AIDS Garden Chicago

AIDS Garden Chicago opened on 2 June 2022 on the Chicago lakefront at Belmont Harbor, on the exact site of the "Belmont Rocks" — the limestone-block breakwater that from the 1960s to the 2000s was the city's primary gay sunbathing, cruising and community-gathering ground, and the informal site where AIDS-era Chicago mourned. Belmont Rocks was central enough to Chicago queer identity that it appears in Andrew Holleran's *Dancer from the Dance* (1978) and every subsequent literary account of Midwestern queer life. The garden covers roughly 2.5 acres of lakefront and combines native prairie plantings, a walking path, benches, and a permanent 30-foot sculpture titled *Self-Portrait* by Keith Haring — the second-largest publicly sited Haring work in the world, on permanent loan from the Keith Haring Foundation. Haring made the piece in 1989, months before his own AIDS-related death in 1990; the Chicago siting was chosen because he had spent extended periods in the city in 1984-5. AIDS Garden Chicago was funded by the AIDS Memorial Chicago non-profit through community donations after a decade of campaigning. The land is Chicago Park District public parkland; the garden is the Park District's only formal AIDS memorial, and one of only a handful of dedicated public AIDS memorials in the United States. Free, open daily from dawn to 23:00. Belmont Red Line is a 15-minute walk east on Belmont Avenue. Come at sunrise or sunset — the lakefront light is what makes the visit. Combine with a longer lakefront walk south toward Navy Pier or north toward Montrose.