In honor of those who died in the AIDS epidemic, CAHSS brought two blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to campus. 

The quilt was presented to the public Oct. 1 at the Reynolds Performance Hall lobby during a remembrance tribute. 

The quilt started as a single panel in San Francisco in 1987 and was sewn by the friends and family of those who died of AIDS. Today, there are roughly 50,000 panels weighing 54 tons and representing 110,000 people.

Gayle Seymour, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and coordinator of the Artists in Residence program, said, “The quilt marks a significant turning point away from the stone and bronze monuments dedicated to abstract heroes, and instead, it offers us handmade fabric panels referencing the familiar form of a memory quilt that lovingly asks us to remember the names of individuals that history otherwise might forget.”

Arkansas State Representative Tippi McCullough spoke at the tribute and shared her personal experience with the epidemic.

“I spent many of my formative years during the AIDS crisis,” McCullough said. “I had a cousin I love very much. He succumbed to the rapture of AIDS in 1996. He had moved out of state and came home to his mother as his condition worsened. Due to the stigma of having AIDS at the time, nobody in my family spoke much about it. He was loved, he was beautiful, he was kind, he was intelligent, generous, funny, mischievous.

“I’m now still trying to learn more about my dear cousin’s life away from Arkansas and his death back home. He was 32 when he died,” McCullough said. 

Reverend Ellen Alston from Hendrix College spoke about the panel for Eric “Dutch” Hooyschuur, a native of the Netherlands who moved to Conway during high school. Later, he swam for Hendrix College and was an NAIA national champion in the 200-yard butterfly in 1984. After his death, he was inducted into the Hendrix Warrior Sports Hall of Honor on April 16, 2004. 

“His first year [at Hendrix College] was my senior year and I remember people referring to the amazing swimmer called Dutch,” Alston said. “He had died when he got sick, it came on fast, and he died within a few months, on July 20, 1993. He was a mere 29 years old.”

Annika Warrick, graduate teaching assistant of creative writing, read an excerpt from a book by Pete McGehee, another individual represented on the panel. 

“Peter, from what I have read, is a poetic, kind, loving, incredibly funny and vivacious soul,” Warrick said. 

Warrick said McGehee and his partner died from AIDS in the fall of 1988.

Ruth Coker Burks, author of “All the Young Men,” spoke about her friends Dennis Riggs and Misty McCall who she met while working as a nurse in the hospital. Both individuals have panels on the quilt. 

Burks said, “Dennis Riggs was an Air Force officer stationed in missile silos outside of Jacksonville Air Force Base, and he was so proud to say that. When they found out he was gay, they threw him out of there, they took away his benefits, and left him on his own.”

Burks nursed McCall as well. 

Burks said she would have McCall wait until her lungs were filled with liquid so her mom could hear how bad she sounded over the phone. However, Burks said her mother did not visit until after McCall had died. 

Katie Mueller, a freshman history major, was emotional after the tribute.

“I cried the entire time. I thought it was very beautiful, but it was very sad to see it all and really take all of it in and hear the personal stories that went along with it, too,” Mueller said.

Carley Walker, a freshman theater major, said, “It was really beautiful as a queer person, the AIDS memorial service and the AIDS Quilt means a whole lot to me.”

“I think UCA praises a lot about its diversity and equality for every type of student, no matter who you are. I think this is a huge opportunity for people to see how important diversity is and remembering what has happened to the queer community in the past, and ways to bring advocacy for it now is a huge part of UCA’s fundamentals and who they are at their core values,” Walker said. 

The AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display in the Reynolds Performance Hall Lobby until Oct. 11.