NPR's "Morning Edition" on Wednesday reported a celebration in New York City on Tuesday to remember the life and work of Keith Cylar, AIDS advocate and co-founder of the New York-based housing advocacy group Housing Works, who died unexpectedly earlier this month (Wilson, "Morning Edition," NPR, 4/14). Cylar, who was 45, was diagnosed with AIDS in 1989 and had cardiomyopathy, a serious heart disease. According to a statement from Housing Works, of which Cylar served as co-president and chief operating officer, Cylar died in his sleep on April 4 after returning from an AIDS conference in Houston. In 1987, Cylar joined ACT UP/New York and helped found its housing committee, which was the forerunner to Housing Works. With the help of his partner Charles King and others, Cylar in 1990 co-founded Housing Works, which offers social services, including health care, and provides job training and help with applications for other services. Cylar also worked with Beth Israel Medical Center in an effort to improve access to AIDS clinical trials for minorities (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 4/8). According to NPR, the celebration was an opportunity for AIDS advocates to express their gratitude to Cylar and served as "a reminder that AIDS still kills." The NPR segment includes comments from Sandra Thurman, former head of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and current president and CEO of the International AIDS Trust, and other AIDS advocates who worked with Cylar ("Morning Edition," NPR, 4/14).

The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

Back to other news for April 14, 2004

Search the Newsroom archive