Our ACT UP Calendar Pin Ups joining us on the night are
Jonathan Blake who is an LGSM member and HIV activist who has lived with the virus for almost 42 years. He was born in Birmingham in 1949 and was working as an actor in 1982 when he first contracted the virus. In 1983 Jonathan met Nigel Young and together they joined LGSM. He designed the original LGSM badge and retrained as a tailor before medically retiring in 1996 and starting anti-ret retro-viral therapy in 1997. Jonathan volunteered at various HIV drop in centres. Globally outed as HIV positive at the end of the film ‘Pride’ Jonathan returned to acting and has featured in Patrick Cash’s ‘HIV Monologues’ (2017) and ‘Positive’ (2021) For some time Jonathan has been working with Simon Maddrell who is working to Produce a Poetic Memoir called ‘Jonathan Blake - Patient L1’
Silvia Petretti - is Positively UK’s CEO since 2019. She firstly joined Positively UK in 1999, when Positively UK was still known as Positively Women, as a volunteer in the organisation Community Development Team providing treatment information to women attending HIV clinics. Soon she became a staff member leading on support for women with drug and alcohol issues and providing outreach in Holloway prison. Silvia is the co-author of the SHE+ toolkit (Strong HIV Positive and Empowered), which aimed at supporting women with HIV in Europe to deliver women centred peer support. She is a member of the WHO advisory board on Women and HIV and has worked as part of a team to develop a global toolkit for women with HIV to access their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Silvia believes that a key tool in defeating HIV stigma is for people with HIV to be heard, visible and involved in decisions that affect them. She has been living with HIV 27 years and lives in Brixton with her 4 cats.
Ian Johns was born in London on December 14th 1956 and has sold vintage clothing for the last 35 years with his husband. They have a shop at the top of the world famous Brick Lane in London’s East End called Hunky Dory Vintage. Ian was a volunteer and director of LGBT Switchboard during the 1990’s and has been a volunteer with The Food Chain. Ian is an activist with ACT-UP London and on the organising team for the George Michael ‘This is my culture’ event. He has been involved in the fight against HIV and HIV Stigma since the 1980’s.
Miqhael Kannemeyer- (ACT UP London, Radical Faeries) - a nonbinary South African born healer of mixed heritage who, because of apartheid, was sent to the UK in their childhood. A community builder, gay rights and ecological activist since the 1970s, and a founding member of the Helios Centre charity in London, Miqx has been a queer activist since Gay Liberation Front in 70’s East London, was on London Pride committee in 1980, and later that same year also became involved with Radical Faeries in the USA. More recently, Miqx co-founded the Queer Spirit Festival (queerspirit.net), became a trustee of the Islington Mill Foundation in Salford and is now president of the Radical Faeries of Europe, a Vereniging /Association based in the Netherlands (eurofaeries.eu).
Patrick Braithwaite - is an aspiring barrister, activist and ACT UP campaigner with a special interest in mental health and addiction within marginalised communities. Patrick helped organise the first Queer Spirit festival and subsequently became a member of the Radical Faeries. Patrick is a founding member of FAENA, a sub group within the faeries dedicated to addiction.