With Me Comes A Cure

In honor of National HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (May 18), artists, residents, business owners and politicians will gather for a ceremony to dedicate a 15 x 30 feet community mural entitled “Austin is Doing Something (A.I.D.S.)” designed by Carla Carr. The mural was inspired by With Me Comes A Cure, an awareness campaign of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) designed primarily to address the growing HIV epidemic among African Americans and stress the importance of developing an AIDS vaccine.

Read more at ChicagoTribune.com: “Austin mural sends message”

Residents, business owners, and artists unite to paint first-ever “With Me Comes A Cure” mural; project will be the centerpiece of planned community garden; ceremony planned for May 22

WHAT: Artists and residents of the West Side neighborhood of Austin will resume work this week on an AIDS awareness mural that will become the centerpiece of a community garden.

The 15 x 30 foot mural, “Austin Is Doing Something (A.I.D.S.),” was inspired by With Me Comes A Cure, an awareness campaign of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) designed primarily to address the growing HIV epidemic among African Americans and stress the importance of developing an AIDS vaccine.

Public art cannot only beautify, but enlighten. That’s why the AIDS Foundation of Chicago teamed with artists, business owners and community organizations to create an AIDS awareness mural in Austin, a West Side neighborhood disproportionately impacted by HIV. 

For the past 12 years, shortly after Mother's Day, scientists and AIDS activists have commemorated HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. It is likely perceived as an obscure observance by most Americans, but one that deserves our attention given this sobering reality: Twenty-eight years after the discovery of HIV, we still have no effective vaccine.

VACCINE researchers don’t often find themselves at the center of public controversies. But a storm has erupted over the announcement last month that an experimental AIDS vaccine tested in Thailand proved modestly effective. It was billed as a major scientific advance — the long-awaited hard evidence that it is possible to inoculate people against AIDS.

The AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is working with artists, business owners and community organizations to create an AIDS awareness mural in Austin, a neighborhood disproportionately impacted by HIV.  

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CHICAGO – The beat and rhyme feels similar to Kanye West’s “Heartless,” a song easily recognized by Chicago youths. But instead of the rapper’s Auto-Tuned lament, we hear a young girl intoning a vital message to her peers: “How could you go unprotected/don’t you feel disrespected/being safe is priceless/you need to go get tested.”

For the past nine years the seventh day of February has been set aside to highlight an ongoing crisis: the Black AIDS epidemic.

It's officially called National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (Black AIDS Day for short) and every year as it arrives I think to myself, "What will it take to end the disease that is ravaging my people?"