Here’s a preview of the upcoming edition of Mountain Xpress, which includes a cover story about the local observance of World AIDS Day.
Perhaps the HIV/AIDS era’s quintessential icon is the 1,293,300-square-foot AIDS Memorial Quilt, housed and overseen by the Atlanta-based Names Project Foundation. Begun in 1987 and billed as the world’s largest community art project, it contains more than 46,000 panels featuring more than 91,000 names of those lost to the disease. The Western North Carolina AIDS Project, a local nonprofit, has arranged for several sections of it to be displayed at Pack Place in downtown Asheville from Nov. 24 through Dec. 1: World AIDS Day. Besides enabling area residents to reconnect with their loved ones immortalized in the quilt, the free exhibit is also meant to serve as a wakeup call that AIDS is still very real and very much in need of urgent attention and activism.
In other news, look for these stories: an update on the Madison County woman dubbed the “dirty dancer” and her lawsuit against the town of Marshall; a preview of the changes to the upcoming Asheville Holiday Parade; a recap of last week’s Asheville City Council meeting; and a follow-up on the status of the Asheville mural project.
In our Arts & Entertainment section, look for a story about Asheville band Reigning Sound, a feature on a dance performance titled The Last Dance of Mata Hari and a preview of The King Khan & BBQ Show’s upcoming performance.
— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor
i was fortunate enough to see the original AIDS quilt in DC back when it all started and was struck dumbfounded at the powerful emotional impact it had – on others as well as myself. I can’t wait to see it here and to hear the names being called and to be again swept by the enormity of this problem and to feel again connected to the friends i’ve lost to AIDS.