Brighton AIDS Memorial Project‘s powerful exhibition in the main windows of Jubilee Library, Brighton is running November 25 to December 9, commemorating lives lost to HIV/AIDS.
AIDS Memorial Quilts are acts of protest and remembrance, highlighting the stigma and healthcare inequalities faced by marginalised communities during the AIDS crisis and are a profound tribute to those lost and a powerful reminder of community resilience.
This year’s World AIDS Day exhibition presents one new previously unseen handmade panel along with images documenting the Brighton Cares AIDS Memorial Quilt exhibition at the Corn Exchange in 1993. This was the last time the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt was displayed in the city.
Inclusion in the AIDS Memorial Quilt was often the only way a person could be memorialised, and sometimes the stigma made even this impossible. The making of quilts to memorialise lives lost was not just an act of commemoration, it was a cry of protest at the needless loss and the health inequalities that meant the most marginalised communities experienced the greatest losses.
The quilted panels, information and images are displayed alongside the Brighton & Hove Hankie Quilt which documents the lives lost to HIV in the city through embroidered handkerchiefs and panels.
The exhibition is supported by Brighton & Hove City Council’s LGBTQ+ Workers Forum