Arts & Entertainment
Piecing Together History
Piecing Together History
review by Paul Olsen
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In Stitching a Revolution, Cleve Jones describes his evolution as a political and AIDS activist over the past 30 years.
Throughout his poignant memoir, Jones, along with co-author Jeff Dawson, carefully chronicles important gay historical events, including the election and assassination of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, Anita Bryant’s anti gay crusade, the AIDS crisis, the founding of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and his personal struggles with coming out and living with HIV.
Particularly moving are the book’s accounts of how the Quilt has made a difference in the communities where it has been displayed. “What we’ve found is that the best way is to simply lay the Quilt out and let people read the names,” Jones writes when describing the Quilt’s message. “You could see people grow as they walked around it and see the depth of emotion in their faces; you could see what they were experiencing and feel it.”
Anyone who has viewed a Quilt display understands this description of its power. Containing more than 42,000 panels, the Quilt serves as a memorial to more than 80,000 people who have died from the disease.
Stitching a Revolution proves to be a well-written, inspirational, and at times, humorous look at important events in the contemporary gay and lesbian liberation movement. The book is likely to become an important document in chronicling gay rights and AIDS activism in the 20th century.
Paul Olsen lives in Colchester.
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Stitching A Revolution: The Making of an Activist Cleve Jones |