AIDS Day Raises Student Awareness

Harvard students and staff joined an international effort yesterday to raise public awareness about AIDS on the fifth annual World AIDS Day.

The Women's Street Theatre Project gave two performances of a six minute skit in front of the Science Center. The skit addressed common misconceptions about AIDS.

"We tried to portray a lot of different voices and reactions to AIDS," said Ilana S. Ruskay '94, a member of the Project. "We were trying to be informative as well as provocative."

Nearby, during the Rev. Jesse Jackson's speech in front of University Hall, members of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students Association (BGLSA) handed out red ribbons, symbols of support for people with AIDS. BGLSA members said they hoped the AIDS crisis would receive the same attention year-round as it gets on December 1, the day set aside each year as World AIDS Day.

"This is not to suggest that everyone wears a ribbon today and then forgets about it," said John A. Frazier '95, co-chair of the BGLSA.

The BGLSA also distributed ribbons in some of the College dining halls during dinner last night.

Faculty and staff members covered a student art exhibit in the Carpenter Center lobby with white paper to make yesterday a "Day Without Art." Visual AIDS, a group of New York artists and arts professionals, had asked citizens nationwide to enforce an aesthetically barren day to draw public attention to the AIDS crisis.

In the Fogg Art Museum, curators set up an altar in the courtyard to honor people whose lives have been impacted by AIDS. During the day, relatives and friends of people with AIDS left flowers, notes, pictures and drawings on the blue altar, which will be on display through December 4.

"We thought the altar installation was a particularly nice thing because it was open to the entire community," said Marian A. Myszykowski, the museum's coordinator of member and public programs.

Demonstrations at Harvard mirrored shows ofsupport worldwide. In Copenhagen, Denmark,demonstrators dressed in Santa Claus costumes anddanced around an enormous condom in Town HallSquare.

And protestors in London's Trafalgar Square setup a 17-foot replica of a condom to draw attentionto condom use as the most effective way ofavoiding the spread of AIDS.

This story was compiled with wiredispatches.

Demonstrations at Harvard mirrored shows ofsupport worldwide. In Copenhagen, Denmark,demonstrators dressed in Santa Claus costumes anddanced around an enormous condom in Town HallSquare.

And protestors in London's Trafalgar Square setup a 17-foot replica of a condom to draw attentionto condom use as the most effective way ofavoiding the spread of AIDS.

This story was compiled with wiredispatches.