Duvet Know the Answer? Trivia Quiz

Answer: San Francisco, California, USA

To remember those that had died due to AIDS, marchers created posters with the names of those departed. These were taped to the outside of the San Francisco Federal Building. The arrangement of the posters reminded some of a patchwork quilt, thus the inspiration.

Answer: Cleve Jones

Cleve Jones thought the posters taped to the San Francisco Federal Building during the 1985 march resembled one of his grandmother's quilts. He would create one of the first panels of the quilt in remembrance of Marvin Feldman.

Answer: NAMES Project Foundation

Cleve Jones and Mike Smith are listed as co-founders of the organization. The foundation displayed 40 panels at San Francisco City Hall in June of 1987.

Today the foundation preserves the quilt, patching and repairing as necessary, and adding new panels as they are received.

Answer: 3 feet by 6 feet

Quoted from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival website, NAMES Project Foundation co-founder Mike Smith said "When you think of quilts, you think of our grandmothers taking care of us when we're sick, of warmth and comfort, which is the opposite of how the AIDS community was being treated. We wanted to lay the equivalent of bodies of the dead at the feet of our government. We're a traveling cemetery."

Each of the panels is stitched with eight others to create a 12 foot by 12 foot square block. These blocks are then backed by canvas to protect and strengthen the block. Grommets are attached to each block to allow them to be hung.

Answer: Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights

The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights occurred in October 1979. The second march was planned for over a year to determine not only who would be invited to speak, but to outline the platform and issues to be covered at the rally.

Covering a space larger than a football field, 1,920 panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt were displayed on the National Mall. Afterwards, the quilt would travel on a twenty-city tour.

Answer: Reading the names of the dead

In a video on the Smithsonian Folklife Festival website, Joanie Juster, Reader Coordinator for The NAMES Project Foundation says it gives "voice to the quilt" when the names are read. The readings are done while the quilt is being displayed.

The 2012 Festival was created as a partnership between the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and The NAMES Project Foundation.

Answer: No

When the AIDS Memorial Quilt was started in 1987, AIDS was considered a "gay" disease. The scientific community (and the public at large) now has more understanding of the disease and how it can be transmitted to others. The NAMES Project Foundation doesn't discriminate, and panels have been received from all over the globe. The foundation hopes to continue to increase public awareness that AIDS can be contracted by anyone.

To clarify, you do have to be an AIDS victim to have your name added.

Answer: Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

The film, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, tells the history of the quilt and shows the process to create new panels. It also remembers five of the people with quilt panels; their stories are told by their loved ones.

The film won the 1990 Academy Award for a Documentary Feature.

Answer: No

In fact, the first panels were created with spray paint and bedsheets. There are full instructions on "The AIDS Memorial Quilt" website. Some of the general guidelines are the size (3 feet by 6 feet), and to try to create a durable panel that can be unfolded for display and then re-folded for storage.

Answer: THE LAST ONE

The panel was delivered to the foundation with no instructions or information. They are preserving this one until it can be added one day when AIDS has been eradicated.

In early 2018 some of the quilt statistics include:
5,956 blocks (12 foot by 12 foot sections)
over 49,000 panels (3 feet by 6 feet)
over 96,000 names on the quilt.