A new podcast has been created to explore what it is really like to live with HIV in the 2020’s. The ArcHIVe Podcast is a collaboration between Turtle Key Arts and CHIVA and has been created by young people who are living with HIV. The podcast uses the mediums of music, poetry, and drama to explore the stigma and misinformation that comes with a HIV diagnosis. 

Although treatment for HIV and public understanding has come on leaps and bounds since the 1980s, it is still important that people are encouraged to not keep HIV a secret as by doing so, this can take its toll on emotional wellbeing and mental health. With Channel 4’s It’s A Sin showing how HIV was perceived during the 1980’s, it has again bought the topic to the forefront of conversation. The ArcHIVe Podcast will shine a light on what it is like to have HIV in the 2020’s and how different it is to how it was perceived in the 1980’s.

HIV can bring challenges and complexities to young peoples lives but with effective medication, these young people will not pass HIV on to sexual partners, their life expectancy is unlikely to be different to their peers and woman can birth babies who do not have HIV. The ArcHIVe Podcast will tackle all of these subjects in a way that enables young people to build a community and feel empowered. 

The vital stories that are presented in the podcast display the young people living with HIV as ambitious and powerful, they are striving to change the story of HIV and are positive about their lives and future. 

The Podcast is funded by CHIVA who received a grant from Co-op Foundation to deliver the project. The creative development work was done at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith with professional artists; Aga Serugo-Lugo (composer), Oliver Campbell Smith (project director), Ryan Matthews-Robinson (poetry facilitator), Nandita Ghose (audio producer) and Simon Le Vans (audio producer).

The Podcast is available to listen to here.