Nathan Townsend’s concert next week is a homecoming of sorts, the out performer said.
“I ran away from Philly, I can say that now. I ran away to die, and I didn’t,” he said. “Now I’m back in the game, and I want to share my story.”
The 60-year-old New Hope resident is the housing coordinator at Bucks Villa, an independent-living facility for people with HIV/AIDS in New Hope. He is also a consultant for Merck, a role that allows him to share his experience with his HIV/AIDS diagnosis across the region.
That’s also a goal of his June 20 show, “This is My Life,” at Drexel University’s Mandell Theater — a fusion of song, dance, film and spoken word, being held the same day he releases his first CD.
Townsend was diagnosed several decades ago.
“My experience was much different than many other people in the early years because I wasn’t really in shock or too fazed. I had a partner and he tested negative and we stayed together; that was, I think, one of the single most important things that allowed me to deal with it,” Townsend said. “We eventually broke up but the disease progression was fairly uneventful. It was years before I really had to address it again.”
About a decade ago, Townsend had lost his job and, unable to afford his medication, saw his health going downhill quickly.
“I was deathly ill and in the hospital for 40 days, getting blood transfusions,” he said. “I was a fashion designer in Philly and knew a lot of people and didn’t want to share this with them. I was afraid to tell my story. Who knew that would be the defining moment of the rest of my life?”
His fear propelled him to New Hope, where he lived at Bucks Villa. His health gradually improved, and so did his outlook for the future.
Townsend trained to become an HIV educator, then an outreach specialist, counselor and tester. He served as Bucks Villa’s resident manager before becoming housing coordinator in 2008.
“I believed I was going to die: I had bought a funeral plot. But in preparation of death, I never made plans for life. So now here I am, a senior releasing my first CD at 60 years old.”
Townsend said music has always been a part of his life — he previously worked as both a wedding and funeral singer — but he chose not to pursue a career in the industry.
“I wanted to sing when I wanted to sing, not when I had to,” he said.
But his struggle over the last decade is a story he felt he had to tell through song.
“A lot of my songs are about my experience with lack of love, loneliness. Too often, people who are diagnosed are denied affection and intimacy and that’s, for me, been one of the hardest parts of being diagnosed. And also, when you become a senior, people think desire stops; to me, the only things that have changed since I’ve gotten older is I’ve gotten more numbers on my age and more wisdom. Other than that, I’m no different.”
Townsend said he wants to use that attitude to promote a message of hope to people who’ve been through, or are currently facing, experiences similar to his.
“I feel blessed, and I want to share that. There are people I encounter every day who are not where I am, but I want them to be as comfortable as I am,” he said. “And part of that process is bringing this message back into Philly. I’ve been speaking at prisons, colleges, schools out in Bucks County, but just dancing on the edge — I want to dance in the main arena now.”
To give back to an organization that helped him turn his life around, Townsend is donating a portion of the proceeds from next week’s show to Bucks Villa.
“Without Bucks Villa, I would not be alive. I couldn’t have survived in the lifestyle I was caught up in in Philly. I came to see the benefit of social services and was able to utilize those services until I was back on my feet, which so many people feel like they won’t ever be able to do. That’s the message I bring: You can do it. I’ve been down to the ground and I know it’s no fun down there. But you can do it.”
“This is My Life” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. June 20 at Mandell Theater, 33rd and Chestnut streets. For more information, visit http://www.eventbrite.com/e/nathan-townsend-presents-this-is-my-life-tickets-15440422720?aff=efbevent.