<TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Smash the Church, Smash the State!</TitleText> <Subtitle>The Early Years of Gay Liberation</Subtitle>

City Lights Books onix@onixsuite.com 20130217 eng

GCDS-9780872864979 03 01 City Lights Books 01 GCOI 87286100736280 02 0872864979 03 9780872864979 15 9780872864979 BC <TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Smash the Church, Smash the State!</TitleText> <Subtitle>The Early Years of Gay Liberation</Subtitle> 1 B01 Mecca, Tommi Avicolli Tommi Avicolli Mecca Tommi Avicolli Mecca, a member of GLF at Temple University and a co-founder of Radicalqueens, is author of Between Little Rock and a Hard Place and co-editor of Hey Paesan: Writings by Lesbians and Gay Men of Italian Descent and Avanti Popolo: Sailing beyond Columbus. He lives in San Francisco, where he is a housing rights activist and a regular contributor to beyondchron.org, SF Bay Guardian, Bay Area Reporter and Bay Times. 01 eng 256 15 20 gay; gay liberation front; gay rights; gender; glf; lesbian; movement; queer; radical; stonewall 01 Smash the Church, Smash the State! is a finalist for this year's Lambda Awards in the category of LGBT Anthologies.Nominated for the American Library Association's 2010 Stonewall Book Award, the oldest book award given for outstanding achievement in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Literature From the first high heel thrown at Stonewall to the last performance of the drag burlesque group the Cockettes, enter the wild days of the late '60s and early '70s with the individuals who lived them! Celebrating 40 years since the June 1969 Stonewall Riots, the essays, manifestos, artwork and photos in this anthology represent a group of radical activists who together formed the ranks of the Gay Liberation Movement."2, 4, 6, 8, Smash the Church, Smash the State!" was a rallying cry for many in those days, and the lesbians, gay men and transgenders whose stories are collected here were frequently involved in battling oppression on many fronts. For the first time together in one volume, these writers share unique perspectives, occasional regrets and changes of ideology, personal memories, and a celebration of the revolutionary spirit that shaped and guided the movement.Praise for Smash the Church, Smash the State!:"Smash the Church, Smash the State! offers an intoxicating glimpse into that time before 'pride' replaced liberation, when 'gay' was still a fiery threat to the violence of the status quo, and revolution was right around the corner from the corner store. Full of brash, contradictory, intoxicating dreams, the essays in this anthology invoke the sexual flamboyance, intellectual rigor, activist troublemaking and communal possibilities of a different era while simultaneously offering bracing critiques." -Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of So Many Ways to Sleep Badly and editor of That's Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation "The personal is riotously political and the history is tangibly personal in these diverse, down-to-earth reflections on the early days of Gay Liberation, that heady era of Stonewall, getting stoned, and lobbing metaphorical (and actual) stones at our oppressors. Avicolli Mecca has woven a colorful tapestry of first-person accounts that is reflective and emotional, joyous and poignant - and ever defiant." -Richard Labonte, Book Marks, Q Syndicate"This book vividly recreates the thrilling and euphoric moments of gay liberation in the wake of Stonewall, with the added wisdom and grace of 40 years of hindsight." -Jeffrey Escoffier, author of American Homo: Community and Perversity and editor of Sexual Revolution"A proud testimony to the brave people who stood up to be counted for our right to love and live any way we pleased. Their spirit and struggle will resonate forever, inspiring, I hope, many others." -Carla Trujillo, editor of Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About and author of What Night Brings 02 From the first high heel thrown at Stonewall to the last performance of the drag burlesque group the Cockettes, enter the wild days of the late '60s and early '70s with the individuals who lived them! 08 "When everyone hates you, it's natural to hate them right back. Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation is a look at the early days of gay liberation where much of society grew finally tired of hiding a major part of them and took a stand for their rights. A fight that rages on to this day, the stories of those who threw the first stone are inspiring and will motivate current civil rights fighters to stand their ground. Smash the Church, Smash the State! is an ideal addition to any history collection focusing on civil rights." -James A. Cox The Midwest Book Review 08 "Let's posit the Stonewall riots that rocked New York City in 1969 as the Big Bang of the gay movement. Ater that, all things seemed to be loose in the universe. It was a cultural, sexual and political revolution, or, as Thomas Foran commented at the time, 'a freakin' faggot revolution.' And it was about time. Edited by Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Smash the Church, Smash the State! (City Lights, $18.96) is a lively account by many of the people who were there at the revolution and others whose lives were changed forever by the push for gay liberation." -John Mitzel The Guide 08 "The book makes crystal clear that it was the organizing that followed the dust-up that made Stonewall the start of the modern gay liberation movement. . . . kudos to Tommi Avicolli Mecca for being the driving force behind assembling and publishing this important history of the early, radical LGBT movement." -Bob Schwartz The Freedom Socialist 08 "The anthology contains fifty profound and heartwarming stories which includes manifestos, important gay revolutionary documents, insightful articles, poetry, reminiscences and biting commentary on contemporary gay life and political consciousness. . . Read Smash the Church, Smash the State to understand your history. If possible, buy an extra copy and gift it to someone under thirty. It's one of those gay history books that is a 'must' for your bookshelf." -Don Kilhefner Frontiers 08 "To many Americans, the gay liberation movement began sometime in the 1960s as a seemingly sudden phenomenon of all manner of queer men and women doing silly things, militant things, and serious things to express their dissatisfaction with what they viewed as a repressive social order. According to Mecca, editor of this engaging anthology and a dedicated participant in gay liberation, the movement actually began decades earlier, possibly as early as 1949. This anthology is a collection of stories shared by many individuals from the perspective of their lives inside the movement." Book News 08 "Everyone in the San Francisco activist scene today knows Tommi Avicolli-Mecca - or as many call him, 'Tommi the Commie.' At Beyond Chron, we are privileged to have him as a columnist (we jokingly call him our "religion editor") - as he balances op-ed writing with a full-time job counselling tenants at the Housing Rights Committee. Tommi is an eloquent voice against gentrification in the Castro, and in 2006 many progressives urged him to run against Supervisor Bevan Dufty. But as Tommi told me at the time, he is more of a "smash the church, smash the state" kind of guy - making the book title appropriate. . . There are many who now say the American era of conservatism is over - and we are now seeing a progressive transformation. As the queer community elaborates where it is going, Smash the Church, Smash the State should not be viewed as a mere historical anthology - but as a critical examination of where to go from here." -Paul Hogarth BeyondChron 08 "Before Queer Eye or Adam Lambert, there were courageous everyday men and women unapologetically living out queer lives, challenging social norms and demanding acceptance.  We all owe a debt of gratitude to these pion-queers who created our civil rights movement.  This inspiring collection of essays--highlighting those who fought the fight, never gave up and believed in a world where 'gay was okay'--ensures their efforts will never be forgotten.  Required reading!" Instinct Magazine 08 "The 40th anniversary of the historic June 1969 Stonewall Uprising that marked a turning point in the gay liberation movement seems to be passing with little notice. Mecca (Between Little Rock and a Hard Place) marks the occasion with this anthology that commemorates the anarchic spirit of those heady early days. Mecca digs into the countercultural roots of the movement, especially of the Gay Liberation Front of which he was a member, emphasizing that much of the energy that propelled the gay movement at the time drew from its more radical elements. The essays (and some poems) assembled here, some previously published, represent that vanguard of the LGBT community that did not seek acceptance from or assimilation into society at large, but to live openly and unabashedly queer, with social justice for all. Even if one doesn't agree with their attitude, their passion, commitment, and enthusiasm is undeniable. Mecca particularly highlights the reminiscences of women, the trangendered, and persons of color, whose roles historically are too often given short shrift." -Richard J. Violette Library Journal 08 "For a couple of hours on the afternoon of June 3 it wasn't 2009 but 1969 and the years immediately following the Stonewall riot at the book launch for Smash the Church. Smash the State: the early years of gay liberation. . . San Francisco Supervisor David Campos read an official proclamation from the city marking the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and recognized Mr. Mecca for pulling the anthology together. Mr Campos called the post-Stonewall period, 'one of the most dynamic" in the history of the Gay movement.' 'We kicked ass forty years ago.' Tommi Avicolli Mecca said." -Sidney Brinkley Blacklight 08 "Tommi Avicolli Mecca's new anthology, Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation offers a fascinating look at the rise of gay liberation and its place in the era's radical panoply. . . Avicolli Mecca's collection is unique in bringing together first-person accounts from people who lived the life and some of the key manifestos that inspired them." -Liz Highleyman Bay Area Reporter 08 "Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, is the new anthology edited by Tommi Avicolli Mecca, himself a veteran of the earliest gay liberation struggles, and today an activist, gender-bending performance artist, and writer well-known to San Francisco queers. . . The personal testimonies collected for Smash the Church, Smash the State!, augmented by manifestos and documents of that early period and biographical sketches of important movement figures, help recreate those heady, joyously rambunctious days of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll" as queers, influenced by the hippies, Yippies, and Zippies, built their own radical wing of the prevailing youth counterculture, and created their own influential publications." -Doug Ireland Gay City News 08 "The personal is riotously political and the history is tangibly personal in this anthology of diverse, down-to-earth reflections on the early days of Gay Liberation, from both queers who were there, and from others looking back 40 years later . . . Avicolli Mecca, himself a longtime activist who marched the streets of Philadelphia not long after the 1969 bar riot in Greenwich Village, has compiled a vivid, colorful history, blending original essays, poems and songs with reprints of historical manifestos and brief biographical vignettes of activists no longer alive to craft a co-gendered collection that is by turns emotional, joyous, poignant, occasionally contradictory - and enthusiastically defiant." -Richard Labonte Bookmarks 08 "Edited by San Francisco journalist Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Smash the Church, Smash the State! The Early Years of Gay Liberation (City Lights, June) documents early gay culture as it emerged after the 1969 Stonewall riots.  The anthology includes the essays, photographs, manifestos, and artwork of the movement, the aims of which were gleefully radical, the methods often intentionally outrageous."  -Bookforum Bookforum 23 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100736280/extras/SmashBOOKexcerpt2.pdf 04 02 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100736280/images/87286100736280L.gif 07 02 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100736280/images/87286100736280S.gif http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100736280 City Lights Publishers 01 City Lights Publishers 20090605 08 16 oz City Lights Books 01 WORLD 20 20090605 01 02 18.95 USD