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World AIDS Day is held on December 1 worldwide each year. This is a day when people from all around the globe show support for those living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died. We celebrate the progress that has been made in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and we look to expand access to prevention, treatment and care services. There are many events scheduled for Worlds AIDS Day today in New York City. We have put a list together of a few events in keeping with this year’s theme, “The Time To Act Is Now.” We invite you to add your events under comments.
For World AIDS Day, POBA, along with a coalition of HIV/AIDS organizations, including Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), LifeBEAT: Music Fights AIDS, and Visual AIDS have joined together to provide a permanent online platform to honor and showcase the creative legacies of a generation of artists lost to AIDS, and to promote AIDS awareness.
The platform, Art Lives, will kick-off on World AIDS Day, December 1, with online exhibits of works by seven artists from music, design and the visual arts worlds, whose lives were cut short by AIDS. This will be a permanent exhibit and artists from all genres will be added in the coming months by nomination from other HIV/AIDS organizations and the public.
The public can participate in Art Lives campaign by nominating exceptional artists lost to AIDS in the field of visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, design, film, music and object arts, or by creating an online gallery showcasing their work. To nominate an artist for Art Lives, go to POBA Nominate A Great here.
The Apollo Theater in Harlem will host the program “From Vision to Reality” on December 1 from 11 am to 1 pm. The program, which is co-hosted by over 60 AIDS service and community based organizations, along with the New York City Department of Health, will focus on educating the audience about the campaign “End AIDS NY 2020.” Elected officials, government staff and community members will be in attendance to show support and to renew their commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic in New York. You can RSVP for this Free event here. The Apollo Theater is located at 253 West 125th Street.
Also in Harlem for World AIDS Day, the Latino Commission invites organization staff and volunteers, people impacted by HIV, to a “United Walk in Remembrance.” They will be meeting between 10 am and 10:20 am to walk from the northeast corner of Lenox Avenue and 125th Street to The Apollo Theater event.
On World AIDS Day, Housing Works has invited five leaders in the fight against AIDS to engage in conversation about what it will take to defeat HIV/AIDS in our lifetime. Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, will moderate the panel discussion, which will probe the latest advances in prevention, the battles in advocacy and the challenges that we can overcome by working together.
The panelists will include Dr. Mary Bassett, Commissioner, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Dr. Mark Feinberg, CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Charles King, CEO, Housing Works and Co-Chair of Governor Cuomo’s AIDS Task Force, Kelsey Louie, CEO, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), and Member of Governor Cuomo’s AIDS Task Force, and Chase Strange, Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union.
The event will be located at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street at 7 pm. This is a free event, and you can register here.
A World AIDS Day candlelight vigil will be held on December 1st at 6 pm. The vigil, Out of the Darkness, will begin at Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan, 164 West 100th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue), and continue to the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist, located at 263 West 86th Street (at West End Avenue). The vigil will include the reading of names and reflection of those lost to AIDS at approximately 6:30 pm. Co-supporters for the vigil include ACT UP New York, American Run for the End of AIDS, GMC, Keith Haring Foundation, SAGE, and many more. Portions of the International AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display.
Day With(out) Art: Radiant Presence is a digital slideshow with images from the Visual AIDS’ Artist+Registry, which is the largest database of works by artists with HIV/AIDS. The artwork features artists living with HIV/AIDS and those who are no longer with us. For the 26th annual Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS has partnered with art institutions, AIDS service organizations and universities for screenings and public programs to highlight Radiant Presence internationally.
Visual AIDS has also coordinated large-scale outdoor projections of Radiant Presence in highly visible public locations in New York City (in numerous locations), San Francisco and Miami (during Art Basel) for December 1. The Radiant Presence video will also premiere on Visual AIDS’ website on December 1.
Day with(out) Art: Radiant Presence is meant to provoke conversation about HIV criminalization and stigma, access to treatment, the shifting demographics of people living with HIV and the disproportionate effect of the epidemic on communities of color and trans-women. Public screenings of Radiant Presence in our area will be at the following locations on December 1:
BRIC, 647 Fulton Street, Brooklyn from 5-7 pm, a looping gallery presentation will play before a peer driven program, “Conversation with Mark Segal and David Carter.”
Columbia University School of the Arts, Dodge Hall Lobby, 2960 Broadway, looping video presentation
The Apollo Theater, End AIDS 2020 Coalition, 253 West 125th Street, looping theater presentation
Fashion Institute of Technology, 227 West 27th Street, looping video presentation in cafeteria and select monitors throughout the school from 10 am – 6 pm
Parsons School of Design, 2 West 13th Street, entrance lobby, looping video presentation on two street-level monitors 8 am to Noon
Radiant Presence was inspired by the 25th Anniversary of Electric Blanket, the epic slide-show about AIDS, which intersperses the work of over 200 photographers with slide texts that include demographics, data, and slogans about AIDS worldwide. The slide-show, initially projected on the facade of Cooper Union on December 1, 1990, was later projected on public walls and buildings internationally. Radiant Presence will also be shown later in December at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and other institutions. A full list can be found here.
Vocal New York has been working to prevent homelessness for thousands low-income New Yorker’s living with HIV/AIDS and their families through state affordable housing bill since 2006. New York’s rental assistance program for low-income and homeless people living with HIV/AIDS denies tenants an affordable housing protection, capping their rent at 30% of income.
The HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) current policy forces them into homelessness because they cannot afford their rent. Many are unable to save enough each month for the rent, falling into arrears and ending up back in the emergency shelter system. Homelessness and unstable housing are serious recurring issues facing people living with HIV/AIDS, and is a focus of Vocal New York. Lighting The Candle will take place on December 1 from 2 pm to 4 pm, in an effort to shine a light on this problem. The event will be located at 80 Fourth Avenue, between Bergen and St. Marks in Brooklyn. In addition, Vocal New York will also be at the Worlds AIDS Day at The Apollo Theater.
The Free Throws for AIDS Challenge will be held on December 1st at former New York Knicks’ Hall of Famer, Walter ‘Clyde’ Frazier’s restaurant, Clyde Frazier’s Wine & Dine. Every year Wayne Cesa, Executive Director and Founder of Free Throws for AIDS, takes the Free Throws for AIDS Challenge to different locations. The challenge involves Mr. Cesa shooting free throws for five minutes. Sponsors donate on how many free-throws he can make in that time limit. Individual donations are also accepted. This year, the event will be held at Clyde Frazier’s Wine & Done, located at 485 10th Avenue at 11:30 am, and it is a Free event.
‘Canal Street,’ 1992. Artist Martin Wong. Collection of the New York Historical Society
World AIDS Day is a time to celebrate and honor those whose lives were cut short by this devastating illness. The Bronx Museum of the Arts is celebrating the life and work of Martin Wong (1946-1999) in the exhibit Martin Wong: Human Instamatic. This is the first museum retrospective of Wong’s work, and will take you from his early days in the 1970s, where he first occupied a room at the Meyer’s Hotel, to paintings from his years living on the Lower East Side. The exhibit reflects the multi-ethnic community he loved, and includes a display of personal papers and drawings.
In a separate room, off the main galleries, is a display case sharing many of his personal papers and drawings. In the photo above, you can see his drawing of two firemen kissing inside a heart. Underneath it are Wong’s words, “Make sure the heart is full and voluptuous.”
‘The Annunciation According to Mikey Pinero’ (L); ‘Cupcake and Paco (Corot)(R). Artist Martin Wong.
Mr. Wong moved back to San Francisco to be in the care of his parents while fighting AIDS. He passed away in 1999. In addition, Martin Wong is being honored on Worlds AIDS Day by the organization Visual AIDS in the online event Art Lives.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts is located at 1040 Grand Concourse. Admission is free.
Love Heals, The Allison Getz Foundation for AIDS education invites you to stop by the What’s Your Sign? Mural Project, located at 314 Johns Place and Undersell Avenue in Brooklyn to commemorate World AIDS Day. This street art project was brought about to raise public awareness to the HIV/AIDS crisis among black and Latino youth in New York City. The zodiac-themed art exhibit, known as the What’s Your Sign? Mural Project features the work of sixteen renowned artists who painted 12 individual art panels. The proceeds from the sale of the panels will benefit Love heals, which is a non-profit organization working to empower youth in the fight against HIV/AIDS through prevention and education.
An interfaith gathering with the theme “I Commit to….” will take place at the Church of Christ the King. This World AIDS Day event is part of the Latino Religious Leadership Program, and sponsored by the Latino Commission on AIDS, and the Church of Christ the King. The event, which will include music, prayer and reflection, will be held from 5 pm to 6:30 pm, and located at 141 Marcy Place in the Bronx.
Although not held on December 1st, we would like to include the event “My Ballroom Life: Pure, Pretty & Proud,” which will be on held on Thursday, December 3. This is a presentation of the GMHC, The Latex Ball. It will include a panel discussion on HIV, moderated by Martez Smith from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. It is a Free event, and will take place at GMHC located at 446 West 33rd Street, 7th Floor from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.
Also worth noting is a private event featuring Bono and The Edge which will take place at Carnegie Hall on December 1. The event, A Night of Music, will be honoring individuals and foundations who have stepped up to meet the challenges of HIV/AIDS, and are helping to lead the fight against it. Since this is a private event, tickets will not be available to the public.
Get in touch with the author at AFineLyne.
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