Larry Kramer on AIDS

Kramer discusses the seriousness of the burgeoning AIDS Crisis outside of the Gay Mens Health Crisis clinic in the Village.¹ Kramer’s famous warning piece, “1,112 and Counting” is available under the “Articles” tab and offers further analysis of the dangers of AIDS and insight into how to prevent AIDS from spreading further in the LGBTQ+ community.

Keith Haring Was Here

On October 20th, 1982, Charles Osgood of “CBS Evening News” sat down with burgeoning subway artist, Keith Haring, and discussed his work.

After The 1983 Gay Pride Parade

Nelson Sullivan was an iconic videographer based in the Village from 1970 to 1989. His works focused on the LGBTQ+ communities in the Village.²Emily Colucci, “Remembering New York’s Downtown Documentarian Nelson Sullivan,” Vice, July 07, 2014, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gdv3v/remembering-downtowns-documentarian-nelson-sullivan. In this video, Sullivan films the aftermath of New York’s 1983 Gay Pride Parade.

We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off

“We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” was singer Jermaine Stewart’s biggest hit. The lyrics of the song claim that sex isn’t necessary in order to have fun with a partner. Stewart, an openly gay man himself, died of AIDS in 1997. ³Jeremy Simmonds, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches (Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2012), 370.

President Reagan Addresses AIDS 

President Reagan discusses AIDS at a dinner for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR) in May of 1987. It was the President’s first public acknowledgment of the AIDS Crisis. ⁴Randy Shilts, And The Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1988), 589.

The AIDS Quilt in Washington, D.C.

Featuring the names of tens of thousands of those who died from AIDS, The AIDS Quilt was composed out of grief by friends and family of those passed. The first public appearance of the quilt occurred on October 11th, 1987 at the Mall in Washington, D.C. ⁵Yasir Lateef, “The AIDS Memorial Quilt,” About the AIDS Memorial Quilt, http://www.aidsquilt.org/about/the-aids-memorial-quilt.

ACT UP and ACT NOW at the FDA Headquarters

Formed at the height of the AIDS Crisis, ACT UP and ACT NOW were two of the most influential AIDS activism and civil disobedience groups. On October 11th, 1988, the two groups protested the lack of medical treatments being approved by the FDA at the FDA Headquarters in Maryland. ⁶Douglas Crimp, “Before Occupy: How AIDS Activists Seized Control of the FDA in 1988,” The Atlantic, December 6, 2011, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/12/before-occupy-how-aids-activists-seized-control-of-the-fda-in-1988/249302/.

Dancing at the Christopher Street Pier

“Paris Is Burning” was released in 1990 and follows the lives of POC who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community across 1980s New York City. In this scene in the film, Greenwich Village’s Christopher Street Pier, a popular mid-80s cruising destination, is featured. ⁷Shon Faye, “Looking at Paris Is Burning 25 Years After its Release,” Dazed, August 23, 2016, http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/32530/1/looking-at-paris-is-burning-25-years-after-its-release.

The Original Broadway Cast of RENT at the 1996 Tony Awards

RENT, arguably one of the most famous musicals of the latter half of the 20th century, premiered on Broadway in 1994. Jonathan Larson’s modern revival of Puccini’s opera La Bohème follows the lives of poor artists “living under the shadow of AIDS” from 1989 to 1990. ⁸“Theatre Legends: RENT,” The American Theatre Wing, http://americantheatrewing.org/legends/rent/.

 

The ACT UP Oral History Project Online Archive

The ACT UP Oral History Project was created in 2002 by Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman, and documents the stories of ACT UP members who survived the AIDS Crisis. With over 200 interviews, the archive is second-to-none for those who are looking to access the first-hand accounts of the AIDS Crisis by members of activist communities across the United States. ⁹“About the ACT UP Oral History Project,” ACTUP Oral History Project, 2002, accessed February 19, 2018, http://www.actuporalhistory.org/index1.html.