PHILADELPHIA -- On June 25, a memorial procession will make its way through the streets of Philadelphia’s Washington Square West. There will be funeral urns carried aloft, shrouds, ceremonial robes, and music.
But this will be no ordinary funeral march. In those urns will be the paper ashes of the names of people who died without a procession, some decades ago, too many unmourned and alone. They are among the thousands of Philadelphia area residents lost to AIDS.
“I think there’s a hunger in our communities today to say we have so much loss,” said Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center. “This ritual on the 25th is a collective opportunity whether you’re mourning friends, family, or community members who died during the AIDS epidemic or more recently during the COVID epidemic,” or from gun violence, “to fully say their names.”
