Washington Blade - December 17, 2004
Yusef Najafi

There also are 300 paintings, photographs, sculpture pieces, handmade jewelry and poetry on display citywide documenting the impact of HIV/AIDS on residents of the nation's capital. They are housed at five locations in D.C., as part of an exhibit titled "Our Heroes: A 20-Year Journey of AIDS Through Our Eyes."

"It allows the people who are infected with HIV/AIDS to speak in [artistic] form," says Wallace Corbett, the exhibit's chair and vice president of the community advisory board at Whitman-Walker Clinic's Max Robinson Center in Southeast Washington. "We know most of them as statistics, but they need to be known as something else. You can see that this is here; this is art. This is who they are, and how they feel. Can you hear them speaking?"

Corbett described the exhibit, which opened on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, during a visit to the library last Friday. Parts of it also are on display at Phish Tea Cafe, Ella's Coffee & Fine Art, Ellington's on Eighth, and at Mimi's American Bistro.

Its creators describe it as one of the largest displays on the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

"The display grapples with our losses," says Mark Meinke, chair and founder of the Rainbow History Project, an ongoing effort to document gay and lesbian history in this region. "Both through the documentation of the names, and the events of the first 20 years, and through art, music and poetry as expressions of those losses." The Rainbow History Project created the 36-foot panel, titled "Our Heroes: Wall of Names." The group also provides a 20-year timeline, directly across from the panel of names, highlighting the evolution of HIV/AIDS. The timeline is surrounded by historical photos taken by photographer Patsy Lynch, including those taken during AIDS-related protests in 1987, outside the White House.

Whitman-Walker Clinic's Max Robinson Center, which provides HIV/AIDS-related services to D.C. residents in Southeast Washington, is responsible for setting up the exhibit at the library. The center was named after a prominent African-American network news anchor who died of AIDS-related complications in 1988.

Included in the exhibit are paintings by various artists, such as Jeanine Valerie and the late David Jamieson, as well as works by youths from Pediatric AIDS/HIV Care in D.C.

Exhibit organizers were scheduled to host an "Art Jam" on Wednesday, Dec. 15, after the Blade's deadline that featured poetry by playwright Michael McCorkel.

Peter Stebbins, a lender and preparator of the exhibit and Jamieson's partner, is scheduled to host a discussion and tour of the gallery at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 21, on the A level at MLK Library.

While many gay men have been devastated by HIV/AIDS, Barbara Chinn, director at the Max Robinson Center since it opened in 1992, said other populations also are affected.

"AIDS ... is now very much inclusive of everybody," she said.

Chinn began working for Whitman-Walker Clinic's Schwartz Housing Services, which provides low-cost housing for homeless people, in 1987. She noted that current HIV/AIDS statistics, up to the end of 2002 (the most recent year for which this information is available), indicate Washington has 8,201 residents living with AIDS, 75 percent of whom are men.

African Americans in Washington comprise 77 percent of documented AIDS case, white residents make up 14 percent, and Latinos comprise 4 percent of D.C.'s AIDS cases. The other 4 percent of D.C. residents living with AIDS belong to other racial or ethnic groups.

Photographer Kevin Yancey has work on display in the exhibit.

"My work is there to honor the people who made a contribution and raised awareness about HIV and AIDS by taking a stance," he says, "instead of just watching their friends die."

The 41-year-old resident of Hyattsville, Md., contributed a collection of photographs to the "Faces of D.C." wall, which depicts individuals such as Cornelius Baker, executive director of Whitman-Walker Clinic, and longtime lesbian activist Cheryl Spector, a member of the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Alliance.

Corbett said plans are under way to determine what will happen to the artwork after the exhibit closes.

Some of the work is for sale. Artists also are planning to donate their work to the Max Robinson Center. The remaining pieces will be returned to the artists or other owners of the work.

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