February 22, 2017
World AIDS Museum to Open 'AIDS Crisis in America: 30 Years of ACT Up'
READ TIME: 3 MIN.
On March 8, The World AIDS Museum and Educational Center (WAM) will open a major new exhibit, "AIDS Crisis in America: 30 Years of ACT UP -- A Convergence of Disease, Art and Human Resilience."
The exhibit will run for eight weeks at WAM and several other venues throughout Fort Lauderdale. Controversial artwork, film and photography will be featured which document the 30-year history of ACT UP, the primary organization behind political and social responses to the AIDS pandemic.
The opening will kick-off a three-day series of events from March 9-11.
Academy Award Nominee, Larry Kramer, author of the frequently-produced play and TV drama "The Normal Heart," numerous books and other plays, and an influential AIDS activist, will play a key role in two of three events on March 9 and 10. The kickoff for the three-day event will include a book-signing party with Kramer and Kevin Sessums, one time executive editor of Interview and a contributing editor of Vanity Fair. This will take place at WAM from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on March 9.
Kramer will be available to sign his thought-provoking books: "The Tragedy of Today's Gays;" "Women in Love and Other Dramatic Writings," "Reports From the Holocaust: The Making of an AIDS Activist," and "Faggots."
New York Times Bestseller, Kevin Sessums, will be available for signing his books: "I Left it on the Mountain" and "Mississippi Sissy."
During "An Evening With Larry Kramer," the centerpiece of the three-day event, Sessums will interview Kramer about the history of the HIV/AIDS crisis and corresponding evolution of the LGBTQ movement at 7:30 p.m. on March 10. This major event will be held at the Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale. Robert Boo, chief executive officer of the Pride Center at Equality Park and David Jobin, chief executive officer of Our Fund Foundation of South Florida will be participating in the event.
Through his writing and as co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1982 and of ACT UP in 1987, Kramer, known to be outspoken and controversial, is considered to have been a creator of political strategies that brought HIV therapies to market early and encouraged large increases in federal spending on research.
On March 11, from noon-5:00 p.m., WAM and The Stonewall Museum will co-sponsor an all-day POZ Millennials Symposium featuring a panel of influential people involved in AIDS crisis activism during the past 30 years. The Museum is under its second annual contract to provide educational programming on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases to the Broward County School District.
