World AIDS Day!

December 1st is World Aids Day! NYU celebrated a little early last night with an amazing event, Living OUT Loud: Men of Color Creating HIV Awareness . The event featured

Tim'm T. West: Hip Hop Artist, Scholar, Poet

Cornelius LIFE Jones: Actor, Writer, ARTivist

Brandon Lacy Campos: Organizer, Writer, FierceCook

Pedro Julio Serrano: Communicator, Activist, Blogger

The performers were amazing and inspiring using different forms of art and media to tell their story and to empower others to share their stories. I urge you to check out their work.

There were tons of great things said last night, but one that stuck out to me the most was when Tim'm made a rather simple statement: "We all need to come out!" Instead of not talking about HIV/AIDS we should all learn how to come out about our status. Whether or not it's positive, negative, or maybe that we're too afraid to find out. These are all real experiences, and unless we start talking openly about them, HIV will continue.

I know it can be scary. Maybe you don't want to know. But in this day and age it's incredibly important that we get tested. Visit http://www.hivtest.org/ and enter your zip code for the closest free HIV testing centers! Happy World AIDS Day!