AIDS Quilt UK - Wakefield
The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt left London for Wakefield for the first time since 1994, arriving in Wakefield as a powerful act of remembrance and solidarity; the Quilt—now comprising 43 quilts and 24 individual panels representing over 500 people lost to HIV/AIDS, saw 43 blocks displayed at Wakefield Exchange, The Art House, Theatre Royal and several partner venues across the city.
NEW AIDS QUILT: WAD25
For World AIDS Day 2025 I undertook an eight‑week challenge to create eight new AIDS panels, each a piece of a single 12 ft by 12 ft display‑ready quilt intended to join the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt. The panels commemorated individuals featured in my podcast "AIDS: The Lost Voices" individual names, dates and symbols chosen to reflect lives, activism and the quieter moments lost to the epidemic.
AIDS: THE LOST VOICES
Martin Johnson met the late Diana, Princess of Wales on her first visit to the UK’s first AIDS hospice in February 1989. But no stranger to the press Martin was ‘outed’ as a gay man when subject to a police “raid” which saw him arrested along with 36 of his birthday guests in 1982. Accused of hosting an “orgy” Martin put his case before the European Court of Human Rights.