1st JP Block Party
Oppressive heat reduced spectators but not the enthusiasm of hundreds of Unitarian Universalists, who marched as one large group in the Parade rather than as individual churches. North Andover resident Laura Landry told Bay Windows, “It feels really good…it’s really important to understand that there are alternatives to the [Religious Right].”
Parade Marshals
Festival/Concert Entertainers
Headliner – Grammy Award winning artist, Thelma Houston; Emmy Cerra, not just another girl with a guitar; Chezwick, VH1’s songwriter of the year winner 2004; New Professionals, from New York; Fast Times, Boston’s best 80’s cover band.
Speakers Included: Representatives from Gay mEn’s Domestic Violence Project, The Network La Red and MTPC (Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition)
Block Party DJs
Back Bay Block Party – DJ Joe Bermudez, DJ Tracy Young
JP Block Party – DJ Kristin Korpos and DJ Linda Lowell
2005 Boston Pride Photo Galleries
Click on the buttons below to view the event photo gallery. Note: You will be taken to the Boston Pride Smugmug Website
June 4, 2005
June 11, 2005
June 11, 2005
The BOSTON AIDS Name PROJECT Quilts
Quilts on display at Quincy Market, June 4th 2005
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, the Quilt was a source of immense comfort, inspiration and used as a tool for social activism to open the eyes of the nation to injustice and to help survivors grieve and heal,” said National AIDS Memorial CEO John Cunningham.
The Quilt was conceived in November of 1985 by long-time human rights activist, author and lecturer Cleve Jones. Since the 1978 assassinations of gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, Jones had helped organize the annual candlelight march honoring these men. While planning the 1985 march, he learned that over 1,000 San Franciscans had been lost to AIDS. He asked each of his fellow marchers to write on placards the names of friends and loved ones who had died of AIDS. At the end of the march, Jones and others stood on ladders taping these placards to the walls of the San Francisco Federal Building. The wall of names looked like a patchwork quilt.
Inspired by this sight, Jones and friends made plans for a larger memorial. A little over a year later, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect.
Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Cleve created the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. In June of 1987, Jones teamed up with Mike Smith, Gert McMullin and several others to formally organize the NAMES Project Foundation.
Public response to the Quilt was immediate. People in the U.S. cities most affected by AIDS — Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco — sent panels to the San Francisco workshop. Generous donors rapidly supplied sewing machines, equipment and other materials, and many volunteered tirelessly. [4]
Learn more about the history of the Quilt by visiting the National Aids Memorial Website.
The AIDS Names Quilts on display at Faneuil Hall, June 4, 2005
Event Details
Date: June 11, 2005
Theme: Pride in progress… What’s your fight?
Organized by: The Boston Pride Committee, Inc.
Parade Route
START – Copley Sq., Boylston St., Right on Clarendon St., Left on Tremont St., Left on Berkeley St., Right on Boylston St., Left on Charles St., END – Boston Common
References:
[4] National AIDS Memorial Website, The History of The Quilt