In Conversation With Cleve Jones

Cleve Jones is an American human rights activist, author and lecturer. Jones joined the gay liberation
movement in the early 1970s. He was mentored by pioneer LGBT activist Harvey Milk and worked in Milk’s City
Hall office as a student intern until Milk’s assassination in 1978.
Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983 and founded The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt,
one of the world’s largest community arts projects, in 1987. HarperCollins published his first
book, Stitching a Revolution, in 2000.

Jones was portrayed by Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-winning film, MILK, and was the historical
consultant for the production. Jones led the 2009 National March for Equality in Washington, DC and served on
the Advisory Board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged California’s Proposition 8 in
the US Supreme Court. Hachette Book Group published his memoir, When We Rise, in November 2016. The ABC TV
mini-series by the same name was inspired in part by stories from Cleve’s book. With a screenplay by Academy
Award winner Dustin Lance Black, it premiered in February 2017 to much acclaim.
Jones lives today in San Francisco, California and works as an organizer for the hospitality workers’ union,
UNITE HERE.

Bart Magee, PhD is a licensed Psychologist practicing in San
Francisco for 20 years. He is the principal founder of Access Institute for Psychological Services and has
been Executive Director since its inception in 2002. During the AIDS years in San Francisco he volunteered
with the Shanti Project and provided emotional support to people with HIV/AIDS. This experience in many ways
led to his becoming a psychologist. Today, he is an active member of Division 39 (psychoanalysis) of the
American Psychological Association where he advocates for community-based mental health care and psychology
training. When not at work he enjoys cooking and dining with friends and running/biking in Sonoma
County.