In collaboration with Artexte and as part of a SSHRC research grant titled After-Images and Urban Spaces: Lesbian, Gay and Queer Visible Presence in Montreal (1950-1990), Ryan Conrad has led the thirtieth anniversary digitization and preservation effort of A Leap in the Dark: AIDS, Art & Contemporary Cultures. Edited by Allan Klusaček and Ken Morrison, the out of print book captures the energy, excitement, and cultural activism that exploded at the 1989 Montreal AIDS Conference. While many of the AAHP’s transcripts from Montreal and Toronto on this website discuss the direct action activism of many conference participants, not much has been noted about the cultural interventions—film screenings, exhibitions, performances, lectures—organized at the conference. Sidart, the cultural track at the conference, was a first in the history of the international AIDS conferences that until that time were exclusively biomedical in its approach to the epidemic. The proceedings of sidart formed the back bone of A Leap in the Dark and was first published in 1992 a few years after the conference.
To read more about Allan and Ken’s work putting together the book and to get yourself a free copy of the newly digitized ebook, check out Artexte’s website where you can also read Conrad’s introduction to the project.