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ACT UP, Fight Back

ACT UP, Fight Back

FromShoe Leather


ACT UP, Fight Back

FromShoe Leather

ratings:
Length:
20 minutes
Released:
May 10, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Andy Velez was a co-founder of ACT UP, a legendary activist group known for its willingness to take practically any nonviolent action to fight AIDS. At the same time ACT UP was making itself known, New York City’s lower east side was changing fast. Neighborhoods that once belonged to artists and punks were lost to developers and yuppies. In this episode, Ryan Kilkenny and Jiayu Liang look at the culture of protest Andy helped create, and how Andy’s son Ben would pick these values up and bring them to a different cause in the summer of 1988. This episode uses material from Andy Velez’s ACT UP Oral History. You can access all 187 member interviews at actuporalhistory.org.
Released:
May 10, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (33)

Shoe Leather is an investigative podcast that goes behind the scenes of forgotten stories that shaped New York City. Go along with the team as they knock on doors and track down the people who were at the center of the news. This season we are focusing on the events leading up to the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot that began the night of August 6, 1988. Prior to that night, people living in the neighborhood had complained that drug dealers, the unhoused and “punks” had taken over the park. In response, local government officials ordered a 1 a.m. curfew to be enforced by police. A rally to protest the curfew was held that night and violence ensued. Police officers openly beat protestors and bystanders. More than 100 complaints of police brutality were filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Find out what really happened that night, and how it forever changed the Lower East Side.