UMKC celebrates Pride Month in April! This month, you can visit a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, attend related events, or learn about our archival collections related to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and activism in Kansas City.
AIDS Quilt display
April 20-24 and 27-30, 10am-5pm | Miller Nichols Learning Center Foyer
As part of our campus Pride Month celebrations this April, we are excited to host a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The quilt panel will be on exhibit from 10:00am – 5:00pm, April 20-24 and April 27-30, 2026 in the Miller Nichols Learning Center Foyer.
Considered the largest community arts project in history, the AIDS Memorial Quilt helps us remember the unique lives and stories of those we’ve lost to HIV/AIDS.
The quilt’s first panels were created during the darkest days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and today consists of 50,000 individually-sewn panels with the names of more than 110,000 people who have died of AIDS. The panel visiting UMKC was created by Kansas City residents and includes signatures from community leaders.
The quilt display is open to the public and will include information about the quilt, HIV/AIDS prevention in Kansas City, and an interactive digital display of the entire quilt. We invite you to visit the display and learn more.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is brought to campus by UMKC LGBTQIA+ Programs and Services, co-sponsored by GLAMA, the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America and UMKC University Libraries.
Visit the quilt display between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm, April 20-24 and April 27-30, 2026, in the foyer of the Miller Nichols Learning Center. Metered parking is available in the parking lot north of the Library and Learning Center, located at 800 E. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO, 64110.
The AIDS Crisis: An Individual Perspective
April 23, 2026, 4-5pm | Miller Nichols Library 325
Join GLAMA co-founder and curator Stuart Hinds for a presentation on the AIDS crisis. In conjunction with a display of AIDS Memorial Quilt panels in the Miller Nichols Learning Center foyer, this talk will focus on a personal experience of the AIDS crisis during the 1980s.
This event is free and open to the public. Metered parking is available in the parking lot north of the Library and Learning Center, located at 800 E. 51st Street, Kansas City, MO, 64110.
Archival highlights from GLAMA
- AIDS in KC (Kansas City PBS): From filmmakers Sandy Woodson and Emily Woodring, AIDS in KC spans the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to the current organizers who continue to rally against the virus.
- The Ordinance Project tells the story of the contentious struggle to pass an ordinance in Kansas City, Missouri prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations based upon sexual orientation and HIV status. Emerging from the local chapter of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, activists struggled for nearly four years (1989-1993) to secure passage of the ordinance. Directed by UMKC doctoral candidate Austin R. Williams, the 90-minute film won the Celebration of Courage Award at the 2018 Kansas City LGBT Film Festival, and the Juror’s Choice Award at the 2019 Kansas International Film Festival.
- Many collections held by GLAMA contain material related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, AIDS Walk, local organizations and activism.
