William Way LGBT Center launches 'going home' ceremony to remember lives lost to HIV/AIDS

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The William Way LGBT Center is celebrating PRIDE with a 'memorial experience,' honoring those who've lost their lives to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Philadelphia.

The commemoration is titled 'The Remembrance Memorial: An Alternative Memorial Experience to Philadelphians Lost to HIV/AIDS.'

"We just culminated a two-year process of collecting stories of people we consider under-mourned," says Chris Bartlett, Executive Director of the William Way LGBT Community Center, "Who at the time through shame and fear, couldn't be fully remembered."

As part of that mission, the center commissioned award-winning playwright, Ain Gordon to turn the stories of those impacted by HIV/AIDS into a play called 'These Don't Easily Scatter.'

"That focuses on the lives of a nurse, a gay man, and an elderly member of a local church," says Bartlett.

There's also an exhibition opening on June 21 called 'Gone and Forever' designed and directed by artist and entrepreneur Alex Stadler

"Alex Stadler brought together faith leaders from many traditions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and others, to talk about what it means to fully remember and mourn our community folks," says Bartlett, "Things like shrouds, and urns, and banners."

Those artifacts will become part of a 'Going home" ceremony on Saturday, June 25th.

"Where we'll actually do a march through the gayborhood that really properly remembers the 1000's of people we lost to the AIDS epidemic in Philadelphia," says Bartlett.

Coming two years into the COVID pandemic, the 'Going home' ceremony promises to be particularly poignant.

"We're coming together not only as LGBT community, but as all Philadelphians. So, we hope that our communities, all of you, will come join us to remember the folks in your life who've been under remembered or under-mourned," says Bartlett.

After PRIDE month, the entire Remembrance project will live on through a digital archive that will launch on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day.

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1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107

'Remembrance: An Alternative Memorial Experience to Philadelphians Lost to HIV/AIDS':

'Gone and Forever' exhibit: June 21-25 at William Way LGBT Community Center

"Going home" memorialization ceremony, followed by public procession: June 25 at 3 p.m., William Way LGBT Community Center to The Church of St. Luke & the Epiphany

Remembrance Digital Archive: Expected launch: Dec. 1, 2022 (World AIDS Day/Day Without Art)