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The Reading of the Names of the Dead | ||||||||||||
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I ask you for eight minutes of your time. The voices that you are about to hear are edited from 120 hours of live recordings of the Reading of the Names of the Dead at the AIDS quilt display in Washington D.C. It only takes eight minutes to understand the magnitude of the tapes. It only takes eight minutes to understand the importance of guaranteeing their protection and disposition. The Reading of the Names of the Dead is a ritual that began at the March on Washington D.C. in 1987. At sunrise, as the quilts were being unfolded, Cleave Jones, founder of the Names Project (caretakers of the AIDS Quilt) began by reading the name of the first quilt donated. . . Marvin Feldman. This ritual is now re-enacted at each display of the panels. It is our audio equivalent of the Maya Lin Vietnam Memorial.
About The Tapes:
These DAT-tapes were recorded on October 11-13, 1996 in eight-hour segments from 5 separate podiums that were set on the Mall of our Capital. They are the only recordings of this monumental time in our history. The tapes have been archived through the guidance and generosity of Jeff Raikes, Soraya Bittencourt and Pete Schwab at Microsoft. The tapes need to be transferred to a CD-ROM format, which will make them fully accessible through any personal computer.
Disposition of the Tapes:
The Smithsonian Institute is interested in acquiring this document for their permanent collection, and will be the repository for the originals. Copies of the originals, inventoried and burned on to a CD collection, will be donated to a variety of institutions such as The Gay and Lesbian Archives at the New York City Library, NYU Film Department, The Schwules Museum in Berlin, The Estate Project in Los Angeles, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and The Portland Art Museum. Distribution will be geared to facilitate a wide audience, with an emphasis towards our educators and artists.
Budget:
Funding: I am currently seeking to align myself with a 501(c)3, non-profit, organization. This sponsorship will track money donated, where it is spent and make each donation tax deductible. I am responsible for all fundraising, and a portion of the budget has already been secured.
Eight Minutes:
To listen to the audio you must have the RealAudio player. If you do not already have it, you can obtain it for free from; www.real.com. The audio here is presented two ways, the first is in the form of a streaming RealAudio clip. The second is a full download of the same.
To hear Eight Minutes, click HERE, optimized for 56k or better.
If you would prefer to download Eight Minutes, please do so by clicking HERE. It's a 1.7meg download.
Contact:
Frank Etxaniz |
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