'You're not forgotten'; AIDS Memorial Quilt on display at Austin church

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Pieces of a quilt brought tears to Dave Anderson’s eyes Friday. He was busy that day, getting First Baptist Church of Austin ready for visitors who would come see the quilt and pay their respects.

It’s not just any quilt. It’s the National AIDS Memorial Quilt, considered to be the largest community arts project in the world.

The entire quilt is a 54-ton tapestry that includes nearly 50,000 panels dedicated to more than 110,000 individuals, according to its website. The Austin exhibit features 34 blocks that memorialize over 270 lives lost to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Pieces of it are on display at the church until August 24, in alignment with this year’s Austin Pride celebration.

The church is also hosting movie nights throughout the duration of the display, as well as HIV/STI Testing and Support, “Create a Panel” craft areas, a “Change the Pattern” initiative aimed at lowering the rate of infection among Black and Latinx communities, documentary showings, and a Service of Remembrance and Hope on the final day of the display.

Any community can host an exhibit of the quilt. Anderson, a member of First Austin and the Volunteer Coordinator for Kind Clinic and Texas Health Action, was behind bringing it to Austin. He said he saw it on display in Houston in the late 80s, and the experience stuck with him, so he wanted to keep it alive and share it with others.

It’s the largest display of the quilt in Texas history.

“It is moving. It is sentimental,” Anderson said. “When you’re here during the gallery, you will hear people laughing. You’ll hear people reading. There’s families that are gathering here that will get to reach out and touch the last mention of their brother, and their sons. And so you’ll hear tears and things.”

The message is remembrance, but also living on and moving forward, Anderson explained.

“The bottom line is what happens down here, in the health fair, and what we’re doing in that,” Anderson said. “That absolutely, HIV is no longer a death sentence.”

Leslie Moore, a longtime member of First Austin, helped Anderson coordinate the exhibit.

“Our church is very entrepreneurial, and if you have an idea and you want to do it, they’ll help you figure out how to do it,” Moore said. “We are striving to be a center for faith, justice, and the arts in downtown Austin, so we’re a very progressive Church.”

Moore said the quilt was a passion of Anderson’s, and she wanted to help him display it to teach younger generations about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the fear surrounding it, remembrance of the lives lost. She also reiterated the goal of sharing the message that an HIV/AIDS diagnosis does not mean a death sentence.

Anderson said people can create panels that will be added to the quilt when the church sends it back to its storage facility in California. Anderson also said some of the panels of the quilt were created by people who faced fatal HIV/AIDS diagnoses and wanted to be remembered in some way after they died.

“Many made their own panel so that they would not be forgotten. So I tell them as I touch them, you’re not forgotten,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the exhibit, and the church in general, is a place for people to feel welcomed and safe.

“There’s a wonderful scripture, and a little bit of paraphrasing is, ‘be still and know that I’m here,’ meaning God,” he said. “Watch as people… they’ll stand and they’ll read every one of them [the names on the quilts], and then they exhale, move to the next one.”

When asked about the decision to display the quilt in the church, both Moore and Anderson said that part of First Austin’s mission is to be involved in the community and a part of social justice. Plus, the large building has plenty of space for it.

“It’s what the church is for,” Anderson said.

“We have the space to, and it was given to us for free,” Moore said. “And this is something that our church feels is important to have. The church has always been on the forefront of justice.”

Anderson said the pastor, Griff Martin, was supportive and excited to display the quilt. Griff was at the ribbon-cutting event the church held for the exhibit Saturday morning.

First Austin hosts several community organizations outside of service hours, too. The Interfaith Action of Central Texas, or iACT, is housed there, as well as Trinity Street Players, a nonprofit community theatre group. Todos Juntos, the Austin Gay Men’s Chorus, Mobile Loaves & Fishes and other organizations also use the church’s space.

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