William Way LGBT Community Center Announces Gone and For Ever Memorial Exhibition to Remember Abandoned Philadelphians That Died of AIDS

The William Way LGBT Community Center and artist/entrepreneur Alex Stadler have teamed up to collaborate on a special exhibition and public memorial service for those lost in the early AIDS pandemic in the city of Philadelphia. Gone and For Ever, part of Remembrance, will remember and honor those who died in our region dating back to the early 1980s. Stadler and collaborating artists have created a one-of-a-kind artist-made exhibition to be displayed at the Center (1315 Spruce Street) during Philly Gay Pride Month, from June 21-24, leading up to the piece’s culminating public memorial on June 25.

Following a musical and spoken memorial ceremony at the Center, the audience will join a street procession, with the urns carried to The Church of Saint Luke & The Epiphany, including blessings over the memories of these people by a multi-denominational group of faith leaders led by Reverend Jeffery Haskins. The memorial ceremony will be livestreamed for those not able to be inside in person for the event.

In September 1981, Philadelphia identified its first documented case of what became known as AIDS. Memories of the terror and bravery of the early years of the crisis have faded, and indeed are difficult to imagine for those who did not experience them. Fear and stigma became their own pandemic, and led to abandonment of some - by friends, family and society at large - during their dying and in their deaths. Amidst the uncertainty and fear of contagion that were so prevalent, only a few Philadelphia area funeral directors were willing to accept the bodies of those lost to AIDS, and to this day, some ashes remain unclaimed.

Artist/entrepreneur Alex Stadler conceived of a collaborative artist-made funeral that would remember and honor individuals who were in some way abandoned in their dying or death. He imagined structures and art forms associated with memorial traditions – elegies, music, shrouds, mourning and processional costume, funeral urns. This vision, Gone and For Ever, is one part of a broader initiative coordinated by William Way LGBT Community Center and its John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives and is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Additional Remembrance components include an expanded archive of oral histories from that time, building from the project’s listening tour, and an original play inspired by the oral histories.

“I think of Gone and For Ever as a small repair to the social fabric of the past,” said Alex Stadler. “Although this project was conceived pre-COVID, the current pandemic underscores the need for compassion when a society is confronting widespread illness, including the continuing impact of AIDS.”

As the exhibition curator and organizer, Stadler has commissioned and selected works from a diverse and accomplished group of artists, including composer Kinan Abou-afach, sculptor/textile artist Liz Collins, and costumers Claire Fleury and The Henry, with ceramic urns by Stadler himself. Work from writers Melvin Dixon, Christopher Coe and Reinaldo Arenas, all of whom passed away in the early years of the pandemic, will bring voices from that time.

“As part of our larger Remembrance project to memorialize those lost to HIV/AIDS in Philadelphia, ‘Gone and For Ever’, led by artist Alex Stadler, will serve as a solemn and profound moment for our communities to reflect on those we have lost, the importance of saying their names aloud, and seeking to never forget the lives they lived. ‘Gone and For Ever’ builds on the strength of other profound elements in the alternative memorial, including the community listening sessions and world premiere theatre performance for a truly inclusive, city-wide Philadelphia tribute,” said Chris Bartlett, Executive Director, William Way LGBT Community Center.

In addition to Gone and For Ever, Remembrance also includes community listening sessions and a world premiere theater performance, "These Don't Easily Scatter," by Obie Award Winning director and writer, Ain Gordon.

Some of the works in Gone and For Ever will be available for experience at William Way LGBT Community Center during Gay Pride Month from June 21-24 (check the William Way LGBT Community Center website www.waygay.org for official hours.) This exhibition will lead up to the piece’s culminating public memorial on June 25 at 3:00pm. The ceremony will be held inside the Center and requires registration in advance (limited space), vaccination card checks, and masking, due to COVID. The ceremony will be available via livestream. Following the musical and spoken ceremony at the Center, the audience will join a street procession, with the urns carried to The Church of Saint Luke & The Epiphany, where there will be blessings over the memories of these people by a multi-denominational group of faith leaders. The procession is open to all, starting at approximately 3:45pm. Stadler and the Center also invite submissions of names for inclusion in the memorial procession. Names can be submitted through Instagram at @alexstadlerartwork. Stadler will hand-write all submitted names on slips of paper, which will be burned and the ashes carried in the urns.

For more information on Gone and For Ever, please visit www.waygay.org.com/remembrance and on Instagram at @alexstadlerartwork. For more about William Way LGBT Community Center, please visit www.waygay.org and @waygayphilly.

Like the dew on the mountain,

Like the foam on the river,
Like the bubble on the fountain,
Thou art gone and for ever!

“Coronach”
Sir Walter Scott

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Collaborating Artists - Living

Alex Stadler (urns) Alex Stadler is a multidisciplinary artist, author, illustrator, textile designer and curator. At stadler-Kahn, his hybrid gallery/design laboratory in Philadelphia, he produced numerous exhibits over a six-year period, featuring mid-career and emerging local artists and designers. Elsewhere in Philadelphia, he has curated shows at The Art Alliance, The Clay Studio and The Independence Seaport Museum, as well as a pop-up shop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, featuring work from 40 Philadelphia-based artists and designers. Stadler has written and illustrated a dozen books for children and adults, always dealing with themes of emotional intelligence and problem-solving. Stadler has created public artwork for Reading Terminal Market and Comcast Towers, and for Saks 5th Avenue's flagship store in New York City. As a textile designer, he created his own stadler-Kahn line of scarves and blankets. He has collaborated with Todd Oldham, Whoopi Goldberg, GapKids and Comme des Garçons. Stadler holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. A longtime Philadelphia resident, he currently lives in Maine.

Kinan Abou-afach (original chamber music) Kinan Abou-afach is an acclaimed cellist, oud player, composer, and recipient of a Pew Fellowship in 2013. The Syrian-born musician began his musical studies at the Arabic Institute of Music in Damascus, where he eventually joined the National Syrian Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Middle Eastern Ensemble. He holds a Bachelor’s Degrees in cello and oud performance from the Higher Institute of Music and a Master’s Degree in Cello Performance from DePaul University School of Music. As a composer, Abou-afach crafts music that is saturated with unique scales, rhythmic grooves, and improvisation-esque progressions, keeping with some traditions while sounding contemporary. He works on creating a sound based loosely on the Arabic modal traditions known as maqam, while using elements from the western traditions (Classical, Jazz, Electronic, Musique concrète). He has composed for concerts, as well as film, live theater and live visual art.

Liz Collins (shrouds) Liz Collins works fluidly between art and design, with emphasis and expertise in textile media. Embracing abstraction, optics, and extreme material contrasts, Collins explores the boundaries between painting, fiber arts and installation, intuitively laying bare expressions of energy, emotion, and the viscereality of existence. Collins has had solo exhibitions at the Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY; Candice Madey, LMAK, BGSQD, and Heller galleries in NYC; AMP Gallery, Provincetown, MA; and the Knoxville Museum of Art in Tennessee. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions including at the Drawing Center, ICA/Boston, Leslie Lohman Museum, the New Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, MoMA, Addison Gallery, RISD Museum, September, Sargents Daughters, Kristin Hellegerde, Rossana Orlandi and many more. Collins’ awards include a USA Fellowship, a MacColl Johnson Fellowship, Drawing Center Open Sessions, and residencies at Siena Art Institute, MacDowell, Haystack, Yaddo, and the Museum of Arts and Design. Collections include Addison Gallery, Estee Lauder, Fidelity, FIT Museum, JP Morgan Chase, Microsoft, Museum of Arts and Design, and RISD Museum. Forthcoming in 2022, Collins will have a solo show at Luis de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, and a solo exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale in England guest curated by art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson.

Claire Fleury (processional garments) Claire Fleury spent twenty years directing, writing and performing for theater, mainly in Europe, before moving to New York City from Amsterdam in 2011, when she started designing costumes and fashion for nightlife performers and dance companies. Fleury has created shows for Fashion Week Brooklyn, The Phluid Project, DapperQ at the Brooklyn Museum, and most recently Ready to Dance, featuring Afrofuturist musical artists The Illustrious Blacks and former Warhol superstar and political poet Penny Arcade. Her first three collections were sold at Patricia Field, the eponymous shop of the Sex and the City stylist. Fleury’s work can be seen in Vogue Italia, Paper Magazine, Schön Magazine, Lucy’s Magazine, New York Times and other publications. Fleury’s vision is radically inclusive, with colors, cuts and patterns not assigned to a single gender, body type, age or season. Her studio is committed to a sustainable practice of using at least 80% of industry surplus fabrics and trims. Fleury holds a BFA from The School for New Dance Development and an MFA from DasArts (The Amsterdam School of Advanced Research in Theatre and Performing Arts), both in the Netherlands.

The Henry (processional garments) The Henry has served as Art Director for fashion brand and manga publisher Massive Goods. He has designed leather goods, jewelry and other accessories for Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs, Philip Lim and Alexander Lang, and was accessories designer for As Four. The Henry has designed costumes for Academy Award-nominated singer/songwriter Anohni, among other clients. He holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. His studio is in New York City.

Artists - Passed

Reinaldo Arenas (author) Reinaldo Arenas was a Cuban-born poet, novelist, essayist and playwright. Following periods of imprisonment, he left Cuba in 1980, as part of the Mariel boatlift. His autobiography Before Night Falls was on the New York Times 1993 list of top ten books and was later made into a film starring Javier Bardem in an Oscar-nominated role. Other notable works of fiction were set in Cuba, such as Farewell to the Sea and Singing from the Well. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, Arenas died in 1990 at age 47, following an intentional drug overdose and leaving a suicide note:

Due to my delicate state of health and to the terrible depression that causes me not to be able to continue writing and struggling for the freedom of Cuba, I am ending my life ... I want to encourage the Cuban people abroad as well as on the Island to continue fighting for freedom. ... Cuba will be free. I already am.

Christopher Coe (author) Christopher Coe graduated from Columbia University and lived between Manhattan and Paris. He was the author of two novels, I Look Divine published in 1987 and Such Times published in 1993, as well as numerous short stories. He died of AIDS in 1994 at age 41.

Melvin Dixon (author) Melvin Dixon authored two collections of poetry, two novels, a textbook and a posthumous collection of essays. He was also a translator of French literature. He earned a BA from Wesleyan University and a PhD from Brown University. He was a Professor of Literature at Queens College from 1980 until his death due to complications from AIDS in 1992, at age 42. “Melvin Dixon explored what it meant to be a gay African American man with an openness and honesty that was both celebrated and criticized.” (LegacyProjectChicago.org).

About The William Way LGBT Center

The William Way LGBT Community Center (the Center) is a nonprofit organization located in Center City Philadelphia. Founded in 1974 as the hub of LGBT community in the Delaware Valley, the Center proudly serves the LGBTQIA+ population. The Center seeks to engage and support the diverse LGBTQIA+ communities in the greater Philadelphia area through arts & culture, empowerment, and community connections. William Way LGBT Community Center wants all LGBTQIA+ people to feel safe, connected, and empowered. The Center strives to be a community center whose staff, management, and board reflect the vibrant and richly diverse communities we serve. To learn more, visit www.waygay.org.

About the Remembrance Memorial

Remembrance: an experiential, alternative memorial to Philadelphians and the HIV/AIDS crisis is made possible through funding by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. While many HIV/AIDS memorials across the country are largely physical in structure and designed as monuments and places one can visit, Remembrance is a memorial experience with its civic and theatrical performances, oral histories, designed in partnership with artists, activists, and community leaders. To learn more, visit: www.waygay.org/remembrance.