This is the tale of a devastating pandemic, of lives cut painfully short; it's also a love letter. Derek, a distinguished designer and J, his husband, a pioneering entrepreneur and creator of both The Embassy Club, London’s answer to Studio 54, and iconic Heaven, Europe’s largest gay discotheque, met and fell in love more than 40 years ago. Their lives were high-octane, full of adventure, fun and fearless creativity. Suddenly their friends began to get sick and die – AIDS had arrived in their lives. When they got tested, J received what was then a death sentence: he was HIV Positive. While the onset of AIDS strengthened stigma and fear globally, they confronted their personal crisis with courage, humour and an indomitable resolve to survive. J’s battle lasted six long years. Turning to spiritual reflection, yoga, nature – and always to love – Derek describes a transformation of the spirit, how compassion and empathy rose phoenix-like from the flames of sickness and death. Out of this transformation also came Aids Ark, the charity they founded, which helped to save, amongst the world’s most marginalised people, more than 1,000 HIV Positive lives. This is a story of joy and triumph; about facing universal challenges; about the great rewards that come from giving back. Derek speaks for a generation who lived through a global health crisis that many in society refused even to acknowledge. His is a powerful story chronicling this extraordinary time.

A moving collaboration by some of America's most eloquent writers who supply wry, raging, sorrowful, and buoyant accounts of artist friends and lovers struck down by AIDS. Published in association with the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, the 23 essays stand as a powerful reminder and survey of the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic on the arts community. The book also contains biographies of the subjects and the authors, as well as many bandw photographs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

This is a selection of essays published in collaboration with the National AIDS Campaign, and in association with the largest exhibition on the subject of HIV/AIDS to be staged in Australia. Contributors include William Yang, Dennis Altman, Lynn Sloan, Richard Coles, Carole S Vance, Jan Zita Grover and others.

This moving and beautiful book offers unprecedented insight into the astounding strength of the human spirit when confronted with illness, pain, loss, and death. Features 75 black-and-white photographs. Carolyn Jones's vivid and life-affirming portraits capture people from all backgrounds—children and grandmothers, men and women of all races—living with HIV and AIDS. It is estimated that over one million people in the United States would test positive for the Human Immune Virus, and many others are already suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A common-and harmful-misconception holds that AIDS is an instant death sentence but, in fact, testing positive for HIV does not mean immediate illness. Carolyn Jones has collaborated with George DeSipio, Jr., and Michael Liberatore (co-founders of the project), and the seventy-three people who volunteered to pose for these photographs in an inspiring effort to change the way we think about AIDS. Jones's compelling portraits have the power to profoundly alter perceptions about this disease, and about the way we all live and die. AIDS poses challenging questions that we must each grapple with, whether healthy or not. These captivating pictures illustrate the self-confidence and wisdom of ordinary people coping with an extraordinary fate, facing their mortality, questioning their priorities, and living life to the fullest. Their energy, courage, and dignity in the face of such adversity offer a vital lesson in how to embrace life, day by day. Their faces and their stories are proof that AIDS doesn't look like anyone—it looks like, and ultimately is, all of us. Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA) is the sole recipient of the royalties from the sale of Living Proof. For additional information regarding Living Proof and the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS, please call DIFFA: (212) 727-3100.

When the queen is murdered in her own palace at Tarangar, by those who believe they can govern the land to a better future, they initiate albeit unwittingly the destruction of their world. Evil workings, begun by the arcane weavings of one twisted mage, quickly spread across the land in the form of dragon fire and a mercenary army, operating from a huge fortress, built by the sweat and blood of countless slaves. Only the Sky-Water Dragons can save mankind, but they, too, have been caught up in the mage's workings, their Caller murdered, leaving his apprentice of seven months to unlock the secrets and break the spell a task for which he his woefully unprepared. A huge army, formed at Tarangar by the High Council, is intercepted by the Fire-Water Dragons only a few days march from the palace. For the survivors of this mindless slaughter life soon becomes a series of nightmares from which they cannot awake. While most hide in fear of their lives a brother and sister search for a way to bring the Sky-Water Dragons to their aid. If they fail the land will be lost and mankind become extinct.

How do modern women in developing countries experience sexuality and love? Drawing on a rich array of interview, ethnographic, and survey data from her native country of Kenya, Sanyu A. Mojola examines how young African women, who suffer disproportionate rates of HIV infection compared to young African men, navigate their relationships, schooling, employment, and finances in the context of economic inequality and a devastating HIV epidemic. Writing from a unique outsider-insider perspective, Mojola argues that the entanglement of love, money, and the transformation of girls into Òconsuming womenÓ lies at the heart of womenÕs coming-of-age and health crises. At once engaging and compassionate, this text is an incisive analysis of gender, sexuality, and health in Africa.

What causes some people—in spite of incredible challenges—to be more alive and content than others? When Shane Stanford discovered he was HIV positive at the age of sixteen, he knew he had a choice: he could feel sorry for himself, or he could live as passionately and boldly as possible. Now, more than twenty years later, Stanford speaks nationwide about what it means to turn a positive diagnosis—or any difficult circumstance—into an opportunity for positive living. If you want to appreciate life to the fullest, this A Positive Life Ebook reveals nine basic yet powerful lessons for living well. What does it mean to be satisfied with never being satisfied? Why is simplicity a key to finding joy? Most importantly, what does it look like to live, laugh, and love in community as Jesus did—with dirty hands and feet and a love of adventure? Stanford reminds you that even struggles offer glimpses of grace. Choosing how to live out that grace is the key to making life matter—and to being more alive than ever before.

Funeral Diva is the Winner of the Lambda Award for Lesbian Poetry! A poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art. "Sneed is an acclaimed reader of her own poetry, and the book has the feeling of live performance. . . . Its strength is in its abundance, its desire for language to stir body as well as mind."—Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review "She is a writer for the future, in that she defies genre."—Hilton Als "This notable achievement, traveling from youth to adulthood, is a harrowing account of how Sneed transforms violence and pain into an artist's life."—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American Lyric "There's an eerie sense of timeliness to this book, which features prose and poetry by the writer and teacher Pamela Sneed and is largely — though not entirely — about mourning Black gay men killed too soon by a deadly virus."—Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed "OH MY GOODNESS, it was amazing. I was in tears by the end. What starts off as beautiful memoir evolves into incredibly moving poetry, painful and sweet and lovely."—Marie Cloutier, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY "Balancing and mixing, with rhyme and reason, love and anger, good and bad, memory and the created present, all to tell the story of a life, a memoir unrestrained, devoid of artificial forms. Honest. Free."—Anjanette Delgado, New York Journal of Books In this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on Black Queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead. Sneed’s poems not only converse with lovers past and present, but also with her literary forebears—like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde—whose aesthetic and thematic investments she renews for a contemporary American landscape. Offering critical focus on matters from police brutality to LGBTQ+ rights, Funeral Diva confronts today's most pressing issues with acerbic wit and audacity. The collection closes with Sneed's reflections on the two pandemics of her time, AIDS and COVID-19, and the disproportionate impact of each on African American communities. "Riveting, personal, open-hearted, risky and wise."—Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse " . . . a tour de force about the collision between a coalescing 1980s 'Black lesbian and gay literary and poetic movement' in New York and the onslaught of AIDS."—Donna Seaman, Booklist "Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva is deft, defiant, and devastating."—Tommy Pico, author of Feed "Funeral Diva is urgent and necessary reading to live by. This is writing at its finest. Keep this book close to your heart and soul."—Karen Finley, author of Shock Treatment "Reminiscent of Audre Lorde’s Zami, Pamela Sneed’s memoir is, in itself, a healing balm, affirming in its truths and honesty. I cannot remember ever reading a book that illustrates the impact of the AIDS epidemic on our community more poignantly than Funeral Diva."—Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy "Pamela Sneed takes enormous risks in this book. She tells the truth with fierce concentration and an abiding sense of purpose.”—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina

Don Carrel has been living with AIDS since 1995. He suspects he was infected with HIV in 1981. Thirty years later, less than 2 percent of people with HIV have lived long enough to share their stories. In 1995, while lying in a hospital bed with Pneumocystis pneumonia, the most common form of death for someone with AIDS, Don had a riveting dream that dramatically altered his life and, perhaps the future lives of more than 100,000 teenagers. After making a full recovery, Don set out to teach young people what they needed to know about HIV prevention so that they wouldn't wind up in his shoes. His lofty goal: to stomp out AIDS. After 16 years, Don has collected thousands of thank-you letters from teens and adults who have heard his compelling presentations. Today, Don hopes to reach an even wider audience with his book, My Dream to Trample AIDS. Don's original goal was to put his presentation in book form, but it ended up being much more. Don says, "My story is about love, friends, family, grief, despair, hope, death and faith." It's also a detailed primer on HIV, as expressed in the subtitle: "What everyone of any age should know about HIV/AIDS." Don devotes a chapter to the history of HIV/AIDS, including the compelling theory as to why the virus first hit the gay community in the United States before it spread into the general population. Don's book summarizes current statistics on HIV/AIDS. It warns of populations most at risk of infection today: people of color, youth and even the elderly. It instructs readers on how to be tested for HIV. In very frank language, the book describes the risks of various sexual activities and even how to use a condom "properly." Don chronicles HIV treatment and his drug regimen for the past 25 years, including the cost, side effects and possibility, or lack thereof, of a cure for HIV/AIDS. Most compelling are Don's gut-wrenching stories about how HIV/AIDS has affected him and the profound sense of loss he's experienced repeatedly with the deaths of many friends from AIDS. He explains what it feels like to have HIV/AIDS and how it has shaped all facets of his life: physically, emotionally and spiritually. He asks his closest family members and friends to share their feelings when they first learned of his diagnosis. He also includes hundreds of quotes from students who have heard him speak. Last but not least, Don explains why he believes he has survived - and thrived - thanks to a powerful directive from "the messenger." Don says, "Having HIV is a huge blessing in my life." Don writes that this experience has helped him make a dramatic shift in how he views himself and has strengthened his belief in God.