By Joanie Juster–
There are people who change your life from the very moment you meet them. Cleve Jones is one of those people.
Mind you, he was already “the” Cleve Jones the night I met him, and I was just an overwhelmed, grief-stricken newbie volunteer at the Quilt workshop on Market Street. It was September something-or-other, 1988, around 3 am, and we had all been up for far too many hours, stitching together individual Quilt panels into the 12’x12’ blocks that are the modular units for the Quilt.
Night after night, the staff and volunteers stayed long into the night, trying to assemble the hundreds of new panels that had poured in by the deadline to prepare for the second big display of the Quilt in Washington, D.C., just a couple of weeks away.
After turning in a panel I had made, I stayed into the wee hours each night, after my day job, trying to be useful, trying to process all the grief and passion and colors and disco music that swirled around the workshop. That night, I had reached my limit. As I hunched over a stubborn sewing machine with a recalcitrant bobbin, my shoulder slumped, and I was about to give in. Then I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders, massaging my aching muscles. “Thank you for staying. Thank you for volunteering.”
And that’s how I met Cleve Jones.
So, I stayed that night, and many nights after, and for the next 36 years. That moment of gratitude and encouragement, that acknowledgement of a humble volunteer’s efforts, was enough to bring me back again and again, until I embraced the Quilt family as my own, and they embraced me back. My life was forever changed.
Throughout these past 36 years, I have often had a front-row seat for Cleve’s work. We have marched together in Washington, D.C., and in San Francisco. We have protested injustice, celebrated rare victories, held vigils, mourned our losses, laughed, yelled, sung, and cried together. Just about everything I know about being an activist I learned from watching Cleve at work.
What always strikes me is the boldness of his vision, the strategic nature of his thinking, and his willingness to mentor and raise up the next generation of leaders. And what keeps me coming back as a friend is his wildly wicked sense of humor, and, under that sometimes gruff exterior, his kind heart.
Despite over 50 years of fighting the good fights, Cleve Jones is not done. And that is worth celebrating.
Joanie Juster is a long-time community volunteer, activist, and ally.
Honoring Cleve Jones at 70
Published on October 3, 2024
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