River Huston

River Huston is a writer and performer who uses her artwork to educate and instigate change. Her artistic practice emerged after she was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1991. River was transformed through a process of deep despair and release through poetry. She wrote her first book of poems, Jesus Never Lived Here, in 1993 and began to use art to educate. She was named Bucks County’s Poet Laureate in 1995. River employs a balance of humor, stories and spoken word in her one-woman show, Sex, Cellulite and Large Farm Equipment: One Girl's Guide to Living and Dying that she uses to entertain and educate audiences about HIV, sexuality, and overcoming challenges such as her experiences of leaving home at fifteen, living in the streets, rape, sordid relationships, addiction, prostitution, extreme self-loathing, death, and grief. River has written a column for POZ Magazine for over 14 years and helped readers deal with the stigma of HIV in regards to dating, relationships, and intimacy. She has also collaborated on a photo-essay book, A Positive Life: Portraits of Women Living with HIV, which has been used as a tool in classrooms to break stereotypes and stigmas around HIV and continue the dialogue around AIDS. River is currently working on a book and a series of paintings.