Jonathan Blake

Very happy to launch Dan Hall @londonbornqueer and my crowdfunder campaign to get to the most important HIV and AIDS conference in the world @iasociety - with these testimonials! Thank you @jonathanblake4921 - iconic activist with @lgsmpride and @badalexcheves legendary writer on sex, books, & gay culture, columnist @outmagazine and author of "My Love Is a Beast" - your support is invaluable! Dan and myself have been offered press passes to capture the conversations shaping the global HIV response right now — through interviews with activists, clinicians, researchers, and people living with HIV from around the world - but we need your help to get there. So our crowdfunder link is in the linktree in my bio. All donations are appreciated! Pls share with all interested too. "The sad reality of the fight against AIDS is that those who survived the darkest years of the plague in the 80s and 90s are now rapidly passing, and with them, their living testimony. When no one alive remembers what it was like to lose their friends, to organise, to mourn so collectively, are we doomed to repeat it? Along come people like Dan Hall and Dan Glass. The former is a sharp and eloquent storyteller driven solely by his sense of justice; the latter is a firebrand, old-school, real-deal AIDS activist who knows how important it is to kick up a fuss. Together, they're keeping the testimony alive. Somewhere out there is a newly-positive kid who will discover their history and legacy because of this project, and get everything they need to become a fighter." @badalexcheves "@hivthemorningafter is such an Important Resource of individuals living or closely affected by HIV sharing their lived Experience and Knowledge. The most important phrase to come out from the whole pandemic for those fortunate enough to access HIV Medication has to be from the 2015 Paris HIV/AIDS Conference -UNDETECTABLE EQUALS UNTRANSMITTABLE - If you on effective Anti Retroviral Medication and with an undetectable viral load one cannot pass your virus. Break that Proverbial leg with this Project -You both are Inspirational" @jonathanblake4921 Pics - a selection of Dan and my HIV awareness campaigns.

Mød Jonathan Blake (han/ham), den første LoudSpeaker til Pride: Out Loud! Jonathan er britisk hiv-aktivist og blev som den første person i England diagnosticeret med hiv. Hans liv og aktivisme spænder fra aidsepidemiens mørkeste år til solidaritetsarbejdet i Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, en historie, der senere blev portrætteret i den prisnominerede film PRIDE. Den 19. juni inviterer vi til en særlig aften i Huset KBH, hvor vi først viser PRIDE og bagefter byder på talk og Q&A med Jonathan selv. 📆 Fredag den 19. juni 2026 kl. 19.00 📍 Kulturhuset Indre By Billetter kan findes i bio 🫶 Vi glæder os!

With all this talk of a sequel, it’s time to confess my own. RIOT ACT 2 July 5th @crazycoqs in Piccadilly Circus. Work in Progress performance / reading. Presented by @mulwadefoundation Please join us. Three brand new real life stories featuring Dr Joe, @jonathanblake4921 and Ignacio. Once again directed by the one and only @rikkibeadleblair In partnership with the foundation, there is a further exciting announcement coming later this year about our new RIOT ACT 2 collab. But for now, if you’d like to be there for the start of journey (I’d def like you to be there - an audience is really important when trying out new work) please join us, the day after Pride in London, for an elevated work in progress performance. I tested a few minutes from Joe’s story at recent gigs and audiences responded really well. Link in my stories. Message me for direct link to Early Bird Code. I am also at @oxfordplayhouse for another preview performance in June 2026. RIOT ACT 2 portrait @eivindhansen

Brighton HIV Reading in support of @aidsquiltuk for Simon Maddrell’s debut poetry collection, lamping wild rabbits, from Out-Spoken Press.  “A fine, fierce collection” – Neil Bartlett A polyvocal and multifaceted debut which is unafraid to confront the shame and stigma of HIV, while never allowing the poems to lose shape or pace, altering the lens to bring the reader’s attention to birdsong and the queer body in nature. Maddrell has achieved a distinct and totally convincing sound through the literary geography of lamping wild rabbits, one that gives the impression it’s been everywhere and returned because it survived. ‘Refusing repression or denial, Simon Maddrell’s brilliant debut travels compellingly from the constrictions and wildnesses of a queer Manx boyhood, through the early death of a sibling, into enacting an unashamedly sensuous and politicised selfhood in the face of HIV. Generous, questing, irresistible, these miraculous poems root deep to grow towards the sun, transforming their underworlds of loss into an enduring radiance of life.’ – Alice Hiller ‘A queer odyssey, an exquisite and arresting chronicle of the journey from shame to belonging. The skin of these poems are stretched thin and beneath them we glimpse a crystalline world of courage wrought from fear. Bold, surreal, surprising and elegant; this is a breathtaking debut.’  – Joelle Taylor Tickets at linkin.bio/simonmaddrell/ (Link in Bio) Book purchase links also in Bio #poetry #hiv #derekjarman #queer photo of Jonathan Blake @mareikeguensche

I’d like to say this is the only time @jonathanblake4921 was naked outside since 1969 but i’d be lying, like a rolling stone. @chrisjepson ‘s excellent exhibition Cabbage Whites from ‘Patient L1’ @polaripress The Stones in the Park was a free outdoor festival held in Hyde Park on July 5th 1969, headlined by The Rolling Stones. Includes song titles from their set list and references to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Adonais –– a partial rendition of which was read by Mick Jagger in memory of The Rolling Stones founder, Brian Jones, who died two days earlier.�

I’m taking part in The HIV Readings with @simonmaddrell and @jonathanblake4921 on Thursday 12th March at 7pm @thequeerybtn at The Queery, 46 George Street, Brighton. In aid of Lunch Positive @lunchpositivefriends All welcome. Link for Eventbrite tickets in @simonmaddrell bio #brightonevents #brightonevent #poetry #poetryreading #hiv

First interview today for Riot Act 2 (yes there’s a sequel on its way) with the one and only @jonathanblake4921 Session 2 with Jonathan next week. Thank you Jonathan and @mulwadefoundation for making this happen. @rikkibeadleblair returns to direct.

An absolute joy to welcome @jonathanblake4921 to Brighton today and show him around the Project Uncut exhibition next to @brightoni360official Jonathan was diagnosed with HIV in 1982, although it wasn’t called that yet, and has dedicated his life to activism and visibility. He sat for the project in late 2025 and shared his story and his Queer Joy. Read more at UncutPortraits.co.uk Link in bio

The new stories we’re platforming… RIOT ACT 2 brings three extraordinary queer figures to the stage, in their own words. 🩺 Joseph Sonnabend - One of the first doctors to identify HIV and AIDS years before it was widely reported. 🏳️‍🌈 Jonathan Blake (@jonathanblake4921 ) -� Legendary London LGBTQ+ activist, among the first diagnosed with HIV in the UK. He is currently 76 years old. 🔥 Ignazio Labayen de Inza ( @controllingchemsex ) -� A vital modern story exploring LGBTQ+ drug harm and the realities of chemsex. This is lived experience, history and activism, delivered with heart, truth and urgency. #RiotAct2 #MulwadeFoundation #HIVAwareness #QueerTheatre #LGBTQHistory

London HIV Reading for Simon Maddrell’s debut poetry collection, lamping wild rabbits, from Out-Spoken Press.  “A fine, fierce collection” – Neil Bartlett A polyvocal and multifaceted debut which is unafraid to confront the shame and stigma of HIV, while never allowing the poems to lose shape or pace, altering the lens to bring the reader’s attention to birdsong and the queer body in nature. Maddrell has achieved a distinct and totally convincing sound through the literary geography of lamping wild rabbits, one that gives the impression it’s been everywhere and returned because it survived. ‘Refusing repression or denial, Simon Maddrell’s brilliant debut travels compellingly from the constrictions and wildnesses of a queer Manx boyhood, through the early death of a sibling, into enacting an unashamedly sensuous and politicised selfhood in the face of HIV. Generous, questing, irresistible, these miraculous poems root deep to grow towards the sun, transforming their underworlds of loss into an enduring radiance of life.’ – Alice Hiller ‘A queer odyssey, an exquisite and arresting chronicle of the journey from shame to belonging. The skin of these poems are stretched thin and beneath them we glimpse a crystalline world of courage wrought from fear. Bold, surreal, surprising and elegant; this is a breathtaking debut.’  – Joelle Taylor Tickets at linkin.bio/simonmaddrell/ (Link in Bio) Book purchase links also in Bio #poetry #hiv #derekjarman #queer

London Launch for Simon Maddrell’s debut poetry collection, lamping wild rabbits, from Out-Spoken Press.  “A fine, fierce collection” – Neil Bartlett A polyvocal and multifaceted debut which is unafraid to confront the shame and stigma of HIV, while never allowing the poems to lose shape or pace, altering the lens to bring the reader’s attention to birdsong and the queer body in nature. Maddrell has achieved a distinct and totally convincing sound through the literary geography of lamping wild rabbits, one that gives the impression it’s been everywhere and returned because it survived. ‘Refusing repression or denial, Simon Maddrell’s brilliant debut travels compellingly from the constrictions and wildnesses of a queer Manx boyhood, through the early death of a sibling, into enacting an unashamedly sensuous and politicised selfhood in the face of HIV. Generous, questing, irresistible, these miraculous poems root deep to grow towards the sun, transforming their underworlds of loss into an enduring radiance of life.’ – Alice Hiller ‘A queer odyssey, an exquisite and arresting chronicle of the journey from shame to belonging. The skin of these poems are stretched thin and beneath them we glimpse a crystalline world of courage wrought from fear. Bold, surreal, surprising and elegant; this is a breathtaking debut.’  – Joelle Taylor Tickets at linkin.bio/simonmaddrell/ (Link in Bio) Book purchase links also in Bio #poetry #hiv #derekjarman #queer

Launches & Readings for Simon Maddrell’s debut poetry collection, lamping wild rabbits, from Out-Spoken Press.  “A fine, fierce collection” – Neil Bartlett A polyvocal and multifaceted debut which is unafraid to confront the shame and stigma of HIV, while never allowing the poems to lose shape or pace, altering the lens to bring the reader’s attention to birdsong and the queer body in nature. Maddrell has achieved a distinct and totally convincing sound through the literary geography of lamping wild rabbits, one that gives the impression it’s been everywhere and returned because it survived. ‘Refusing repression or denial, Simon Maddrell’s brilliant debut travels compellingly from the constrictions and wildnesses of a queer Manx boyhood, through the early death of a sibling, into enacting an unashamedly sensuous and politicised selfhood in the face of HIV. Generous, questing, irresistible, these miraculous poems root deep to grow towards the sun, transforming their underworlds of loss into an enduring radiance of life.’ – Alice Hiller ‘A queer odyssey, an exquisite and arresting chronicle of the journey from shame to belonging. The skin of these poems are stretched thin and beneath them we glimpse a crystalline world of courage wrought from fear. Bold, surreal, surprising and elegant; this is a breathtaking debut.’  – Joelle Taylor Tickets at linkin.bio/simonmaddrell/ (Link in Bio) Book purchase links also in Bio #poetry #hiv #derekjarman #queer