It was quiet at 8 Sunday morning at Spoke’s annual World AIDS Day: Day Without Art vigil at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St., Boston. I had the place nearly all to myself as the early morning light raked across shimmering blood red ribbons cascading down in the center of the giant room. The temporary monument to those we’ve lost to AIDS feels solemn, hallowed.
“Begun in 1992 as a response to the enormity of loss due to the AIDS pandemic, the vigil has become an enduring testimony and gathering place for us to reflect, remember and celebrate the lives of loved ones,” Michael Dowling, founder and artistic director of the nonprofit Spoke in Boston, has written. “Although AIDS/HIV was the invitation to create this project, it became obvious over the years that people needed space to grieve about many things. Today the installation is an enduring testimony to all those who have gone before.”
This year’s focus is an “end HIV stigma.” As we again face an incoming presidential administration that attacks the LGBTQ+ community and threatens to cut government healthcare.
This year’s Spoke installation is a ring of shrines on wooden plinths encircling red ribbons suspended from the lighting grid above and falling down to a circle of black stones on the floor that are etched with names and faces. Twenty-four sections of the landmark, national AIDS Memorial Quilt are hung on the surrounding walls.
The installation runs from midnight to midnight today, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, a “24-hour vigil of song, dance, music, ritual and prayer.”
Previous Coverage:
2019: Photos: Annual AIDS Vigil at Boston Cyclorama
2018: Landmark AIDS Memorial Quilt Joins Annual Boston AIDS Vigil At BCA
2017: Visiting Boston’s Holy Shrine To Those We’ve Lost To AIDS
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