Cover image for Let the record show : a political history of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
Title:
Let the record show : a political history of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
Author:
Schulman, Sarah, 1958- author.
ISBN:
9780374185138
Edition:
First edition.
Publication Information:
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

©2021
Physical Description:
xxvii, 702 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
General Note:
Includes index.
Contents:
Introduction: How Change Is Made -- Mechanisms of Power: Puerto Ricans in ACT UP -- The First Treatment Activists -- Choosing the Right Target: Seize Control of the FDA -- Collective Leadership: Stop the Church -- Inspiration and Influence: Larry Kramer, Maxine Wolfe, Mark Harrington -- Treatment and Data #2: Citizen Scientists -- Changing the Definition: Women Don't Get AIDS, We Just Die From It -- Mother and Son: The Death of Ray Navarro, the Vision of Patricia Navarro -- Harm Reduction as a Value, an Ideal, a Way of Life and Death: ACT UP's Campaign for Needle Exchange -- The Artistic Life of Resistance -- Strategic Images: Photography, Video, and Film -- Getting and Creating Media -- Community Research Initiative, Dr. Joseph Sonnabend, and the Battle over AZT -- ACT UP and the Haitian Underground Railroad -- Lawyers for the People -- The Culture and Subculture of Civil Disobedience -- Insurance Equals Access, and Without Access There is No Treatment -- How the ACT UP Housing Committee Because Housing Works, Housing for Homeless People with AIDS -- YELL: The Evolution of Queer Youth Politics -- Funding ACT UP's Campaign -- Storm the NIH Action at the National Institutes of Heath, Washington, D.C., May 21, 1990 -- The Dinner: December 1, 1990 -- Day of Desperation: January 23, 1991 -- Are Women "Vectors of Infection," or People with AIDS? Clinical Trial 076, April 1991 -- AIDS Hysteria: The Case of Derek Link -- The Split: January 1992 -- Treatment and Data -- Ashes Action: October 5, 1992 -- Political Funerals -- Conclusion: The Myth of Resilience and the Enduring Relationship of AIDS -- A Personal Conclusion -- Appendix 1: ACT UP and the FBI -- Appendix 2: Tell It to ACT UP -- ACT UP New York Time Line -- ACT UP Oral History Interviews
Abstract:
"In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled--and beat--The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them.

Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today's activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration--and long-overdue reassessment--of the coalition's inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world."-- Provided by publisher.
Document ID:
SD_ILS:2367283
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