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BOOK REVIEW: When We Rise: Cleve Jones

April 24, 2017

When We Rise
My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones

Born in 1954, Cleve Jones was among the last generation of gay Americans who grew up wondering if they were the only gays.  Jones found community – in the ramshackle apartments shared by other young adventurers, in the city’s bath houses and gay bars, and in the burgeoning gay district, the Castro. With Harvey Milk’s encouragement, Jones dove into politics and found his calling in “the movement.” When Milk was killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1978, Jones took up his mentor’s progressive mantle – only to see the arrival of AIDS transform his life once again.

By turns tender and uproarious, he chronicles the heartbreak of losing countless friends to AIDS,; his co-founding of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation; his conception of the AIDS Memorial Quilt; the bewitching story of 1970s San Francisco and the magnetic spell it cast for thousands of young gay people and other misfits; and the harrowing, sexy, and hilarious stories of Cleve’s passionate relationships with friends and lovers during an era defined by both unprecedented freedom and violence alike.

When We Rise is not only the story of a hero to the LQBT+ community, but the vibrantly voice memoir of a full and transformative American life. It’s a book I needed to read right now, to remind myself of the strong beating heart of America and what it can convert when it desires and wants to, passionate committed people like Jones inspire us further, and this book is testament to a magnificent life, lived with full commitment to love. Inspiring. (There is also now an America mini TV series based on this book).

You can read more about Mr Jones and his deeply inspirational & joyful life, and continued activism on his website here. 

Out now

Paperback: £13.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publishers website here: 

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