A film series, speakers, music and an agency expo are among the programs planned

DAVID TAFFET  |  Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Cathedral of Hope is teaming up with Prism Health for a World AIDS Day event that will bring together local HIV/AIDS agencies for a resource fair on Dec. 1, followed by a program of remembrance and re-commitment to HIV education, research and care.

The agency expo takes place from 4-6 p.m. at Cathedral of Hope. Area organizations will distribute material and information about their services for people living with HIV. Testing will also be available.

Hors d’oeuvres will be served in the church’s lobby from 5:30-6:15 p.m. A program of speakers from HIV organizations and music by the Turtle Creek Chorale and Cath

edral of Hope music staff will follow.

The Rev. Neil Cazares-Thomas, senior pastor of Cathedral of Hope, said there were two things important about this event: “We must never forget the lives that were lost in our community,” he said. “We’ve skipped a whole generation who died.”

And, he said, we must remember that HIV is still with us. “We’ve made great advancements, but there’s a high rate of infection among youth and people of color,” Cazares-Thomas said. “We must make a commitment to see an end to this pandemic.”

Among the participants for the event are the North Texas GLBT Chamber of Commerce, Prism Health Care, AIDS Services Dallas, Avita Pharmacy, AIN and the Greg Dollgener Memorial AIDS Fund. Cazares-Thomas said it was good to see so many agencies collaborating in the event.

Cathedral of Hope, 5910 Cedar Springs Road from 4-8 p.m. on Dec. 1. 

C.U.R.E. presents End AIDS Together on Friday, Nov. 30, at Central Congregational Church. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., and will be followed by a presentation by Sero Project Assistant Director Robert Suttle.

Sero Project was founded by POZ magazine founder Sean Strub to fight criminalization of HIV.

Suttle joined Sero in 2012 after being released from a Louisiana prison where he served six months for a conviction under the state’s so-called “Intentional Exposure to HIV” law. A former partner went to police to charge Suttle with infecting him with HIV after the couple broke up. Suttle took a plea deal rather than face a homophobic, racist Louisiana jury that could have sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Auntjuan Wiley, who organized the event, said HIV criminalization is a topic that we don’t hear about much in Dallas. He said Suttle will talk about his own experience as well as ending AIDS.

Wiley attended a conference in Austin this week that addressed ending AIDS in Texas. He said 2030 is the projected date.

“I think we’re much further along than we’ve ever been,” he said. “Texas has a clear vision.”

Among the strategies, he said, is ending fear and stigma. He said it was important to keep people in treatment and connected to their physician.

He said all evidence points to Undetectable=Untransmittable or U=U as a viable tool.

“We have the experience, the technology and the tools,” he said. “There’s no excuse.”

Central Congregational Church, 5600 Royal Lane at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 30.

Dallas Red Foundation and the Dallas Museum of Art explore the impact of AIDS on the art world and in Dallas with the presentation of six short films that together make up Alternate Endings, Activist Risings. The films are by six community groups, including the Sero Project and ACT UP NY.

The program represents a wide range of strategies from direct action to grassroots service providers to nationwide movement-building. Issues addressed include anti-black violence, HIV criminalization, homelessness and the disproportionate effects of HIV on marginalized communities.

In Fort Worth, the films will be screened on Nov. 30 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. in a looping presentation at the Texas Christian University Art Galleries, Moudy Building North, Room 132, TCU School of Art, 2805 S. University Drive, Fort Worth.

In Dallas, the films will be screened on Dec. 1 from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St.

AHF and its Impulse group invite the community to come to S4 on Nov. 30 for World AIDS Day 365: Momentum, have a cocktail on them and catch their big reveal.

Those attending will have the chance to meet WAD 365 abstract artist Christina D. Yielding and sculpture artist Andrew F. Scott.

AHF Texas Regional Director Bret Camp said the main reason for marking World AIDS Day is to end the negative stigma of HIV and educate the community about the virus and its prevention and treatments.

Station 4, 3911 Cedar Springs Road at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 30.