Project Updates
Celebrating Positively Spoken on #WorldAIDSDay
December 2023
The team planned and hosted a celebration event for the project as it came to a close at the end of 2023. After interviewing over 30 young people for their life stories, the Positively Spoken team brought together participants and celebrated their contributions to oral history. Rapper Awate, who co-produced a piece of music with young contributors, performed the music at the event, and artist Cai Burton displayed illustrations, bringing some of the sound clips to life. It was a brilliant celebration to mark the end of a successful project.
Positively Spoken presented at the BHIVA 2023 Spring conference
April 2023
In April 2023, Amanda Ely, Chiva CEO shared updates about the Positively Spoken project at the BHIVA (British HIV Association) conference in Gateshead, UK, alongside Dr Wendy Rickard, an Oral Historian at the British Library and one of the young people from the Positively spoken team.
The talk set out why it’s so important to include young people’s stories about HIV in oral history; to disrupt historical narratives about HIV and expose hidden voices. Powerful sound clips recorded during the project so far were also shared with the audience. Listen to clips here.
What is it like being an interviewer on Positively Spoken?
November 2022
What’s been happening in phase two of the project
July 2022
Phase two of Positively Spoken is officially in full swing, which means we have started recruiting people who have grown up living with HIV from across the UK and have begun interviewing them in multiple locations throughout the year…
Why it’s important to the team
“Positively Spoken will throw you into the depths of the person’s life whose story you’re hearing. Speaking your life into existence is so powerful.” Hear what else R from the Positively Spoken project team has to say.
Welcome to Positively Spoken
December 2021
Watch the short video below to learn about Positively Spoken and what the project aims to achieve.
Introduction from one of the project leads
September 2021
Since the late 1980s the British Library Sound Archive (BLSA) has collected oral histories of people living with and affected by HIV, but so far they have missed out the perspective and important stories of people who have grown up living with HIV…Until now!
