International ConferenceWorld AIDS Day

The international conference will be held on December 1 for World AIDS Day.

It will be an event in which Italian and international guests will attempt to reflect on and fight the stigma that is still associated with HIV.

In collaboration with Circolo Mario Mieli

Facilitator: Chiara Becchimanzi

Panel coordinator: Silvia Demofonti

Italian/English interpreter: Eva Gilmore

A special thanks to Stefano Mastropaolo from Circolo Mario Mieli

Guests

HoliDolores – Artistic director of the DRAG ME UP festival

Italian Drag queen, director and actress, HoliDolores has been working in the world of performing art since the early 2000s.

https://www.instagram.com/holidolores

Karma B. – Artistic directors of the DRAG ME UP festival

Drag queen duo who, since their debut, has been performing in the most renowned clubs of Europe, with performances ranging from cinema to musicals to TV.

https://www.instagram.com/officialkarmab

Mario Colamarino – President of Circolo Mario Mieli

Mario Colamarino is a lawyer, an entrepreneur and a LGBTQIA+ activist. President of Circolo Mario Mieli from 2015 to 2017, he has returned to office since November 2021.

https://www.mariomieli.net

Andrea Pini 

Andrea Pini lives in Rome, where he taught in high school. He has participated in the Gay Movement since the late 1970s, and he was a co-founder of the Circolo Mario Mieli and collaborated with Arcigay Nazionale. He has written for Lambda, Babylon and Pride. He has published Omocidi. Gli omosessuali uccisi in Italia (Stampa Alternativa, 2002) and Quando eravamo froci. Gli omosessuali nell’Italia di una volta (Il Saggiatore, 2011). He is currently on the board of directors of Agapanto APS which deals with LGBTQ+ senior citizens.

http://anzianilgbt.blogspot.com/

Doc. Amalia Bove

Clinical psychologist – legal psychologist – psychotherapist – Expert in psychodiagnosis – CTU at the court of Civitavecchia. Doc. Bove works private and collaborates with associations as a consultant in the field of psychological health of people with HIV and in the implementation of psychosocial research projects.

Massimo Farinella – President of Section M of the Medical-Tech Committee at the Italian Ministry of Health (Associations for the fight against HIV/AIDS) / Circolo Mario Mieli / Circolo Mario Mieli

Since 1995 Massimo Farinella has been collaborating with the Circolo Mario Mieli organizing social activities, also with the participation of Institutions of the city of Rome and the Region.

Massimo Farinella coordinates and participates in projects:

– for the information and prevention in schools on sexual infections and against bullying

– to improve the quality of life and health in prison

– for the promotion and carrying out of HIV and other STD testing

– for prevention, damage reduction, offering rapid tests in various contexts

– for interventions against discrimination against LGBT+ people and people with HIV.

Since 2015 he has have been the President of Section M of the Medical-Tech Committee at the Ministry of Health (Associations for the fight against HIV/AIDS).

Adam Odsess Rubin and Douglas Sebamala – National Queer Theater / Criminal Queerness Festival

The National Queer Theater is a New York City nonprofit organization. A theater collective dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ artists and hosting playwrights and activists.

Adam Odsess-Rubin (he/him) is the founding Artistic Director of National Queer Theater (NQT) in New York City. Through NQT, Odsess-Rubin created the award-winning Criminal Queerness Festival, showcasing queer artists from countries that censor or criminalize LGBTQ+ people, which has been profiled multiple times in The New York Times. With NQT, he has produced work with Lincoln Center, MCC Theater, and New York Theatre Workshop, and is currently working on a showcase for Carnegie Hall. In 2016, Odsess-Rubin served as personal assistant to AIDS Memorial Quilt Founder Cleve Jones, a protégé of Harvey Milk. He received his Masters in Educational Theatre from New York University.

Douglas Dubois Sebamala is an Advocacy Artist, Theater and Film Producer/Director. Douglas has over a decade of service in Public Relations, Non-Profit Management, Advocacy and Theater development/production across East Africa and the United States. He’s the Managing Director at National Queer Theater where he has developed Anti-Racism strategies, supports EDI and social justice theater education programing for queer artists and communities of color. He is a member of Lincoln Center Theater directors Lab, and the International AIDS Society. He has worked with teams at Lincoln Center in New York and Keegan Theater in Washington DC, and has researched and edited works on mental health of queer communties in Uganda.

https://www.nationalqueertheater.org/

Timothy Hampton – SF LGBT Center

The SF LGBT Center was founded in 2002 in San Francisco with the aim of providing the LGBT community with opportunities, resources and occasions for socialization.

Timothy Hampton is the Community Programs Manager at the SF LGBT Center. Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, Timothy’s passion for advocating for the LGBT community began in his living room and online. He regularly facilitated community discussions around living with HIV as a Black man. Timothy increased his online presence in less than two years by tackling challenging topics where he reached over 200,000 viewers.  In 2016, Timothy created an emotionally charged “edutainment” musical theatre production entitled You Shall LHiV 2: ZERO. For nearly three years, Timothy and his production traveled the nation and performed for over 50,000 people at conferences, boardrooms, and community events.

https://www.sfcenter.org/

Michael Barret Jones – Stonewall Community Foundation

Stonewall Community Foundation is primarily engaged in fundraising and philanthropy activities for the support of the LGBTQ community. It finances over 200 non-profit organizations a year, in more than 30 thematic areas.

Michael Barret Jones is the major gifts officer and works closely with Stonewall Community Foundation’s fund partner program.  Prior to joining the team at Stonewall, he served as the Director of Development at the Tyler Clementi Foundation, and Iris House, an HIV services organization, as well as at Staten Island Academy and the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine.  Michael also has spent decades fundraising for LGBTQ+ and HIV causes via his alter ego, drag queen Witti Repartee, who has served as Empress XXVI of New York, the Queen of the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, and as the Angel for Team Eagle.  He is married to Kerry Ashforth and lives in Brooklyn, NY with their three cats.

https://www.stonewallfoundation.org/

Link to the detailed program of the event – Download here!