Gay artist Keith Haring was born May 4, 1958. He died from complications from AIDS in 1990. Keith would have turned 60 years old this year. Read more here: “Four Geniuses, Gone to AIDS, as They Might Be Today” https://nyti.ms/2KCOiru
The New York Times had a spotty record of covering the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s — and gay culture in general. Times staffers reflect on the paper’s past, and what we can learn from it today.
The legacy of those years is today inescapable, as grassroots protest is our only hope for survival, not something to be marketed and sold, a set of images and memes.
In this column, Mari Uyehara covers American food at unique cultural moments and historical turns, great and small.
Sometimes it’s hard to ask the next question. That’s what happened when I brought up the subject of AIDS with Morty Manford. You can’t see it because this is audio, but what I saw in that moment, was that Morty’s eyes quickly filled with tears. And that’s why I asked him if AIDS was something I shouldn’t ask about.
Listen at this link: http://bit.ly/mgh-manford2
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Black Gay History and the Fight Against AIDS
“History could be a source of healing, acting as a balm for the psychological and spiritual wounds that Black gay men suffered at the intersection of racism and homophobia.”
“The poster comes for you in ways art simply can’t. The poster comes for you where you live.”
In 1981, Larry Kramer sounded an alarm—about a disease that would later come to be called AIDS—that almost no one wanted to hear. He went on to co-found GMHC (originally known as the Gay Men’s Health Crisis) and ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), two of the leading organizations in the fight against AIDS. If you haven’t already listened to our MGH episode featuring my 1989 interview with Larry Kramer, I urge you to listen to it here. Based on Larry’s reputation, I went in expecting a tornado, but found a Teddy bear.
Listen via your podcatcher (subscribe at http://bit.ly/mgh-subscribe) or at this link: http://bit.ly/mgh-kramer
As we approach World AIDS Day on 12/1, we’re revisiting episodes of people we lost to the disease. Sergeant Perry Watkins played by the rules. The U.S military did not. Drafted in 1968, he was thrown out fifteen years later despite his honesty and stellar record of service. He fought back and won. Perry Watkins died of complications from AIDS on March 17, 1996.
Listen to his interview via your podcatcher (subscribe at http://bit.ly/mgh-subscribe) or at this link: http://bit.ly/mgh-watkins.
Photo: Perry’s high school yearbook photo from Classmates.com