When We Rise

October 3, 2016
Jones, an activist and grassroots organizer, weaves together his own coming-of-age story and the broader story of the struggle for LGBTQ rights and safety in America. Much of the story is rooted in San Francisco in the 1970s and ’80s, and Jones writes powerfully about the rise of Harvey Milk, who became San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official in 1977. This is an ode San Francisco during a bygone era when the city was a gay sanctuary and crucible for activism. Jones also details the genesis and execution of the stunningly elegiac Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and how that labor of collective love parlayed a feeling of loss into hope for resilience. Over the course of the book, readers experience Jones’s own personal journey from closeted young man contemplating suicide to a noted player in the history of the gay rights movement who was portrayed by Emile Hirsch in the movie Milk in 2008. The book’s many rose-colored vignettes, coupled with Jones’s impressive accomplishments as an activist, serve as an inspiring reminder that one can go from “daydreaming about sex and revolution” to making them reality. Agent: Robert Guinsler, Sterling Lord Literistic.

A key member of the San Francisco gay movement traces his life story.Like many homosexuals born in the 1950s, Jones "grew up not knowing if there was anyone else on the planet who felt the way we felt." Then he moved from Phoenix to San Francisco and discovered the blossoming world of like-minded individuals who relished their new sexual freedom and transformed neighborhoods into havens for the gay community. In this honest, occasionally explicit narrative, Jones discusses his own gayness and the partying, dancing, drugs, and sex with multiple partners that he and so many others engaged in during the 1970s and '80s. He traveled through Europe, enjoying the scenery and beautiful men he found along the way, but he always wound up returning to San Francisco. Eager to help the "movement," Jones worked in Harvey Milk's office and was present the day he was murdered, an event that led the author to more political and social activism. When the AIDS epidemic struck, killing thousands, Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and was the inspiration and push behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt project. Jones provides readers with a precise, uninhibited, inside look into the gay movement from its inception to its present-day status. He includes multiple references to world events as they happened through the past few decades, which help ground readers and link the actions in the gay world to those of society at large. Numerous lovers, political activists, and friends are included in this raw and expressive memoir, which features its most touching moments as Jones describes the anguish and sorrow he and so many others experienced as the AIDS crisis clobbered the gay community. The frank and sometimes-graphic timeline of one gay man's life, his involvement in promoting gay rights, and the AIDS epidemic. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 1, 2016

In this memoir, notable AIDS and LGBTQ activist Jones (coauthor, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist) chronicles his journey of activism and involvement in the fight for equality within the LGBTQ community. After recounting the depression he suffered as a child owing to a sense of isolation and feelings of loneliness, Jones (b. 1954) explains how he eventually came out to his family and moved to San Francisco. There, he connected with other gay men and became an advocate. The author describes his close friendship with San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, and how Milk encouraged him to lead campaigns for equal rights. Tragically, Jones expresses the painful loss he experienced after Milk's murder in 1978. Also detailed is the devastation of the AIDS epidemic and Jones's role in founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the creation of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. While missing the personal perspective Jones presents, Lillian Faderman's The Gay Revolution provides an excellent overview of the LGBTQ movement. VERDICT For those interested in understanding the history of the LGBTQ quest for social justice in America, this work will resonate.--Mary Jennings, Camano Island Lib., WA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2016
LGBTQ activist Jones, the father of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, imbues his enlightening memoir with a powerful sense of history in the making. From his youth in the Arizona desertan apt metaphor for the sexually confused and isolated young manto his discovery that he did indeed have a place in the world to his national activism, his story builds to a crescendo of LGBTQ-rights breakthroughs. Though these culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the road was never smooth as Jones and the LGBTQ community took small steps, bigger steps, and missteps based upon their faith that they were entitled to the same rights and freedoms as every other American. En route to this seismic shift in American culture and politics, there were painful setbacks. Jones is unsparing in his account of the 1978 assassination of San Francisco supervisor and LGBTQ activist Harvey Milk and the terrible toll of the catastrophic AIDS epidemic, including discovery of his own HIV infection. Jones' powerful memoir is a primary source for ABC's forthcoming miniseries, also titled When We Rise, starring Guy Pearce as Jones. Sure to be requested.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2016
A key member of the San Francisco gay movement traces his life story.Like many homosexuals born in the 1950s, Jones "grew up not knowing if there was anyone else on the planet who felt the way we felt." Then he moved from Phoenix to San Francisco and discovered the blossoming world of like-minded individuals who relished their new sexual freedom and transformed neighborhoods into havens for the gay community. In this honest, occasionally explicit narrative, Jones discusses his own gayness and the partying, dancing, drugs, and sex with multiple partners that he and so many others engaged in during the 1970s and '80s. He traveled through Europe, enjoying the scenery and beautiful men he found along the way, but he always wound up returning to San Francisco. Eager to help the "movement," Jones worked in Harvey Milk's office and was present the day he was murdered, an event that led the author to more political and social activism. When the AIDS epidemic struck, killing thousands, Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and was the inspiration and push behind the AIDS Memorial Quilt project. Jones provides readers with a precise, uninhibited, inside look into the gay movement from its inception to its present-day status. He includes multiple references to world events as they happened through the past few decades, which help ground readers and link the actions in the gay world to those of society at large. Numerous lovers, political activists, and friends are included in this raw and expressive memoir, which features its most touching moments as Jones describes the anguish and sorrow he and so many others experienced as the AIDS crisis clobbered the gay community. The frank and sometimes-graphic timeline of one gay man's life, his involvement in promoting gay rights, and the AIDS epidemic.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.