JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile
Gay rights and AIDS activist Cleve Jones takes listeners on an extraordinary journey through his life. Having moved to San Francisco in his late teens, Jones tells how he discovered the vibrant political and sexual culture in the Bay area. Throughout the ‘70s the fight for gay rights intensified, and Jones was drawn in, working directly with gay politician Harvey Milk. It’s heartbreaking to hear Jones recalling Milk’s assassination. A few years later, AIDS ravaged the community, and Jones describes the pain and sorrow in the fight for equality and survival. Listening to Jones tell his story is a singular experience, filling one with hope and wonder as well as sadness and fear. Jones’s story is a great reminder that, despite setbacks, progress has been made in the fight for equality. A.G.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
10/03/2016
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. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"When We Rise is a song to what's best in us, when we join together in a movement that takes us higher. The story Cleve Jones tells-of a bullied boy from the sun-blasted Arizona suburbs, who finds an extended family among the street kids of San Francisco and then within the gay movement that revolutionized the world-is thrilling to read. The path to freedom is littered with the names of fallen loved ones. But through all the sorrows and setbacks, Jones persevered-and the movement for human liberation that he helped lead still rises."--David Talbot, bestselling author of The Season of the Witch and The Devil's Chessboard
"When We Rise...brims with fondness, love, lust, inspiration, dedication and tenacity. Older readers will recall each headline-grabbing fight along the way. If I ran the nation's curriculum, it would be required for younger readers."--The Star Tribune
"[A] brilliant memoir."
--The Daily Beast
"[A] love song to San Francisco ... This unvarnished, uplifting, opinionated memoir is a testament to Jones' courage."--The Bay Area Reporter
"A front row seat to history .... Compelling .... A mandatory read for future scholars of LGBT history and for queer millennials to learn about their heritage."--Lambda Literary
"An ambrosial read, masterfully interweaving major historical events with juicy personal details of romance and heartbreak."--Mother Jones
"An ode San Francisco.... an inspiring reminder that one can go from 'daydreaming about sex and revolution' to making them reality."--Publishers Weekly
"Cleve Jones is a history buff who has himself become part of history. He has been at the epicenter of the LGBT movement for over 45 years. Now, in When We Rise, Cleve takes us along on his personal journey in the fight for equal rights--a journey filled with humor, sadness, love and ultimately profound change."--Rob Reiner
"Enlightening.... Unsparing.... Powerful."--Booklist (starred review)
"Essential reading."--Village Voice
"I loved this amazing, inspiring, and sometimes outrageous book. When We Rise is about the building of a movement--and the building of Cleve Jones, who came to San Francisco as a teenage adventurer and transformed into an activist whose contributions helped change the course of gay history."--Gus Van Sant
"In this touching and timely memoir, Cleve relives his fascinating life, from adolescent blunders to his conception of the world-famous AIDS Memorial Quilt."--Brit + Co
"Jones takes readers on his thrilling, if perilous, voyage from fey, long-haired teen hitching his way from his home in Arizona to San Francisco, to becoming the mentee of Harvey Milk ... Jones survives San Francisco's viciously homophobic police in the '70s and, later, the AIDS epidemic that took his dearest friends. In the process, he helps mobilize the anguished, fiery momentum of LGBTQ rights in the United States."--Slate
"Now more than ever we must understand the history of queer activism in order to successfully continue on the legacy of those who came before us... We all need to read [When We Rise]."--Gayletter
"Powerfully written... Jones is a tireless fighter.... By the end of the book, we practically feel the heartbeat of America, and maybe it's a good heart, one that can accept love for what it truly is--love."--Bookreporter
"Some people witness history; other actually make it happen. Cleve Jones, by planting himself boldly in the eye of the storm, has succeeded brilliantly at doing both."--Armistead Maupin, New York Times bestselling author of the Tales of the City series
"Sweeping and profoundly moving... At a critical time in our nation's history when many are afraid and so much is uncertain, When We Rise is a pertinent reminder to all to stand up and continue fighting for what we believe in."--Accidental Bear
"You could read Cleve Jones's book because you should know about the struggle for gay, lesbian, and transgender rights from one of its key participants-maybe heroes--but really, you should read it for pleasure and joy. It's an incredibly vivid evocation of a bygone era and a poignant story of someone who started out feeling like the only gay person in the world and ended up organizing millions of them. I loved it for the firsthand history, and the crazily great details about drag queens, radical excess, passionate idealism, how to change the world and everything else that matters most."--Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me
Library Journal
10/01/2016
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
JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile
Gay rights and AIDS activist Cleve Jones takes listeners on an extraordinary journey through his life. Having moved to San Francisco in his late teens, Jones tells how he discovered the vibrant political and sexual culture in the Bay area. Throughout the ‘70s the fight for gay rights intensified, and Jones was drawn in, working directly with gay politician Harvey Milk. It’s heartbreaking to hear Jones recalling Milk’s assassination. A few years later, AIDS ravaged the community, and Jones describes the pain and sorrow in the fight for equality and survival. Listening to Jones tell his story is a singular experience, filling one with hope and wonder as well as sadness and fear. Jones’s story is a great reminder that, despite setbacks, progress has been made in the fight for equality. A.G.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-09-01
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.
