The other day I got an email from ACT UP
mentioning a photo shoot with the New York Times:
“Hi Jay,
I got your e-mail from David France. I'm writing from T Magazine at the New York Times where, for a spring issue, we are gathering together culturally relevant groups of people whom we feel have defined the world as we know it. For one of them, which we want to shoot in late February, we were hoping to gather as many living members of ACT UP as we can, going back to the beginning, for a group portrait that would reflect their power, anger, deep relevance and ongoing resonance. I wanted to personally invite you, and the details are below. I was also hoping you might help me spread the word — I've been contacting many people, and I'm going to post this on Facebook on the ACT UP alumni group as well, but any assistance you might provide when it comes to outreach would be greatly appreciated….. We believe this will be a powerful, memorable and historical moment — ideally hundreds strong — and I hope to see you there. Best.Kurt Soller…”
“Hi Jay,
I got your e-mail from David France. I'm writing from T Magazine at the New York Times where, for a spring issue, we are gathering together culturally relevant groups of people whom we feel have defined the world as we know it. For one of them, which we want to shoot in late February, we were hoping to gather as many living members of ACT UP as we can, going back to the beginning, for a group portrait that would reflect their power, anger, deep relevance and ongoing resonance. I wanted to personally invite you, and the details are below. I was also hoping you might help me spread the word — I've been contacting many people, and I'm going to post this on Facebook on the ACT UP alumni group as well, but any assistance you might provide when it comes to outreach would be greatly appreciated….. We believe this will be a powerful, memorable and historical moment — ideally hundreds strong — and I hope to see you there. Best.Kurt Soller…”
ACT UP in the style pages?
But why now?
Why was the Times covering the group now?
Was it safe now?
I recall ACT UP zapping the Times for its lack
of coverage of the crisis.
Finishing a pipeline action in North Williamsburg
in
which activists blocked construction for two hours before facing arrests, I
rode over to join my ACT UP comrades,
feeling a little iffy about things. ACT
UP is still active. Activists
in Brooklyn were being processed as the photo shoot began. I was still reeling.
Adrenaline pumping.
Inside I ran into countless old friends
and people I still do activism with, including Jennifer, Laurie, Kate, and
Jamie, who I was arrested
with a few weeks ago in Washington DC.
Articulating the feeling many of us had,
Jamie stood up to read a statement.
“The
Times Still has Blood on Its Hands,” declared Bauer.
“The Times has blood on its hands, which it can never
wash off, even though it is trying to “work through” its lack of coverage of
the AIDS crisis and AIDS activism.
The Times continues, to this day to ignore
the activism of the resistance, even while it prints opinion pieces calling for
people to protest in the streets (eg
David Leonhardt and Michele Goldberg).
The Times does not cover organizing, does not cover resistance
campaigns, and it does not cover demonstrations. It does not educate its readers about what
demonstrations are coming up, who is organizing, or why they should attend.
It covers internecine bickering (eg The Women’s
March), which only drives people away. Mostly the Times is silent, or it
bemoans the lack of large demonstrations.
Sometimes it will sue a picture of a demonstration (often Rise and
Resist) to illustrate and article, but it will not identify the group by name
or the demonstration, which leaves people without the information necessary to
get involved.
For the past three years (since Trump was
elected) I have worked with Rise and Resist.
We are a direct action group with a large handful of
ACT UP members in it. We have protested weekly about Trump’s immigration
policies, his obstruction of congress, and his disregard for the constitution.
These kinds of
demonstrations are typical of
resistance activities, yet the Times does not cover Rise and Resist, or these actions, just as the Times never covered the
vast majority of ACT UP actions. ACT UP
in its heyday never had more than 5,000 protesters at a demonstration, and most
of our actions were quite small.
The hypocrisy of the Times continues, celebrating
what activists did thirty years ago, while ignoring what activists are doing today. Despite your “good intentions”, you are
complicit. What can you do to make the
difference? Insist that The Times
educate itself and its readers on the current state of activism, and cover
demonstrations, organizing, and resistance…”
We cheered as Bauer concluded.
“But still here we are,” someone chimed in,
to more laughs, our contradictions everywhere, a signature mark of queer activism.
Everyone was still posing for the style section.
Friends from generations of my activist
life in New York City,
the harm reduction activists, the sex activists,
the reproductive autonomy activists,
the Church Ladies for Choice, Housing
Works, Rise and Resist, Center for Popular Democracy, Gays against Guns, and on
and on and on.
So many greetings, it was hard to know who
to talk to.
ACT UP Fight Back, Fights AIDS, we roared.
And then the photo shoot.
Comical to say the least, everyone wanted
to be in front, except
Ann Northrop, who recently began her
interview with the Advocate, “We
were angry because” who was in back.
Everyone form a V around Ken, said Alexis.
I know he’s going to get shit for that.
I know I am going to get
shit for that, Ken confessed
later on.
More people competing for visibility.
Your head is in the way.
Others stepping back.
NYTimes Photog:
"Great, Now can we get a shot of you chanting?"
"ACT UP: “Sure."
NYTimes Photog:
"Great, Now can we get a shot of you chanting?"
"ACT UP: “Sure."
"Fuck the NY Times!"
"Fuck the NY Times!"
"Fuck the NY Times!"
"Fuck the NY Times!"
Lets do a die in.
I need help, someone
said to my right, lots of bad backs in
the room.
Many began ACT UP
over three decades ago.
Andrew Velez wasn’t
there.
Neither were Keith
or Spencer.
But Larry was
there.
Lots of Larry
stories.
“He told me I was
doing more harm than good,” said one.
“’Gay
men only think with their cocks,’ remember
that.”
Age is grasping
at us.
Some gray hair to
match our act up t shirts.
Lots of
survivors.
Lots of stories.
“I had to stop
after ’96..” I overheard another.
And out for Chinese
food and more gossip.
I loved Anne’s interview in the Advocate:
“Ann Northrop: There are very few places
in the world where I don't feel welcome because it just doesn't occur to me not
to. There were plenty of women there. It was a great mix of people and the core
were certainly gay men who were personally threatened, many of them living with
HIV or afraid of acquiring it, and they were there to save their own lives.
JM:
…ACT UP was stealing from.
AN: From Anti-war movements, from
the Civil Rights movement, from Feminist movements. It has been a process of
leapfrogging each other along the way and the right-wing is part of that too.
They have learned techniques from us. We have learned techniques from them.
…it was the fearlessness about
confronting and shaming people in power publicly that forced these issues to be
dealt with. The movement needs people coming at people in power from every
angle.
…We need lobbyists. We need
people on the inside working. We need people who are donors. We need people who
will write their members of Congress, but we need people out in the streets who
will raise issues honestly and directly and shame people in power when they
don't do the right thing.
…But
what ended the Vietnam War was millions of people getting out into the street
and demanding that it end. I don't see millions of people in the street now
demanding that the
horrors that we face now. And I am hoping that those millions
of people are sitting home at the moment are getting themselves revved up to go
to the polls in the fall.
But whether it's an unwillingness to be
unliked or what, I don't know, but I want to see more action.”
So
do I.
“We're fighting for your lives,
too," said Ann to the crowd at St Pats in 1989, which she hoped would be
effective. “Maybe, maybe not. But they got us all out of there. They took us
off to the police precincts. I like to say I got home to watch the second half
of the Giants/Broncos game.
JM: You had multiple
priorities.
AN: Life is rich. You have to do
different things.”
Thank you act up, you’re still fighting for our
lives.
