In Shelly's Words
To prepare for the videos, Shelly and I spent three months writing, editing, re-writing and re-editing until we were able to crystalize Shelly's story in words.
These two manuscripts plumb the rich emotional, depth of Shelly's message and her experience.
The Betrayal Was to the Bone
Video #1
The Heart is a Reversible Organ
Video #2
Destiny...
“i was born may 30,2008.
my destiny is unknown...
Our destiny is unknown....”
an improvised dance and spoken score based on:
Diagnosis, Education, Stigma, Treatment. In-opportune infections, Next? Yes, at my best.
So, this is how it works...
it works like this.
The heart is a reversible organ
in that it both beats and can be beaten.
What place on this vast body do i head?
Underneath my skin
through the muscle,
in the blood,
to my bones.
There, like counts,
measured or not,
the hope of cells
positive in irreversible time
is stone.
Evidence can be like a kitchen cloth...
moulded, and colourless,
proof of this human ness.
If i could carefully step in time with my heart,
unalarming its' sensitivities
there in time would rest proof,
moments passed
without and within
all women, and all men - We all have the means
and sometimes so little time
to mean it.
Our destiny unknown.
Is it just a chip on the shoulder?
when we can find no place to land?
To not stand up would simply bury it
even deeper in the sand for the next
generation
and the next
generation
and the next,
and the next,
and the next...
Around here,
memories watch our present
and our future demands.
So this is how it works,
it works like this.
The heart is a reversible organ
in that it both beats and can be beaten
and as it is beaten
it still beats.
and that is our destiny,
Our destiny unknown
Positive.
We are all no different,
Learning and moving to live positive,
Positively our best.
Shelly Tognazzini