{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Bill T. Jones Bill T. Jones has never created a single work about AIDS. He will tell you that firmly, perhaps forcefully. But the facts that he is HIV positive and that he lost his partner in love and work to AIDS, infuse his choreography, making several of his breathtaking works metaphors for the …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Juanita Millender-McDonald A Glamour magazine survey called her “one of eleven women who will change the world.” Bold initiatives have become her trademark. And not only is she a champion of her people, she’s also a fierce soldier in the battle against AIDS. Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald may represent the citizens of California’s 37th congressional …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Helene Gayle Dr. Helene Gayle has seen it all. From the Reagan/Bush era of the 1980s, through the Clinton administration, and on to another Bush presidency, Gayle has plugged away at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 1995 to 2001, she directed the agency’s National Center for HIV, STD and …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Dr. Gail Elizabeth Wyatt Mention the phrases “Black woman” and “a lucrative career involving sex and sexuality” and one might be tempted to think of actresses and entertainers. Try Ph.D., wife of 40 years, mother of three, author of several books, and blazing pioneer in the AIDS pandemic. “I’ve been a sex researcher at …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Pernessa Seele Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician here? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? —Jeremiah 8:22 This is the Bible verse upon which Pernessa Seele founded her organization 12 years ago. While working in Harlem Hospital during the 1980s, Seele was shocked …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Maxine Waters “This is a national crisis. Our community can wait no longer.” These were the dramatic words voiced by California Congresswoman Maxine Waters in 1998, as she sounded the AIDS alarm. As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, the fiery Democrat and her colleagues joined with other community leaders and took the dramatic …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} The Bakewells Like father like son. And his son. And his son. And their sons and daughters, and their children, and their children and so on and so forth. Life grows with the seeds we plant. How the seeds grow and flourish depends greatly on how we nurture and cultivate them. Call the Bakewell …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Andrea Williams “Very few movies have been made about living with it.”Nelson George Imagine a Hollywood pitch meeting where busy studio executives hear the following pitch for a prospective film: The true-life story of a Black mother who overcomes her addiction to crack and becomes a positive HIV-positive role model and AIDS activist in …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Stuart Burden People can come up with invaluable ways to help the underserved, but if they can’t find the funding, nothing happens. Still others can possess invaluable financial resources to help those in need, but if they can’t find the proper avenues, nothing happens. Think of Stuart Burden as a matchmaker. For years, he’s …
{artsexylightbox}{/artsexylightbox} Ronald Johnson The year was 1984 and like many gay men in New York City, Ronald Johnson was scared. Droves of homosexual men were disappearing rapidly, often going from being robust and healthy to becoming sick and dying within a matter of months. Rock Hudson was still in the closet as a man living …
