Victoria Noe, former development director of Chicago House, is a straight ally who understands LGBT and AIDS issues from being in the trenches. She is now working on a series about grieving. The first is Friend and Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends, and the second is Friend and Grief and Anger: When Your Friend Dies and No One Gives a Damn. The AIDS book has chapters on ACT UP, the NAMES Quilt, guilt, glamour, World AIDS day and much more. Here is an except:
“It’s only recently that I’ve heard anyone speak of survivor guilt in the AIDS community. It seems a natural result of having lived within this world for three decades. But especially for gay men of a certain age, AIDS is like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. They’re spared, but they’re not really certain why. For those who have lost friends to AIDS, the losses are ongoing, relentless. At the height of the epidemic, you might lose a friend/acquaintance a week; maybe more. Now the numbers here in the US have slowed down. Now it might only be one every month or so. But remember: these losses have been piling up for over thirty years. Thirty years.”
If you care about others, you have felt such grief and pain. These books can help us remember, and help us cope. Noe’s books are available as ebooks through Kobo, IndieBound (Women & Children First) and Amazon. Print versions are available through Amazon and selected indie bookstores. Book launch Thursday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m., Metropolis coffee house, 1039 W. Granville, Chicago.
— Tracy Baim