Eight lives now hang on the wall in the Reitz Union stairwell.
They’re displayed in the form of quilt squares created by families and friends of deceased AIDS victims to show the world who they were and what they meant to them.
Five more quilts hang on the walls of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, leased to UF by the NAMES Project Foundation that acts as a caretaker of the quilts.
Jarrod Cruz-Stipsits, director of intercultural engagement for UF Multicultural & Diversity Affairs, said bringing the quilts to UF was the Pride Student Union’s idea. After consulting Cruz-Stipsits, Pride decided to join the display with this year’s Common Reading Program book, “A School for My Village: A Promise to the Orphans of Nyaka.”
“There are all these statistics of people living with AIDS,” Cruz-Stipsits said. “The quilt brings a human face to those statistics.”
Goodbye messages are scribbled on some in pen and marker, while some squares only hold a picture of the deceased and a name along with a rainbow.
“...it forces you to stop and think about it, you know?” said Maylen Santana, a 17-year-old UF chemistry freshman.
Cruz said the quilt in the Reitz Union will stay until Sept. 15, but the five in the Harn museum will leave Sept. 8.
Hosts of the quilts have to make their own eight-block section to return to the NAMES foundation, he said, and he hopes students and faculty will help create a UF-specific submission.
A quilt hangs in the J. Wayne Reitz Union on Monday, July 1, as part of a campus-wide reading initiative, The Common Reading Program.
