A JOURNEY THROUGH THE GARDEN - THE AIDS GARDEN CHICAGO STORY ARCHIVE
Placed throughout AIDS Garden Chicago, you will find numbered QR signs corresponding to a video story below. We thank you for taking this journey and hearing these important stories of life, loss, laughter, and love.
AIDS Garden Chicago is the city’s first public park to memorialize the early days of Chicago’s HIV epidemic, and to honor those who continue to fight against the disease today. Thank you to these community members for sharing their true personal stories, ensuring that this vital history is preserved for years to come.
#12
The Story Archive
Continue your journey below with our growing collection of stories brought together into a digital quilt, the AIDS Garden Chicago Story Archive.
Thank you for hearing these community stories. We invite you to please consider sharing your own.
SHARED BY REV. CHARLES
A CHURCH’S HIV STORY
My name is Rev. Charles Straight. I am the pastor of the Faith United Methodist Church in Dolton, IL. I have been HIV positive since 1987 and this is the story of how a few people and one church can make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV.
SHARED BY TRACY
THE TWO DANNYS
“Journalists have a unique lens in covering communities. For me, I’ve always felt it was an honor to cover people at their best and their worst, as they fought for their lives and the community.”
Originally Presented in 2019 for STORY JAM
SHARED BY BRAD
SUMMER, 1986
“A whole generation gone, but here I was given this precious life… And while I will always treasure those beautiful moments in the summer of 1986, I’m really here to attest to my own confusion during those times, those horrific times.”
Originally Presented in 2019 for OUTspoken LGBTQ+ Stories at Sidetrack Chicago
SHARED BY LUTHER
One Morning In Cincinnati
I woke up,
One Morning in Cincinnati
What a wonderful day,
In a wonderful city
Spring, 1983,
One Morning in Cincinnati
SHARED BY TOM
ANYONE
“I used to have AIDS.” I look forward to the day when anyone can say those words.
“I used to have HIV.” Wouldn’t it be great to hear someone say that and actually believe them, to know that it was possible.
I used to have AIDS. I used to have six months, maybe, to live. I don’t know many people who can say that, but I can. My doctor told me so in September 1983, days before my twenty-fifth birthday. And my doctor was a friend, he wouldn’t lie to me.
SHARED BY MELISSA
SCOTT & CON
I met my friends Scott and Con in Chicago, 1990, and the three of us would remain friends until Con died in 1994 and Scott in 1996, both from AIDS-related complications.
SHARED VIA VOCALO RADIO
YONI PIZER SEES AIDS GARDEN CHICAGO AS A “PARK WITH A PURPOSE”
“That was a time when people were still getting arrested. There were still bar raids. When people get fired for being gay. When gay bars, the few that there were, had darkened windows, so you couldn’t see inside. To have a place in Chicago, under the sun, outdoors, in a beautiful setting with the lake and views of downtown where you could just be you, and free and carefree was amazing.”
SHARED BY DAVID
The Rookies
“Dearheart, would you like to play on my new gay softball team?”
The “heart” part sounded like it was a 5-syllable word when asked by Jack, also known as Irene, a doughy, bleach-blonde, middle-aged guy who wore his gay identity like it was a Kaftan. There was no possible way to mistake this self-absorbed and charming man for straight. He called everyone “Dearheart” so that he never had to remember a name…
SHARED BY LAURIE
SHERWIN
The following is an interview of Laurie’s 89-year-old father, Sherwin. He was the Chairman of Infectious Diseases at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, practicing during the 1980s and 90s.
SHARED BY LYNN
GABRIEL
The story is about my brother Hank or Gabriel which he went by in Chicago who died in 1986. He worked at The Bistro in its heyday, the Paradise, and did some modeling in Chicago. While having a zest for life and an unmatched sense of both humor and style, he endured discrimination while bartending and being a gay man in Chicago. He also experienced discrimination when he was ill in the 80's and ambulances would not pick him up since he had AIDs.
Scott & Ellen (1982)
SHARED BY Ellen
My Friend Scott
“I see the medicine commercials on tv, people living with HIV whose viral levels are undetectable. A new life, literally exists now. A new generation is living without the terror and the grief we all suffered through. Prevention of HIV transmission and treatment are both currently available when years earlier, the diagnosis was a death sentence…”
SHARED BY AmY
MY FRIEND KURT
I provided hospice care to my best friend when he was dying of AIDS. Kurt was an incredibly funny, sassy, irreverent, talented, amazing person. He was instrumental in my life, we met when I was 13. The story I’m sharing is about his last words.
SHARED BY Steve
StevE
“This is about me, Steve, who spent many hours on many days at the Belmont Rocks in the mid- to late-seventies. I picked up any number of other men, and I assume I was exposed to HIV during those years before safe sex. I was diagnosed with GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) in 1982…”
SHARED BY TOBIN
APPLES With Honey
“I found out I had HIV when I was taking my roommate to the clinic. Isn’t life always full of surprises at the least opportune moment? For the first time in my life, I had been ill, I had been consistently sick for about five months, and this was the answer. It was the answer to my present circumstances, but, also, the answer to all of my past problems…”
SHARED BY Barbara
Paul
“I sit here writing this on what would have been Paul’s 65th birthday. Of course, he’s forever the handsome, young man in the picture. AIDS robbed his sisters, Denise & Barbara, and nieces, Melissa & Lauren, of this vibrant man…”
SHARED BY Richard
Tamika + William
“In 1984 when the AIDS Pandemic started to garner a lot of attention among adults, children started showing up in hospitals. I got in touch with a woman whose name was mentioned in an article about the children. That is when we decide to create The Children with Aids Project…”
SHARED BY VICKI
The Comic Book anD Movie King: Carl
“He was way too skilled for the administrative assistant job he had at the American Bar Association in Chicago. Carl was smart and funny and connected to people easily. You could imagine him in the role of a researcher. He loved discovering facts and sharing them, whether it be about a Chicago politician or an actor at Second City. He was a natural born investigator.”
SHARED BY Richard
RICHARD
This is the story of the last seven years of my life.
SHARED BY NANCY & CHRIS
ANITA
“In 1983 we had the nicest downstairs neighbors anyone could ever ask for, a mom and her son, about 18 years old. Anita was the best, Brooklyn nice, so sweet…”
Share Your Story
The powerful history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic includes the local slice of life on the Lakefront known as the Belmont Rocks, where memories of loss, laughter, and love run deep for so many.
The AIDS Garden Chicago Story Archive collects personal true stories about HIV/AIDS experiences - from the onset of the disease and beyond - ensuring that these vital stories are preserved for years to come.
Interested in submitting a story to the collection? Email info@chicagoparksfoundation.org, or complete the interest form below to help this digital quilt continue to grow.