Rainbow flag#LGBTVoices Celebrates PrideRainbow flag
LGBT+ REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA

The AIDS Quilt

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is American FolkArt in the deepest sense. It is a physical artistic representation of LOVE and Grief.

#Pride

On Nov. 27. 1985 Cleve Jones conceived of the idea for the Quilt, during a candlelight vigil and march remembering the assassination of Harvey Milk, in San Francisco. Jones had people make signs with the names of people lost to AIDS-related causes.

When Jones looked at the wall he saw a huge patchwork quilt, and a historic idea was created.

When most AIDS victims of the day died the often didn't receive funerals due to the stigma felt by families and the refusal of funeral homes to host them. The Quilt often became the only form of remembrance of those lives.

The quilt was first displayed on the national mall in DC in 1987, and the last time it was displayed in full on the mall was in 1996 and was visited by the fist family @BillClinton and @HillaryClinton.

The quilt is a memorial and celebration of life. This created a shift in the concept of what a memorial is. It is a physical artistic representation of the AIDS epidemic and the lives lost and changed forever.

Each Panel is 3ft by 6ft. the approximate size of a grave. This connects the ideas of AIDS and Death more closely. The NAMES Project Foundation maintains the quilt to this day.

The NAMES Project was Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, the documentary narrated by Dustin Hoffman and scored by Bobby McFerrin was awarded both the 1989 Peabody Award and an Academy Award focus's on several people who are represented by panels of the quilt.

John Corigliano wrote "Symphany No.1" in 1990 inspired by the AIDS quilt.

In 1992 The AIDS Quilt Songbook premiered, a collection of musical works about the devastation of AIDS compiled by William Parker.

Washington DC's Different Drummers (DCDD) and the Lesbian and Gay Chorus of Washington (LGCW) commissioned Quilt panels from composer Robert Maggio and they premiered in 2003

The NAMES Project was the basis for the musical QUILT, A Musical Celebration. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLshhZCLT8muBIHfWbZfj2JbSrpYBCk2Sf

The Quilt was displayed on the @ABC Soap Opera @onelifetolive in 1992. The storyline featured a young @RyanPhillippe.

The Aids Quilt has been featured in every form of Art and Media and has inspired people across the world to memorialize lives and loss in various ways of expression. Rather than a grave or a place o memorialize our loved ones we choose to do things and create things in memory.

Each day this week, a member of #LGBTVoices will tweet on a different work of queer media and it’s impact on our culture, film, books and works of art.

Please spread the discussion by RTing and join in the discussion! https://twitter.com/i/events/1275012552917950472?s=13