AIDS activist and playwright to speak

The possibility of a lesbian or gay president of the United States: remote, likely, irrelevant?

Larry Kramer

Playwright and novelist Larry Kramer (“The Normal Heart,” “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”) will discuss that prospect and other topics in a lecture Monday, Feb. 22 at UW–Madison.

Kramer, who is also a screenwriter and essayist, will be in Madison Feb. 19- 22. During his visit, he will take part in the Midwest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Campus Conference, Feb. 20-21 at the Monona Terrace.

Kramer will give the conference’s keynote address Sunday, Feb. 21, discussing America’s experience with the HIV/AIDS virus. In addition to his public lecture and conference participation, Kramer also will meet with students and faculty in the UW–Madison Department of Theatre and Drama and HIV prevention staff at University Health Services.

According to Richard Keeling, UHS director and UW–Madison professor of medicine, students will get a chance to meet one of the most notable figures in contemporary American drama and social criticism. “Undergraduates especially will find Kramer’s story inspiring,” says Keeling. “His life illustrates how art, activism and social change can be brought together.”

Kramer currently is bringing those elements together in a new novel about the AIDS epidemic, “The American People.”

“The Normal Heart,” Kramer’s play dealing with the years just after the discovery of the HIV virus, will be filmed this summer. Kramer’s own AIDS activism began in 1981, when he co-founded New York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis, still the world’s largest and most comprehensive service provider to HIV-positive patients. His creation of the AIDS advocacy organization ACT UP boosted awareness of the disease.

Kramer’s Feb. 22 lecture will start at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater. The free event is open to the public.

For more information about Kramer’s appearances, contact Esty Dinur or Jonathan Zarov, (608) 262-1744.