Oral history interview with Julie Tolentino
name: label: Interviewee
content: Tolentino, Julie
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
label: Names
content: ACT UP New York (Organization)
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Athey, Ron
label: Names
content: Madonna, 1958-
topic: label: Occupation
content: Performance artists -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Choreographers
label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease) and the arts
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: AIDS activists
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
label: Topic
content: Artists (LGBTQ)
label: Topic
content: Lesbian artists
label: Topic
content: Women performance artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics, and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Tolentino, Julie
label: Interviewer
content: Fialho, Alex, 1989-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Julie Tolentino (1964- ) is a visual and performance artist in New York and Josua Tree, California. Alex Fialho (1989- ) is a curator and arts writer who is the Programs Director for Visual AIDS in New York, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 7 Items (sound files (6 hr., 14 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 79 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R00326.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2018 April 11-12
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.tolent18
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Julie Tolentino conducted 2018 April 11 and 12, by Alex Fialho, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at a friend's apartment in the East Village, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Tolentino speaks of her childhood in San Francisco; her family dynamics, including caring for her sister with developmental disabilities; Harvey Milk's assassination; early exposure to dance and art-making; early exposure to queer nightlife; briefly pursuing dance training in Los Angeles after high school; soon thereafter moving to New York; volunteering for the National Gay and Lesbian Suicide Hotline; her involvement with ACT UP; experiences of AIDS-related grief; her close friendships during this time; continuing her dance education and performance practice in the late '80s and '90s; founding and operating the Clit Club; changes in the landscape of queerness during the '90s; managing the performance companies of David Roussève and Ron Athey; the beginning of her solo practice with Mestiza-Que Ojos Bonitos Tienes; the installation Marks of My Civilization; the beginning of ART+; her role in Madonna's book Sex; her reflections on the visibility of her body; developing the Lesbian AIDS Project's Safer Sex Handbook; her performance works For You, Sky Remains the Same, and Honey; her video work evidence; and her awareness of the past's construction and meaning in the present. Tolentino also recalls Page Hodel, Doug McDowell, Maxine Wolfe, Ann Northrup, David Robinson, Ray Navarro, Aldo Hernandez, Anthony Ledesma, Lola Flash, Catherine Gund, Zoe Leonard, Robert Garcia, Jocelyn Taylor, Martina Yamin, Cookie Mueller, Diamanda Galas, D.M. Machuca, Pigpen, John Lovett, Alessandro Codagnone, John Killacky, Lia Gangitano, Alistair Fate, Steven Meisel, Cythia Madansky, Kim Christensen, Kate Clinton, Lori Seid, Ori Flomin, Abigail Severance, and others.