The GLBT Historical Society welcomes Samuel G. Freedman and Kerry Donahue, authors of "Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz and How It Transformed the New York Times," for an evening of reading and discussion.
AUTHOR TALK: "DYING WORDS: THE AIDS REPORTING OF JEFF SCHMALZ"
Tuesday, May 10, 7pm-9pm
The GLBT History Museum
4127 18th Street, San Francisco
$5 suggested donation, members free.
Presenting from their book and related radio documentary, Dying Words, Freedman and Donahue wi...
The GLBT Historical Society welcomes Samuel G. Freedman and Kerry Donahue, authors of "Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeff Schmalz and How It Transformed the New York Times," for an evening of reading and discussion.
AUTHOR TALK: "DYING WORDS: THE AIDS REPORTING OF JEFF SCHMALZ"
Tuesday, May 10, 7pm-9pm
The GLBT History Museum
4127 18th Street, San Francisco
$5 suggested donation, members free.
Presenting from their book and related radio documentary, Dying Words, Freedman and Donahue will describe how AIDS outed Jeff Schmalz, a rising star at The New York Times. On December 21, 1990, Schmalz collapsed on the newsroom floor with full-blown AIDS. Courageously, he chose to spend his remaining life reporting on the disease that was killing him and countless others. The authors will discuss who Jeff was and how what he did deeply changed The New York Times, sensitizing it as never before to the humanity of gay people. The Times of today – publishing same-sex wedding announcements, editorializing in favor of marriage equality – is the fruition of changes that Jeff helped set into motion but never lived long enough to fully see.
ABOUT DYING WORDS
"Dying Words: The AIDS Reporting of Jeffrey Schmalz" is a project with two parts – an audio documentary and a book. Both were based on our contemporary interviews with many of Jeff’s friends and colleagues, existing recordings of Jeff himself, and excerpts from his AIDS coverage. The project features interviews with major journalists as Anna Quindlen, Adam Moss, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., and Elizabeth Kolbert, as well as the AIDS activist Mary Fisher and the LGBT historian Eric Marcus. Our project had the full and enthusiastic support of Wendy Schmalz, Jeff’s sister, who is his closest living relative. Thanks to Wendy, we had access to original microcassette recordings of Jeff’s interviews with Larry Kramer, Magic Johnson, Randy Shilts, and Bill Clinton, among others.
The audio documentary was produced by Kerry Donahue and edited by Ben Shapiro, both award winning journalists. It was distributed by PRX to more than 125 public radio stations, including eight of the top 10 markets. It is also available for download. The Dying Words book was published by CUNY Journalism Press and released on December 1, 2015 to coincide with World AIDS Day.
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ABOUT SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
Samuel G. Freedman is an award-winning author, columnist, and professor. A columnist for The New York Times and a professor at Columbia University, he is the author of the seven acclaimed books, most recently "Breaking The Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Game and Changed the Course of Civil Rights" (2013). His previous books are "Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students and Their High School" (1990); "Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church" (1993); "The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond" (1996); "Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry" (2000); "Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life" (2005); and "Letters To A Young Journalist" (2006).
ABOUT KERRY DONAHUE
Kerry Donahue is an independent radio producer and the director of the radio program at Columbia School of Journalism. Her work has been heard on PRI, PRX, NPR, WNYC, WBGO, and Marketplace. A former executive producer at WNYC, Kerry was part of the team that launched The Takeaway with John Hockenberry. She was an early podcast pioneer in her role as a producer of original content at Audible.com.