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Cultural Conversations on World AIDS Day (In-Person)

To Make The Wounded Whole, a book

Dan Royles' first book, To Make the Wounded Whole: the African American Struggle against HIV/AIDS, was published in 2020 by University of North Carolina Press.

To Make the Wounded Whole offers the first history of African American AIDS activism in all of its depth and breadth. It introduces a diverse constellation of activists, including medical professionals, Black gay intellectuals, church pastors, Nation of Islam leaders, recovering drug users, and Black feminists who pursued a wide array of grassroots approaches to slow the epidemic’s spread and address its impacts. Through interlinked stories from Philadelphia and Atlanta to South Africa and back again, this book documents the diverse, creative, and global work of African American activists in the decades-long battle against HIV/AIDS.

As part of the research for To Make the Wounded Whole he also launched the African American AIDS Activism Oral History Project, which gathers the life stories of African American AIDS activists, and the African American AIDS History Project, a digital archive of responses to HIV/AIDS in black America. is an Associate Professor of History at Florida International University, where he teaches courses on United States, African American, LGBT, public, and oral history.

The panel will also include representative(s) from the Broward County Department of Health.  There will also be an exhibit sponsored by the World AIDS Museum featured in the AARLCC rotunda lobby.

About the African American Research Library and Cultural Center 
The Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) is located in the Sistrunk community, one of the oldest historically Black communities named for one of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black physicians. Opening to the public on October 26, 2002, AARLCC became the third public library of its kind in the United States dedicated to the study of Black history and culture. The 60,000 square-foot Center serves as a repository of materials related to the local, national, and international voices of the African diaspora with more than 85,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts, framed art, print, photography, audiovisual, and documents held in our Adult Services Section and Special Collections. The Youth Services Section features a special collection of Coretta Scott King Award books and the Ashley Bryan Art Collection from illustrators of African Descent. AARLCC also features a 5,000 sq. ft. museum, a 300-seat state-of-the-art theatre, and a Computer Training Center.

About Broward County Libraries 
Broward County Libraries Division, named 2020 and 2015 Library of the Year by the Florida Library Association, was founded in 1974 and is the largest library system in Florida by square footage and one of the busiest, with more than 7.5 million walk-in customers visiting its 38 locations annually. Broward County Libraries Division provides convenient access to a full range of innovative and cost-effective services that satisfy the changing needs of the people of Broward County for information, education, and recreation. 

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