AIDS “Day Without Art” is a national day of observance that occurs every December, in which arts and cultural institutes go dark in honor of the lives lost in the AIDS epidemic. It is a day as historic as it is important. To help the mission of these institutions to raise awareness, we have compiled a list of books that detail this day and the lives and art shaped by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Day Without Art: 30 Year Special Edition by Leila Rae and Peggy Morrison
Day Without Art was first published on December 1st, 1989. In this 30-year special edition, Rae and Morrison join with the artists who closed theaters and galleries in remembrance of those who died from AIDS. Featuring a collection of poems, essays, memoirs, and fiction published over 30 years and containing 23 writers.
It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery
In the late 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was annihilating queer people, drug users, and people of color in America, and misinformation ran rampant in every facet of political and personal lives. ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an activist group formed to combat corporate greed, government inaction, stigma, and public indifference to the pandemic. Jack Lowery examines all of that and Gran Fury’s art and activism through iconic images to paint a clearer picture of the epidemic and the lives it impacted.
After Silence: A History of AIDS Through Its Images by Avram Finkelstein
Early in the 1980s, six gay activists created one of the most iconic and lasting images that would come to symbolize a movement: “Silence = Death.” The graphic and slogan still resonate today and are synonymous with the movement. As a member of the art collective Gran Fury, Avram Finkelstein discusses how his work and other protest work were created. A rich memoir exploring the art and activism of a movement that is essential to understanding queer history.
Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS by National Gallery of Australia
A companion book to an exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia presents poems, essays, and art pieces that explore the global impact of AIDS. An enlightening piece that memorializes the lives impacted by the epidemic.
Fight AIDS! How Activism, Art, and Protest Changed the Course of a Deadly Pandemic and Reshaped a Nation by Michael G. Long
A book that explores how activists, professors, and artists fought the AIDS epidemic through art and direct action. Chronicling how marginalized communities, specifically the LGBTQ+ community, were forced to demand government and medical action that was not being given to them during the epidemic, and how they were successful through art, activism, and protest.
Living and Loving in the Age of AIDS by Derek Frost
In this memoir, designer Derek Frost and his husband J, creator of the Embassy Club and Heaven, Europe’s largest gay discotheque, met and fell in love for more than 40 years. Their lives were filled with fun, fearlessness, and adventure. Then suddenly AIDS arrived in their life, and when J was given a death sentence. While the stigma around the epidemic strengthens globally, Derek and J confront their personal lives with humor, courage, and the indomitable will to survive.
The Other Pandemic: An AIDS Memoir by Lynn Curlee
Lynn Curlee explores the parallels and differences between living in New York City and Los Angeles in the 1980s to living through COVID in the 2020s in this heartbreaking memoir. As the disease grew into a public health crisis, Curlee watched in horror at the devastating progression of HIV/AIDS, the staggering losses, and divisive politics. With honesty and heart. Curlee recounts his life and the lives of friends and loved ones. A stark and strong reminder of the ever-present press of history.
The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience by Perry N. Halkitis
The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience examines the survival and coping done by HIV-positive gay men, who were the first long-time survivors of the disease, in this incredible piece of historic memoir. The author interviews a series of different people to paint a proper portrait of the epidemic and what it meant to survive.
AIDS and Representation: Queering Portraiture during the AIDS Crisis in America by Fiona Johnstone
A collection of portraits and self-portraits made in response to the AIDS epidemic in America in the 1980s and 1990s. AIDS and Representation addresses the work of artists, including Mark Morrisroe, Robert Blanchon, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Focusing on the self-representational art that led to a new, imaginative response to the limitations of early AIDS imagery.
The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels
Award-winning author David Levithan and Cambridge professor Gabriel Duckels detail a brief history of the AIDS epidemic, touching on key moments and figures, in this historical documentation. Touching on inequality in medical care and stigmatization, this novel provides an in-depth look at a fight that may have begun decades ago, but is not quite over.
AIDS Day Without Art began as a movement to help bring awareness to an epidemic that was being largely ignored by politicians and stigmatized by those outside of political spheres. This day is recognized nationally, and the books above bring awareness to it and the history and lives it honors. Be sure to check out these books and add them to your TBR.
Interested in more books to add to that ever-expanding TBR? Check out some more recommendations here.
Find these titles and more on our LGBTQ+ representational shelf.
