Book Café Academy of Performing Artists (BOCAPA)

BOCAPA is a membership organisation open and free to all upcoming artists regardless of creed, race, class, gender, national origin, religion, ethnicity, or lifestyle. According to the organisers, the programme is an artist's response to HIV/AIDS, inviting artists' personal commitment to fighting the pandemic. BOCAPA aims include:

• slowing the spread of the HIV epidemic by supporting comprehensive prevention strategies though art;
• improving the lives of artists living with HIV/AIDS by promoting sound policies and assistance concerning access to treatment, care, and support;
• reducing the stigma of HIV/AIDS and ensuring the human rights and civil liberties of those living with HIV/AIDS through performance art;
• promote the painting, writing, talking, singing, dancing, and acting about HIV/AIDS issues by young artists;
• develop personal responses to HIV/AIDS in young performing artists living up to the code of "being true to your self", which means being honest enough to embrace the truth about HIV/AIDS;
• guide artists to realise their dreams and fullest potential and to live responsibly; and
• contribute to the prevention care and control of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe by providing communication interventions that will facilitate the spread of awareness about HIV/AIDS.

BOCAPA has initiated a number of activities:

Open mic night - This is a weekly event that offers an open platform to a diverse range of young, up-and coming artists who are given the opportunity to perform on stage and showcase their talent. The academy has a membership of 108 artists, comprising 27 groups and 11 solo artists who perform diverse styles including mbira, R&B, hip-hop, ragga, and poetry. The majority of its members are under the age of 30, with most in their teens and early twenties.

Roundtable discussions - On October 9 2006 BOCAPA artists took part in the academy's "Be True to Yourself" roundtable discussion. The gathering consisted of a platform for artists to discuss and share experiences on HIV/AIDS and issues surrounding it, such as sex, stigma, promiscuity, voluntary counselling and testing, and PLWHA. The discussions were hosted and moderated by Pamberi Trust, who invited technical personnel to share information and expertise.

"Be True" edutainment materials - As a direct outcome of the discussions, the participants are encouraged to work on HIV/AIDS edutainment materials. The skills and techniques come from "Xposure" skills training workshops run by BOCAPA, while the content and the way artists portray subject matter is influenced by the roundtable discussions as well as the workshops. Artists are encouraged to produce materials that are intended for a young audience. The materials should also not talk "down" to them and should capture the difficult circumstances in which many young people find themselves. The resulting materials are then exhibited in monthly shows.

In the longer term, BOCAPA aims to bring artists together in collaborative teams involving various artistic media - drama, music, visual art - to create productions about HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS, Youth.

BOCAPA aims to assess the progress of the programme quantitatively and qualitatively by measuring programme success in:

• giving upcoming artists a chance to freely express themselves and be heard on HIV/AIDS issues;
• improving artists' knowledge and understanding on HIV/AIDS;
• increasing sustained dialogue on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS;
• introducing artists to the science and facts of HIV/AIDS;
• introducing print and electronic media into the young artists' approach to HIV/AIDS;
• developing a social responsibility culture among young artists; and
• encouraging passionate and practical responses to HIV/AIDS in artists, individually and collectively.