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.

On June 3,rd at Phila Fight’s opening reception of AIDS Education Month in The Crystal Ballroom of the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel , amid hundreds of supporters andprominent city officials ACT-UP Philadelphia, the longest consistently running grass roots AIDS organization lead by PWA’s were the collective recipients of the Kiyoshi Kuromiya Award.Kiyoshi Kuromiya was an author and committed civil rights, social justice and anti-war activist. He was born in a Japanese American internment camp on May 9, 1943 in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. He died on the night of May 10, 2000, due to complications from AIDS.He is considered by many to be the Father of PWA empowerment and coalition-building through “We The People Living with HIV/AIDS”. Kiyoshi was a founding member of ACT-UP Philly. Kiyoshi is perhaps best known as the founder of the Critical Path Project.Critical Path provides free access to the Internet to thousands of people living with HIV in Philadelphia and the region, hosted over a hundred AIDS related web pages and discussion lists, and showed a whole generation of activists and people living with HIV that the Internet can be a tool for information, empowerment and organizing. He was also one of the founders of Gay Liberation Front - Philadelphia and served as an openly gay delegate to the Black Panther Convention that endorsed the gay liberation struggle. Kuromiya was an assistant of Martin Luther King Jr.

Being awarded the Kiyoshi Kuromiya Honor in addition to and in alliance withACT-UP Philadelphia was former PhiladelphiaPrison Commissioner,Leon King Jr. Esq.Near the end of Leon King’s twelve year tenure as Philadelphia Prisons Commissioner a collaboration through the influence of ACT-UP Philadelphia resulted in a revised and fully implemented HIV Prevention Programand Policy in our county jails that allowed greater access to both male and female condoms for incarcerated individuals.Through Commissioner’s Kings uniqueconcern for inmates health and community health along with his ethical understanding of the rights for individuals to have access to means of protecting themselves from contracting or transmitting HIV during incarceration; Condoms were placed on the commissary list in Phila Jails and were no longer to be considered as contraband. ACT –UP members Waheedah Shabazz-El, Samuel Morales and John Bell were asked to present Commissioner King with his award, because of the close proximity and relationship and respect they’d developed with and for Commissioner King during the campaign.

Jane Shull, Executive Director of Philadelphia Fight lovingly presented the award to ACT-UP Philly. You could actually hear theaudience let out gasps of amazementand rounds of applauses asmembers of ACT-UP Philly approached the podium one at a time and delivered(in ACT-UP Philly style) a riveting sharedspeech; spoken one sentence at a time; by each individual ACT-UP member, who was present.The speech presented a stirring historical timeline of policy changes and the numerouscampaigns, victories and triumphs of ACT-UP Philly over the years that has lead to many of services that we all benefit from today.ACT UP Members representingvarious eras of the development of the group were present. Long time members,Julie Davids, Executive Director of CHAMP, Jon Paul, Roy Hayes, Chris Bartlett, Jane Shull, Asia Russell and Jose DiMarcos were all present in the space.Many long time members who were unable to attend were undoubtedly with us in spirit; Paul Davis, Jen Cohn, and John Bell One could sense in the air the definite presence and sharing of the space with many of our beloved members of ACT-UP Philly who have crossed over :Barry Busch, Shahiid Robinson, Chuck Palmer, Thurman Simmons, Brenda Wheeler, Gregg Smith, Pat Scanlin, Glen Brown, Donald Gephart, Dorthea O’Connor and of course Kiyoshi.As the names and accolades oflocal organizationsand national movements that were birthed from therelentless activism of ACT-Philly were spoken aloud ,the energy of audienceswelled into thunderous applause; and as for thosepresent in the space who didn’t know just who were, they came to see us in a different light and theirawe and internal respect were remarkably obvious.

• The Philadelphia County Coalition for Prison Health Care (PCCPHC)
• Prison Re-Entry Health care Network (PRHCN)
• The Health Global Access Project (Health GAP)
• Prevention Point Syringe Exchange
• Youth Empowerment Project (Y-HEP)
• Spiral Q (Political Art Museum)
• The Standards of Care ACT (Oct 31, 1995)
• Bridge Over Troubled Water
• Philadelphia Fight
• Project TEACH (Treatment Education Activists Combating HIV)
• Project TEACH Outside
• Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP)

Members of ACT Philadelphia sit on various planning boards, and CABS throughout the country and around the world;

• HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) Protocol Teams
• National AIDS Strategy Working Groups
• Save ADAP Working Groups
• PEPFAR Re-authorization
• Prevention Justice Alliance
• Prevention Justice Partners
• C2EA
• AMSA

We attempt to paint a picture colored in pride and achievement for those of you who were unable to attend and so you can bathe yourselves in the comfort and assurance of knowing that AIDS Activism is alive and well.While we would like to consider ACT UP Philly to be celebrating 20 years of service to the community, we all feel too strongly that there can be no celebration until the AIDS Crisis is ended.

So before we all left the podium we (again in ACT-UP Philly style) announced our next direct action campaign and invited everyone to join with us as wetargeted the Mayor of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia …. demanding they take immediate responsibility and fund programs in our public high schools that would allow youth to have access to not just comprehensive sex education, but the “Health Resource Tool” (Condoms) that they will need to keep them safe from contracting STI’s, HIV and to avoid Un-wanted Pregnancies.

The evening ended with a series of hugs, kisses, handshakes, tears and an open invitation for all to join us the following evening foran historic “Oral ACT-UP Philly Story Telling Event” . Again this event would be sponsored by Philadelphia Fight and hosted at the popularJoe’s Coffee Shop in Philadelphia at 11^th & Walnut, where archives from ACT-UP 20 year tenure will be on display for the entire month ofJune.

Stay tuned toThe Prevention Justice Web Site read about thefabulous multi-era “ACT-UP PhillyStory Tellers” who came out and shared their historically significant memories and experiences of their favorites demos and Civil disobediences... in Part II of this series.Thank you

Waheedah Shabazz-El