Arthur Ashe. Brad Davis. Robert Reed. Alison Gertz. Freddy Mercury. Keith Haring. Halston. Ryan White. Easy E. Wayland Flowers. Pedro Zamora. Liberace. Rudolf Nureyev. Slyvester. Rock Hudson. Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. An Academy Award in for a documentary about it in 1989. and the largest community art project in the world. What one thing has all this of in common?
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
It is a powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic. More than 46,000 individual 3-by-6-foot memorial panels -- most commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS -- have been sewn together by friends, lovers and family members brought together as tribute, memorial and celebration of the lives lost to AIDS.
Its conception came from another memorial. The Annual candle march honoring San Fransicsco Supervisor Harvey Milk and SF Mayor George Moscone killed in 1978, by their friend and gay rights activist Cleve Jones. During the 1985 vigil he found out that over 1000 SF residents had been lost to AIDS at that time. He asked fellow marchers to put their nam
es on placards of their friends lost and when gathering all together it was reminiscent of a patchwork quilt. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was born. A little over a year later the first panel was created in memory of his friend Martin Friedman. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation. Public response to the Quilt was immediate. People in the U.S. cities most affected by AIDS -- Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- sent panels to the San Francisco workshop.
On October 11, 1987, the Quilt was displayed for the first time on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. It covered a space larger than a football field and included 1,920 panels. Half a million people visited the Quilt that weekend.
The overwhelming response led to a four-month, 20-city, national tour for the Quilt in the spring of 1988. The tour raised nearly $500,000 for hundreds of AIDS service organizations. Local panels were added in each city, tripling the Quilt's size to more than 6,000 panels by the end of the tour.
The Quilt returned to Washington, D.C. in October of 1988, with 8,288 panels displayed on the Ellipse in front of the White House. Celebrities, politicians, families, lovers and friends started the tradition of reading aloud the names of the people represented by the panels. The reading of names is now a tradition followed at nearly every Quilt display. In 1989 a second tour of North America brought the Quilt to 19 additional cities in the United States and Canada. That tour and other 1989 displays raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for AIDS service organizations.By 1992, the AIDS Memorial Quilt included panels from every state and 28 countries. In October 1992, the entire Quilt returned to Washington, D.C.. and in January 1993 The NAMES Project was
invited to march in President Clinton's inaugural parade.
Today there are NAMES Project chapters across the United States and independent Quilt affiliates around the world. Since 1987, over 14 million people have visited the Quilt at thousands of displays worldwide. Through such displays, the NAMES Project Foundation has raised over $3 million for AIDS service organizations throughout North America.
The Washington, D.C. displays of October 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992 and 1996 are the only ones to have featured the Quilt in its entirety,
- Funds Raised by The Quilt for Direct Services for People with AIDS: over $4,000,000 (U.S.)
- Number of Visitors to The Quilt: 15,200,000
- Number of 12'x12' Sections of The Quilt: 5,748
- Number of Panels in The Quilt: over 46,000
- Number of Names on The Quilt: More than 91,000*
- Size : 1,293,300 square feet (the equivalent of 275 NCAA basketball courts with walkway, 185 courts without walkway)
- Miles of Fabric: 52.25 miles long (if all 3'x6' panels were laid end to end)
- Total Weight: More than 54 tons
- NAMES Project Chapters: 18
- International Affiliates: 43
40 comments:
About the The AIDS Quilt Songbook
A project of William Parker soloist and musician. His last project was putting together "The AIDS Quilt Songbook," a collection of new works about the physical and emotional devastation of AIDS. Inspired by the AIDS Quilt, in which each panel commemorates someone who died of the disease, Mr. Parker asked many of the composers with whom he had worked to write songs to be sung as a cycle. Among those who responded were Mr. Rorem, John Harbison, Lee Hoiby, William Bolcom, Chris deBlasio and David Krakauer. In June, Mr. Parker and the baritones Kurt Ollman, William Sharp and Sanford Sylvan performed the cycle at Alice Tully Hall.
"In Santa Fe last summer," Mr. Parker said in a May interview in The New York Times, "I was thinking about what we sing about all the time in opera and song -- grief, separation, death, fear of death, traumatic events in life -- and I had to ask, 'Why are we not singing about AIDS?' For singers, we are being pretty unvocal about this. Something left me unsatisfied about AIDS benefits where the music is all Mozart and Puccini and the word AIDS never gets said."
The Quilt is amazing and beautiful. The best thing about it is that is shows so many people care.
WOW. Thanks for the AIDS Quilt Story, Special. Stuff like this is what makes OMG so different and great!
I've always thought that The AIDS Quilt was such a beautiful thing - it's fabric, it's individual everyone can make a panel that is personal and meaningful to them about their family member or person close to them, and that helps in healing. It's a beautiful and unique memorial. I've always found quilts to be beautiful.
Thank You for posting about the Memorial Quilt Special. I had no idea there were so many names on it. 52 miles long. Wow.
Very interesting post, but a sad subject for me as I knew quite a number of people lost to AIDs, especially during the late 80's. Fortunately some are still surviving, given the improved effectiveness of the drug treatments.
Thanks for the update on the AIDS quilt. I always thought it was a very beautiful and moving tribute, but I didn't realize just how many people were memorialized by it. Thinking about it is both uplifting and heart-breaking at the same time.
Was ever a scene from a book so well realised as the British Museum scene?
The reunion scene from Brokeback.
I saw part of the Quilt in 1993 when it came to DC. It is beautiful. If you ever get a chance to see it, do.
Update on Thomas Beattie (pregnant man)
Due in 4 weeks!
Looks like Jake was filming yesterday, at least according to this account from his WDW stalker-
link
The Quilt is amazing and beautiful. The best thing about it is that is shows so many people care.
So true. Thanks Special for today's post. It is very moving.
Hi guys. In and out on my vacation.
Have to give Wicked the credit for the idea for the Quilt for this week, and for finding the song. Thanks Wicked! You're awesome.
I just wanted to comment on yesterday's movie club choice, Maurice. I did watch the film and enjoyed it even more than I had on previous viewings. Reading the comments i was surprised to read Maurice and Clive's relationships was platonic. I had thought the filmmaker just didn't show you the sexual parts and that only later (when clive had his meltdown) did they decide the relationship had to be platonic. Despite the failings between Maurice/Clive I did like their pairing the best. The whole thing of first love perhaps.
Then, thanks to Wicked!
One more thing. For all you JFC fans.
Out and about today in and stopped into a Best Buy, for all you who've held off on buying JFC, you have no more excuses - It is on sale this week at Best Buy and at Best Buy.com for 19.99.
I worked as a volunteer for the Names Project when I lived in DC. We were all dressed in white, and as we were unfolding the panels, the names of those memorialized were announced. To this day, it was one of the most memorable and moving experiences of my life.
I returned in 1993 for the March on Washington, and was overwhelmed by the crowds. Families with youngsters being pushed in strollers through the myriad of panels is one vision I'll never forget. It was broadcast on CSPAN, and my dad caught me walking around with a box of kleenex as emotional support volunteer. He phoned me and said he was so proud of me. That was the first time in my life that he ever expressed that kind of emotion, and I was 32 at the time. He's been a strong supporter since.
Sorry, that was me posted as anonymous in the last comment.
Please put a name to the post above! It's too good to have it deleted because it was anonymous.
Thanks E.V.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Me too, Orchid. I enjoyed Maurice immensely, I found it very, very moving the first time I saw it, and even more so this time. I should add it to my movie collection and read the book. While I found both relationships amazing, I think the first time I was overwhelmed by the power of Alec and Maurice, and with this viewing focused more on Clive and Alec's relationship. I think Clive, even though he intellectualized about a relationship between two men, all of that intellectualizing was before he fell in love with Maurice. That dreamy-eyed expression Clive has when the two of them are together in Special's first pic, I think over the summer in 1910, he looks like he doesn't know what hit him. He was overwhelmed by his feelings and the social repression of the time, much like Ennis. Plus they both wanted to have the best of both worlds, keep your lover at arm's length most of the time, but there when you want him. You really would just love to shake some sense into them both! ;)
^^sorry, that should read "Clive and Maurice". :)
The display in 1993 included panels left blank for those who wished to write their own tributes for friends and relatives. I was writing one for someone lost recently when someone put their hand on my shoulder. "Curtis will never be forgotten, he must have been special, I'm sure".
It was Judith Light from "Who's the Boss".
^^That is so great! :*
Interesting comparison between Clive and Ennis, netb! The similiarties are probably why I'm most drawn to Ennis in BBM and Clive in Maurice.
Great story, evtb. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks E.V. for sharing your experience with us : )
It was Judith Light from "Who's the Boss".
She is the bomb! And also the subject of an Out Spotlight as a straight ally.
Forgot to say, nice to see you E.V. TB!
A little more about Maurice. I thought it was interesting about the head butler and his reaction to both Clive and Maurice as well as Scudder. He knew and about Clive and Maurice and realized what was going on with Maurice and Scudder. He passed judgment in as much as he could for his station.
Thanks Special about the JFC DVD's, have to get them.
Can we talk about JFC like we do movie club?
Brokeback to become an opera in 2013
Why?
Why not?
Can we talk about JFC like we do movie club?
How do you mean, Dee? Watch each episode individually and discuss it? I would be game to do that.
Why not?
Why mess with perfection?
They are not going to change the novel or the movie. They are inspired by them.
Watching game two.
Let's go Celtics!! Beat LA.
I kind of like the idea of the opera because its a different form than film and therefore won't compete as much in mind with BBM. I can't imagine the casting of the main characters, though. That will be wierd no matter who they pick.
Dee
I'm up going through each episode of JFC if other people are, too.
What does everyone think? Once a month JFC episode discussion?
NETB, myself and Romo (who post sometimes)went as saw the stage production of Donnie Darko, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and it was really weird to see someone else as Donnie, because that will always be Jake. But I have to give the guy props for just the courage to even step into the iconic role.
Oh man, I was just a few weeks away from paying 19.99 for my JFC. I thought I was doing good to get it @ 1/2 price at Borders. Oh well, color me impatient. I really enjoyed it - I didn't get alot of it until I watched some of the extra info by David Milch (sp?) and he was explaining to the cast & crew. I plan to rewatch it several times - I thought it had some great humor in it. But you know, I thought 'If Milch had to go to those lengths to explain the meaning of the script to the cast, how did he expect Joe Blow in smalltown USA to fully understand it?' That could explain why it didn't have a big audience, which is a shame, because I am sorry to see what would've happened next.
It reminded me of watching Twin Peaks, which I loved.
I'm up for a discussion. I wish I could've found Maurice somewhere. I looked but couldn't find it. Sounds like a good movie.
I have not purchased JFC but did watch it on HBO. Luck was not with them. They premiered after Sopranos finale, which turned off a lot of viewers. Sopranos ending I mean. Milch's intent just never translated to the screen. I really tried to like it for Austin's sake and watched each episode more than once. Austin was great, but the show just did not hit.
Have to agree I really enjoyed the discussion re Maurice, more so than The Wedding Banquet. Made for a meatier subject I guess. Whatever the group decides, I'll watch and discuss though.
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