A patchwork of AIDS history is spreading across Penn's campus to honor over 90,000 individuals who have lost their lives to the fatal disease.
Ten 144-square foot panels from the 54-ton AIDS Memorial Quilt have been hung at the LGBT Center, Van Pelt Library and other campus locations through next Tuesday, when they will be relocated to Houston Hall's Hall of Flags for a memorial event.
The artwork - on campus since Tuesday - was brought to mark Saturday's World AIDS Day, which will include a walking tour of the panels and a candlelight vigil on College Green.
"A lot of people don't know that the quilt even exists, and I think it's going to be powerful for people to see," School of Social Policy and Practice graduate student Caila Nickerson said.
Nickerson, who works at the LGBT Center, was among those who spearheaded the effort to bring the panels to Penn; campus groups like Penn Women's Center, the Office of Health Education and Penn Aids Awareness also assisted.
The NAMES Project Foundation is the official custodian of the quilt, but hundreds of places like Penn may "borrow" the panels to put on display.
College senior Vivek Patel, the liaison between the LGBT Center and Penn Aids Awareness, said displaying the panels "brings the issue home," since AIDS is often seen as an issue that mainly affects third-world countries.
"It raises awareness that we should be mindful that the AIDS epidemic is a domestic epidemic as well," he said.
Patel added that the diversity of display locations would help in "reaching a cross-section of the population here at Penn."
College senior and Lambda Alliance chairman Kevin Rurak said Tuesday's event at the Hall of Flags will be especially effective.
"The pairing of the images with the actual history of the epidemic will really resonate because the images will be tied to something that's meaningful," Rurak said.
At Tuesday's event, LGBT Center Director Robert Schoenberg will read names of former students, faculty and staff who have died from AIDS.
Nickerson said she took the overwhelming interest as a very positive sign: "I think it shows that there are a lot of people out there that want to get involved in the AIDS effort."
She added that the Health Task Force may not bring back the panels next year, simply because the memorial effort "might lose its strength" if students see it successive years.
In addition to the events on Saturday and Tuesday, free and confidential HIV testing will be conducted today in the basement of the Graduate Student Center from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m, an initiative coordinated by Penn Aids Awareness, also in honor of World Aids Day.
