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This past Thursday Dec 18, 2008, having taken pleasure in a deliciously prepared Thai Cuisine lunch sponsored by The Univ of Penn, CFAR CAB, as a welcoming salutation to our distinguished guest speaker Dr. Thomas J. Coates, UCLA AIDS Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine,  I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be. That is to say except to join the migration to Penn’s BRB Auditorium along with both Drs. John and Loretta Jemmott, some Penn Staff & Researchers and members of the CFAR CAB. Here we were to be served the academic portion and the main course of Dr Coates expertise, through his lecture entitled” HIV Prevention What’s Next Globally”.

Through a conversation with Michael Blank, Ph.D., Co-Director Penn Behavioral & Social Sciences Core and Tiffany Brown, Penn CFAR CAB Coordinator, I learned it took every bit of “two years” to coordinate Dr. Coate’s appearance. As Vice-Chair of Penn’s CFAR CAB and a person who is living with AIDS, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Penn’s competent Staff for facilitating Dr. Coates’ appearance and affirm that Dr Coates’ appearance was well worth the 2 year wait. It was an enriching experience.   read more »

Our luncheon was thoughtfully planned to be small and intimate, which allowed for some informal conversation. Up until now, of course all of my encounters with Dr. Coates had been external and superficial. I knew of him and his work through teleconferences, list serves, medical journals, internet, magazines, web cams, closed circuit TV and satellite presentations at various conferences. I took pleasure in meeting Dr Coates face to face and I got the distinct impression that he liked me too, but I’ll leave him to blog about that. I found Dr. Coates to be good-natured, up-beat and charming. I knew I would learn many things today in the course of conversation over lunch and by way of his lecture, and unexpectedly one of the first things I learned was The David Geffen School @ UCLA (where Dr Coates joined the Division of Infectious Diseases in 2003) is “the only school in the world named after a Gay Man.” Mmm, I thought. Interesting.

The women’s Liberation movement of the 1960’s was undoubtedly a major contributor toward the achievement of women’s empowerment. As we feel our strength and recognize our worth as women we seize and create opportunities for ourselves and for the upliftment of all women. We mobilize to challenge systems and governments that could not, would not or that simply were not responding to our needs as women. We educate ourselves; we fight for our own causes: We build coalitions that strengthen our positions. Why we even run for president of the United States. We have become makers, shapers and writers of our own history and our own destinies. Now then, another page in Women’s History was written in San Francisco June 15, 2008. Twenty-five (25) bold, brave, beautiful HIV Positive Women held the 1^st ever convening for the establishment and solidification of what history will come to know as “The Positive Women’s  read more »

ACT-UP Philadelphia; AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power Commemorates 20 years of Fighting Back to End the AIDS Crisis (Part1)

By

Waheedah Shabazz-El

June 2008, was an excitingly historical month in the city of Philadelphia Pa where the work of ACT-UP Philadelphia, The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power was distinguished for 20 years of chronological contributions as “Prize Fighters” in the AIDS Activist Movement.ACT-UP Philadelphia commemorated it 20^th year of direct action organizing, ACTing Up and Fighting Back to give rise to the end of the AIDScrisis, the group was honoredthroughout Philadelphia Fight’s14^th Annual AIDS Education Month.  read more »

I want to thank CHAMP and all of our Prevention Justice Mobilization Allies for giving me the distinguished honor as the Mistress of Ceremonies of one of the most meaningful events I have ever participated in. We all became a part of history as we formed the Prevention Justice Puzzle outling to the CDC, our health officials and elected officials what a comprehensive HIV prevention plan should look like. I am including the speech I gave at the Rally that outlines the direct correlation of wide spread incarceration and the high incidence of HIV infections in poor communities and communities of color.

Waheedah Shabazz-El,

CHAMP, Community Organizer/Trainer

ACT-UP Philadelphia, Organizer/Spokesperson  read more »