Student's 'in-your-face' monologues tackle HIV
By Tanya Wragg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005
A crowd of Palm BeachCommunity College students gasped in awe and disgust last week as the nameless man slapped his girlfriend across the face, told her he purposely infected her with HIV so she'd never be with another man and then shot her dead before turning the gun on himself.
"The way he was talking to her, I was getting ready to get up and hit him with a bat," Anya Drayton, 21, said later.
Fortunately for the abusive drug dealer, his sobbing girlfriend - and the 50 students who witnessed the tragedy - the violent exchange was not real, but a scene in Devin T. Robinson's latest monologue, She.
He performed it at PBCC's Black Student Union's Speak Ur Mind poetry slam on June 9. The crowd of poets and his peers chanted, "Do it again! Do it again!"
For the last year, Robinson, a 21-year-old FloridaAtlanticUniversity theater major, has delivered captivating one-man shows like this all over South Florida.
He's hoping his "in-your-face" representation of the reality of HIV/AIDS will help stop the spread of the disease.
"Basically, I just want to be a positive role model for people of all ethnicities and show them you can become important to other people without being boring or negative," said Robinson, a Fort Lauderdale native.
Although Robinson's messages focus mostly on HIV/AIDS awareness, they also deal with issues such as domestic violence and absent parents. As close to his heart as the fight against AIDS is his deep pride for his heritage. He often performs in Afro-centric clothing under the name Devin T. Robinson X. The "X," he says, represents his unknown African heritage.
"Black history, black culture... it's not even black culture. It's actually world culture 'cause we've been able to touch every empire, the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire," Robinson said. "Everything went through Africa, and it's important for us to embrace that. It's so rich, and it's so much more than just slavery or just America. It's the world."
Last month, the African American Cultural Arts Organization invited Robinson to its annual Pan-African Bookfest, where he performed 15, a monologue about a 15-year-old boxer who makes it big but then loses everything when he contracts HIV.
At the NAACP's youth forum in Wellington a couple of weeks later, he did Ahh!, his tribute to the accomplishments of civil rights leaders like Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"They're (his messages) very positive, makes you think," said Stephanie Bland, 20.
Added PBCC student services specialist Jelecia Kirk, who also attended last week's poetry slam: "Every time he performs, it's refreshing. I pull something different each time I hear them."
Last June, on National Testing Day, he organized a march from Meyer Amphitheatre to City Hall in West Palm Beach, handing out condoms to club-goers.
"He comes to you as a peer," said Natalie Cius, 21, who helped distribute condoms that night. "I think he gets his message across really clear."
Elizabeth Robinson, program prevention director at the Comprehensive AIDS Program of Palm Beach County, met Robinson two years ago at a seminar on HIV/AIDS prevention given by the Centers for Disease Control. He was there, gathering information to provide at the Florida African American Student Association convention. She was teaching a workshop.
"He asked all the questions: 'How do you do this? How do you do that,' " she said. "You really have to have a passion for HIV/AIDS education. Devin has that burning fire where he wanted to really make a difference."
Elizabeth Robinson invited him to perform at a three-day youth summit for 500 kids, who gave him a standing ovation.
"He developed his art, spoken word poetry, and coupled it with messages about HIV/AIDS prevention and education, and voila! Look at what we have," she said. "He's dynamic. He's somebody to look out for in the future."
For more information on Devin T. Robinson, call (754) 246-6907 or visit his Web site,