AIDS activist Mary Fisher to speak at Wheaton as prelude to AIDS Quilt Memorial exhibition
March 2, 2000
''Tonight I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society. Though I am white, and a mother, I am one with a black infant struggling in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I contracted this disease in marriage, am female and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with the lonely gay man in the cold wind of his family's rejection.''
So said well-known AIDS activist Mary Fisher in her groundbreaking speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. Diagnosed with the AIDS virus in 1991, Fisher addresses the need for tolerance, research, caring and a non-judgmental response to AIDS and its causes. The most recognized spokeswoman in the AIDS epidemic and a mother of two healthy sons, Fisher founded the Family AIDS Network dedicated to increasing compassion, resources and awareness in the fight against the deadly disease.
Fisher[base ']s address at Wheaton on Tuesday, March 21 is a prelude to the college[base ']s four-day exhibition of the AIDS Quilt Memorial. The address will be at 5 p.m. in the Emerson Gymnasium, with an opening ceremony for the Quilt exhibition the next day.
Supported by the San Francisco-based NAMES Project Foundation, the AIDS Quilt Memorial is recognized as the world[base ']s largest community art project. Each of the over 43,000 panels in the Quilt, was made as a memorial to the life of a person lost to AIDS. Panels are each 3 feet by 6 feet, representative of a human grave. The Quilt, started with one panel in 1987, would now cover an area equivalent to more than 18 football fields. This will be the first area exhibit for the Quilt, which has been exhibited in every U.S. state and over 30 countries.
Forty panels of the Quilt will be exhibited at Wheaton from March 22-25, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Emerson Gymnasium. An opening ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. on March 22, and the closing ceremony is at 4 p.m. on March 25.
R.Tripp Evans, Assistant Professor of Art at Wheaton, will be among the speakers at the opening ceremony. A specialist in American art, Evans will focus his remarks on the links between nineteenth-century American folk art and the AIDS Quilt. ''While the AIDS quilt represents and unprecedented work of public art, due to its scale and the unique circumstances of its creation, it remains deeply rooted within the American folk art tradition,'' Evans notes. ''The Quilt[base ']s makers and its art form connect seamlessly with its nineteenth century counterparts, the [OE]mourning[base '] quilts of Appalachia and the [OE]secret society[base '] quilts made by African-American slaves.'' Evans teaches a course in American art at Wheaton and touches on quilt making among other folk arts.
Other speakers include Colleen Berg, public health nurse for the town of Norton.For more information and directions to Wheaton, call (508) 286-3818. The event is open without charge to the public.