KPFA Radio 94.1FM and St. John’s Presbyterian Church present:
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 7:30 PM
St. John’s Presbyterian Church
2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Advance tickets: $12 : brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006
or Books Inc/Berkeley, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s
$15 door
FREE PARKING & WHEELCHAIR ACCESS
“You could read Cleve Jones’s book because you should know about the struggle
for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights from one of its key participants—maybe heroes—but really, you should read it for pleasure and joy. It’s an incredibly vivid evocation of a bygone era and a poignant story of someone who started out feeling
like the only gay person in the world and ended up organizing millions of them”
‑ Rebecca Solnit
“I loved this amazing, inspiring, and sometimes outrageous book. When We Rise is about the building of Cleve Jones, who came to San Francisco as a teenage adventurer and transformed into an activist whose contributions helped change the course of gay history.”
—Gus Van Sant
Cleve Jones details the nearly four decades he’s spent at vital heart of the groundbreaking Movement, fighting to give voice to people who for much of human history, have been made invisible. You may remember Emile Hirsch’s portrayal of Jones in the Gus Van Sant Academy-Award-winning film “Milk” which depicts Jones’ close work with Harvey Milk in San Francisco. What you may not know are the extraordinary accomplishments of Jones’ later work: co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation during the terrifying early years of the epidemic; conceiving the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history, his recent activism on behalf of hotel workers, and his work to legalize same-sex marriage. Written entirely in his own remarkable words, When We Rise is the witty, uncompromising account of Cleve’s dramatic life, the heartbreak of losing Harvey Milk to an assassin’s bullet, and countless friends to AIDS – all within the bewitching story of 1970’s San Francisco and the magical spell it cast for young gay people during an era free love, electrifying liberation, prejudice and revolution. Cleve’s book is the inspiration for the ABC television series of the same name.
“Some people witness history; other people actually make it happen. Cleve Jones, planting himself boldly in the eye of the storm, has succeeded brilliantly at doing both.
—Armistead Maupin
Richard Wolinsky, our host – KPFA’s widely respected veteran literary interviewer – has been hosting and producing literary interviews on KPFA since 1977. Today he hosts “Bookwaves” devoted to literary interviews on Thursdays and “Arts-Waves” devoted to theater and the arts on Mondays; he is the chief theater reviewer for KPFA’s Up Front morning program; and hosts two podcasts, “Radio Wolinsky” and “Bay Area Theater” on kpfa.org.