Thread by @blackaidshist

.@BronxInk highlights how barber shops and churches are part of the fight against #HIV/#AIDS in the Bronx, where HIV mortality rates are highest among the five boroughs and residents are disproportionately Black and Latino.

bronxink.org/2019/10/13/287…

@BronxInk Beauty salons and barber shops have been part of the fight against AIDS in Black America since the 1980s. South Carolina salon owner DiAna DiAna began doing AIDS education with her friend @GaddistDr in 1986.

forgetthebox.net/diana-diana-ta…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr More recently, @AIDSAlabama started #BeautyinKnowing to train stylists to serve as AIDS educators—barbers and stylists are trusted by clients, and salons and barber shops are places where frank conversations about sexual health can take place.

jnj.com/caring/patient…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama In this way, barbershops and salons serve as hush harbors—places of free expression for African Americans, which have been central to the development of Black culture and the project of Black freedom. For more, see Vorris Nunley’s Keepin’ It Hushed—

amazon.com/Keepin-Hushed-…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama —and Beauty Shop Politics by @SableVictorian:

amazon.com/dp/B00ZVJ3HAU/…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama @SableVictorian Now on to churches—Archbishop Carl Bean’s Unity Fellowship Church started in part as an AIDS study group at his home, and later grew to include the Minority AIDS Project of Los Angeles.

https://twitter.com/ONEarchives/status/903439397403541504

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama @SableVictorian Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder began ministering to people with HIV/AIDS in San Francisco in the 1980s, and founded @cityofrefugeucc as a radically inclusive congregation.

Read/listen to an oral history with Dr. Flunder:

lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/oral-histories…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama @SableVictorian @cityofrefugeucc Others helped Black churches incorporate HIV/AIDS into their ministry. @Pernessa founded the Harlem Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS and then @thebalmingilead to do just this; they now address a wider range of racial health disparities.

balmingilead.org

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama @SableVictorian @cityofrefugeucc @Pernessa @thebalmingilead One of @thebalmingilead’s programs was The Black Church Lights the Way, an HIV testing campaign for Black churches. Check out the Valerie Papaya Mann Collection to see evidence of this and other church-based HIV/AIDS prevention work in Washington DC:

dpanther03new.fiu.edu/omeka-s/s/afri…

@BronxInk @GaddistDr @AIDSAlabama @SableVictorian @cityofrefugeucc @Pernessa @thebalmingilead (And thanks to @EGonzaba for digitizing the Mann Collection, and to @ejaf and @PointFoundation for supporting his work in doing so!)