Will Recruiting Black HIV Experts Help the Diverse Healthcare Needs of African Americans Who Are Being Left Behind? by Larry Buhl At the end of many days, David J. Malenbrache, MD, is wiped out, not just by the workload but also by the number of people in his community who are black, affected with HIV, and have nowhere else to turn. Dr. Malenbranche, an assistant professor at the Division of General Medicine at Emory University’s School of Medicine in Atlanta, also supervises medical providers-in-training at [...]

Directed by Alex Stockley and Tom Barry Firecracker Films/Staying Alive Campaign No videos, no VJs, and no celebrity headliners marked this year’s World AIDS Day, as MTV and its grantmaking Staying Alive Campaign decided to unplug itself for one hour from its normal sexy venues in an effort to abate harmful stereotypes and to encourage twenty-something hipsters to empower themselves by taking an enlightened approach to HIV. Producers feel that at-risk youth, by talking openly about the virus, self-policing their own sexual behaviors, and getting [...]

As part of The Joey DiPaolo AIDS Foundation (JDAF), Camp TLC offered children impacted by HIV/AIDS a safe space in the summertime. It was an opportunity for kids to be in a positive-friendly environment 24/7, where stigma was barred entry and everyone understood why you had to take a pill break. For a variety of reasons, some personal and some financial, JDAF has been on hold for the past couple of years. Though JDAF is not as of yet actively pursuing its mission, Camp TLC [...]

Shopping Works for Housing Works by Alina Oswald If you are seeking a truly unique New York City experience, stop by a Housing Works thrift shop or the nonprofit’s café bookstore. Housing Works’ presence in the city is unique, as well, taking on two causes—the fight against AIDS and homelessness. For two decades Housing Works has been helping homeless individuals living with HIV/AIDS, offering healthcare, case management, housing and job training. Considered the largest grassroots AIDS organization across the country and the world, it has [...]

A Study Shows Truvada Can Sharply Cut Risk of HIV Infection by Larry Buhl Just before Thanksgiving the results of a huge study showing that a well-established treatment for HIV could also be used for prevention gave many people reason to be thankful. Nicknamed iPrEx, the double-blind study included nearly 2,500 men and was coordinated by the Gladstone Institutes of the University of California, San Francisco. The study found Truvada, a pill that combines two antiretroviral HIV medications, tenofovir and emtricitabine, curbed HIV infection in [...]

Dr. Sharon Allison-Ottey Takes a Different Approach to HIV/AIDS Education and Promoting Better Health by Chip Alfred You can call her a health expert, lecturer, author, community organizer, activist or educator, but one thing you would never call her is passive. Dr. Sharon Allison-Ottey is one dynamo doctor dedicated to improving the health of our nation, focusing on HIV/AIDS, women’s health, and the African-American community. Known affectionately as “Dr. Sharon,” she’s an in-demand public speaker and frequent guest on national radio and television shows, and [...]

A New Exhibit Proves It Takes at Least Two to Play Hide and Seek by Chael Needle There’s a danger that “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” currently running at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., will become known as the exhibition whose hosting institution, the Smithsonian, censored a work by an artist who has come to have a major influence on how we understand AIDS. This happened on the eve of World AIDS Day. And that work is a four-minute video excerpt [...]

It’s no surprise that The Red Pump Project sponsored a Sex and the City 2 event. The sweet-on-Manolos lead character Carrie Bradshaw believes in the power of shoes. And so do Chicago-based Luvvie Ajayi and Karyn Watkins, cofounders of the national nonprofit. “Women love shoes,” Luvvie says, matter-of-factly. (The cofounders prefer first names.) “Red shoes always make a powerful statement when you wear them. We wanted to use that energy to talk about HIV from a power standpoint…to empower women to talk about [HIV] more. So, [...]

Nonprofit Claims CDC is Shortchanging Latino HIV/AIDS Prevention by Larry Buhl Every five years the CDC awards grants for HIV programs around the nation. In August the CDC had $143 million to allocate over the next five years of which they allocated $42 million for year one and funded 133 community-based organizations. Another $110 million was available to award over the next five years to organizations for “Capacity Building Assistance,” or CBA. For 2010–15, the CDC is dividing $143 million among 133 HIV/AIDS organizations for [...]

A National Day of Discussion, Education, and Remembrance Lives On by Diane Goettel Day With(out) Art is an annual day of remembrance, action, and education that focuses on the many members of the artistic community who have been lost to AIDS while also disseminating important messages and information about HIV. The very first Day With(out) Art was held on December 1, 1989, organized as a day of observance, mourning, and action by a small group of arts professionals. There are a number of ways that [...]