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March Issue 2004
The Opportunity to
Contribute to The AIDS Memorial Quilt Comes to Lexington, NC
Positive Wellness Alliance will be giving you the opportunity
to contribute to The AIDS Memorial Quilt in Lexington, NC. With
your help, we will be creating two panels to donate to The NAMES
Project Foundation. This is a wonderful way for you to remember
a loved one who has died from AIDS or AIDS related complications.
A blank panel will be placed at Arts United from Mar. 2 - 26,
2004. We will also have a panel at 2nd Reformed United Church
of Christ on Mar. 7, 2004. This panel will travel with us as we
host the events for The Black Church Week of Prayer.
You will also have an opportunity to financially contribute at
both events. A love offering will be taken on Mar. 7 and a donation
jar will be placed at Arts United. Your contributions will help
defray the cost of bringing the Quilt to this area, as well as
supporting the efforts of Positive Wellness Alliance.
As a non-profit HIV/AIDS agency, Positive Wellness Alliance is
dedicated to providing case management support to people who are
infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. We provide outreach and prevention
education programs to the public, in addition to helping our 90+
clients deal with the stigma, discrimination and isolation associated
with being HIV+. Please help us continue to help meet the needs
of our clients by attending these two special events.
In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San
Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history
would neglect and forget. Their goal was to create a memorial
for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand
the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted
people served as the foundation of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial
Quilt.
The Quilt is the largest examples of a community folk art project
in the world. It has redefined the tradition of quiltmaking in
response to contemporary circumstances. The Quilt was nominated
for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Common Treads: Stories From
The Quilt won the Academy Award as the best feature-length
documentary film of 1989.
Since 1987, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has been a way to provide
healing, remembrance, education, and prevention in the struggle
to end AIDS. The Quilt offers an opportunity to educate people
about HIV/AIDS and prevention, to remember those who had died,
and to comfort the grieving. The Quilt is a valuable resource
that encourages compassion and inspires personal involvement in
combating the AIDS epidemic. By showing the humanity behind the
statistics, the Quilt has a dramatic impact on people's perceptions
and AIDS and on risk-taking behavior.
The mission of The NAMES Project Foundation is "to preserve,
care for, and use The AIDS Memorial Quilt to foster healing, heighten
awareness, and inspire action in the struggle again HIV and AIDS."
Some of the Foundations objectives include: providing a creative
means for remembrance and healing; honoring the lives and remembering
the names of individuals lost to AIDS; and illustrating the enormity
of the pandemic and increasing public awareness of HIV/AIDS. The
NAMES Project Foundation has been entrusted with one of the 20th
century's most valuable treasures.
As of Oct. of 2003, 15,200,000 people have seen the Quilt. There
are 45,000 panels with more than 82,000 names. The names on the
Quilt represent approximately 18.7% of all US AIDS deaths. The
Quilt is 1,270,360 square feet – the equivalent of 30 football
fields. The entire Quilt weighs more than 54 tons. As of 2002,
42 million people had been diagnosed with AIDS. In 2002, approximately
2,000 children under the age of 16 years, and 6,000 young people
aged 15-24 years became infected with HIV every day. African American
and Latina women together represent less than one fourth of the
US population, but account for more the three fourths (over 76%)
of all AIDS cases among women, and now account for 43% of all
HIV-infected people above the age of 15. According to one study,
over half of those infected with HIV are not in care, and one
third do now know they are infected. Furthermore, estimates put
the cost of AIDS combination therapy treatment as high as $20,000
a year.
For more information, you may contact Julie Meyer, Executive
Director of Positive Wellness Alliance at 336/248-4646.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.