Witness to a Lost Imagination
Sarah Schulman
overview
In this gripping memoir of the AIDS years (1981-1996), Sarah Schulman recalls how much of the rebellious queer culture, cheap rents, and a vibrant downtown arts movement vanished almost overnight to be replaced by gay conservative spokespeople and mainstream consumerism. Schulman takes us back to her Lower East Side and brings it to life, filling these pages with vivid memories of her avant-garde queer friends and dramatically recreating the early years of the AIDS crisis as experienced by a political insider. Interweaving personal reminiscence with cogent analysis, Schulman details her experience as a witness to the loss of a generation's imagination and the consequences of that loss.
contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Making Record from Memory
Part I. Understanding the Past
1. The Dynamics of Death and Replacement
2. The Gentrification of AIDS
3. Realizing That They’re Gone
Part II. The Consequences Of Loss
4. The Gentrification of Creation
5. The Gentrification of Gay Politics
6. The Gentrification of Our Literature
Conclusion: Degentrification—The Pleasure of Being
Uncomfortable