Where: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (and 135th St.), Harlem, NY, 10037

Cost: Free!

Mission

The party boi Meth & Health forum mission is to raise community awareness of the methamphetamine epidemic among us, affecting primarily young black and Latino gay men and transgender individuals, to share information and to identify needs.

The Program

Registration: from 4 to 7 PM

• 4:15 to 4:30 PM: Intro by Marcelo Maia (Photographer & Activist with ACT UP NY) with MC: Kenyon Farrow (Writer, Journalist, Editor in Chief of thebody.com); and #UEqualsU Video Dr. Alison Rodger, PARTNER2 to Bruce Richman at AIDS 2018

• 4:30 to 4:55 PM: Meth & PrEP Presentation + Q&A via Skype from Sidney Australia by Stefanie Vaccher (Statistician/Epidemiologist) | EPIC-NSW Study (Expanded PrEP Implementation in Communities in NSW).

• 5:00 to 5:55 PM: Screening of the Documentary: parTy boi, black diamonds in ice castles.

• Raffle

• 6:00 to 6:50 PM: Meth Users & former users’ panel + Q&A with Moderator: Kenyon Farrow. Panelists: Micheal Rice (parTy boi Director), Tia Carter (Trans Advocate and HIV Educator), Michael Carta Whitmore (Actor), and Jacen Zhu (PrEP and Meth Activist, Advocate and Adult Film Star).

• Raffle

• 7:00 to 8:25 PM: Health Care Panel + Q&A: with Moderator: Jagadīśa-devaśrī Dācus (Ph.D., LMSWPM​). Panelists: Demetre Daskalakis (MD., MPH, Deputy Commissioner Disease Control, NYC DOHMH), David Fawcett (PhD, LCSW, Author of Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery), Ramon Torres (MD, Research Assistant for the first, national multicenter study of methamphetamine treatment) and Boe Ramirez (GMHC/ACRIA, Coordinator, Training and Curriculum Assistance).

• Raffle

• 8:30 to 9:30 PM: Network hour catering by City Beet Kitchens.

Please use: #NYCTinaForum2018

RSVP

at Eventbrite: https://partyboymethhealth.eventbrite.com or goo.gl/KAL1zd

This page was updated on Saturday, November 24. Download the Official Program and fliers in: English | Spanish

Marcelo Maia, ACT UP NY/Meth Group/Coalition Email: marcelomaiaphoto@gmail.com

Fliers

Biographies

• Kenyon Farrow

  Kenyon Farrow is a writer, editor, and strategist mostly focusing on issues in public health, health care, the social safety net and social justice. Kenyon has also worked on campaigns large and small, local, national, and global on issues related to HIV, criminalization/mass imprisonment, homelessness, and LGBT rights. He is currently the senior editor with TheBody.com. Prior to joining TheBody.com, he served as U.S. & Global Health Policy Director with Treatment Action Group (TAG). He is also known for his work with organizations such as Queers for Economic Justice, Critical Resistance, and FIERCE!

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  Stefanie Vaccher

  Presentation: Methamphetamines and PrEP: Helping or Hindering Health Outcomes in Gay Men?.

  Stefanie is a statistician and epidemiologist at the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, Australia. She was involved in the EPIC-NSW study, a rapid, population-level PrEP implementation program in Australia’s most populous state, providing free PrEP for over 9,000 individuals. She is also completing her PhD on adherence to PrEP.

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  Jagadīśa-devaśrī Dācus, Ph.D., LMSWPM

  Dr. Jagadisa-devasri Dacus is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Division of Gender, Sexuality, and Health at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University. He is state-licensed social worker who possesses an extensive history of working for and with community based organizations, nonprofits, and local and state health departments engaged in the provision of HIV programs, interventions, and other services for at-risk people of color populations, youth, drug users, and LGBTQ+ populations.

  Dr. Dacus is a skilled facilitator and trainer, and has worked extensively with organizations in the areas of strategic planning, team building, and program development and evaluation. As a subject matter expert his expertise centers on organizational cultural competence. Dr. Dacus’s research focuses on maintained HIV-negativity in Black men who have sex with men (MSM) in New York City. His research aims to identify and understand the psychological, social, and spiritual strengths and resiliencies that contribute to the maintenance of HIV-negativity in Black MSM populations.

  He received his MS in Social Work from Columbia University and his PhD from The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

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  David Fawcett PhD, LCSW

  Presentation: The fusion of meth and sex: implications for health, harm reduction, and recovery.

  David Fawcett PhD, LCSW is a social worker and sex therapist in Fort Lauderdale specializing in gay men’s health. He is the author of Lust, Men, and Meth: A Gay Man’s Guide to Sex and Recovery (Healing Path Press, 2015) which explores the intersection of gay men, drug use, and high-risk sexual behavior. The book was named “2016 Best Nonfiction Literature” by POZ magazine. He frequently presents workshops on LGBT health, addiction, HIV, and co-occurring disorders both in the US and internationally. He is a regular contributor to TheBody.com and TheBodyPRO.com, writing about HIV, mental health and substance abuse and he has been published in Huffington Post, Positively Aware, and other journals.

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  Gabriel Torres, MD

  Dr. Gabriel Torres is a research recruiter at the NYS Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University Medical Center, currently recruiting participants for a methamphetamine research treatment protocol using naltrexone/bupropion versus placebo for heavy meth users who wish to stop or reduce using meth. Dr. Torres has worked in the area of HIV medicine for over 30 years, was once the Medical Director of St. Vincent’s Hospital AIDS Center program in the late 1990s, and subsequently had a large HIV private practice. As a recovering addict he has personal experience with methamphetamine dependence and the struggles that it entails.

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  Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH

  Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH is the Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Disease Control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Dr. Daskalakis directs the public health laboratory and all infectious disease control programs for New York City, including HIV, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, vaccine-preventable diseases, and general communicable diseases. His Division is one of the largest in the Department, employing more than 1000 staff, managing >$350 million, and operating 17 clinical facilities.

  He received his medical education from NYU School of Medicine and completed his residency training in 2003 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He also completed Clinical Infectious Disease fellowships at the Brigham and Women’s / Massachusetts General Hospital combined program. He received his Masters of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He has been a career-long physician activist in the area of HIV treatment and prevention among LGBT people.

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  Jacen Zhu

  Jacen Zhu is a voice within the queer community who uses his platform in adult entertainment to address issues affecting people of color (POC). He advocates on substance use primarily focusing on the invisible epidemic of Crystal Meth use among Queer & people of Trans experience within communities of color. Jacen utilizes his experience with addiction to start the initiative #TakedownTina. He also speaks about being HIV positive living undetectably, U=U, PrEP, dealing with stigma, sexual & mental health.

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  Micheal Rice

  Micheal Rice is an award winning film maker, producer, choreographer and creative director for stage and film. His vision is to bring uncompromising stories and authentic art work of black queer and cis gendered millennials to the forefront of society. Rice has over ten years’ experience working on multiple platforms of entertainment from television to regional theatre. The debut of his documentary parTy boi, black diamonds in ice castles has sparked controversy, debate and needed dialogue amongst urban LGBTQ communities of color dealing with substance abuse, opioid addiction and HIV infection. Micheal’s curations are not only art but a staple of activism behind the lens.

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  Marcelo Maia

  Marcelo is a photographer, author of the book Prometheus, published in 1996 by Saint Martin’s Press, a “lyric” b&w black male nude portraits study on Sexuality & Racism. He is currently working on a new book, Eros a portraits study on Power and Sexuality. As a photographer, his work has appeared on publications in the US and abroad.

  After an AIDS diagnose in 1994, he intensified photographic work, published Prometheus and become an HIV prevention advocate as a member and then chair of GMHC CAB and several other prevention groups in the city. He was a recipient to a scholarship representing Latinxs from NY at the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington DC. He became a HIV activist, joining the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, ACT UP NY, creating the HASA and later on the Meth groups and the HIV History Project, @HIVHistory, on Facebook and Tweeter.

  In January 2018, he reignited the ACT UP Meth Group to work in coalition to produce a forum on the Methamphetamine epidemic in the city, primarily affecting young Black & Latino Gay men and transgender individuals. parTy boy Meth & Health, happening at The Schomburg Center for Research on Black Culture on November 29, 2018, has been made possible by the coalition’s work, a generous grant from Broadway Cares/Equity Fight AIDS, BC/EFA, matching funds from the DOHMH, financial contributions from ACT UP NY, the LGBT Center and GMHC.

About ACT UP

Founded in 1987, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis. ACT UP currently meets every Monday night at 7PM ET via Zoom. Notes: you will be asked to contribute your first & last name and email address to access online meetings, and KN-95 masks are required for ACT UP NY in person meetings/actions/gatherings. All individuals are welcome!