The thread of memory - of remembering and forgetting - runs through the weave of our literature in complex and repeating patterns. Our need to remember strives against our desire to forget.

In a more individual sense we each remember our pasts and those of our ancestors with mixed feelings - happiness, pride, shame, sorrow, nostalgia. The personal stories of our relatives, friends and co-workers provide us with roots that are sunk deeply into the terra firma of our combined cultural heritage.

Many who live in our communities find the need to share themselves and their artistic vision so strong that their entire lives are focused around their cultural activities. In many fields of the arts we find people whose contributions have become a necessary part of our cultural milieu and our personal support systems.

It is a tragedy indeed that so many of these people have been lost of late years to the disease of AIDS. Not only those whose contributions have made them famous need to be mourned; but also those whose careers had hardly begun. Who knows what really has been lost.

December 1st has been chosen as a day to remember, to mourn, to consider the loss, to contribute and to act.

Among those we wish to remember are Comtois, Jocelyn, General Idea and Youngfox .