IF YOU ARE READING IT, I AM DEAD: THE ART AND ACTIVISM OF DUANE PURYEAR
Sun, Jul 20
|Irving Archives & Museum
Join us as Nino Testa unravels the powerful and little-known story of Duane Puryear’s lost—and lovingly remade—AIDS Memorial Quilt panel, revealing how one man’s art, activism, and family grief became part of a global call to remember.
Time & Location
Jul 20, 2025, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Irving Archives & Museum, 801 W Irving Blvd, Irving, TX 75060, USA
About the event
Part of the "Say It Loud: From the Shadows to the Mainstage" speakert series, activating the groundbreaking LGBTQ+ history exhibition, "Badge Of Pride: From Silence...To Celebration!" at Irving Archives & Museum.
When Duane Puryear, a gay Dallas activist and AIDS educator, decided to make his own panel for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1988, he wanted to make a statement about the value of queer life and the urgency of the political moment; however, his one-of-a-kind panel was lost before he could send it to become part of the AIDS Quilt. After his death in 1991, his parents, Martha and Doug Puryear, re-made the panel as part of their grieving process; this panel is now one of the most routinely displayed panels on the AIDS Quilt. The hidden history of Duane's panel shows us how to understand the Quilt at the nexus of local AIDS activism and global…
