NYC AIDS Memorial

I remember when the AIDS epidemic first began. It was a mystery illness and it was hitting gay men in large numbers.

The center of much of the news coverage back then was Greenwich Village in New York City and St. Vincent’s Hospital which, because of its location, became a center of care and research into how to combat the disease.

In 2016, a memorial to the victims of AIDS was erected at the site of the former hospital at the corner of West 12th Street and Greenwich Avenue.

The memorial forms a canopy at one corner of a public park. The open spaces of the canopy create a pattern of shadows beneath that highlight the words of a poem by Walt Whitman which is carved into stone. You can learn more by visiting the memorial’s website.