Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - November 23, 2006
Katie Dettman
According to www.AIDS.org, 21.8 million people worldwide have died of the disease since 1981. There are currently about 40 million people living with the disease, 26 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of HIV infection for African Americans in the U.S. is higher than any other racial or ethnic group, and 50 percent of all new diagnoses in the U.S. are within the African American community (African Americans account for 12 percent of the entire U.S. population).
The Bay Area community will be commemorating World AIDS Day 2006 - December 1 - with the following events:
National AIDS Memorial Grove
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the National AIDS Memorial in Golden Gate Park. The grove will present its ninth annual AIDS Community Service Award to Abraham Verghese, a doctor and author. Hank Plante, openly gay political editor for CBS 5 TV, will give a retrospective of AIDS at 25. There will be a light lunch following the program.
The grove was created by a group of San Franciscans devastated by feelings of loss, searching for a place to remember friends and family lost to AIDS. Volunteers completed much of the construction and landscaping at the grove. Anyone who has been touched by AIDS is welcome to come to the grove to find solace in nature and remember those lost. Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) helped the grove receive federal recognition.
The event will take place at the grove in Golden Gate Park, beginning with a reception at noon on Friday, December 1, followed by the program at 12:30 p.m. The event will take place rain or shine and is free and open to the public.
The grove is located in the eastern end of Golden Gate Park at the intersection of Bowling Green and Middle Drive East, across from the tennis courts. For more information, visit www.aidsmemorial.org.
UCSF AIDS Research Institute
The AIDS Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco will sponsor its fifth annual World AIDS Day concert featuring jazz artist Spencer Day and titled, "An Evening of Remembrance and Hope."
This event will be held on Friday, December 1 at 7 p.m. at the UCSF Mission Bay Community Center, Robertson Auditorium, at 1675 Owens Street (at 16th Street) in San Francisco. Tickets are $50 and up. For more information or to order tickets, contact klorenzo@ari.ucsf.edu.
J. David Gladstone Institutes
The Gladstone Institutes' free public lecture series, "Science for Life," will commemorate World AIDS Day with an update on research progress by scientist Dr. Warner C. Greene, director of the Gladstone Institute of Immunology and Virology. He will discuss the latest developments in prevention and treatment. Following the talk and a question and answer session will be a performance by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Chorus.
The event will be held on Thursday, November 30 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Gladstone Institutes' Robert Mahley Auditorium at 1650 Owens Street at the UCSF Mission Bay campus. Open to the public. RSVP to Sally King at (415) 734-2087 or e-mail sking@gladstone.ucsf.edu.
Commonwealth Club
Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of the late Ryan White and a board member of the AIDS Institute, will be speaking at the Commonwealth Club.
In 1984, 13-year-old Ryan was diagnosed with AIDS, which he contracted from a blood transfusion. With the support of his mother, he became the center of a court battle and national crusade to remain in school. He helped make people aware that AIDS was not just a gay men's and intravenous drug-users' disease. Ryan died in April 1990 at the age of 18. White-Ginder will discuss the effects of Ryan's diagnoses on her family, and the battle she has waged for 22 years. The federal Ryan White CARE Act was named after him.
The program is on Friday, December 1 at the Commonwealth Club office, 595 Market Street, second floor. Check-in is at 11:30 a.m. and the program begins at noon. The cost is $8 for members and $15 for non-members.
To make a reservation visit https://www.commonwealthclub.org/reservations/index.php or call (415) 597-6700.
SFAF forum
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation will present a forum "Renew the Promise. End AIDS" on Friday, December 1 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street at Grove. CBS 5 political editor Hank Plante will moderate. Topics to be discussed include "Changing HIV Testing Paradigms" by Dr. Timothy Mastro of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; "Social Contextual Influences on African American Men's HIV Risks" by Robert Fullilove of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University; "New Prevention Strategies" by Judith Auerbach, Ph.D. of SFAF; and "Sustaining the Commitment to End AIDS" by Jennifer Kates of the Kaiser Family Foundation. The forum will include a question and answer session and remarks by SFAF Executive Director Mark Cloutier.
The event is free and open to the public, though space is limited.
Zimbabwe AIDS Relief benefit
Zimbabwe AIDS Relief is holding a reception and gala dinner on Friday, December 1 to raise money to buy AIDS medication for the people of Zimbabwe who are affected by the disease. The benefit will honor Mother Jean Cornneck of Mother of Peace - Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe AIDS Relief is a project of the Allen Temple Baptist Church AIDS ministry. The pre-benefit reception and silent auction will be from 5 to 6 p.m. at Lake Merritt Hotel, 1800 Madison Street in Oakland. The reception is free and open to the public.
The gala dinner and entertainment benefit, also held at Lake Merritt Hotel, is from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $125 per person. All proceeds will go to: Mother of Peace Orphanage in Mutoko, Zimbabwe (serving 465 children and families), Alameda County Sister City partnership with Mashonaland-East Province Ministry of Health, the "Sponsor-a-Child" project (helping Mutoko primary schools attended by Mother of Peace Children) and direct purchase and dispensing of AIDS medications by Dr. Robert Scott at clinics in Harare and Mutoko, Zimbabwe.
For tickets or more information, visit http://zimbabweaidsrelief.org/default.aspx, www.allen-temple.org or call (510) 544-7505.
Grace Cathedral
Grace Cathedral will host a special presentation "that commemorates both the sad losses and the examples of heroic service during 25 years of the pandemic," according to a listing on www.SFStation.com. The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus will perform. The Omega West Dance Company will also perform a contemporary dance number called "The Passion According to Mary: Fantasy/Mother and Child," which is set to music from Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
The event takes place at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 1 at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street at Taylor in San Francisco. Tickets are free, but donations will be accepted. For more information, visit www.gracecathedral.org or call (415) 749-6350.
AIDS in China
Bay Area organizations will promote HIV/AIDS work in China. On Monday, November 27, the China AIDS Media Project, AIDS Relief Fund for China, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Asia Society Northern California will co-sponsor a film screening of The Blood of Yingzhou District, by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon. The film received the grand jury prize at the 2006 Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival in Washington, D.C. There will be a post-screening discussion with the filmmakers and AIDS activist Humphrey Woo. The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, screening room, 701 Mission Street in San Francisco. Admission is $8 general, $6 students, seniors, and teachers.On Wednesday, December 6, AIDS Relief for China, a locally based grassroots group, will mark its third anniversary with a reception in San Jose to commemorate World AIDS Day. The event takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Rotunda at San Jose City Hall, 200 East Santa Clara Street. Suggested minimum donation is $50, which will be matched from a $5,000 new donor challenge fund. To RSVP e-mail info@arfcusa.org or call (415) 820-9630.
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