Art Used to Spotlight People of Color Lost to AIDS in the South

thegavoice.com:

The National AIDS Memorial has joined forces with the Southern AIDS Coalition to stage a series of art exhibitions and educational forums to honor Black and Brown people in the South who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.

The initiative, titled Change the Pattern, began in Jackson, Mississippi, with curated quilt exhibitions, displays, educational forums, advocacy, storytelling, and quilt-making, according to a press release from the National AIDS Memorial.

A $2.4 million grant from the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, Inc., funded Change the Pattern. More than 500 hand-stitched quilt panels from the area were featured in what the National AIDS Memorial says is “the largest display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt ever” in Mississippi. “By creating an empowering message and safe spaces for conversation, we can uplift, inspire and make progress toward ending the HIV epidemic, challenge cultural stigmas and continue the legacy of advocacy that the quilt represents,” said National AIDS Memorial CEO John Cunningham in the release.

Change the Pattern was announced in honor of Southern HIV/AIDS Awareness Day during the Southern AIDS Coalition’s annual Saving Ourselves Symposium that took place in August.