Sarah Schulman presents Let the Record Show

Join us on Wednesday, April 12 from 7-8 PM ET at P&T Knitwear Bookstore for a conversation about Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993. Winner of the 2022 Lambda Literary LGBTQ Nonfiction Award and a nominee for the 2022 Brendan Gill Prize, the 2021 publication is an essential text documenting the ACT UP movement and American AIDS activism. Writer Sarah Schulman will be in conversation with Samiya Bashir, poet and Executive Director of Lambda Literary.

MAS is excited to partner with P&T Knitwear to produce this program. Copies of Let the Record Show will be available for purchase at the program. This event is free with RSVP. Capacity is limited, so we encourage you to sign-up today! For any questions, email events@mas.org.

About the Book

In just six years, ACT UP, New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, changed the world. Armed with rancor, desperation, intelligence, and creativity, it took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on the corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. They stormed the FDA and NIH in Washington, DC, and started needle exchange programs in New York; they took over Grand Central Terminal and fought to change the legal definition of AIDS to include women; they transformed the American insurance industry, weaponized art and advertising to push their agenda, and battled—and beat—The New York Times, the Catholic Church, and the pharmaceutical industry. Their activism, in its complex and intersectional power, transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them.

Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today’s activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration—and long-overdue reassessment—of the coalition’s inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Schulman, one of the most revered queer writers and thinkers of her generation, explores the how and the why, examining, with her characteristic rigor and bite, how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.

About the Venue

P&T Knitwear is a family-owned independent bookstore, podcast studio, event space, and cafe opening in spring 2022 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Learn more about the shop here.