Administrative/Biographical History

Women with HIV and their allies started the Catwalk4Power project, toward the end of 2017, with a vision to create actions that would address the silence around women and HIV.

Leading the project, women with HIV used and developed established safe spaces and peer support to enable creative participation. In these spaces, women with HIV were invited and empowered to write, share, and perform their personal and political stories, beauty, and creativity.

Catwalk4Power events create a space where women with HIV can embody and physically manifest how to be in the world without stigma. As women strut along a catwalk runaway, in costumes of their creation, they can feel for a moment what it is like to walk in the world openly. This is the act of taking space, which has had a transformative effect on many of the Catwalk4Power women, increasing their self-confidence and self-belief.

Throughout 2019, the project connected women with HIV in London, Brighton, and Manchester, funded by the Public Health England Innovation Fund. Across the UK, and internationally (Amsterdam, 2018), participation numbers and leadership roles have steadily increased, to facilitate crafting workshops, online "women’s rooms", panel events, public performances at conferences and festivals, and market stall management as craft producers and sellers.

This award winning project now has a significant online presence with the Catwalk4Power Toolkit which launched in April 2020. Catwalk4Power participants encourage people to visit the online toolkit, plan events, get in touch, and share their experiences and knowledge.

Scope and content

Placards, ephemera, banners, photographs, and related papers created by Catwalk4Power. Includes: Placards from BHIVA World AIDS Day event; Speeches from BHIVA World AIDS Day performance; Banner from BHIVA World AIDs Day Event; "Empowered" clutch bag/box; Body parts on canvas, "Our Amazing Bodies" workshop; Lunar/moon polaroid photographs from moon-gazing event; Female body parts from "Our Powerful Bodies" session one; "I Am Here" festival banner; Clutch purse boxes from performance at Fast Track Cities conference; Catwalk4Power Zines, and Catwalk4Power logo (2019-2020).

Extent

6 boxes, 11 large items, 2 banners, 1 pdf, 4 png