Join Us for an HIV/AIDS Memorial Event, December 8th, 2025
With federal funding gutted for HIV prevention and treatment across the world, The Faerie Playhouse knows its more important than ever to remember those active during the height of the AIDS Crisis in New Orleans and beyond this World AIDS Day.
The Faerie Playhouse is excited to collaborate with our neighbor and owner of The Faerie Playhouse, St. Anna’s Episcopal Church, Inclusive Louisiana, and partners at the LGBT+ Archives Project to co-sponsor a Service of Healing and Remembrance on December 8th at 6:00pm.
December 8th at 6:00pm
St. Anna’s Episcopal Church
1313 Esplanade Ave.
The event will commemorate those we have lost to AIDS, including four individuals whose cremains are buried in The Faerie Playhouse Memorial Garden: John Ognibene, Peter DeLancey, Cliff Howard and John Horn Foster.
L to R: John Ognibene passing out safer sex materials at AIDS benefits at Paw Paw's bar (1985), Peter DeLancey (1994), Carlos “Cliff” Howard, Jr. at Faerie Playhouse (date unknown), John Horn Foster, (date unknown)
All were LGBTQ+ rights and HIV/AIDS activists with ACT UP, New Orleans People with AIDS Coalition, Crescent City Coalition, NOAIDS Taskforce, LAGPAC, Louisiana Community AIDS Research Program, Mayor Marc Morial's Advisory Committee on AIDS, New Orleans Regional AIDS Planning Council and more.
In 1985, John Ognibene told the paper, “We’re sitting on a time bomb and no one is doing anything about it.” And in fact, it wasn’t until 1989, almost a decade after the first cases of AIDS were reported, that the first AZT trials began, of which John Foster was a part. Foster, who credited his longer life with HIV to science, went on to participate in the trials of the first protease inhibitor. For 14 years, he took 30 or so pills every day. By the time he died, there had been over 3,535,169 AIDS-related deaths in the United States alone.
Peter Delancey as part of the ACT UP zap team at the 1988
Republican National Convention in New Orleans. Peter contracted HIV at the age of 16 after being raped by a guard inside a Louisiana youth prison.
It is crucial we remember these activists and so many others who fought for funding for HIV/AIDS research, treatment and prevention programming this Worlds AIDS Day, like John Ognibene who frequently fought with politicians over increased HIV funding or Cliff Howard who insisted on transgender inclusion in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. The World AIDS Day 2025 theme, “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” speaks to the resurgence of the crisis at a time in which federal HIV funding has been slashed, impacting millions across the globe.
The event will offer time for healing, remembrance and rededication to their activist legacies. A reception will follow the service.
*Please note people of all faiths are welcome, including those without a spiritual practice.
We hope to see you there!
