World AIDS Day is celebrated on December 1 each year around the world. It has become one of the most recognized international health days and is a key opportunity to raise awareness, to commemorate those who have passed on, and to celebrate victories such as increased access to treatment and prevention services.

This year the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) will commemorate World AIDS Day by staying open for 24 hours (from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on December 1). During that time period, visitors to the museum will have the opportunity to take in two AIDS-related exhibitions, Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of World AIDS Posters and The AIDS Memorial Quilt, as well as an array of educational opportunities, entertaining performances, and commemorations of those who have passed.

MODA’s World AIDS Day commemoration will include poetry readings by the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival; a lecture about the AIDS Memorial Quilt; a dance performance by Zoetic; musical performances by Timothy Boyd, Aural Pleasure, the Serenbe Playhouse, and the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra, and much more. www.museumofdesign.org

Collin Kelley is the executive editor of Atlanta Intown, Georgia Voice, and the Rough Draft newsletter. He has been a journalist for nearly four decades and is also an award-winning poet and novelist.