Larry Bryant with Campaign to End AIDS is keynote speaker for event co-sponsored by The Group
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Dallas will participate in the 27th annual International AIDS Candlelight Memorial on May 16 in conjunction with 1,200 cities in 115 countries.
The event remembers 25 million people who have died of AIDS and supports 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS around the world.
For the second year in a row, the local observance will take place at Cornerstone Baptist Church at 1819 MLK Jr. Blvd. at 6 p.m. Dallas has participated in the event for 10 years.
Auntjuan Wiley is the local director of the event sponsored by The Group, a support and empowerment group for African-American men, in coordination with the church.
He said they chose to partner with the church because it is located in the zip code with the highest morbidity rate for AIDS in Dallas.
Wiley will be the moderator for the event. Among other things, he is a national trainer for AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families and a consultant for the National Minority AIDS Council.
The keynote speaker is Larry Bryant, director of national organizing for Housing Works and a member of the Campaign to End AIDS.
Housing Works provides services including housing, meals, medical care, drug treatment, social support and employment opportunities for homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.
With the Campaign to End AIDS, he works to prioritize the issues of marginalized and underserved communities.
Bryant is heterosexual and was diagnosed HIV positive in 1986.
"Unlike World AIDS Day or National HIV Testing Day, this will be simply a memorial," Wiley said. No testing will be done at the event.
At the end of the service participants may light a candle in memory of someone who has died of AIDS or in honor of someone living with HIV.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 14, 2010.