*NBJC Black History LGBT Profiles: Day 19*

NBJC Black History LGBT Profiles: Day 19

Craig Washington


*Craig Washington* is a writer and community organizer lovingly raised by Anna and Leon Washington in Queens, New York. He has been living in Atlanta since 1992. Currently, he serves as the Training Coordinator at Positive Impact, an agency which provides free individual and group counseling for people affected by HIV.

Throughout the nineties, he developed HIV prevention programs for Black communities and specifically Black gay men including The Deeper Love Project for Black gay and bisexual men at AID Atlanta. He was a Co-Chair for Second Sunday, a support organization for Black gay men. He has served as a Vice Chair of the Metro Atlanta HIV Health Services Planning Council and as a member of the Georgia Statewide HIV Prevention Planning Council.

During his membership at the HIV Health Council, he helped initiate the African American Outreach Initiative, a two day seminar for Black people living with HIV/AIDS. In 1996, he served as a co-convener for the Atlanta Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Mr. Washington is a long standing member of the Martin Luther King Jr March planning committee.

He is the co-founder of the Atlanta Bayard Rustin-Audre Lorde Breakfast. His essay "A Revolutionary Act" is included in the groundbreaking 2006 Agate anthology "Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community." He has written various articles and editorials for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Arise, Atlanta Voice, the Black AIDS Institute, Clik Magazine, Southern Voice, Venus Magazine, and the Washington Blade. Mr. Washington has spoken at many universities, rallies, panel discussions, radio and TV forums. In 2007, he helped convene the trainings "Keeping Our Brothers In Mind: Black Gay Men, Mental Health and HIV" and "Keeping Our Sisters In Mind: Healing Strategies for African American Women" at Positive Impact.

He is the proud recipient of a 2007 ZAMI Audre Lorde scholarship and is currently pursuing a Master of Social Work degree at Georgia State University. In October 2007, he was received the Phill Wilson Advocacy Award from the Balm in Gilead, Inc. He has been HIV+ for 22 years. Craig can be reached at www.craigwerks.com.