Jeff Simmons Author

"How to Survive a Plague:" AIDS and Hard Lessons Learned

Looking to the past for lessons on struggling against stubborn silence. As 2016 concluded, The New York Times reported that the number of people diagnosed HIV positive in Russia...

Once in the TV Spotlight, HIV Slips into the Shadows

Characters with HIV are disappearing from screens, though their presence is crucial. Oliver Hampton is charting a lonely path. Not only did a potential lover spurn him when he...

Blue Blood: Prince Harry Takes the HIV Test

How does a beloved cultural figure get the word out about how vital it is to get tested? The importance of getting tested for HIV cannot be stressed enough; so England’s Prince...

20 Years after America Is Dying Slowly

How a hip-hop masterpiece helped a community face a growing threat. Two decades ago marked the first time in 16 years that the number of AIDS cases in the United States had...

Art AIDS America: Art Through the Plague Years

“The only way art lives is through the experience of the observer. The reality of art begins with the eyes of the beholder, through imagination, invention and confrontation.”...