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Mary Fisher is an artist, author, and
speaker who travels the world advocating for
those who share her HIV-positive status. She
previously served as ambassador for the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS),
and on the Leadership Council of the Global
Coalition on Women and AIDS. Her art work
has been featured in one-woman and group
shows and is found in distinguished private
and public collections, including the
permanent collection of UNAIDS in Geneva,
Switzerland. Her words, photographs and art
have filled five books and
countless
magazine articles, news accounts and feature
stories. |
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She established
the
Mary Fisher CARE
(Clinical AIDS
Research and
Education) Fund to
support long-term,
outcomes-based
research for the
care of people
living with HIV,
especially women. As
part of her
commitment to enable
HIV-affected women
in Africa to support
themselves and their
families, she taught
women in Rwanda and
Zambia to make
jewelry which she
continues to market
in the United
States.
The
recipient of honorary
doctorates and various
tributes, Ms. Fisher has
reached hundreds of millions
of people around the world
with her messages of
courage, compassion, and
urgency. Her 1992 keynote
address entitled "A Whisper
of AIDS" that was given at the Republican
National Convention was
reprinted in major media
from the London Times
to the Los Angeles Times,
and featured in anthologies
and rhetoric texts including
the famed Chambers Book
of Speeches. Of that
landmark speech, Norman
Mailer wrote "When Mary
Fisher spoke like an angel
that night, the floor was in
tears and conceivably the
nation as well…" Nearly 15
years later, when American
political scientists were
asked to rank the 100 most
important speeches in 20th
century America, they made
Ms. Fisher's Houston speech
a consensus selection. |
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Mary has
spent many years creating
art that expresses her
feelings as a mother, an
artist, and a woman living
with AIDS. Each piece bears
a thought: about the world,
about Mary's children, about
the children in Africa, or
perhaps about the huge
extended family she has
adopted across the world.
Words from her many speeches
around the world are spread
throughout her works, either
in paper, cloth, or print.
Each piece gives wings to
Mary's heart. Her works
teach, inspire and provoke.
Mary shares her journey
through life as she creates.
We invite you to join her on
that journey. |
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The AIDS virus
"does not care whether you are
Democrat or Republican. It does
not ask whether you are black or
white, male or female, gay or
straight, young or old... HIV
asks only one thing of those it
attacks: Are you human?" |
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~ Mary
Fisher |
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