Engraved granite base with circular bench along Connecticut Avenue NW near Q Street NW adjacent to station north entrance.

Poem “We Embrace”, 2007
E. Ethelbert Miller
Poem engraved in grey granite
Circular metal bench

In tribute to the response by volunteers and caregivers to the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS in DC, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities collaborated to engrave a contemporary poem, "We Embrace," written by E. Ethelbert Miller in 2005, on the edge of a circle of grey granite set into the sidewalk pavement. The circular bench is placed in the center of the granite circle. An excerpt from Walt Whitman's poem "The Dresser" was engraved on the north granite circular entrance to the Dupont Circle station.

We Embrace, 2005
E. Ethelbert Miller

We fought against the invisible
We looked to one another for comfort
We held the hands of friends and lovers
We did not turn our backs
We embraced
We embraced.

E. Ethelbert Miller (b. 1950) is a writer and literary activist. He is the founder and former chair of the Humanities Council of Washington, D.C. "E. Ethelbert Miller Day" was proclaimed in D.C. on September 28, 1978. On April 19, 2015, Mr. Miller was inducted into the Washington DC Hall of Fame.

This project was made possible in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities and was donated to WMATA.