Recent Programs
On June 14, Legends of Drag returned for its third fabulous year, celebrating trailblazing queens who have shaped queer culture for decades. This year’s event also featured The Red Ribbon Revue, a dynamic showcase of HIV-positive performers, bringing together generations in a joyful, defiant celebration of identity, legacy, and resilience. Against a backdrop of renewed attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, the evening stood as a powerful testament to visibility during Pride Month.
The New York City AIDS Memorial and National AIDS Memorial presented a screening of Cashing Out followed a Q&A with director Matt Nadel moderated by filmmaker Sian-Pierre Regis. A festival favorite, Cashing Out explores the morally complex world of viatical settlements during the AIDS crisis, when thousands of queer people sold their life insurance policies to survive. Through intimate stories and a personal connection, the film examines dignity, survival, and the legacy of a forgotten economy.
On June 1, the New York City AIDS Memorial launched Kinfolk: Portals of Remembrance and The Gay Chorus: No Time at All with a public celebration. Visitors explored Kinfolk’s augmented reality artworks and gathered for a live performance by Egyptt LaBeija. The event also introduced The Gay Chorus, a sound installation by Matthew Leifheit featuring archival recordings of gay men’s choruses. Together, the projects opened Pride Month with a moving tribute to queer memory and resilience.
On May 4, the New York City AIDS Memorial presented choreographer Molissa Fenley’s Bardo, a dance work first conceived as an homage to artist Keith Haring that premiered at Haring’s memorial service 35 years ago to the day. Incorporating stillness and movement that evoke a space being repeatedly emptied and filled, Bardo is a reflection on the liminal space between death and birth.
During these two days of artist-focused Community AIDS Memorial Quilt-Making Workshops at the School of Visual Arts, led by Daniele Frazier, with the National AIDS Memorial’s Gert McMullin in March 2025, we created new quilt panels for members of the creative community lost to AIDS, including Martin Wong, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Ching Ho Cheng.
Broadway Revisited was a benefit cabaret directed by Rob Ashford and hosted by Tony Goldwyn and featuring performances by Christine Ebersole, J. Harrison Ghee, Jason Robert Brown, Sophia Anne Caruso, Duncan Sheik, Debra Monk, Kevin William Paul, Sierra Boggess, Sean Donovan, Jimin Moon, DeMarius R. Copes, Ashley Day, Tyler Eisenreich, Solea Pfeiffer, Peter Cincotti, John Pizzarelli, Isabel Leonard, and Wes Oliver at Joe’s Pub.
Visit the Memorial
The New York City AIDS Memorial is located at the corner of Greenwich Avenue and West 12 Street in New York’s historic West Village.
By Subway/Bus
Take the 1 2 3 F or M trains to 14th Street, the L train to 6th or 8th Avenue, or the A C or E trains to 8th Avenue. Nearest buses: M7, 14A, 14D, and M20. Learn more at the MTA→
Parking
There is no official parking available at the New York City AIDS Memorial, but there are multiple paid parking and street parking locations in the surrounding neighborhood
Directions
Recent News & Press
In a newly commissioned work, Matthew Leifheit’s “The Gay Chorus: No Time at All,” culled from recordings made at the height of the AIDS crisis, plays through speakers nestled in the New York City AIDS Memorial. Erik Piepenburg talks with the artist about the project in the New York Times. This moving installation can be heard at the Memorial through June 30, 2025.
June is Pride Month, which means New York’s queer community is ready to party and—more than ever this year—stand up for their rights. At a time when the trans community is under attack across the country and even in our forward-looking city, displays of joy, resistance, and community are more essential than ever. Time Out NY mentions two New York City AIDS Memorial events: Legends of Drag and Kinfolk: Portals of Remembrance.
For the June issue of The Art Newspaper, New York City AIDS Memorial executive director Dave Harper penned an op-ed on the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ communities and culture. He writes: “Pride means more than a party, parade or performative allyship; it means committing to community care and remembrance…Organisations that preserve LGBTQ+ history, memory and culture must take on a powerful role: not just to remember, but to resist.”
Congratulations to New York City AIDS Memorial Board Members Ethan Geto and Tucker Woods for their inclusion on the inaugural City & State 2025 Pride Trailblazers list, which highlights the LGBTQ+ advocates and executives who are fighting back.
The New York City AIDS Memorial and the National AIDS Memorial are presenting this free screening of Matt Nadel’s short documentary about “AIDS profiteering” during the early ’90s, when dying patients sold their life-insurance policies for money up front to speculators who’d cash them out for their full value after a death.
In his sound installation “The Gay Chorus: No Time at All,” the artist Matthew Leifheit gathered archival recordings of gay men’s choirs from around the country from the decade before effective H.I.V./AIDS treatments. The result, edited from footage on 53 VHS tapes, is an hourlong “recital” that will loop daily at the New York City AIDS Memorial in the West Village daily throughout June.
The NYC AIDS Memorial—a landmark stop on the NYC Pride March and a powerful site of remembrance—will host community programming throughout June. The memorial holds deep historical significance for the city’s LGBTQIA+ community, particularly for those still affected by the AIDS epidemic.
In this review of new exhibitions and publications of the artist Scott Burton, writer Jarrett Earnest writes about Burton’s radical artistic vision, and mentions that “the artist Oscar Tuazon, in collaboration with…the NYC AIDS Memorial, will unveil a revitalized version of Burton’s final public work, created for the fishing piers in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in 1994—a combination of perforated steel benches, wooden ottomans, light posts, and wind vanes…”
A message from the leaders of AIDS memorials and monuments in San Francisco, New York, and West Hollywood regarding the recent freeze on US foreign aid. We strongly urge the Administration to resume funding immediately and to allow this lifesaving medication to be delivered without delay and the Congress to take all action within its authority to ensure that funding already authorized by federal law continues to flow without interruption.
In this report from Sveriges Radio (Sweden), New York City AIDS Memorial Executive Director Dave Harper speaks about the various ways to keep the legacy of the AIDS epidemic alive.
New Yorkers joined memorials, marches, and readings at several gatherings around the city in commemoration of World AIDS Day, which is observed annually on Dec. 1 [and] continued on Dec. 2 with a reading of the names of people lost to AIDS.
NY1 spent some time at the New York City AIDS Memorial for our observance of World AIDS Day and reading of names on December 2, 2024.
Dave Harper, executive director of the New York City Aids Memorial, joined anchor Rocco Vertuccio "Weekends on 1" Saturday morning to discuss World AIDS Day events happening Sunday in the five boroughs.
Gay City News writes about activist and Out of the Darkness vigil organizer Brent Nicholson Earle. “Brent is an exemplary activist whose spirit of community and caring just warrants a celebration of his work,” Harper said. “I think it’s important that we gather each World AIDS Day to remember and reflect on what the community has been through.”
Events will be taking place in New York City to mark World AIDS Day, which is commemorated annually on Dec. 1 to bring awareness to HIV/AIDS internationally, acknowledge those living with HIV/AIDS, and pay tribute to the lives lost over the years. The New York City AIDS Memorial is leading a free public observance of World AIDS Day with two days of programming.
Each year, on December 1, the world gathers to remember those lost to and impacted by HIV/AIDS and champion the ongoing fight against the epidemic. To commemorate World AIDS Day, the New York City AIDS Memorial will host its annual, free, and public observance featuring two days of programming in collaboration with organizations dedicated to bringing communities together in the fight to end HIV/AIDS.
This review of Scott Burton: Shape Shift at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis mentions Oscar Tuazon’s upcoming Scott Burton project to be installed at the New York City AIDS Memorial next autumn.
The Los Angeles-based artist Oscar Tuazon, together with the gallery Kasmin and the New York City AIDS Memorial, is breathing new life into one of Burton’s final public artworks: an array of lights, flag poles, weathervanes and ottomans on the fishing piers in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn…Tuazon plans to transform them into a new work, “Eternal Flame for Scott Burton,” which is expected to be installed at the NYC AIDS Memorial in fall 2025.
In this New York Times preview by Joshua Barone, a look is taken at Philip Glass’s Fourth String Quartet, written after the death of the artist Brian Buczak, which will be performed at the New York City AIDS Memorial on October 27, 2024.
This story about gay rights pioneer Arnie Kantrowitz's posthumously published new book, "Song of Myself: A Novel" interviews his partner Dr. Larry Mass at the New York City AIDS Memorial.
Though he died at the age of 37 due to AIDS complications, David Wojnarowicz left a powerful legacy of avant-garde artmaking, passionate LGBTQ+ and disability activism, and withstanding friendships — all of which will be commemorated at the New York City AIDS Memorial Park. To celebrate what would have been the trailblazing artist’s 70th birthday, the NYC AIDS Memorial has partnered with the David Wojnarowicz Foundation, Visual AIDS, and PPOW Gallery for an interdisciplinary remembrance event on Saturday night, September 14.
“I discovered that making an object, whether it was a drawing or a story, meant making something that spoke even if I was silent,” David Wojnarowicz wrote in his renowned 1991 memoir Close to the Knives. Throughout his life, the artist, writer, and activist used art to express himself amidst societal oppression. Today, Wojnarowicz’s voice remains––powerful and resonant––long after his death.
Events across Manhattan will pay tribute to the late artist through readings, film screenings, music, and a candlelit procession. Saturday evening (14 September) will be a staging of Wojnarowicz’s The Waterfront Journals monologues at the New York City Aids Memorial in Greenwich Village.
In this article on the Miami AIDS Memorials Project (MAMP), author Theodore Kerr writes about AIDS Memorial’s strategies for community enagement. He says, “Leaning into community engagement is foundational to the history of AIDS memorials...More recently, organizations like the New York City AIDS Memorial have offered a robust calendar of programming to ensure people are visiting the memorial, both to remember loved ones who have passed away and to honor the fact that AIDS is not over.”
Holland Cotter writes: “Closer to home there was…a stirring lament of a public sculpture, called “Craig’s Closet” by the American artist Jim Hodges, installed in the park adjacent to the New York City AIDS Memorial. In part thanks to its placement near the memorial, the piece kept personal and political content in subtle sync, in an image that spoke of lives we had and have, lives we lost and are still losing, and lives we need to fight not to forget.”
To kick off Pride Month, the New York City AIDS Memorial and the Whitney Museum hosted the second annual Legends of Drag on June 5.
Community members joined together at the New York City AIDS Memorial on June 13 to remember the life of Kathy Ottersten, an out trans ACT UP veteran who died in January.
The New York City AIDS Memorial’s June 15 program, A Remembrance, as well as our newly inaugurated bench dedication program, were featured on NY1, with commentary by New York City AIDS Memorial Board Member Eric Sawyer and activist Michelle Lopez.
A profile on Egyptt LaBeija, one of the fierce performers featured in Legends of Drag, hosted by the NYC AIDS Memorial and the Whitney Museum on June 5, 2024.
The second annual Legends of Drag revue occurred at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is an event to honor trailblazing drag queen elders who have been leaders in their communities. The queen elders were kicking out their heels and collecting dollars for their performances at the event organized by the New York City AIDS Memorial.
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Banner Photograph courtesy of “Legends of Drag” (Cernunnos, 2022) by Harry James Hanson & Devin Antheus, © 2022. Illustrations: Kinfolk/Chorus opening reception images by Sam Clarke; Bardo photography © Julie Lemberger; Quilt Workshop photography by Alexander Sargent;