The memorial’s inscription reads: ‘I
can sail without wind, I can row without oars, but I cannot part from
my friend without tears.’
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By TRENTON STRAUBE
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Arriving 27 years after the discovery of AIDS and after nearly 100,000 local deaths from the disease, New York City’s first AIDS monument will be dedicated on Nov. 30, the day before World AIDS Day.
Located on the Hudson River Park at Bank Street, the memorial is a 42-foot long, 2-foot tall, 12-inch deep curved granite bench. An inscription on the side facing the river says: “I can sail without wind, I can row without oars, but I cannot part from my friend without tears.”
Ground-level plaques on either side read: “This site is dedicated to those whose lives have been ever changed by AIDS. Remembering those who died, may we, the living, speak for their silence.”
The main inscription derives from a Finnish epic poem and folk song, explained Michael Sypulski, one of the five remaining members of the AIDS Memorial Project (AMP), which worked for 14 years to see the monument completed. Sypulski came across the phrase in a New York Times article about a Finnish teacher in an inner city school. “It seemed appropriate for a site by the water,” he said. “It seemed natural.”
In fact, the AMP chose the site, nestled within a grassy knoll of pine trees, because it allows for reflection and contemplation. It also overlooks the piling remnants of Pier 49. “As the tides change, water covers 90 percent of the pier at certain times of day,” Sypulski explained. “It reminds you of the passing of time: The day passes, the day dies, the day is born again.”
That the piers were a fabled meeting place for gay men—particularly during the decades before AIDS hit in the 1980s—and that today the city’s LGBT youth congregate along the newly developed piers only add resonance to the monument’s site.
The memorial cost about $87,000. But one of the main hurdles was finding a location. One proposal was a triangular patch of space in Union Square on 14th Street, but that was deemed too congested. Then in 2005, the Hudson River Park Trust offered the Pier 49 site. The following year, Community Board 2 approved the plan, which was designed site-specific.
The city’s parks department, the Hudson River Park Trust, LGBT organizations such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Bailey House, architects and landscape artists all contributed input on the final design, explained AMP president Lawrence Swehla.
Over the years, groups such as Dignity, a Catholic LGBT organization; Gay Male S/M Activists; and Time Warner contributed funds. But when Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer set aside $40,000 to the project, Swehla said, “he kicked the whole thing into reality.”
The AIDS Memorial Project at one time consisted of 11 members, some straight, some gay, from various professions, but all New Yorkers who lost dozens of loved ones to AIDS. The other three remaining members include Deborah Foley, Michael LaPlaca and Andrew Marber.
“The project certainly has been a part of our lives, so a little piece of me will miss it,” Swehla said, “I know we’re biased, but we think it’s beautiful.”
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