|
New York City, NY United States |
West 12th Street & Greenwich Ave. | New York City AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle |
since 1 December 2016 without names |
City unveils AIDS Memorial in the West Village at World AIDS Day ceremony
In a moving ceremony in the shadow of the old St. Vincent’s Hospital — the epicenter of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s — city officials and advocates marked World AIDS Day in the West Village Thursday with promises to continue to fight the deadly disease. The ceremony included the dedication of a new memorial to the more than 100,000 people who have died of AIDS, as well as the caregivers and activists who helped to battle the epidemic. Mayor de Blasio, former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and City Councilman Corey Johnson — who is HIV positive — all attended the ceremony. “I literally would not be alive if it were not for the tens of thousands of [AIDS] activists ... who put their lives on the line,” said Johnson, who reps Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. The old St. Vincent’s Hospital held the largest AIDS ward in the country, and was the first dedicated solely to the disease. De Blasio said the loss of lives during the height of the AIDS epidemic 30 years ago made him sad, but the resilience the city showed made him proud. “We [New Yorkers] are never held down for long,” he said.
Photo (c) Susan Watts New York Daily News
1 December 2016
Jennifer Fermino, New York City
In a moving ceremony in the shadow of the old St. Vincent’s Hospital — the epicenter of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s — city officials and advocates marked World AIDS Day in the West Village Thursday with promises to continue to fight the deadly disease. The ceremony included the dedication of a new memorial to the more than 100,000 people who have died of AIDS, as well as the caregivers and activists who helped to battle the epidemic. Mayor de Blasio, former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and City Councilman Corey Johnson — who is HIV positive — all attended the ceremony. “I literally would not be alive if it were not for the tens of thousands of [AIDS] activists ... who put their lives on the line,” said Johnson, who reps Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. The old St. Vincent’s Hospital held the largest AIDS ward in the country, and was the first dedicated solely to the disease. De Blasio said the loss of lives during the height of the AIDS epidemic 30 years ago made him sad, but the resilience the city showed made him proud. “We [New Yorkers] are never held down for long,” he said.
Photo (c) Susan Watts New York Daily News
1 December 2016
Jennifer Fermino, New York City
