Wayne State College is displaying a quilt at Ley Theatre in the Brandenberg Education building to honor those who died during the AIDS epidemic.
The AIDS quilt is a worldwide project honoring those who have died of the disease. The epidemic was prevalent in the late 1980s and into the early 2000s. People are still dying of AIDS all over the world. The quilt is over 57 miles long and weighs over 54 tons in total. Each panel honors a specific person, and each is the size of a typical gravesite, about 3 feet by 6 feet.
WSC is currently displaying two quilts with eight panels each. The people honored by these squares from the quilt are from Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and even Arizona.
The LGBTQ+ community was disproportionately affected by the AIDS epidemic, but the disease also targeted nurses and blood transplant patients. It was known as the “gay cancer”.
The quilt project started in San Francisco in 1985. Rosa Parks, famous during the Civil Rights movement, made quilts for those with AIDS as well. She is one of the famous names on the quilt, although she did not die of AIDS. Other names on the quilt include tennis star Arthur Ashe, who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, Eazy-E and Ryan White, amongst others. Another celebrity who famously died of AIDS is former lead singer of Queen Freddie Mercury, who died on Nov. 24, 1991.
AIDS appeared in pop culture primarily during the 1990s. The Broadway musical “Rent” is one example. Its writer, Johnathan Larson, died of an aortic dissection the night before the musical was set to open on Broadway. He wrote “Rent” about his struggles living in New York City, and his personal connection to AIDS, because he had lost friends to the disease.
Sean Ahern, advisor for KWSC-FM, and Jeff Shelton, advisor for the WSC Pride Club, are collaborators on bringing this project to WSC.
Ahern grew up in the 1990s and learned about the project in college. KWSC-FM will be doing a special program for World Aids Day on Dec. 1.
Shelton worked with people who had lost family members to AIDS.
“[The epidemic] took a lot of people by surprise with how aggressive the virus was,” Shelton said.
The public can view the quilt Monday through Friday from 5-7 p.m. in Ley Theater until World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. For more information about the quilt or AIDS in general, visit aidsmemorial.com.
