Hold Tight Gently

<div>In December 1995 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the release of protease inhibitors the first effective treatment for AIDS. For countless people the drug offered a reprieve from what had been a death sentence; for others it was too late. In the United States alone more than 318000 people had already died from AIDS-related complications-among them the singer Michael Callen and the poet Essex Hemphill.<BR><BR>Relevant and heartbreaking (<I>Bay Area Reporter</I>) incisive passionate and poetic (<I>New York Journal of Books</I>) and powerful (<I>Kirkus Reviews</I>) <I>Hold Tight Gently</I> is Martin Duberman's poignant memorial to two of the great unsung heroes of the early years of the epidemic. Callen the author of <I>How to Have Sex in an Epidemic</I> was a leading figure in the fight against AIDS in the face of willful denial under the Reagan administration. Hemphill a passionate activist and the author of the celebrated <I>Ceremonies</I> was a critically acclaimed openly gay African American poet of searing intensity and introspection.<br><BR>A profound exploration of the intersection of race sexuality class and identity <I>Hold Tight Gently</I> captures both a generation struggling to cope with the deadly disease and the extraordinary refusal of two men to give in to despair.<BR></div>