Overview

In Before They Left Us, Rosemary Davis explores all the twists and turns of San Francisco's streets on a mission to find her identity, both as a woman and as an artist. The Midwesterner finds herself in the warm embrace of a diverse community. She and her cronies experience not only the exhilarating final days of disco and the changing political scene, but also the jolting tremors of earthquakes and assassinations. Her sensuality and political activism blossom within this charged atmosphere. In this firsthand account, Davis captures the people, politics, and history around her. From the news of the International Hotel's demolition, to the assassinations of her neighborhood's gay supervisor Harvey Milk and Democratic mayor George Moscone, to the onset of AIDS, Before They Left Us reveals one young woman's leap from a blue-collar Catholic neighborhood in Milwaukee to California's gay Main Street--the Castro. Later, she makes a series of trips from the Midwest back to California into those once and still gorgeous Victorians to tend her dying friends with AIDS. She learns that activism and art can help channel grief and that community is essential to surviving trauma.

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9781732284524

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Reviews

With beautiful and unsparing prose, Rosemary Davis provides intricate, well-composed snapshots documenting life and love before and after HIV descended upon her life and the lives of so many. Her memoir is a tribute to the trauma of a generation and a reminder to pay attention, to really pay attention, to the moments of our lives and the impact of social forces on our ability to live, love, and persevere. -- Beth Zemsky, MAEd, LICSW, founding director of the University of Minnesota GLBT Programs Office and former cochair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Board of Directors Before They Left Us is a potent reminder that certain periods of our lives mark us forever. The scars from losses of those years from HIV/AIDS have not even begun to heal. For many, remembering is the most pressing of endeavors. -- Benjamin Heim Shepard, PhD, author of White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco HIV Epidemic and Illuminations on Market Street Rosemary Davis's Before They Left Us is an emotional roller coaster ride. We experience the exuberant and carefree life of a young woman from the Midwest who finds herself immersed in the Disneyland of gay culture. She takes us to San Francisco during the frenzied years before AIDS relentlessly invaded the community. Davis's journey relives the joy, fear, pain, anger, and the sadness all wrapped up in the AIDS epidemic. For the survivors, it's a difficult revisit. For everyone who picks up the book, it's a first-person glimpse into a world now gone. Gone, but not forgotten. And forever cherished. -- Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project, 1990 - 2011 In this poignant, honest, and loving memoir, Rosemary Davis vividly captures San Francisco's Castro in the 1970s. Before They Left Us is a beautiful memorial to a place and time that changed the gay community forever. -- Kevin Winge, MPA, author of Never Give Up: Vignettes from Sub-Saharan Africa in the Age of AIDS and former executive director of San Francisco's Project Open Hand and Open Arms of Minnesota

Author Information

Rosemary Davis is a travel writer, essayist, poet, and photographer. She received an MFA in writing from Hamline University in 2007. She is the curator of the reading series A Language We Speak. Davis worked in video and film production for twenty-five years. Her passions include appreciating architecture, watching documentary films, making art books, and tending several overgrown gardens.

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