The audacity of a kiss : love, art, and liberation / Leslie Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Leslie, 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gay liberation movement--New York (State)--New York.

Gay liberation movement.

New York (N.Y.)--Biography.

New York (N.Y.).

Sahara (Nightclub : New York, N.Y.).

Cohen, Leslie, 1947-.

Cohen, Leslie.

Segal, George, 1924-2000. Gay liberation.

Segal, George.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, [2021]

Summary:

Rendered in bronze, covered in white lacquer, two women sit together on a park bench in Greenwich Village. One of the women touches the thigh of her partner as they gaze into each other’s eyes. The two women are part of George Segal’s iconic sculpture “Gay Liberation,” but these powerful symbols were modeled on real people: Leslie Cohen and her partner (now wife) Beth Suskin. In this evocative memoir, Cohen tells the story of a love that has lasted for over fifty years. Transporting the reader to the pivotal time when brave gay women and men carved out spaces where they could live and love freely, she recounts both her personal struggles and the accomplishments she achieved as part of New York’s gay and feminist communities. Foremost among these was her 1976 cofounding of the groundbreaking women’s nightclub Sahara, which played host to such luminaries as Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Pat Benatar, Ntozake Shange, Rita Mae Brown, Adrienne Rich, Patti Smith, Bella Abzug, and Jane Fonda. The Audacity of a Kiss is a moving and inspiring tale of how love, art, and solidarity can overcome oppression.

Contents:

Cover

Frontispiece

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Contents

List of Illustrations

Author's Note

Prologue

Part I: Youth

1. Secrets and Dreams

2. Confetti on New Year's Eve

3. Touching God

4. Awakening

5. Crawling out of Darkness

6. Acceptance

Part II: Freedom Calling

7. Les Femmes

8. Water in the Desert

9. Jagged, Dirty Thoughts

10. An Antidote to Boredom

11. Permission

12. Virginia Slims

Part III: A Posse of Outsiders

13. Lone Riders

14. Style Gets Used Up

15. Bashert: Fate, Meant to Be

16. After the Desert

Postscript

Endpiece

Gay Liberation Timeline

Acknowledgments

Notes

About the Author.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781978825130

1978825137

9781978825154

1978825153

OCLC:

1264471812