Episode 3: “Not Going Back” with Joey Terrill
Episode Description
In this week’s episode of Youspeak Radio 2024, Madeline (she/they) speaks to Joey Terrill about the evolution of queer Latinx representation in art and community activism in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Terill reflects on the early influence of his father in his artmaking, his experience as an “out” high schooler in 1970s Los Angeles, his efforts to uplift LGBTQ+ Chicano life through visual art, his advocacy work through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and his advice to LGBTQ+ youth today.
Trailblazer – Joey Terrill
Joey Terrill (any pronouns) is a second-generation, queer Chicano artist and HIV/AIDS advocate, born and raised in Los Angeles. Having learned art-making from his father, he leverages mediums such as painting, zine-making, and performance to portray queer longing and Chicano culture. During the 1980s and 1990s, he utilized portraiture to document loved ones affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the late 1980s, Terrill illustrated the Spanish-language comic series “Chicos Modernos,” whose characters educated Latinx readers on how to minimize risk of HIV/AIDS. His artwork is part of permanent collections in museums across the U.S., including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Williams College Museum of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, his work is exhibited at the Hammer Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Terrill, who is HIV-positive, worked for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation for over two decades, most recently serving as the Director of Global Advocacy and Partnerships, before retirement. In this role, Terrill led operations in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Mexico, Amsterdam, Haiti, and Jamaica. He has also worked with the Carl Bean House, Metropolitan Community Church, and Gay Community Center (now LA LGBT Center). As a young person in the 1960s and 1970s, he participated in César Chávez’s farmworkers movement and the Griffith Park “Gay-Ins.” Terrill, born in 1955, earned his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from Immaculate Heart College in 1976 and a Master’s of Fine Arts from Cal State Los Angeles in 2001.
Youspeak Fellow – Madeline
Madeline (she/they), 17, is a rising high school senior from Redwood City, California, of Chinese and Burmese heritage. Identifying as queer, she is the founding president of her school’s Rainbow Reading Club, a member of her local Pride Center’s Youth Advisory Board, and an intern for OutHistory. She has also interned for Professor Amy Sueyoshi, San Francisco State University, conducting primary source research on AAPI LGBTQ+ histories, whom she interviewed in Youspeak Radio 2023. Madeline—an aspiring educator—finds joy in knitting, cooking, reading, writing, volunteering, playing instruments, and biking.
This Youspeak Radio project is made possible with generous support from the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund.
Music: “Living Life” and “Think BIG” by Scott Holmes, Creative Commons licensed (CC BY-NC 4.0) on FreeMusicArchives.
