Birmingham will mark the 35th World AIDS Day with a vigil at the ‘Ribbons’ HIV and AIDS Memorial, Hippodrome Square on Friday, December 1. The event, designed to “remember, educate and celebrate”, will feature music, speeches, candles and lanterns, and a minute’s silence. Those who wish to join the vigil can arrive at the memorial – which was unveiled on World AIDS Day last year – from 6.15pm, with the vigil itself commencing at 6.30pm.
Following the vigil, which finishes at 7.30pm, LGBTQ+ village venues will be marking the occasion with a ‘red’ theme to symbolise the AIDS ribbon, and they will be offering entertainment, drinks and companionship to those that need it.
In the lead up to World AIDS Day, from November 15 to January 13, 2024, some of HIV Cover-Up Quilts, which were first showcased at the unveiling of the Ribbons Memorial, will be on display in the Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square. On World AIDS Day, the library will also have HIV information available in their wellbeing centre; this information will also be available on Saturday, November 25 and Saturday, December 2. Additionally, art workshops will be held on these Saturdays from 11am.
Elsewhere in Birmingham, a selection of the HIV Cover-Up Quilts will also be on display at Birmingham’s Back to Backs from November 24 until December 3. Alongside this, artist Garry Jones and Positive Peers’ Rachel Greaves from the Ribbons BAHM Education Legacy will be running a free craft workshop.
Those attending will use wooden clothes pegs to create Angels for World AIDS Day and use other materials to form part of a large garland that will be placed on the memorial during the vigil. The workshop will also provide a space to discuss HIV. Free spaces can be booked online now for the workshop that will be held Tuesday, November 21 at 6pm, space limited.
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