Clementine Power

In October 2013, NAMES Project Curator Jada Harris asserted that ‘the African American community is in a state of emergency relative to HIV and AIDS.’ Three months earlier, ACT UP/NY member James Krellenstein contended that ‘the safer sex campaign in the men who have sex with men and the trans women community has failed.’ This strong rhetoric is backed up by staggering statistics: every year since 1993, the rate of Americans living with HIV and AIDS has risen, with 32,052 persons diagnosed with AIDS and 49,273 with HIV in 2011 alone. And, in 2010,.15,529 Americans died with AIDS, giving full force to the position that the AIDS crisis in America is not over.

With these pressing ideas in mind, this dissertation argues for the significance of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. It is at once activist object, educational tool, and rich archive. The Quilt is interpreted as a postmodern text that, rather than embodying a single cohesive collective memory, provides a collection of memories; a diverse assemblage of ways to remember the crisis, and those lost to it. Drawing on oral histories of panel-making, the dissertation unpacks the fragmentary nature of memory and mourning, exploring how the Quilt continues to act as evidence of lives lost, while also offering a sense of agency to the bereaved. The panel-making process has proved to be highly therapeutic for many people, indicative of the fact that bereavement from AIDS is a unique experience, and thus new formats of mourning may well be necessary. The Quilt teaches, with authority, how to perceive AIDS, asserting a history that is nationally-minded, yet interwoven with intensely personal stories.