Up until very recently, Sheryl Lee Ralph believed this would be the last year putting on her star-studded DIVAS Simply Singing! signature AIDS benefit concert. Ralph, an actress and singer of legendary stature known for her enterprising role as Deena Jones in the original Dreamgirls Broadway cast and countless other film and television credits, has dedicated the last 25 years of her life to shining the spotlight on HIV and AIDS. She knows now that it’s far from time for the curtains to close. A diva’s work is never done.
In 1990, Ralph founded the DIVA (Divinely Inspired Victoriously Anointed) Foundation and married her passion for helping others in need with her incredible artistic gifts. Now in 2015, the 58-year-old activist believes her work is even more necessary.
"We can see sex. We can sell sex. But we can't talk about it in a healthy, informative way? It's alright to be a freak in the sheets, but you can't be a healthy sexual person? Something's wrong about that."
Bold and unapologetic, Ralph’s take-no-mess approach has served her well in the fight to save lives, particularly the many Black lives that are most affected. Partnering with companies like OraSure, Ralph continues to champion the message by any means necessary that early testing and knowing your status is a game changer.
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BlackDoctor.org recently spoke with Sheryl Lee Ralph about being one of Hollywood’s biggest voices in the HIV/AIDS conversation for over two decades.
BDO: What inspired you to create the Divinely Inspired Victoriously Aware (DIVA) Foundation?
Ralph: You know, it started for me as an original company member of Dreamgirls on Broadway and to me I always say that that was one of the greatest times in my life and it was parallel to one of the worst and that was when I started to see friends and cast members get sick and die of this mysterious disease. And with them being sick and in their greatest time of need, I saw how horrible people could be to one another and they were mistreated, they were left to die alone and it was a horrible death and I said this can't happen. As human beings, we've got to be able to do better for and by each other. And so I just started getting in the fight, becoming aware, getting information. And there were many others who were losing friends as well and I just tried to pull it all together to make sure that we did something that helped our friends and that's where the inspiration came from. There was a need for people to care.BDO: Creatively, what does DIVA do differently to bring awareness to HIV and AIDS?
Ralph: We use the arts and we use the arts from an unapologetic, female point of view. In fact, most times when I sing, when I speak, I always open with an opening stanza of the song that quite simply says, "I'm an endangered species, but I sing no victim song/I am a woman/I am an artist/And I know where my voice belongs" and as an artist it's about using my voice. Very early on I was presented with one of the first red ribbon awards at the U.N. for using the arts. I created a line of t-shirts that, basically, it was a big, red ribbon with the word DIVA going through it and people were always asking, "What's the red ribbon diva?" and it gave us the ability to engage people in the conversation about what that red ribbon was for and how it had been created to unite us in the fight against AIDS. I also created my one-woman show Sometimes I Cry where I basically had women's stories around the disease and I started telling them through monologue. That show's gonna turn 10 years and we've been able to perform that all around the country. I also wrote and directed and produced the film "Secrets"...So, that combined with Divas Simply Singing! which is now the longest consecutive running musical AIDS benefit in the country and that we will celebrate 25 years in October this year, we've just been able to raise our voices one voice at a time using the arts to keep this message out there - to be aware, to take care of yourself. Because I've always believed that if you get people in their heart it will travel to their mind. Sometimes they're not always gonna listen to a speech. They're not always gonna read a book. But if they can find a song, if they can see the show, if they can watch the movie there's something that they might learn; there's something that might change their mind about what they think they thought about this disease and other people with the disease. So we unapologetically use the arts.
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BDO: I love that you use the word 'unapologetically' and it reminds me - I was snooping around Instagram and Facebook this morning and I saw that yesterday you took a photo with Rae Lewis-Thornton, who of course is a renowned HIV/AIDS activist who goes by the name the "Diva Living With AIDS". Can you speak a little bit about having women like Rae Lewis-Thornton, who is VERY unapologetic and very bold with telling her story, and why it's so important to have women like her - particularly Black women - champion this cause.
Ralph: First of all, that's my friend, that's my buddy! In fact, we met about 12 years ago. I was down South somewhere and this beautiful woman walked in in this white Chanel suit and she took the podium and she opened her mouth and started telling this story about something that had happened to her in a restaurant and I was stunned. I was absolutely stunned as she just stood there and told everybody how there she was with her HIV positive self and she was in this room in her Chanel suit and she was [retelling] just having diarrhea in front of everybody as she stood up trying to make her way through the restaurant. And it was hearing that story that made me start to write Sometimes I Cry. And she is the character - it's her story - that is the basis of the one character that I always perform and that is "Miss Chanel". She has been at the forefront of this disease, talking about it and I've seen people at times be very unkind to her. I've seen people at times completely misunderstand what it was she was trying to do and say. And I find it very difficult because I said ya know, she is really going through something with grace, and it's hard for folks to understand that she's actually doing it with grace. I've learned a lot from her. I've learned a great deal from her. We're always in touch. In fact, we worked together on a project of mine called "The Sister Circle" and what I did was I put together about 25 infected and affected HIV women from America and we traveled to South Africa where we met with about 110/112 HIV infected and affected women to have conversation with other women of color about this disease. It was A-MAZING the response when they saw women from all walks of life from the United States coming down to actually sit and talk and share. It was just amazing and to have Rae there, it was like they couldn't imagine it. They said, "A woman like you?" and she was like, "Yeah, a woman like me."BDO: What are some of the challenges in this work?
Ralph: Some of the challenges - they've been very different but sometimes the same. I spoke with a senator yesterday from Illinois and she looked at me and she said, "You need help." And I said, "Yes! We need help. Still." And she was talking to me about a bill she's about to introduce in Illinois that will actually help grassroots organizations. Because very often, larger organizations you have to have so many people, you have to have this, you have to have that, and for smaller organizations - people who are working with less than $300,000 - you need a different kind of help. It's like, you've got to change the way you do business because it's not big business. It's grassroots people who are reaching the people who need to hear the word; who need to get the message and that's a different way of operating...
It's also been a challenge at times being a woman. People sometimes look at you as a woman and they immediately think about what they think about how women do business. Then you're a Black women on top it. Then they think another way about how they think about Black women doing business. And then you're talking about HIV and AIDS and so many people will tell you, "It's just not sexy anymore" and I'm so sick and tired of hearing people say it's just not sexy anymore. I'm so sick of hearing that phrase. So,the challenges have been very interesting. I remember in the early days of this fight, raising my voice, I remember a church sending me a letter telling me that God would not find favor in me for working with those people. I'll just never forget that as long as I live. And how could church people sit down and put those words together and send them to me. You start to see people and how they really think and feel. It can be daunting but I look at it this way: When I said that if sex could be a problem for men, women cannot be far behind. They said that I was stupid; that I was ridiculous. That I was an alarmist. We all know that I was just correct in what I thought would be the natural trajectory for the disease.
BDO: Having couples get tested together is something both you and your husband champion. Why is it important for couples to do this together?
Ralph: You know, because I think that that just says a wonderful thing about each other and your relationship. Why wouldn't you want to be tested together? You go to the doggone hospital and test for everything together. I say you make a day of it. Show each other how much you love each other. People say, "Well what if you come up positive?" What IF you come up positive! It's not like you didn't have sex with anybody before you got married. Different diseases behave differently. Sometimes they might lay dormant. You get tested and you KNOW. What better way to show your love. That's why we created TestTogether.org. As simple as put your picture up on the website, tell people your story about getting tested together. Encourage people. And it doesn't have to be just a husband and wife. It can be a mother. Show your daughter how to be sexually responsible TO HERSELF. Fathers, show your sons how to be sexually responsible to themselves and everybody else. It's about taking responsibility for your own health because your health matters.
BDO: With all of the travel, the challenges of stigma and the statistics that can be disheartening, how do you keep your spirit replenished?
Ralph: You know what? I'm always revived and refreshed by the moment when I realize oh my God, somebody's actually listening. You follow my Instagram, look on my Instagram and you'll see there was a message from a young girl who was obviously a high schooler and she Instagrammed from her classroom and she said "Oh wow, I see what Miss Sheryl was talking about. We learned about AIDS today." And she had shot from her phone her classroom and you could see that they were just running this movie; kids were talking over the presentation and the boy in front was actually asleep. But I said to myself this girl is listening. She's following. She's listening and she actually put it together on that day. I felt so good!....
I've also had people tell me, "Why you do this work? You're not Sharon Stone. She doesn't have to do anything. All she has to do is be Sharon Stone and say AIDS and they help her." And I'm like, "Well goddamn." Okay? [I'm] Doing the work and moving forward, because I'm working for who needs to hear the message and still at this point hasn't gotten it.
The DIVA Foundation kicks off its 25th anniversary year in August with an event in Philadelphia. For more details, visit www.theDivaFoundation.org.
