Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library has long been at the forefront of documenting the history of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS activism in Atlanta.
Among its collections focused on Atlanta it holds the personal papers of a number of local doctors, activists, and artists who were involved in activism around HIV/AIDS in the city, including physician Jesse Peel, playwright Rebecca Ranson, photographer Billy Howard, and activists Bruce Garner and David Lowe. Additionally, Rose holds the organizational records of multiple local HIV/AIDS support service providers, including SCLC/W.O.M.E.N., the Southeastern Arts, Media & Education Project, the AIDS Survival Project, AID Atlanta, and Positive Impact, Inc.. Examples of materials from across these collections can be found in the gallery to the right. In 2017, the Rose Library received a Community Catalyst grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to collaborate with community partners and leverage its archival resources to encourage conversation and action to address the ongoing epidemic in our city. One outcome of that grant is the Red Rose Collective, a collaborative group of individual activists, artists and representatives of health and support service organizations. Formal organizations represented in the collective are Georgia Equality, the CounterNarrative Project, Thrive SS, and SisterLove.
On October 9th, the Red Rose Collective invites you to “We Are the Answer: Ending the Epidemic Through Community” a program about the past, present, and future state of HIV/AIDS in Atlanta hosted at Emory’s Rose Library. Speakers will include several members of the Collective: Eric Paulk (Georgia Equality), Larry Scott-Walker (founder of ThriveSS), Antoinette Jones (SisterLove), and Jasmine Cummings (Community Organizer and Consultant). We’ll also be joined by Justine Ingram, the first Public Health Educator for the Fulton County Board of Health. The speakers will facilitate a fishbowl-style conversation in which all attendees will have the opportunity to contribute as a speaker. Rose Library is located on the tenth floor of the Woodruff Library building at 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA, 303022 and directions are available here. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the event begins at 7 pm. The event is free to attend, but we ask that you register here.
The Collective is planning several more community conversation events, culminating in a community arts event on World AIDS Day 2020. In addition to these conversations and events, Rose Library also plans to publish a website to contextualize our collections related to HIV/AIDS, as well as distribute a print version of the site to support service organizations, and establish a mini-grant program to fund the work of local community activists who are already playing a vital role in raising awareness and combatting stigma.
