The 2023 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS host hotel is sold out. The meeting had a record number of early bird registrations. Rooms are still available at overflow hotels; however, they are very limited. Register for the conference to get access to the hotel booking system. Regular registration closes on August 4, 2023. Rooms in the host hotel have been set aside for scholarship recipients.
This year’s meeting is a Love Letter to Black Women. The inspiration came from our desire to honor Kim Ferrell, NMAC’s Deputy Director. After 18 years at the agency, she is retiring. Like so many Black women, Kim is the heart and soul of NMAC, the glue that holds us together, especially during difficult times. She brings stability while I go off on another wacky tangent. NMAC would not be NMAC without Kim and the Black women (cis and trans) on our staff, board, and community advisory panels. Black women are 50% of staff and 50% of the senior leadership team. The conference team is all Black women led by Tara Barnes who has worked at NMAC for almost 25 years. I celebrate all of them.
We want to hear about the Black women who volunteer, staff, and lead our movements efforts to end the HIV epidemic in America. Please help us write our love letter for the collective tribute. The deadline is July 14th. Tell the stories of the black women who have made an impact. USCHA will hold up women living with HIV, elders, case workers, mothers, researchers, teachers, and upcoming leaders. Let’s give them their flowers.
2023 USCHA prioritizes Black Women via a special track of workshops:
- “Changing the Narrative One Survivor at a Time”
- New Nickels, A Journey of Black Women and HIV Stigma
- Using Photovoice to document HIV Care barriers for Black Women
- Pleasure Principle: Brown Sugar Vol PrEP
- SHEBoutique: Healthcare that never goes out of style
- Unbreakable Spirit: Championing PrEP and Co-Regulation for Black Women
- Movement Building with Immigrant Black women living with HIV
- Intergenerational Resilience Spaces for Black Women Living with HIV
- “HIV Possible” Centering Faith Based Resources and Direct Service WOC
- Tile in PPT –Black Women in HIV: The Challenge to Being Effective Leaders
- For Us by Us: The Forgotten Black Women in HIV
- Unexpected: Supporting the Needs of Black Mothers Living with HIV
- “Risky-A Talk Test Treat Conversation” The Power of Social Influencers
- Truth Telling: Conversations on Recruiting Black Women in HIV Research
- UPDOs! A salon based PrEP uptake intervention for Black Women
- Retention in Care for cisgender and transgender Black Women
- Self-Care as Activism with the Black Women’s Prevention Green Book
- TWIST: A CDC Supported Intervention Co-Authored by Transgender Women
- Ending the HIV Epidemic: Black Women, HBCUs, & PrEP Uptake
Here is the list of some of the workshops that includes tracks on 1) Best Practices in Telehealth, 2) Biomedical HIV Prevention, 3) Ending the Epidemic, 4) Public Policy, 5) Race & Racism, 6) Stigma and Prioritizing PLHIV, 7) Treatment Research & Information, and 8) Curated and poster presentations. This is not a final list as other workshops are being curated by partners.
The Opening Plenary will be our movement’s Love Letter to Black Women. Tara has pulled together an advisory committee of cis and trans women to tell stories about the central role Black Women play in our efforts to end the epidemics and to celebrate Black Girl Magic.
There are many other exciting plans and all will be revealed. This year’s meeting is also a lesson on “how to be an ally.”
According to Texas Christian University:
Allies at TCU actively engage with LGBTQIA + students in an open and affirming way. All TCU students need to be fully and authentically welcomed, as they are. Making sure classroom discussions, interactions and assignments are inclusive and welcoming of LGBTQIA + people is essential. Students focused on creating safety within friend groups and organizations allow LGBTQIA+ students to authentically engage with their community and peer groups. Every member of the TCU community bears the responsibility of being an ally.
According to the Harvard Law Review:
We view allyship as a strategic mechanism used by individuals to become collaborators, accomplices, and coconspirators who fight injustice and promote equity in the workplace through supportive personal relationships and public acts of sponsorship and advocacy.
How does the HIV movement stand in allyship with Black women? USCHA works to be inclusive. We welcome everyone, especially communities highly impacted by HIV. During these politically divided times, how to be an ally across movements is core to building a world without hate. I know you know that. It is the big lesson of the HIV movement. Fighting back and working together, we changed the world.
Yours in the Struggle,
