David Acosta is a queer, indigenous, mixed-race poet, writer, curator, and activist. He founded and served as the first executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative (GALAEI). He was also a co-founder of the Philadelphia Working Fund for Artists with HIV/AIDS and served on the boards of The AIDS Law Project, The Philadelphia AIDS Walk, and others. David was a founding member of Our Living Legacy (1988), the nation’s first festival devoted to art and AIDS. In 1989 he curated the Pieces of Life Project at Taller Puertorriqueño which brought the Names Project (AIDS Quilt) to Philadelphia. In December of 2011 he curated Witness: Artists Reflect on Thirty Years of the AIDS Pandemic. His writings have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies. David is a founding member of the international artist collective Dissident Bodies and the Philadelphia-based artist collective Dislocada/Dislocated. He is co-founder and Artistic Director for Casa de Duende in Philadelphia.
