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About

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt began as a grassroots effort among San Francisco gay-rights activists. As thousands of their friends and family continued to die of AIDS/HIV and the complications they caused, people began a living memorial to those they lost (Deluca et al. 2007; Franck and Stevens 2016; Lewis and Fraser 1996). Activist Cleve Jones began it all. Though he and his friends asserted that “there would be no artistic director, they were just gathering the parts and sewing them together, while the people making the panels were the true artistic directors” (Jones 2011, xviii).

 Jones chose the dimensions 3’ x 6’ for each panel of the quilt because that is the approximate size of a grave (2011, xvii). Panels are then sorted by either location or theme and sewn together to form 12’ x 12’ Block (National AIDS Memorial 2024). Information about each panel, the person it honors, the people who made it, and any artifacts they send along with it is indexed (National AIDS Memorial 2024). Much of the organization’s archive of personal items is stored and managed by the Library of Congress, but the Quilt panels themselves remain in San Francisco with the National AIDS Memorial.

 While Jones expected the project to be successful from the start, he never anticipated the sheer amount of letters and personal items they would receive (2011, xxvii). As the blocks were sewn, the NAMES organizers disputed over how best to display them, with Jones advocating for laying them out and others wanting them hung. Today, they are displayed both ways depending on the venue and event, with each way offering a different experience for the visitor (Jones 2011, xvii-xviii).  New panels of the Quilt are sewn daily, as it continues “to expand along with the disease to which it responds” (Deluca et. al 2007, 630).

About

Who We Lost was created intentionally as a platform for people to share stories and remembrances of those lost to COVID-19. Initially designed as a website for folks in Kentucky, creator Martha Greenwald found out about the existence of secret COVID-19 grieving groups. People spoke about how they did not feel comfortable or safe publicly grieving their losses from the pandemic, mentioning cyberbullying and harassment when they posted on social media because of the politically charged climate (Greenwald 2023, 22-24). As a result, she decided no comments would be allowed on entries and a writing toolbox would be provided to help people get started, creating a safe and accessible place for people to “honor the mourning and the mourned” (22).

In her introductory chapter to the book, Martha Greenwald explicitly discusses Dr. Boss’ theory of ambiguous loss and its connection to COVID-19, acknowledging that this project addresses both physical and psychological losses (2023, 20). While titled Who We Lost, this memorial is about more than just those who physically died of COVID-19, though that is a significant portion. Many of the stories are from loved ones grieving those who died and the void they left behind.

 Additionally, a portion of the stories are about healthcare workers and the struggles they faced during the pandemic, articulating the psychological losses COVID-19 caused them, such as mental distress, anxiety, and depression. Studies have shown that the pandemic was a traumatic event, leading to trauma-related conditions such as PTSD, and this memorial is dedicated to those losses as well (Kaubisch et al 2022).