NASHUA, N.H. – In honor of June as Pride Month, Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess and special guest panelists will lead a discussion on Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” on Zoom, at 6 p.m., on Thursday, June 17. The public is invited to read the book and join the event!
Panelists include Dr. Nicole Loring, assistant professor of political science at Rivier University; Tim Nickerson, former Nashua alderman and Elizabeth Fontanella, professor at Nashua Community College. The event will kick off with Mayor Donchess and panelists offering introductory thoughts on the book and then the discussion will be opened up to members of the public.
“Angels in America,” tells the story of two couples, one gay and one straight: Louis lronson and Prior Walter and Joe and Harper Pitt. Prior contracts AIDS and Louis tries to care for him, but is overcome with strain and fear. Joe is offered a job working for the Justice Department by Roy Cohn, who was Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Chief Counsel during the famous Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, but Harper, who
is addicted to Valium and suffers from anxiety, doesn’t want to move to Washington, D.C. The couples’ troubled lives come together when Joe stumbles upon Louis crying in the bathroom of the courthouse where he works, and they strike up an unlikely friendship based in part on Louis’s suspicion that Joe is gay. Harper and Prior also meet, in a fantastical mutual dream sequence in which Prior, reveals to Harper that her husband is a closeted homosexual.
To register, visit https://www.nashuanh.gov/1421/Mayors-Virtual-Book-Club. Zoom login information will be sent to registered participants prior to the event. There are a very limited number of copies of the book at the Nashua Public Library. Otherwise, participants may purchase a copy of the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, in-person at the Nashua Barnes & Noble store or through your preferred bookseller.
