More than 700,000 lives have been lost to HIV/AIDS in the United States. To elevate knowledge of the AIDS story, the Wayne State College Department of Communication Arts has partnered with the National AIDS Memorial to display five AIDS Memorial Quilt panels Dec. 2 through Jan. 10, 2025.
The display, free and open to the public, will be available for viewing from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Ley Theatre, located in the Brandenburg Building on campus.
The display at Wayne State is part of the Memorial’s efforts to bring the Quilt to communities across the U.S. to raise greater awareness and education about HIV/AIDS and to remember those lost to the pandemic.
KWSC-FM, Wayne State’s student-run radio station, champions this effort with special programming Sunday, Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day. Coverage features artists and bands impacted by HIV/AIDS and PSAs highlighting statistics, prevention, treatments, and community health resources.
“We are honored to work with the National AIDS Memorial to bring the Quilt to our community,” said Dr. Sean X. Ahern, associate professor of communication arts at Wayne State. “The Quilt offers an important reflection about the tremendous loss of life, allowing us to remember those we’ve lost, ensure their lives are never forgotten, and provide hope for the future.”
Today, HIV is on the rise, particularly among young people, communities of color, and in southern states.
“The issues our nation faces – social injustice, health inequity, stigma, bigotry, and fear – are the same issues faced throughout four decades of the AIDS pandemic,” says John Cunningham, CEO of the National AIDS Memorial. “The Quilt is a powerful teaching tool that shares the story of HIV/AIDS, the lives lost, and the hope, healing, activism and remembrance it inspires.”
The Quilt was created in the 1980s during the darkest days of the AIDS pandemic by gay rights activist Cleve Jones. While planning a march in 1985, he was devastated by the thousands of lives lost to AIDS in San Francisco. He asked fellow marchers to write the names of friends and loved ones who had died on placards. Jones and others taped the placards to the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt and inspired plans for a larger memorial.
In 1987, a group of strangers gathered in San Francisco to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those lost to AIDS and help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This effort served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Later that year, nearly 2,000 of its panels were displayed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The Quilt has more than 50,000 panels, with more than 110,000 names stitched within its fabric. It weighs 54 tons, stretches more than 50 miles in length, and is the largest community arts project in the world. The National AIDS Memorial oversees the Quilt’s preservation, care, storytelling programs, and community displays. To view the Quilt or to search for names on the Quilt, visit www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt.
To learn more, tune in to KWSC 91.9 FM or contact Ahern at seahern1@wsc.edu.
