AweChords a cappella will perform at exhibit honoring activists living with AIDS

January 9, 2020

UCLA performance-based group AweChords strives to share their passion for music with the greater Los Angeles community. On January 12, AweChords presented a performance to complement the storytellers from the Los Angeles Through Positive Eyes Collective in the Through Positive Eyes exhibition.

The Fowler Museum is showcasing music as AweChords will perform as a part of the exhibit, "Through Positive Eyes." Running through Feb. 16, the program features various art installations created by activists who are living with AIDS. AweChords' performance can be seen Sunday. (Courtesy of Andrew Nguyen)

"The Fowler Museum aims to share human stories by highlighting the HIV-positive community – now, it will be showcasing music as well.

The a cappella group AweChords will perform as part of the “Through Positive Eyes” exhibit. Running through Feb. 16, the exhibit highlights art pieces ranging from photography to videos to installations created by activists living with AIDS. The exhibit spans multiple rooms, with the “Vanishing Stigma” room being the last space in the exhibit. Amy Landau, the director of education and interpretation at the Fowler, said every Wednesday and Sunday afternoon “artivists” – activists and artists – give live performances. Most of the artivists are HIV-positive individuals, but Landau said she invited AweChords to perform Sunday because it is able to broaden the story for a UCLA audience.

“What (AweChords) does is inspire people to listen and to come together to listen to their music in the museum,” Landau said. “When people get together just to listen to music, view art, you come together in the experience as a community.”

AweChords’ set list will consist of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie.” Third-year political science student Kevin Jang, AweChords’ social outreach coordinator, said the group chose both songs from its existing repertoire not for their thematic relations to the exhibit, but as a way to honor what each artist has done for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2017, Katy Perry was gifted the Human Rights Campaign’s National Equality Award for her LGBTQ+ activism, and Amy Winehouse donated her song “Back to Black” to the Born HIV Free campaign in 2010. He said AweChords wanted to perform upbeat, hopeful songs that would engage the audience and show a broad range of human emotion."— Kristin Snyder, Jan. 9, 2020

This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.

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