Stories From Aids Walk NY 2012

The AIDS Walk took place in New York on Sunday May 20, 2012. While every participant walked for a different reason, they all walked for the same cause, which was support the fight against AIDS and HIV.  Check out the video I shot during Aids Walk NY 2012 "Stories From The Walk". Hope to see you on the walk in 2013!

--Kyle Sweet

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

kylesweet2013@gmail.com

On Sunday, May 20^th, approximately 45,000 people converged in the streets of Manhattan for the AIDS Walk NY, and I am honored to have been one of them.  Walkers and wheelers of all ages and all ethnicities trekked 10 kilometers through Central Park and around the West Side, each of us with our own stories in every step.

We passed volunteers who shouted at us from the opposite side of the caution tape to “keep walking” and blew encouraging whistles in our direction. There were also tourists and NYC residents who joined us for a bit, curious and overwhelmed by the number of people walking.  “What are you fighting for?” I remember one woman yelling at us from the sidewalk.  “It’s the AIDS walk,” a man next to me answered, “we’re walking for awareness and a cure.”

Photo by Kyle Sweet

 

Each person had a story to tell, and we heard a few of them as we stopped to take footage.  My fellow intern and walker Kyle, brought along his camera and stopped to ask questions of people we wanted to know more about.  Some participants were walking for the twelfth time.  There were families with names of loved ones on their T-shirts, and co-workers who walked for companies that supported AIDS research.  Many walkers with their children and dogs, walked hand-in-hand, and held up banners proclaiming where they came from, and who they were walking for.  Others, like me, joined the fight for AIDS awareness recently, and this was our first walk.

Photo by Kim J. Ford for Lionqueen192 Productions, Inc.

For me, being surrounded by so many veterans of previous AIDS walks was powerful and also intimidating.  Was my brief encounter with this passionate world substantial enough that I was qualified to walk next to people who had seen their lovers and loved ones die from AIDS?  I was not alive when many of the walkers watched half of their friends contract a mysterious and deadly virus.  I have no way of knowing the pain fellow walkers felt when they discovered, years later, that their son’s, boyfriend’s, or grandmother’s HIV had finally morphed into AIDS, which was, at that time, a death sentence. 

Photo by Kyle Sweet

 

As I counted the number of AIDS Walk NY pins on the back of one man’s vest, I was reminded again of how the fight has changed since the first walk, in 1986. Today, people diagnosed with HIV who receive treatment can expect to live almost as long as a person not diagnosed with the disease.  However, if a person doesn’t know she’s HIV positive, doesn’t get tested, or doesn’t tell her partners about the diagnosis, she could spread HIV by not protecting herself and others.  When I think about how little most people know about HIV/AIDS and the importance of protection, the fight remains the same.  Everyone needs to know what happens when you neglect your body and sexual health, and what fights still need our attention.  Today, there are 33 million people living with HIV, and only 3 million are getting treatment.  Even with these statistics, unfortunately, according to a 2009 National Aids Strategy Coordinating Committee Report shows that the American public has become increasingly less concerned with HIV/AIDS. 

Yesterday, there were many, many people who raised money and walked for the cause, but there were so many more people who were not there.  Few of my peers and friends at home and at school knew that I was walking, and none of them were at the walk with me.  In my health class in high school, HIV/AIDS was a 30-minute PowerPoint lecture, mostly about how deadly HIV/AIDS used to be.

Photo by Kim J. Ford for Lionqueen192 Productions, Inc.

 

HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness is not an issue that my friends and I discuss when we hang out.  To our generation, HIV/AIDS is archaic and a none-issue; most people are under the impression that AIDS now has a cure.  That needs to change.  If we are to live in a safer, healthier, more conscious world, our generation of YouTube-watching, Facebook-stalking teens needs to know that kids our age are still being diagnosed with HIV, and even more of those teens simply do not know how to prevent the disease or how to get tested.  And that is what I walked for Sunday: I walked as a promise to get the word out, to get my friends to be aware of the current fight, and to get more young people behind the AIDS fight.  Even though I’m not a long-time walker, and even though I don’t have as many stories to tell, I was as much a part of the AIDS Walk as anyone else because I’m determined to get the word out.

Remember: no matter how you get down, protect yourself. Get tested. 

Check out this HIV/AIDS photo retrospective: 

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/slideshow_aids_retrospective/article_em.htm)

--Virginia Marshall

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

@vrosemarshall

virginiarosemarshall@college.harvard.edu

Meet Virginia Marshall, GET DOWN Youth Blogger

 

GET DOWN is excited that the Summer 2012 interns are here! Meet Virginia Marshall, a Harvard University student, and now GET DOWN Youth Blogger.  Virginia is got started right away and did the Aids Walk NY with us.  She's also going to Africa later this Summer.  Take photos for us!

Virginia Marshall

GET DOWN Youth Blogger

@vrosemarshall

virginiarosemarshall@college.harvard.edu

Photo Courtesy Virginia Marshall Facebook

GETTING DOWN With Aids Walk NY 2012!!

It's May! And for GET DOWN, that means it's time for Aids Walk NY, the largest single-day AIDS fundraising event in the world.  Founded by GMHC, the world's first AIDS service organization, the 10-kilometer walkathon was designed to raise urgently needed funds for GMHC, and to battle the stigma so many associated with HIV/AIDS. The event took place on May 18, 1986 at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park, Fordham University's Robert Moses Plaza, and the streets of the Upper West Side. Today, the AIDS Walk begins and ends in Central Park.  In its 27 years, AIDS Walk New York has inspired nearly 845,000 people to walk, and millions more to donate, raising more than $122 million to combat HIV and AIDS. The funds raised at the event remain a vital lifeline that sustains GMHC's prevention, care, and advocacy programs for the thousands of men, women, and families affected by the disease in the tri-state area.

WHY DO WE WALK? Because Half of all new HIV infections

 in the U.S. occur in people 25 years of age or younger.

GET DOWN is just beginning. We are grassroots. You can read all about us here getdownpsa.blogspot.com, friend us at facebook.com/getdownpsa and follow us on twitter.com/getdownpsa. The GET DOWN PSAs are on You Tube and on our sites as well. 

We are walking with TEAM FACES NY (#0638) and are proud to have met so many young people at the Brooklyn Youth Conference that want to walk with us!

Please go here to donate to GET DOWN creator and executive producer Kim J. Ford's page: http://aidswalknewyork2012.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1000060&lis=1&kntae1000060=B930CD2C388249B6A1F4B6CE1518A3DE&supId=289403036

The GET DOWN team is thanking you in advance for standing with us in the fight against HIV/AIDS and helping spread awareness among youth and young adults.

--The GET DOWN Team

www.facebook.com/getdownpsa

www.twitter.com/getdownpsa

getdownpsa2008@gmail.com

GET DOWN CAMPAIGN PARTNERS WITH SUNDAE SERMON DANCE PARTY SERIES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GET DOWN CAMPAIGN PARTNERS WITH SUNDAE SERMON 

DANCE PARTY SERIES

FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HIV AWARENESS MONTH EVENT

WITH HIV NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS 

FACES NY AND HARLEM UNITED

NEW YORK, February 17, 2012 – The GET DOWN Campaign announced today that it will partner with DJ Stormin’ Norman’s Sundae Sermon Dance Party Series to kick off the indoor series this Spring and raise awareness for HIV/AIDS during Black History Month. El Museo Del Barrio will be hosting Sundae Sermon as a satellite extension of their outdoor music and film festival that runs in Harlem's Morningside Park from June through September. This Winter/Spring 2012 Edition will connect families and communities through dance, leisure and artist exhibits. DJ Stormin' Norman, DJ Qool Marv and other guest dj's will be music maestros alongside live Painters, and face painting for kids. Gonzalo Casals, El Museo’s Director of Education and Public Programs comments, “We are happy to open our doors to the greater Harlem Community through this special partnership with Sundae Sermon. The kind of free programming for families that they offer aligns with El Museo’s goal and mission to make such activities accessible and meaningful for our community.” The series kicks off February 26 and continues March 25 and April 29.

 

DJ Stormin' Norman, Sundae Sermon’s founder, originally hails from East London, England, and is now a resident of Harlem. In the 90’s, he was part of a groundbreaking DJ collective who set a new precedent in national radio with the “Thunderstorm Mix” on New York’s WBLS 107.5FM. The program introduced live mixing to daytime radio, previously reserved for weekend nights broadcasted from night-clubs. For over 20 years, he's played major New York clubs, exclusive downtown spots, elite private events and world tours.  Norman also has extended his brand with Sundae Sermon Foundation, Sundae Sermon Radio and Sundae Sermon Recordings.  Most importantly, he’s committed to his community. A Harlem resident for over 15 years, Norman is passionate about constructively contributing to its current renaissance. "There are a lot of Harlemites who have to venture downtown or to other boroughs for this kind of experience,” Norman said. “Sundae Sermon lets us support and celebrate this great neighborhood and network, and invite the rest of the city to join the party," he added.

To kickoff the series and raise HIV/AIDS awareness during Black History Month, Sundae Sermon partnered with the GET DOWN HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.  GET DOWN, written, produced and directed by Kim J. Ford (Lionqueen 192 Productions, Inc.), is an edgy new HIV/AIDS PSA that candidly portrays sexually active youth of various sexual identities who are experimenting with multiple sexual partners and the consequences they deal with as a result.  GET DOWN uses multimedia program, that utilizes viral short form content, education (in schools and extra curricular arts education), social media, blogging and - launching in 2012  - youth oriented radio, in order to educate at-risk youth about HIV, AIDS, sexual behavior and safe sex.  “I’ve wanted to work with DJ Stormin Norman for a while”, says Kim J. Ford.  “Sundae Sermon’s socially conscious, community oriented dance parties are the right platform for GET DOWN to spread awareness.  We are proud to partner with DJ Stormin Norman on our first foray into events”.  The event will be hosted by Forces of Nature Dance Theater Ensemble, and will feature live painting, kids face painting and goodie bags, which were coordinated by New York marketing entrepreneur Anita Bryant of A-Marketing and GET DOWN.  The special kickoff event, will also serve as an Aids Walk Fundraiser kickoff for FACES NY and Harlem United, two Harlem based non-profit organizations, who will be on-site to accept voluntary donations. Harlem United will conduct private HIV testing on site.  Sundae Sermon is brought to you by Harlem Community Development Corporation, Experience Harlem, Harlem Parks to Parks, Bikram Yoga East Harlem and Sundae Sermon Radio.

 

The Sundae Sermon indoor series schedule is as follows:

FEBRUARY INDOOR SERIES KICKOFF 2/26

African American HIV/AIDS Awareness Month

GET DOWN Campaign, FACES NY, Harlem United

Aids Walk Donations To Charities

 MARCH NATIONAL WOMEN’S MONTH 3/25

Guest Female DJs, Music Influenced By Women

 APRIL CELEBRATING JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT 4/29

Traveling Exhibit, Five Harlem Artist Pay Tribute

Live Painting