“On Saturday, Nov. 16, the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation will host a discussion featuring award-winning journalist Hank Plante interviewing Michael G. Lee, author of the recently released book When the Band Played On, a biography of Randy Shilts, one of the most respected gay journalists of the AIDS-epidemic era.
As the promotional flier for program explains, “Shilts, who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, was the first openly gay reporter assigned to a gay beat at a mainstream paper and one of the nation’s most influential chroniclers of gay history, politics and culture. … Michael G. Lee conducted interviews with Shilts’ family, friends, college professors, colleagues, informants, lovers and critics. The resulting narrative tells the tale of a singularly gifted voice, a talented yet insecure young man whose coming of age became intricately linked to the historic peaks and devastating perils of modern gay liberation…”
[Read the full article at cvindependent.com]