1994_10 Insight October 1994

              October 5,1994
IN FOCUS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FRESNO
Page 3
INSIGHT
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
Thousands gather at Selland Arena to view the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt which commemorates the victims of ATDS/HTV. The 900 panel Quilt was on display from Oct 1-3.
INSIGHT
Eight hundred panels of the Names Project
Memorial Quilt took center stage in Selland
Arena this past weekend — a small portion of
the Quilt's entire mass which, when stretched
out, covers over 11 acres.
The ATDS Memorial Quilt originated in November of 1985 when an avid San Francisco
gay rights activist named Cleve Jones realized
that the numbers of AIDS related deaths in his
city alone had passed the 1,000 marker.
While organizing a march in San Francisco.
Jones requested that his fellow marchers write
the names of friends and relatives, who had
died of AIDS, on placards. At the-end of Ihe
march, the placards were fastened to the walls
of the San Francisco Federal Building.
The wall of names resembled a patchwork
quilt to Jones, thus inspiring him to create a
larger memorial. Jones created the first panel
of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in
memory of his friend Marvin Feidman, to
whom the AIDS Quilt is now dedicated. Jones'
Quilt has been nominated for two Nobel Peace
Prizes; once in 1989 and again in 1990. It is
now estimated that more than four million
people have already seen parts of the quilt.
In 1987, Cynthia Brazil Karraker created the
organization All About Care, whose primary
goal is to "heighten the awareness of the human impact of AIDS in the local community."
Karraker lost her husband to AIDS in May of
1985 and expressed her intentions of expanding education and awareness throughout the
community.
"We're dedicated to those who have died, the
care givers, who have worked with those with
AIDS, and all those affected: family friends,
and loved ones," Karraker said. "The purpose
of the Quilt is to expand the thoughts and perceptions of the public."
Karraker and her husband had hopes of a ministry together, but were interrupted when they
discovered his illness. The last few lines on
Karraker's dedication panel read:
Mother and daughter kneel at the Quilt
writing a message in honor of a lost loved one.
"In the end, when Randy's body could no longer
sustain his life, I held him in my arms, as my
loving husband Randy went to be with Jesus."
Sherryl Moore also knows what it feels like to
lose a spouse to AIDS.
Moore's husband David died of the deadly virus only two weeks ago — the illness was discovered on July 25, 1993. Moore and her husband were wed in May, giving them only five
months of marriage. Sherryl Moore, mother of
three, married David Moore knowing he had
AIDS. He lived 14 months after being diagnosed.
David Moore had been admitted into the hospital
weighing 161 pounds when he was diagnosed as
having AIDS. He had absolutely no signs of the
disease at all.
"It's not a homosexual disease, it's heterosexual
too," Moore said. "It can happen to anyone."
Steve Ortega, a Quilt volunteer and graduate of
CSUF, explained how he got involved with the
All About Care Organization.
Ortega was on the high school dive team when
he met fellow diver James Patrick Stuart at a diving meet. Both are CSUF graduates.
"Stuart was the first person I knew with HIV,
and when he died it really hit home. He was a
fantastic athlete and a great guy," said Ortega.
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stand at my grave and weep,
I am not then —I do not sleep
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning —
Hush!
For I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight
I am the soft starlight of night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there — I do not sleep.
From Indian Writing
Kurtis Jackson Broward
1952-1993 of Fresno
Ortega said that working with AIDS organizations is one way he can help the community.
"I have lost three or four friends, so I am here,
because in one way or another, it affects all of
us," Ortega said.
Ortega's friend, Stuart, died in 1992. Througn
the efforts of Dr. Ronald Johnson, chairman of
the Theatre Arts Department at CSUF, Stuart
was presented with his college diploma in the
hospital where he died a week later.
Event publicity coordinator Peter Robertson
felt a personal connection to this year's project.
"I've had four friends die just this summer,"
Robertson said. "It's very emotional, very hard.
One person's death touches a great number of
people."
This year's attendance at the Names Project
Quilt more than doubled the 1990 showing.
Robertson was a volunteer in the 1990 showing of the Quilt, and was asked to chair the
media section by Karraker in 1993.
Monday, the final day of the exhibition, was
designated "kid's day." in which 1,500 school
children were expected to view the Quilt.
"It's really nice to see so many children in attendance this year," said Robertson. "It's good
to get them involved."
Robertson was resentful, however, that Fresno
mayor Jim Patterson, who had originally sup-
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Two women feel the pain of losing a loved one because of
complications due to the ADDS virus as they view the
NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Photographs by Terese Farmen
and Kori Rianda
ported the event, changed his mind and voted against supporting the function financially.
Washington D.C. is the only place where the AIDS Quilt is
shown in its entirety. The Quilt was displayed for the first time
on Oct. 11,1987, during the National March on Washington for
Lesbian and Gay Rights. The NAMES Project Foundation was
also invited to march in President Clinton's inaugural parade.
Other recognition came when Common Threads: Stories: From
The Quilt won an Academy Award in 1993. Portions of the Quilt
will be on display in Visalia on January 28-30.1995.
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