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Learn about Aurora's own Randy Shilts, the preeminent LGBTQ+ journalist of his generation. His groundbreaking reporting helped frame the national debate about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s & 1990s.
Join us to for an evening with author Michael Lee, who recently published, When the Band Played On: The Life of Randy Shilts, America's Trailblazing Gay Journalist. Randy Shilts grew up in Aurora in 1950s and attend West Aurora High School in the 1960s. He was the first openly gay reporter assigned to a gay beat at a mainstream paper and one of the nation’s most influential chroniclers of gay history, politics, and culture. Yet the intimate life story of Randy Shilts has been left unwritten. When the Band Played On tells that story, recognizing his legacy as a trailblazing figure in gay activism, journalism, and public policy.
Author Michael G. Lee conducted interviews with Shilts’s family, friends, college professors, colleagues, informants, lovers, and critics. The resulting narrative tells the tale of a singularly gifted voice, a talented yet insecure young man whose coming of age became intricately linked to the historic peaks and devastating perils of modern gay liberation.
This event is presented in partnership with the City of Aurora LGBTQ Advisory Board. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Aurora's local bookstore, Yellow Bird Books!
Join us in person at the Santori Library in Room 125/126 or join virtually via Zoom here. (Virtual event password: Shilts)
If you choose to participate via Zoom, please read the following disclaimer:
I acknowledge my participation (or my child’s participation) in this virtual program includes the recording of this program which may include my name as listed on my account, images and/or video footage. I grant the Aurora Public Library District my permission to use the photographs and/or video footage for any legal use, including but not limited to: publicity, copyright purposes, illustration, advertising, and web content.
Furthermore, I understand that no royalty, fee or other compensation shall become payable to me by reason of such use.
AGE GROUP: | Adults - ages 19+ |
EVENT TYPE: | Virtual Program | Local History and Genealogy |
TAGS: | writing | writers | local history | Local Author | lgbtq+ | History | community history |
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