Town Square

Special Edition: World AIDS Day With Cleve Jones

The Shelby Hodge Vision Award Honoree reflects on the millions who have died of the virus and the millions more that are living beyond it.

Brenda Valdivia

| December 1, 2020, 4:08 PM (Last Updated: December 1, 2020, 6:47 PM)

FILE – In this Thursday, March 29, 2001, file photo, Cleve Jones, founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, sits on the floor of nearly-empty offices and in front of the last quilt left to be packed in San Francisco. The Quilt was first displayed in the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 11, 1987, which carries the names of loved ones who died of AIDS.

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Cleve Jones, AIDS and LGBTQ+ rights activist, discusses the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the world’s largest piece of community folk art, and the parallels he sees between the American government’s response to the AIDS virus during the 1980s and the current response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jones is this year’s Shelby Hodge Vision Award Honoree, presented by AIDS Foundation Houston, the first AIDS service organization in Texas.

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