Meet Daryon McCurdy of MYHIV in West Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daryon McCurdy.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Daryon. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My story started when I first moved to Atlanta, Georgia from Huntsville, Alabama to be closer to my dad and his immediate family but to also become either a dancer and/or actor. However, things did not go as planned; I mean I did a few background acting here and there, but it wasn’t until August 12, 2017, where my life really began. I had contracted HIV and having this virus within me had really encouraged me to live in my truth. Since then, I met quite a few positive role models who helped shape the person I am today. I had learned a lot about the meaning of living with HIV and how verbiage plays a major role in being an advocate for anything. I joined He Is Valuable, Inc. which was co-founded by my two friends. Our mission is to identify, reinforce, and celebrate the values of black queer men and their communities. Joining this non-profit and helping to create the foundation has reinforced me to make living with HIV to another level. Today, I am working on creating a t-shirt line “MYHIV” which stands for MY HEALTH IS V… the “v” is a positive v adjective that describes the meaning of living with an illness, but being able to see the positive in it. MYHIV isn’t surrounding just HIV, but any type of health-related issues that humans endure, such as, diabetes, any cancer, arthritis and transforming it into something more bright and understanding.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The road to my success hasn’t been a smooth one. There were and somewhat still some struggles that discouraged me to stop a few times. One of the struggles was that the people I came in contact with on a daily basis, whether they were friends or strangers; just listening to the stigmatizing conversations that surrounded HIV had put me in an unsettling place in my life, however, I did not wallow in those feelings. What I decided to do was help educate the ones who didn’t really know much about HIV and the basic knowledge behind it. Once my confidence began to rise to the occasion, I could feel myself being more comfortable in my skin and living my truth the correct way. I would still encounter a few people who just weren’t educable and I had to learn to let things flow the way it needed to flow. I learned that being opened and honest about your life, at times, will show people’s true colors.

Please tell us about MYHIV.
My upcoming business MYHIV will be a T-shirt line to help people who are living with health-related problems to feel sexy and themselves again. These shirts will be a test run to catch the community eye and if it starts to sell, I will create different merchandise to appeal to the buyers. I specialize in shirts as of now and I am known for being a sweet and tender person who loves all, even if, the person does not deserve my love. What I am most proud of about my company, is that the fact it’s mine and it will be a funding source for a few charitable locations. What sets my company apart from others, is that I am not doing for fame or money, but to help give my community their groove back before the health-related problems.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, what would I do differently; I would invest more money to get shirts done in time and I would market the way I would like to go about selling my shirts.

Pricing:

• $25 per shirt

Contact Info:

• Phone: (719) 496-0456
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Myhiv_productions

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