Davina “Dee” Conner and Karin Hayes, Here We Are: Voices of Black Women Who Live with HIV, 2022

Davina “Dee” Conner was diagnosed with HIV in 1997. For 18 years she knew no one else who lived with HIV. As she emerged from isolation and internalized stigma, Davina sought to understand the journeys of other Black women living with HIV. Here they are. Listen to their voices.

Commissioned in 2022 as part of BEING AND BELONGING, a program of seven new videos highlighting strategies of community care within the ongoing HIV epidemic.

︎︎︎ Read more in the resource guide

About the artists

Davina “Dee” Conner (she/her) is an HIV educator, podcast host, and international speaker who has been living with HIV since 1997. Her podcast, Pozitively Dee Discussions, won ADAP’s 2017 Leadership Award for working to dispel internalized stigma and change how society views HIV. Davina received the Persistent Advocacy Award from AIDS Watch in 2019, and has been featured in numerous magazines for her ongoing advocacy including a&u, Positively Aware, Denver’s 5280, POZ Magazine, HIV Plus, and Health Stories Project. She works against HIV criminalization as a member of the Positive Justice Project; is a contributing writer for h-i-v.net; is a board member of Las Vegas Ryan White and Nevada's HIV Prevention Planning Group (HPPG). She is also the Creative Engagement Outreach Specialist for Prevention Access Campaign (U=U). ︎ ︎

Karin Hayes (she/her) is an award-winning documentary director and producer. Her credits include We’re Not Broke (Sundance Film Festival/iTunes), The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt (HBO/CNN), Held Hostage in Colombia (History/SundanceTV), Pip & Zastrow: An American Friendship (PBS/MPT), and the documentary series: That Animal Rescue Show (Paramount+) and Truth and Power (Participant Media). She has also worked on projects for Supper Club, Film45, National Geographic, Discovery, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. She is a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), Film Fatales, and the International Documentary Association (IDA). ︎ ︎