October 16, 1992
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
Page 15
Largest Quilt display touches thousands
Viewing time halved by weather
by Kevin Beaney
For the fourth time in its five year history, the Names Project Foundation brought the Quilt to Washington, D.C., for public display on October 9-11, 1992. This year the event was called the "International Display of the Entire Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt," recognizing the inclusion of hundreds of panels sent by groups from around the world. With almost 21,000 individual panels it was the largest display ever. Unfortunately, this was also the first occasion where the weather did not cooperate.
The Quilt was scheduled to be laid out on the lawn to the west of the Washington Monument from 10a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Steady rain on Friday morning made the traditional opening, including the ceremonial un-
folding, impossible.
However the reading of the 27,000 names memorialized on the Quilt's panels began as scheduled, lasting 16 hours. More than 600
readers
repre-
sented the wide
spectrum
that
J
AIDS has affected across the planet. Many readers were involved with AIDS service organizations or were panel makers. Several celebrities participated in the reading of the names over the two-day period, including politicians Jesse Jackson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Howard Metzenbaum; and entertainers Tom Hulce, Kevin Conroy, Holly Near and Liza Minnelli. Each person stepped to the microphone after being introduced and continued the litany, usually adding some special names of their own and choking with emotion.
Quilt was overwhelming. An area was designated for new panels that were brought into town during the weekend. At least 1,000 more were expected, representing another 5% growth. Yet for all its size, the Quilt represents only 13% of all U.S. AIDS deaths and just 2% of AIDS deaths worldwide.
Photos by Kevin Beany
The International Display of the Entire NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt covered 15 acres between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool.
Hundreds of thousands of people got to see the Quilt on Saturday afternoon and Sunday; many came just for that reason and many casual tourists were drawn in to the beauty and message that it delivers. Before this trip the Quilt had been seen by more than
FOR
AIDS Housing Council panel in a section with Cleveland names
The Names Project staff, with admirable skills for organization and contingency planning, rescheduled the unfolding for Saturday morning. (Had the forecast for Saturday been unfavorable, a smaller indoor display was planned.) While the weather turned sunny and hot, wet ground delayed the unfolding for several hours. Any hopes of ceremony faded as the crowd swelled around the edge of the marked area. Hundreds of volunteers hurried to set down plastic before anchoring the panel sections, each 24 by 24 feet and containing 32 panels.
When the display was opened at 1 pm, the paths filled with people, approaching gridlock. Soon after, several sections had to be closed because of mud and water seepage caused by the weight of visitors. Ever resourceful, the volunteers spread bales of hay to permit walking and to stop the damage to
the panels.
For this display the numbers challenged comprehension: in almost 700 cartons, 20,064 panels and necessary walkways weighing more than 30 tons were shipped from San Francisco to Washington; 4,500 volunteer shifts were scheduled. All 50 states and Puerto Rico are represented in the stitchery, materials, craftsmanship and love of the Quilt, as are 28 other countries from five continents. It covers 15 acres, or 12 football fields.
However you look at it, the display of the
22 million people and helped raise $1.2 million for direct services for People with AIDS. So it continues to achieve its mission: putting a human face of compassion and love on
a horrible epidemic; educating people about the way AIDS does not discriminate; teaching us that we are all affected; and raising money to help those who need it most.
On Saturday evening, after the last of the names had been read, thousands of people assembled on the Ellipse for a
Candlelight March and Vigil. The throng included an Ohio contingent that met at the Smithsonian Castle and then blocked traffic as it moved to join the crowd on the Ellipse.
From 6:30 to 8, people walked or wheeled by candlelight past the White House to the Reflecting Pool, where large video screens were set up to show the activity on the stage at the Lincoln Memorial. This was not a silent march. The political nature of the event was quite clear as people shouted "Three more weeks" to the impassive White House and its current occupant. The sight of thousands of candles being raised was deeply moving but not morbid. Clear weather, a full moon, and the anticipation of change brightened the spirits of the marchers. The crowd, estimated at 90,000 by the Park Service, 250,000 by organizers, and 125,000 by this reporter, filled the area along the edges of the Reflecting Pool with a festive mood.
The evening's program included singing by soprano Melissa Errico; rhythm & blues vocalist Patti Austin; and activist, performer, songwriter Michael Callen. Brief speeches were made by Caitlin Ryan, chief of D.C.'s Agency for HIV; Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's representative to Congress; and Jim Graham and Riley Temple, executives at the Whitman-Walker Clinic, which sponsored the march and vigil. Each speaker used the time to stress how large the AIDS problem is and how little has been done by the Reagan and Bush administrations. Michael Callen, after being introduced as a man living with full-blown AIDS for 10 years, quipped that his "achievement wasn't living with AIDS for 10 years, it's been surviving 12 years of a Republican administration."
Liza Minnelli did not perform, but planned to speak about her involvement and concern. In what was considered by many to be a disappointing appearance, she repeatedly said she could not find words to express herself and finally stressed how much love she felt flowing between her and all those assembled. She closed by asking everyone to join her in reciting the Lord's Prayer.
Cleve Jones, founder of the Names Project, was the major speaker as the vigil quickly took on the style of a revival meeting. He said how once again they brought the Quilt to Washington filled with the hope that finally, the administration could not ignore the AIDS issue. "But we have failed again," he said. Turning the rejection into a challenge to President Bush, and speaking for everyone who was there and everyone who couldn't be, Jones vowed that on November 3rd "we will bring you down," to the cheers of the enthusiastic crowd. To close the evening Joel Grey sang the bittersweet song
Plastic sheets, unpacked boxes and volunteers waiting for the ground to
dry on Saturday morning.
Visitors follow the walkways and grid number-
ing system, viewing some 21,000 panels from 50 states and 28 other countries in the largest Quilt display
ever.
"Jonathan Wesley Oliver, Jr." from Heartstrings. As the last note was sung a lone white fireworks rocket burst over the Lincoln Memorial, and the crowd was sent into the night with hand-clapping refrains of "Together We Can Win."
Other evidence of AIDS activism could be found in the red water flowing in the fountains, an ACT-UP "memorial service" where the ashes of people who died from AIDS complications were to be dumped on the White House lawn on Sunday, and a "hands around the White House" protest on Monday.
As for the Quilt, it left as it came. By Sunday afternoon the skies darkened again with rain threatening to end the display an hour before the scheduled 4 p.m. close. In all, the Quilt was visible for just half of the planned 22 hours. But the enormity of the Names Project, and the human drama it only partially represents in its splendid assemblage of folk art, was not lost on those who did see it, nor on the memories and spirits of those who could not.
Project volunteers all dressed in white cover exposed grass with plastic and then unfold sections on Saturday morning.