It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful

 It Was Vulgar & It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic by Jack Lowery, 432 pages.

This book is mostly about the group Gran Fury, which was originally part of and later splintered from the larger and more famous AIDS activist group ACT UP. However, to place the art collective/activism group more in context, Lowery actually follows much of the AIDS epidemic and the history of ACT UP. I had heard of ACT UP before, but this book was my first introduction to Gran Fury, which served as the organization's self-proclaimed propaganda wing.

Lowery does a great job keeping this history very narrative and engaging. He does a really excellent job really digging into the humanity of all the people involved, which feels especially powerful given the rampant dehumanization of people with AIDS during the epidemic. Although I do wish I had been taking notes while reading, there were a whole lot of people with complex relationships, and I sometimes had problems remembering who was who. Overall this is a very compelling and informative book about an often overlooked part of history, and I would definitely recommend it. 

I'm including a few of Gran Fury's posters from the book here.