ACT UP and the Ashes Action
In the fall of 1992, people walked up to the White House fence carrying something no protester had ever carried before: the ashes of the people they loved.
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5 Questions to Reflect On
- 1. ACT UP members taught themselves⦠ACT UP members taught themselves pharmacology and regulatory law to make specific, technical demands of the government.
- 2. The political funeral was built⦠The political funeral was built on a powerful idea: grief belongs in public, not just in private.
- 3. The Silence=Death Project created one⦠The Silence=Death Project created one of the most enduring images in protest history by reclaiming a symbol of persecution and making it into a symbol of resistance. What symbols, slogans, or images from today feel like they carry that same kind of transformative power?
- 4. ACT UP was famously fractious⦠ACT UP was famously fractious. People argued constantly about tactics, targets, tone, and strategy. "Stop the Church" divided the LGBT community at the time.
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