Maliek Powell

Maliek Yuseef Powell is an American, Community Activist from the metro Birmingham, Alabama area. He started his activism journey, specifically of HIV and men health issues, in 2012 when he tested HIV positive with an AIDS diagnoses. Maliek was nineteen years old and attending a local community college in the area majoring in radio and television broadcasting. Eventually dropping out, and secretly falling into a state of depression, he found himself on a mission to learn as much as he could about his new ailment. He was determined not to allow others to use this against him. During the first year becoming knowledgeable of his new illness, only his family hierarchy,meaning-- parents, grandparents, and his god-mother, were made aware of the news. Maliek decline in the attending of counseling but he started a personal research of his own by finding and connecting with HIV positive individuals though social media. Picking the brains of so many different persons around the country; none of which in Alabama, he received many different views on those living with HIV. They all shared one thing in common, and that was the power to live an open, honest, and unapologetic life despite HIV/AIDS. He knew that was what it would to take for him to ensure that no one exploited this against him. In 2013, nearly a year to the date Maliek Yueseef tested positive, he made a post to his personal social media outlets disclosing his HIV positive status to many of his friends, family, and followers. Since then he have worked with many local and national organizations that specialize in the fight against AIDS. Sharing his story with others has become therapeutic. Maliek likes to think of himself as a freelance case worker because many people, positive and negative, reach out to him on a daily basics with questions, concerns, seeking support, and most times wanting someone to confide in. His mission is to always to bring a current view into HIV, while also shifting the stigma that surrounds the epidemic and amplifying the conversations we all have when it comes not only to HIV/AIDS but all men health disparities.