Activist

Writer

&

Photo by Sherley Arias-Pimentel

Normalizing HIV / AIDS through community advocacy.

About

As a pillar of the Richmond community, Ms. Willnette Cunningham writes and speaks about her experiences with HIV in order to support and encourage others to learn more.

Ms. Willnette was a part of the docudrama Voices from Richmond’s Hidden Epidemic in 2019 through her work with students at the University of Richmond. In 2020, she also received Diversity Richmond’s—Richmond’s largest LGBTQ+ organization—Black and Bold Award in 2020 for her HIV advocacy work and was featured in an exhibit at the Valentine Museum in Richmond.

Most recently, she was featured in the exhibition At the Intersection of Connection and Contagion: HIV/AIDS and Richmond’s LGBTQ+ Communities which has been on display at the University of Richmond’s Carole Weinstein International Center since spring of 2022.

APRIL 3, 2023

An Evening of HIV Stories

Hope, Strength, & Resilience

6:30–8:30PM

Health Brigade
1010 N. Thompson St.

RSVP

Photo by Michael Simon

“

The day I got my diagnosis, I was about to get in a new relationship. I went straight to his house first and told him my diagnosis. Told him if he didn't want to start a relationship, we didn't have to. He said, ‘I need to be tested myself.’ And we were together until he passed in 1997.

Stories

Featured

Ashe & AIDS

HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, and the face of the disease has changed over the decades.

Basketball great Earvin “Magic” Johnson announced in November 1991 that he was HIV positive and was quitting the sport. It was a moment that shocked friends and fans of the charismatic NBA player, and it would change the life of a Richmond woman who had never met him.

Love at Work

In the nook of a chapel within St. Paul’s Baptist Church, Lindsay Bryant is talking about the silicone model of a penis she has in the trunk of her car.

“Yes! And with condoms. I got a bunch, you need any?”

Willnette Cunningham, a former postal worker, AIDS survivor and fellow HIV-awareness activist who’s known Bryant since high school, breaks out laughing before saying to always check the expiration date. It’s in the crease of the opening.

Voices from Richmond’s Hidden Epidemic

Richmond, Virginia has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the country, and today, HIV disproportionately affects communities of color. Our docudrama, Voices from Richmond’s Hidden Epidemic, honors those who have been affected and calls attention to the current crisis. It is our goal to open new conversations about HIV/AIDS by sharing the stories of those living with HIV today.