ACT UP Preparing for 20th Anniversary

March of this year marks 20 years since a speech by Larry Kramer at the LGBT Community Center sparked the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the militant AIDS activist group that brought hundreds together on a weekly basis to “Act Up, Fight Back, Fight AIDS.” The group spawned chapters around the world.

By: ANDY HUMM | March of this year marks 20 years since a speech by Larry Kramer at the LGBT Community Center sparked the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, the militant AIDS activist group that brought hundreds together on a weekly basis to “Act Up, Fight Back, Fight AIDS.” The group spawned chapters around the world.

A meeting is planned at the Community Center at 208 West 13th Street on Thursday, January 11 at 8 p.m. to plan a commemoration of the founding of the group. Longtime member Eric Sawyer wrote in an e-mail, “We would like to bring our community together to recognize our historic work and recharge our organization for it to be a force in pressing fights which still lie before us.” He called upon ACT UP members to reconvene, “regardless of how long you have been away.”

Under the leadership of Tom Viola, Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS has donated $20,000 toward the 20th anniversary commemoration.