On Friday Alicia Keys to Headline a Special Essence Empowerment Experience Panel with Greater Than AIDS at the 2014 Essence Festival
Fifteen time Grammy Award-winning artist and HIV advocate Alicia Keys will join with ESSENCE and Greater Than AIDS, a partnership between the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Black AIDS Institute, to headline a special ESSENCE Empowerment Experience panel at the 20th Essence Festival in New Orleans this week. Free to Festival attendees and the public, the ESSENCE Empowerment Experience brings prominent cultural icons, celebrities and community leaders to the stage to share thoughts and solutions with audiences within a daily, themed discussion.
Ms. Keys' speech, "Through Love of Self, Family and Community, Empowering Black Women to End AIDS," will take place at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Friday, July 4th at 1:10 pm. The program is presented as part the Empowered campaign, launched in 2013 by Greater Than AIDS, a leading national public information response focused on the U.S. domestic epidemic. The Empowered campaign features Ms. Keys to reach women about HIV/AIDS and the role we all play in helping to end the epidemic.
"Alicia Keys' life has been all about empowerment. She is the personification of what can happen when a woman is empowered to take control of her life," says Phill Wilson, President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute. "Whether in her career, or in public policy, or her family, or her health, the first step in being empowered is understanding that you have the ability to make a difference. And that is exactly what Greater Than AIDS is about, whether we're talking about young men who have sex with men, or youth, or women."
The hour-long program will open with a one-on-one with Ms. Keys about her passion for ending AIDS and will be followed by an engaging and inspiring conversation with women whose lives have been touched by HIV about how they responded. Among those joining Ms. Keys on the stage in conversation: Kym, a young professional who found out she was positive when her new husband became sick and died as a result of HIV/AIDS, and Teresa, a mother whose unconditional love of her HIV positive son has helped him to maintain his treatment and thrive in the face of this disease. At the close of the program the panel will respond to questions from the audience.
Of the more than 1.1 million people living with HIV in the United States today, one in four is a woman. Black women have been especially hard hit. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Black women have the third highest rate of HIV overall and the highest rate among women. Although the incidence of new HIV infections among Black women has begun declining, HIV remains the 7th leading cause of death among Black women ages 25 to 44, far higher than among their counterparts in any other racial or ethnic group. If current trends continue, it is estimated that one in 32 Black women will contract HIV in her lifetime.
Over the three days of the ESSENCE Festival, July 4-6, in the Convention Center, the Black AIDS Institute, Greater Than AIDS together the Louisiana Office of Public Health will provide free daily on-site HIV testing as well as a photo / video booth and other activations to bring attention to the impact of HIV. (Greater Than AIDS Booth #1800 in Hall D.)
For more information about Greater Than AIDS and the Empowered campaign, including for more details about Alicia Keys' appearance at the 2014 ESSENCE Empowerment Experience, visit: www.greaterthan.org/empowered. For more information about the Black AIDS Institute's work at the Essence Festival and HIV testing, contact Gerald Gerard at (213) 353-3610 or email