Last week Thursday in Tribeca, I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of attending a very intimate and informative panel about AIDS in the Black Community. The discussion was intense, and personal. I was floored and moved by some of the personal confessions that the panelists provided for us. I was nearly brought to tears by some of the stories of pain, fear, rejection and hopelessness. The panel was awesome– it consisted of the following leaders of the community:
Mike Muse, moderator, co-founder of MUSE RECORDINGS and well-accomplished producer. Her kept the converesation flowing nicely, and he hit us with a lot of startling, eye-opening statistics….
Blogxilla, panelist, a good friend and famed blogger from popular relationship-blog: Blogxilla.com. Through his blog he dives into deep and intimate issues with sex, relationships and commitment. We love what he does, and he does it well! In addition to his own blog, Xilla ia also a Global Grind.com associate.
Angela Yee, panelist, and radio personality on Shade 45 with Cipha Sounds– she always has her ear to the street and on the scene. The beautiful Ms. Yee definitely had some valuable and helpful words for the audience and she was ripe with fresh ideas of what we could do in our everyday lives to make progress on this issue.
K. Aletha Maybank, MD MPH, panelist, the lovely Ms. Maybank was recently appointed as an Assistant Commissioner in NYC Dept of Health & Mental Hygiene. She is also a Medical director of Brooklyn District Public Health office. With all her accolades and accomplishments, she added all the figures and facts needed to put this issue into perspective.
Terrance Dean, panelist, with over 10 years of industry experience under his belt (working for the likes of MTV)– Mr. Dean certainly has an interesting perspective on the issue of AIDS and HIV. He is an educator, and an accomplished author with best-sellers such as: “Hiding in Hip Hop” which made waves, and got the dialogue going on this issue in our community. I was floored by his intimate confessions about his family life, and the struggles he has endured in his life by seeing loved ones pass away….
Chuck Creekmur, panelist, and co-founder of famed website: Allhiphop.com. Creekmur has used his journalistic savvy and skill to be a strong voice in the hip hop community. He has been featured in several leading media outlets such as: VIBE, MTV, BET, VH1, etc. He definitely provided perspective and reality to this issue.
Kenya Byrd (L) and Sonya Lockett (R), panelists, Kenya is a senior editor for Essence.com. She does a lot of work with young people, and with her intimate and personal accounts on the issue– she really brought a lot of emotion out of the crowd. Her message of hope was inspiring.
Sonya Lockett is the V-P of public affairs for BET. She works closely with various BET depts, monitoring many of their programs incluing the “Wrap it Up” campaign that targets sexually active youth in a fight against HIV.
Mike started off the panel discussin some startling statistics in our community. I will give you a few, but please follow-up for more info on: www.TheLoop21.com:
-African Americans are 13% of the population, but account for 54% of annual new infections…
-AIDS was the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 in 2006.
-One in 16 Black men will be disgnosed with HIV in his lieftime.
-One in 30 Black women will be diagnosed with HIV in her lifetime.
Basically, this panel brought up the various myths on the issue, and what we can do to fight it. A major theme was “HIV is Sexy”. There is a misconception about HIV/AIDS and the package it comes in. Many believe that HIV infected people can be spotted just by looking. They are expected to be skinny, gaunt, sickly, with cuts, sores and lesions. However, this is a myth. Anyone could have HIV– there is no way to tell just by looking! It could be the buff guy with the nice body on the football team or in the club. It could just as easily be the sexy, curvy woman by the bar or at the bus stop. PLEASE USE CAUTION. WRAP IT UP!
Another theme was HIV/AIDS being a heterosexual disease. When the virus first surfaced in the 80’s, it was dubbed a white-gay-man’s disease. Now, it’s seen as a sexually transmitted disease that is transmitted through homo-sexual AND hetero-sexual activity. It can also be transmitted through drug-needles…
Through the panel, we concluded that dialogue is key. The more we talk about this issue, the less “taboo” it will be, and the more we can rally the people in our community to do something about this to stop the death and destruction. The more we know about the virus, and the more we are educated on how to protect ourselves and act accordingly– the more we can help put a stop to this phenomenon. Once we can create some awareness, we can proceed with going out into the communities, and rallying funds and resources together to really fight this battle!
I left this panel feeling a new-found energy and willingness to do all I can to help. I was very moved by the personal accounts that Terrance Dean and Kenya Byrd gave. Their families were both touched by the disease, and they understand first-hand how much it hurts… All we have to do is reach out to the leaders of our communities in our churches, political offices, neighborhood organizations, and bring this issue to their attention. DEMAND that they help us in the fight to do something to end this suffering, end the dying. If we want to save our community and help it grow into a fruitful and productive unit– we must fight this thing… There’s no better time than RIGHT NOW!
The panel was awesome! I was proud to see all these intelligent, articulate and profound leaders of our community taking the right steps to fight the virus and yield a brighter day for all of us. These are the local heroes in our neighborhoods and communities who do what they can to make our world a better place to be. HATS OFF to all of them! Chuuuuuuch.
