Local nonprofit The Chattery is teaming up with Cempa Community Care for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day to show a portion of The End of AIDS?, a six-part documentary series in which PBS NewsHour traveled to six places across the world to find stories of those in the middle of the AIDS epidemic.
The screening will take place on Feb. 7 starting at 6 p.m. and will be followed by a panel discussion about the neglected HIV/AIDS crisis in the American South. This is the seventh event in The Chattery’s ongoing Cinematics program series, a movie experience that combines the education of the The Chattery with local outreach organizations to teach and engage Chattanoogans in conversation through the art of film.
LaDarius Price, Community Outreach Manager at Cempa Community Care says, “We are in a place in time where our movement has to be strategic.
We can’t just do things based off of feelings or impulse. Every move that we make has the potential to change the trajectory of the next generation.”
Officials said, "Overall in the United States, African Americans represent 12 to 13 percent of the population and account for 44 percent of all HIV diagnoses. According to the most recent data available from AIDSVu, an online mapping tool that visualizes the impact of the HIV epidemic on communities across the United States, 55.7 percent of the people in Tennessee living with HIV are Black. In Chattanooga, over 55 percent of people living with HIV are Black."
The screening of The End of AIDS? will take place at The Palace Theater, 818 Georgia Ave. At the event, The Palace Theater is providing drinks and snacks for purchase, and free pizza will be provided by Southeast Tennessee Planning Group, for HIV Care and Prevention.
The screening is free and open to the public.