When We Rise

My Life in the Movement

By: Cleve Jones

Narrated by: Cleve Jones

This sweeping memoir tells the life story of longtime LGBTQ and AIDS activist Cleve Jones in a profoundly moving account from sexually liberated 1970s San Francisco, through the AIDS crisis, and up to his involvement with the marriage equality battle.

Born in 1954, Cleve Jones was among the last generation of gay Americans who grew up wondering if there were others out there like himself. There were. Like thousands of other young people, Jones, nearly penniless, was drawn in the early 1970s to San Francisco, a city electrified by progressive politics and sexual freedom.

Jones found community--in the hotel rooms and ramshackle apartments shared by other young adventurers, in the city's bathhouses and gay bars like The Stud, and in the burgeoning gay district, the Castro, where a New York transplant named Harvey Milk set up a camera shop, began shouting through his bullhorn, and soon became the nation's most outspoken gay elected official. With Milk's encouragement, Jones dove into politics and found his calling in "the movement." When Milk was killed by an assassin's bullet in 1978, Jones took up his mentor's progressive mantle--only to see the arrival of AIDS transform his life once again.

By turns tender and uproarious, When We Rise is Jones' account of his remarkable life. He chronicles the heartbreak of losing countless friends to AIDS, which very nearly killed him, too; his co-founding of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation during the terrifying early years of the epidemic; his conception of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, the largest community art project in history; the bewitching story of 1970s San Francisco and the magnetic spell it cast for thousands of young gay people and other misfits; and the harrowing, sexy, and sometimes hilarious stories of Cleve's passionate relationships with friends and lovers during an era defined by both unprecedented freedom and and violence alike.

When We Rise is not only the story of a hero to the LQBTQ community, but the vibrantly voice memoir of a full and transformative American life.

Lambda Literary Award Winner

The partial inspiration for the ABC television mini-series!

"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."--Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me

Critic reviews

"Enlightening.... Unsparing.... Powerful."—Booklist (starred review)

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"An ode San Francisco.... an inspiring reminder that one can go from 'daydreaming about sex and revolution' to making them reality."—Publishers Weekly

"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

"Essential reading."—Village Voice

Great story!

I loved this book ! It was really interesting hearing about Cleve’s life . Just recommended to a friend.

Absolutely Amazing

This is what I wish I had known more about growing up. My heart breaks for how backwards we were and continue to be. Thank you Cleve for putting down on paper our story. And it was an added bonus to hear the man himself reading aloud and feeling those emotions come through. I'll be getting a hard copy of this book and a few for friends to pass along as well.

Be forewarned...

This is a memoir...not a history of the movement. Overall, it was good, especially the parts about the origins of the rainbow flag, the quilt, and the making of the movie Milk.

Such an Inspiring Story

Cleve Jones has participated in and facilitated major moments in gay rights history, and it was immensely inspiring to hear him recount those moments on the front lines. I highly recommend his book.

the emotional reading

the emotional reading that the narrator gave throughout the book was amazing especially at the end with the greatly written ending