Conversation

Sarah Schulman on “LET THE RECORD SHOW: A Political History of ACT UP, NY 1987-1993”

Thu, Sep 23, 2021

6:00 PM–7:30 PM

This event will take place online via Zoom. Please register below.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC, BUT PLEASE REGISTER HERE TO ACCESS THE ZOOM LINK AND ATTEND. Please reach out to the Center for the Study of Women and Society at [email protected] for accessibility accommodation requests, questions or concerns.

In Sarah Schulman’s talk, she will discuss her book, Let the Record Show: A Political History of Act Up, NY 1987-1993. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, founded in 1987 at the height of the AIDS crisis, was a grassroots movement of people without rights that forced enormous change in government, private sector, media and everyday American culture during their first six years. Sarah Schulman, a participant witness, interviewed 188 of her fellow ACT UPers over 18 years and cohered an understanding of their strategies and tactics in a way that can be helpful to today’s activists.

Sarah Schulman is the author of more than twenty works of fiction (including The Cosmopolitans, Rat Bohemia, and Maggie Terry), nonfiction (including Stagestruck, Conflict is Not Abuse, and The Gentrification of the Mind), and theater (Carson McCullers, Manic Flight Reaction, and more), and the producer and screenwriter of several feature films (The Owls, Mommy Is Coming, and United in Anger, among others). Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Slate, and many other outlets. She is a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at College of Staten Island, a Fellow at the New York Institute of Humanities, the recipient of multiple fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was presented in 2018 with Publishing Triangle’s Bill Whitehead Award. She is also the co-founder of the MIX New York LGBT Experimental Film and Video Festival, and the co-director of the groundbreaking ACT UP Oral History Project. A lifelong New Yorker, she is a longtime activist for queer rights and female empowerment, and serves on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace.

This event is organized and hosted by Center for the Study of Women and Society and is co-sponsored with the Center for the Humanities, The Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS), The Graduate Center PhD Programs in English and History, The Feminist Press, The Gotham Center for New York City History, The Graduate Center Library, and the PublicsLab.

Please reach out to the Center for the Study of Women and Society at [email protected] for questions or concerns.