Queer Latinx Bodies and AIDS: Joey Terrill’s “Still Here” and “Once Upon A Time”

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This was a great interview to read. The interview offers readers a helpful insight into Terrill's work and life as an artist, especially his relationship to being HIV positive. Overall, the interview is a great resource to the larger fields of Latinx studies, queer studies and art history. The accompanying images are also great in that they follow through seamlessly as one reads the piece. No major feedback to offer.

My only tiny recommendation for editing is in Line 30: “sharp text play with pop through distinctly." The sentence (that quoted part in particular) sounds a bit awkward in the sense that the meaning of the sentence gets lost. My suggestion is to re-visit and re-structure. Line 250 also has a random "t."

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

“Queer Latinx Bodies and AIDS: Joey Terrill’s ‘Still Here’ and ‘Once Upon A Time’” is a fascinating pair of interviews with an important voice in art. The topics touched in the interview are far-ranging address issues of masculinity, queerness, latinidad, and more. Most of my suggestions are connected to the introduction, which needs more polishing for clarity and which could be used to offer a little more cohesion to the interview series that follows.

 

NOTES

·       The first line is a crucial entry into the style and tone of the article, but it is long and somewhat convoluted in an attempt to incorporate as much context into it as possible. I recommend shortening this sentence to the most vital and most impactful information; the remaining information (perhaps the whole context of where the parade was and who it was organized by?) can be offered in a second sentence.

·       At points, the information in the introduction disrupts the flow of reading; for example, the lines “For others on the journey…” almost seem to offer an aside that is interjected before the second paragraph, which introduces more on Terill as an artist. I wonder if the aforementioned lines (“For others on the journey…” to “…queer Latinx artists” may fit better into a later part of the introduction or as a footnote).

·       To that end, it would make sense to offer more biographical information on Terrill in this introduction, for readers who may be unfamiliar with his work.

·       “Maricónography” is a fantastic term which could be unpacked a little further in this introduction—particularly as it connects to the interviews. I would love to see you engage with this term a little more.

·       The introduction would benefit from a greater concluding remark, rather than ending on the list of topics covered in the conversations.

 

Minor suggestions/errata

·       P1: Unclear meaning. First line is possibly missing a word: “When I saw a photograph [of?] a line…”

·       P1: Unclear meaning. Missing word?: “clean lines and sharp text play with pop through distinctly 30 Latinx cultural references”

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The aim of the paper successfully offers a critical intervention to the one-dimensional American landscape of AIDS cultural production. The interview with Joey Terrill highlights the legacy of the artist within intimate familial, activists, and artist communities. Although Terrill’s legacy has notably received attention, this paper offers an intimate historical trajectory rooted in the singular voice of the artist. There is supreme value in addressing exhibited work alongside Terrill’s storytelling. This method of storytelling, interview, and art representation is exceptional as it offers the reader more than just a glimpse into the life trajectory of the artist but an in-depth emotional, intellectual, and embodied response to illness, queerness, resistance, Chicanx community, remembrance, and ancestry beyond the trope of survival. I find this work to be autobiographical and value the way the author of the paper offers complete space for the artist to lead the oral history while simultaneously, respectfully, and curiously, the author’s own understanding of popular culture and cultural productions emerges. Through Terrill’s responses, the reader is given insight to various approaches, influences, and strategies the artist employs in his creative projects. While grounded in a political consciousness of visibility and resistance, this paper moves beyond the generalized categories of Chicano identity, queerness, feminism, and illness. Rather this paper honors intersectional locations of being during a time of great loss and actualization. I commend the author of this paper for committing to the work and the artist in a manner that welcomes intimacy, corazon (heart), mentorship, laughter, history, and trust between the interviewer and interviewee. 

Author Response

Please see attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx