Every 10 minutes, someone in the United States contracts the AIDS virus. Half of them are black.

Thirty years after the AIDS virus was first reported among gay white men, nearly half of the 1 million people in the United States infected with HIV are black men, women and children.

In ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America, producer/director Renata Simone explores the hidden history and personal impact of one of the country’s most urgent, preventable health crises. From Magic Johnson to civil rights pioneer Julian Bond, from pastors to health workers, people on the front lines tell their intimate stories of the battle to contain the virus, and the opportunity to finally find an endgame for AIDS.

Why is HIV so much worse in black America? Why has this issue received such little attention? And most urgently, what can be done to end the epidemic?

We’ve asked Renata Simone and a panel of experts and activists featured in the film to join us to address these questions — and take yours. The panel includes:

Jeff McDowell, executive director of the the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition.

Marvelyn Brown, author and AIDS activist. You can follow her on Twitter @marvelynbrown

Lisa Fitzpatrick, NIH consultant epidemiologist and Howard University associate professor

Marsha Martin, Director of the Urban Coalition for HIV/AIDS Prevention Services.

We’ll be joined by guest questioner Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson, a reporter and lifestyle editor for the Huffington Post’s Black Voices.

We’d like to thank Black Voices for partnering with us on the chat.

You can leave a question in the chat window below, and come by at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 11 to join the live discussion.

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