by Larry Mitchell, Illustrated by Ned Asta
Nightboat Books
7/2/2019, paperback
SKU: 9781643620060
40th anniversary reprinting of a beloved fable-manifesto from the 1970s queer counterculture.
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, written by Larry Mitchell with illustrations by Ned Asta, takes place in a brutal empire in decline, where the faggots and their friends are surviving the ways and the world of men. Beloved by many since its publication, now with new essays by Morgan Bassichis and Tourmaline, this book offers a trenchant and irreverent critique of capitalism, assimilation, and patriarchy that is deeply relevant today.
Reviews:
"[Faggots] reads like a fairytale, especially with its gorgeous illustrations by Ned Asta, but it's also a fascinating snapshot of radical queer politics in the times just before the AIDS crisis. Because the structure of the book is mostly non-narrative, it's also the perfect book to flip open when you're feeling despair and in need of wisdom from our queer elders." -- James Factora, Them
"It's 1977. The faggots, the women, the fairies and the queens have each other for love, sex and inspiration. They have the natural world, music, the body, feelings, crannies of cities in which to be, believe, touch, dance, dream, fuck, and grow. This was the liberation vision of Larry Mitchell from another time, another consciousness. With this new edition of The Faggots and Their Friends we can remember the collectivity of fun and pleasure and the necessary faith of silly hope as part of our legacy and wish for survival." -- Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict is Not Abuse and Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
"We need this book so badly. The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions invites and models the deep grieving, mutual care, love, play, commitment to pleasure, and frivolity that is so essential right now, as we face existential political and environmental crises, increasing numbness, and disconnection. Faggots & Their Friends brings to life the spirit of collective, mirthful invention in the face of dire circumstances that characterized radical experiments of the 1970's, and brings longed-for inspiration to today's fruits and nuts. Best of all, this book is fun, and moving, and sexy. It cultivates our imaginations for surviving the current disasters and creating ways of being together that we desperately crave. This gift from the past is arriving right on time, right when we need it." -- Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid, Normal Life, and Love in a Fucked Up World
About the Contributors:
Larry Mitchell was born in 1939 in Muncie, Indiana and died of cancer in 2012 in Ithaca, New York. He is the author of many works of fiction that explored queer life and radical politics in New York City's Lower East Side and East Village in the 1980s and 90s. Mitchell founded Calamus Press, an early small press devoted to gay literature, and with Felice Picano and Terry Helbing, co-founded Gay Presses of New York in 1981. Mitchell received a PhD in Sociology from Columbia University, and was a professor at the College of Staten Island for 25 years. In addition to The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (1977), his novels include The Terminal Bar (1982), In Heat (1986), My Life as a Mole and Other Stories (1988), which won a Lambda Literary Award, and Acid Snow (1993). He helped form multiple communes, including one on Staten Island--which collectively wrote the Great Gay in the Morning: One Group's Approach to Communal Living and Sexual Politics, published in 1972 by Times Change Press--and one outside of Ithaca, NY, called Lavender Hill, which is the subject of a 2013 documentary by Austin Bunn.
Ned Asta, born in Brooklyn, New York, has been a member of the Moosewood Restaurant Collective in Ithaca, New York since 1980 and was a founding member of the Lavender Hill Commune. Asta was a member of the New York City queer theater troupe Hot Peaches in the late 1970s, and later co-founded the Breast Cancer Alliance of Ithaca, with Andi Gladstone.
Tourmaline is an activist, writer, and filmmaker living in New York City. Along with Sasha Wortzel, Tourmaline wrote, directed and produced Happy Birthday, Marsha! a short film about legendary trans activist Marsha P Johnson starring Independent Spirit Award winner Mya Taylor. Other films include The Personal Things about iconic black trans activist Miss Major. Along with Eric Stanley and Johanna Burton, Tourmaline is an editor of the New Museum anthology on trans art and cultural production published by MIT Press in 2017.
Morgan Bassichis is a performer living in New York City. With TM Davy, Don Christian Jones, Michi Osato, and Una Osato, Morgan adapted Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta''s 1977 fairytale-manifesto The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions for performance for the New Museum's 2017 exhibition, Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon. Morgan has presented work at MoMA PS1, the Whitney Museum, and Danspace Project, where Morgan recorded a live album concert recording called More Protest Songs! in October 2017.
