Charles Koehler 0:20 I'm Charles Koehler, and this is Lambda Reports. With us today is yet another host of Lambda Reports. John Hilgeman, who's recently come back from Washington DC for what may be the final display of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in its entirety. Glad you could be with us today, John, John Hilgeman 0:40 Well, I am too. Charles Koehler 0:42 Great.What can you tell us about the Quilt and the background about it? John Hilgeman 0:47 Well, the Quilt was started by a man named Cleve Jones in San Francisco a couple years ago, and he started with a panel for a friend of his, Marvin Feldman, who had died. And he came up with the idea of having a display at the March in Washington on the Mall two years ago this October, and he had put out the word about it, and didn't think that too many people were going to respond. And a few days before the deadline, just boxes and boxes of panels started arriving, and truckloads started arriving at the workshop. And that first display was 1,920 panels on the Mall in Washington. And since then, it's been displayed in a number of cities around the country, including St Louis, and Charles Koehler 1:39 That was when, last year? John Hilgeman 1:40 That was in at the end of April and the first day of May last year. Charles Koehler 1:46 Last year, okay? John Hilgeman 1:48 And it's also gotten so large. There's a Canadian Quilt. There's quilts in Brazil and in a number of other countries, as well as the United States too. Charles Koehler 2:02 So, it sounds like, in just a period of two short years that this concept is really snowballed and grown quite a bit. What was, what's been, the the underlying message of the Quilt? John Hilgeman 2:15 Well, there's really three major points to the Quilt. Each panel which represents somebody who's died from AIDS, each panel is three foot by six foot, the size of a grave, and it's a three-fold purpose. One is to help people who've lost somebody to AIDS express their grief, and another purpose is to educate people about AIDS, about the human dimension of AIDS, and the third purpose is to raise funds for local organizations that provide direct services for people with AIDS. Charles Koehler 2:55 You were mentioning that getting back to your visit to Washington, DC, most recently, can you tell us what happened when you were there and what you did while you were there? John Hilgeman 3:09 Okay, well, what happened is that the Quilt was unfolded on a Friday, a Friday morning, and it was displayed for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and names were read of people whose names were on the panels. Charles Koehler 3:27 I take it that it's grown quite a bit since the original display of about, what 1500 panels. Now it's, John Hilgeman 3:34 I think it's close to 12,000 panels, something like that. Charles Koehler 3:38 And I hear figures somewhere in the neighborhood of about 15 football fields. John Hilgeman 3:45 Well, it covered the ellipse, which was about 14 acres, which is behind the White House. Also there was a candlelight March, which took place on Saturday night of the display. One of the events that occurred was that George Bush had had been invited to come and meet Cleve Jones on the Quilt, and Barbara Bush had been invited to read names, and George Bush just said no, and Barbara Bush said nothing. And in fact, on Friday, there was a light shower not too long after the quilt was unfolded, just a little rain fell, and it was all set ahead of time so that we were able to fold it up very quickly and cover it with plastic. Charles Koehler 4:33 About how many people were there to help fold this immense quilt? John Hilgeman 4:37 Oh, gee, I don't know. It's hard to say, there were just people all over the place. Charles Koehler 4:41 Thousands of people? John Hilgeman 4:42 Well, not thousands of people to fold it up, but it didn't really take that many to to fold it up. Charles Koehler 4:47 Okay? John Hilgeman 4:48 But then the rain pretty much stopped, and the presidential helicopter flew over to the what the South Lawn of the. White House. So Cleve Jones said, we're going to unfold the quilt again. And we rushed and dashed, and within about two minutes, we had the whole thing all unfolded. So when George Bush flew over the ellipse and headed towards his Camp David retreat, he couldn't avoid seeing this movable cemetery on the lawn right outside his White House. Charles Koehler 5:26 Literally in the backyard of the White House. John Hilgeman 5:27 That's right, literally in the backyard of the White House, this immense, powerful symbol. Charles Koehler 5:33 And his response to that was … John Hilgeman 5:36 Well, we still haven't heard. Charles Koehler 5:38 I see. John Hilgeman 5:39 So silence. Charles Koehler 5:42 Speaks volumes. Was, was anyone else from from St Louis that went on this trip or previous trips? John Hilgeman 5:54 There were about 25 people at least from St Louis there, and did it that I ran into or that I knew had gone there. There might have been more than that. Charles Koehler 6:04 I understand that there were a number of panels for someone who's very close to you, someone that you were buddy to for a couple years. Patrick Leonard. John Hilgeman 6:15 Patrick Leonard. Patrick and I had been buddies for a couple years, and he died this last March. We saw the quilt together the first time it was displayed, and we saw it again last last year. And … Charles Koehler 6:33 That was one of us again displayed. John Hilgeman 6:34 That's right when it was displayed on the ellipse that time. And he was rather weak at that time, and so it was a difficult trip for him, and this time he he was represented in the Quilt. Charles Koehler 6:51 How many panels? John Hilgeman 6:52 Oh, there were six, six panels altogether, Charles Koehler 6:56 When, when he was still alive, what was his response, when he when he went to see the Quilt? John Hilgeman 7:02 Well, he said, at first it he thought it was nice, and he, you know, just thinking this panel is nice and that panel is nice. And then I just burst out sobbing, and he went to comfort me, and he looked and saw the same thing happening all over the Quilt, and he was really moved with with that. And so he was basically the the one who, who got the Quilt here last year. He did a lot of the organ, organizing work and organized the workshop. And he's the one, the one main character, one main person responsible for the Quilt coming to St Louis. Charles Koehler 7:40 I understand that there were quite a few panels for the quilt made here by people in St Louis. John Hilgeman 7:49 That's right. I think there may have been, might be about 140, 150, something like that that have been made so far. And people continue to make panels. Charles Koehler 8:01 If, if someone was interested in in making a panel. Now, for someone they know, maybe a member of their family, maybe a close friend of theirs, or some, just someone that they they they happen to know, who would they contact, or how would they go about finding out how to make a panel? John Hilgeman 8:21 Well, they could call me at area code 314-664-1410, OK. And or they could write Post Office Box 8304 St Louis, Missouri, 63132, that's area code 314-664-1410, and Post Office Box 8304 area the zip code 63132. Charles Koehler 8:50 Great. Glad you repeated that. What else can you tell us about future plans for the the AIDS Memorial Quilt, both locally and also nationally. John Hilgeman 9:05 We're planning another display locally at the end of March this coming year in 1990 and we don't have a place lined up at this point. We're still working on getting a place lined up, but it will be in conjunction with a conference on AIDS and minorities that the Missouri Department of Health is going to be putting on in St Louis that week. Charles Koehler 9:29 Great, great. Well, what are some of the considerations that you will need to look into when trying to find a place to display the Quilt? John Hilgeman 9:38 For one thing, we need a place large enough that we could display perhaps 500 3 foot panels. Charles Koehler 9:44 You wouldn't be able to display the entire Quilt, that's almost impossible. John Hilgeman 9:46 No, it's impossible. And we we would want a place where we can have different, what we want this to be as a focal point for an educational outreach to schools, to churches, to to the whole community here in the St Louis area, and especially in conjunction with the Missouri Department of Health, we think it could be a real opportunity for the city and the county for an educational outreach, because education is the one key thing that is really had an impact in slowing the spread of AIDS. In places where specific education has been giving about, given about how to prevent the spread of AIDS. It's been very successful. Charles Koehler 10:32 Have have similar approaches been used in other cities, using the AIDS Memorial Quilt as sort of a focal point to get the message across, to get the education out to make some changes in people's lives. Has that been done in other cities? John Hilgeman 10:48 It's been done in other cities, It was, you know, we did that to some extent when we had the last display here. In Baltimore they had a display at the art museum, and they had a number of schools and people involved in the in the events and other cities have done that too. Charles Koehler 11:05 What's been the response of the people that lived in those cities, and also the city officials? When … John Hilgeman 11:12 It's been very positive response, very positive. A lot of politicians in many cities have responded very positively to … The media in St Louis has been, has responded positively to different times that we've had panels on display here. We've had some small displays of just a few panels in addition to the major one. Charles Koehler 11:34 So that's what's planned locally, but nationally, what does what does the future look like for the Quilt? You said that this was the last public display of the entire Quilt. John Hilgeman 11:46 Okay, there will be, there will continue to be local displays of portions of the Quilt. And in fact, when, when the the Quilt was folded up in Washington, some of the panels that were on display there were sent to Africa for a display there, and there'll be continued be displays with conferences and you know, just in various places, some of them large, some of them small. Charles Koehler 12:13 But the display in Washington, DC was the last time that it was the only time that it would have been seen in its entirety. John Hilgeman 12:21 Well, I'm hoping that maybe sometime we can do another one, but it's just so large, it filled the ellipse, and it's hard to find a place that's going to be that large. Charles Koehler 12:32 Any any closing words that you have for our listeners about about the Quilt, how they can become involved, and what it can do for them. John Hilgeman 12:44 It's been a real help to me and to other people that I've known in dealing with losing somebody to AIDS. And it's, it's because there's a lot of feelings that are connected with that, and it it sometimes is helpful for a group of people to get together and work on a panel. You know, they can work on them at home, there's a couple of us who have been involved in working on panels that get that are willing to help people with them if they need some help. People don't need to have to sew. Charles Koehler 13:15 I was just about to ask that if you have to be skilled in sewing, but evidently, not, no. John Hilgeman 13:18 And in fact, the panels are sewn together into 12 foot by 12 foot panels in San Francisco, so people don't even have to hem them. They can use a variety of materials, but material should be a kind of material that's not going to stretch a lot, because they will eventually be hemmed and and they have a tendency to if there's stretchable material makes things difficult to work with them. But people can paint on them. They can use clothing of the person who's died. Some people have used ashes, remains of the person, just any number of things. Charles Koehler 13:59 Well, thank you, John, that's that's all the time we have for today. I'd like to remind our listeners about something, another incident that they might have read about or heard about, about a student at Southwest Missouri State University whose house was firebombed in response to his support of a play on that campus about AIDS, that dealt with AIDS. Fortunately, a fund has been set up to help this student, whose name is U. T. Evans. You can help out by sending letters of encouragement or contributions to the U. T. Evans E-V-A-N-S Fund, care of Southwest Missouri State University, 901 South National Street, Springfield, Missouri, 65804. That's U. T. Evans Fund. And if you'd make checks payable to U. T. Evans Fund, that's care of Southwest Missouri State University, 901 South National Street, Springfield, Missouri, 65804. Also, on a lighter note, I'd like to remind our listeners of a special benefit for PREP, that's Privacy Rights Education Project of the Smash musical comedy review some, Some of my Best Friends Are dot, dot, dot. That will be December the 10th at 4pm that's on a Sunday. And tickets for the play and a special reservation or a special reception afterwards, our $15 reservations can be made for this special showing at 664-4896, that's 664-4896, I'd like to thank John once more time John Hilgeman 15:56 Thank you. Charles Koehler 15:57 Ask us all to ask you all to tune us in again next week, same time. Hope you can join us then for Lambda Reports, you Transcribed by https://otter.ai