Commemorating 40 years since the discovery of HIV and AIDS - Join ACT UP this World AIDS Day!

Commemorating 40 years since the discovery of the HIV virus. ACT UP London World AIDS Day Films and fundraiser party!

We are STILL not silent. 

When - Friday December 1st 2023 

Time - 7.30pm - Welcome from ACT UP and films till 9pm followed by DJ’s until 3am!

Where - The Queer Adelaide, 483 Hackney Rd, Cambridge Heath, London E2 9ED

Accessibility - Ramp into the front door. Toilets fully accessible. 

Contact - If you would like to be involved please email actuplondonhealthcareforall@gmail.com to register your interest. 

Join ‘ACT UP London’ and friends for an incredible collection of HIV / AIDS herstory and community love and power films for World AIDS Day 2023 followed by spoken word and performances in front of a section of the UK AIDS MEMORIAL Quilt.

Please support us by ordering this iconic t-shirt design of the original ACT UP long sleeve T-shirt as worn by Jimmy during the Read My Lips campaign – all profits will be donated to our ongoing healthcare activism at ACT UP London. Thanks lovers!

ACT UP London is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the HIV pandemic, along with the broader inequalities and injustices that perpetuate it. At a time of continuing stigma, silence, and isolation, we combat discrimination against and promote the visibility and leadership of those living with HIV and AIDS. We are STILL not silent. On this 40th anniversary since the first HIV+ diagnosis it is vital to learn from our HIV+ community leaders and build strategic activist programmes to support those still without access to healthcare.

Since reforming ‘Aids Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) London chapter in 2012 we have catalysed healthcare and sex-positive programmes including campaigning for PREP, HIV Blind Date, protecting the National Health Service as well as enabling ‘HIV anti-stigma classes as part of the Beyond UKIP Cabaret in Nigel Farage's boozer. 

Our continuing focuses for World AIDS Day 2023 on the journey for healthcare for all are

1 - Challenging the regional disparity for access to PREP across the UK, and particularly the limited access and uptake for women - see the incredible work by Women4Women. This is a useful report from NAT that highlights some of the issues and calls to action from different relevant bodies. 

2 - Catalysing mass civil disobedience with joy as a revolutionary force - With home secretary Suella Braverman’s outrageous (and frankly, lethal) attacks on LGBTIQA+ migrants, women and with the ongoing assault on trade unions and the National Health Service (NHS) the time is ripe for creative and intersectional direct action to bring joy to the grassroots. See the anti-fascist 'Beyond UKIP Cabaret' in Nigel Farage's pub as an example. 

All profit going to The Food Chain and Positive East and African Rainbow Family 

Keep in contact on our website here and insta here @actup_london

Poster credit - Naomi Gabriel / Logo credit - Luca Modesti
 

Films include 

Catwalk4Power - films from a trailblazing collective of women with HIV & our allies who use creativity and community empowerment to raise awareness of how HIV affects women including speeches and performances.

'30 Years of Living with HIV' - an oral history project from Positive East and Eastside Community Heritage, looking at the impact of the HIV prevention campaign of the 1980s by all those involved, including those who were not expected to survive.

Interview with Marc Thompson hosted by Attitude Magazine - Diagnosed with HIV at the age of 17 in 1986, Marc thought life was over. He went on to channel that experience into helping others. Today, Marc lives his life openly and unapologetically as a HIV positive, Black, gay man, and is devoted to stamping out stigma and health inequalities. In 2014, he set up PrEPster – alongside Will Nutland – to educate and agitate for PrEP access in the UK, and later created The Love Tank to cater for the needs of marginalised, vulnerable communities, including people of colour, trans people and sex workers. More recently, he kickstarted the Black and Gay, Back in the Day to celebrate the Black, queer narrative in UK history. 

‘Mama Says’ by ‘Positive East’ - designed to promote awareness of and access to PrEP for African communities.

‘Bearded and Flushed’ by Positively UK - provided space for 16 women living with HIV to discover their creative voice over a series of 12 writing workshops focusing on living well with HIV and going through the menopause.