There was a really good series on TV of Angels in America I remember watching years ago. Also, the movie Behind the Candelabra about the musician Liberace, I would highly suggest that one to anyone who wants to watch a movie that covers this topic.
Excellent read on a topic not discussed very often if at all - thank you. I am looking forward to reading the books mentioned and listening to the podcast you listed.
I'm a bit older than you (I was in college in the mid-'90s) and vividly remember what it was like to be a person fumbling towards adulthood accompanied by the specter of AIDS and being aware of the loss of a huge part of my generation radiating outward in waves from the artistic and cultural and bohemian enclaves of the country. There are a number of poets who have chronicled their experiences with the epidemic, with the presence of absence of peers and loved ones due to the disease, with the shame and stigma appended to their very existence, and with survivor's guilt. Robert Carr's book The Unbuttoned Eye, Mark Bibbins' book-length poem 13th Balloon, Patrick Donnelly's book Nocturnes in the Brothel of Ruin, and D.A. Powell's trilogy (Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails, collected together as Repast) are all excellent, as is Melvin Dixon's posthumously published collection Love's Instruments. Here's a poem from that book that never fails to make me remember what it was like in those days: https://poets.org/poem/heartbeats
Thank you for sharing these recommendations. Really appreciate your perspective. My college experience started with 9/11 happening in the first few weeks of my freshmen year, and that and the war that followed influenced my trajectory toward adulthood.
Oof. That does not sound like a great start to your college years. I hope someday you'll write about that experience (if you haven't already), because I think your clear & precise prose would render it well.
There was a really good series on TV of Angels in America I remember watching years ago. Also, the movie Behind the Candelabra about the musician Liberace, I would highly suggest that one to anyone who wants to watch a movie that covers this topic.
Excellent read on a topic not discussed very often if at all - thank you. I am looking forward to reading the books mentioned and listening to the podcast you listed.
I'm a bit older than you (I was in college in the mid-'90s) and vividly remember what it was like to be a person fumbling towards adulthood accompanied by the specter of AIDS and being aware of the loss of a huge part of my generation radiating outward in waves from the artistic and cultural and bohemian enclaves of the country. There are a number of poets who have chronicled their experiences with the epidemic, with the presence of absence of peers and loved ones due to the disease, with the shame and stigma appended to their very existence, and with survivor's guilt. Robert Carr's book The Unbuttoned Eye, Mark Bibbins' book-length poem 13th Balloon, Patrick Donnelly's book Nocturnes in the Brothel of Ruin, and D.A. Powell's trilogy (Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails, collected together as Repast) are all excellent, as is Melvin Dixon's posthumously published collection Love's Instruments. Here's a poem from that book that never fails to make me remember what it was like in those days: https://poets.org/poem/heartbeats
Thank you for sharing these recommendations. Really appreciate your perspective. My college experience started with 9/11 happening in the first few weeks of my freshmen year, and that and the war that followed influenced my trajectory toward adulthood.
Oof. That does not sound like a great start to your college years. I hope someday you'll write about that experience (if you haven't already), because I think your clear & precise prose would render it well.