On World AIDS Day, We Recall Losses & Celebrate Survival with Music & Light
by BRUCE-MICHAEL GELBERT, with JOSEPH R. SAPORITO
photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Candlelight march
The 20th anniversary observance of World AIDS Day, on December 1, took your busy correspondents to four events, in lower Manhattan, at St. Paul's Chapel and in City Hall Park, and, in Chelsea and the Village, at Gay Men's Health Crisis, in the streets, and at Judson Memorial Church, for ceremonies remembering our community's losses and celebrating our survival in the face of incalculably daunting circumstances.
On 9/11, historic St. Paul's Chapel served as a sanctuary, a place of refuge after the 2001 attacks, as debris from the destroyed World Trade towers nearby rained on the 18th century churchyard. The Episcopal church played host, on the 1st, to a concert of music concerning another crisis, as Mimi Stern-Wolfe and Downtown Music Productions offered the latest installment in their invaluable Benson AIDS Series, preserving pieces by composers lost to AIDS, as well as airing living creative artists' responses to the crisis. Some of the music the maestra has championed can be heard on the company's CD "Sudden Sunsets."
Stern-Wolfe, at the piano, and violinist/violist Michael Nicholas began the afternoon with the now contemplative, then almost aggressively celebratory "A Dance for Life" by Michael Seyfrit (1947-94). The title of Lee Gannon's (1960-96) "Nashville, Lower Broad" refers, according to Stern-Wolfe, to a "slummy, honky-tonk part of town" and, as performed by her, with Nicholas and clarinetist David Hopkins, the work evoked the neighborhood's bustle and turmoil, which was punctuated by a sudden hymn. Played by Downtown's artistic director and pianist, with percussionist William Trigg, "Ellis Island," by Mark Kyrkostas (1952-90), a Greek composer, raised in Astoria, encompassed melancholy and lively dances.
With Stern-Wolfe as pianist, Anthony Turner lent sensitivity and rich baritone sound to three selections from the collaborative "AIDS Quilt Songbook" (1992), commissioned by baritone William Parker (1943-93). Ricky Ian Gordon's "I Never Knew" wistfully considered the unanticipated loss of intimate partners. Ned Rorem and David Bergman's graceful "A Dream of Nightingales" recalled a departed beloved's love of Nature. And Donald Wheelock and Susan Snively's "Fury" reflected an attempt to understand the senseless plague.
From St. Paul's, we proceeded to City Hall Park, where a street sign read "People with AIDS Plaza," for part of Housing Works' 14th annual World AIDS Day vigil, 24 hours-from midnight to midnight-of continuous reading of names of people who have died of AIDS.
In the evening, we joined people gathering in the lobby of GMHC's Tisch Building for the 17th annual Out of the Darkness candlelight march, started by American Run for the End of AIDS (AREA) Founder and President Brent Nicholson Earle, and dedicated, this year, to the memory of Mel Cheren, of Paradise Garage fame, who gave GMHC its first home. New York State Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell sent a proclamation, Broadway Church of Christ's Reverend James Campbell blessed the candles beneath a display of AIDS Quilt panels from Venezuela, and, singing "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine," we set off on a march through the streets of Chelsea and Greenwich Village, heading for the intense and varied World AIDS Day program at Judson Memorial Church.
The reading of names of our lost loved ones served as a prologue to the program and readers included Brent, Hannah Leighton, HIV Prevention Educator Timothy Lunceford, and me.
Composer, singer and violinist Deni Bonet performed several of her works, including the earnest and up-tempo "The Last Girl on Earth." Singer and guitarist Nhojj offered his moving "Fighting for Love," with a refrain of "the enemy is ignorance, the enemy is hate." Energetic flaggers and fanners Fernando Delas Carnevali, Barbara Good, Joe LaMattina, Roy Mandry, Mykel, Greg Paulnack, Jamie Pers, Dennis Serrianne, Tia Stefanski, Jeannette Torres, and Doug Young were on hand for an exhilarating dance to Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder's "Together in Electric Dreams."
After a welcome from Judson Assistant Minister Rev. Dr. Michael Ellick, Brent, Dr. Frank Spinelli, and Jeff Bosacki of the International AIDS Prevention Initiative-formerly the NAMES Project, guardian of the AIDS Memorial Quilt-summed up, in brief, some of the history of AIDS during the past two decades and the current one.
In his retrospective of the 1980s, Brent reflected on the silence of the Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr., administrations, even with the huge October 11, 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian & Gay Rights on their doorstep, and the start of GMHC, AREA, the People with AIDS Coalition-with a quote from one of its founders, singer and activist David Summers, who said, "I need help living with AIDS, not dying with dignity"-Act-Up, and the Quilt, which Brent described as "the world's largest folk art piece." Covering the 1990s, Dr. Frank discussed Reagan's belated apology for his neglect, Magic Johnson and Greg Louganis' coming out as HIV-positive, the development of the anti-retroviral cocktail, and his own first, moving and motivating treatment of a person with AIDS. After calling our attention to displays of quilt panels from Holland, Jamaica, Venezuela, South Africa and Spain, adorning the walls of the church, Jeff focused on the Initiatives' encouragement of use of female condoms by sex workers in a developing nation and using the Quilt to help teach people there.
Several extremely sex-positive, pertinent presentations followed. Rev. Pat Bumgardner of Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Rev. Alicia Heath-Toby of GMHC, Rev. Stacey Latimer of Unity Fellowship of Christ Church, Rev. James, and Timothy proffered a "Blessing of Safer-Sex Kits," beginning "Creator of all names, we bless the condoms as we support people," with an audience response of "Our lives matter." GMHC's Rev. Krishna Stone talked of nurturing people in their relationships. And Claire Simon of Women's HIV/AIDS Collaborative of New York, Francisco Roque of GMHC, and, especially, Rev. Pat, gave dynamic speeches on the topic "Ending the Stigma." "We are all sex workers," Claire declared, discussing the stigmatization of women. Rev. Pat juxtaposed abstinence-only programs and moralizing with condom distribution and needle exchange programs, which she identified as the "morally righteous things to do;" insisting "have religious institutions teach the truth about sex," pointed out that clergy people who cite the Bible to condemn us conveniently pass over the stories of the loves of David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi; and, in no uncertain terms, indicted "global fundamentalism that passes for faith."
A "Call to Action," issued by youthful readers Kyle Farmery, Jack McKeane, Parade Stone, and Yuquin Lu, was followed by an enthusiastic audience chant of "Act up! Fight back! Fight AIDS!"
The evening ended on a joyous note with dancing to Warren Rigg and Mel Cheren's "Save a Place on the Dance Floor for Me," sung here by Dawn Tallman and accompanied by the flaggers and fanners, and to other music played by DJ Glenn Thornton of Slaag Records. "Keep on Dancin'," a further remembrance of Cheren and the music of Paradise Garage, will take place on January 10 at Santos Party House, 100 Lafayette Street, and will benefit GMHC, AREA, and LIFEbeat/the Music Industry Fights AIDS.
