CBH Talk | Still Here, HIV/AIDS
December 1 is World AIDS Day, a time of solidarity for people around the world who are affected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV - and a time for all of us to reckon with its long legacy. Almost 40 million live with the virus, 1.3 million acquired it in 2023, and 630,000 people died of AIDS last year.
While many things have changed since HIV was first recognized in the 1980s, one thing that has not is its devastating burden on communities of color. Today we acknowledge that we were late paying attention to this deadly epidemic. But how many realize that we stopped paying attention too soon?
The Center for Brooklyn History partners with the makers of the podcast Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, for a discussion/reality check. Blindspot reporter Lizzy Ratner leads a panel with AIDS expert Dr. Andrew Wiznia, advocate and PLWH (Person Living with HIV) Michelle Lopez, and Housing Works activist Johnny Guaylupo. Excerpts from the groundbreaking AIDS/Brooklyn project undertaken by the Brooklyn Historical Society in the early 1990s are presented by CBH archivist Alice Griffin. Join us as we travel back to that terrifying time, turn to today, and envision a different future.
Offered in partnership with The Nation and WNYC.
A pop-up exhibit of items from CBH’s AIDS/Brooklyn Project will be on display in connection with this program.
Participants
Alice Griffin, MSLIS is an archivist at the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library. In her role, Alice processes archival collections, making materials available for people to use, and manages questions about copyright and reproductions. In 2023, she completed processing the AIDS/Brooklyn Exhibition collection (1993.001), from which the oral histories and archival materials presented during this event are from. Previously, she was a Summer Fellow for Princeton University Library’s Manuscripts Division and Metadata/Digitization Assistant for the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Archives.
Johnny Jesus Guaylupo has worked as an HIV activist for the last two decades collaborating with groups such as Health GAP, Act-Up NY, Act-Up Philly, Housing Works, and VOCAL-NY. In 2011, he started what is now the Housing Works Youth and Prevention Services Department. He currently serves as the Assistant Program Director for Housing Works Youth and Prevention Services and is also a Research Assistant with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A dedicated public administration professional and native New Yorker, Johnny holds a Master of Public Administration focusing on Non-Profit Management from King Graduate School and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Monroe College.
Michelle Lopez has worked to represent the needs of people living with HIV since the 1990s. She is currently a consultant with the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), where she is helping to build a New York partnership model that brings together community members and researchers. She is also a community educator for MERCK. Michelle serves as a consumer representative for the New York State AIDS Institute Consumer Advisory body of New York State HIV Quality of Care Program. From 1992 through 1995 she served on the ACTG Consumer group, a global clinical trials network conducting research to improve the management of HIV and its comorbidities and develop a cure for HIV. She is also on the board of a local Community Base Organization, Caribbean Women Health Association, where she has served since 2011.
Lizzy Ratner is the deputy editor (for print) of The Nation magazine. She served as the lead reporter on Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, a six-part podcast produced by WNYC and The History Channel with support from The Nation.
Dr. Andrew Wiznia is the Director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology and Family Based HIV Services at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. He has almost 40 years of experience as an HIV provider and researcher, which includes advances in the care of HIV infected pregnant women and their infected and uninfected children. He has served on numerous state-wide and national expert HIV guideline committees and has participated in, as well as led, multiple HIV treatment protocols evaluating the efficacy and effects of treatments for pregnant women and infants, children, adolescents and young adults.
Most recently, Dr. Wiznia co-chaired the clinical trial (IMPAAT 1093), that led to FDA and worldwide regulatory approval for dolutegravir, a once-a-day integrase inhibitor, for children 4 weeks to 18 years of age. Through collaborations with multiple partners including PEPFAR, the WHO, NGOs and other partners, this recommended therapy, combined with two other medications is available worldwide, and in less resourced nations at an annual cost of about $38 per year. He is involved in multiple long-term studies exploring the long term medical and mental health effects of HIV infection in being born with HIV infection. Dr. Wiznia is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
