Silence=Death Project
{{Short description|Social project of the AIDS crisis}}
{{Redirect|1=Silence = Death|2=the 1990 film|3=Silence = Death (film){{!}}Silence = Death (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox project
| abbreviation =
| name = Silence=Death Project
| logo =
| image = Recreation of Silence Equals Death.svg
| caption = An example of the 1986 Silence=Death poster from the AIDS crisis (designed by the Silence=Death Project, formed in 1985) illustrating the use of the inverted pink triangle from the Holocaust
| mission_statement =
| commercial =
| type = Political
| location = New York City, New York
| country = United States
| owner =
| founder = Avram Finkelstein, Jorge Socárras, Chris Lione, Charles Kreloff, Oliver Johnston, and Brian Howard
| primeminister =
| key_people =
| established = {{Start date|1985}}
| disestablished =
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| website =
}}
The Silence=Death Project was a consciousness-raising group raising awareness about the AIDS crisis during the Reagan administration. It was best known for its iconic political poster and was the work of a six-person collective in New York City: Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socárras.{{Cite news |last1=Force |first1=Thessaly La |last2=Lescaze |first2=Zoë |last3=Hass |first3=Nancy |last4=Miller |first4=M. H. |title=The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since World War II |work=The New York Times |date=October 15, 2020 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/t-magazine/most-influential-protest-art.html |language=en-US }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/07/13/silence_death_artist_avram_finkelstein_on_history_of_queer_art_and_activism.html|title=After Orlando, the Iconic Silence = Death Image Is Back. Meet One of the Artists Who Created It.|last=Emmerman|first=James|date=July 13, 2016|website=Slate}}
Formation
The Silence=Death Project was founded in 1985 by Avram Finkelstein, Jorge Socárras, Chris Lione, Charles Kreloff, Oliver Johnston, and Brian Howard during the AIDS crisis as a consciousness-raising group,{{Cite web|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/06/20/how-six-nyc-activists-changed-history-with-silence-death/|title=How Six NYC Activists Changed History With 'Silence = Death'|last=Kerr|first=Theodore|date=June 20, 2017|website=The Village Voice}} and as a means of mutual support.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/159258|title=Brooklyn Museum|website=brooklynmuseum.org|access-date=February 10, 2020}} The content of their discussions quickly turned political. Inspired by posters made by the Art Workers Coalition and the Guerrilla Girls, the group decided to create their own poster to be wheatpasted around New York City. Rejecting any photographic image as necessarily exclusionary, the group decided to use more abstract language in an attempt to reach multiple audiences.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2013/11/22/silence-equals-death-poster|title=Silence Equals Death Poster|last=Finkelstein|first=Avram|date=November 22, 2013|website=New York Public Library}} In 1986, they created the Silence=Death poster using the title phrase and a pink triangle, known from its association with the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/159258|title=Brooklyn Museum|website=brooklynmuseum.org|access-date=February 10, 2020}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.actupny.org/reports/silencedeath.html|title=Silence=Death|website=ACT UP}}
The first printing of the poster contained several errors in the smaller text at the bottom. Two government agencies (the CDC and the FDA) were spelled out as "The Center for Disease Control" as opposed to the "Centers" and it also read "Federal Drug Administration" instead of "Food and Drug Administration". The poster originally hit the streets in mid-March 1987, less than a month before ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was formed. The Collective eventually turned the rights of the poster to ACT UP who reprinted it, first without making any changes, but then reprinted it, again, with the correct names of the government agencies.
ACT UP
The Silence=Death poster was later used by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) as a central image in their activist campaign against the AIDS epidemic.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/159258|title=Brooklyn Museum|website=brooklynmuseum.org|access-date=February 10, 2020}} Because of ACT UP's advocacy, the pink triangle remains synonymous with AIDS activism. In chants and other messages, some activists chose to use the phrase "silence equals death" accompanied by "action equals life".{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Raymond A. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_AIDS/Ats3BQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |title=Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic |date=1998-08-27 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-45754-9 |pages=808 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Otis |date=2018-04-05 |title=FILM {{!}} 120 BPM : Action Equals Life; Silence Equals Death |url=https://theculturevulture.co.uk/cultures/120-bpm/ |access-date=2025-06-09 |website=the CULTURE VULTURE |language=en-GB}} In 2017, the image was reinstalled in the windows of the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art{{Cite web|url=https://www.leslielohman.org/exhibitions/current.html|title=FOUND: Queer Archaeology; Queer Abstraction|website=Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120709040241/http://leslielohman.org/exhibitions/current.html|archive-date=July 9, 2012|url-status=dead|access-date=June 22, 2017}} with a new line at the bottom: "Be Vigilant. Refuse. Resist."
See also
References
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{{HIV/AIDS}}
Category:LGBTQ history in the United States