When Alex Lawson posted about the Black Luv Fest, he made the point that while the Black Luv Fest recevied no money from the HIV/AIDS Administration, they were much, much more succesfull in getting folks tested than the well funded effort of the HIV/AIDS Administration at Freedom Plaza. It's an important distinction to make. Some of the most innovative and successful efforts to fight HIV in DC (including this website you read every day) are not coming from the organizations funded to do the work, they are coming from concerned citizens who are so fed up they are doing the work themselves.
Another example of this is the Brave Soul Collective. Brave Soul Collective is an education, outreach, and support organization for gay / bisexual / transgendered / questioning HIV positive and negative individuals living their lives in truth through the arts. Brave Soul isn't funded by the local HIV/AIDS Administration, there creative and innovative work far surpasses anything I've ever seen from any of the well-funded HIV/AIDS support groups in the city, many of whom have to pay participants with gift cards just to get them to show up (yeah, I said it).
The Brave Soul Collective will be gathering on Saturday September 29th from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Warehouse Theater, 1017 7th Street NW, Washington DC 20001. This event is free as long as you remember to RSVP. Every month Brave Soul explores a different topic, and this month they'll be talking about unprotected sex, so it should be a lively and interesting discussion.
Tonight the Brave Soul Collective will present it's first production, 
How do you tell your mom that you are HIV positive? Well, with a record number of people in DC getting screened for HIV, there are quitely likely a few people who have this question on their minds at this very minute. DC resident Monte Wolfe has some insight into this question, having gone through it himself. He has taken his own experience telling his mother, and turned it into a dramataic monologue.