Yuba College Library hosts AIDS exhibit
Apr. 18—Yuba College currently has an "AIDS, Posters, and Stories of Public Health: A People's History of a Pandemic" exhibit on display at its Marysville campus in the Yuba College Library and Learning Center.
A traveling exhibit that was provided by the National Library of Medicine, the exhibition looks at how AIDS posters served as a cost-effective and efficient medium for sharing public health messaging.
"Created by communities bonded together by illness and a desire to make change, these posters provide a gateway to AIDS history, illustrating how, in the face of illness, neglect, and, early on, the unknown, people came together to connect, create, and save one another's lives," reads a flyer for the exhibition.
Morgan Brynnan, a librarian at Yuba College, said that this exhibition is near and dear to her heart.
"I'm 60 years old. I remember these posters. I remember the AIDS crisis. I remember the days of stigma and friends dying, and it wasn't a good time. Today, they have treatment for HIV, where it's not necessarily a death sentence anymore. It's still a horrific disease," Brynnan said. "I actually worked with some HIV awareness groups back in the '80s and '90s."
She said that this exhibit helps us look back at history and take good care of ourselves in the present.
"(It also) reinforces the power that communities have to come together and make a difference," Brynnan said.
Health knowledge is important. One poster in the exhibit reads that AIDS does not care if you are rich or poor, straight or gay, male or female, old or young or doing drugs or not.
Another poster included was produced in 1993 by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; it features Krista Blake, who contracted HIV as a teenager.
"Most people think HIV is only a problem in big cities, unfortunately, I was one of those people," Blake is quoted saying on the poster.
Blake ultimately died soon after the poster was published.
One of the printed exhibit banners provides contextual information about AIDS.
"In 1981, doctors in the United States took notice of an illness ravaging people's immune systems and causing premature death. By 1985, scientists identified HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) as the virus that, left untreated, led to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Since then, AIDS has become one of the deadliest pandemics in history, according to the National Institutes of Health," the banner reads.
This exhibit is still relevant today as well.
According to HIV.gov, among individuals ages 13 and older, about 1.2 million people in the United States have HIV, and about 13% of them do not know it and need testing.
The National Library of Medicine also has a companion website for the exhibit at nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aids-posters/index.html.
