PUBLIC MOURNING: THE NAMES PROJECT AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT
J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D.

Objectives

Creative responses are the best measure we have of the ways in which
AIDS has affected our imagination and perception of the world.
~Dennis Altman

Our traditional students at LaGuardia have never known a world without HIV/AIDS. Our older students straddle two lifetimes: the time before HIV/AIDS and the now. Despite the ways in which HIV/AIDS has radically chan ged the way we understand and enact sexuality, many students believe that they remain separated from HIV/AIDS, unless they know someone who is (or was) seropositive for the virus. In this lesson, I am working to introduce students to HIV/AIDS through the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, to connect them to the history of HIV/AIDS, and to personalize HIV/AIDS through experiential exercises so that the pandemic becomes concrete for them, more than just a textual abstraction.

Materials/Technology

Brown or white banner paper
Markers
Yardstick or tape measure
Computers with Internet Connection
LCD Projector

Set Up

This activity involves purchasing arts and crafts supplies, including banner paper, preceding the class. On BlackBoard, in the Discussion Board, set up a prompt which directs students to specific panels in the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt Archive and provide a direct link to specific images in the Archives. Additionally, prepare reflective questions for students to consider following their exploration of the gallery.

Time: 3 hours

30 minutes—Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt Gallery Exploration
30 minutes—Blackboard Reflections and Responses
30 minutes—Banner Paper/Quilt Exercise
30 minutes—Group Quilt Square Creation
60 minutes—Sharing Quilt Panels and Large Group Discussion

Background/Rationale

I often teach HIV/AIDS related texts such as Randy Shilts’ And the Band Played On, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, Marie Howe’s What the Living Do, Sarah Schulman’s My American History, Mark Doty’s My Alexandria, Carole Maso’s The Art Lover, and Michael Klein’s Poets for Life. Sometimes I find that there is a disconnect between students’ ability to read a text critically and to find connections between their own lives and HIV/AIDS. Students are often judgemental about HIV/AIDS and the ways in which people become seropositive. Through this lesson, I am interested in pushing students past a “blame the victim” mentality and toward a substantive connection with HIV/AIDS. In this lesson, I am able to connect the readings of the course to the larger pandemic.

Procedure

1. Begin having students view the archive section of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Ask them to view 3 individual panels (set up panel suggestions in Blackboard preceding the class).
2. Ask students to reflect on the 3 panels they viewed. What did they “see” on the panel? What did they learn about the person whose panel they saw? How did the panel record a history of the person? How did the panel record a history of HIV/AIDS?
3. Take students to a large public area such as the Atrium.
4. Roll out the banner paper on the floor.
5. Segment the paper into 6 foot lengths—8 to 10 in number. *Each Quilt panel is 3 feet by 6 feet in size, roughly the dimensions of an average coffin.
6. Solicit student volunteers to lay down on the floor, head to toe.
7. Ask the other students to walk the length of the paper—walking past the students lying on the paper.
8. Switch students, so that students previously lying down are now walking the length of the banner paper and the students previously walking are lying down.
9. Repeat until all students have had the experience of lying down.
10. After students have completed the exercise, seat them around the now empty paper and ask them to reflect on what it was like to see people lying there as if they were dead.
11. Break students into small groups.
12. Give students markers, magazines, scissors, and other arts and crafts supplies. Ask them to make a quilt panel for someone in their group, using the arts and crafts supplies to record the history of a life.
13. Have students share their quilt panels, explaining the symbols and significance of what they have included.
14. Lead a large group discussion on the nature of public memorials and the politicization of HIV/AIDS through the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Suggestions

I did this activity in an LIB 200 course that met once a week for 3 hours. I also did it in an ENG 101 cluster course that met twice a week for 2 hours. In the latter, I asked students to do their exploration/reflection in the first class session and the creation of the quilt squares and large group discussion in the second class session. I preferred the intensity of the 3 hour session. Additionally, the first time I led this exercise, the college had a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt for World AIDS Day, so I had students explore the actual Quilt. While the web cannot replace the tangibility of the Quilt, the visual impact of the individual squares is significant and students find it compelling. Sequentially in the term, this activity follows the reading and discussion of the HIV/AIDS texts.

Further Reading/References

The AIDS Quilt Songbook [sound recording]. France: Harmonia Mundi France,
1994.

The Body: An HIV and AIDS Information Resource.
http://www.thebody.com/index.shtml

Brown, Joe, ed. A Promise to Remember : The NAMES Project Book of Letters.
New York : Avon Books, 1992.

Crimp, Douglas. AIDS Demographics. Seattle: Bay Press, 1990.

Jones, Cleve. Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist. New York:
Harper San Francisco, 2000.

Margolies, Paul. Always Remember : The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt :
A Selection of Panels Created By and For International Fashion
Designers. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1996.

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. www.aidsquilt.org.

The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt On-Line Archive.
http://archive.aidsquilt.org.

Shepard, Benjamin and Ronald Hayduk. From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban
Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. New York:
Verso Press, 2002.

UNAIDS, The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp

Wallis, Brian, ed. Democracy: A Project by Group Material. Seattle: Bay Press,
1990.

J. Elizabeth Clark, Ph.D. (lclark@lagcc.cuny.edu)
Professor of English
Office: E-103 H in The Department of English
Phone:718.482.5665
Summer 2009 Office Hours

Site Credits: This site was last updated on 13 May 2009. Site designed and maintained by J. Elizabeth Clark. Technical Assistance provided by Delwar Sayeed and Priscilla Stadler.