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SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE

~ Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE

Tag Archives: aids

What’s Going On: Black Blogging To End AIDS Final Wrap Up

07 Friday Dec 2007

Posted by Vivrant Thang in Feeding The Music Jones

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

aids, aids crisis in the black community, avert, hiv, hiv testing, lil mama's rules by sheneska jackson, not in my family

by vivrant thang on the aids crisis

marvin.jpg

Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today

This is my sixth and final post for the Black blogger call-to-action, Black Blogging to End AIDS. You can find all the posts here.

I have truly learned a lot this week and I am so glad to have stumbled on to The Black Perspective in time to participate in this important effort. It really meant a lot to me to pay homage to the memory of my family members in some small way.

From the comments, I know at least a few people have read the information. It all starts with just one person.

I just want to call attention to a few more resources that I’ve come across:

  • Visit Avert, a UK based AIDS charity working towards preventing the spread of AIDS on a global level. Read stories from women and men all over the globe that are infected.
  • Pick up Not In My Family: Aids in the African American Community book and companion CD
  • Read Sheneska Jackson’s Lil Mama’s Rules, which is almost ten years old but so very current
  • “Before you have sex again,” view the independent film, One Week. I saw this movie years ago and it’s still with me.
  • Check back here under the AIDS crisis category for more on this crisis in our community. It’s not going away so I’ll have to keep talking about it.

Remember

  • Get informed

  • Get tested

  • Get involved

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    What’s Going On: Alexyss Tylor on The HIV/AIDS Crisis in the Black Community

    05 Wednesday Dec 2007

    Posted by Vivrant Thang in Feeding The Music Jones

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    Tags

    aids, aids and black men, aids and black women, Alexyss Tylor, hiv, hiv and aids in the black community, hiv and black men, hiv and black women, vagina power

    by vivrant thang on the aids crisis

    marvin.jpg

     

    Mother, mother
    There’s too many of you crying
    Brother, brother, brother
    There’s far too many of you dying
    You know we’ve got to find a way
    To bring some lovin’ here today

    This is my fourth post for the Black blogger call-to-action, Black Blogging to End AIDS. You can find all the posts here.

    Say what you will about Alexyss Tylor, but her outrageous “Vagina Power” messages have reached hundreds of thousands on the web and throughout the Atlanta area. While her delivery is exceedingly crude and will have you in hysterics, admittedly, she speaks the truth. Whatever the reason that people listen to her message, they are listening, and that’s what we need to spread the word about this disease in our community.

    In the following videos, she speaks with a group of infected women and a man about their personal battles with HIV/AIDS and gets “real” about the rampant spread of the virus throughout our community. She gets a little out of hand at one point in the video with the infected man, but hang in there!

    Alexyss K Tylor Show Black Women HIV/AIDS

     

    Alexyss K Tylor Show Black MEN HIV/AIDS (Part 1)

    Alexyss K Tylor Show Black MEN HIV/AIDS (Part 2)

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    What’s Going On: AIDS-Related Blogs

    03 Monday Dec 2007

    Posted by Vivrant Thang in Feeding The Music Jones

    ≈ 2 Comments

    Tags

    , aids, backyard beacon, black women and aids, essex hemphill, female condom, hiv, stop aids leadership pledge, The AIDS Crisis

     by vivrant thang on the aids crisis

    marvin.jpg

    *This is my second post for the Black blogger call-to-action, Blogging Black To End AIDS. You can find all the posts here.

    Here’s a round-up of how Black bloggers around the blogosphere called attention to the crisis on World AIDS day.

    • Gil Robertson says, “Dear Black America, It’s Time to Get Serious About HIV/AIDS“
    • Kam, a woman living with AIDS asks, “Can I Forgive?”
    • Keith Boykin reflects on the life of poet, Essex Hemphill, who died of AIDS-related complications
    • Yobachi Boswell encourages us to view the Frontline/PBS documentary, The Age of AIDS
    • I took the Stop AIDS Leadership Pledge. Your turn.
    • The African American Political Pundit reflects on the disparities in what we’re spending on the war versus what we’re spending to fight the AIDS crisis
    • Backyard Beacon ponders whether wider availability of the female condom is the key to change

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    What’s Going On: Black Blogging to End AIDS

    01 Saturday Dec 2007

    Posted by Vivrant Thang in Feeding The Music Jones

    ≈ 6 Comments

    Tags

    aids, aids rate in washington dc, aids statistics, bet aids special, black aids institute, black people and aids, black people and hiv, black perspective blog, black women and aids, condoms, hiv, hiv prevention, hiv testing, i stand with magic, magic johnson and aids, rae lewis thornton, The AIDS Crisis, the body aids resources, visions by stevie wonder, What's Going On

    by vivrant thang on world aids day

    marvin.jpg

    Mother, mother
    There’s too many of you crying
    Brother, brother, brother
    There’s far too many of you dying
    You know we’ve got to find a way
    To bring some lovin’ here today

    In light of World AIDS Day today, Yobachi Boswell over at The Black Perspective has issued a call to black bloggers to use their individual platforms to call attention to the AIDS crisis, particularly the ravaging effects on the Black community. I was so glad to have found his blog in time to get involved in this important effort.

    When I was 17, I watched my uncle die of AIDS. I sat in that hospital room and held his hand as he painfully slipped away from us. It’s an image my mind will never erase. Although we were there almost everyday at the end, he died alone. My mother has still not forgiven herself for not being there.

    Over the next several years, my great aunt lost all three of her sons to the disease. My uncle and my great aunt’ s sons were first cousins and they all were longtime intravenous drug users. We believe they passed the disease like they passed that needle.

    Obviously, AIDS is no longer just a disease affecting drug users and homosexuals, although apparently, a lot of people are still quite ignorant about the facts.  AIDS is becoming known as a “Black disease,” which I take issue with. However, when you see these stats, one is hard-pressed to disagree.

    black_woman_aids.jpg

    • AIDS remains the leading cause of death for Blacks ages 25 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    • Blacks make up just 13% of the population of the USA, but they account for 50% of all new cases of HIV.
    • Black women account for 70% of all women with HIV.

    Here in Washington, DC, the news gets worse.

    • One in 20 D.C. residents is believed to be HIV-positive, and one in 50 residents has full-blown AIDS.

    • Although blacks account for 57% of the city’s population, they account for 81% of new HIV cases

    • 37 percent of the new cases were a result of heterosexual transmission, compared to 25 percent that resulted from men having sex with men.

    These statistics are extremely sobering. Black women, in particular, are dying from this disease. We have got to take responsibility for our own well-being. Several of my friends have never had an HIV test *, even though they haven’t always practiced safe sex. I think that’s ridiculous in this day and age not to know your status. According to BlackAmericaWeb, “more than one million Americans are estimated to be living with HIV, and one-fourth of those individuals are believed to be unaware of their infection, underscoring the need for expanded HIV testing.”

    So on this 2007 World AIDS day, I implore everyone who may read this to:

    wad_logo.jpg

    • Get informed

    • Get tested

    • Get involved

    I know my status, but through research for this post and the ones I’ll post throughout the week, I’ve found there were so many things about the disease that I didn’t know. I suggest taking this anonymous quiz to assess your knowledge and your risk level. Next year, I have plans of joining a nonprofit board and I’m think the population I want to serve are people of color living with HIV and AIDS. I need to get involved. I know my family members looking down on me would be proud.

    Here are some HIV and AIDS resources of interest because I just know after reading those statistics that you want to be as informed as possible.

    • Get a variety information at The Body’s African-American HIV/AIDS Resource Center
    • Visit the Black Aids Institute, a policy organization dedicated to ensuring our self-preservation
    • Go to the official World Aids Day site for information about activities and events being held around the world
    • Sister Wisdom is an HIV/AIDS portal for Black women
    • Listen to the NPR broadcast, “HIV/AIDS Is Washington’s ‘Modern Epidemic’ featuring Rae Lewis Thornton, an HIV/AIDS advocate and 21-year-survivor (raelewisthornton.org)
    • Watch an encore presentation of the HIV/AIDS special “What U Know Bout That? Rap-It-Up Sex Quiz” on BET. It will air on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT.
    • Stand with Magic and Cookie in the fight against AIDS and here

    cookie.jpg

    As I mentioned, I’ll be “black blogging to end AIDS” everyday until Friday, in addition to my regular posts. So please keep reading and commenting. Let me know how AIDS epidemic has affected you. Don’t say it hasn’t. With these kind of statistics, it’s affecting everybody.

    I’m signing out with “Visions” by Stevie. It makes me feel good. Hope it does the same for you.

    But what I’d like to know
    Is could a place like this exist so beautiful
    Or do we have to find our wings and fly away
    To the vision in our mind?

    I’m not one who make believes
    I know that leaves are green
    They only change to brown when autumn comes around
    I know just what I say
    Today’s not yesterday
    And all things have an ending

    * One of the above-mentioned friends informed me that she finally got tested the day before World AIDS day. Have you?

    You can find all the posts in this series here.

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