Home › Books › It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Acti…
It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic
by
61/99
Critics' Rating Index
85/99
Readers' Rating Index
79/99
Scholars' Citation Index
51/99
Volume of Reviews
29/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
Shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Prize The story of art collective Gran Fury—which fought back during the AIDS crisis through direct action and community-made propaganda—offers lessons in love and grief. In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and communities of color in America, and disinformation about the disease ran rampant. Out of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an art collective that called itself Gran Fury formed to campaign against corporate greed, government inaction, stigma, and public indifference to the epidemic. Writer Jack Lowery examines Gran Fury's art and activism from iconic images like the "Kissing Doesn't Kill" poster to the act of dropping piles of fake bills onto the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lowery offers a complex, moving portrait of a collective and its members, who built essential solidarities with each other and whose lives evidenced the profound trauma of enduring the AIDS crisis. Gran Fury and ACT UP's strategies are still used frequently by the activists leading contemporary movements. In an era when structural violence and the devastation of COVID-19 continue to target the most vulnerable, this belief in the power of public art and action persists.
Reviews
"Art had a major role in the movement, and as this testimonial lays out, the people behind the art stand as pillars of beautiful humanity."
"The logistics behind demonstrations...would not seem to be the most scintillating material, but Lowery painstakingly reconstructs conversations and negotiations that compel a reader to feel the era's anguish and urgency."
"Readers especially interested in HIV/AIDS in New York in the '80s and '90s will find this book essential; general readers will also profit from Lowery's insights on issues of art and activism."
"As such, dubious assertion[s]...cannot be sourced or challenged."
"The result is a captivating look at the power of art as a political tool."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!