Politicians, Survivors Mark the Opening of AIDS Memorial Park in the West Village

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Decades after terminally ill AIDS patients first found rare refuge at St. Vincent’s Hospital during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, survivors and New Yorkers alike joined together Thursday on World AIDS Day at that same location to dedicate the newly unveiled AIDS Memorial Park.

A large crowd gathered at the new park at St. Vincent’s Triangle to watch as survivors told emotional stories of perseverance and as politicians touted the progress the city has made in the fight to eradicate HIV/AIDS. The location was especially touching for many attendees: St. Vincent’s Hospital, which closed in 2010, was known as the first hospital in the city — and even the region — to accept HIV/AIDS patients.

The park features an 18-foot canopy and engraved stone featuring parts of Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself." Park founders Paul Kelterborn, Christopher Tepper, and Keith Fox came up with the idea in 2011 as a part of a five-year, grassroots effort to pay tribute to those who died as a result of HIV/AIDS.

City Council Member Corey Johnson, who is HIV positive and openly gay, praised the work of those who have fought for the plight of HIV/AIDS victims, thanking them for keeping him alive.

“Standing here today, I’m brought back to October of 2004, when I found out during a routine physical exam that I was HIV positive,” he said. “I know that the long, healthy life that I’ve been able to lead since that day is possible because of [them].”

Johnson also was one of many speakers to condemn the incoming administration of President-Elect Donald Trump and Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, drawing loud applause from the crowd.

“Silence equals death," Johnson said, referring to the "Silence = Death Project" that was created by activists at ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in the 1980s. "We will not normalize him.”

City Comptroller Scott Stringer and NYC Public Advocate Letitia James also publicly railed against Trump, encouraging activists to continue pushing for progress as the next administration prepares to take office.

Mayor Bill de Blasio also took the stage briefly, but he spoke more of the work the city has done to push against HIV/AIDS.

The crowd continued to grow as the event went on. Couples, gay and straight, clung to each other in both comfort and remembrance; survivors, many of them donning the iconic “Silence = Death” T-shirts, reminisced together; and New Yorkers passing through the area stopped to take a moment and acknowledge the more than 100,000 people who fell victim to AIDS in New York City alone.

Longtime resident Marjorie Reitman, who has lived in New York for 40 years and lives just down the block, sat in the park with her dog, thinking of those she has lost.

“My neighbor was one of the early victims,” she said. “It was so long ago and yet I still can't get it out of my mind how he went from being one of the most handsome, happy people to a skeleton. And he died in that hospital."

Reitman said she vividly remembers walking around the city and noticing how HIV/AIDS patients were treated. She said that although there is much more work to do, she is encouraged by the opening of the park.

“The city has finally recognized what AIDS has done to the neighborhood and the city,” she said.
“When St. Vincent’s was there, we felt more positive because that was the only hospital in New York to treat HIV patients. Everybody else turned them away; even funeral homes turned them away.”

Lee Raines, an HIV-positive activist who moved to New York in 1977, stood in the back of the crowd as he looked around, taking in the moment and thinking back to the days when he stood in that very spot with friends who were at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

“This is a very personal area for me and I needed to see this space,” he said, adding that he was a part of the earliest days of ACT UP and Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). “I was involved personally and socially throughout the entire crisis. I visited the hospital many times.”

As the event eventually came to a close and the crowd dissipated, attendees slowly walked around the park, reading memorials etched into stone and snapping photographs of the newly constructed canopy hanging over the park's entrance.

Many attendees hugged as they departed, and some were crying as they processed the emotional impact of the day. But, once the crowd completely fizzled out and the speeches were over, the memorial still stood — and those who have lost friends and loved ones to HIV/AIDS will always have a place to go; a place to remember the impact of so many New Yorkers who left too soon.

Lead photo via Matt Tracy/Patch