These two mixes gather sonic traces of the AIDS crisis, club scenes, communities of color and queer experience over the last several decades.  Clocking in at 5+ hours of music, it’s still very incomplete.  Loosely organized generationally, Part I reflects the disco/post-disco era and the experiences (as partly imagined by me) of the generation that directly lived through the “plague years” of AIDS, 1981-1996. Part II contains many personal resonances for me and fellow GenX/Millenial artists.

Lost & Found Part I
Lost & Found Part II (Note: Part II contains some explicit language)

Included are musicians lost to AIDS: David Cole (C+C Music Factory) (1962-1995), Wayne Cooper (Cameo frontman, ’77-’80) (1955-1984), Eazy-E (1963-1995), Ofra Haza (1959-2000), Paul Jabara (1948-1992), Jobriath (1946-1983), Jimmy McShane (Baltimora) (1957-1995), Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), Klaus Nomi (1944-1983), Sharon Redd (1945-1992), Arthur Russell (1951-1992), Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011), Jermaine Stewart (1957-1997), Sylvester (1944-1988), Ricky Wilson (B-52’s) (1953-1985), and HIV+ artists Andy Bell (Erasure) and Mykki Blanco.  Songs and artists who figured in AIDS activism and representation in music are also included, with Diamanda Galás, U2’s “One,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Boy Blue,” LGBTQ + POC icons/divas, riot grrrls, and plenty of ballads of love and loss that we can own as part of these plural histories.

Special thanks to Alex Fialho & Visual AIDS, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Will Rawls, AUNTS, Lily Cohen, Davalois Fearon, Neil Greenberg, Raja Feather Kelly, Narcissister, Katy Pyle, Ali Rosa-Salas, Lucy Sexton, Mariana Valencia, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa for their contributions.