HRC to honor award winning artist and HIV advocate Bill T. Jones at 2016 NY Gala

HRC will honor award winning artist and HIV advocate Bill T. Jones at 2016 NY Gala

Washington – Today, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, announced that the multi-talented artist Bill T. Jones will be honored at the 2016 Greater New York Gala Dinner on Saturday, February 6, 2016, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

“Bill T. Jones’ revolutionary and visionary career in the performing arts has inspired people around the world,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “His work to boldly and beautifully capture the struggles and resilience of people living with HIV has profoundly impacted so many people’s lives and helped to raise awareness of the critical challenges so many face. We are pleased to recognize Bill T. Jones at the Greater New York Gala Dinner with this year’s HRC Visibility Award.”

“Bill T. Jones has never created a single work about AIDS,” says The Black AIDS Institute on their website. “He will tell you that firmly, perhaps forcefully. But the facts that he is HIV positive and that he lost his partner in love and work to AIDS, infuse his choreography, making several of his breathtaking works metaphors for the pain and life-changing force of AIDS.

“And Jones himself, a commanding presence, both physically and creatively, is a testament to the strength of those living with the disease. ‘Most of us are burdened with the perception that being HIV positive equals death,’ says the 51-year-old Jones. ‘This I refused to accept.’”

In 1982, Jones formed the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, who died of AIDS-related illness in 1988. A multi-talented artist, choreographer, dancer, artistic director and writer, Jones has received major honors including the 2013 National Medal of Arts, a 1994 MacArthur "Genius" Award, multiple Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors in 2010, and many more.

“Shortly after Zane’s death, Jones created Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1990,” according to The Black AIDS Institute. “That lyrical, three and a half-hour long deconstruction of the infamous Harriet Beecher Stowe novel explored the themes of faith, slavery, race and identity.

“The work also stunned audiences—and critics—with its use of ‘real people’ performing nude in the last half hour of the work. ‘The Promised Land, with its hordes of naked flesh coming wave after wave into the footlights, is a visual manifestation of my profound sense of belonging,’ says Jones.

“’This was my portrait to us—all of us. It was my battle to disavow any identity as a dying outcast and to affirm our commonality. Some 1,000 people from 30 cities stood naked, took a bow, and said, ‘We are not afraid.’”

In addition to creating more than 140 works for his own company, Jones has collaborated with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Toni Morrison and Max Roach, and Jessye Norman, among many others. Jones will be honored with the HRC Visibility Award for his work to bring to light the struggles and resilience of those living with HIV.

“Like so many in our community, I have been heartened and encouraged by the fearless leadership of the Human Rights Campaign. The advances made on behalf of LGBTQ people would have been unthinkable not so long ago… Now they are fact!” said Bill T. Jones. “I am greatly moved and humbled to accept this award from this fearless and essential organization.”

The Greater New York Gala is one of HRC’s most prestigious events of the year, attracting more than 1,000 of the organization’s most active leaders, supporters, and members. The event regularly draws political officials from federal, state, and local governments, as well as celebrity entertainers and leaders in the business community. As previously announced, Accenture will receive the HRC Corporate Equality Award at the event for their commitment to equality for the LGBT community.

To purchase tickets for the #HRCGreaterNY gala, learn more about the event, ways to volunteer, and more, please visit www.HRCGreaterNY.org

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. HRC envisions a world where LGBT people are embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.

The Gayly – December 7, 2015 @ 4:15 p.m.