BBE's Black Health Exposition (Photovoice project)

BBE's Black Health Exposition was inspired by many sources and motivations. However, most importantly, we present our project to you because we want to show you how we, as Black gay, bisexual, and same-gender-loving men in San Francisco, are taking care of our health.

There are a lot of negative images and stereotypes out there about folk like us. Some of those images and stereotypes are projected by people in our own communities, like from some parts of the African-American community; prejudice within the broader LGBT community; or from narrow-minded people within our own urban neighborhoods. Other images and stereotypes come from people outside our community, like government researchers and politicians, health care officials, or the news media and the popular culture machine.

So when we set out to express ourselves, this time with photographs and words, we wanted to give you a positive image of who we are, and what we're doing to take care of ourselves.

Our project was born during BBE's Leadership Institute Retreat, in the spring of 2006. We explored the idea of using art, images, and words to express how we see ourselves and our interests.

Then, for the next 10 weeks, we met regularly to put together this project. We brainstormed and decided that we wanted a very positive message, to show what we as members of BBE are capable of, and to show what supports our good health. We met with our new friend, Amanda Herman from the Sixth Street Photography Workshop, so she could help us with our photography skills. For two weeks we carried cameras around with us, to capture images of people, places, and moments that we found meaningful.

After our film was developed, we met with Amanda again so she could help train our critical eye... and then we looked at thousands of exposures for weeks to edit this exhibit down to the photographs you see here. Editing this exhibit was a group process; each photographer narrowed the selection him or herself, but usually the whole group helped choose the photo that was to be enlarged. We interviewed each other to write the text panel that goes with each photograph.

Then, we planned all the details of our exhibit opening, from the schedule content to the soundtrack. Last but not least, with a little more help from Amanda, we mounted the exhibit ourselves.

Our exposition was a group project, completed by BBE members. We hope that we can show you how we are taking care of ourselves, and hope to be role models for others, both inside and outside of our various communities. We hope that it inspires you to think about your own health -- what you are already doing or could be doing to stay healthy, and how you too can be a role model for your communities. Enjoy, and thank you for coming to see our exposition!