In this episode, we juxtaposed an interview with Darnell Moore (our host) and Lena Waithe against an interview from almost fifty years ago between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni. The original interview took place on SOUL! a revolutionary TV show that was in some ways an ancestor to Being Seen. We cut these clips together as a commentary on the shaping of our futures, the ways in which artists speak backwards/forwards through time and how we have yet to fully use entertainment for the transformative tool it has the power to be. As the last episode, it reminds us that this is not an ending and the work is far from done. It’s a naming of our ancestors, a celebration of what they accomplished and it’s a call for each of us, in the ways that we can, to fight for people to be seen… as they wish to be.

n/a

There have been many instances globally where entertainment properties have been intentionally developed to create measurable behavioral change in a variety of areas from increasing the use of family planning services to HIV testing. This is rarely an approach that is taken in the US and as a result we lose the ability to harness an incredibly powerful lever for change. Being Seen seeks to do that through the creation of an entertainment property that uses experiences and storytelling to shift perception in areas that directly and indirectly affect HIV stigma. It is a space in which we take an specific and intentional approach to representation, mapping it to behavioral outcomes and the ability to shift specific cultural norms. It looks at stigma through a broad, intersectional lens - recognizing that stigma is a public health issue that we all have the power to create change around in