Richard Elovich

Background: Richard is a 35 year old, white, Jewish gay (mostly … it’s complicated. He married a woman in 1978, and most of his long relationships pre-1989 were with women) man. He grew up in Kew Gardens, then Douglaston, then Little Neck, Queens. At 14, he moved in with a family running a small hotel near the Catskills. Richard went to art school and moved into Manhattan. The “Early life” and “Writing, curating, and performance” sections on his Wikipedia page give a good summary of his pre-ACT UP life (the "HIV activism and organizing” section is good too, though it focuses mostly on Richard’s post-1989 activity): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Elovich

Richard got into drugs: alcohol, hallucinogens, then opiates/heroin, then got sober in 1982.

Role in ACT UP:  Richard is involved with Gran Fury, a small collective of people creating much of the graphic design for ACT UP. He has also been involved in Treatment issues. (Note: Richard’s extensive needle exchange work started after March 1989).

Groups/friends at the meeting: Gran Fury, Treatment and Data Committee, Debra Levine 

Specific tasks at the March 13, 1989 meeting: With Debra Levine, he is on the agenda to announce an ACT UP trip to Albany tomorrow (March 14) to support healthcare workers. He and Debra need to tell the members about the action, ask the members to vote to officially endorse ACT UP's participation in the demonstration, and find out how many people can go so they can know how many buses are needed. Make sure to give the people who are going the information on where/when the buses will leave/return, that round-trip tickets on the bus will be $10, and ask Rollerena to sell seats on the buses around the floor. 

Link to New York Times article about the Albany issues

Additional information: https://actuporalhistory.org/numerical-interviews/072-richard-elovich