In this memoir of the AIDS years (1981-1996) in New York, CUNY Professor of English Sarah Schulman recalls how much of the queer culture, cheap rents, and virbrant downtown arts movement vanished almost overnight, replaced by gay conservative spokespeople and mainstream consumerism. Schulman takes us back to her Lower East Side and brings it to life, sharing vivid memories of her avant-garde queer friends and recreating the early years of the AIDS crisis as experienced by a political insider. Interweaving personal reminiscence with analysis, Schulman details her experience as a witness to the loss of a generation's imagination and the consequences of that loss.--From publisher description.
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