Tomorrow, a Chicago panel of experts will honor National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day by tackling a difficult topic: the increasing incidence of HIV among aging baby boomers.

Why is this happening? What can be done about it?

The "seX Factor" panel will address those questions and more tomorrow on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The AIDS Foundation of Chicago is partnering with the South Side Help Center and Brothers Health Collective to facilitate the discussion at WVON's studio from 3-5 p.m. Those interested are encouraged to join the discussion live in WVON's Legacy Room, tune in to WVON 1690 AM or listen online to the livestreaming broadcast at southsidehelp.org or wvon.com .

Pamela Tassin of the South Side Help Center took the time to answer some questions about tomorrow's panel and why it's important. Below is an edited transcript of that exchange.

Charlie Newell (at left), longtime artistic director of the Court Theatre,and playwright Tony Kushner discuss the upcoming production of Angels in America.
AFC Photos

Legendary playwright Tony Kushner shuffled into the rehearsal room about 10 minutes before the first read-through of the Court Theatre’s spring production of Angels in America.

He shook a few hands and took his perch on a stool next to artistic director, Charlie Newell, who has directed two other Kusher plays — Caroline, or Change and Illusion — in his 20-year tenure at the Court, but never Angels, not until now.

The two men faced a table of attentive cast members, as well as a small audience of donors, patrons and self-proclaimed Kushner “groupies” in the back of the room.

“Why Angels in America now?” Newell said, asking his first question in an introductory conversation with Kushner.  (Angels changed the discourse on HIV/AIDS when it premiered some 20 years ago. Set in 1985, the characters struggle with AIDS during the Reagan administration. Much has changed since then, hence Newell’s question.)

“I don’t know, you’re the one who’s doing it,” Kushner said, breaking into a toothy grin.

The 50 or so people burst into laughter. Kushner had his audience.

UPDATE: (2/23/12) Legislators approved the proposed changes to the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The changes will be implemented over the next six months.

Life is about to get much simpler for the 4,200 people who access their HIV medications through the Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).

The program has undergone major changes in the last 18 months or so, including a change in the eligibility requirements and an overhaul of the application process.

Applicants, including those who have received their drugs through ADAP for years, have had to navigate new and, in some cases, more stringent documentation requirements. But a new set of rule changes, advocated by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago, should streamline the process, said John Peller, (at right) AFC's vice president of policy.