“You have no idea how important and urgent it is to talk about HIV”

“You have no idea how important and urgent it is to talk about HIV,” says Fernando Impagliazzo. We do know, and that’s why today we’re going to present the latest work by this poet from Rio de Janeiro, the book “Promiscuity,” released by Editora Hecatombe/Urutau. It’s meant to question and make the LGBTQIA+ community think.

What does it mean to be a man? How do we deal with the vulnerability that comes from our learned machismo over the years? Is there another way to (re)think sexuality, the body, and sex? What is it like to live with the HIV virus in 2024? Fernando tries to shed light on these and other unanswered questions. The book is part of the MilTons writing project in response to setbacks in the Ministry of Education.

The author has been HIV-positive since 2009, a fact that made him think of a proposal for the poetic deconstruction of our fragile masculine sexuality. “Every man wears an immortal cloak that protects him from nothing.” Being a man, after all, is the vulnerability of “leaving a void between your legs,” “of no longer being such a man.” (Variations on Being a Man).

Using a linguistic play on the word that gives the book its title (pro+misceo), the poet shows that none of us are exempt from feeling vulnerable and mixed up with the world. As he says in one of his poems, “every man wants to stifle his hysterical scream” (Histérico).

Unconsciously, the book also speaks of vulnerability and the fear of going out, of walking these uncertain paths, “the fear of passing on illness”, “the fear of catching an illness” (Exit). After all, it is necessary to understand that “a man’s career/is always the size of the soil” (Soil) and that, although machismo, serophobia and the coronavirus still persist, we need to resist them, through language.

Fernando (1990) was born in Rio de Janeiro. He is a poet, professor, researcher, editor of “Revista Toró” and author of “Prova das Nove” (2014). With a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in Brazilian Literature (UFRJ), he researches poetry from the early 20th century. He was part of the anthology “Tente entender o que tenho dizer: poesia + hiv/aids” (Tente understand what I try to say: poesia + hiv/aids) (Bazar do Tempo, 2018) organized by Ramon Nunes Mello. He has published poems in online magazines such as “Mallarmargens” and “Ruído Manifesto”.

“Promiscuous” – Fernando Impagliazzo