Oral history interview with Alexandra Juhasz
name: label: Interviewee
content: Juhasz, Alexandra
label: Interviewer
content: Kerr, Theodore
label: Names
content: Swarthmore College
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Carlomusto, Jean
label: Names
content: Cato, Kenrick
label: Names
content: Cunningham, Megan
label: Names
content: Dunye, Cheryl
label: Names
content: Durand, Yannick
label: Names
content: Edwards, Marcia
label: Names
content: Engebreston, Jon
label: Names
content: Finkelstein, Avram, 1952-
label: Names
content: Guimento, Joe
label: Names
content: Hasty, Glenda
label: Names
content: Haynes, Todd
label: Names
content: Hebert, Pato
label: Names
content: Hollibaugh, Amber L., 1946-
label: Names
content: Kalin, Tom
label: Names
content: Lamb, James Robert
label: Names
content: Lebow, Alisa
label: Names
content: Leonard, Zoe
label: Names
content: Lesjak, Carolyn, 1963-
label: Names
content: Ludlam, Charles
label: Names
content: Matta, Aida
label: Names
content: Mohammed, Juanita
label: Names
content: Penceal, Sharon
label: Names
content: Prieto, Miguel
label: Names
content: Quinton, Everett
label: Names
content: Schulman, Sarah, 1958-
label: Names
content: Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky
label: Names
content: Spiro, Ellen
label: Names
content: Vasquez-Pacheco, Robert
label: Names
content: Wolf, Maxine
topic: label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease)
label: Topic
content: Authors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Educators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Feminists
label: Topic
content: Filmmakers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Oral history
label: Topic
content: Political activists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Juhasz, Alexandra
label: Interviewer
content: Kerr, Theodore
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Alexandra Juhasz (1964- ) is an AIDS activist, media maker, and scholar in New York, New York. Theodore Kerr (1979- ) is a writer and organizer in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 6 Items (sound files (5 hr., 56 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 117 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R00329.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017 December 19-21
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.juhasz17
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Alexandra Juhasz conducted 2017 December 19 and 21, by Theodore Kerr, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Juhasz's home in Brooklyn, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Juhasz speaks of her commitment to AIDS activism; her intellectual, bohemian, culturally Jewish upbringing; developing her feminism, political consciousness and activism in high school and college; her relationship with James "Jim" Robert Lamb; moving to New York for graduate school in 1986; the beginning of her AIDS activism and video-making practice in the late '80s; reflecting on her privilege and positionality in her activist work; her commitment to making marginal work; Jim Lamb's role in Video Remains, followed by his death and enduring inspiration for her work; the striking and surprising aspects of participating in an oral history; historical and theoretical underpinnings of video-making as an activist strategy and process; making activist video with the WAVE collective; the stakes, challenges, and costs of marginalized communities fighting for self-representation; making activist video with Swarthmore college students; the artistic milieu of New Queer Cinema; producing The Watermelon Woman and recently re-releasing it; moving to Los Angeles and having a period of silence in AIDS activism; returning to AIDS activism by making Video Remains; her ongoing collaborative writing about AIDS with Theodore Kerr; and her most recent projects. Juhasz also recalls Eve Sedgwick, Joe Guimento, Jon Engebretson, Jean Carlomusto, Tom Kalin, Avram Finkelstein, Amber Hollibaugh, Maxine Wolfe, Miguel Prieto, Robert Vasquez-Pacheco, Charles Ludlam, Everett Quinton, Carolyn Lesjak, Yannick Durand, Juanita Mohammed, Sharon Penceal, Aida Matta, Glenda Hasty, Marcia Edwards, Kenrick Cato, Megan Cunningham, Cheryl Dunye, Zoe Leonard, Pato Hebert, Alisa Lebow, Sarah Schulman, Todd Haynes, Ellen Spiro, and others.