IF YOU ARE READING IT, I AM DEAD: The Art and Activism of Duane Puryear

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 AIDS memorial. Through a series of oral history interviews and archival research, Nino Testa will re-trace the story of Duane's unforgettable panel and the legacy of his art and activism.

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Nino Testa, Ph.D., is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Women's Institute at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. He will begin as a Teaching Assistant Professor in Women and Gender Studies at West Virginia University in the fall. His research focuses on histories of queer arts as activism. He is a former board member of The Dallas Way: An LGBTQ History Project and served on the Badge of Pride Exhibition Advisory Committee.

You may also like the following events from Badge Of Pride:

• This Friday, 20th June, 06:00 pm, Badge Of Pride + Pride Museum of Texas Oral History Pop-Up in Dallas
• Next Wednesday, 25th June, 07:00 pm, Legendary Children | An Evening With TOM+LORENZO in Dallas
• Next month, 26th July, 10:00 am, July Community Activation Day in Irving

Also check out other Arts events in Irving, Exhibitions in Irving.