Center on Halsted held a World AIDS Day vigil on Sat., Dec. 1, that was abbreviated because of the inclement weather—but was nonetheless an emotional experience for many of the attendees.
Audience members then engaged in a spoken-word response that read, in part: ‘We know the face of HIV, for we are here, in this place/We are friends, partners, lovers, family, co-workers, neighbors/We know the life of AIDS; still/We are caregivers, justice workers, health care professionals, social workers and ministers/… Truly AIDS is in our midst and together we are strong. We are a people who must live, side by side in courage and strength. And in hope.’
Greg Sanchez, an outreach coordinator with Better Existence through HIV (BEHIV), was grateful to be alive. ‘I thank God, first of all,’ he said. ‘I’m 42 now, and I thought I was going to die when I was 19, when I was first infected [with HIV] ‘
The most moving part of the ceremony came when people hung red, gold and/or white ribbons on a small pine tree as Sarah McLachlan’s song I Will Remember You played. (Sanchez explained that the tree was an evergreen ‘in the hope that, maybe, a cure would come.’ He also said that the red ribbons stood ‘for those infected and affected,’ the gold ones were ‘for those who have passed on’ and the white ones ‘for the hope that one day there will be a cure or vaccine against this virus.’) Attendees wept as people stated their reasons for placing a particular ribbon; one man hung two—one for himself and one for the HIV-affected people he will be visiting in the African country of Lesotho.
Organizers had planned to walk around the neighborhood to remember those who have passed away because of the pandemic. However, the weather resulted in the walk being cancelled.
Also prominent were photographs compiled by artist Cole Robertson in an exhibit called ‘After, image: a memorial for those lost to HIV/AIDS.’ Among those pictured is the late Chicago political cartoonist/AIDS activist Danny Sotomayor.