In an age of Netflix and movies-on-demand, when watching films can be a housebound affair, one group has returned to cinema’s communal promise. Men’s Film Night, a drop-in group sponsored by AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), meets weekly in West Hollywood. Its specific aim is to “foster growth and connection among gay men living with HIV/AIDS.” “To sit in a traditional support group can sometimes be intimidating and uncomfortable. Men’s Film Night utilizes movies to create a shared experience to talk from,” says facilitator Steven [...]

Tacoma-Based Artist and Curator Rock Hushka Helps Create a Different Frame for Understanding the Pandemic by Karen Fleur Tofti-Tufarelli When Rock Hushka—co-curator of the art exhibit “Art, AIDS, America” slated to open in 2012 or 2013—was browsing through a renowned New York City independent bookstore around 2006, he looked for new information about HIV/AIDS. “I thought it would be easy,” Hushka says, “but the section was in the basement, on the bottom shelf; under a table; in the back corner….” He realized, then, he says, [...]

by Chris Hicks The foundation you built Rested on grass Sewn together and stretched out So Washington could see, so we all could see How much memories mean How much silence costs The foundation you built Grew solid as granite It’s the foundation where my family now stands Secure and free to be who they are And when I am asked where my inner strength comes from I have a simple and honest reply It comes from you Chris Hicks, a writer/musician based in the [...]

by Antonio Gomes gliding hand in hand to bed, night was a dark flower a trail of roses sunflowers the autumn breath of their lives together the final hour Antonio Gomes lives in New York City and works at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City, where he is Professor of Medicine, and Director of Consultative Services and Senior Consultant, Cardiac Electrophysiology. He has published extensively in Medicine and has published a collection of poems entitled, Visions from Grymes Hill (Turn of River Press), [...]

Justin B. Terry-Smith Courageously Turns the Camera on Himself to Keep Others from Being Infected by Dann Dulin “I want to broadcast my personal business to the world to help others.” —Activist Justin B. Terry-Smith on POZIAM Radio This powerful statement is certainly a twist on Billie Holiday’s classic blues ballad, “Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do.” Unlike the song, Justin, who is HIV-positive, invites others to share his personal life through his videoblog. It airs on his Web site, which is a moving journal [...]

A New Parent, Comedian And Actor Alec Mapa Teaches A&U’s Dann Dulin About The Art Of Giving, How To Comfort Yourself Through Life’s Lows, And Reveals A Solution To Lower HIV Infection Rates In The Younger Gay Community “I’m like horseshit. I’m all over the place,” declares a playful Alec Mapa when pressed to comment on his constant involvement with charitable causes. For the past decade or more, Alec has been a regular participant at numerous fundraisers for gay causes or for AIDS charities. And [...]

A new film about ACT UP! is in the works! Producers/directors Scott Robbe and Jerry Kolbe have been feverishly working for the past three years to bring a story about the world’s first AIDS activists to the screen. As a grass-roots and radically democratic movement, ACT UP! was instrumental in challenging power structures invested in letting people with AIDS die. ACT UP! helped achieve dedicated and immediate access to speedy treatment R&D funding, access to potential anti-AIDS meds, access to freedom from stigma and discrimination, [...]

LifeGuide [Hep Talk] New HCV Meds Are on the Horizon, but Affordability May Still Remain a Challenge by Larry Buhl This column has covered several antiviral meds in the pipeline to treat hepatitis C, the most common cause of chronic liver disease, liver cancer, and liver transplantation in the U.S. When these meds become available they promise improved health-related quality of life and reduced morbidity and mortality, provided they are taken as recommended. And provided patients can afford them. That’s a big problem given their [...]

LifeGuide [Treatment Horizons] Dr. C. Everett Koop Revisits a Time When Neither Treatment nor Testing Existed by Chael Needle Knowing he had to face the micromanaging tendencies and political resistance of cabinet members overseeing his work, then-U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop played a trick when presenting his first AIDS report in 1986. He knew the report would be printed as a brochure on cheap paper, as two to three million copies were envisioned. “But, I also ordered one thousand copies printed on the best [...]

Left Field by Patricia Nell Warren Religious Extremists Offer a “Solution” for the World’s Ills, including HIV/AIDS. As I wrote this column, the last week of March, a conference was about to take place whose speakers numbered some of the most extremist U.S. religious activists. One might assume that it was sponsored by the Tea Party, or The Family, or some other way-out cult group. But no. The Social Transformation Conference was sponsored by Harvard University. It partnered with Harvard’s Extension Service and Leadership Society, [...]