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My name is Joey Tranchina. As I stated in a recent post: I grew up in California; live mostly in France and work in Africa. After a career as a photographer, writer and teacher in Paris, LA & New York. In 1986, I moved back to California to do the work of AIDS prevention. For 19 years, I have been Executive Director of AIDS Prevention ACTION Network (APAN), a street-outreach syringe-exchange program in Silicon Valley. In 1992, I became the first defendant to take the then "criminal" act of exchanging syringes to jury trial, where the jury came in 11-1 for acquittal and the foremen of the jury joined us on the street. My current role in APAN is co-director of Project Mali.
I've added a recent poem. Since I haven't written much lately other than grant proposals to seek funding for our harm reduction projects in Silicon Valley, this poem says some things new that I wish to include in my profile...
SEASONS 1918-2009
It was a blessed time we were on the beaches
Gone from early morning feet naked and no hats
And quickly like a toad's tongue
Love wounded the hearts of fools and of the wise.
<<< Guillaume Appolinaire, Seasons
In 1918, while Picasso honeymooning in Biarritz
decorated grand villa walls with beau monde nudes,
Apollinaire, the sweetest of poets and of men,
talked of Pascal then died of Spanish influenza.
All three geniuses conveniently concurred that
inspiration is greater than reason; while I once
agreed completely, I have since concluded
that, like sun and rain, each has its season.
Guillaume weary of war wounds and Pablo spent
from daring reflected mortality; one in a casket
the other in a mirror; shrouded in diverging
opinions of an infinitely indifferent universe.
While I've been erecting ephemeral cenotaphs
note-taking and making endless calculations,
my real-time life has ripped past in a blast
of first-drafts of carefully crafted opinions.
Joey Tranchina
19 Oct.09
This poem began in Cimetiere Montparnasse, Paris; grew in Sete
then reached its current form in APAN's Redwood City office.
