{"id":5339,"date":"2025-11-18T12:32:55","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.savinglivesuk.com\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2025-11-18T12:32:55","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:32:55","slug":"birmingham-wad2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondpositive.org\/sluktest\/birmingham-wad2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham-based artists join forces for World AIDS Day 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birmingham creatives are joining forces to give voice to people living with HIV in time for this year\u2019s World AIDS Day \u2013 and they want the wider public to pay attention.<\/h4>\n
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Garry Jones, HIV activist and artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dancers, actors and visual artists will be performing and exhibiting their work at venues across the city centre on December 1st. And in every case the stories of people living with HIV will be front and centre.<\/p>\n

Among the Brum-based creatives behind the effort are Jerry Dawson, dancer and choreographer who founded arts organisation Art Thou OK Bab, and Garry Jones, an artist whose work is currently on show at Birmingham\u2019s National Trust Back To Backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHIV still attracts a lot of stigma,\u201d<\/em> says Jones, who like Dawson lives with HIV himself. \u201c1 in 10 of us have told nobody in our lives about our diagnosis. More than three quarters have suffered discrimination. That has real material and mental health impacts.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Dawson adds: \u201cIt also affects all of us: stigma means people don\u2019t test for HIV, and that means they get sicker than they need to, and can even pass on the virus to others. Reducing stigma can help us all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Centring Positive Voices<\/h4>\n

For this year\u2019s World AIDS Day, the health-conscious artists are presenting work which tells the stories of people living with the virus, to help more people understand the realities of HIV.<\/p>\n

Jones has helped a dozens of people design and produce quilts that are stitched with stories about HIV. They will be exhibited at the Library of Birmingham in the week before World AIDS Day. Dawson has choreographed a special dance presentation, which will be performed in Hippodrome Square on December 1st itself.<\/p>\n

Other artistic events for the day will include a drama piece, also to be performed at the Library of Birmingham, a special set by the community choir Rainbow Voices, who will sing at Brum\u2019s AIDS & HIV Memorial on Hurst Street, and an operatic rendition of Des\u2019ree\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Kissing You\u201d<\/em> by professional tenor Robert Edwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll all be telling the true stories of people living with the virus \u2013 and their loved ones,\u201d<\/em> says Dawson. \u201cWe want to show how broad, varied and often unexpected HIV really is. People have fixed ideas about it \u2013 but anyone can and does get HIV, and we need to be better at talking about it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Birmingham: Leading The Country on HIV<\/h4>\n
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Rachel Greaves, Service Manager for Positive Peers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Birmingham AIDS & HIV Memorial – the focal point of this year\u2019s World AIDS Day activity in the city – is the nation\u2019s largest-scale monument to the people lost to HIV. It marks Birmingham about as a UK leader in HIV community work, and the city is committed to improving the testing for and treatment of the virus.<\/p>\n

Rachel Greaves is the service co-ordinator for Positive Peers, a Midlands-wide network of people living with the virus that provides via NHS clinics and charities mentoring for people diagnosed with it.<\/p>\n

She and the service\u2019s parent charity, Saving Lives, are supporting the World AIDS Day efforts \u2013 and sit on the steering group of Birmingham Fast Track Cities, an effort bringing charities, healthcare and local government together to enhance HIV provision and prevention in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople often don\u2019t understand that with today\u2019s treatments, someone on medicine whose virus is well controlled will live a normal life expectancy and cannot pass on the virus,\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cNew treatments are being found all the time, and the UK has a goal to eliminate new infections by 2030. There are so many positive stories to tell \u2013 so this year we\u2019re going to shout about it!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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World AIDS Day Programme of Events, 1st December 2025<\/h4>\n

5.30pm: Official opening of the Living Quilts exhibition at Library of Birmingham<\/p>\n

5.45pm: Scenes from the play Breeders by Louis Wharton, Library of Birmingham<\/p>\n

6.00pm \u2013 Living Quilts carried from Centenary Square to Hippodrome Square<\/p>\n

6.30pm \u2013 Flashmob dance production at Hippodrome Square<\/p>\n

6.50pm \u2013 Operatic performance and laying of wreaths, The Ribbons on Hurst Street<\/p>\n

7.00pm \u2013 Rainbow Voices choir performs, The Ribbons on Hurst Street<\/p>\n

Click here to download the: World AIDS Day 2025 Programme<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birmingham creatives are joining forces to give voice to people living with HIV in time for this year\u2019s World AIDS Day \u2013 and they want the wider public to pay attention. Dancers, actors and visual artists will be performing and exhibiting their work at venues across the city centre on December 1st. And in every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,485,15,509,10],"tags":[506,524,104,525,526,122,527,528,459,72,529,461,292,530,87,108,531,532,533,465,466,92,534,535,536,537,112,538,158,304,539,54,306],"class_list":["post-5339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-media","category-birmingham","category-headlines","category-hiv","category-news","tag-506","tag-activism","tag-aids","tag-aids-hiv","tag-aids-and-hiv-memorial","tag-art","tag-art-thou-ok-bab","tag-artivism","tag-bham","tag-birmingham","tag-breeders","tag-brum","tag-december","tag-garry-jones","tag-hiv","tag-hivaids","tag-jerry-dawson","tag-living-quilts","tag-louis-wharton","tag-memorial","tag-midlands","tag-news","tag-quilt","tag-quilts","tag-rachel-greaves","tag-remembrance","tag-saving-lives","tag-the-ribbons","tag-uk","tag-wad","tag-wad2025","tag-world-aids-day","tag-worldaidsday"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t