Single Levi Strauss & Co. panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, 1990. Levi Strauss & Co. Archives. Levi Strauss: A History of American Style (installation view) at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, Feb 13–Aug 9, 2020. Photo: Gary Sexton Photography
This June, The CJM is proud to be celebrating Pride Month. But this year, our celebrations feel markedly different; June 2020 arrives in the midst of both a pandemic and a watershed moment for the Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter movements and the struggle against systemic racism and police brutality in the United States. As we observe Pride Month this year, we are particularly reminded of the discrimination and oppression of the LGBTQ+ community out of which the Pride movement arose—including the June 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York following a police raid and police violence. The COVID-19 pandemic and the civil rights movement underway underscore the gravity not only of the Stonewall uprising, but of the AIDS crisis, another pandemic that devastated LGBTQ+ and other communities throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and was exacerbated by systematic and intentional political erasure. What's more, July of this year marks both the completion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt’s return to San Francisco and the 2020 International AIDS Conference, giving additional presence to the epidemic's legacy this summer.
Art is an essential tool in preserving and processing our cultural history. While we celebrate Pride and bear witness to the historical moment in which we are living, we are excited to be able to engage in both celebration and commemoration through the lens of the exhibition Levi Strauss: A History of American Style. The exhibition includes a number of artworks and objects that speak to the history and experience of the LGBTQ+ community, the effects of the AIDS epidemic, and the partnership between the Queer community and Levi Strauss & Co. Perhaps the most moving of these pieces, and one that particularly highlights art's importance in collective mourning, identity, and strength, is the Levi Strauss & Co. panel of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Single Levi Strauss & Co. panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, 1990. Levi Strauss & Co. Archives. Levi Strauss: A History of American Style (installation view) at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, Feb 13–Aug 9, 2020. Photo: Gary Sexton Photography
The idea for the quilt first took shape in 1985, when organizer Cleve Jones and a group of fellow San Franciscans and activists attended a candlelight vigil for Harvey Milk and George Moscone following their assassinations seven years earlier. Those who attended were encouraged to paste the names of friends and loved ones they had lost to AIDS onto the front of the San Francisco Federation Building. As the multicolored signs accumulated, Jones realized that it resembled a quilt. This prompted him to found the NAMES Project and provided the initial inspiration for the quilt, which has grown from a small patchwork to a work comprising more than 50,000 panels commemorating over 105,000 individuals. Today, it is the largest ongoing community folk art project in the world.
In its entirety, the quilt is a powerful reminder not only of the thousands of lives claimed by the disease, but of the human spirit and experiences behind the statistics. At the time the quilt was created, many who died from AIDS did not receive memorials due to social stigma surrounding the epidemic during the 1980s. For many, the AIDS Memorial Quilt became one of the few places where survivors, friends, and family could pay tribute to their loved ones. People around the world began making panels using materials ranging from fabric to personal belongings that commemorated those lost. The quilt became a means of collective mourning and healing that proved especially valuable during a crisis that remained largely ignored at the time; even as the epidemic worsened, many governments—including in the United States—neglected the crisis and refused to support funding for research or treatment.
In 1988, a group of Levi Strauss & Co. employees decided to participate and create a quilt panel to honor their lost friends, family, and colleagues. In addition to the names of those who had died, the panel includes a large denim pocket stitched into the fabric, which employees filled with dozens of letters they had written to their loved ones. Today, the letters remain sealed inside of the pocket—a time capsule of loss.
The decision to create a Levi’s® panel followed years of support from Levi Strauss & Co. for the LGBTQ+ and AIDS-affected communities during a time when dialogue surrounding AIDS was largely shrouded in fear and misinformation. When the epidemic first began to impact the gay community, the company faced the growing threat by openly discussing the disease and its causes and providing comprehensive educational resources to help educate employees and alleviate fear. In 1982, the Levi Strauss Foundation expressed its support of the community financially, becoming the first corporate foundation to address the epidemic by matching gifts to the Kaposi Sarcoma Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.
Another item in the exhibition similarly highlights the possibilities of this kind of allyship. In 2005, Levi Strauss & Co. created a new pair of Torah mantles for Sha’ar Zahav, an LGBTQ+ congregation in San Francisco that was founded in the 1970s. Avi Goldberg, a member of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, was also an employee at Levi Strauss & Co. When the congregation found that their silk Torah mantles—used to cover Torahs when they are not being read—had become worn over time, Goldberg decided to reach out to the company. He contacted the company’s historian, and soon was put in touch with Thom Masat, vice president of the Levi Strauss Signature brand. Masat and design team members Natasha Topol and Meredith Dudley decided to assemble new mantles for the congregation by hand.
The materials they used (including denim, of course!) held special significance for both the Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities in San Francisco. On the front of the Torah covers are handmade panels of raw silk (referencing the original silk covers), with an embroidered design of intersecting rays of light inspired by a Bavarian Torah cover—an acknowledgment of Levi Strauss’s Jewish heritage and Bavarian birthplace. Emblems including the Star of David, the Dove, and the Pomegranate are included in lighter faded denim sourced from a pair of 1977 Levi’s® jeans that were pulled from the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives in commemoration of the year the congregation was founded. A rainbow of flowers was also created for both mantles, made from bandanas that Masat had worn to gay rodeos over the years. The finished products are truly unique pieces that speak volumes about the communities they represent.
Drawings by Avi Goldberg; image courtesy of the artist
These stories remind us of art’s importance in collective identity, mourning, and strength. As we remember, commemorate, and continue to fight for the rights of oppressed communities—particularly those of the Black community and the Queer community (and especially of LGBTQ+ people of color), we hope that these and other stories will continue to inspire and strengthen us. In light of the challenges we are facing, art and expression are more critical than ever in helping us move forward.
Lucy Sims is the Editorial Coordinator at The Contemporary Jewish Museum (The CJM), where she works to ensure that The Museum's content is as engaging, effective, and error-free as possible. Sims graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in English and religious studies, and is passionate about writing, art, and creative expression of all kinds. She is also a tea enthusiast, music-lover, and proponent of Oxford commas.
One of the most impactful items in The CJM’s exhibition Levi Strauss: A History of American Style is a hand-stitched panel of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Created by Levi Strauss & Co. employees, the panel commemorates loved ones and colleagues who died of AIDS. When the epidemic began in the early 1980s, the company openly discussed the disease and its causes with its employees, and was an early leader in AIDS activism. Today, the Levi Strauss Foundation continues to provide financial support for the worldwide fight against AIDS. The quilt panel on display at The CJM represents a small piece of this important and powerful story.
Join Mike Smith, founding member of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and former executive director of the AIDS Emergency Fund, as he discusses the Levi Strauss & Co. quilt panel and the details of the AIDS Memorial Quilt’s return to San Francisco.
