Life Honoring Quilt

The impact of AIDS became real as people visited a section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt that was on display from Nov. 28 through Dec. 2 at the UTA Central Library. Each Quilt section panel is a memorial that honors a person's life taken by the disease.  

The National AIDS Memorial website stated the Quilt was conceived by human rights activist, author, and lecturer Cleve Jones in 1985. Today, the AIDS Memorial Quilt is a 54-ton display that includes 50,000 panels that are dedicated to more than 110,000 individuals.  

Josh Mackrill, UTA LGBTQ+ Program Coordinator, stated that the Quilt section panel is a "powerful reminder of the family members, partners and friends that have been lost." Each panel has a story to tell.  

Josh added that bringing the Quilt to campus is an excellent way to educate students and the public about the impact HIV and AIDS continue to have and to share the history of the LGBTQ+ community.  

Leigh Turner, an interior design major, shared that memorializing a person's life through art is an intimate way to allow other people to get to know that individual personally.  

"There are so many different ways to remember someone and they chose quilts, which I think is really nice. Quilts are comforting because they provide warmth and love," Leigh said. "When I looked at it, it made me feel closer to the person. It makes you feel like you could have known them." 

Leigh stated that the Quilt is a great visual reminder of history because it shows the people behind the events. It gives them a voice that allows their story to not fade away. 

Todd Camp, Executive Director and Founder of Yester Queer, the Tarrant County LGBTQ+ History Project, stated that the panel was an amazing site to see. When the Quilt section was displayed in 2022, he learned more about the people on the Quilt and will do the same this year. 

One of the people memorialized in the Quilt section that Leigh knew, was Ken Cyr. Cyr was a local gay rights activist who started the first gay organization, Awareness, Unity and Research Association, in Fort Worth and was one of the founders of the Texas Gay Conference. 

"I knew Ken Cyr. He was a local legend. He was probably one of the most important early queer (activists) locally," Todd said. "He started the first gay paper. He and his husband started the first gay organization. He was politically motivated and minded at a time when most of the community was trying to stay as low profile as possible." 

Although the AIDS Memorial Quilt display has ended, people can still learn about the Quilt, the LGBTQ+ community and many other historical moments at the UTA Libraries Special Collections Department.  

The Special Collections Department is located on the sixth floor of the UTA Central Library. 

People can also view photos from the display through our online Flickr album or historical photos in the UTA Digital Archive.