Healing Arts

December 1, 2008 marks World AIDS Day, an annual opportunity to reflect on the history of the devastating epidemic: the lives lost, the progress made, and the work that remains ahead. As always, the arts remain a vital medium through which to explore the myriad emotions charged by a commemoration like this, and here are a few related events worth noting.

MUSIC

"I had been discussing with a coworker ways to get the black community more involved [in World AIDS Day]," says Edmon Dukes of Roxbury. Dukes, who began working with the HIV/AIDS community organization Boston Living Center (BLC) three years ago, says that he "grew up in the church" and counts his own parents as preachers. Yet he adds that he has sometimes been disappointed by those who show less charity in their faith. "Some people have their own personal hang-ups and treat HIV and AIDS like leprosy was in the Bible," adds Dukes. "They would rather push people away instead of try to educate themselves and work with a disease that isn't going anywhere."

To help encourage community involvement with regard to AIDS outreach, Dukes has organized A Gospel Music Benefit Concert in Honor of World AIDS Day. Featuring music by The Boston Children's Choir, New Life Restoration Church Choir, Trinity Rhode and Martinez McNeil, proceeds from the concert will benefit Boston Living Center. The evening will also honor two distinguished advocates of HIV/AIDS organizations: Rev. Thomasina Minor Hill of Fruitful Harvest evangelist church, who Dukes commends for her "history of outreach" within the community, and former BLC executive director Cathy Morales.

Dukes calls the event "his baby," and hopes that it will become an annual offering in support of the BLC. "The only way I knew to get the community involved was through a gospel benefit," he says.

The Gospel Benefit will take place Sunday, Nov. 30 at 5 p.m. at New Life Restoration Temple, 38-40 Centre St., Dorchester. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit www.bostonlivingcenter.org/Fundraisers.shtml

ART INSTALLATION

Artist Michael Dowling's 18th annual Medicine Wheel installation is currently on exhibit at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, but its yearly commemoration of World AIDS Day also has some new elements in store for visitors.

"The Paper Project", this year's installation, features thousands of "meaningful moments and prayers" written on paper, then shredded in order to create one gigantic homemade sheet of paper 600-feet-long and 12-feet-high within the Cyclorama. Through this process Dowling hopes to create one "collective voice."

Dowling called "The Paper Project," "a compilation of conflicting prayers and desires that seem as though they cannot possibly co-exist" that "[bears] witness to the human condition without the fraught emotions we attach to it."

Many moments and memories have shaped Dowling's experience with Medicine Wheel. For one, he recalls an incident during a previous exhibit in which visitors carried stones into the Medicine Wheel circle made up of 36 shrines with assorted installations balanced atop them. Dowling remembers two women who refused his help moving a stone that was clearly inappropriately large for their physical statures. When Dowling asked the two women, each of whom had lost a son to the disease, if he could help them, they declined his offer.

"You don't get it," explained one of the two mothers. "This is our weight."

Medicine Wheel is free and open to the public daily at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama (539 Tremont St., Boston) from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. until Dec. 2, with Nov. 30 the lone exception when the gallery opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 5:00 p.m. For a calendar of specific daily events, including a 24-hour vigil beginning November 30, visit: www.bcaonline.org

DINING

Even eating out on the town can provide an opportunity to support HIV/AIDS organizations.

"We feel we are not only assisting financially, but also helping to create awareness which is equally as important," said Solmon Chowdhury, owner/manager of OM restaurant in Cambridge. OM is one of several establishments participating in the AIDS Action World AIDS Day Restaurant Campaign, the second annual effort to encourage the local eateries to add activism to their menu.

At least half a dozen restaurants in Boston and Cambridge are participating in the campaign by creating a special, signature drink or dish in honor of World AIDS Day; for example, according to Chowdhury OM will offer the Raspberry Ribbon, a berry flavored cocktail. For a limited amount of time, with most (including OM) participating throughout the month of December, restaurants will donate a portion of proceeds - ranging from ten to one hundred percent - from the sale of these items to AIDS Action Committee (AAC) of Massachusetts. Individual establishments are at liberty to determine specifics of the offer, but venues currently on board include: Toro (1740 Washington St., Boston), dante (40 Edwin H. Land Blvd., Cambridge), DaVinci (162 Columbus Ave., Boston), Excelsior (272 Boylston St., Boston), OM (92 Winthrop St., Cambridge), Harvest (44 Brattle St., Cambridge) and Myers + Chang (1145 Washington St., Boston).

According to Amy Squires, who is managing the campaign for AAC, several additional restaurants are expected to join the feasting fray. For an updated list and additional details on the special menu offerings, visit: www.aac.org.