BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – The iconic AIDS Memorial Quilt signifies loss and love like no other memorial. Since 1985, when the quilt was conceived by Cleve Jones, it has served to provide context as a teaching tool for a generation that cannot comprehend the enormity of AIDS pandemic devastation in the world.
In collaboration with the Rockingham Free Public Library, the LGBT National Help Center, and Keller Williams Metropolitan Keene, Bellows Falls Pride will bring one 12-foot by 12-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to acknowledge World AIDS Day, recognized annually on Dec. 1 since 1988. The quilt can be viewed on Wednesday, Dec. 4, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., in the third-floor ballroom space of the library, which is elevator accessible. Members of Bellows Falls Pride will serve as docents for the exhibit, to provide information and answer questions. The event is free and open to the public.
Ian Graham, director of the library, is pleased to collaborate on this project with Bellows Falls Pride. “The Rockingham Free Public Library is honored to present this section of the World AIDS quilt on Dec. 4, 2024, and to support Bellows Falls Pride in celebrating the lives of those who have died of AIDS in the past four decades.”
The purpose of World AIDS Day is to engage communities in understanding, compassion, and hope throughout the world using this powerful visual reminder of the AIDS pandemic and the 36 million people who have died from AIDS worldwide. The section will feature the panel of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, who died from AIDS on Nov. 21, 1991.
More than 50,000 individual 3-foot by 6-foot memorial panels – each one commemorating the lives of people who have died of AIDS – have been sewn together by friends, lovers, and family members. The quilt weighs 56 tons, spans 1.2 million feet, and includes more than 125,000 names. It is now too large to display on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
View the quilt at www.aidsmemorial.org/interactive-aids-quilt. To arrange a time for a group viewing, please contact Susan MacNeil at susan@svidol.com.
On the evening of Dec. 4, Bellows Falls Pride will bring the award-winning 2023 documentary “Commitment to Life” to the Bellows Falls Opera House, chronicling the early days of the AIDS pandemic and the political indifference that created the environment that allowed the pandemic to continue to this day. Against a rich Hollywood backdrop, “Commitment to Life” documents the true story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles, with original footage of the times, and how an intrepid group of people living with HIV/AIDS, doctors, movie stars, studio moguls, and activists changed the course of the epidemic. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show begins at 7 p.m. For tickets, visit www.bellowsfallsoperahouse.com/classic-film-wednesdays-2.