Sewing Grief Into Memory
The NAMES Project National AIDS Memorial Quilt
You cannot ignore the AIDS Memorial Quilt. It is the largest community folk art project in the world - bigger than 20 football fields. It is usually shown in blocks, each one larger than three king-size beds. But each of the quilt’s 50,000 panels is just six feet by three feet, the same size as a person’s grave.
In the 1980s, it was hard to arrange burials for people who died of AIDS. Because of fear and misunderstandings, many funeral homes refused to work with them, and some family members were ashamed their loved ones had died of "gay cancer." Activist Cleve Jones started the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987 to allow loved ones to honor those who died, even when their families and communities would not.
"And in the funny world that I lived in, that all of us lived in, pain was the bridge that we met on, and that was progress."
-Cleve Jones
Panels have been made by family, friends, community members, and even strangers who are touched by someone’s story. A few panels have even been made by people with HIV themselves, to be added to the quilt when they die. It is a living memorial, with new panels constantly added, as HIV is still epidemic around the world. The NAMES Project Foundation handles new additions and quilt displays, and stores the quilt in San Francisco.
The quilt first appeared on the Gallaudet campus as part of Deaf Way in 1989. Tom Kane, the founder of the Deaf NAMES Project, then sent the panels commemorating deaf people to join the rest of the quilt. For the AIDS Memorial Quilt’s tenth anniversary in 1997, portions were sent to high schools around the country, including two blocks displayed at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf. Nearly 20 years after the initial AIDS outbreak, deaf students were learning about the disease in their classes and meeting deaf people living with HIV.