The Survivors: An HIV/AIDS Oral History Project at LWHS

This past May, Lick-Wilmerding High School (LWHS) hosted a special film screening of The Survivors: An HIV/AIDS Oral History Project, a powerful collection of eight short films created by LWHS students and featuring first person interviews with survivors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 65 people gathered in the Ehrer Theater that night to watch the films and celebrate the incredible collaboration between students in our Cinematic Storytelling class and our U.S. History Seminar: ACT UP FIGHT BACK—A History of the AIDS Movement.

The project was the brainchild of Dean of Faculty Alegria Barclay. Before coming to LWHS two years ago, Alegria taught courses on the history of the AIDS movement and began envisioning a special project to engage students in documenting this important history. She noticed something interesting over her years of teaching: although the AIDS epidemic had rocked the country and the world in the ‘80s and ‘90s, today’s young people seemed to be growing up without knowing very much about HIV/AIDS, the activism that emerged from the resulting crisis, or how it shaped the LGBTQ+ community and society as a whole forever.

At LWHS, she found a way to teach students this critical history while also giving them an opportunity to put real-world skills to work creating something with a lasting impact. She also found a partner on campus: Eleanor Sanaman, LWHS’ Cinematic Storytelling teacher. While Alegria taught her students the history and context around HIV/AIDS, Eleanor was busy teaching her students the basics of filmmaking, from storyboarding, to technical skills, to production. Alegria secured the participation of eight long-term survivors of the epidemic, who agreed to share their stories and perspectives with LWHS students. Student teams from both classes prepared for their interviews by learning how to be oral historians approaching their storytelling work with curiosity, respect, and empathy.

The result is a collection of eight beautiful and personal stories that share the experiences of long-term HIV survivors in the Bay Area. These films highlight the resilience, power, and courage of the generous survivors who agreed to participate. They are also now a lasting resource for the larger community, as they will be housed permanently in the GLBT historical society archives.

The Survivors: An HIV/AIDS Oral History Project is a perfect illustration of LWHS’ Public Purpose Program (PPP). Through the PPP, students have opportunities to use what they are learning to affect positive change and social justice. Both Alegria’s history class and Eleanor’s Cinematic Storytelling class are PPP courses, a special designation for classes in which students meaningfully engage with local, national, and global communities. The deep impact on students is evident in their class reflections:

• “This was one of the first instances in which I have felt like I carry a responsibility that is larger than myself, for a reason far more influential than a good grade. I wanted my narrator to feel proud of the way we interpreted his story, and to feel like we did it justice.”

• “Oral history is super powerful as it impacts the people sharing their stories as well as the people viewing and hearing the stories, bringing new perspectives to a history that often feels like it is taught in a removed manner or dehumanized way.”

• “When I walked out of the theater that evening, I found myself feeling joyful and enlightened. Those two hours that I spent watching our films taught me more than any textbook could have.”

We are grateful to the survivors who gave their time and energy to telling their stories to our students. We encourage everyone to watch the films and hear directly from these remarkable individuals; all eight films are available here. The stories they tell are important, and we are incredibly proud of our students for their part in elevating these voices and adding them to our collective history. This is the kind of learning we strive for at LWHS. As one student put it, “oral history is not about finding ways to mold individual stories to fit with the greater narrative; it is rather about uplifting individual stories to complicate, enrich, and humanize our understandings of history, ensuring that we do not forget.”