ACT UP at 40 Brussels Calendar Launch: A celebration of 40 years of resistance and collective power!
22.11.2026 - Grand Carmes 4-7pm.
In 2027, ‘AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power’ (ACT UP) turns 40. To mark four decades of radical HIV/AIDS activism and in advance of World AIDS Day (Dec 1st), Grand Carmes are hosting the launch of ACT UP at 40: Celebrating Resistance and Demanding Healthcare for All — Calendar 2027, bringing together previously unseen photographs and footage from ACT UP chapters around the world alongside daily reminders of protest.
There will be two short panels and discussions with leading activists, photographers and filmmakers focusing on our key campaign ‘Fund Healthcare Not Warfare’ to ask: What can ACT UP teach us now? Followed by DJ Arthur Scott for a party!
Calendars will be on sale in Belgium for the first time!
Purchase yours now at Etsy for £15.00 RRP (Recommended Retail Price) + P+P - please state your name and contact clearly when you purchase.
The launch is supported by The Suzan Daniel Fund, gay/lesbian archive and documentation centre who have provided never before seen footage from ACT UP Brussels. The organisation was named after Suzan Daniel (b.1918, Brussels), pseudonym for Suzanne De Pues, the woman who in 1953 courageously started the first Belgian gay/lesbian group, the Centre Culturel Belge (C.C.B.) Cultuur Centrum België.
ABOUT ACT UP
“Plague! We are in the middle of a fucking plague … what are we gonna do about it?” Larry Kramer demanded at the New York LGBT+ Centre on 10 March 1987. Hundreds gathered that day to establish ACT UP — the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power: united in anger and committed to non-violent direct action to end the AIDS crisis.
Forty years on, that urgency still reverberates. As cuts to HIV and AIDS funding put millions of lives at risk, the answer remains the same: ACT UP until there is healthcare for all.
This calendar brings together ACT UP chapters — old, new and newly reactivated — from around the world. It celebrates the extraordinary diversity of our creative activism and the power of our insurrectionary imaginations: from mass die-ins in Trafalgar square and pharmaceutical occupations to political funerals and ashes thrown over the White House gates.
ACT UP has saved countless lives and shown what people power can achieve. This calendar is an international kaleidoscope of that history, creativity and resistance — and an invitation to pass the flame on.
ABOUT GRAND CARMES - A safe space to show your true colours. A hub for care and empowerment for LGBTQIA+ and allies. The space is accessible via a small staircase (approx 5 steps). The inclination of the stairs being too steep, we strongly advise not to try using the portable ramp, which makes the space unsuitable for wheelchairs.
Testimonials
“We are so grateful for the opportunity to be seen and share our story. The ACT UP Latina/o Caucus continues to challenge stigma and assert the visibility of LGBT Latinos.” Julian de Mayo, ACT UP Latina/o Caucus
“This calendar has connected us with ACT UP chapters across the world and strengthened our sense of pride and belonging. It has helped us understand our local history as part of an international movement fighting for four decades.” ACT UP Argentina
“Working with surviving members on this calendar reignited their pride in what they achieved, and offers a chance to share that flame with ACT UP chapters and followers around the world.” Mark Andrew, ACT UP Montreal
Line-Up (more to be announced)
Fund Healthcare panel and discussion 4-5pm
Dalie Kanteteli
Dalie Kanteteli is a Brussels-based patient expert, HIV activist and president of Élan-Vie+. At the MIA center (CHU Saint-Pierre) she turns lived experience into knowledge and care. Trained in Therapeutic Patient Education and a member of the CLPS Liège community of practice, she insists on one simple thing: people living with HIV are not just patients, they are the experts on their own lives and bodies. She works with the Conseil Positif to put patients at the centre of decisions about their own health. “Nothing about us without us” is not a slogan for her, it’s a practice.
Luca Modesti
Er Baghetta, aka Luca Modesti, co-founded "Conigli Bianchi" [The White Rabbits - Artivists Against Serophobia], HIVisible [an international network of artists working on HIV] and ELANVie + [a Brussels-based association offering support, sharing and self-help to people living with HIV]. He's also art director of feminist and underground comics festivals and of the Artists Against Stigma festival [powered by the Queer Antwerp Festival]. He worked on national prevention campaigns for the Minister of Health, Anlaids, TAG NYC, Act Up London, PrEPster, LILA, Milano Check Point, Arcigay Salute, Healthy Peers, and many more.
Charlotte Pezeril - Author of soon to be released ‘An epidemic of stigma - 40 years of HIV / AIDS Activism.’
Charlotte Pezeril is an anthropologist and researcher at the AIDS and Sexualities Observatory of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Since 2008, her research has focused on the dynamics of stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV in Belgium, including the criminalization of HIV transmission. Her research adopts an intersectional perspective, seeking to examine the interplay between inequalities based on health status (particularly HIV/AIDS) and gender, sexuality, and postcolonial relations. She is also a lecturer at the ULB, where she teaches in the Master's program in Sexology and the Clinical Aspects of Sexuality.
Dan Glass - ACT UP activist and calendar editor.
Depending on who you ask Dan Glass is an Activist of the Year, a campaigning role model and BBC Greater Londoner or ‘Scum’ (Nigel Farage) or a ‘Furious Gay Activist’ (Daily Mail) after the infamous ‘Sodomites Walk’ protest in Hampstead Heath.
Dan re-formed ACT UP London and co-founded ‘This is My Culture’ sexual freedom party, ‘Queer Tours of London’, Queer Night Pride and Bender Defenders. His books United Queerdom and Queer Footprints are used as liberation roadmaps across the world. Dan is an art-ivist with Training for Transformation, In Place of War and Beautiful Trouble. @danglassmincer / alright@theglassishalffull.co.uk
Not Warfare panel and discussion 5-6pm
Aline Baudet
Aline Baudet is a designer and teaches Visual and Graphic Communication at ENSAV La Cambre. With a Master’s degree specialising in Gender Studies, she works at the intersection of design, activism and education. She is currently a PhD researcher in Art and Art Sciences at the ULB and ENSAV La Cambre, and is interested in the power of design in social protest. By examining the subversive intelligence of visual works of resistance and their role in fuelling social struggles, her research aims to explore the intertwining of design and politics, to examine the agency of actors in the art and design worlds, and to question collective responsibilities in the face of contemporary crises.
Raoul Rul
Raoul Rul is an activist, writer and videographer. He’s been contributing to various organisations and festivals in Brussels for more than ten years. He’s involved notably in Pink Screens, Homografia and Météores, moderating talks, running interviews and facilitating community conversations.
Frank Barat
Frank Barat is a French activist, author and film producer. He was the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine from 2008 until 2014.[1] He is the co-founder of BARC Productions, a film production company, created in Brussels in February 2019. He has helped produce "The Key" by Rakan Mayasi, "To A Land Unknown" by Mahdi Fleifel, "Palestine 36" by Annemarie Jacir and "The Voice of Hind Rajab" by Kaouther Ben Hania. He has edited books with Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, Ken Loach and Angela Davis. He was part of the founding team of the Festival Ciné-Palestine[3] in Paris and the Palestine with Love[4] festival in Brussels.
DJ - 6-7pm
Arthur Scott
Arthur Scott is one of the most eclectic DJ's to set foot in this atomic city. Driven by MTV's crazy culture from last century, this boy has his own way of driving party people through sound.