LIVE from NYPL: Let the Record Show: Sarah Schulman with Kwame Anthony Appiah

The writer, professor, and activist on her comprehensive history of ACT UP New York and its role in American AIDS activism.

In its complex and intersectional power, ACT UP transformed the lives of people with AIDS and the bigoted society that had abandoned them. ACT UP New York, a broad and unlikely coalition of activists from all races, genders, sexualities, and backgrounds, took on the AIDS crisis with an indefatigable, ingenious, and multifaceted attack on corporations, institutions, governments, and individuals who stood in the way of AIDS treatment for all. Based on more than 200 interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today's activists, Sarah Schulman's new book is a revelatory exploration of the coalition's inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Let the Record Show charts how a group of desperate outcasts changed America forever, and in the process created a livable future for generations of people across the world.

Sarah Schulman discusses her new book, which was twenty years in the making, with writer and philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah.

The New York Public Library is home to the records of ACT UP New York, documenting its existence from its founding in 1987 through 1995. Researchers can access the organization's administrative files, minutes, correspondence, records of demonstrations, financial documents, chapter and committee records, subject files, conference notes and programs, published and near-print materials, ephemera, fliers and handbills, photographs, artifacts, posters and placards documenting the organization's efforts.

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Sarah Schulman suggests these titles for further reading:

• Koolaids: The Art of War by Rabih Alameddine — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• Veronica by Mary Gaitskill — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic by Richard McKay — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare

Explore more titles by Sarah Schulman (NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare) and Kwame Anthony Appiah (NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare).

Sarah Schulman  is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer and AIDS historian. Let the Record Show is her 20th book.

Kwame Anthony Appiah is Professor of Philosophy and Law at NYU. He was born in London, but moved as an infant to Kumasi, Ghana, where he grew up. He took BA and PhD degrees in philosophy at Cambridge and has taught philosophy in Ghana, France, Britain, and the United States. He has been President of the PEN American Center and serves on the board of The New York Public Library and The Public Theater. In 2021 he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama. His most recent book is The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity. 

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