HOW SAD .... 21 Year old Kyle Jean-Baptiste, the first black actor and the youngest actor to ever play the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway . He fell off his mother's fire escape and died. At 6''2 he was a perfect leading man.

Rise

Rise- Kerrigan and Lowdermilk - Republic the Musical

YOUTUBE.COM

I went on the Visual AIds LAST ADDRESS TRIBUTE WALK (based on the Ira Sacks short film) ,I have know each of the people honored on this and the previous walk .. I have been need ng to greive for all of them that at the time none of us could with people dying every fiucking day

Saturday I went on this walk ... each of the homes we visited were people I knew quite well .. and the readers were part of my community I will post some videos of the visits .

LAST ADDRESS TRIBUTE WALK

3:00 - 5:00 PM, Saturday August 29 2015
Starting at SVA Theatre, 333 W 23rd St

IN TRIBUTE TO ARTISTS WHO DIED OF HIV/AIDS AT THEIR LAST ADDRESSES.
Starting with a screening of Ira Sachs’ touching Last Address (2010, 9 min.) at SVA Theatre, the event will move to the streets of Chelsea where Visual AIDS Programs Manager Alex Fialho will lead a tribute walk honoring artists lost to AIDS. At each stop of an artist's last residential address, a drawing by Win Mixter and rose will be left in tribute, and special guests close to or influenced by the artists will share a related reading. Audio clips from Félix González-Torres, Vito Russo, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Chloe Dzubilo will also be played at SVA Theatre to bring each artist's presence into the room.

In a spirit of lively remembrance, Alejandro Cesarco will read at the last address of Félix González-Torres (London Terrace, 405-465 W 23rd St);

Larry Mass will read at the last address of Vito Russo (401 W 24th St); 

Pamela Sneed will read at the last address of Assotto Saint (360 W 22nd St); 

Kristoffer Haynes will read at the former address of Tseng Kwong Chi (162 W 21 St); 

Carl George   at the last address of Hugh Steers (208 W 23rd St); 

Jack Walls  read at the last address of Robert Mapplethorpe (35 W 23rd St); 

Kelly McGowan read at the last address of Chloe Dzubilo (Prince George Ballroom).

Though these may be the last addresses where each artist lived, the life of their work continues to address, inspire, and live with a new generation today. The constellation of readings and roses, drawings and doorsteps of the tribute walks is a site for community based on both remembrance and response.

Artist Member pages for those we will tribute: Félix González-Torres, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tseng Kwong Chi, Hugh Steers and Chloe Dzubilo 

***Rain or Shine***

READER'S BIOGRAPHIES

Jack Walls, Artist, Poet lived at 35 West 23rd street with Robert Mapplethorpe until the photographer’s death on March 9, 1989

Carl George is a collagist, filmmaker and curator. Hugh and Carl were best friends, art collaborators, sisters on the dancefloor and brothers in arms in the war on AIDS.

Alejandro Cesarco is an artist whose work addresses, through different formats and strategies, his recurrent interests in repetition, narrative, and the practices of reading and translating. Cesarco's ongoing involvement and fascination with the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres led him to curate "Felix Gonzalez-Torres" at the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay (2000) and edit "A Selection of Snapshots Taken by Felix Gonzalez-Torres" (New York: A.R.T. Press, 2010).

Robert-Kristoffer Haynes was Tseng Kwong Chi's domestic partner and assistant/ frequent trusted collaborator from 1983 until his passing in 1990.

Lawrence D. Mass, M.D., was the first to write about AIDS for the press and is a co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis. He has written widely on AIDS, gay health, medicine and culture. He is the author of a memoir, Confessions of a Jewish Wagnerite; Being Gay and Jewish in America, and the editor of an anthology, We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer. He works in addiction medicine in New York City, where he lives with his life partner, Arnie Kantrowitz, who was Vito Russo's closest friend. Together with their other closest friend, Jim Owles, Arnie, Vito and Larry became an extended family as the AIDS epidemic unfolded.

Kelly McGowan has lived in the Lower East Side since moving into the Rock Against Racism squat in 1985. She directed the 'Guerilla Housing Program' during Housing Works founding years and was Chloe's partner in the 90s when Chloe was the lead singer of Transisters. Together they led the Transgender Initiative at Positive Health Project in midtown Manhattan and continued to be co-conspirators until Chloe's ascension.

Pamela Sneed is a New York based poet, performer, writer and actress whose work has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Source, Time Out, Bomb, Next, MetroSource, Blue, VIBE, HX, and on the cover of New York Magazine. "A six-foot-three-inch-tall black woman with a shaved head, a big smile, and a wily sense of humor, Sneed began making a name for herself in New York in the early nineties as a writer at poetry slams and other performance-art venues while teaching at Hetrick-Martin, an organization for gay, lesbian, and transgendered youth. There and elsewhere, Sneed gave voice to the fraction of the city’s population suffering from AIDS, poverty, and bias-related crimes." -Hilton Als, The New Yorker

OLIVER SACKS my neighbor , our resident genius

One less genius living around the corner from me... last seen stopping by John Cameron Mitchel's Mattachine night at Julius' Bar at 10th st and Waverly Place in the  vanishing  Greenwich Village honoring Oliver Sacks ... unexpectedly he dropped by and thrilled the usually non=plussed Mr. Hedwig. Oliver was a nice and brilliant gay man ........ He told me once he thought Robin WIlliams did a pretty good job of playing him but if he could have brought back Marlon Brando from the WILD ONES period ...that he would have prefered

Oliver Sacks Dies at 82; Neurologist and Author Explored the Brain’s Quirks

Dr. Sacks explored some of the brain’s strangest pathways in best-selling case histories like “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” achieving a level of renown...

NYTIMES.COM|BY GREGORY COWLES

Now is not the time to debate sex work

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ALERT: (smile) Here is a comic that teaches the difference between "Latino" and "Hispanic" (ah!)

No Shame ... there is a difference and Terry BLas has this comic which explains whew !

The difference between "Latino" and "Hispanic" in one cartoon

Many people don't know when to say "Hispanic" and when to say "Latino." So I drew a comic to explain the difference.

VOX.COM|BY TERRY BLAS

HITCH : A LOVE STORY Lorena "Hitch" Hickok, journalist and Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady to the World met in 1932

 

HITCH : A LOVE STORY Friday at 2:30 at Drom 85 Avenue A between 5th and 6th Don't miss this incredible love story finally out in the open: Lorena "Hitch" Hickok, journalist and Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady to the World met in 1932 when Hitch was assigned to the White House press corp by AP and Eleanor was married ot a man who was running for President.and lasted until Eleanor died in 1962. The years were historical and the relationship was both clandestine and oddy public

in the subtlest of ways when tabloid journalist and surveillance cameras and digital media chased after and reported almost every waking moment of a celebrity's life. I fell in love with the play and was deeply moved by Terry Baum's insightful bring to life a very mannish looking woman who thought Eleanor Roosevelt was beautiful and told her so when eve she could. HICK: A LOVE STORY has one more performance on Friday at 2:30 at Drom 85 Avenue A between 5th and 6th

HICK

Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) wrote 2336 letters to Lorena Hickok, the most famous woman journalist of her day. The romance between the patrician First Lady and the charming, hard-living butch reporter changed both their lives. Their friendship only ended with ER’s death, 30 years later.When HICK: A Lo…

LILITHTHEATERSANFRANCISCO.COM

Ray Johnson was a friend and he used to mail me post cards I miss him and his art

Ray Johnson was a friend and he used to mail me post cards . I miss him and his postcards

I Is an Other: The Mail Art of Ray Johnson

Ray Johnson disappeared near Sag Harbor just over twenty years ago. But if we refer to the artist by the art, he’s still among us.

HYPERALLERGIC.COM

F you were at AFROpunk 2015 you know while music expression was the essential core but layered on top was self expression and style was a universal language : here is what Greg Tate wrote :“You are there to wave your freak flag high,” said Vernon Reid, the chief songwriter of the band Living Colour. “You may be a shame and embarrassment to your parents, but in afropunk you are all good.”

For me it was looking good and feeling good about yourself and expressing it from the stage to the audience iin one long beautiful smile of recognition . Yes it was music that was the reason to be present but just look at Grace Jones singing

Scenes From the Afropunk Festival’s Fancy Ball

Attendees wore jewel-encrusted lapels, masks and floral suits to see Grace Jones perform.

NYTIMES.COM|BY JENNA MAROTTA

what is a man ? and who defines it ? Auntie Homo speaks

Auntie Homo says: Hating being a man does make you a woman. Conforming to roles rooted in oppression is adjustment. Changing what it means to be a man is radical.

At 67 Grace Jones brought modern tribal fashion ro her performance at AFROPUNK 2015 to express her solidarity with the culture and politics of AFROPUNK.

At 67 Grace Jones brought modern tribal fashion ro her performance at AFROPUNK 2015 to express her solidarity with the culture and politics of AFROPUNK... and watching her perform I remembered her visits to Danceteria and I remember waiting once three hours at the Black Party for her to make her entrance and i remember being with her and her mother and father (the Rev Mr Jones) in South Africa at the fall of apartheid and I remembered when Keith Haring painted her and Bil...

See More

Grace Jones AFROPUNK

YOUTUBE.COM

Unboxing my New Hoverboard Segway! (Breaking it in 20 Minutes - IO Hawk,...

Oh boy !  a video lesson ... hummmmmmm  Anyone have one ?

WOW .. this is the HAWK hoverboard in action

Well this looks like fun ...but not on a CROWDED NYC sidewalk .. ..they seem quite easy to navigate ... hummmmmmm .. I just don't want to get thrown to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for riding one in a public space

AFROpunk .. oh my first there was GRACE JONES ...and then this musical match that rivals al most no one .. Gail Ann Dorsey and Lenny Kravitz .. it does not get much better than that .. the creative interplay trumped the sound system .. whew! Thank yo Toshi for this fantastic picture of a black artist smiling at the creativity of another black artist .. music has no gender when it sizzles like this ( no gender politics please ..this was a concert of equals  

Toshi Reagon

I heard sound was not so hot last night at afropunk- but I know my brother Lenny does not play w/ his sound. I bet there are 500 more speakers out there today + shout out to my homie Gail Ann Dorsey one of the best ever.

Wiz Khalifa : Another black man ] this time a well known rapper, arrested at LAX for what ?????? for Refusing to Get Off Hoverboard

Another black man ] this time a well know rapper, arrested at LAX .Wiz Khalifa is forced to the ground and handcuffed by 3 police officers.  And the crime was ..... ???? ... Well at least he is not dead ... but was this amount of of force necessary? If we did not have the Instagram video include in the story all we would have had was the cops story. Why Black Lives Matters campaign to ferret out institutional racism is critical. Why change , real change, not adjustment, is necessary. ........... uh A Hoverboard is a levitating board used for personal transportation in the films Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III.It has become popular in futuristic movies and widely seen in animated cartoons.  Companies as large as multinational LEXIS have been developing actual hoverboard that work. No information was available on the kind of hoverboard Wiz Khalofa was using. Amazon has over six different models listed : .http://tinyurl.com/ofb7cvd The going price is between $100 to 600 Question:  Is it more dangerous in an airport than than the small motor transportation vehicles that seem ubiquitous in airports is a question being asked.

Wiz Khalifa Arrested for Refusing to Get Off Hoverboard

Wiz Khalifa was arrested in the Los Angeles International Airport during a confrontation involving a hoverboard.

ARTSBEAT.BLOGS.NYTIMES.COM|BY ANDREW R. CHOW

MARK YOUR CALENDARS.... September 10th 20115 Important cultural. political and artist Hunter Reynolds with an overview of his important work . DO not miss this one . I still have reeling in my memory bank his powerful history lesson taught in blood stain newsprint at Participant. He currently has a photo documentation of a roving performance piece dealing with gender expression at the peak of the AIDS crsis. It is a t the Bureau of General Services, Queer Dividison located inside the Center at 208b West 13 st NYC .

Join

Survival AIDS Medication Reminder

Thursday, September 10 at 6:00pm

PPOW Gallery in New York, New York

Warhol Memories : it was me and Ingrid and Gerard and.Andy was behind the movie camera .. footage at the Andy Warhol Museum.. I was studying with Lee Strasberg .and doing plays at Cafe Cino and La MaMA . and really would have preferred at the time to be working with Kazan.. I did not consider Warhol superstars actors .. Viva was the exception, and I have always thought she could have been a huge success if she had wanted it.(Watch Agnes Vardas' Lions in Love) My friends Tom Baker, Sylvia Miles and Louis Waldron were all SAG members with training and film, television and Broadway credits (Waldron and Miles) were the exceptions. The others were playing exhibitionistic exaggerations of themselves.. and yes that was often exciting to watch but it was not acting as the craft I was learning .. hearing Marlon Brando in the recent documentary Listen to Me Marlon http://filmforum.org/film/listen-to-me-marlon-film-page… based on his personal aural documentation addresses in a way the craft of acting unlike any other actors recollection that I know .. a must see for any actor at any stage of v carrer (thanks for to Laura Levine for digging this up from the archives of a photographer she had been friends with when he passed)

POLITICAL ALERT : This is big news! NADLER with the largest Jewish population in his District lof any elect member of the US House of Representatives and a strong , vocal supporter of Israel has endorsed the Obama Iran nuclear agreement JStreet, the progressive Jewish lobby showed it's muscle. How with far less money it was able to reach out to progressive Jews in his district despite the mega high $$$ campaign of AIPAC . I have already written Nadler as he is my Representative and thanked him .. I hope you will too.. this is a huge choice on his part

Jerrold Nadler, New York Congressman, Endorses Iran Nuclear Deal

Mr. Nadler, a long-tenured liberal Democrat, became the lone Jewish member of Congress from the state to back the contested arms-control agreement.

NYTIMES.COM|BY ALEXANDER BURNS

SPROUT : The Little Pink Pull ..viagra for women???? As the song said "GO ASK ALICE ..... FEED HER....

PHARMA scores a new $$$$$$$$$$$ victory at FDA .. the female VIAGRA called SPROUT …. WITH ONE HUGE WINDFALL difference: While the expensive blue pill for men SHOULD BE TAKEN BEFORE engaging in sexual activity, WOMEN ARE TO TAKE THE PINK PILL DAILY and the use is not tied to specific sexual activity. Now add that to the little blue pill called TRUVADA for sexually active women and men to protect themselves from possible transmission of HIV in condom-less vaginal or anal intercourse(big subway campaign in NYC sponsored by the NYC Health Department that promotes condom-less sex by implication). We see the further chemicalization of of the sex life of an individual who wishes to be sexually active. No mention in announcement of the possible serious side effects or the interaction with other medications including the widely prescribed anti-depression/anxiety drugs. Or the shedding of the chemicals in the body fluids of the people engaged in sexual activity.

Wild as this next statement may sound I am still going to suggest that there is a darker Big Brother aspect: the policy to keep people in a constant state of sexual arousal to keep then distracted from the economic reality of their lives reminds me of what happened in NYC right after the STONEWALL REBELLION. There were well know cruising areas along the waterfront in the far West Village and the lower West Side that the police department would selectively police. The cops, usually at the request of the owners of the those piers that had not been abandoned and by the owners of the trucking services that legally parked on the West Side waterfront, patrolled the area. For gay men it was a dance of hide and seek. The police no longer policed these areas because of a tacit agreement between the cities policy leaders in response to the political demands, of principally the Gay Activist Alliance and later a small group of activist in SEX PANIC, of a hands-off and out of the gay cruising areas demand. The results were the trucks and Piers at night became more dangerous with pickpockets, rapists and assault because the police no longer were patrolling. While the demands of these activists addressed police harassment of homosexuals looking for sex, I believe there was another politician goal. Keep them is a constant state of sexual stimulation and tumescence and they will stop their police and politician confrontations on other issues that impacted the lives of lesbians and gay men.

So here we are again in 2015 : the good goal a having a healthy sexual life for men and women suffering from mental of physical distention is exploited to keep people quiet .. now please reread and think about the consequences of what the police policy did in the gay male community in the 70's and what one of the potential side effects of SPROUT can be. Women will once again be pressured not to say no ...just like happened when the “pill” was introduced to women in the 60's Sprout really benefits men as it makes their sexual demands ..chemically initiated... on women medically possible. What SROUT shares with the rape drug if any I will await what women have to say. As to the name ..Oh please it sees to be rooted in the biology of women and conception …. despite the fact that the statistics point to older women and sexual function.

So caution is in order with SPROUT as it was with the PILL and the introduction of VIAGRA.

FDA approves 'female Viagra' pill Flibanserin after two rejections

Drug to help women boost sex drive overcomes concerns over effectiveness and side effects, but some experts fear precedent campaigning could set

THEGUARDIAN.COM|BY JANA KASPERKEVIC

GayC/DC "Big Balls" why we love gay rock bands who can take the piss out of anything ...including AC/DA

Need to smile ?  try this     ≈ here is Big Balls / Gay Boy Boogie by GayC/DC   hollywood gay AC/DC tribute band .Why we love gay rock music ...  Did you smile ? Hope so

OXYCONTIN and TRUVADA: why Big Pharma put$ profit above health consequences of their drugs. Making money my dear is what Matters !

NO GLOVE NO LOVE and next up TRUVADA, the little daily blue pill in PrEP trials .. and did you know that that among the biggest stock holders in Truvada is Donald Rumsfeld? Make sure all your HIV- friends think through about putting a serious AIDS drug with all its known side effects into their bodies so they can have unsafe, "raw" sex. Make sure they know all the known, let alone, the unknown side effects on HIV+ bodies, let alone what long term effect will be by the use on HIV- bodies. That this need to take an expensive drug does NOT protect against any other STD except the possibility of HIV transmission. It will put billions of dollars of profit into the pockets of share holders .

Women who have sex with men for over 45 years had advocated for health reasons not just limited to that of pregnancy for men wear condoms."No glove No Love " ...and now people with AIDS and HIV+ activist and some public heath officials and some MDs are campaigning to undermine their message by promoting PrEP. The issue of heterosexual couples who want children who have rejected adoption where one partner is HIV+ or has AIDS and a partner who is HIV- is a serious question and needs to be addressed separately Same sex couples with mixed HIV conditions do not make babies in anal intercourse.No Glove No love. The current public campaign promoting PrEP by the State and City Health Departments to me verges on criminal misinformation because it promotes PrEP without any mention of the harmful side effects or cost to the individual or the public. And who is funding this campaign? We know that when the federal government withdrew funding for safe sex education from AIDS related service agencies PHARMA stepped in and replaced the funding by funding Prep education programs in those same agencies and saved jobs and, I suggest, put lives at risk. , And no matter how you feel about PrEP, please Make sure people know that so called HIV+ individuals who say their viral load is "undetectable" and want to have unprotected sex with you are living in a scientifically controversial world. Don't have anal or vaginal sex with out a condom

NO GLOVE NO LOVE remember the Tuskegee trials ...guess who is targeted this time?

ALERT: What side effects can Truvada cause?Truvada can cause serious, life-threatening side effects. :

1: These include lactic acidosis (
2: New or worsening kidney problems, including kidney failure.
3: Bone problems (bone pain, softening, or thinning [osteopenia]).
4: Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), a condition that sometimes occurs when the immune system begins to recover after treatment with an HIV medicine. As the immune system gets stronger, it may have an increased response to a previously hidden infection. Tell your health care provider if you start having new symptoms after starting your HIV medicine.
4: Changes in body fat (lipodystrophy).
Tell your health care provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.These are not all the possible side effects of Truvada. To learn more about possible side effects of Truvada, read the drug label or package insert or talk to your health care provider or pharmacist.The AIDSinfo fact sheet on HIV Medicines and Side Effects also includes information that may apply to Truvada.You can report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 (1-800-332-1088) or online athttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/.

Or as was written in BlackgirlDangerous Blog

one side effects that you will not be told : (from blackgirldangerous blog)
Truvada, a pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) that prevents the transmission of HIV. Essentially, you take this pill every day to prevent contracting the virus and developing the highly-manageable chronic illness. .......have gotten a few of the facts wrong: . .....why Truvada is more effective than other, less costly and less extreme alternatives. .....makes the assumption that HIV/AIDS is somehow a gay issue, and it is not...... fails to discuss the systemic complications of treating gay identities as “high-risk” chronic conditions that require being indentured to the medical industrial complex. .....writes, “Truvada has virtually no side effects,” he is wrong. The Truvada website’s Patient Assistance Page identifies lactic acidosis as a potential side effect of taking the drug; this side effect is potentially life-threatening and serious even when it doesn’t result in death. Lactic acidosis is when your body tissue and blood becomes too acidic and has a lactate build up. In the past the FDA has withdrawn drugs (such as phenformin) for the potential development of this condition. I think this is not only misleading, but unethical to suggest that a drug that is potentially life-threatening has “virtually no side effects.” Especially when other drugs have been taken off shelves for the same side effect.... the popular argument that Truvada lowers condom use and asserts that Truvada is an effective prevention tool. While I am willing to accept Stern’s claim that Truvada is more than 99 percent effective, I wonder if he knows the same is true for condom use (a much less expensive form of prevention). What is especially interesting to me is this focus on sex in the context of HIV. In particular, the focus on the sex being had by gay men. The fact that (it) seems to think this pill is accessible enough to suggest all gay men take it only leads me to question how much (is) understood (about the intersection of) poverty, race, and structural barriers.

‎

And the FDA just approved this very addictive drug for children as young as 11 years old. Joy. Get them hooked when they're young.

BLACK LIVES MATTER Parenting While Incarcerated: DADDY/MOMMY STORY TELLING NYPL Program Serves Hundreds Per Year |

SHOCKING statistic: It's important to note that one in 28 school age children in the U.S. has an incarcerated parent and one in nine for black children.  This innovative program is what one publicly and privately funded institution os doing to bridge the gap between a child outside and a parent within the penal system....   While fighting against the profit driven prison system is a must, we also need to bridge the gap beteen a child and a parent incarcerated

Parenting While Incarcerated: NYPL Program Serves Hundreds Per Year | The New York Public Library

Schumer’s Warmongering: A Personal Reflection on the NY Senator's Opposition to Obama's Nuclear Deal | Alternet

Please read this intelligent and personal article by my friend Danny Goldberg.. he is one of the smartest people I know, And yes I did work for him 15 years ago. I learned a long time ago to follow the leadership of progressive Jewish friends and leaders on any discussion involving Israel and its government. In 1967 I was a part of a group that put on a forum in Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco's entitled 'Two Jews discuss Zionism" One was a secular Jew the writer Robert Scheer and the other a charismatic pro -zionism young Rabbi. I was taught my role was to act as support person when needed. This has not meant I didn't have strong feelings on the Palestinian occupation, the Israeli Prime Minister interference in US politics by speaking at the invitation of Republican leaders to Congress in defiance of the President on the boyco of manufactured goods from Israel (sodastream , etc)I do have a problem with so aspects of the cultural boycott. Eg., I did join the demo in front of Schumer's office protesting his announced plan to not support Obama's Iran Nuclear agreement , Israel . Despite his two stepping it was clear to me and others when push comes to shove he prefers war over diplomacy. Please read and pass on to any of your Jewish friends sitting on the ledge ... I did ... and also to your non-Jewish friends that are undecided

Schumer’s Warmongering: A Personal Reflection on the NY Senator's Opposition to Obama's Nuclear Deal | Alternet