Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, And The Battlefield of AIDS
by Martin Duberman
Buy on AmazonIn December 1995, the FDA approved the release of protease inhibitors, the first effective treatment for AIDS. For countless people, the drug offered a reprieve from what had been a death sentence; for others, it was too late. In the United States alone, over 318,000 people had already died from AIDS-related complications—among them the singer Michael Callen and the poet Essex Hemphill. Meticulously researched and evocatively told, Hold Tight Gently is the celebrated historian Martin Duberman’s poignant memorial to those lost to AIDS and to two of the great unsung heroes of the early years of the epidemic.…
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"Martin Duberman deftly navigates the biographies of two gay artists — Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill — to illuminate what he describes as the “battlefield of AIDS” during the early years of the epidemic. Callen, a white musician based in New York, and Hemphill, a black poet based in Washington, D.C., were crucial members of their respective communities. Based on countless interviews and letters as well as Callen’s extensive archives, Duberman personalizes history to devastating effect."
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