Join the Black AIDS Institute for the 2017 Essence Festival

In a recent article about the Essence Festival, the Black AIDS Organization noted that an estimated 1 in 48 Black women will be diagnosed with HIV during her lifetime. The desire to move the needle on this dire indicator drives the Black AIDS Institute's annual participation at 2017 Essence Festival Presented by Coca-Cola, taking place June 29-July 2, 2017, in New Orleans.

In collaboration with our partners the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Louisiana Office of Public Health, the Institute will provide free HIV testing, HIV prevention education and raffles for prizes in the Community Corner of the Expo Hall of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Billed as the "party with a purpose," the Essence Festival draws over 400,000 attendees to the series of free empowering and educational daily activations, exhibits and talks paired with nightly concerts featuring some of the biggest Black artists. Catering to the lives and lifestyles of Black women, the festival is the optimal location for the Institute and its partners to provide HIV testing and HIV prevention education resources to this often underserved demographic group.

While only 13 percent of the U.S. population is Black, Black women make up a staggering 61 percent of HIV diagnoses among women. After MSM, Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV than members of any other demographic group. Yet usage of the groundbreaking HIV prevention method pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among Black women is low, and PrEP uptake among women falls along racial lines.

Black women are four times less likely than their White counterparts to fill a PrEP prescription. Indeed, a survey of PrEP knowledge among Black women attending a prior Essence Festival revealed low levels of PrEP awareness. Because most public health campaigns about PrEP target MSM, women of any race rarely receive PrEP messaging.

Black women's increased use of PrEP is key to stemming the tide of new infections, so the Black AIDS Institute has undertaken a concerted effort to increase PrEP awareness among this group. The Institute will feature PrEP information in its prevention education campaigns at the Essence Festival and will offer daily "mini-lectures" about Black women and PrEP to increase awareness and address common barriers to PrEP usage. Consistent with the intent of the festival, the Institute will speak to and with Black women about their lives and experiences, particularly when it comes to preventing HIV.

Because not every Black woman can attend the Essence Festival, we hope you'll take advantage of resources on the HIV epidemic and PrEP for Black women compiled by the Institute, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Louisiana Office of Public Health, as well as the PrEP Locator, an online geolocation tool that identifies PrEP providers by zip code. For those attending the festival, "party with a purpose" and stop by our activation -- we'll see you there!

For more information, visit www.essence.com/festival-2017 or www.blackaids.org/