Jeff Bosacki took a trip to Europe in 1987, treating it as one last hurrah — he expected to die soon from his HIV diagnosis.
However, it led him to something worth fighting for. When he returned to the United States, he went to Washington, D.C., when the AIDS Memorial Quilt was first displayed in its entirety on the National Mall. Comprised of nearly 2,000 panels at that time, the quilt was meant to draw attention to the AIDS crisis and honor those who died. The display also coincided with the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.
"The idea was a panel that was supposed to represent the size of a coffin, 3-feet-by-6-feet," said Bosacki, who now lives in Palm Springs. As chapter organizations were formed so that AIDS quilts could be made across the country, Bosacki got involved with various groups, and even traveled to African and Caribbean countries to provide educational work.
Nearly 40 years later, he's still here and guiding people through the quilt-making process, most recently at the LGBTQ Community Center of The Desert in Palm Springs. A small group of residents have come together to honor deceased loved ones ahead of World AIDS Day on Monday, Dec. 1. Coachella Valley residents will have an opportunity to see their finished works on display in the Center's lobby throughout the month of December.
Remembering a friend
Bosacki has made around 10 panels of his own over the years (though he's helped make hundreds), but his most recent one is dedicated to his late best friend, Keith Landau, who died at the age of 25 in 1987. He was one of Bosacki's first friends to die from HIV/AIDS.
He wanted to incorporate as much as he could about his late friend on a 6-by-12-foot gray fabric, which he said was Landau's favorite color. Landau was very passionate about his advertising work at Taco Bell, and Bosacki wanted to incorporate the company's famous logo onto his panel. He also jotted down a number of things that his late friend loved, including pot, barbecue, travel and change.
"He was one of the first corporate people I met that when change (happened) at a corporation like Taco Bell or PepsiCo, it was big," Bosacki said. "He loved that idea of coming up with an idea, a change of attitude, change of how the public saw a product. He was keen on that."
He admitted the panel has been sitting in his closet for some time, and the issue has been finding a company that can put a picture of his friend on a piece of fabric so that it's easier to sew onto the quilt. Looking at a picture from the late '80s of himself, Landau and two other friends, Bosacki said he is the only one who is still alive today.
After contracting a sexually transmitted disease in 1978, Bosacki, who lived in San Francisco at the time, was enrolled in a hepatitis B study, where he had a blood sample frozen. In the mid-1980s, he was contacted about getting his blood sample tested for HIV, and after he granted them permission, he learned that he was positive.
In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionreportedon the first five cases of what would be known as AIDS. However,researchindicates that HIV passed from the Caribbean to New York in the early 1970s before outbreaks began in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Over the years, Bosacki took some of the first medications available for HIV treatment, such as AZT, but he said it was "too toxic" for him. He was healthy, but he felt his body was getting weaker. It got so bad at one point that he had to ask people to help carry him down from the top floor of his apartment building.
He was later also diagnosed with Reiter's syndrome, or reactive arthritis, and said he felt better months after starting medication. Today, he continues to take his daily HIV medication and said he has an undetectable viral load.
"I have very few friends from the '80s that are still with us," Bosacki said. For those who lived through the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many have experiencedAIDS Survivor Syndrome, a type of trauma as a result. Though Bosacki is filled with a number of emotions whenever he thinks back to the friends he lost, he said he "never got" AIDS Survivor Syndrome, mainly because he "had some good support, and my family was pretty supportive."
Finding the courage to quilt
There's a common trend Bosacki has noticed among the small group of people making AIDS quilt panels at The Center.
"All the participants have lost people 10 to 20 years ago, and they just have never wanted to make it," he said.
One woman started a panel 10 years ago, he said, but she "didn't have that final energy to complete it." Another person's partner died 25 years ago, but he never had the courage to make a panel before. Bosacki called that project "gorgeous," as the crafter is decorating the panel with lots of leaves, a nod to their time spent together on the East Coast during the autumn.
Each panel-making workshop is different from the next. When he traveled to Jamaica in the past, in addition to making quilts, he provided sex education to women, many of whom were sex workers. In some countries, he worked with school-aged children who were timid to put down a person's name on a quilt, in fear of others in the community learning that someone died from AIDS. But usually on the last day of the class, they would sew on the letters of that person's name. Bosacki said it was rewarding to be "part of that process of helping them break through, that they were going to be OK."
But no matter where people may come from, Bosacki finds there's always shared experiences in grieving and remembering loved ones, which makes these opportunities so special to him. He hopes to continue to the panel-making workshop at The Center in the future.
"It's been really great to see people come in and show the same emotions that I've gone through and to have empathy for that, but also to give them some direction as far as how they can memorialize (that person)," Bosacki said.
World AIDS Day events in the Coachella Valley
Dec. 1 marks World AIDS Day and there are a number of events and remembrances planned for the Palm Springs area.
The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Task Forcewill ceremonially break ground on the site of the future "The Well of Love" memorial at 11 a.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at the Palm Springs Downtown Park Amphitheater. Task Force representatives and the artist, Phillip K. Smith III, will share brief remarks on how the future site will be a community space dedicated to remembrance, reflection and healing. Installation is anticipated for spring 2026.
The memorial is about $275,000 away from being fully funded, with a total cost of around $1.2 million (donations are being accepted on its website). The piece will feature three vertical faces, which look similar to mirrors, that each hold an oval "pool of tears" unique to its messages of Forever Remembered, Forever Loved and Forever Celebrated.
DAP Health will commemorate World AIDS Day with acommunity program and special displayshonoring those impacted by HIV and AIDS. Highlights include:
AIDS Memorial Quilt Display: Four panels from the historic quilt will be exhibited noon to 6 p.m. Dec. 1 through 5 at DAP Health's Palm Springs campus, located at 1695 North Sunrise Way
Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture Model: On view alongside the quilt panels will be a model of the forthcoming memorial
Community Program and Candlelight Vigil: The event will be held 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 1 in the DHD Room at the Palm Springs campus
Reception at Blackbook: The reception will take place 7 to 8 p.m. at 315 E. Arenas Road in Palm Springs. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres will be provided while a full bar and menu is available for purchase
HIV Care: Progress, Persistence, and the Path Forward: A virtual meeting, partnering with Philadelphia's Mazzoni Center, hosted by former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci and a special performance by Rufus Wainwright. The meeting is set for 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 2. Interested participants can register at www.tickettailor.com/events/mazzonicenter/1902172
The Palm Springs Art Museumis joining over 150 museums, universities, art institutions and community organizations across 27 countries in partnering with Visual AIDS for a Day With(out) Art, a day of mourning and action that uses art to respond to the ongoing HIV and AIDS crisis. For this program, six new short videos provided by Visual AIDS will be screened on a loop from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 4, in the museum's Lecture Hall located on the third floor.
Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun:Jeff Bosacki of Palm Springs brings healing through AIDS quilt class
Jeff Bosacki took a trip to Europe in 1987, treating it as one last hurrah — he expected to die soon from his HIV diagno...
