It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful

How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic

By: Jack Lowery

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

An “unsparing account” (NPR) of art collective Gran Fury, which fought back during the AIDS crisis through direct action and community-made propaganda

In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and communities of color in America, and disinformation about the disease ran rampant. Out of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an art collective that called itself Gran Fury formed to campaign against corporate greed, government inaction, stigma, and public indifference to the epidemic.

Writer Jack Lowery examines Gran Fury’s art and activism from iconic images like the “Kissing Doesn’t Kill” poster to the act of dropping piles of fake bills onto the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lowery offers a complex, moving portrait of a collective and its members, who built essential solidarities with each other and whose lives evidenced the profound trauma of enduring the AIDS crisis.

Critic reviews

“I picked up Jack Lowery’s It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful and didn’t stop reading it for the next three days. Lowery’s plainspoken, patient, and probing approach to his dramatic subject matter is totally compelling, and his focus on Gran Fury fills in a critical piece of aesthetic and political history. Anyone and everyone interested in still-urgent questions about the relations between art, activism, living, and dying should immediately read this book.”—Maggie Nelson, author of THE ARGONAUTS

“Jack Lowery has written an engaging, provocative, and moving book about one of the most successful political movements in American history, a painstakingly researched narrative about how activism and art saved untold lives. At a time when the lessons of Gran Fury and ACT UP are more crucial than ever, this is essential reading.”—Alex Halberstadt, author of YOUNG HEROES OF THE SOVIET UNION

“A lively depiction of how graphic art can bring political activism to life.”—Kirkus

Incredible

What an incredible account of the people who worked and sacrificed for the better of those in their communities

Couldn’t finish it

How do you tell a story as tragic and as filled with human drama as the AIDS crisis, and the work of a few dedicated activists to combat the Reagan administration’s cruel indifference, in such a way that it becomes boring? Unfortunately this book provides the answer. This sounds harsh, but when you really want to like a book, and just can’t, the reader has a right to feel peevish.