Kevin Brew journals
Finding aid created by GLBT Historical Society staff using RecordEXPRESS
GLBT Historical Society
2023
989 Market Street, Lower Level
San Francisco, California 94103
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reference@glbthistory.org
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Title: Kevin Brew journals
Dates: 1970-1992
Collection Number: 1993-17
Creator/Collector:
Extent: .5 linear feet (1/2 manuscript box)
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: Kevin Brew (1950-1993) was a gay man from Queens, New York who moved to San Francisco in 1975 and was diagnosed with HIV in
1988, dying of AIDS complications five years later. Brew’s diaries describe his relationships, as well as the great pleasure
he took in film and hippie subculture. They also chronicle his struggle to reconcile himself with his difficulty with human
connection, his disappointment in the gay community, and later his AIDS diagnosis.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright to material has been transferred to the GLBT Historical Society. All requests for reproductions and/or permission
to publish or quote from material must be submitted in writing to the GLBT Historical Society Archivist.
[Identification of item]. Kevin Brew journals. Collection Number: 1993-17. GLBT Historical Society
The collection was donated to the GLBT Historical Society by Marie Grabec in 1993.
Biography/Administrative History
Kevin Brew (1950-1993) was a gay man from Queens, New York who moved to San Francisco in 1975 and was diagnosed with HIV in
1988, dying of AIDS complications five years later. His Bay Area Reporter obituary describes an intelligent, temperamental,
sometimes difficult person with a passion for beauty and design, which he often expressed through the collages and decorated
envelopes he created for his friends. The diaries and obituary do not indicate Brew’s job or how he supported himself.
Scope and Content of Collection
: Brew’s diaries – kept in six books and one folder of loose material – describe his relationships, as well as the great pleasure
he took in film and hippie subculture. They also chronicle his struggle to reconcile himself with his difficulty with human
connection, his disappointment in the gay community, and later his AIDS diagnosis. The diaries provide insight into an ordinary,
if unusually articulate, man’s experience of living with a terminal illness. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000374;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000521; http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/MESH/D019497
Gay men
AIDS (disease)
Diaries