Items related to Keep Singing
Synopsis
Keep Singing is the inspiring story of Eloise Vaughn and Patsy Clarke, two women who became the unlikeliest of activists and gave a new face to the fight against bigotry and hatred. In 1995, after having each lost a son to AIDS and after failing to persuade the notoriously homophobic senator Jesse Helms to soften his antigay stance, the two women formed Mothers Against Jesse in Congress to drive him from office. Their journey would carry them from their quiet North Carolina homes to the stage of the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Their battle would put their names and faces in the pages of People magazine and The New York Times. And their lives would be changed forever, driven now by the desire that even in death their children would be given the simple human respect that is due everyone.
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Review
When Patsy Clarke and Eloise Vaughn brought together a group of North Carolina women mourning their sons' deaths of AIDS, they little realized that they would become political activists, and would found an organization to oppose the 1996 reelection of Jesse Helms to congress. Angry talk started to flow, someone wrote a check, and Clarke ran to get a clean pickle jar from the kitchen for donations: "We didn't really know what we were doing. We were just driven by primal emotions." Although Mothers Against Jesse in Congress failed to convince Jesse Helms to tone down his anti-gay rhetoric or alter his stance on funding for AIDS research, Patsy and Eloise did get to present their case to the 1996 Democratic convention, appear in People magazine (garnering a huge pile of mail both for and against their cause), and experience enormous personal growth. Conservative women liberalized by the loss of their sons, Clark and Vaughn tackle anti-gay politics in the way that we all hope our mothers will stand up for us in our absence.--Jack Connolly
About the Author
Patsy Clarke is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in Drama and Literature. She was an instructor for ten years at her alma mater, teaching classes in Theater, Communications, and Speech. In 1987 she began using her skills in the training of trial lawyers, serving as an adjunct faculty member at California Western School of Law in San Diego. In 1996 she shelved this career to concentrate on MAJIC, but remains active in regional theater in her home of Raleigh, NC.
Eloise Vaughn graduated from the University of North Carolina, and was a junior high-school teacher for 15 years. Her husband was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, serving as Speaker of the House before becoming a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. After her son Mark's death, Eloise became active with a local AIDS Services Agency before cofounding MAJIC. She now lives in Blowing Rock, N.C., and remains active in AIDS causes.
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Keep Singing : Two Mothers, Two Sons, and Their Fight Against Jesse Helms
Published by
Chapel Hill Press, Inc., 2004
ISBN 10: 1880849917
ISBN 13: 9781880849910
Used
Softcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Seller Inventory # 16576621-6