What is not toxic today? In an era in which air, soil, food, water is polluted, aren’t we all toxic? Isn’t toxicity encompassed within each of us? Among the environments in which we live and within our bodies? The Declaration of Independence of “The Toxic” - Transfusions for an interspecies alliance between pokeweed and people living with HIV and Covid-19 viruses is a pokeweed acclimatizer, which brings together two species - Pokeweeds and Humans - to collaborate and help each other through transfusions of their chemical body fluids. Pokeweeds help humans to fight HIV and Covid viruses, and humans help the weed to write its Declaration of Interdependence in Central Park. To do so, two pokeweed fluids are mobilized: the PAP - Pokeweed Antiviral Protein - contained in the leaves of the plant which will be collected to produce antivirals for HIV and Covid; and the pokeweed’s magenta liquid contained in the berries which will be squeezed to write the plant’s Declaration of Interdependence. The intervention takes place at the Toxic Gardens, the Soaking Fountain, and the Biohacking House. Finally, “Toxicity” and the injustice of its displacement will be collectively acknowledged and celebrated in its multiple forms.
