Jessica Whitbread
About
Jessica Whitbread works in the realm of social practice and community art, often merging art and activism to engage a diversity of audiences in critical dialogue. Whitbread often uses her own her own body and experience as a queer woman living with HIV, as the primary site of her work. In her head the entire world is a pantless tea party, full of awkward yet playful interactions that challenge hetero-normative and mainstream assumptions about bodies, sexuality and desire. Her ongoing projects include No Pants No Problem, Tea Time, and PosterVIRUS (AIDS ACTION NOW!).
In 2012 Jessica was elected to be the youngest global chair of the International Community of Women Living with HIV and in April 2014 shifted roles to be the network’s interim global networks director.
She is the founder of the first International Chapter of Young Women, Adolescents and Girls living with HIV as well as a long-standing steering committee member for AIDS ACTION NOW! a direct action group in Toronto.
In 2014 Jessica published her first book, Tea Time: Mapping Informal Networks of Women Living with HIV, a photo collection of her Tea Time practice.
