What do you think?
Rate this book
Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS
In December 1995, the FDA approved the release of protease inhibitors, the first effective treatment for AIDS. For countless people, the drug offered a reprieve from what had been a death sentence; for others, it was too late. In the United States alone, over 318,000 people had already died from AIDS-related complications—among them the singer Michael Callen and the poet Essex Hemphill.
Meticulously researched and evocatively told, The Battlefield of AIDS is the 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, a white gay Midwesterner who had moved to New York, became a leading figure in the movement to increase awareness of AIDS in the face of willful and homophobic denial under the Reagan administration; Hemphill, an African American gay man, contributed to the black gay and lesbian scene in Washington, D.C., with poetry of searing intensity and introspection.
A profound exploration of the intersection of race, sexuality, class, identity, and the politics of AIDS activism beyond ACT UP, The Battlefield of AIDS captures both a generation struggling to cope with the deadly disease and the extraordinary refusal of two men to give in to despair.
Meticulously researched and evocatively told, The Battlefield of AIDS is the 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, a white gay Midwesterner who had moved to New York, became a leading figure in the movement to increase awareness of AIDS in the face of willful and homophobic denial under the Reagan administration; Hemphill, an African American gay man, contributed to the black gay and lesbian scene in Washington, D.C., with poetry of searing intensity and introspection.
A profound exploration of the intersection of race, sexuality, class, identity, and the politics of AIDS activism beyond ACT UP, The Battlefield of AIDS captures both a generation struggling to cope with the deadly disease and the extraordinary refusal of two men to give in to despair.
362 pages, Hardcover
First published March 11, 2014
24 people are currently reading
808 people want to read
About the author
Martin Duberman
65 books88 followersMartin Bauml Duberman is a scholar and playwright. He graduated from Yale in 1952 and earned a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard in 1957. Duberman left his tenured position at Princeton University in 1971 to become Distinguished Professor of History at Lehman College in New York City.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
August 20, 2014
I am glad to see this book about Essex Hemphill, not only because he was my friend, but because his work seemed increasingly neglected since his death. And I am extremely pleased that the book is by the distinguished historian and biographer Martin Duberman. The pairing with Michael Callen is interesting, too, because I did not know much about Callen's life before reading this (apart from his role in the John Greyson film "Zero Patience"). The book does important work by making this history available to readers now and in the future, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in gay culture and/or the terrible years when there were no effective treatments for AIDS. Hard to read about, but it was so much worse to live through. Still I am glad that there are documents like this to honor what was lost and to celebrate what survives.
It was an odd experience to read about so many people, places, and events that I remember, but also nice to have the validation that it was all as important as it seemed at the time -- perhaps even more than it seemed when we were living it, because a talent like Essex would be taken from us too soon. Glad that other friends have survived to be interviewed for the book, good to see their memories in print, to share the history they made and witnessed with others. I recently read an article in the Washington Post about an event celebrating the impact of Essex's work that several of them participated in, so maybe the period of neglect is coming to an end.
Another late friend shared this quote from Eduardo Galeano, and it certainly applies here: "A part of me dies with him, a part of him lives in me."
It was an odd experience to read about so many people, places, and events that I remember, but also nice to have the validation that it was all as important as it seemed at the time -- perhaps even more than it seemed when we were living it, because a talent like Essex would be taken from us too soon. Glad that other friends have survived to be interviewed for the book, good to see their memories in print, to share the history they made and witnessed with others. I recently read an article in the Washington Post about an event celebrating the impact of Essex's work that several of them participated in, so maybe the period of neglect is coming to an end.
Another late friend shared this quote from Eduardo Galeano, and it certainly applies here: "A part of me dies with him, a part of him lives in me."
February 11, 2021
Duberman is a prolific author and has written with great insight on AIDS and the politics surrounding the pandemic. He is without doubt an important commentator on queer history, but Hold Tight Gently is a flawed piece of writing. It was viewed unreservedly on its release in 2014. A re-reading of it many years later has not changed my view.
The concept is lopsided for a start. Callen, who Duberman praises as an “activist,” dovetails with Duberman’s interests in telling the history of AIDS in the USA. In fact, Callen’s political actions make him a convenient mouthpiece for Duberman. Unfortunately, Hemphill, as a “cultural worker”(?) does not fit so well, nor does he serve the narrative that Duberman wishes to tell. Though the title of Duberman’s book is lifted from Hemphill, the book rarely engages with Hemphill as a poet and literary activist – the activisim is in the poetry, the quality of his poetic vision.
Here is an example of how Duberman skims the surface, an example that sets the tone of what follows. In “Before the Storm”, Duberman discusses two men who shaped Hemphill’s teenage years: the first is the white shopkeeper who groomed him as a fourteen year old; the second is the black churchman who became a father-figure for Hemphill. The white clerk is named, George; the black churchman is nameless. Hemphill was careful with this name, protective even, but he gives it clearly in “The Other Invisible Man”, a short story published posthumously in 1996. The man was George Hart, a man with heart, who died of something “much more insidious, much more deadly, than a mere heart attack.” In other words, the creeping homophobia within the church and the slithering racism within white supremacist culture. In this late story by Hemphill, this second George is all that the first white George was not: he is supportive, intelligent, a model for what a black gay man might be. Duberman acknowledges the positive side of George, but most of his description of the relationship draws on the erotic. Another weakness is that Duberman draws conclusions about the relationship from one story. Hemphill gives an even more intimate version in Conditions (1986), in a poem held back from his re-publication of these poems in Ceremonies (1992). Hemphill was a minister’s son and George administered a love that religion denied: caritas, eros, and agape, three in one:
I felt beautiful for the first time
I slept upon your back.
spent, peaceful;
a canopy of spring
upon an autumn of discontent.
Poem III (only present in the original edition) is a felt, pastoral elegy, a glance at an ex-boxer modelled from memory, a symbol for the second Harlem Renaissance, just as Barthes modelled his boxer and image of black gay masculinity for the first. All of This contradicts the stereotype that Duberman presents in much of Hold Tight Gently: Hemphill was damaged by an abusive father and this led, as it did for many black men, to impaired, personal relationships.
Throughout Hold Tight Gently, Duberman is a master of facts and the scope of his knowledge is breathtaking. Unfortunately, he is not an astute reader of poetry and this leads to wider flaws in his book. Though Duberman asserts that Hemphill was a “powerful poet”, he does not investigate the poetry. Consequently, much of the activism is lost: Hemphill’s activism was in the poetry as much as the prose. Duberman’s lack of interest shows in “The Mideighties” section where Hemphill travels to the UK. The whole visit is done with in two pages, dismissed as irrelevant to what Duberman wants to write about. The author who can write in such detail about the USA, simply notes that Essex did a reading in Manchester, “a city outside of London, with a large black population. “ Yes, a city that was a centre of queer life in 1987, which is why Manchester was on Hemphill’s itinerary. Also, a university city with a thriving culture and a centre for poetry in the UK. For Hemphill to read in the North was a brave move. But there was much more to the UK visit than this. Hemphill took the opportunity to re-connect with Dennis Carney, who had stayed with Joseph Beam in 1986; and both worked in London with the rising star of black photography, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, who was producing work that countered the racist images of Mapplethorpe. The UK tour also prepared the way for Tongues Untied (1987), a ground breaking volume from the Gay Men's Press that placed black gay poets before a UK audience. A lot of glass ceilings were being smashed during that visit!
Ultimately, Hold Tight Gently becomes a skewed narrative. It understands Callen much better than it does Hemphill – because Callen is closer to Duberman’s area of specialism, history, and more open to factual analysis. By failing to write as a literary biographer in tune with Hemphill’s poetry this becomes a book that undervalues Hemphill and borders on the crass. There is something unpleasant in Duberman’s tone when he records that the “sage of Manchester” returned to the USA to find himself without a job. For Hemphill, that was clearly a sacrifice to be risked because of the cultural picture that he was following. It is puzzling that Duberman avoids this deeper picture. Yes, there are a lot of descriptive details and many anecdotes from friends of Hemphill, but nothing from the powerhouses of cultural thought – nothing from Isaac Julien – no attempt to understand the complex debate that was taking place about black queer identity in Looking for Langston — no interest in the metaphysical wit of Hemphill’s final AIDS poem and how it plays upon tricks … sexual connections …and tricks … the double-meanings of Esu and engages with Gates’s controversial signifying monkey. Vital signs is reduced by Duberman to a belief that Hemphill, at the end of his earth life, was working towards an acceptance of Christianity. That really shows how badly Hemphill is understood: the final poem is an attempt to find meaning amidst “the Battlefield of AIDS” (the sub-title of Duberman’s book). The T-cell, the Tau cross of crucifixion, is the religion that Hemphill clings to to as he desperately tries to assemble signs of life for those who will continue the fight after him.
This book feels like a good idea -- show the history of AIDs as refracted through two personal mirrors -- that finally becomes just another sociological account.
The concept is lopsided for a start. Callen, who Duberman praises as an “activist,” dovetails with Duberman’s interests in telling the history of AIDS in the USA. In fact, Callen’s political actions make him a convenient mouthpiece for Duberman. Unfortunately, Hemphill, as a “cultural worker”(?) does not fit so well, nor does he serve the narrative that Duberman wishes to tell. Though the title of Duberman’s book is lifted from Hemphill, the book rarely engages with Hemphill as a poet and literary activist – the activisim is in the poetry, the quality of his poetic vision.
Here is an example of how Duberman skims the surface, an example that sets the tone of what follows. In “Before the Storm”, Duberman discusses two men who shaped Hemphill’s teenage years: the first is the white shopkeeper who groomed him as a fourteen year old; the second is the black churchman who became a father-figure for Hemphill. The white clerk is named, George; the black churchman is nameless. Hemphill was careful with this name, protective even, but he gives it clearly in “The Other Invisible Man”, a short story published posthumously in 1996. The man was George Hart, a man with heart, who died of something “much more insidious, much more deadly, than a mere heart attack.” In other words, the creeping homophobia within the church and the slithering racism within white supremacist culture. In this late story by Hemphill, this second George is all that the first white George was not: he is supportive, intelligent, a model for what a black gay man might be. Duberman acknowledges the positive side of George, but most of his description of the relationship draws on the erotic. Another weakness is that Duberman draws conclusions about the relationship from one story. Hemphill gives an even more intimate version in Conditions (1986), in a poem held back from his re-publication of these poems in Ceremonies (1992). Hemphill was a minister’s son and George administered a love that religion denied: caritas, eros, and agape, three in one:
I felt beautiful for the first time
I slept upon your back.
spent, peaceful;
a canopy of spring
upon an autumn of discontent.
Poem III (only present in the original edition) is a felt, pastoral elegy, a glance at an ex-boxer modelled from memory, a symbol for the second Harlem Renaissance, just as Barthes modelled his boxer and image of black gay masculinity for the first. All of This contradicts the stereotype that Duberman presents in much of Hold Tight Gently: Hemphill was damaged by an abusive father and this led, as it did for many black men, to impaired, personal relationships.
Throughout Hold Tight Gently, Duberman is a master of facts and the scope of his knowledge is breathtaking. Unfortunately, he is not an astute reader of poetry and this leads to wider flaws in his book. Though Duberman asserts that Hemphill was a “powerful poet”, he does not investigate the poetry. Consequently, much of the activism is lost: Hemphill’s activism was in the poetry as much as the prose. Duberman’s lack of interest shows in “The Mideighties” section where Hemphill travels to the UK. The whole visit is done with in two pages, dismissed as irrelevant to what Duberman wants to write about. The author who can write in such detail about the USA, simply notes that Essex did a reading in Manchester, “a city outside of London, with a large black population. “ Yes, a city that was a centre of queer life in 1987, which is why Manchester was on Hemphill’s itinerary. Also, a university city with a thriving culture and a centre for poetry in the UK. For Hemphill to read in the North was a brave move. But there was much more to the UK visit than this. Hemphill took the opportunity to re-connect with Dennis Carney, who had stayed with Joseph Beam in 1986; and both worked in London with the rising star of black photography, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, who was producing work that countered the racist images of Mapplethorpe. The UK tour also prepared the way for Tongues Untied (1987), a ground breaking volume from the Gay Men's Press that placed black gay poets before a UK audience. A lot of glass ceilings were being smashed during that visit!
Ultimately, Hold Tight Gently becomes a skewed narrative. It understands Callen much better than it does Hemphill – because Callen is closer to Duberman’s area of specialism, history, and more open to factual analysis. By failing to write as a literary biographer in tune with Hemphill’s poetry this becomes a book that undervalues Hemphill and borders on the crass. There is something unpleasant in Duberman’s tone when he records that the “sage of Manchester” returned to the USA to find himself without a job. For Hemphill, that was clearly a sacrifice to be risked because of the cultural picture that he was following. It is puzzling that Duberman avoids this deeper picture. Yes, there are a lot of descriptive details and many anecdotes from friends of Hemphill, but nothing from the powerhouses of cultural thought – nothing from Isaac Julien – no attempt to understand the complex debate that was taking place about black queer identity in Looking for Langston — no interest in the metaphysical wit of Hemphill’s final AIDS poem and how it plays upon tricks … sexual connections …and tricks … the double-meanings of Esu and engages with Gates’s controversial signifying monkey. Vital signs is reduced by Duberman to a belief that Hemphill, at the end of his earth life, was working towards an acceptance of Christianity. That really shows how badly Hemphill is understood: the final poem is an attempt to find meaning amidst “the Battlefield of AIDS” (the sub-title of Duberman’s book). The T-cell, the Tau cross of crucifixion, is the religion that Hemphill clings to to as he desperately tries to assemble signs of life for those who will continue the fight after him.
This book feels like a good idea -- show the history of AIDs as refracted through two personal mirrors -- that finally becomes just another sociological account.
April 14, 2016
A history of the early days of AIDS told through the perspectives of two influential players: Michael Callen, a white midwesterner with cabaret ambitions, and Essex Hemphill, a black poet from D.C. While both men suffered with and, ultimately, died of AIDS, leaving behind an impressive body of work, their experiences couldn't have been more dissimilar.
Callen's is the face we mostly associate with the disease in the U.S. He was a young gay white man, and though he seemed to hold lifelong sympathies with many civil rights issues and minority groups, one gets the sense reading Duberman's account that he wouldn't have been politicized were it not for his diagnosis. Hemphill, on the other hand, represents the other, often hidden face of the plague. As a black man living on the economic edges of society he bore the double stigma of minority status and disease at a time when funds (and government action) for AIDS was limited. He was, in effect, the last in line.
Despite the grim subject matter, Duberman does much here to document the fullness of these men's lives. I was astounded by the sheer amount of things they accomplished. Hemphill published many books, performed and founded several artistic/theatrical collaborations, fought tirelessly for the advancement of black people, in general, and black gay people, in specific, and still found time to have sex. Callen, likewise, spearheaded a number of early, influential efforts to educate people about the dangers of AIDS and maintained a busy singing career. My favorite part of the book was near the end when Duberman explains how Callen would go about recording his final album months before his death. With only 25% lung capacity at his disposal (due to KS of the lungs), Callen would belt out a take then take a sip of soda from a can and lie on the floor of the recording studio while his lover worked with the recording studio to prepare for the next take. Amazing determination. I was also excited to discover that one of my favorite Justin Vivian Bond songs, "American Wedding," is actually one of Hemphill's poems set to music. It comes from one of his final collections.
Overall, this book did much to contextualize the uneven experience of HIV/AIDS in the gay community during the early days. And though it's wonderful to memorialize people like Callen and Hemphill, Duberman reminds us that the vast majority of AIDS casualties were and continue to be non-artists, just ordinary people cut down in the prime of their lives without the opportunity to leave behind a legacy as rich as those profiled here.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
Callen's is the face we mostly associate with the disease in the U.S. He was a young gay white man, and though he seemed to hold lifelong sympathies with many civil rights issues and minority groups, one gets the sense reading Duberman's account that he wouldn't have been politicized were it not for his diagnosis. Hemphill, on the other hand, represents the other, often hidden face of the plague. As a black man living on the economic edges of society he bore the double stigma of minority status and disease at a time when funds (and government action) for AIDS was limited. He was, in effect, the last in line.
Despite the grim subject matter, Duberman does much here to document the fullness of these men's lives. I was astounded by the sheer amount of things they accomplished. Hemphill published many books, performed and founded several artistic/theatrical collaborations, fought tirelessly for the advancement of black people, in general, and black gay people, in specific, and still found time to have sex. Callen, likewise, spearheaded a number of early, influential efforts to educate people about the dangers of AIDS and maintained a busy singing career. My favorite part of the book was near the end when Duberman explains how Callen would go about recording his final album months before his death. With only 25% lung capacity at his disposal (due to KS of the lungs), Callen would belt out a take then take a sip of soda from a can and lie on the floor of the recording studio while his lover worked with the recording studio to prepare for the next take. Amazing determination. I was also excited to discover that one of my favorite Justin Vivian Bond songs, "American Wedding," is actually one of Hemphill's poems set to music. It comes from one of his final collections.
Overall, this book did much to contextualize the uneven experience of HIV/AIDS in the gay community during the early days. And though it's wonderful to memorialize people like Callen and Hemphill, Duberman reminds us that the vast majority of AIDS casualties were and continue to be non-artists, just ordinary people cut down in the prime of their lives without the opportunity to leave behind a legacy as rich as those profiled here.
If you liked this, make sure to follow me on Goodreads for more reviews!
November 1, 2018
“‘We are beginning to see that homophobia and racism are not, as some of us thought, totally unrelated. We are beginning to see that America’s fear and ignorance of homosexuals and its hate and bigotry toward black and brown people are not just coincidental.’”
This is a supremely readable and informative examination of the AIDS crisis through the lives of two otherwise unrelated men. I can not recommend this enough if you have any interest in the topic or in the history of marginalized peoples.
The author has clearly worked tirelessly to compile and sort through tons of research in order to offer the most digestible product to the reader. Hold Tight Gently has definitely sparked an interest in me to read more from this author and on this topic.
5 out of 5 stars
“...Mike felt sure, he told the New York congressional delegation, that ‘if such a deadly disease were affecting more privileged members of American society, there can be no doubt that the government’s response would have been immediate.’”
This is a supremely readable and informative examination of the AIDS crisis through the lives of two otherwise unrelated men. I can not recommend this enough if you have any interest in the topic or in the history of marginalized peoples.
The author has clearly worked tirelessly to compile and sort through tons of research in order to offer the most digestible product to the reader. Hold Tight Gently has definitely sparked an interest in me to read more from this author and on this topic.
5 out of 5 stars
“...Mike felt sure, he told the New York congressional delegation, that ‘if such a deadly disease were affecting more privileged members of American society, there can be no doubt that the government’s response would have been immediate.’”
August 20, 2019
I honestly cannot emphasize enough just how important Martin Duberman’s contribution to the growing collection of books on the history of the AIDS crisis is. Using the stories of two of the crisis’ most important figures, Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill, Duberman gives a meticulous and detailed telling of the history of the crisis from the discovery in the early 80s to the discovery of protease inhibitors in December 1995.
What makes this book so important, though, is its intersectional engagement with the history it discusses. Duberman doesn’t back down from confronting the ways in which white gays failed gay POCs and does so in a way that gives credit where credit is due, but also acknowledges the racism, classism, and failures that stemmed from the assimilationist practices of many of the activist circles.
A must read history of the AIDS crisis that is groundbreaking.
What makes this book so important, though, is its intersectional engagement with the history it discusses. Duberman doesn’t back down from confronting the ways in which white gays failed gay POCs and does so in a way that gives credit where credit is due, but also acknowledges the racism, classism, and failures that stemmed from the assimilationist practices of many of the activist circles.
A must read history of the AIDS crisis that is groundbreaking.
June 24, 2017
I waivered between 4 and 5 stars and decided that this important work by the historian Martin Duberman deserves my highest rating. This is not a book for everyone, and I have to admit with my New England puritanism and Catholic upbringing, some of the details about the lives of gay men in the 1980's and on weren't easy reading. But this story of two men, Michael Callen, a white midwestern man from a conservative religious family, and Essex Hemphill, a black poet from Southeast Washington DC, is the story of the struggles gay men faced in the AIDS era on many fronts.
Callen, a gifted singer, had moved to New York City, to pursue a career in music. Callen became HIV positive early in the 1980's and came to be known as a long term survivor. Callen was an early proponent of educating the gay community as well as other vulnerable communities including urban minority populations about HIV and AIDS and safe sex. As readers we have to remember that AIDS appeared at a time that gay liberation was focused on sexual liberation. Callen was a proponent of sexual liberation at the same time he was working tirelessly to promote safe(r) sex.
Hemphill was a black gay man in Washington DC and a gifted poet. Hemphill experienced tremendous racism within the gay community. Clubs were segregated as were most venues and events in the gay community. Hemphill confronted and challenged this racism over and over again. One of the memorable scenes for me was the experience he had when he sent one of his books to the Washington Post Book World for review. He followed up and the editor denied that it had arrived. Hemphill sent the book 3 times via registered post and each time the editor said it hadn't arrived. Someone working at the Post later reported that the editor in fact had said he wasn't going to review a book by a black gay man, though he used much cruder language.
I learned a great deal, not only about the fight to find medications and drugs to alleviate the effects of AIDS, but the lack of political consciousness within the gay male community. Callen had many close friends in the lesbian community and was a feminist. The feminist movement was more politically sophisticated than the gay men's community. Callen and his lesbian feminist allies were at the forefront of many of the efforts in fighting AIDS and pushing the fight forward.There is also a great deal of detail about ACT UP. Callen wasn't convinced that their approach was the right one, and the reader sees inside the ups and downs of this movement. Callen was also very critical of others in the movement such as Randy Shilts who he portrays as extremely conservative.
The book also provides us with many samples of Hemphill's poetry. I read a lot of poetry, and his work is powerful. Callen made a number of recordings with various groups he was in as well as on his own. Sadly, it is not readily available, and none is in digital form. Considering the artistic gifts of these men, it is a huge loss that so little of their artistic legacies remain. It is a reminder of the huge toll of AIDS. The filmmaker Marlon Riggs who worked with Hemphill is also mentioned in the book. Fortunately his films are in print, but they are not the kind of films you find readily on Netflix etc.
This was a read for one of my book clubs. Unfortunately, the discussion was dominated by members who hadn't read the book. One man asked numerous questions of a gay man in our group such as how to gay men meet one another, what were bathhouses like, etc. It was very inappropriate but perhaps because the questionner is in his 70's they were answered. There were important themes in this book we didn't get to discuss such as racism in the gay community of the time, and Hemphill's insistence that his primary fight was against racism and then against homophobia. But an appropriate choice for a group that reads books about social justice and diversity.
Callen, a gifted singer, had moved to New York City, to pursue a career in music. Callen became HIV positive early in the 1980's and came to be known as a long term survivor. Callen was an early proponent of educating the gay community as well as other vulnerable communities including urban minority populations about HIV and AIDS and safe sex. As readers we have to remember that AIDS appeared at a time that gay liberation was focused on sexual liberation. Callen was a proponent of sexual liberation at the same time he was working tirelessly to promote safe(r) sex.
Hemphill was a black gay man in Washington DC and a gifted poet. Hemphill experienced tremendous racism within the gay community. Clubs were segregated as were most venues and events in the gay community. Hemphill confronted and challenged this racism over and over again. One of the memorable scenes for me was the experience he had when he sent one of his books to the Washington Post Book World for review. He followed up and the editor denied that it had arrived. Hemphill sent the book 3 times via registered post and each time the editor said it hadn't arrived. Someone working at the Post later reported that the editor in fact had said he wasn't going to review a book by a black gay man, though he used much cruder language.
I learned a great deal, not only about the fight to find medications and drugs to alleviate the effects of AIDS, but the lack of political consciousness within the gay male community. Callen had many close friends in the lesbian community and was a feminist. The feminist movement was more politically sophisticated than the gay men's community. Callen and his lesbian feminist allies were at the forefront of many of the efforts in fighting AIDS and pushing the fight forward.There is also a great deal of detail about ACT UP. Callen wasn't convinced that their approach was the right one, and the reader sees inside the ups and downs of this movement. Callen was also very critical of others in the movement such as Randy Shilts who he portrays as extremely conservative.
The book also provides us with many samples of Hemphill's poetry. I read a lot of poetry, and his work is powerful. Callen made a number of recordings with various groups he was in as well as on his own. Sadly, it is not readily available, and none is in digital form. Considering the artistic gifts of these men, it is a huge loss that so little of their artistic legacies remain. It is a reminder of the huge toll of AIDS. The filmmaker Marlon Riggs who worked with Hemphill is also mentioned in the book. Fortunately his films are in print, but they are not the kind of films you find readily on Netflix etc.
This was a read for one of my book clubs. Unfortunately, the discussion was dominated by members who hadn't read the book. One man asked numerous questions of a gay man in our group such as how to gay men meet one another, what were bathhouses like, etc. It was very inappropriate but perhaps because the questionner is in his 70's they were answered. There were important themes in this book we didn't get to discuss such as racism in the gay community of the time, and Hemphill's insistence that his primary fight was against racism and then against homophobia. But an appropriate choice for a group that reads books about social justice and diversity.
August 7, 2019
I agree with the reviewer who said that putting Callen's and Hemphill's stories together doesn't really work. It doesn't. To be fair, I am a huge fan of Michael Callen and was looking for some insight into his personality, his work. Therefore, although I was mildly interested in the parts about Hemphill, the inclusion of highly sexual "poetry" by Hemphill was off-putting. Surely there must have been some poetry (all of it, free-verse) that wasn't so explicit?
Also, every picture of Michael Callen I had either seen before or was readily available on the Internet. In short, I didn't learn very much from this book. If you wish to read the thoughts of his contemporaries and his partner, Richard Dworkin, this link is lovely and informative: https://www.queermusicheritage.com/ma...
I hope someone someday writes the book I hope to read about this courageous, witty, bright raconteur.
Also, every picture of Michael Callen I had either seen before or was readily available on the Internet. In short, I didn't learn very much from this book. If you wish to read the thoughts of his contemporaries and his partner, Richard Dworkin, this link is lovely and informative: https://www.queermusicheritage.com/ma...
I hope someone someday writes the book I hope to read about this courageous, witty, bright raconteur.
September 4, 2021
An excellent and very affecting book.
I was very familiar with Michael Callen from his music and his activism.
I was less familiar with Essex Hemphill, even though I lived in the D.C. area and even played a couple of gigs at d.c. space, a venue that Essex and his collaborators appeared at repeatedly, but I was completely unaware of his work, although I had read or read of work by some of his friends such as Pat Parker, Barbara Smith and Michelle Parkerson.
And this leads me to the main disconnect I experienced while reading Duberman's well-researched and articulate book: it focused on two writers/activists: Hemphill, a Black, gay poet and Callen, a white, gay songwriter, musician and activist, who lived in the same years as Persons with AIDS, albeit in two cities--D.C. and NYC--and yet they never met and never worked together.
If one of Duberman's themes, repeated endlessly by Hemphill, that Black and white gay men lived in two separate worlds, then the act of reading this book vicerally imposed this condition upon the reader. While both men were passionately creative, committed to justice for women, people of color, and poor people, and engaged in the battle between their need and desire to produce creative work and their struggle to persist in the midst of the progression of AIDS, it was heartbreaking to realize that at no point did their struggles or their joys coincide.
If two such vital forces in the AIDS activism movement(s) co-existed, yet they never met, that says so much about the racial divide that affected even these people working to achieve justice for People with AIDS.
While I agree that Duberman's juxtaposing these two lives into one history does not totally "work," in my own case, having lived in the DC area during those years and having interacted with certain populations involved in the story, it provided me some important perspective, seen from a distance.
I was very familiar with Michael Callen from his music and his activism.
I was less familiar with Essex Hemphill, even though I lived in the D.C. area and even played a couple of gigs at d.c. space, a venue that Essex and his collaborators appeared at repeatedly, but I was completely unaware of his work, although I had read or read of work by some of his friends such as Pat Parker, Barbara Smith and Michelle Parkerson.
And this leads me to the main disconnect I experienced while reading Duberman's well-researched and articulate book: it focused on two writers/activists: Hemphill, a Black, gay poet and Callen, a white, gay songwriter, musician and activist, who lived in the same years as Persons with AIDS, albeit in two cities--D.C. and NYC--and yet they never met and never worked together.
If one of Duberman's themes, repeated endlessly by Hemphill, that Black and white gay men lived in two separate worlds, then the act of reading this book vicerally imposed this condition upon the reader. While both men were passionately creative, committed to justice for women, people of color, and poor people, and engaged in the battle between their need and desire to produce creative work and their struggle to persist in the midst of the progression of AIDS, it was heartbreaking to realize that at no point did their struggles or their joys coincide.
If two such vital forces in the AIDS activism movement(s) co-existed, yet they never met, that says so much about the racial divide that affected even these people working to achieve justice for People with AIDS.
While I agree that Duberman's juxtaposing these two lives into one history does not totally "work," in my own case, having lived in the DC area during those years and having interacted with certain populations involved in the story, it provided me some important perspective, seen from a distance.
May 30, 2023
I loved this. Learned a lot, cried like a baby. Loved the way he honoured these men through the lens of their political activism and also the deeply personal exploration of their relationships through poetry, journals, words from friends, etc. Stunning.
November 25, 2014
Martin Duberman is one of the best contemporary historians and all of his skill is demonstrated in page after page of this fine history of the fight against AIDS, explored through the biographies of two artists, the poet Essex Hemphill and the singer Michael Callen. Drawing upon Hemphill's poetry and referencing the music Callen created, the reader is sharply reminded of the untold creative output, power, and beauty that we have lost to this epidemic. Duberman celebrates the sexual radicalism both men embraced, and some readers may be surprised by the frank sex-positive language employed. Capturing the feel of an ethos is a difficult thing for historians to do, but Duberman pulls it off handsomely. I recognized the '80s and early '90s he described, though I'm a generation younger than Callen or Hemphill and two generations younger than Duberman. More importantly, Duberman addresses the issue of race and the role racism played and continues to play in accessing health care and other social goods. HIV/AIDS continues to threaten and destroy, even though we have drugs that can make the disease manageable for so many and know of safer sex practices that can prevent the spread of the disease. The issues of homophobia, sexism, and racism continue to be part of how we do and don't deal with the disease. It is a hard read, and readers are advised to have a stack of clean handkerchiefs nearby, and to be ready to be angry all over again (or for the first time, if one did not live through or was aware of the effects of shameful political inaction and shaming whole communities). But it also an important read, as a testament to good history for and of marginalized peoples, as a way to hold onto the power and beauty of two significant artists, as a way to grieve what we have and continue to lose, and as something to recall us to the continuing presence of AIDS and horribly high infection rates among gay and straight people, and especially exploiting racism's and homophobia's reality and legacies. Strongly recommended.
December 30, 2017
"Hold Tight Gently" is a powerful tribute to Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill, two gay men who were artists and leaders during the early years of AIDS. Much like the book just out by David France, "How To Survive A Plague," this documents their lives starting with the early history—before AIDS had a name, the time when people did not know what the so called Gay Cancer was or why young men were dying from PCP, or how this disease was spread.
A skilled writer, Martin Duberman writes well each man's history from their archives.
Michael Callen, a white gay man, was well known as an activist and a muscian. He was an early patient of Dr. Sonnabend who was also a researcher, and he had an early understanding of the disease before other doctors, some of his theories proved to be true over time. He had a huge following of patients and Michael was one of his early patients who became a long term survivor; note that in 1987 only one in ten patients survived three years. Michael lived well beyond his time because he did not use the early meds, and because he was prescribed Bactrim as a prophylaxis before it was approved by the medical establishment. Unfortunately, there was a seven year delay before it was suggested to doctors to use Bactrim this way. Sonnabend had worked in a renal unit where it was commonly used and already proven to prevent PCP.
Michael was a performer who sang falsetto (connecting me to the interesting play Falsetto, about AIDS, which I read as part of the syllabus for a class reading literature inspired by the AIDS epidemic; this tidbit of information leads me to wonder if the play was named that in part to honor Michael Callen); Michael had been in several bands starting with the Cockettes, the Flirtations, and the Flirts and before he died he worked on a Legacy album with over fifty other musicians. He was well connected to Holly Near and a host of muscians of the times. There was a fundraiser that was done for him to produce the album which was very successful due to his notoriety.
Essex Hemphill, a black gay man, was a poet who participated in the movement for black men to express their inner lives. This book explores the racism he experienced from the white gay men and from his own race for being gay. Like Michael, he was also a long term survivor at that time, living longer than the expected three years. His work with John Bean, another gay black writer who edited the book "In The Life," for black gay men to express, of course Essex submitted work that was accepted. When John Bean died he was in the middle of starting the next book, "Brother to Brother." Essex took it over with the help of John's mother, he actually moved into John Bean's parents house to bring it to completion. He also got a lot of support from black lesbian feminists Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, and Michelle Parkerson.
Having just read "Brother to Brother" it was revealing to see the connections and read about some of the other authors. When Don Williams died, one of the contributors to "Brother to Brother," we learn at his funeral AIDS was not mentioned. One of the other writers, Assotto Saint, got up to speak and announced that Don was a proud gay man, asking those in the audience to stand if they were there because they were part of the community that knew him that way. Half the audience stood. His family was not happy with this revelation. So, when Essex died there was great debate about whether to go to the family funeral or not, the gay men, after input from Barbara Smith, agreed to have their own separate funeral. Essex's mother and sister attended to their surprise and thanked them.
Essex also worked with Marlon Riggs who made a series of films that included "Tongues Untied," which Essex was in along with his writing. One of Marlon Riggs quotes that stands out is, "When you speak from the heart, people understand, even when you speak in ways that are troublesome."
Near the end of Essex's life he wrote a poem, Vital Signs, published in the book "Life Sentences" edited by Thomas Avena. The last section of this long poem is in prose and Duberman likens it to his obituary:
"Some of the T cells I am without are not here through my own fault. I didn't lose all of them foolishly, and I didn't lose all of them erotically. Some of the missing T cells were lost to racism, a well-known transmittable disease. Some were lost to poverty because there was no money to do something about the plumbing before the pipes burst and the room flooded. Homophobia killed quite a few, but so did my rage and my pointed furies, so did the wars at home and the wars within, so did the drugs I took to remain calm, cool, collected....Actually, there are T cells scattered all about me at doorways where I was denied entrance because I was a faggot or a nigga or too poor or too black. There are T cells spilling out of my ashtrays from the cigarette I have anxiously smoked. There are T cells all over the floors of several bathhouses, coast to coast, and halfway around the world, and in numerous parks, and in countless bars, and in places I am forgetting to make room for other memories. My T cells are strewn about like the leaves of a mighty tree, like the fallen hair of an old man, like the stars of a collapsing universe."
A poem he might have written for his sister is telling of his feminist views:
Thanksgiving 1993
I feel sorrow for my heterosexual sisters
who made the mistake of marrying men
beyond redemption, men beyond
the learning of new tricks.
I feel dread for what hell
their married lives must be like, sordid
in how many unimaginable ways?
their barking, brutish, bullish husbands
are dense to change and insecure
I would wish such misery
upon none that I know,
the curse of having a dullard,
loud-mouthed husband in tow.
I feel sorry for my heterosexual sisters
who have staked their loyalties
in men who fear not the fall of night,
but the start of each new day.
Michael Callen died on December 27, 1993 from KS cancer at 38 years old.
Essex Hemphill died on November 4, 1995 from complications from AIDS, also 38 years old.
It is so sad that we lost these brave progressive souls, and so many others.
This book points out racial inequities and frictions. It points out that when black men cannot go home they do not have another home to turn to like many white men did during the plague. It is a very important part of our history.
A skilled writer, Martin Duberman writes well each man's history from their archives.
Michael Callen, a white gay man, was well known as an activist and a muscian. He was an early patient of Dr. Sonnabend who was also a researcher, and he had an early understanding of the disease before other doctors, some of his theories proved to be true over time. He had a huge following of patients and Michael was one of his early patients who became a long term survivor; note that in 1987 only one in ten patients survived three years. Michael lived well beyond his time because he did not use the early meds, and because he was prescribed Bactrim as a prophylaxis before it was approved by the medical establishment. Unfortunately, there was a seven year delay before it was suggested to doctors to use Bactrim this way. Sonnabend had worked in a renal unit where it was commonly used and already proven to prevent PCP.
Michael was a performer who sang falsetto (connecting me to the interesting play Falsetto, about AIDS, which I read as part of the syllabus for a class reading literature inspired by the AIDS epidemic; this tidbit of information leads me to wonder if the play was named that in part to honor Michael Callen); Michael had been in several bands starting with the Cockettes, the Flirtations, and the Flirts and before he died he worked on a Legacy album with over fifty other musicians. He was well connected to Holly Near and a host of muscians of the times. There was a fundraiser that was done for him to produce the album which was very successful due to his notoriety.
Essex Hemphill, a black gay man, was a poet who participated in the movement for black men to express their inner lives. This book explores the racism he experienced from the white gay men and from his own race for being gay. Like Michael, he was also a long term survivor at that time, living longer than the expected three years. His work with John Bean, another gay black writer who edited the book "In The Life," for black gay men to express, of course Essex submitted work that was accepted. When John Bean died he was in the middle of starting the next book, "Brother to Brother." Essex took it over with the help of John's mother, he actually moved into John Bean's parents house to bring it to completion. He also got a lot of support from black lesbian feminists Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, and Michelle Parkerson.
Having just read "Brother to Brother" it was revealing to see the connections and read about some of the other authors. When Don Williams died, one of the contributors to "Brother to Brother," we learn at his funeral AIDS was not mentioned. One of the other writers, Assotto Saint, got up to speak and announced that Don was a proud gay man, asking those in the audience to stand if they were there because they were part of the community that knew him that way. Half the audience stood. His family was not happy with this revelation. So, when Essex died there was great debate about whether to go to the family funeral or not, the gay men, after input from Barbara Smith, agreed to have their own separate funeral. Essex's mother and sister attended to their surprise and thanked them.
Essex also worked with Marlon Riggs who made a series of films that included "Tongues Untied," which Essex was in along with his writing. One of Marlon Riggs quotes that stands out is, "When you speak from the heart, people understand, even when you speak in ways that are troublesome."
Near the end of Essex's life he wrote a poem, Vital Signs, published in the book "Life Sentences" edited by Thomas Avena. The last section of this long poem is in prose and Duberman likens it to his obituary:
"Some of the T cells I am without are not here through my own fault. I didn't lose all of them foolishly, and I didn't lose all of them erotically. Some of the missing T cells were lost to racism, a well-known transmittable disease. Some were lost to poverty because there was no money to do something about the plumbing before the pipes burst and the room flooded. Homophobia killed quite a few, but so did my rage and my pointed furies, so did the wars at home and the wars within, so did the drugs I took to remain calm, cool, collected....Actually, there are T cells scattered all about me at doorways where I was denied entrance because I was a faggot or a nigga or too poor or too black. There are T cells spilling out of my ashtrays from the cigarette I have anxiously smoked. There are T cells all over the floors of several bathhouses, coast to coast, and halfway around the world, and in numerous parks, and in countless bars, and in places I am forgetting to make room for other memories. My T cells are strewn about like the leaves of a mighty tree, like the fallen hair of an old man, like the stars of a collapsing universe."
A poem he might have written for his sister is telling of his feminist views:
Thanksgiving 1993
I feel sorrow for my heterosexual sisters
who made the mistake of marrying men
beyond redemption, men beyond
the learning of new tricks.
I feel dread for what hell
their married lives must be like, sordid
in how many unimaginable ways?
their barking, brutish, bullish husbands
are dense to change and insecure
I would wish such misery
upon none that I know,
the curse of having a dullard,
loud-mouthed husband in tow.
I feel sorry for my heterosexual sisters
who have staked their loyalties
in men who fear not the fall of night,
but the start of each new day.
Michael Callen died on December 27, 1993 from KS cancer at 38 years old.
Essex Hemphill died on November 4, 1995 from complications from AIDS, also 38 years old.
It is so sad that we lost these brave progressive souls, and so many others.
This book points out racial inequities and frictions. It points out that when black men cannot go home they do not have another home to turn to like many white men did during the plague. It is a very important part of our history.
May 10, 2018
American author Martin Duberman has written an excellent book,"Hold Tight Gently", looking at those first years of the AIDS crisis here in the United States. He uses two young men - Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill - examining how the disease affected the larger gay community. The book's title is taken from a book, "Brother to Brother", published in 1991. It is a collection of writing by Black gay writers, including poet Essex Hemphill. (The book is back in print and is available on Amazon).
Duberman's book goes back and forth between the lives of Callen and Hemphill. Both were diagnosed fairly early on with AIDS and both died in the early to mid 1990's; Hemphill survived until shortly before the introduction of the protease inhibitors. Both men were the sons of religious parents and both knew from an early age they were gay. But as a black man, confronting the innate hostility of the larger black community towards gay men, Essex Hemphill had a tougher time than Michael Callen.
Callen was from a small town in Ohio and moved to Boston for college, and then ended up in New York City, where he made his mark as a singer. He was also an AIDS activist and was one of the first gay men who realised the devastation the newly discovered AIDS was making in the gay population. He pushed for "safe sex" in the gay community, and was often at odds with others, in the newly liberated time. Callen also acted as a fund raiser for both community and national AIDS organisations. He also worked with music groups and recorded his last album, "Legacy", shortly before his death in Los Angeles.
Essex Hemphill was born and raised in Washington, DC. He was active as a poet in the black community as a young man until his death. As I wrote above, Hemphill was often at odds in connecting the two major facets of his identity - as a black, gay man. Duberman is particularly good in describing this part of Hemphill's life.
Martin Duberman is unstinting in describing Callen and Hemphill's illnesses, treatments, and deaths. AIDS is not an "easy" illness and both men suffered from its ravages. Duberman has written an important book - combining the times of the gay community with the advent of AIDS, using the lives of Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill, both interesting men who did great things in their relatively short lives.
Duberman's book goes back and forth between the lives of Callen and Hemphill. Both were diagnosed fairly early on with AIDS and both died in the early to mid 1990's; Hemphill survived until shortly before the introduction of the protease inhibitors. Both men were the sons of religious parents and both knew from an early age they were gay. But as a black man, confronting the innate hostility of the larger black community towards gay men, Essex Hemphill had a tougher time than Michael Callen.
Callen was from a small town in Ohio and moved to Boston for college, and then ended up in New York City, where he made his mark as a singer. He was also an AIDS activist and was one of the first gay men who realised the devastation the newly discovered AIDS was making in the gay population. He pushed for "safe sex" in the gay community, and was often at odds with others, in the newly liberated time. Callen also acted as a fund raiser for both community and national AIDS organisations. He also worked with music groups and recorded his last album, "Legacy", shortly before his death in Los Angeles.
Essex Hemphill was born and raised in Washington, DC. He was active as a poet in the black community as a young man until his death. As I wrote above, Hemphill was often at odds in connecting the two major facets of his identity - as a black, gay man. Duberman is particularly good in describing this part of Hemphill's life.
Martin Duberman is unstinting in describing Callen and Hemphill's illnesses, treatments, and deaths. AIDS is not an "easy" illness and both men suffered from its ravages. Duberman has written an important book - combining the times of the gay community with the advent of AIDS, using the lives of Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill, both interesting men who did great things in their relatively short lives.
December 4, 2021
If you have read the book (or seen the movie) "And the band played on" you'll be familiar with some of this history of this book. While "And the band played on" focused more on the scientists, this book focuses (obviously) on 2 people with AIDS and their (very) different experiences of the disease early in the epidemic. One thing that the author brings out is the very different experiences blacks, whites, hispanics, and IV drug users had from medical and governmental resources. That history and disparity deserves to be named and examined in greater detail.
The effect of this epidemic has important societal parallels to our current COVID epidemic. I think it worth examining how we as a community respond to illness, epidemics, and death due to illness in our midst.
However, the author also fails to criticize his own community's behavior in this crisis. It is inescapable that the rampant promiscuity and use of IV drugs fueled the epidemic. Those were not choices forced on others, but at the end of the day, were personal choices. I disagree with the author and subjects that their behavior (in my reading) 'deserved' not to have consequences. Just as importantly, the author seems to suggest that the behavior should be accepted, normalized, and the consequences of the behavior be born (and paid by) the wider community. I do not think this to be reasonable. If a person wants to have a lifestyle of higher risk, then the person should be willing and ready to pay a higher price for that in insurance premiums for example (as we do with smokers).
The effect of this epidemic has important societal parallels to our current COVID epidemic. I think it worth examining how we as a community respond to illness, epidemics, and death due to illness in our midst.
However, the author also fails to criticize his own community's behavior in this crisis. It is inescapable that the rampant promiscuity and use of IV drugs fueled the epidemic. Those were not choices forced on others, but at the end of the day, were personal choices. I disagree with the author and subjects that their behavior (in my reading) 'deserved' not to have consequences. Just as importantly, the author seems to suggest that the behavior should be accepted, normalized, and the consequences of the behavior be born (and paid by) the wider community. I do not think this to be reasonable. If a person wants to have a lifestyle of higher risk, then the person should be willing and ready to pay a higher price for that in insurance premiums for example (as we do with smokers).
February 27, 2021
Many years after finishing “Hold Close Tightly,” a book I picked up out of a near desperation to learn more about what it means to be gay in America, I still think about Essex Hemphill and Michael Callan often. Hemphill’s poetry has deeply influenced my journey as a poet and a poetry-appreciator. I still listen to Michael Callan’s music, and am delighted at how out of this time it feels, though songs like “Living in War Time” and “How to Have Sex” also feel very of this time. Both men taught me about empathy, love, loving, anger, and grace. Their differences also exemplify that the battle for dignity for people with HIV and AIDS was fought on many fronts.
I recommend this book for anybody who wants to gain a general understanding of the AIDS epidemic and also for anyone who already has that and wants to dig deeper to learn about two beautiful men who played a role in building dignity around this disease.
I recommend this book for anybody who wants to gain a general understanding of the AIDS epidemic and also for anyone who already has that and wants to dig deeper to learn about two beautiful men who played a role in building dignity around this disease.
Read
May 18, 2024HOLD TIGHT GENTLY, BY MARTIN DUBERMAN
COMMENTS BY JEFF KEITH FOR GOODREADS
[three stars] “Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the battlefield of AIDS”
A few years ago I heard Martin Duberman do a reading from this book. Duberman is one of our most important gay historians, and his books should usually merit five stars. The writing in this book is excellent, but I am mystified as to why he decided to combine material on two such outstanding men in just one book. They didn’t know each other, and in my opinion all they had in common was both being brilliant gay creative artists who were open about being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and both tragically died of it in the early 1990s. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading about these two heroic figures of my generation of gay men. However, either one merits an entire book, so it seems weird to me to see each one get just half a book.
COMMENTS BY JEFF KEITH FOR GOODREADS
[three stars] “Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the battlefield of AIDS”
A few years ago I heard Martin Duberman do a reading from this book. Duberman is one of our most important gay historians, and his books should usually merit five stars. The writing in this book is excellent, but I am mystified as to why he decided to combine material on two such outstanding men in just one book. They didn’t know each other, and in my opinion all they had in common was both being brilliant gay creative artists who were open about being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and both tragically died of it in the early 1990s. Don’t get me wrong, I loved reading about these two heroic figures of my generation of gay men. However, either one merits an entire book, so it seems weird to me to see each one get just half a book.
February 11, 2021
Thoroughly researched. Captivating, gut-wrenching, inspiring, and heartbreaking all at the same time. I shed many tears reading this book. And it's amazing how much more clear-eyed, compassionate, and incisive the reporting and storytelling is here than in And the Band Played On. While reading that book was important for me at the time that I did, I am honestly somewhat amazed (and pretty frustrated) that books like Hold Tight Gently have not knocked Shilts' book off its pedestal within AIDS histories.
Mike Callen and Essex Hemphill are figures who should be far better known and far more revered than they are. And so much of that is simply because they left us so soon. Now, mostly, what we have is the work and the legacies they left behind. And thank god for that.
Mike Callen and Essex Hemphill are figures who should be far better known and far more revered than they are. And so much of that is simply because they left us so soon. Now, mostly, what we have is the work and the legacies they left behind. And thank god for that.
January 8, 2020
"Some of the T cells I am without are not here through my own fault. I didn’t lose all of them foolishly, and I didn’t lose all of them erotically. Some of the missing T cells were lost to racism, a well-known transmittable disease. Some were lost to poverty because there was no money to do something about the plumbing before the pipes burst and the room flooded. Homophobia killed quite a few, but so did my rage and my pointed furies, so did the wars at home and the wars within, so did the drugs I took to remain calm, cool, collected. . ."
March 4, 2022
I can only give this 4 stars. I loved how detailed the account of both men’s lives is. But I needed to hear more about Essex. His influence on the gay community is lost to time because his poems are not accessible. They’re not taught. I learned about Essex by watching tongues untied. All around great story but I would have loved to hear more content about Essex Hemphill. Hopefully there are more things written about him.
July 30, 2017
Michael Callen becomes the more compelling character in the book because he shares much more of how he was feeling, rather than the reserved Essex Hemphill. But because half the book deals with a person who did not share much of his life to others, it has lots of details about the work but without the person behind it.
June 12, 2020
The best sorts of biographies are able to tell a story about systems and structures in addition to the story of the subject of the biography - and this one does that very handily.
“The experience of the AIDS epidemic was in critical ways dissimilar for the white gay community and the black gay one, and that distinction is one of the major themes of this book.”
“The experience of the AIDS epidemic was in critical ways dissimilar for the white gay community and the black gay one, and that distinction is one of the major themes of this book.”
September 30, 2017
4.5 stars
January 25, 2024
this lowkey took forever for me to finish but that doesn’t mean I did not like it I just had to go slow so that my pea brain could comprehend the incoming knowledge
July 5, 2025
This took me forever to get through but it was interesting to hear mentions of places and organizations that I still see/hear about in NYC today.
July 15, 2015
Given my interest in the history of AIDS activism, having read Randy Shilts' comprehensive 'And the Band Plays On', which charted the spread of the epidemic and the reaction to it by the US government and those within the LGBT community, when a couple of GR friends recommended this book to me, I was keen to read it to expand my knowledge of the subject further.
This book is different in the fact that it tells the story through exploring the lives of Michael Callen, a singer originally from the Midwest but settled in NYC, and of Essex Hemphill, an African American poet, resident in Washington DC. The book is blunt in its detailing of the aspects of the sexual life of gay men that helped spread the virus, as well as being unsurprisingly critical of local, state and federal responses to the crisis. Through Hemphill's story, it explores the issue of racism within the gay community, as well as the disadvantage ethnic minority groups had in the prejudice they suffered within their own ethic groups, as well as the shortfalls of the treatment they were able to access.
This is a difficult read, but an important one that tells the story of two inspiring individuals, whose activism during the dark days of the AIDS crisis helped influence the medical approach to the virus, as well as the gay community's sexual practices and society's attitude toward the communities of which they were a part
This book is different in the fact that it tells the story through exploring the lives of Michael Callen, a singer originally from the Midwest but settled in NYC, and of Essex Hemphill, an African American poet, resident in Washington DC. The book is blunt in its detailing of the aspects of the sexual life of gay men that helped spread the virus, as well as being unsurprisingly critical of local, state and federal responses to the crisis. Through Hemphill's story, it explores the issue of racism within the gay community, as well as the disadvantage ethnic minority groups had in the prejudice they suffered within their own ethic groups, as well as the shortfalls of the treatment they were able to access.
This is a difficult read, but an important one that tells the story of two inspiring individuals, whose activism during the dark days of the AIDS crisis helped influence the medical approach to the virus, as well as the gay community's sexual practices and society's attitude toward the communities of which they were a part
April 22, 2016
Duberman has written a biography of two AIDS activists, Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill looking at their lives, their activism and how their race impacted their work and activism. It is an important book for anyone interested in how PWA's survived during the early days of the AIDS epidemic and how they negotiated living with a disease that made so many turn away. Reading it I was impressed with Hemphill's poetry and the music that Callen created (music I now want to discover).
"I'm slowly turning purple," he told a friend, "the colour of gay royalty." 284
"The next generation is going to have different problems than we did. Our problem was invisibility-the stigma that kills so many of us. We have shattered that problem for all time. Now you can see us everywhere...But homophobia is firmly, firmly entrenched. I believe [this new generation] has been raised to expect instant success because so much progress was made so quickly. They're going to find a severe backlash that's waiting in the wings." 285
"but he'd found that "dying can be an amazingly sensual, almost erotic experience because it's very much about the body. I feel that I'm a person who lived in his head all his life and paid very little attention to my body, except during sex, which is why I was addicted to it." 286
"I'm slowly turning purple," he told a friend, "the colour of gay royalty." 284
"The next generation is going to have different problems than we did. Our problem was invisibility-the stigma that kills so many of us. We have shattered that problem for all time. Now you can see us everywhere...But homophobia is firmly, firmly entrenched. I believe [this new generation] has been raised to expect instant success because so much progress was made so quickly. They're going to find a severe backlash that's waiting in the wings." 285
"but he'd found that "dying can be an amazingly sensual, almost erotic experience because it's very much about the body. I feel that I'm a person who lived in his head all his life and paid very little attention to my body, except during sex, which is why I was addicted to it." 286
July 23, 2014
History of AIDS from the outset to the development of protease inhibitors mid-90's, generally credited with turning it into a somewhat manageable chronic illness rather than gruesome near-term death sentence, focusing in alternate chapters on two apparently prominent [albeit not familiar to me before reading the book] men, each of whom died of AIDS at 38.
Each was in the arts (music, literature), and each had family conflicts, but they were otherwise pretty different-- one white, one black; one highly active and the other standoffish as it pertained to gay rights activism; one leaving behind a voluminous paper trail and the other fragments, etc. Both get a sympathetic but not fawning treatment here.
If you lived through all this history, there's probably nothing totally new, but it was remarkable to read again how incredibly forceful ACT UP and similar groups were in changing how clinical trials and drug approval were handled, in actually funding their own bottom-up community studies, etc. Got a heck of a lot done even while many of the key players were fighting an incredibly debilitating disease.
Each was in the arts (music, literature), and each had family conflicts, but they were otherwise pretty different-- one white, one black; one highly active and the other standoffish as it pertained to gay rights activism; one leaving behind a voluminous paper trail and the other fragments, etc. Both get a sympathetic but not fawning treatment here.
If you lived through all this history, there's probably nothing totally new, but it was remarkable to read again how incredibly forceful ACT UP and similar groups were in changing how clinical trials and drug approval were handled, in actually funding their own bottom-up community studies, etc. Got a heck of a lot done even while many of the key players were fighting an incredibly debilitating disease.
September 23, 2016
The reviews I read prior to reading the book almost lead me to pick something else to read. Fortunately a friend sent me a copy and I felt obliged. Mr. Duberman has created an artful chronology of the U.S. AIDS crisis while layering the stories of two, disparate gay men. The author put enough of himself into the story to reduce the clanging bell in my head that feverously wanted to know, "Why?" Why these two men out of everyone affected by the disease to tell it's story? I still don't know enough about Mr. Duberman to answer this question, but he told their stories so well I don't care so much anymore. If, like the reviewers I first read, you are looking for a biography of the two men, you will find the Callen story better researched than Hemphill's. In my opinion, this book is a story of the age of AIDS and you will appreciate the index to find names, places and the text for dates and events that shaped the crisis. It is a crisis in black and white and Callen and Hemphill are worthy examples of both experiences. Mr. Duberman exploits Hemphill's poetry to add an emotional depth that an ordinary biography usually lacks.
August 21, 2014
I struggled with this book. It's a topic near and dear my heart, and I'm a big fan of the work of Essex Hemphill. But... I felt like the author was given access to these two men's papers and then tried to connect dots where there weren't any. Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill were very, very different from each other- and in the way they were involved with/connected to the AIDS "movement." That alone could have provided a good basis for contrast in the book. But I didn't feel like the author really made those points of contrast. Furthermore, there was a chapter where almost every paragraph started with a long dash "--", and I don't know if that was just poor editing or a weird literary choice. But I did not feel like the transitions between points (when I could determine what those salient points were) were very fluid, either. There wasn't really any new information provided, either- kind of the same information about ACT UP and the GMHC, etc. There were also a few personal interjections of the author that felt out of place, conversational, and not related to the book.
June 10, 2015
page 143, poem for Joe Beam by Essex Hemphill:
There should have been
More letters between us.
In later years it will be difficult to ascertain
The full meaning of our relations.
Most of us will not be here
To bear witness.
There should have been
more letters hastily written
or carefully typed,
long-winded scripts
or short, cryptic messages.
Volumes of letters
should have gathered
over time, but we leave
hastily scrawled postcards,
outrageous, long-distance
phone bills,
and in rare instances
evidence that some of us
were more than brothers,
we were intimate,
loyal companions.
Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Men, begun by Joseph Beam and completed by Essex Hemphill after Beam's death in 1988 (Alyson, 1991).
Legacy (CD), Michael Callen, with Tret Fure and others.
film:
Tongues Untied, Marlon Riggs (1989)
Looking for Langston, Isaac Julien (1989)
Color Adjustment, Marlon Riggs PBS POV (1992)
Philadelphia (1993) Tom Hanks won an Oscar
Black Is . . . Black Ain't, Marlon Riggs (1994)
There should have been
More letters between us.
In later years it will be difficult to ascertain
The full meaning of our relations.
Most of us will not be here
To bear witness.
There should have been
more letters hastily written
or carefully typed,
long-winded scripts
or short, cryptic messages.
Volumes of letters
should have gathered
over time, but we leave
hastily scrawled postcards,
outrageous, long-distance
phone bills,
and in rare instances
evidence that some of us
were more than brothers,
we were intimate,
loyal companions.
Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Men, begun by Joseph Beam and completed by Essex Hemphill after Beam's death in 1988 (Alyson, 1991).
Legacy (CD), Michael Callen, with Tret Fure and others.
film:
Tongues Untied, Marlon Riggs (1989)
Looking for Langston, Isaac Julien (1989)
Color Adjustment, Marlon Riggs PBS POV (1992)
Philadelphia (1993) Tom Hanks won an Oscar
Black Is . . . Black Ain't, Marlon Riggs (1994)
July 7, 2015
There is no limits to how this book is well researched. How passionate the characters are portrayed in their intensity of directions and unwavering ambitions only to be cut down in their prime by Aids. This is so moving an account of these two individuals Michael Callen and Essex Hemphill who although both so different in temperament are equally pernicious in their fight for the equal survival of their beliefs for LGBT within the destruction and merciless climate of Aids in the 19 80's and 1990's. Their story cements the struggles and despair others have gone through in order that post genocide. We can now live longer (definitely not without conditions). The fight is not over yet. We cannot be entitled or feel blessed. This book teaches us this much. The fight goes on evolving in its many facets.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews