Ted Kerr

How much are you managing projects and people? What kind of projects? Give us an example.

I would say my number one task is taking care of the work of being a freelancer in the so-called gig economy: scheduling, payment, workflows, etc. Beyond that, a lot of my time is spent thinking about and moving forward the work of a collective I co-founded called What Would an HIV Doula Do? Members of the collective collaborate on projects that bring justice, community and HIV/AIDS together. We meet in teams as the work needs, to flesh out ideas, plan steps to make it all happen, and then steward and nurture ideas until they are birthed in the world, followed up by evaluation.

I have never used the word manage to describe my role with WWHIVDD, but maybe I should. It is fitting cause we are a group of people who work to ensure community plays a role in the ongoing AIDS epidemic, using the doula model. For us, that’s about someone holding space during times of transition, with HIV being understood as a series of transitions. In a way, a doula is like a manager, right? They are someone who works with others to consider and help achieve desired results.

Last year, WWHIVDD members Nicholas D’avella, Shanti Avirgan and I ran a screening/reading series called Uneasy Medicine. Katherine Cheairs, Jawanza Williams, Alex Juhasz and I are curated an exhibition of AIDS ephemera and history called Metanoia: Transformation Through AIDS Archives and Activism for NYC’s LGBT Center by way of the One Archives in LA. In both of these cases, “management” was shared by the group. Most recently, a bunch of us worked together to create and facilitate How Many of us Will Be Thriving for Stonewall 50?, a public forum on LGBTQ wellness that we hosted with HighLine. Everyone participated in the work, which included being accountable, responsible, etc.. Being one of the people who has a bird’s eye view of our shared work means connecting dots and filling in gaps. But for the most part, it is about being excited and proud and sharing our work with the world.

What’s your approach to managing projects and people? What works when you need to move things forward?

Marshall (Coax Managing Editor) and I know each other from Edmonton, where we both had the chance to get to know and work with the amazing Michael Phair. To say that I think about him every day is an understatement. His way of being in the world informs how I work with projects and with people.

Besides being a beloved City Councillor for years, he has always been a community force working with people to ensure the best future possible in various arenas: land conservation, senior housing, LGBT rights, and arts advocacy to name just a few. He does this, I would say, by being almost painfully flat-footed. He trusts himself and those around him enough to charge forward with the work that has to be done, but without ignoring the politics of that work. Part of what makes him so good is that he can do this while remaining an ethical person; he’s one of those people who can get shit done without hurting others. I try to embody that approach.

One other important lesson I learned from Michael is that people are often stronger than we give them credit for. We need respect and we need purpose. And if we are given that, we will (for the most part) work hard and work together until the job is done and our goals are within reach. Over the years, I have come to understand that treating people with respect means listening, considering people’s material needs, and moving at a speed that is slow enough for people to feel included but also swift enough so no one has time to navel-gaze or problematize for no reason.

As for the second part of your question, I must confess, I am writing these responses instead of dealing with a large editing project that I can’t seem to finish so...

How has your background, education, or past experiences informed the way you manage projects and work with people?

Edmonton is filled with great people doing vital work in good ways. Aside from Michael, I also learned a lot from working with and witnessing Heather Zwicker and Kristy Harcourt. Both are tremendously busy women who center community, care, and kindness without sacrificing innovation. In my understanding of their tactics, they both work collaboratively within their communities to improve the world through an intersectional lens that meaningfully includes the lived reality of people who are too often ignored and neglected. Again, this means asking questions and bringing people forward through engagement and work.

Since moving to New York I have also been blessed with brilliant models of how to be in the world. I had the pleasure of working for artist AA Bronson who taught me to value communication. We can never be too clear with each other. The more we talk and provide updates along the way, including any emotional baggage we have within our work, the better.

I also had the privilege of working at Visual AIDS, a tiny but mighty AIDS/art organization. When I arrived (first as an intern, then a paid employee) Amy Sadao and Nelson Santos had been maintaining and building a cultural foundation rooted in social justice, HIV, and creativity that was being neglected by the world at large but utilized by people who needed it. From them, I learned that there is always time to do things right, both in terms of ethics and details.

When it comes to managing projects, what do you wish you were better at? What do you wish you knew more about?

Trust, delegation, and collaboration. I collaborate so much because I think it is fundamental to our society and I want to get better at it. It is also a crucial part of WWHIVDD’s ongoing Doula work. One of the things we take seriously is that almost no one gets HIV alone, and so, no one should have to deal with HIV alone. We need each other and we need to be able to work, love, thrive, and survive together. I think that applies no matter where we live or work.

What’s your best tip or an approach to projects that works for you? Why do you think it works? What’s one pitfall you’ve learned how to avoid?

People need to write together early on; they need to sit and establish some shared language and an understanding of what they are doing together. There is something powerful about a bunch of people sitting together in a room quietly crafting a shared way to engage with the world.

Additionally, we need to talk and have conversations about what we mean when we actively listen. We need confrontation and we can’t always just leave when we are uncomfortable. (Danger is different, people can leave when they are in danger.) We also need to be able to admit when we don’t know something, or when we misunderstood something, or when we’ve changed our mind. Lastly, we need to be held accountable for what we have said and done and we need to be celebrated for what we have said and done.

All of this is to say that if you create workplace intimacy rooted in the tasks at hand, then you create a foundation from which you can work and learn and grow. I think the pitfall here is that people get too touchy-feeling and forget that work is not family, work is not friendship. Too often we conflate the desires we may have for our other relationships, with what we may need and want from work. This gets messy, wastes time, backfires, and hurts people along the way. Best to keep things clear. It is okay to have different categories for love, work, family, etc.

What’s one thing the average person doesn’t know about the kind of work you do?

I guess I should state the obvious: AIDS is not over. There are about as many people living in the world with HIV that have ever died with the virus. The last quarter-century has seen great changes in the medical response to the virus but decades into this epidemic 40% of people living with HIV still don’t have access to life-saving treatment. And living with HIV is still criminalized in countries around the world, including Canada and the US.

But beyond that, I also want to stress that I know a lot of people whose work looks a lot like mine. Our work is post-post-industrial, late-capitalist, shaped by neo-liberalism and totally unsustainable. It literally drives us apart, destabilizes us and our goals. And yet, within all that, we are able to do amazing things and have meaningful connections and from our ashes, I truly believe something better will rise.