Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS

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.

Jul 29, Michael E. 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. Jul 14, Allan rated it really liked it Shelves: 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.

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 Apr 25, Rj rated it it was amazing.

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. 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.

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. Jul 23, David rated it liked it. History of AIDS from the outset to the development of protease inhibitors mid'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 Each was in the arts music, literature , and each had family conflicts, but they were otherwise pretty different-- one white, one black; one h History of AIDS from the outset to the development of protease inhibitors mid'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 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.

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS

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. Sep 23, David Kelly rated it really liked it. 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. Duberman has created an artful chronology of the U. 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? I still don't know enoug The reviews I read prior to reading the book almost lead me to pick something else to read. 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. Duberman exploits Hemphill's poetry to add an emotional depth that an ordinary biography usually lacks.

Jun 06, Rebecca rated it liked it Shelves: 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.

Hold Tight Gently : NPR

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 o page , poem for Joe Beam by Essex Hemphill: 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.

Black Ain't, Marlon Riggs Apr 01, Molly rated it it was ok Shelves: 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. 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.

But I didn't feel like the author rea I struggled with this 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 were also a few personal interjections of the author that felt out of place, conversational, and not related to the book. Jun 25, Neil H rated it it was amazing. 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 ' There is no limits to how this book is well researched.

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 '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. Dec 01, Trailhoundz rated it really liked it. It is very detailed and I thought gave a very well-rounded view of what it was like to be on "Ground Zero" during the epidemic. Most interesting to me was Mark's and Essex's experiences when AIDS was still young and un-named, as well as Essex's experiences of dealing with rampant racism in the gay community- very eye-opening. Two great photo inserts included. It would have been helpful to also have a glossary of acronyms, since so many clubs and organizations were discussed, sometimes ad nauseum.

But that reflected the activism of Mark and Essex, so it wasn't out of context. I highly recommend this book! Sep 07, Dale rated it it was ok Shelves: I felt fascinated and engaged by the early chapters of this book as the author presented the early life of Essex and Michael. The contrast between their different ways of coming out as gay men is provocative. However, as their lives unfold in the subsequent chapters, I felt really let down as the author didn't develop a coherent presentation and never justified the inclusion of these two individuals into one book, a double-biography.

Dec 08, Kathryn Kochunas rated it it was ok. I couldn't finish this. It was distracting trying to read through the constant partial quotes. I understand the importance of including quotes in a book such as this, but constantly quoting one or two words at a time is distracting and doesn't add much because the single word could be taken so far out of context. Jun 05, Dan Kagan rated it it was amazing. The specific requirements or preferences of your reviewing publisher, classroom teacher, institution or organization should be applied.

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Martin B Duberman Publisher: The New Press, English View all editions and formats Summary: Look how much control you have over AIDS. The choice of Callen and Hemphill to tell the story is an interesting strategy but raises some difficulties. While Callen was thoroughly immersed in AIDS activism, Hemphill addressed the disease much less frequently, and was largely private about his own health struggles. And while Callen and Hemphill take center stage, Duberman finds ample space for concise and compelling portraits of some of their closest friends and collaborators: Duberman only returns obliquely to his subject of the contrast between previous and current approaches to AIDS.

There, he became a frequent visitor to the office of Dr.