PIONEERING AIDS SCIENTIST DR. JOSEPH SONNABEND WILL BE CELEBRATED IN AN APRIL 12 MEMORIAL AT NEW YORK CITY’S JUDSON MEMORIAL CHURCH

LEADING FIGURES IN THE AIDS COMMUNITY WILL HONOR SONNABEND’S ACHIEVEMENTS AND HIS MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS WILL BE PERFORMED

NEW YORK CITY – A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 12, 2025, to celebrate the life and achievements of Dr. Joseph Sonnabend. The pioneering AIDS doctor, researcher and safe-sex educator died in January of 2021 after extensive health challenges at age 88.

April 12, 2025

Judson Memorial Church

55 Washington Square South

243 Thompson (wheelchair accessible entrance)

New York, NY 10012.

2:30 to 5:30pm.

Doors open at 1:30pm

The event will also be livestreamed https://www.youtube.com/live/ArrUB0R0vRY.

The public is welcome to attend.

The service will consist of tributes by Sonnabend’s colleagues, friends and former patients, interspersed by music that he composed. The pieces will be performed by a group of distinguished musicians from the United Kingdom, including Charles Mutter, Emily Earl, Idlir Shyti and Morgan Hayes.

The event will draw members of the international AIDS community. Eulogists will include writers, veteran AIDS advocates and activists, and noted medical professionals, including Dr. Rebecca Pringle-Smith, Simon Watney, Rebecca Jordan-Young, PhD, Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, Sean Strub, Bill Hibsher, Ivy Kwan Arce, Richard Berkowitz, Dr. Donald Kotler, Kevin Frost, Eric Sawyer, Jack Waters, Ash Kotak and Miriam Lewis Sabin.

Pioneering AIDS researcher and clinician Joseph Sonnabend conducted some of earliest research into AIDS. In 1983 he founded AIDS Research, the first professional peer-reviewed publication focused on the epidemic. The same year, Sonnabend, working with AIDS patients Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz, introduced the concept of “Safer Sex” in the booklet How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach. Sonnabend was co-founder of the AIDS Medical Foundation, the first AIDS research group, now known as the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). He helped launch the Community Research Initiative, which undertook AIDS clinical trials and co-founded the PWA Health Group, the first AIDS buyers’ club.

Organizers:

David Kirschenbaum, Simon Watney and Ivy Kwan Arce.

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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!