San Francisco, CA
United States
130 Doolittle Drive, San Leandro AIDS Memorial Quilt since 1 July 1987
105000 names
A large showing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt is on display Feb 12-20 in San Francisco for the first time in 10 years. It is fitting to show the quilt is shown in association with Black History Month and Black HIV/Awareness Day, which is Feb. 7. The quilt is a reflection of a time in African American community when only a few Black leaders, politicians and families took action while most were in denial about the facts surrounding HIV.
Although many brothers and sisters died in those early years from AIDS, African Americans hung onto the thought that it was a gay white man’s disease or that a person deserved the disease by bringing it on themselves.
Not a lot of us took the time to add names to the quilt. So as I viewed the quilt, I knew there would not be man panels commemorating those the African American community has lost. Perry Lang, Executive Director of Black Coalition on AIDS, talked about the absence of the names of African Americans on the quilt. Photo © The Post News Group

12 February 2012
Jesse Brooks, San Francisco