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Marking the 40th anniversary of the first reported cases, Capitol Hill’s AMP Plaza will host World AIDS Day commemoration

The plaza’s andimgonnamisseverybody is a giant X made from speakers, a 20 foot by 20 foot structure, designed by artist Christopher Paul Jordan to represent X as a positive symbol turned on its axis to erode the perceived binary between HIV positive and HIV negative people and symbolizing a solidarity between the two.

As it prepares to move into a new home and leads the way in putting Capitol Hill’s newest community gathering space in motion, Gay City is planning to mark the 40th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic with a World AIDS Day commemoration Wednesday in the new AMP Plaza above Capitol Hill Station.

The December 1st will feature artists and storytellers impacted by the AIDS epidemic and a candlelight vigil led by The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence, The Abbey of St. Joan:

World AIDS Day at The AMP Plaza
Wednesday, December 1st 4 PM
920 E Barbara Bailey Way
Join us in person or virtually to commemorate World AIDS Day on Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. This year, we mark the 40th anniversary of the first reported cases of the AIDS epidemic. In remembrance, Gay City will partner with The AMP and community organizers to host a World AIDS Day commemoration. We will remember those impacted by AIDS and the importance of investing in research and prevention efforts.

CHS reported here on Gay City’s 26 years of service and plans for a new Capitol Hill headquarters on E Pine. Gay City has also stepped forward to help steward the new AIDS Memorial Pathway stretching across Capitol Hill Station’s plaza and Cal Anderson Park.

The $2.9 million public-private pathway project been powered by developer Gerding Edlen, Sound Transit, SDOT, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, and the Seattle Parks and Recreation along with major support from community fundraising debuted this summer amid a subdued June Pride celebration as COVID restrictions continued.

The AMP Plaza, meanwhile, stands at the center of the new market-rate and affordable housing development above the busy light rail station. It will be surrounded by a mix of businesses including the coming soon Seasmith cafe and the new home for Capitol Hill classic Glo’s. Nékter Juice Bar, meanwhile, became the first business to open in the development’s commercial mix earlier this month. Signs for the coming 16,000-square-foot H Mart have also gone up.

Wednesday’s commemoration comes on a major milestone for the AIDS crisis. Gay City says 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the first reported cases of the AIDS epidemic.

While the milestone arrives with society in the middle of a new pandemic, comparisons between AIDS and COVID-19 don’t line up, Capitol Hill LGBTQ community leaders told CHS as the health crisis took shape in 2020.

“In the 80s and 90s we were literally fighting for our lives,” Brian Minalga, a project manager in the Office of HIV/AIDS Network Coordination at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center told CHS. “This has created a deep trauma that lasts for generations. When we hear these comparisons to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, it’s a reminder of how expendable our lives were at that time, and still are now.”

The hope for Gay City’s event on Wednesday, the nonprofit says, is for the World AIDS Day commemoration to focus “on the remembrance of those impacted by AIDS, lift up community resilience, and the importance of investing in research and prevention efforts.”

You can learn more and RSVP for the event here.

 

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monswye
monswye
2 years ago

Thanks for explaining the symbolism behind andimgonnamisseverybody — for sure, I would never have come up with that on my own.

monswye
monswye
2 years ago

Now do the plastic lollypops.