Bay Area World AIDS Day Events Set

Each year during World AIDS Day, people take time to remember loved ones who've been lost to the disease and those who continue living with it. Events are planned throughout the Bay Area in the coming days marking the 27th annual commemoration.

HIV transmission, the virus that causes AIDS, continues to occur, despite advances in prevention and drugs such as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

During a conference call with reporters last week, Dr. Gil Chavez, state epidemiologist and deputy director at the Center for Infectious Diseases in the California Department of Public Health, said that there are 13 new HIV infections every day in the state, or nearly 400 per month.

In contrast, Chavez said that at the height of the epidemic, there were 13,000 new cases identified in the state in a single year. In 2013, the most recent year available, there were 4,712 newly diagnosed HIV infections in California, he said.

World AIDS Day was started to bring attention to the epidemic and to educate people.

In San Francisco's Castro district this year, children who were born years after the height of the epidemic will come together Tuesday, December 1 with some of the people survived.

During the event called "Inscribe," people will be able to use sidewalk chalk to write on the Rainbow Honor Walk the names of those they've lost to HIV/AIDS. The event is from 10 a.m. to noon.

The walk is a series of plaques from between Market and 19th streets honoring LGBT rights icons that was included in the 2014 Castro Street sidewalk widening project.

Students from the neighborhood's Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy and long-term HIV/AIDS survivors from the group Honoring Our Experience are coming together for the day.

Small groups of students, survivors, and parents or school staffers will gather Tuesday on both sides of Castro. Each group will get a pail of colored chalk.

"Inscribe is not a fundraiser," event coordinator George Kelly, 55, who's been living with HIV for more than 30 years, said in a news release. "It is a gift from our school and a great learning opportunity for our students. It is a celebration of remembrance and honor for our neighbors and community. It is an acknowledgement of the long-term survivors that offers healing and brings attention to the struggles and challenges that we still face today."

In an interview, HOE member Gregg Cassin, 57, called Inscribe "a beautiful event."

The Castro is "a place where we've grown up, where we've spent so much of our time," he said. "The Castro has been a home to us, and where we've also experienced so much of our losses, so we gather in the Castro on World AIDS Day to remember our loved ones who we walked those streets with and to inscribe their names. To do it with other community members and young people and their families is just a really sweet way to honor all those losses, but also to honor what it is that we've walked through as a community."

The Shanti Project, which works with women who have cancer and with people who are living with HIV, is sponsoring the event.

People who aren't able to attend can have names added to the honor walk in chalk by leaving their loved one's name and some of the person's story on the Inscribe Facebook page, and the name will be added.

For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/166253983718722/

National AIDS Memorial Grove

The National AIDS Memorial Grove is well known for its World AIDS Day events.

From 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, November 30, the annual Light in the Grove fundraising gala will feature dinner, music, and light displays. Warm attire is suggested.

Funds raised through the event support the grove's community volunteer workday program, where people come to help maintain the space, which is located in the eastern end of Golden Gate Park at the intersection of Bowling Green and Middle Drive East, across from the tennis courts. The funds also support the grove's World AIDS Day observations and the Pedro Zamora Young Leaders Scholarship Program.

Tickets, which as of last week were still available, start at $200 and include complimentary valet parking.

Tuesday, the grove will host its 22nd annual World AIDS Day observance from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The program begins at noon and includes an invocation by Ryuko Laura Burges.

During the observance, San Francisco's leather community will be honored with the Thom Weyand Unsung Hero Award.

Colleen Small, one of the community members who will be on hand at the event, said, "It's an honor to have the leather community in general recognized for what we did. ... It's good that the work that was done initially years ago in the middle of a crisis is being recognized now that many years have passed."

(Small, who's also known as Queen Cougar, works in advertising and administration at the Bay Area Reporter .)

Visit http://www.aidsmemorial.org for more information.

UCSF HIV Cure Summit

UCSF will host an HIV Cure Summit from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The free event will include an update from leading scientists on HIV cure research. Speakers will include Doctors Steven Deeks and Mike McCune, of UCSF.

The UCSF AIDS Research Institute and the Foundation for AIDS Research, also known as amfAR, are sponsoring the event. Fashion designer Kenneth Cole, who chairs amfAR's board, is also among those expected to speak.

There will be a reception from 4 to 5:30.

The event is at the Fisher Banquet Room,?William J. Rutter Center,?UCSF-Mission Bay, 1675 Owens Street.

RSVPs are requested at http://www.amfar.org/CureSummit2015/

'Testimony' at Park Presidio United Methodist Church

San Francisco's Park Presidio United Methodist Church, 4301 Geary Boulevard, will mark World AIDs Day with "Testimony," a series of events beginning Tuesday and ending Sunday, December 6.

The opening ceremony will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and will feature the unveiling of panels from the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which was conceived in 1985 by Cleve Jones, known for his activism for LGBTs and people living with HIV/AIDS.

In a news release, pastor Sandy Gess said, "Our philosophy is that faith is more than what happens on Sunday mornings. It is part of who we are inside and out. As an integral part of this Bay Area community, we want this week to be the most memorable activity we have sponsored this year. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is such a powerful symbol to this community."

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, December 2, the Academy Award-winning film Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt will be shown, followed by a panel discussion.

The film We Were Here: the AIDS Years in San Francisco will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, December 3. The documentary features survivors of the AIDS epidemic talking about its impact. A panel discussion will follow the film.

From 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday, December 4 and noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, December 5, the "Embodied Writing" workshop will explore verbal and non-verbal ways for people to express their own stories of the impact of HIV/AIDS. Saturday, people will be able to use chalk to draw on the sidewalk in honor of people they've lost to the disease.

The closing ceremony, which is set for 7 to 10 p.m. Sunday, December 6, will include dance, poetry readings, and other performances. Also during the event, DJ Page Hodel and activist Austin Padilla will be recognized for their work.

A donation of $5 to $10 is suggested for all events. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. To purchase tickets in advance, go to http://worldaidsdaysf.brownpapertickets.com

Masks at Clinica Esperanza

San Francisco's Mission Neighborhood Health Center and Clinica Esperanza, its HIV services clinic, will exhibit hand-crafted masks from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, December 3 at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission Street, in honor of World AIDS Day.

The masks were created by clients, staff, and others as a way to express their experiences with HIV and their hopes for health.

Along with the masks, there will also be a ceremony with a musical performance by Gale Sandoval, a Clinica staff member.

The event is free, but donations will be accepted and the masks and other artwork may be purchased. Proceeds will help support this event in the future and the mission of the organization.

World AIDS Day Gala in San Jose

In San Jose from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, the Health Trust will have a gala with dinner and entertainment. Proceeds will benefit the Health Trust AIDS Services.

The gala will be at Silicon Valley Capital Club, 50 West San Fernando Street. Tickets start at $150.

For more information, visit http://healthtrust.org