Photographer Daniel Nicoletta offers wisdom to a new generation of artists and activists by Brent Calderwood Daniel Nicoletta began his career as a freelance photographer in 1974, shortly after moving from his native New York to San Francisco. That same year, Nicoletta met Harvey Milk and Milk’s lover Scott Smith; it was a meeting that would change Nicoletta’s career, and life, forever. The couple hired the nineteen-year-old Nicoletta to work in their camera shop on Castro Street, and he soon found himself running the store. [...]

A giant red ribbon has been pinned to the Earth. On the side of Twin Peaks, looming over San Francisco, the symbol of AIDS awareness stands guard like a sentinel, shines like a beacon. It’s capable of a different kind of broadcast than the radio towers that rise above it. Assembled as part of San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s campaign to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the first reported cases of what would become known as AIDS on June 5, 1981, the red ribbon has already [...]

“Anyone can help combat this disease by educating others, by caring for the sick, by raising funds for AIDS research. Everyone should help, and most importantly, can help, no matter their circumstances. There are no excuses for doing nothing about AIDS. So what’s your excuse now?” Rhomylly B. Forbes wrote these words when reviewing Breaking the Walls of Silence for the July 1998 issue of A&U. Rhomylly had a nifty way of weaving her own AIDS advocacy into her writing. Never a detached observer, she [...]

Outcast Films looks back, moves forward by Chael Needle To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the first reporting of what would come to be known as AIDS, Outcast Films has launched a grass-roots outreach campaign called HIV@30: Looking Back, Moving Forward. In conjunction with the HIV Prevention Justice Alliance, and sponsored by LOGO, Outcast Films is offering four films to organizations that want to host free public screenings. “Outcast Films is dedicated to education and activism, especially for the LGBT community,” says Vanessa Domico, the [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

Something as simple and direct as one billboard can change lives in one community. Positive Young People Foundation (PYP), a new nonprofit dedicated to testing and prevention awareness, recently launched its AIDS-focused N-Ur-Face billboard campaign in South Carolina and Florida. Says Logan Voxx, CEO and founder of PYP, about the delivery method of the message, “Not everyone has a computer to log on to the Internet and view public service announcements through Facebook.” “Having those billboards that promote HIV testing and awareness is very important because this [...]

A New Exhibit of the Work of Mark Morrisroe Shows How the Artist Pushed the Boundaries of Photography & Identity by Angela Leroux-Lindsey Here’s the thing about Mark Morrisroe: His work lodges in your psyche. It finds purchase in the space between the conscious and unconscious, the real and surreal, a space Morrisroe himself often seems to expose in his photographs and films. In one self-portrait, taken in 1986—the same year he was diagnosed with HIV—his gaze is direct, haunted, but not self-conscious; swathed in [...]

Florida’s ADAP Seeks Money for HIV/AIDS Patients by David Volz The Florida Department of Health is trying to find more money to provide medication for Florida’s HIV/AIDS patients. Florida is among other states struggling to keep up with services, especially providing drugs for its HIV/AIDS population. The economic downturn has had a negative effect on the department in general and the HIV/AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) in particular. “The HIV/AIDS Drug Assistance Program has been around for twenty years,” says Tom Liberti, chief of the [...]