The New York Times Reads Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva

For the New York Times, Parul Sehgal reviews Pamela Sneed's latest book, Funeral Diva (City Lights), which bridges memoir and poetry, meditating on a question asked at the height of the AIDS crisis: "Who will care for our caretakers?" In this review, Sehgal writes that "Sneed was vigorously involved in AIDS activism and performed a particular service, from which her book gets its title." More: 

 “Because of my stature,” — Sneed is about 6-foot-2 — “writing, outlandish outfits, and flair for the dramatic / I became a known and requested presence operating throughout the crisis / as an unofficially titled, ‘funeral diva.’”

How obscured are the contributions and leadership of lesbians in AIDS activism. In “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers,” a history of 20th-century lesbian life, the historian Lillian Faderman describes how the community “undertook the battle against AIDS as though they were fighting for members of their very own family.” Lesbian medical professionals would “run interference” for men. (Two recent documentaries — “We Were Here” and “Quiet Heroes” — document the role of lesbian doctors and nurses.) Jim Hubbard and Sarah Schulman’s ACT UP Oral History Project features over 100 testimonies — half of which are from women. This is the world that “Funeral Diva” recalls, where Sneed and her friends, “oblivious and unprepared” when AIDS hit, organized themselves frantically into ad hoc committees, with lesbians serving as “teachers, nurses, soldiers, working long hours / mostly without vacation or pension plans, retirement or a leave of absence.”

Read more at the New York Times, and be sure to check out Tiana Reid's recent feature essay on Sneed's book for the Poetry Foundation, here.