Is Mykki Blanco a Meteor?

Rapper Mykki Blanco’s unapologetic declaration that he is HIV-positive continues a tradition of black LGBT artists challenging stigma, says Charles Stephens (left), founder of the Counter Narrative Project, a black gay advocacy group. “Much of the history of HIV activism is also the history of artists. They were able to create the messages, imagine the tactics, and in many ways provide the poetry for the movement,” he told The Daily Beast. Stephens added that Blanco’s attitude reminds him of black gay activist Craig G. Harris’s 1991 essay “I’m Going Out Like a Fucking Meteor,” which concludes, “I want to live the rest of my life with an energy that ignites and irritates, burns and bubbles, soothes and inspires until it bursts from this atmosphere, dissipating into the cosmos.”