After Mass., Debate Rages

December 1 Is World AIDS Day

Monday starts a week of activities focused on worldwide epidemic affecting 40 million

First Things First: Take Care of Yourself

Free HIV Testing

New York University’s Center for AIDS Research is offering free, rapid HIV testing, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday, December 1 through Saturday, December 6. Your confidentiality is strictly protected and results are available within 30 minutes. Call 212 263 3570 to make an appointment or check hivinfosource.org.

Sharing Your Blessings

Fundraising Benefits Around Town

Broadway Stars for AIDS Day

The York Theatre Company presents the premiere of a concert version of “Children of Eden” by Stephen Schwartz and John Caird. The performance will feature a 100-member chorus and Broadway stars from “Hairspray,” “Avenue Q,” “Nine,” and “The Boy from Oz.” The event will benefit the National AIDS Fund and the York Theatre Company. 7 p.m. at the Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Dr. at 120th St. Ticket prices range from $100 to $5,000. Call 212 935 5820 for tickets.

Song for AIDS Day

The “AIDS Quilt Songbook” is the creation of William Parker, an American baritone who died of AIDS in 1993. The performance is a concert of art songs that describe the disease and its devastating effect on people. Bailey House, the city’s first agency to combat homelessness caused by AIDS, presents a performance of the Songbook for 2003 by Amy Burton, Richard Byrne, Lewis Cleale, Marcus DeLoach, and Andre Solomon-Glover. 8 p.m. at the Church of the Ascension at 5th Ave. and 10th St. Tickets are $20-$40. Call 212 633 2500 ext. 235.

Skate to Cure

Body Positive, the largest peer-based AIDS service organization in New York, is hosting a very special event in commemoration of World AIDS Day––“Blades Against AIDS.” What better way to support World AIDS Day than by ice-skating with the boys of the Gay Hockey Calendar to benefit Body Positive? Open bar and hors d’oeuvres all night. Free skating from 7-8:20 p.m. Performances by Mabel Dawn Davis and Pretty Girl Orchestra from 9:30–11 p.m. Pier 61, the Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers. Tickets are $35 in advance. Call Body Positive at 212 566 7333

Get Connected Communities Coming Together Around AIDS Get Informed

“From the Ground Up” is a program where staff will be in the lobby of the GMHC building to answer questions and provide literature on HIV testing and counseling, HIV prevention, and volunteer opportunities.

Other activities include: “Wrap & Rap with GMHC and Barnes & Noble Superstores.” Volunteers will launch the 10th year of the community outreach/fundraising effort at the Chelsea Barnes & Noble store, 675 Sixth Avenue at 22nd Street, by wrapping gifts, encouraging shoppers to take agency literature, and receiving donations that benefit the agency’s services and programs.

Other events are scheduled throughout the week and all are free, open to the general public, and held at GMHC, 119 West 24th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. For more information, call 212 367 1016 or visit gmhc.org.

World AIDS Day on Long Island

The Hilton Huntington of Melville hosts a forum coordinated by more than 18 HIV/AIDS groups on Long Island commemorating the 11th annual World AIDS Day. Long Island remains the nation’s leading suburban area in terms of AIDS incidence. Bari Zahn, the executive director of Living Beyond Belief, will be the keynote speaker. Contact Nella Palmieri at 516 496 7550 for more information. 7-10 p.m. 598 Broad Hollow Rd., Melville, Long Island.

LGBT Center Commemorates

“Out of the Darkness, Into the Light” is the annual commemoration of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center’s focus on the AIDS pandemic and responses to the crisis. The Center is hosting a week-long series of events dedicated to the theme “Stigma/Discrimination,” facilitated through a week of community-building events in New York City, beginning with a memorial on Monday, December 1 and culminating with a celebration of life on Friday, December 5. Activities include free HIV testing, youth open mike, health panels, and networking. 208 West 13th St. Visit gaycenter.org for a full list of World AIDS Day events times. All events are free and open to the public.

Challenges to the Spirit Communities of Faith Respond to AIDS

St. John the Divine

The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine hosts what is expected to be the largest World AIDS Day event in the U.S., “Live and Let Live,” featuring music, performance, and the experience of people living with HIV around the world. This is a community effort to combat HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Participants include Jacque Reid, BET nightly news anchor, Harlemm Lee, winner of NBC’s “Fame” competition, Baaba Maal, Senegalese music star, and many more. 7:30-9:30 p.m., with doors open at 6:30 p.m., at 112 St. and Amsterdam Ave.

St. Clement

St. Clement’s Episcopal Church at 423 W. 46th Street will be holding its annual Service of Hope and Remembrance at 6 p.m. with cabaret artists Carolyn Montgomery and P.J. Nelson and music director Darryl Curry. Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Bob Hecht at 212 246 7277.

St. Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church, the Gonzaga Group, and the Gay and Lesbian ministry will present a World AIDS Day event with speakers, including keynote speaker Gregory Maskwa on Sunday, November 30, 2003 from 1 to 4 p.m.  46 W. 16th St., near Sixth Avenue.

Awareness and Expression

Arts and Media Focus on AIDS

Memory Box Project

Identity Document: an evening of art and awareness to benefit the Memory Box Project, a community outreach program of the University of Cape Town, working with people affected by HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa’ s hardest hit communities. Tuesday, December 2 from 6.30 p.m.–10 p.m. at Clockwork-Apple Gallery, 32 Gansevoort Street, at Hudson Street. For more information on the Memory Box Project and the exhibition, visit memory-box.org.

AIDS In China

“To Live Is Better Than To Die,” a film by Weijun Chen about China’s AIDS epidemic revealed through one HIV-infected family in an isolated, rural village tells the story of a bleak day-to-day existence with an unsentimental and frank portrayal, while managing to convey the courage and will to live of a family coping under the most dire of circumstances. As the film chronicles the family’s struggle, Chen poignantly marks the passage of time with the seasons of the year. Father Ma Shengyi, his daughter Ma Rong, and son Ma Zhancao are HIV-positive. His wife Leimei is in the final stages of full-blown AIDS. Their oldest daughter Ma Ninging is virus-free. She was born prior to 1992 when the couple began selling their blood and contracted the HIV virus. On the Cinemax Channel at 7 p.m.

AIDS In Africa

UNICEF, in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation, Nickelodeon, and The N, a teen network, will screen excerpts from two new specials on youth and HIV/AIDS: “The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS,” and “A Walk In Your Shoes: Living With HIV/AIDS,” before an audience of 200 young people from the New York area from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at The Hitchcock / Rockefeller Auditorium, YWCA of the City of New York, 610 Lexington Avenue (corner of 53rd). RSVP to Rob Graham at 650 854 9400 or rgraham@kff.org. Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa will moderate a post-show discussion with a panel of HIV-positive young people from Africa and the U.S. Carol Bellamy, executive director, UNICEF, and Linda Ellerbee, the award-winning television producer, best selling author, and host of Nick News, who will discuss her experiences filming in South Africa, will join him. “The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS” will debut at 9 p.m. on Nickelodeon and “A Walk In Your Shoes – Living With HIV/AIDS” will debut at 9:30 p.m. on The N.

AIDS In Brooklyn

Artist Derek Jackson will speak at the Neuberger Museum of Art in observance of World AIDS Day as part of his ongoing installation “Branching Out.” Derek Jackson conceived “Branching Out” in his Brooklyn community. As an artist, a gay man, and a person living with HIV, he began to feel like an outsider in his own neighborhood. The series arose from Jackson’s personal aspiration to address the lack of artistic representation and interaction prevalent in working class communities and communities of color. He created portraits of friends, which hung on trees in the neighborhood. December 2, 2003 at 4:30 p.m. Purchase College, State University of New York, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, New York. Admission is free. Call 914-251-6112 for further information or neuberger.org.

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