On May 20, 1990, the night before Storm the NIH, ACT UP chapters from around the country met in a church in Washington, DC to make final preparations for the action. In this tape, various Affinity Groups introduce themselves. Footage shot by the Testing the Limits Collective. (NYPL Tape #548)

Shot by the Testing the Limits Collective. On May 20, 1990, the night before Storm the NIH, ACT UP chapters from around the country met in a church in Washington, DC to make final preparations for the action. In this tape, various Affinity Groups introduce themselves. Ends with Tony Malliaris delivering his raucous rap song about the AIDS Crisis called "Storm the NIH." (NYPL Tape #549)

Footage Shot at Storm the NIH by Catherine Gund. Robert Garcia and John Kelly facilitate the meeting. ACT UP chapters from around the country and the world shout out the names of the cities. Linda Meredith, Brian Zabcik, Keith Cylar, Mark Harrington, Garance Franke-Ruta, Vincent Gagliostro, Jill Harris and others speak. Steve Helmke, Gerri Wells, Raffi Babakhanian, Aldyn McKean, Jon Greenberg, Zoe Leonard, Sue Hyde, Russell Pritchard, Luis Santiago, Maxine Wolfe, Danny Sotomayor and others introduce their affinity groups. The tape ends with Tony Malliaris performing his Storm the NIH rap. (NYPL Tape #01101-A)

Shot by the Testing the Limits Collective. On May 20, 1990, the night before Storm the NIH, ACT UP chapters from around the country met in a church in Washington, DC to make final preparations for the action. People shout out the cities that they are from, then Keith Cylar, Mark Harrington and Garance Franke-Ruta speak. (There were sound issues on the first 28 seconds of this tape. Feedback made it impossible to hear what was being said, then the sound dropped out. The sound has been replaced from another version of the tape.) (NYPL Tape #1771)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Jeff Gates talks about blowing the air horns every 12 minutes as another Person with AIDS dies. Footage of Invisible Women. (NYPL Tape #1772)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Invisible Women protest. Later, Mark Harrington and Bob Lederer speak. (NYPL Tape #1773)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Additional Invisible Women footage, Garance Franke-Ruta speaks. Lovely shot of Robert Garcia looking contemplative, then he speaks. (NYPL Tape #1774)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Bob Lederer, Jon Greenberg and Ken Fornataro speak. Powerful speech by Phyllis Sharpe about homelessness and AIDS. Mark Harrington and Jean Elizabeth Glass speak. (NYPL Tape #1775)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Footage of various aspects of the demonstration. John Kelly, Brian Zabcik and Vincent Gagliostro speak. (NYPL Tape #1776)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Shots of the tranquil NIH campus before the demonstrations. ACT UP marches in! Colored smoke footage. Interview with Jim Jensen, a patient at the NIH in an Interleukin-2 study, who came out of the hospital to join the protest wheeling the device delivering his dosage of intravenous Interleukin-2. Keith Cylar speaks. (NYPL Tape #1815)

Footage shot by Testing the Limits. Continuation of interview of Keith Cylar. Latino Caucus chants "NIH mira. Latinos tienen SIDA." Interview of Gilbert Martinez. More footage of the demonstration, then Ann Northrop is interviewed while sitting in outside one of the NIH buildings. (1816)

Footage shot by Catherine Gund at Storm the NIH. The arrest of Jim Lyons begins at 19:36 (NYPL Tape #01101-B)

Footage shot at Storm the NIH by Catherine Gund. Phyllis Sharpe speaks starting at 20:08 (NYPL Tape #01102)

This sequence is unique within the huge archive of ACT UP video footage. Nowhere else is there footage of someone's arrest, footage of them speaking about it at the next ACT UP Meeting, and then a description of the event years later in their ACT UP Oral History interview. Jim Lyons (1960-2007) was a brilliant film editor and occasional actor. He edited Poison, Safe, Velvet Goldmine and The Virgin Suicides among others. He was arrested during Storm the NIH, May 21, 1990. This footage shows his arrest and the events leading up to it. He then talks about the arrest at the next ACT UP meeting (either May 22 or 28, 1990) and again during his ACT UP Oral History interview (February 26, 2005). Note the similarities and differences between the descriptions which are 15 years apart and the similarities and discrepancies between the descriptions and video.