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April 12, 2005
Housing Works Honors AIDS Activists at April 12 Public Forum in Washington
Nation's largest AIDS service organization
opens the floor to
first-ever recipients of its Keith Cylar
Activist Award for HIV/AIDS Activism
New York City-based Housing Works, the nation's largest community-based AIDS services organization, and one with a long history of militant advocacy for the interests of people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS, will host a public forum on April 12 to honor Paisan Suwannawong, Fatima Prioleau, Virginia Shubert and Thomas D'Angelo--the first four recipients of its Keith Cylar Activist Awards, established in honor of the Housing Works co-founder and AIDS activist who died last year. The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) and the Drug Policy Alliance will co-sponsor the event, to be held April 12 from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the True Reformer Building, 1200 U Street, NW, Washington, DC. The event will be a unique public forum to discuss domestic and global AIDS activism with the first annual recipients of the Keith Cylar AIDS Activist Awards for HIV/AIDS activism.
Housing Works president and CEO Charles King calls the Cylar Activist Fund "an agent for change, allowing committed activists to continue their courageous work against overwhelming odds." Such work was pioneered by Cylar at Housing Works, founded in 1990, which not only provides housing, health care and services to homeless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS but also plays a central role in AIDS advocacy in New York City and New York State, and on the federal level.
"Keith would be so proud of these first four recipients of the fund that bears his name," says King. "Like him, they know when it's time to partner, strategize and negotiate, but they also know when to get in people's faces and speak truth to power. This event promises to be a free-wheeling exchange of views, and we welcome all who are passionate about justice for people living with HIV and AIDS."
The 2005 recipients of the Keith Cylar Awards for HIV/AIDS activism are:
- Thailand's Paisan Suwannawong, who receives the Cylar Fund's award for international AIDS activism. Raised in one of Bangkok's biggest slums, Suwannawong became addicted to heroin, contracted HIV from a dirty needle and experienced firsthand the official indifference of his government towards drug users with AIDS. That experience has turned him into Thailand's leading AIDS advocate and one of the world's fiercest. He also advocates for intravenous drug users and other marginalized populations to have equitable access to care, treatment, and harm reduction services in Thailand. He was a speaker at last year's XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.
- New York's Fatima Prioleau, who receives the award for domestic AIDS activism. Prioleau is a 41-year-old African-American, mother of five children, adjunct college professor of mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and public school teacher. Since her AIDS diagnosis nine years ago, she has been a tireless grassroots AIDS activist. She recently formed the Women with HIV/AIDS Advocates Mobilized (WHAAM) to increase awareness of the ramifications of HIV and AIDS among women within communities highly impacted by HIV.
- Housing Works co-founder Virginia Shubert, who receives the Keith Cylar Courage Award. Having devoted her career as an attorney to serving society's most vulnerable members, Shubert recently secured a historic victory in the case Henrietta D. v. Giuliani, which requires New York to deem all people living with HIV/AIDS eligible for public services, regardless of their disability status. Shubert devoted thousands of hours to the case, whose victory earned her a substantial award of attorney fees. Shubert donated $240,000 of those fees to the Cylar fund, becoming its single largest contributor.
- Housing Works staffer Thomas D'Angelo, who receives the Keith Cylar Activism Award. Thomas grew up in Brooklyn and took to living on the streets and doing drugs. At one time, Tommy ended up in intensive care, surprised to be alive. When he got out of the hospital he began to put his life together. Tommy then went to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting at Housing Works' East 9th Street facility. He is now employed with Housing Works as a Case Management Technician and has started to get more involved in advocacy, regularly participating in demonstrations and getting arrested over 10 times. He demonstrates great courage and unwavering commitment to direct action and civil disobedience.
Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based and minority controlled AIDS organization. For more information, go to www.housingworks.org. The National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA-US) advocates on behalf of all people living with HIV and AIDS in order to end the pandemic and the human suffering caused by HIV/AIDS. For more information, go to www.napwa.org. The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading drug policy reform organization. For more information, go to www.drugpolicy.org.
This public forum is being hosted by the Public Welfare Foundation. It is open to all, free of charge, and requires no reservation. Ben's Chili Bowl will provide food and refreshments. The U Street/African-American Civil War Museum/ Cardoza Metrorail station of the Green Line is the one closest to The True Reformer Building.