Cleve Jones

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Cleve Jones, the founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, will return to campus to give a lecture on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

The talk, which is free and open to the public, will focus on the AIDS pandemic and other contemporary topics.

A dynamic and inspiring public speaker, Jones travels extensively throughout the United States and around the world, lecturing at high schools, colleges and universities. He has met with heads of state, including presidents Bush and Clinton and former South African president Nelson Mandela.

The quilt, which is called "the largest on-going community arts project in the world," was conceived by Jones in 1985 during an annual candlelight vigil march honoring Harvey Milk and George Moscone, the San Francisco politicians assassinated in 1978. In the process of taping the names of the scores of San Franciscans who had died of AIDS to a wall, Jones was struck by the idea that it looked like a patchwork quilt.

The quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1988 and, two years later, "Common Threads," a documentary film about the quilt, won an Oscar.

Jones lives in California and is executive director of the Los Angeles Shanti Foundation. He will be portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch in director Gus Van Sant’s new biopic, "Milk," which is scheduled to be released on Dec. 5.