September 7, 2008
AIDS Memorial Quilt Returns to South Florida
Nicole Letaw READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Today over 30 million people are living with the virus.
Coping with this epidemic, the NAMES Project Foundation in San Francisco created the AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987 as a remarkable moving memorial and powerful tool to help circumvent new HIV infections and remember those who lost their lives to such a deadly disease.
In a time where people who died of AIDS were ridiculed and not given the proper memorial service, the quilt came to life and delivered the longing respect to countless families of AIDS' victims.
More than 20 years later, the memorial quilt has become one of the largest ongoing community folk art projects in the world and weighs close 54 tons. And now you can witness this spectacular art project in South Florida from September 8th through December 5th.
The quilt will be showing over 300 12x12 panels throughout south Florida communities in the next few months.
The majority of these sections will be displayed during the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) conference which is now being held at the Broward Convention Center September 18th-21st.
The Fontainebleau Hotel was the original meeting place and after 18 months of assurances, the NMAC just learned a few weeks ago that the hotel would not be ready to accommodate for one of the largest AIDS-related gathering in the U.S. and the second largest in the world.
The United States Conference on AIDS (USCA) brings together thousands of people addressing HIV/AIDS from every new development in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
In addition to the majority of the AIDS quilt panels being exhibited at the NAMC conference, six participating hotels along 17th Street Causeway and Ft. Lauderdale beach will be displaying panels of the Quilt in their lobbies during this time.
Additional displays of the memorial quilt are being scheduled for both Miami International Airport and the Ft. Lauderdale Airport.
After the conference, a portion of the display will continue to the Galleria Mall and West Palm Beach Compass in observance of World AIDS Day on December 1st.
For more information or if you would like to volunteer in this extraordinary exhibit, please contact Jodi at www.namesprojectsouthflorida.org or email [email protected] or call (954) 599-7782.
Volunteer training is being held at the GLCC 1717 Andrews Ave on Saturday September 13th from 1:00-3:00PM.
