40+ YEARS OF HIV/AIDS RESEARCH IN THE US
CREATIVE
voices
Spotlight on creatives and works of audio, visual, and physical with HIV/AIDS as its central subject.
JULY 1982
JULY
Do Ya Wanna Funk” is released by Sylvester and Patrick Cowley, pioneers in disco and electronic dance music. Today, the song is considered one of the best dance songs of all time.
1982
“It bothers me that AIDS is still thought of as a gay, white male disease. The black community is at the bottom of the line when it comes to getting information, even when we’ve been so hard hit by this disease. I’d like to think that by going public myself with this, I can give other people courage to face it” (1988)
Upon Sylvester’s passing in 1988, brought on by complications due to AIDS, he bequeathed all future music royalties to the AIDS Emergency Fund (AEF) and Rita Rockett’s food program at San Francisco General Hospital's Ward 86 for AIDS patients.
1987
The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is started by activist Cleve Jones in San Francisco, CA.
1987
Due to both the social stigma of AIDS felt by surviving family members and the outright refusal by many funeral homes and cemeteries to handle the deceased's remains, many people who died of AIDS-related causes did not receive funerals.
To honor those who had been lost to AIDS and spread awareness, Jones and volunteers Mike Smith, Joseph Durant, Jack Caster, Gert McMullin, Ron Cordova, Larkin Mayo, Steve Kirchner, and Gary Yuschalk created a patchwork quilt.
As of 2020, the piece is the largest piece of community folk art in the world.
Each panel is 3 feet (0.91 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m), approximately the size of the average grave, and represents a different individual. Today the quilt (still in San Francisco) continues to grow, with an estimated 50,000 panels dedicated to more than 110,000 individuals and weighs about 54 tons.
1987
Silence = Death Poster
1987
A group founded by Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socarrás, offered mutual aid through raising awareness about the pandemic.
Inspired by posters of the Art Workers Coalition and the Guerrilla Girls, the pink triangle is a reference to patches assigned to LGBTQ+ individuals to wear during the Holocaust. The image was later donated to ACT UP and became a defining image of the organization and the times.
1989
1989
DIVA TV ("Damned Interfering Video Activist Television”) is founded.
A collective of gay and lesbian artists who utilized video as their primary mediums, featuring their work as ACT UP members.
DIVA TV functioned as an educational queer television program that often educated its viewers about the AIDS epidemic.
1989
Keith Haring – Ignorance = Fear (1989)
1989
The poster, made in conjunction with ACT UP, references the “see no/hear no/speak no evil” proverb. The poster is a direct call to action for greater public dialogue and action around AIDS.
Haring’s body of art was defined by public works that explored messages such as birth, death, love, sex, and war.
Following his own AIDS diagnosis in 1988, his work centered around AIDS awareness. He established the Keith Haring Foundation mandated to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs.
1990
WAVE, Women’s AIDS Video Enterprise, produces the film We Care: A Video for Care Providers of People Affected by AIDS (1990).
1990
A video collective to empower marginalized women, specifically lower-income women of color, disproportionately affected by the AIDS crisis. They expanded the narrative around HIV by creating educational media with a DIY, personal narrative approach.
Juanita Mohammed Szczepanski was one of the earliest members and a passionate advocate for AIDS education and early intervention. Her immense body of media work explored subjects such as homosexuality, artist venues, “disabled” communities, drugs, community groups, and ex-prisoners.
1990
John Corigliano first performed Symphony No. 1. Today it is considered the first symphony to deal with the subject of HIV/AIDS.
1990
“During the past decade I have lost many friends and colleagues to the AIDS epidemic, and the cumulative effect of those losses has, naturally, deeply affected me. My frst symphony was generated by feelings of loss, anger, and frustration.”
1991
Visual AIDS creates the red ribbon.
A New York-based art collective making art in response to AIDS, the group wanted to create a “consciousness-raising symbol." Inspired by the yellow ribbons used to honor soldiers serving in the Gulf War, they chose the color red for its “connection to blood and the idea of passion – not only anger, but love, like a valentine.
The ribbon was worn publicly by Jeremy Irons at the Tony Awards later that year.
1991
OCTOBER 19, 1991
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled “Portrait of Ross in L.A.” is exhibited for the first time at Luhring Augustine Hetzler Gallery in Los Angeles.
Composed of bright, individually wrapped candies, visitors of the exhibition are encouraged to take a piece of candy from the pile. Inspired by Felix’s partner Ross Laycock, the “ideal” starting weight of the art installation is 175 pounds, which was Laycock’s “ideal” weight before complications and weight loss due to his AIDS diagnosis.
OCTOBER 19
1991
“An unusual portrait that does not depict the subject’s face in a conventional way. It rather exemplifies the density, physicality, and weight of the body.”
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The timeline above is presented for educational purposes only. We do not own the copyright to any of the written, audio, and/or visual media presented in the timeline. PHACS does not endorse any organizations or viewpoints of sources. Where possible, specific dates have been provided in chronological order.
All sources can be found here. The timeline is regularly checked to ensure accuracy, but due to the growing nature of the timeline, some inaccuracies may occur. For suggestions, corrections, or all other inquiries please email phacs.hecc.leadership@fstrf.org
SEPTEMBER 2, 1993
And the Band Played On premiers at the Montreal World Film Festival.
Based on Randy Shilts best-selling non-fiction book, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, the film follows an epidemiologist and San Francisco activist as they navigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
september 2
1993
SEPTEMBER 2, 1993
WITS STUDY
DECEMBER 23, 1993
Philadelphia opens in theaters.
It was the first major Hollywood movie to focus on the subject of AIDS. In the film, Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a gay attorney who is unjustly fired from his job because he suffers from AIDS. Denzel Washington co-starred as Joe Miller, a homophobic personal injury lawyer who takes on Beckett’s case and comes to terms with his own misconceptions about gay people and the disease.
Tom Hanks would receive the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Beckett.
december 23
1993
JANUARY 25, 1996
The musical Rent debuts on Broadway.
Loosely based on Giacomo Puccini’s opera, La Bohème, the musical follows a group of young artists struggling to survive and build lives in New York City’s East Village, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Groundbreaking for its depictions of the LGBTQ+ community, the show also gave a new “mainstream voice” to those living with HIV/AIDS.
Moving to Broadway in April, the show would be performed 5,123 times over a 12-year run. Today, it is the 9th longest-running Broadway musical of all time.
JANUARY 25
1996
OCTOBER 1996
The National AIDS Memorial Grove is designated as the nation’s AIDS Memorial.
Located in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the memorial was first conceived by a group of San Francisco residents hoping to establish a place for collective grief and healing, while their communities were devastated by the pandemic.
OCTOBER
1996
JUNE 7, 2018
Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers is published.
The novel chronicles a mother’s search for her estranged daughter against the backdrop of a community of gay men in Chicago as they navigate the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The novel contemplates the ripples of grief affecting generations of survivors.
Considered one of the first novels “to chronicle the AIDS epidemic from its initial outbreak to the present — among the first, that is, to convey the terrors and tragedies of the epidemic’s early years as well as its course and its repercussions over the decades,” the book was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
JUNE 7
2018
JUNE 3, 2018
Pose debuts on FX.
Set in New York City’s 80s and 90s, the series follows African American and Latinx gay and trans members of NYC ball culture, an LGBTQ+ subculture, as they navigate life and the raging AIDS crisis.
JUNE 3
2018
It’s a Sin debuts in the UK.
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This poignant drama series charts the thrilling and emotional journey of a tight-knit group of friends living in London during the 1980s, a decade forever changed by the AIDS crisis.
January 22
2021
JANUARY 22, 2021
jUNE 2, 2022
AIDS Garden Chicago opens.
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AIDS Garden Chicago is the city’s first public monument to memorialize the early days of Chicago’s HIV epidemic, and to honor those who continue to fight against the disease today. Its first phase was completed in 2019 with the installation of its anchor piece, ‘Self-Portrait,’ a 30-foot sculpture by iconic late artist and activist Keith Haring.
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JUNE 2
2022
