A Photo of Sorts - Haven

  

   

   This a photo of the AIDS quilt, a massive product of the NAMES Project Foundation, in front of the Washington Monument. Today it has over 48,000 panels that collectively weigh 54-tons. It didn't start as a nation-wide project; in fact, it didn't begin as a quilt at all.

   In 1985 gay rights activist Cleve Jones had been assisting with the annual march in San Francisco when he discovered over 1,000 San Franciscans perished due to AIDS. He asked each member of the march to create a placard with the deceased's name, and at the end of the march, they climbed on ladders and taped each placard on the San Francisco Federal Building. Together these placards looked like a quilt, sparking the original idea.

   When the quilt was first displayed on October 11th of 1987, half a million people visited it that weekend. Laid out on the National Mall, the quilt was simultaneously a discomfort and a relief. The discomfort came from the realization not everyone had back then; AIDS is a growing pandemic that affects an enormous amount of people, and it can't be denied anymore. At the same time it comforted those who were personally involved with the disease: what a relief it must have been to know so many people can empathize with your situation.

   It's a fascinating thing with memorials in general, they can take such hard subjects to swallow and make you feel some hope at the same time...