Coverage of our June 20 events, including the opening of Eternal Flame for Scott Burton and Pride Open House in Gay City News with photographs by Donna Aceto.

Next to the New York City AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village, Oscar Tuazon’s “Eternal Flame for Scott Burton” reaches into the sky as a beacon. The starlit sentinel honors the life and work of the American artist, who died in 1989 at age 50 from AIDS-related complications, by reimagining his last public sculpture. Tuazon unveiled the work earlier this week during a joyful celebration in honor of Burton’s legacy, complete with drag performances, music, and an abundance of flowers.

The Guardian writes about cuts to HIV/AIDS funding and our June 5 candlelight vigil, rally and march, organized as a part of Seven Days in June with partners including ACT UP, Callen-Lorde, Citizen Action of New York, Defend Public Health-NY, Housing Works, Metro New York Health Care for All, Physicians for a National Health Program, PrEP4All, Rise and Resist, and Treatment Action Group (TAG).

For T Magazine’s Instagram, Jameson Montgomery profiles Oscar Tuazon’s new project, Eternal Flame for Scott Burton, featuring the debut of its installation photography.

Christina Stanton writes about our new commission, which reimagines a piece by sculptor and performance artist Scott Burton, whose benches, chairs, and table-like forms were never meant to be viewed at a distance. They were meant to be sat on, lingered with, folded into everyday life — an ethos of use and connection that animates the new work as well.

A new sculpture honoring the life and work of Scott Burton—one of America’s most influential 20th-century sculptors, whose art offered both beauty and utility—is set to open to the public this week at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Manhattan.

Activists, including members of ACT UP and other groups, held a vigil and die-in on June 5 in observance of Long-Term HIV/AIDS Survivors Awareness Day and the 45th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first report on the epidemic. The event started at the NYC AIDS Memorial before folks marched to the Stonewall Inn for the die-in.

Oscar Tuazon’s new commission for the New York City AIDS Memorial—Eternal Flame for Scott Burton—receives a spot in the Highbrow-Brilliant quadrant of New York Magazine’s “Approval Matrix.”

Annabel Keenan writes: “Tuazon, whose practice melds elements of architecture, social engagement and conceptual sculpture, first became interested in Burton’s work as an art student in New York in the 1990s. “The dual nature of his sculptures–at once publicly visible and deeply private–seemed like a secret hidden in plain sight,” Tuazon says. His commission for the Aids Memorial reimagines Burton’s landmark installation for the Sheepshead Bay fishing piers in Brooklyn.”

NY1’s Louis Finley reports on how New York City marked 45 years since the discovery of HIV/AIDS at the AIDS Memorial on June 5 amid rising infection rates and proposed federal funding cuts that threaten treatment access. While modern advancements like PrEP and telemedicine have made prevention possible, advocates warn that systemic barriers and budget battles continue to disproportionately impact vulnerable communities.

The New York City AIDS Memorial has revealed its schedule of Pride events for June. The memorial, which holds deep historical significance for the LGBTQIA+ community, is a notable stop on the NYC Pride March and an important site for remembrance and dialogue.

Hundreds of people brought candles to New York City’s historic Christopher Street on Friday afternoon for a vigil marking 45 years since the first reported cases of AIDS and protesting cuts to HIV care and public health programs.

NY1 reports on the candlelight vigil, rally, and march at the New York City AIDS Memorial on June 5, 2026, marking HIV/AIDS Long Term Survivors Awareness Day, the 45th anniversary of the first reports of AIDS, and the Seven Days in June national campaign against healthcare cuts.

Slowly but surely, Scott Burton, the late American sculptor whose work bridged high design and public utility, is receiving his due. In late 2024, the survey show “Scott Burton: Shape Shift” began touring the U.S. Now, a series of benches and lamps he designed for the piers of Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York, have been reimagined and will be installed in the city’s AIDS Memorial at St. Vincent’s Triangle.

The NYC AIDS Memorial is a site of tribute and quiet reflection, which is also often activated through contemporary art commissions, most recently three “virtual monuments” by artists Derek Fordjour, Egyptt LaBeija & Tourmaline, and Jacolby Satterwhite, all centering Black and Brown figures and history.

POZ Magazine does a recap of 2025 World AIDS Day programs around the country, including at the New York City AIDS Memorial.

New Yorkers marked World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 at several different locations, including the New York City AIDS Memorial, where folks gathered for a candlelight vigil, march, and Reading of the Names of individuals lost to AIDS.

On World AIDS Day, dozens gathered in the cold at the New York City AIDS Memorial in Greenwich Village, listening as names of the dead filled the park. NY1 speaks with Housing Works’ Valerie Reyes-Jimenez, who co-organizes the Reading of the Names for World AIDS Day at the New York City AIDS Memorial.

Dave Harper, the executive director of the New York City AIDS Memorial, joined Annika Pergament on “The Rush Hour” on Monday, December 1, to talk about events happening related to World AIDS Day and current threats to funding by the Trump administration.

A new order is stepping up in the West Village — but the spirit of defiant queer activism in the face of adversity lives on.  The NYC (dis)Order of Sisters, a chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, will, for the first time, lead the candlelit vigil at the 34th annual Out of the Darkness commemoration of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, succeeding longtime activist Brent Nicholson Earle.