AIDSWatch, created in 1996 by David Reid, will again memorialize the names of people who died with HIV/AIDS on this coming Friday, Dec. 1.
When the project launched on an L.A. cable channel it received views from a million households the very first year. The late Bill Rosendahl, the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles City Council, was responsible for clearing the channel through several of the cable systems in Los Angeles.
AIDSWatch is programmed to only play online on Dec. 1, from midnight Thursday to midnight Friday, and the display will be available worldwide wherever there is WiFi. However, this year the City of West Hollywood will again project the project on the north face of the West Hollywood Library from Thursday night through Saturday. It also will appear on several marquees on Hollywood Boulevard.
At other times the AIDSWatch site is collecting names of those who died of AIDS. Those names may be posted, free of charge, at www.AIDSWatch.org. The deadline for submitting names to the roster for this Friday display’s is midnight today (Monday).
The names are presented one by one in stark white letters on a stark black background, illustrating the idea that everyone is equal in death.
A wonderful memorial. Thank you.
David you are The Best.
This is a simple but powerful way to remind of the lost love the lost lives. By this public display it is hard to ignore World AIDS Day and the toll it has taken. AIDSWatch would have ceased on several occasions if not for some diehard supporters. One too often unsung hero is the wizard behind program that displays the names on December 1st. Bob Abrahams who was the long time head of CityChannel in West Hollywood, now WeHoTV, adopted the tech side of AIDSWatch when Time Warner cable would no longer host the equipment nor the channel to feed… Read more »