AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international direct action advocacy group working to impact the lives of people with AIDS (PWAs) and the AIDS pandemic to bring about legislation, medical research and treatment and policies to ultimately bring an end to the disease by mitigating loss of health and lives.
ACT UP was effectively formed in March 1987 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York. Larry Kramer was asked to speak as part of a rotating speaker series, and his well-attended speech focused on action to fight AIDS. Kramer spoke out against the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which he perceived as politically impotent. Kramer had co-founded the GMHC but had resigned from its board of directors in 1983. According to Douglas Crimp, Kramer posed a question to the audience: "Do we want to start a new organization devoted to political action?" The answer was "a resounding yes." Approximately 300 people met two days later to form ACT UP.
The following chronological accounts of ACT UP actions are drawn from Douglas Crimp's history of ACT UP, the ACT UP Oral History Project, and the online Capsule History of ACT UP, New York.
Larry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning an Academy Award nomination for his efforts. Kramer introduced a controversial and confrontational style in his 1978 novel Faggots, which earned mixed reviews but emphatic denunciations from the gay community for his portrayal of shallow, promiscuous gay relationships in the 1970s.
Kramer witnessed the first spread of the disease that became known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among his friends in 1980, and he co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the largest private organization to assist people living with AIDS in the world. Not content with the social services GMHC provided, Kramer expressed his frustration with bureaucratic paralysis and the apathy of gay men to the AIDS crisis by writing a play titled The Normal Heart which was produced at The Public Theatre in New York City in 1985. His political activism extended to the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1987, a direct action protest organization widely credited with changing public health policy and widespread perception of people living with AIDS (PWAs) and awareness of HIV and AIDS-related diseases. He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Destiny of Me (1992), and has been a two-time recipient of the Obie Award. Kramer currently lives in New York City and Connecticut.
Radric Davis (born February 2, 1980), better known by his stage name Gucci Mane, is an American rapper. He debuted in 2005 with Trap House and followed with albums such as Hard to Kill in 2006, Trap-A-Thon and Back to the Trap House in 2007. In 2009, his second studio album The State vs. Radric Davis was released, and The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted was released in 2010, and is his highest charting album so far. Gucci Mane has released many other mixtapes and independent albums as well.
While serving a six-month jail term for assault in late 2005, Davis was charged with murder, though the charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence. In 2009, he served a year-long county jail sentence for violating probation for his 2005 aggravated assault conviction.
Davis was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and later moved with his single mother to Atlanta. He enjoyed writing poetry as a child, and began rapping at age 14.
In 2005, Davis released his independent debut album entitled Trap House, which featured the successful single "Icy" with Young Jeezy. Disputes over the rights to this single caused a rift between the two artists. Hard to Kill followed in 2006. Hard To Kill included the hit single "Freaky Gurl". The song peaked at number 12 on the Hot Rap Tracks, number 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and at number 62 on the Hot 100.
Faheem Rasheed Najm (born September 30, 1985), who goes by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actor. His debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, was released in 2005. In 2007, T-Pain released his second studio album Epiphany, which reached number one on the Billboard 200. His third studio album,Thr33 Ringz, was released in 2008. T-Pain has earned two Grammy Awards alongside artists Kanye West and Jamie Foxx.
T-Pain is the founder of the record label Nappy Boy Entertainment, established in 2005. Throughout his career as a singer, T-Pain has extensively used the Auto-Tune pitch correction effect.
Najm was born in Tallahassee, Florida on September 30, 1985. His stage name is short for "Tallahassee Pain" and was chosen because of the hardships he experienced while living there. He is a Muslim. At just three years old he got his first taste of the music business. A friend of the family, gospel jazz artist/producer Ben Tankard allowed him to hang out and "twist the knobs" at his recording studio. At age ten, Najm turned his bedroom into a music studio, using a keyboard, a beat machine and a four-track recorder.
Sean P. Brown (born November 5, 1976) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who currently plays for EC KAC in the Austrian Hockey League.
Brown was drafted late in the first round, 21st overall, in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins following a successful career in the Ontario Hockey League as a defenceman with the Belleville Bulls and the Sarnia Sting. Less than a year later, he was dealt, along with Mariusz Czerkawski and a first-round draft choice to the Edmonton Oilers for Bill Ranford. Brown played parts of six seasons for the Oilers.
In March 2002, Brown was dealt back to Boston to provide defensive depth for a playoff run that never materialized. Going the other way in the trade was marginal defensive prospect Bobby Allen. After one more season with the Bruins, he was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the New Jersey Devils, and he has played for them and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Albany River Rats.
In March 2006 Brown was dealt to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a fourth round draft pick. He signed a contract with the Düsseldorf Metro Stars of the DEL on July 27, 2006.In summer 2007, the Nurnberg Ice Tigers, also of the DEL German League, signed Brown away from the Metro Stars. In March 2008, Brown was signed by EC KAC of the Austrian Hockey League.
well, i don't wanna live, but i don't wanna die.
bearing my cross while listening to lies.
walking through life, sitting on a fence.
my testimony seems so small, miniscual, and dence.
why was i chosen when i'm one big crutch?
why was i chosen when i think it's too much.
why was i chosen when i'm one big crutch?
why was i chosen when i think it's too much. act up!
i don't wanna be the one who turns away, no.
i don't wanna be like Judas who betrayed. act up!
there's just one thing that i wanna ask,
"Jesus in me, Jesus act up fast."
well, i can't stand the thorns in my side.
at least they keep me humble, while they tear at my sides.
i feel like a chicken, the one who wimped out.
hast the cock crowed three times or only just twice?
i'm in this malitia, through the war has been won.
acting in flesh, i must stop.
it's all done.
i'm in this militia, through the war has been won.
acting in flesh, i must stop.
it's all done. act up!
i don't wanna be the one who turns away, no
i don't wanna be like Judas who betrayed.
act up! there's just one thing that i wanna ask,
"Jesus act up in me, Jesus act up fast." act up!
i don't wanna be the one who turns away,
no i don't wanna be like Judas who betrayed. act up!
there's just one thing that i wanna ask,
"Jesus act up in me, Jesus act up fast."
i would die for what i live for.
i've been doing it for years.
though sometimes i seem to compramise by living in fear.
what am i afraid of for God is on my side?
more power in his stratagies.
then dreams that i can dream to be more perfect, and precious.
i love my Lord for giving me eternity and all are justly rewards.
i don't wanna be the one who turns away, no.
i don't wanna be like Judas who betrayed. act up!
there's just one thing that i wanna ask,
"Jesus act up in me, Jesus act up fast." act up!
i don't wanna be the one who turns away, no.
i don't wanna be like Judas who betrayed. act up!
there's just one thing that i wanna ask,