In 2027, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) will celebrate 40 years of militant, creative, and uncompromising activism. To mark this significant anniversary, ACT UP at 40: Celebrating Resistance and Demanding Healthcare for All — Calendar 2027 brings together the people, protests, and pivotal moments of a movement that transformed the HIV/AIDS crisis.
“Plague! We are in the middle of a fucking plague … what are we gonna do about it?”
Larry Kramer
From mass die-ins and occupations of pharmaceutical headquarters to political funerals and the scattering of ashes over the White House gates, ACT UP confronted political indifference, challenged corporate power, and demanded the right to live. Its legacy is measured in lives saved and the movements it inspired across the globe.
Featuring an iconic action photograph for each month, along with highlights of local chapters’ most impactful strategies and more than 250 dates that document ACT UP’s history, the calendar traces an international movement that spans from Pittsburgh to Buenos Aires, Berlin, and beyond. It celebrates the creativity, courage, and collective power of activists who refused to accept that people with HIV/AIDS should die without a fight.
This calendar serves both as a tribute to that history and a call to action. All profits will support the Fund Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, which is building towards an international day of action in 2027. As healthcare inequalities deepen and access to life-saving treatment remains contested, ACT UP’s message is more urgent than ever: healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.
“ACT UP’s 40th year is a birthday, with so very much to celebrate. Yet it’s also a Ruby Anniversary — and there remain so many issues we must see red about, from the obscene price of phenomenal HIV treatment lenacapavir to the fraught relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the patients who depend on them.”
Alix Fox, award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster
The calendar launches internationally with events celebrating ACT UP’s history and continuing fight for healthcare for all. The London launch takes place on Friday 23 October 2026, 6.30–8.30pm, at The Advocacy Academy, 2 Beehive Place, London, SW9 7QR with celebrated photographer Gordon Rainsford, broadcaster Alix Fox and line-up of veteran change-makers.
RSVP: London Calendar Launch Further launch events will be announced here.
Buy the ACT UP calendar
Individual orders: Purchase the ACT UP at 40 calendar on Etsy
Wholesale orders: actuplondonhealthcareforall@
About ACT UP
The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is a diverse, non-partisan group united in anger and committed to direct action to end the HIV pandemic and challenge the inequalities and injustices that perpetuate it. Recognising HIV/AIDS as both a medical emergency and a political crisis, ACT UP uses every means possible to demand change. We will never be silent.
![The Rising in London's SE1 is an LGBTQ] bar that has many LGBTQ] social events](https://www.qxmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/imageedit_26_9160770370-728x410.jpg)
