Tag: louie ortiz-fonseca
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SALT-N-PEPA
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On November 28, 1993, The New York Times published journalist Jeffrey Schmalz’s last article, “Whatever Happened to AIDS?,” three weeks after his death due to AIDS complications. In the piece, Schmalz wrote, “…AIDS has become normalized, part of the landscape. It is at once everywhere and nowhere.” Although AIDS had…
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Songs That Soundtracked The AIDS Crisis: LaTour’s “People Are Still Having Sex”
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By 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had spent over $7,000,000 on mass media public service announcements since launching their HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign in 1987. However, despite these efforts, the AIDS crisis continued to escalate, with over 120,000 AIDS-related deaths reported since 1981. In this…
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JACKIE SHANE
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the last time jackie shane graced a stage was in toronto, canada in december 1971. after decades of swirling rumors that she had been murdered, miss shane reemerge in late 2017 with her grammy nominated “any other way”, a comprehensive double album of her musical catalog. jackie shane’s story began on may 15, 1940 in nashville, tennessee.…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Jody Watley’s “When A Man Loves A Woman”
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in november 1993, pop music architect jody watley released her fourth solo album “intimacy.” a departure from the r&b/dance oriented sound that was prominent on her previous albums, “intimacy” was a boundary-defying body of work that in some ways predated the neo-soul movement that would take hold a few years…
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For Christopher
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christopher collins left this world in 2017. he was my first love and for years, my only love. he was an integral part of HIV prevention youth program development in philadelphia. we met in the mid-1990s. we were part of a group of black & brown queer & trans youth…
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In Gratitude for My Aunt Carmen
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growing up, i never believed adults were god. i was always curious about their ways and their secret jokes like what “NEWPORT” really meant. i knew they were flawed beyond belief. i had my own lived experience to rely on as scientific data. but one of the things that made…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Miquel Brown’s “So Many Men, So Little Time”
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“So many men, so little timeHow can I choose,So many men, so little timeHow can I choose” On March 14, 1983, Larry Kramer published his now historic essay entitled “1,112 and Counting” in a bi-weekly gay newspaper, The New York Native. The blistering essay, which also served as an urgent call to…
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UNCANNY ALLIANCE
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in the early 1990s, there was no shortage of dance groups from new york garnering national notoriety at both the club and radio level. but only a few were able to brilliantly fuse the complicated feelings of joy and isolation, self discovery, camp and humor into catchy pop hooks the…
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For My Mother: “A Day In My Life (Without You)”
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I remember the night in the summer of 1991 as I sat on the steps with my two-speaker double cassette radio. I was playing my music with Robert as we talked about all the boys we had crushes on. You were drunk out of your mind and joined us on…
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Ten House Tracks From the 90s that Will Lift Your Spirits the way Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” Does
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if you are up at this time like i am it is probably because you have been dancing in the privacy of your bedroom to beyoncé’s new track “break my soul.” released as the lead single from her forthcoming album “renaissance,” scheduled for release on july 29th, “break my soul”…
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10 Songs Leading the Latin-Freestyle Resurgence
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freestyle music has direct ties to the early rise of hip-hop. like hip-hop, the freestyle genre was led by creative teens from the hood. when afrika bambaataa & the soul sonic force released “planet rock” in 1982, it laid the groundwork for freestyle music. a year later, shannon’s “let the…
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Janet Jackson: A Deep Appreciation Of
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i met robert on the very first day of school in the seventh grade in september 1989. as soon as i walked into the classroom and witnessed him commanding space with his beautiful spirit, i knew the semester would be different. i would no longer be the “only one” in…