By Anasuya Isaacs

Today is a golden day! We just launched our first “Love To The World” EVENT: a production of “Sometimes, I Cry”!!! This one woman show is written and performed by star of stage, film and television, and long-time AIDS activist, Sheryl Lee Ralph. Invitations went out and the buzz has already started! It is not everyday that some Hollywood glamour comes to Cape Town!

The most extraordinary thing about this event is that this is all for charity! Ms. Ralph is performing for two shows only to raise money for two organizations that are doing extraordinary work to make the lives of those infected with the HIV virus livable, healthy and prosperous! Our two pet projects, Monkey Biz and JL Zwane, will receive TWO gifts:

1) All proceeds from the sale of the tickets will be split evenly between the two groups and
2) Each purchased ticket is actually a 2-for-1 deal! So one ticket purchased buys a second ticket for a disadvantaged HIV+ woman who would not be able to attend without this help!

How great is that? The women in the support groups will be able to come to the show and our two chosen organizations will receive much-needed funds to continue to offer their life-saving programs.

There will be a live auction of fabulous art by Carrol Boyes, Barbara Jackson and others to increase the pot. And with a bit of good fortune, Love To The World will present our first mini-book of empowering letters of hope from HIV+ women to their sisters across the globe!

This event is a vision made manifest for me. When Let Love Lead was created, we always saw the exchange of stories, pictures, and lives as a vehicle of spreading hope and love to all those infected with or impacted by HIV/AIDS.  We envisioned art exhibits that had letters, poems, stories, paintings and photos exhibited. We saw a documentary about this journey and even, one day, an exchange of people learning how others live with this virus up close. Our date for fulfillment was 2010.

Well… it’s happening now! This benefit performance by Ms. Ralph will be the culmination of a week long tour and three-day Sistah Circle Summit bringing African-American HIV+ women together with their South African Positive sisters to heal, inspire and empower each other! This is the first time that this connection has ever been made, and we know already by the overwhelmingly positive response that this will be an annual event!

This is a dream come true for both Ms. Ralph and us! We are thrilled by how fast the tickets are selling (buy yours NOW!) and how hungry the women are to meet each other. It is an honor to create a safe space for women to come together, cry together, laugh together, and just be together.

The booklet that Love To The World is producing to go on sale during the Conference and Performance is the next step in forging this bridge across continents and cultures. This is the first of several wonderful products that we will use as an educational to let people know that wherever they are, however they are feeling, there is someone somewhere who knows what they are going through and cares!

Don’t we ALL want to know that?

See you at the performance of “Sometimes, I Cry” April 5th, 2008 at 8pm in Artscape’s Arena Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa, Africa, Earth.

For all of those unable to attend, we will make the booklets available online to buy. This will help us immensely in raising money for the full-length book! Thanks in advance!

Much love and many blessings!
Anasuya