Event Blends Music, Screening

Saliva and urine are common wrong answers that Tsegaye said she often hears when she teaches classes to D.C. high-schoolers.

Chris, a self-described All Stars fan from Southeast, said he was happy to get a free test "just to be on the safe side."

A teenager from Southeast said she was being tested for the seventh time in two years. She has had the same boyfriend for months but wanted another test. "I don't know if he's got other girlfriends," she said.

"You can't be too sure," chimed in David, 16, from Southeast, sitting on an opposite bench. David, who said he has a 1-year-old son, said he started being more careful after a friend's mother died of AIDS in 2004.

M'Shai Madon, 24, a rap artist from Northeast, cradled her sleeping 2-year-old son in one arm as she filled out a confidentiality form with the other.

Of HIV-AIDS awareness among the youths she often meets through her music, Madon expressed skepticism. "They're just starting to get the importance of testing. But they're not conscious on how to get the disease," she said.

Out of the testing room walked three just-screened adolescents. Waving yellow wristbands that meant they'd been screened, the three dived for the dance floor.