One memory from Devin T. Robinson’s high school sex education sticks out in his mind. And it isn’t a pretty sight. It’s that of a “red penis with creamy, yellowish pus.”
“It was disgusting.”
Three years ago Robinson attended an AIDS awareness seminar sponsored by the Florida Department of Health. He didn’t have many details to give because his mind kept wandering. Two hours later, after three workshops, three speakers and an outdated movie about AIDS, an activist had been born.
“It was boring.”
None of the statistics, lectures or the pictures of deformed genitalia had much of an impact on him.
“It didn’t hit home.”
In his mind Robinson created a new way of bringing AIDS awareness to the community. He decided he could not only educate the youth about AIDS awareness — he could do it better. “I want to reach people the way I want to be reached.”
“No one was going to get tested or have protected sex when looking at this stuff. It didn’t make me think about getting tested. It didn’t make me feel anything. There was no emotion.” Since that fateful day Robinson, who is now a theater major at FAU, has developed several monologues about AIDS. He plays characters such as a boxer to a crack head, at venues ranging from FAU’s University Center to MTV’s Room Raiders to BET’s Wrap It Up tour. Besides monologues, he dabbles in poetry as well and his latest “Protected Un Sex,” includes verses like “the queen was a traitor!!/Herpes and Chlamydia!!!” But Robinson’s plans do not stop there.Over the next ten years he plans on cutting the HIV infection rate by half, nationwide. That’s a pretty big goal. The Center for Disease Control has had the same goal for over ten years and has spent billions on the prevention and spread of HIV. “It may sound outrageous, but I have to make it.” He believes he can accomplish this because, “There’s nothing in my life that I can remember not accomplishing,” and “I’m gonna win just like in everything else.” And why shouldn’t he since, as he points out, he achieved his last years’ goal of becoming “nationally known in one year.” In fact, he says he surpassed it by becoming “internationally known.”Robinson said that a church in Nigeria, called Preach Christ to the World, “keeps calling me to come over there and preach to their church and schools,” but he hasn’t found a sponsor yet to make that trip. He describes his style of education and entertainment as “in your face.”And even though he was bored in that seminar something stuck because certain parts and a certain woman caught his attention. The first statistic was the high HIV infection rates of minorities, and secondly he realized he was the youngest person attending the seminar. The next person closest to his age was four years older than him. The only other person that was even close to his age was ten years older.The woman who had caught Robinson’s attention was Sharon Hollis. She had been living with the virus for 18 years and is also the founder of Women of Color: Rise above your Shame, which is an organization dedicated to educating the minority community about AIDS. When Robinson shook hands with her he realized she was no different than anyone else. In that moment he came to understand that, “HIV was alive and you don’t know who has it.” It was because of all of this that the idea of educating the public and the youth about AIDS took hold of him.And so, within the two hours that the seminar lasted, Robinson had planned a march on South Beach and a new way of educating the youth about AIDS. The march on South Beach — his first stab of activism — didn’t succeed because he didn’t realize a permit was needed. Robinson said that society has conditioned us to respond to short quick messages like commercials. That is why his monologues are only 3-5 minutes each and he refers to them as “short powerful messages” that “mimic commercials.” Elizabeth Robinson (no relation), who at that time was the Regional Minority AIDS Coordinator for the Florida Department of Health of Palm Beach County and one of the speakers at the seminar, guided him along in his second planned march. This time he took on Clematis Street. About 30 people showed up for the march. Elizabeth, who now works for Comprehensive AIDS Program, admitted that their message was outdated and “does not reach the youth today.” She also said, “our prevention methods are 20 years old.” At the time, Robinson attended PBCC and said he knew he would have to start his own organization in order to bring AIDS awareness to the forefront. “I had to have my own organization to get the stuff I wanted to get done and no one would do it with the passion that I have,” Robinson said.His club became the AIDS Awareness Poets. Once he left PBCC it folded and so he took it with him. His first of what he called “a major taste of victory,” came in the form of a student handbook. He found a statement directed towards people with HIV that he felt was degrading and he set out to change it. “The way it was worded made it sound like anyone who has HIV is a threat,” Robinson said. He sent letters to Planned Parenthood, CAP and Compass and was eventually contacted by the Vice President of Student Affairs. The statement was eventually reworded.In August of 2005, Robinson appeared on the Lee Pitts Live Talk Show, which is a local talk show on the west coast of Florida. Out of all the guests to appear on his show, Pitts said that Robinson was in the top ten. He also said that the show received a lot of positive feedback and called Robinson “a bright and shining star of the future,” and his performance was “outstanding and excellent.” He said that Robinson displayed a great level of “charisma, excitement and uniqueness.” Planned Parenthood of Palm Beach County has also taken an interest in Robinson’s work. Shelby Scarpa, the director of field operations, said she sees him as a “future leader,” and has invited him to attend to two leadership workshops in Tampa and Orlando. She enjoys his work because “he’s not just lecturing but has turned it into an art form,” and says that both of their messages are “all about prevention.”Robinson has said that not everyone agrees with his message though. He says he has been told that he cannot relate to people with HIV because he does not have the virus. However, he says his message isn’t geared toward people living with HIV but instead his message is for “people period.” At the beginning of last year, Robinson briefly dated a girl with HIV whom he had met at a conference. Robinson has said she did not want to be interviewed for this article. He said he never had any reservations nor was he worried about dating a person with HIV. All that mattered was that she was a “beautiful person on the inside.”Along the way, Robinson has changed his name to Devin T. Robinson X (to honor, he says, his “unknown African-American heritage”) and has added these words to the bottom of all his e-mails: “Where there is injustice there will be an AIDS Awareness Poet.” Packed into his 5-foot 7-inch, 147 pound body are big ideas and even bigger goals. Besides cutting the HIV infection rate in half he has some other shorter-term goals.For instance, in the next year he wants his website to reach one million hits. He only has 988,500 visitors to go. How is he going to do this? “Word of mouth and getting my name out there,” he said. Other goals include creating a national television show that reaches one million people a day. He said he’s already working on the script and plans on broadcasting it via web cast. He hopes that a station such as MTV or BET, since he already has a relationship with them, will pick it up. A 90-minute AIDS awareness movie is also in the works and he plans on sending the script to producers once it’s finished.But how has his newfound fame affected him? “I’ve always been popular. The fame hasn’t changed me.” For more information on Robinson’s work, go to http://robinsonx.tripod.com/
Jason Parsley can be contacted at [email protected].
