NYU's Daily Student Newspaper
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Issue date: 09.18.2003
Battling a killer, one poem at a time
by Taja Lindley
Contributing Writer
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Eric Cioe runs a
program that raises money for AIDS awareness. PHOTO: Gary He /WSN | |
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Inspired by Carlos Gómez, a high school friend who is now a University of Pennsylvania senior, Cioe launched a New York chapter of a group that raises money for AIDS awareness. The Student Discount Initiative for AIDS, which Gómez started as part of a larger organization at Penn, is a program that sells discount cards and throws concerts to raise awareness and money for AIDS relief organizations.
The two, who became friends at Moses Brown High School in Providence, R.I., are pairing up in New York for the group's latest show, Beyond Words: International Tour 2003, which will be performed Friday at a Harlem youth program venue.
Cioe, a biology and Spanish double major, worked 20 hours a week to put the discount project together. The organization has 45 members and a 14-member board of directors, including 13 NYU students. Although the group receives grants from the NYU Office of Community Service, which pays for the production costs of the discount cards, the members themselves pay many of the administrative costs, Cioe said. This year, Cioe said he donated $1,000 to his cause.
The organization spends most of its fund-raising energy selling the $10 cards. Vendors such as the Blue Note Jazz Club on West 3rd Street and Pommes Frites on 7th Street and Second Avenue, along with other clubs, dry cleaners and restaurants throughout Manhattan, give discounts in exchange for the advertising they receive from the cards. The Blue Note gives cardholders a 50 percent discount to late-night shows.
Tomorrow's show is a collaboration between Cioe's group and the Exelano Project, a group of performers, including Gómez, that uses art to advocate for causes.
"[We had a vision of] unifying activist and artistic interests in a performance group that would raise awareness about political and social issues while doing cutting-edge art," said Gómez, who is a member of the prestigious 2003 Nuyorican National Slam Team.
Famous spoken-word artists such as Kahlil Almustafa, Felice Belle and the rapper Wordsworth volunteered their services for the performance, which has drawn attention from MTV, Black Entertainment Television and UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency. Most of the artists have worked around the world.
"Between Carlos and I, we know almost every poet in New York City," Cioe said.
All of the program's ticket sales proceeds go directly to Africa Directions, a Zambian organization that specializes in HIV/AIDS peer education programs.
"One thing you will not hear is 'all net proceeds,'" Cioe said. "100 percent of the money collected at the door goes to the AIDS initiative."
William Long, the CAS assistant dean of advisement and student services, served as an unofficial mentor to the group, contributing advice on how to apply for the community service grant.
"I am so incredibly impressed with SDIA and what they've accomplished," Long said, adding that he was taking his daughter to the performance.
Cioe, an aspiring doctor, plans to work in developing nations. Although he does not have fixed plans for the future, he would like to work for Medecins Sans Frontičres, a volunteer organization that sends doctors all over the world. Last year, the discount initiative raised $20,000 for the group, Cioe said.
Cioe worked in an AIDS clinic one summer before college, and the experience motivated him to act.
"I saw the devastation of AIDS in this country," he said. "We're the richest country in the world, so I could only imagine what the fight against AIDS is like in countries that don't have these medications." •
Beyond Words: International Tour 2003 is Friday, Sept. 19, at 7:30 p.m. at Harlem Live, 301 125th St. For more information, visit www.fightapathy.org.