with AIDS. The question, “What would happen if HIV conferred supernatural powers?” drives a kaleidoscopic narrative that interrogates the possibility of utopia as characters transform themselves with the mystical Balm of Gilead.
Memories of a Supernatural AIDS Crisis began during a series of performance workshops that Arthur developed and led with people living with HIV at AIDS service organizations in Detroit. The performance tackles core HIV/AIDS challenges including stigma, unequal access to care, and enduring racial inequalities across the pandemic.
DEVELOPMENT & PERFORMANCE HISTORY
Fall 2021 – Winter 2022
Performance and research workshops with people living with HIV at Unified Detroit, supported by a Social Justice Pilot Grant from the University of Michigan.
Fall 2023 – Winter 2024
Writing and Development workshops supported by Creative/Research grant from Wayne State University.
June 2024
Memories of a Supernatural AIDS Crisis presented by the Mighty Real / Queer Detroit biennial at the Hilberry Gateway Theatre in Detroit.
February 15th 2025
Presentation and performance at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the A Dream You Dream Together: A Symposium Celebrating Yoko Ono.
2025 – 2026
Currently seeking presenting partners.
PHOTOS
PRESS
“Memories of a Supernatural AIDS Crisis is both ritual and club, exorcism and lyric love story, horror and dance. The three performers carried a heavy and deeply poetic script, full of nuance and reversals, and moved through a celestial rite of renewal.”
–Review by Petra Kuppers, Anita Gonzalez Collegiate Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture, University of Michigan (November, 21st 2024)
“Memories of a Supernatural AIDS Crisis combined performance art, experimental theater, academic scholarship, and dance (modern, club, and Ballroom). The performance and setting were in Detroit, featuring an exceptional local cast.”
–A Future What? Detroit Based Queer Sci-Fi Drama Makes History, Sixty Inches from Center (August, 28th 2024)
“This performance is an effort to connect with that past and to meditate on a speculative future in which the systemic conditions of AIDS are reimagined, transformed and brought into a space of joy.”
-Interview with Marc Arthur in Pride Source (May, 24th 2024)
The press release for the June 2024 production can be viewed here.
CAST
Pink Flowers (she/her) is a Black trans artist, pleasure activist and educator, whose work is rooted in ancient shamanic, African trickster, and Brazilian Joker traditions. Her theater credits include Wrong Mountain on Broadway, the national tour of Angels in America for which she won the Los Angeles Ovation award for “Best Featured Actor in a Play”, and numerous NYC and regional theater credits. She has been a faculty member at Montclair State University, Pace University, and a company member of Shakespeare in Detroit.
Yolanda Jack (she/her) is Manager of Community Engagement at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and a long-time theatre veteran. A Detroit native, Yolanda attended Cass Technical High School and studied Acting and Theatre Administration at Howard University before beginning her career at Crossroads Theatre Company on the East coast. With a call to come home, Yolanda returned to Detroit to inspire a new generation of theatre practitioners as the Technical and Touring Coordinator for Mosaic Youth Theatre and begin a family. She would go on to do that, graduate from Wayne State University with a B.A. in Acting and establish One World Theatre Company with her husband, Phillip Jack.
Marc Arthur (he/him) is an artist, scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University. He creates performances that stage community and political encounters through theatrical, choreographic, and theoretical approaches. He earned his PhD from NYU in performance studies, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan, and his work has been presented internationally, including at venues in New York, San Francisco, Brussels, and Berlin.
SCRIPT
A copy of the script can be read here. Please note it is still in development.
PROGRAM
The program for the June 2024 production can be viewed here.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
A selection of highlighted clips from the June 2024 Might Real Queer Detroit biennial performance can be found below.
12 min clip–from the beginning of the performance
5min clip–The Balm of Gilead
30min clip–from middle of performance to the end
The last 30 minutes of the production provides the best sense of the piece. Here’s a synopsis of the first half of the performance that is not included in the video link:
The play opens when Pandrion’s memory is being erased during the The Forgetting, a ritual in which abandoned hospitals, now seized by powerful DJs, become antiviral raves. Viruses, bacteria, and pathogens are eradicated from human bodies with quantum fluctuating beats. This ritual is followed by the Narrator introducing the characters and describing the supernatural world of Detroit 100 years in the future: “The atmosphere is neon orange. Globular clusters of biopharmaceutical waste pulse distantly in the sky.” Xylophlactis seduces Pandrion, tries to bite them, and shares traumatic memories of the AIDS pandemic with them. During this intense exchange, Pandrion undergoes biomedical and gendered transformations, aided by the magical balm of Gilead. Xylophylactis recounts their own story of contracting HIV in Detroit and their enduring dream of becoming a choreographer, which introduces the ballet barre into the sceneography.
PRE-SHOW TALK
Documentation from the pre-show talk can be accessed here. It featured Anwar Uhuru, Assistant Professor of African American studies at Wayne State University, Laurence Wilson, Chairman of The Southeast Michigan HIV/AIDS Council (SEMHAC) and a member of the SERO Project Justice Institute, focusing on HIV decriminalization, and writer and director Marc Arthur. The event was sponsored by WSU’s Center for Gender and Sexuality (CGS).