A: Is for AIDS

I already told you Broadway star and vocal magician James Barbour. Saturday Night December 12th will feature stage veteran, The Broadway community to commemorate World AIDS Day, yesterday, December 1st dimmed the marquees of Broadway theaters, at exactly 8:00pm for one minute.

In addition to Broadway theaters, participating venues across the city including the Brooklyn Bridge, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Chrysler Building, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch also showed their support.

A roster of notable guests, including United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and actress and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Naomi Watts, kicked off the global Light for Rights campaign in New York City as lights on numerous landmarks all over the city turned off to remember those we have lost to AIDS and turned back on to emphasize human rights for those living with HIV/AIDS around the world.

The global initiative, organized by UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS); amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research; Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS; and the World AIDS Campaign, will showcase the importance of fundamental human rights as citizens and organizations around the world fight AIDS.

The New York anchor event began at 6:00 p.m. in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, where the Secretary-General and Naomi Watts will be joined by Kenneth Cole, chairman, Kenneth Cole Productions and chairman of the board, amfAR; New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; and 13-year-old Honduran AIDS activist Keren Dunaway-Gonzalez, who is living with HIV.

During the event, at 6:15 p.m., the lights on the Washington Square Park Memorial Arch will be turned off and then re-illuminated as the speakers talk about the importance of human rights when confronting the AIDS pandemic.

AIDS is a F.A.C.T