Mondays at Beinecke: Larry Kramer, 1981, and the Start of AIDS Activism with Bill Goldstein

Admission: 
Free but register in advance
Time: 
Monday, May 17, 2021 - 4:00pm to 4:30pm
Location: 
Online
Open to: 
Description: 

May 18 marks the 40th anniversary of the first notice in the New York Native in 1981 of what is known as AIDS. Bill Goldstein, authorized biographer of the late Larry Kramer, will discuss the playwright and activist, whose papers are in the Beinecke Library. Goldstein spent hundreds of hours interviewing Kramer and has worked in Kramer’s personal papers, as well as in the records of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP, the two organizations Kramer played a vital role in founding. He has also studied the personal archives of many of Kramer’s closest friends and opponents.
Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/3gbfqAq
Goldstein will concentrate on Kramer’s initial calls to community activism in 1981 and 1982, as the scope of the health crisis becomes clearer, including his first article in the Native in August 1981, “A Personal Appeal.” That article began, “It’s difficult to write this without sounding alarmist or too emotional or just plain scared.”