Youngstown native to speak at AIDS event

STAFF REPORT

COLUMBUS — Youngstown native Boyd E. Graves, director of AIDS Concerns, human rights leader and international AIDS activist, is the speaker Sunday at the Hip Hop 4 HIV Research Team kickoff event at the King Arts Complex here.

Graves, a 1970 graduate of Youngstown East High School and the U.S. Naval Academy, also has his law degree from Ohio Northern University, Ada. He is the author of the book “World War Aids.”

Since 1999, Graves, who now lives in San Diego, has served as the director for AIDS Concerns for the International Medical Research Foundation, Common Cause, headquartered in Canada.

He will discuss his 15-year research into the AIDS pandemic beginning at 3 p.m.

The Hip Hop 4 HIV Research Team is an advanced sciences mentoring program in Columbus that assists youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in the attainment of professional-level degrees in biomedical sciences and other related fields that service the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other community health issues, says a press release from Isis Rudolph, program director.

Tonight, the youths will participate in a show and social gathering that will feature poetry, open mic, and discussions by health professionals.

Rudolph said Hip Hop also provides training, workshops, college and financial aid searches, tutoring, links to career placement, and summer internship and work- study opportunities for program participants.

The program also seeks out instructional opportunities from minority scientists and researchers, she added. Many of the students in the program are at the high school level.