The 28th annual Out of the Darkness observance of World AIDS Day took place on December 1. Participants, some bearing battery-operated candles due to the inclement weather, marched from the New York City AIDS Memorial, across the street from the erstwhile St. Vincent’s Hospital, where so many of the earliest People with AIDS were treated and/or died, to St. John’s Lutheran Church, on Christopher Street, for a World AIDS Day Gathering. In the church, surrounded by AIDS Quilt Panels, we heard the reading of the names, so many of them familiar, of those we’ve lost to AIDS.
The ceremony began with flaggers and fanners waving colorful fabric to the music of “Where Love Lives,” sung by Alison Limerick, “dedicated to activists and caregivers who have gone before us;” and welcoming remarks by St. John’s Reverend Mark E. Erson, who said, “Thank you for filling this place of hope;” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who detailed the support her office gives the community; and American Run for the End of AIDS (A.R.E.A.) Founder and President Brent Nicholson Earle. Brent shared some of the history of Out of the Darkness and World AIDS Day, including battling Rudy Giuliani, when he was mayor of New York and had declared war on Housing Works, which raises funds to fight AIDS and homelessness. Brent introduced the next section of the program, where speakers addressed “the essential role of family” in the Time of HIV.
Jason VernaKular Walker spoke of his family’s “journey of acceptance” and presented his mother, Renée Van Dyke, who had told us about her family’s history of activism. She let them know that, faith notwithstanding, “you can’t pray away AIDS,” and clarified, about her son, that “he’s not dying of it, he’s living with it.”
Gregg Buckno recalled the support that he and his late mother, who had breast cancer, had given each other and got a motherly hug of encouragement from Renée.
Oldest of eight siblings, Shacazia Brown, just back from Africa, talked about losing her 39-year-old mother to AIDS 23 years ago, when she was 23; about the stigma of AIDS at the time; and about the support she’s received from her sister, 10 years younger and an activist in the US and in Kenya, whom she introduced. Shacazia concluded, “The fight is not over; we have so much more to fight for.”
Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ (GMHC) Krishna Stone and Jamil Wilkins conducted the ritual blessing of the safer sex kits, circulating them around the audience so as to add our energy.
International AIDS Prevention Initiative’s (IAPI) Jeff Bosacki pointed out the quilt panels from other countries including Haiti, South Africa, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, which were on display, and told us about the workshops that IAPI conducts internationally, also providing a much-needed meal to the volunteers. He and his assistants unfolded the 2018 International Rainbow Memorial Run quilt, which we were invited to sign.
The Out of the Darkness Ensemble, singers Eric Lamp, Guadalupe Peraza, John Rose, and Ann Wazelle, led by Music Director and Pianist Douglas O. Drake, offered “How Long;” Michelle Lanchester’s “Patchwork Quilt,” a cappella, and had us join in on the refrain “And then they called out your names/Oh you will live forever/You know that I’ll be loving you/Just like a patchwork quilt;” and, after concluding acknowledgments from Barbara Martinez, Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family,” with the flaggers participating.
A reception followed.

Photo credit & captions:
All photos by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Brent Nicholson Earle
marching from the AIDS Memorial to St. John’s in the rain
GMHC’s Krishna Stone
Out of the Darkness quilt panel
Out of the Darkness banner
quilt panels
Rev. Mark E. Erson
Renée Van Dyke & Jason VernaKular Walker
Gregg Buckno
Jamil Wilkins & Krisha Stone – blessing the safer sex kits
Shacazia Brown (right) & her sister
(front) Brent Nicholson Earle & Barbara Martinez (rear) Jeff Bosacki & volunteers
singers & flaggers
2018 International Rainbow Run quilt
Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer
Irish Gay & Lesbian Organization’s Brendan Fay