Hold tight gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS

Hardback book.  356 pages.

Hold tight Gently is 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.  Callen, the author of How to Have Sex in an Epidemic and co-founder of the popular a capella group the Flirtations, was a white gay Midwesterner living in New York.  There he became a leading figure in the movement to increase awareness of AIDS in the face of willful denial under the Reagan administration.  Hemphill, a passionate activist and the author of the celebrated Ceremonies, became one of the most critically acclaimed openly gay African American poets of his  generation, writing poetry of searing intensity and introspection.  He was at the heart of the black gay and lesbian scene in Washington, D.C., known as the Second Black Renaissance.

A profound exploration of the intersection of race, sexuality, class, and identity and the politics of AIDS activism, Hold Tight Gently captures both a generation struggling to cope with the deadly disease and the extraordinary refusal of two men to give in to despair.

"Profoundly moving, this marvelous book will be read by activists everywhere - and empower the future."  Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt

Cover of book has a little tear.