It’s something of an obsession — finding surfaces where AIDSWatch can be projected. The Northern Hemisphere works in its favor: more night than day, and in Los Angeles come December, the sun is down by around 5:30, opening up real hours of display time. What’s surprising is how few walls actually work — flat, smooth, something a projector can face straight-on, with power that can be secured and wifi that reaches it. The list narrows fast.
In 2015, David Reid found one: the Northface of the West Hollywood Library. A single projector was set up on the roof of the West Hollywood Television building across the way, aimed at the library’s face, sending the names across it night after night.
The display ran there for years, becoming as close to a fixture as AIDSWatch has had — until 2020, when COVID brought it, like so much else, to a stop.
The following year, the WeHoTV building itself was razed. The site is now home to STORIES: The AIDS Monument, the City of West Hollywood’s permanent memorial to the AIDS crisis, standing on San Vicente Boulevard just north of the library it once faced.
