Teyana Taylor Opens Up About Her Personal Ties To The AIDS Epidemic (PHOTOS)
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Teyana Taylor is using her voice for more than just singing these days.
This weekend,Teyana is ready to make a powerful statement. On Sunday, Teyana will be participating in the 2011 AIDS Walk in Los Angeles. She will walk as part of the Project New Hope team, which raises money for safe, affordable housing and supportive services for individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Nike will even be sponsoring Team Teyana with gear for the walk.
Teyana spoke exclusively with GlobalGrind to discuss why this cause is so important to her.
What projects do you have in the works right now?
Teyana Taylor: I have a little bit of everything: music, videos and some more movies. Just working hard!
You’re going to do an AIDS walk this weekend. Talk to us a little bit about that and why it’s so personal for you.
The AIDS walk is important because so many different people can get the disease so quickly and it’s sad. It’s really emotional for me, because I have friends that have experiences with it. It’s hurtful to have to see that and see someone you love leave you slowly. They start to change.
Everyday more than 7,000 people contract HIV, 300 every hour! How do we reach out and how do we fix that? I want to go on this walk and raise this money. We need to find a cure for this. It’s just wild. And when people know that, it makes them want to be a part of it and it’s for a good cause. I’m very excited about it. I’m happy that I can be a part of it.
What do you hope individuals can do to help?
I want us to really figure out what we can do to stop this, because like I said, people are still losing their lives. Clearly it’s not something that’s completely curable. One of my friends was diagnosed with it and we didn’t hear from him because he didn’t want to tell anybody, and it was weird because we would never see him. We didn’t know that he was dying until a week before he died.
I had another friend that didn’t want to tell anybody and I didn’t know that he died until I looked at my friend’s BBM picture that said “Rest In Peace.” It’s very hurtful because people keep a secret and don’t want people to see them hurt, so they decide to keep it to themselves. At the same time, I want to know. I want to be there to support them. We need to figure out a way to cure this. This is the main thing that is taking lives, whether it’s older, younger, middle-aged. It’s not giving younger kids a chance to live and it’s crazy because it’s not curable. No matter how many pills you take, it doesn’t matter.
We appreciate you sharing that story with us, we know how personal it is.
Thank you. It’s for a good cause, it’s only right. Sometimes when it’s for a good cause, you have to get the stories out there and let them know. I’m not going to go into full detail, but people need to know that I could be an artist, but I’m still a human being. I have friends that have it and it’s so sad to have to lose someone like that.
It’s admirable that you spread the message, because it’s a subject that a lot of people are afraid to talk about.
Honestly, I feel artists that we love and look up to should say something. Because we need to cure this and go on this walk. That’s what I’m doing this for. I’m doing it for the friends that I’ve lost, the idols that I’ve lost and the people that I look up to that I’ve lost.
I’m very thankful that GlobalGrind came on deck to really support Team Teyana for the AIDS walk. The support is just amazing. Things like that is how we can raise the money and get the word out there. Maybe we can find a cure for it.
On a lighter note, we wanted to know if you have any Halloween plans?
Every year I always win best celebrity costume on all the blogs! I’m not sure, because this AIDS walk has really been tying me up. I haven’t even been able to think about what I want to do or be for Halloween. As soon as this walk is over, that’s the most important thing. It’s a competition between me and Eva Marcille with who can raise the most money and I need to raise $5000. If she wins, I have to dress up as a top model, and if I win, she has to dress up as a b-boy. It’s fun and a friendly competition. She’s got people like Kevin Hart and others, so I need to reach out to GlobalGrind and make sure they have my back.
Teyana Taylor and model Eva Marcille will be taking part in a friendly competition to see who can raise more money for the cause. As much as we love Eva, we have to back our girl Teyana.
TO DONATE TO TEAM TEYANA CLICK HERE and FOR MORE INFO ON PROJECT NEW HOPE CLICK HERE!
