Overview

It's the summer of 1969. And ink on the headlines about the Stonewall Uprising is barely dry when the entire country is mesmerized by a musical revolution rocking Woodstock. Smack dab in the middle of it all is teenage Olaf, about to leave home for his first year at college in upstate New York. Gay, gorgeous and musically gifted, Olaf is the only son of a close-knit Italian-American family. Ready or not, he will soon find himself surfing major waves of changeempowered by the Gay Rights Movement of the 70s. Unbeknownst to him and his younger sister, whom he lovingly called Holine, he's about to confront the deadly perils of entrenched homophobia and an emerging HIV-AIDS epidemic. In this expansive memoir steeped inhistoricity, author Jennifer Boulanger gifts readers with a moving story about truth and lies, societal upheaval and families in crises, as seen through the lens of a loving sister and insightful chronicler.

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9781955194419

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Praise for A Song for Olaf Jennifer Boulanger's A Song for Olaf is a passionate and personal account of the author's brother's illness and untimely death from AIDS. The story is beautifully and movingly told, bringing tears to my eyes several times. Gay men who have a special bond with a sister will recognize themselves and their siblings in these pages; I know I did. A Song for Olaf emotionally evokes the uniqueness of a powerful sibling bond in a time of unimaginable pain and loss. It underscores how the pandemic's toll far exceeds the number of those who have died or are living with HIV today, but encompasses the enormous price paid by those who love us. -Sean StrubActivist & Editor of POZ magazineBody Counts: A Memoir of Activism, Sex, and Survival A Song for Olaf, Jennifer Boulanger's quietly stunning memoir of losing her brother to HIV-AIDS at the dawn of that pandemic, is infinitely more than a vivid portrait of her own struggle with grief. She brings Olaf to such vibrant life for us, in all his youthful promise, that we, too, mourn the author's loss. And with equal passion and prescience---at this crucial moment when we are still in the shadow of COVID and awaiting whatever its next iteration will be---Boulanger invites us to ask these urgent questions: What do we as individuals and as a society become, if we surrender to fear, isolate and stigmatize those who are ill, and turn away from our shared human suffering? In this beautifully-observed life of one man and brother, Jennifer Boulanger holds up a mirror to countless other lives. Even, perhaps, our own. -Laurie GunstBorn fi' Dead: A Journey through the Jamaican Posse UnderworldOff White: A Memoir

Author Information

Jennifer Boulanger is an activist, educator, and freelance journalist from Rome, New York. An originator of the Safe Space initiative for local LGBTQ community college students, she holds a Master of Science degree in literacy from SUNY Cortland and a doctorate in Adult Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She is an advocate for local refugee resettlement and serves as Vice President of Whitney's Legacy, a foundation dedicated to supporting and empowering women.

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