A Time to Remember
So often when we think about HIV/AIDS, we think about statistics. It may be the number of people who have died since the disease was first identified in 1981 (more than 25 million people worldwide). It may be the number of people in our world who are living with the disease today (estimated to be 33.3 million people). It may be the number of Delawareans living with HIV disease today (3,638 as of October 31). World AIDS Day events redirect our attention away from the statistics and remind us of the people behind those numbers. Through artistic expressions at those events, we mourn the loss of loved ones, celebrate their lives, and encourage each other to continue in the fight against HIV/AIDS in our world.
World AIDS Day is observed each year on December 1. This year marks the 18th year for World AIDS Day events being held in Rehoboth Beach, put together by representatives from a number of organizations and faith communities in the area. These local events incorporate the arts in various ways to express the sorrow and the hope that is so much of our shared experience of the AIDS epidemic. All events are free and open to the community.
World AIDS Day Art Exhibit
For the past several years, CAMPsafe Director Salvatore Seeley has hosted an AIDS-themed art exhibit at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center in conjunction with local World AIDS Day events. Shows in previous years have highlighted artists living with HIV/AIDS. This year’s exhibit is different. The focus will be on the pieces of art themselves. The artists may or may not be living with HIV infection themselves, but like all of us, they live in a world with HIV/AIDS. Their artwork will illustrate their experiences living in that world and their response to it. A reception for the art exhibit will be held at the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center on Thursday, December 1, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The artwork will remain on display at the Community Center through mid-December and is available for viewing during business hours.
Gathering at the Bandstand
The community is invited to gather at 6:15 p.m. on December 1 at the Rehoboth Beach Bandstand (at the intersection of Rehoboth Avenue and the Boardwalk in downtown Rehoboth Beach). Award-winning singer/songwriter Doug James will be providing music as community members sign a “signature panel” for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Candlelight Walk
After some brief remarks, the community will begin a Candlelight Walk through the downtown area at 6:30 p.m. A 12 foot by 12 foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be carried as part of the procession (weather permitting). The AIDS Quilt is the largest piece of folk art in the world, measuring more than 1,293,300 square feet in size and weighing more than 54 tons. Currently the Quilt contains more than 91,000 names of people who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS.
Service of Remembrance and Hope
Beginning at 7 p.m. at All Saints Church (18 Olive Avenue, Rehoboth Beach), this service is seen by many as the most moving and inspiring part of Rehoboth Beach’s World AIDS Day activities. The service is a careful blending of the Spoken Word and the Sung Word. The Spoken Word is the “Reading of the Names,” a ceremonial reading of the names of persons who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. The current list has been carried forward from the earliest World AIDS Day events in Rehoboth Beach, and additional names are added each year. To have the name of a family member or friend who has died from AIDS added to the list of names read at the service, call the CAMP Rehoboth Community Center at 302-227-5620 or email editor @camprehoboth.com. A light supper, provided by All Saints’ Church, will follow the service.
The music at this year’s Service was selected to help the community to remember and to hope. Featured will be “A Stitch in Time”, a song written by Delawarean Thomas Meehan. The song was first performed in October 1995 at the closing ceremonies of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt at the University of Delaware. Since then it has been performed three times at Quilt displays at high schools in northern Delaware. “I am really pleased that the song is being sung again,” said Meehan during a recent telephone interview. “We need to remember our past or we will be doomed to repeat it. There are great medications for HIV/AIDS now, but they are only palliative. They don’t always work, and it is not really a cure. We must remember that AIDS is not over yet.” Meehan was a public school music teacher for 25 years, and he currently serves as organist and Director of Music at Elsmere Presbyterian Church in Elsmere, Delaware. For many years, he also worked in the Delaware Chapter for the NAMES Project, organizing AIDS Quilt displays and helping people submit quilt panels to the national office.
The CAMP Rehoboth Chorus will make a return appearance at this year’s Service of Remembrance and Hope. Under the direction of Bill McManus, the 40-voice chorus will be singing “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway show Rent. This show was groundbreaking in its inclusion of HIV/AIDS as an integral part of the plot, and the song “Seasons of Love” has become a cabaret standard. In this performance, the CAMP Chorus will bring the song full circle, returning it to its HIV/AIDS context.
The song “Seasons of Love” reminds its listeners that it is time to sing out, to celebrate, and to remember a year in the life of friends. World AIDS Day calls us to do the same things, not just for one day, but three hundred and sixty-five days a year.