YOUNGSTOWN AIDS quilt will be displayed
Events are aimed at increasing AIDS awareness, particularly in the black church community.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Sixteen of the more than 44,000 panels of the NAMES AIDS Memorial Quilt are on display here this week at the Mahoning County Courthouse.
The display is part of the Balm in Gilead Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS.
There will be several events in Youngstown this week that began with a prayer service at noon Monday in the Mahoning County Courthouse rotunda and a reception and quilt display Monday night at DeBartolo Club at Youngstown State University.
Reason for events: The events are aimed at increasing AIDS awareness, particularly in the black church community, said T.J. Williams, AIDS activist and events coordinator.
Williams said there is still a lot of denial and silence about AIDS in the black community, which he believes feeds into risky behavior.
"We need more education and awareness," he said.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt began in 1987 in San Francisco with a small group of strangers who wanted to create a memorial for those who had died. The quilt is composed of 3- by 6-foot memorial panels sewn together into a 12- by 12-foot square, the form in which they are displayed.
Each panel contains the name of a person who died, and sometimes other information such as hometown and dates of birth and death.
Panels in Youngstown list Canton and Toledo as hometowns, and have phrases such as "I'd Rather be Bowling" and "Missing Link."
Other local events this week are:
UFree HIV testing at Kimmelbrook Baptist Church on Wednesday. Call the Youngstown Health District at (330) 743-3333 to make an appointment.
UA showing of the movie "Kevin's Room" about gay and bisexual black men at 7 p.m. Friday at First Unitarian Church. The movie was produced by the Chicago Department of Health's HIV program.