Arts

World AIDS Day

by . .
Thursday Nov 27, 2014

Day Without Art, Medicine Wheel

Submitted by Michael Dowling, Artistic Director, Medicine Wheel Productions

December 1, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of Day Without Art, began on December 1, 1989 as the national day of action and mourning in response to the AIDS crisis.

This date also marks the 23rd incarnation of Medicine Wheel the longest running Art event in the city of Boston, honoring; Day With(Out) Art/ World AIDS Day. The venue this year is Fort Independence Castle Island South Boston.

Medicine Wheel began as a reaction against using art as a commodity that could be sold to raise money for worthy causes such as AIDS. I was one of the founders of the ARTcetera auction and in 1985, it was the largest fundraiser to date for AIDS. I remember my good friend Pam Hoyle telling me "you know you could be helping people a lot more by doing your art than by working on this auction. " I wasn't sure what she meant but I was soon to find out. The need for art to help dissolve the stigma and shame associated with AIDS and to intervene in the lives of those infected and those affected by that stigma was becoming urgent. Medicine Wheel continues to be a counterweight and healing place for those who come each year.

Over 16,000 offerings; articles of clothing, letters, photos, hopes, dreams, wishes, remembrances, prayers, jewelry and other artifacts of the history of AIDS in Boston have been left in the wheel as reminders our common, humanity. This year the offerings will be carried in processional offerings, led by artists and and spiritual leaders to mark each hour of December 1, to the center of the wheel to be ritually burnt.

I have often told the story of a woman who rushed into the Medicine Wheel in 2008. She went to look at our information table at a book by Sal Lopez, a photo essay on People living with HIV. I told her she could have the book, since we had hundreds. She said no, "I just want to see what they have put in the books. My two sons died 16 and 15 years ago, I always come to Medicine Wheel, to remember them" She then went into the Wheel and saw the 16,000 buckets of water we had carried from Fort Point Channel she came out with her hand on her chest saying " where are the buckets? my two boys deserve buckets. when they lived with me my own mother would not come to my house, my friends didn't understand. they where boys, What was I to do." Two weeks ago this amazing woman died. Seeing her name along with her two deceased sons was overwhelming. I will be carrying her obituary to MW this year. I hope that you will join me there.

I end with the quote form Eric Bruehl:

"Day Without Art is an opportunity to remember the many lives cut short by AIDS and to reflect on the impact of this cultural loss. But it's also a day to celebrate humanity's shared artistic legacy. Although the AIDS pandemic has claimed hundreds of artists, our continued interest and appreciation for art keeps their work alive. That is something loss will never destroy." Eric Bruehl Getty Museum

Medicine Wheel

Dear Friend,

For 23 years I have been building Medicine Wheel as a place for people to gather, remember, memorialize, pray, and reflect on A Day With(Out) Art/ World AIDS Day. In the early years there was so much fear and stigma attached. It was devastating time for all of us affected, the living, the dying, and the dead. The need to create safe space was urgent. Just this past week I was reminded of those early years by a post on Facebook of the AIDS Quilt, shown on the Mall in Washington DC which coincided with the National March on Washington October 11, 1987. The AIDS Quilt, which would become known as the Names Project, offered comfort and intimacy, literally taking the message home. I was at that march with my two best friends, Michael Brown and Neil Byrnes, and had borrowed a pair of boots two sizes too small from Robert "Gina" Giorgio. A Day Without Art would begin in 1989 and three years later Medicine Wheel.

In the spring of 1992 I set up a ceremonial circle that I called "Medicine Wheel" in the cavernous Cyclorama Building at the Boston Center fort the Arts. I invited people to bring an offering of what connected them to the earth and to leave it wherever they felt it belonged. Michael Brown brought a wooden box filled with peppercorns. He knew exactly where he wanted to put it and placed it slightly to the right at the foot of the pedestal that stood in the east of the wheel. All during the day I wanted to move it to the center of the pedestal. Later that year I was invited to build a ritual space for a Day Without Art/ world AIDS Day in the Cyclorama. We scattered stones though out the building inviting folks to pick one up and carry it to the center of the room to build a memorial cairn. Two women picked the heaviest stone. I offered to help and they refused, another young man offered to help and again they refused. I offered a third time and one of the women said to me, " You don't get this do you? Her son, my nephew, just died form AIDS. This is our weight. " In June of 1994 Robert " Gina" Giorgio died from AIDS. That year Michael Brown carried another box to Medicine Wheel, this time containing Bob's ashes.

Medicine Wheel has long been the keeper of stories like these. Last year we catalogued 16,000 objects that had been left in the wheel, each one of them having an intimate story. Medicine Wheel like the Names Project has been a reminder that we are not numbers that; we have names; that we have stories; that we are loved; that we are grieved; that we are missed; that we lived; that we are alive; that we are remembered.

This year we are bringing Medicine Wheel to Castle Island in South Boston on Sunday November 30 at Midnight we will have a lantern procession into Fort Independence and hold a twenty-four hour vigil on Monday December 1, 2014, World AIDS Day/A Day With(Out) Art. The hours of the day will be marked with, prayer, song, dance, poetry and ritual.

Medicine Wheel Productions
110 K Street
South Boston, MA 02127