I Stop Somewhere Waiting For You
In a recent episode of the podcast, How To Date Men, Dave Harper of the New York City AIDS Memorial shares details of their bench dedication programme – I Stop Somewhere Waiting For You.
The New York City AIDS Memorial is a place of respite and reflection that honours the more than 120,000 New Yorkers who have died of AIDS. The act of naming, however, remains essential both to collective mourning and to our mission of celebrating the memory of those lost.
With its name taken from the final lines of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, engraved on the granite pavers of the New York City AIDS Memorial, designed by Jenny Holzer, the bench dedication programme strives for the greatest possible representation of the city’s diverse communities while acknowledging that persistent stigma and lack of access to healthcare will prevent the disease’s true toll from ever being known.
In the podcast, Dave discusses acts of remembrance, the importance of sharing the stories of individuals, and how to educate younger people about the impact of the pandemic.
Listen to the conversation on How To Date Men