Works by
Tommi Avicolli Mecca
(Musician, Writer)

• Smash the Church, Smash the State!: The Early Years of Gay Liberation (2009), Tommi Avicolli Mecca, ed. -- Nominated for an American Library Association Award
  This anthology by former members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) captures the history and spirit of the revolutionary time just after Stonewall, when thousands came out of the closet to claim their sexuality, and when queer resistance coalesced into a turbulent, joyous liberation movement—one whose lasting influence would ultimately inform and profoundly shape the LGBT community of today.
  
  Personal essays explore the philosophy and culture of the stridently anti-assimilationist GLF: the actions, demonstrations, and marches; views on marriage, religion, and gender; the drugs, orgies, and communes; and GLF’s relationship to the hippies, the Black Panthers, the straight Left, the women’s movement, civil rights, and the antiwar struggle.
  
  The collection includes contributions from Barbara Ruth, Cei Bell, Mark Segal, Martha Shelley, Nikos Diaman, Paola Bacchetta, Perry Brass, Susan Stryker, and Tom Ammiano.

• Hey Paesan: Writings by Lesbians and Gay Men of Italian Descent (1999) with Denise Nico Leto and Giovanna Capone, eds.
  An anthology of writing by Italian/Sicilian-descended lesbians and gay men in North America. Hey Paesan is the first-ever look at the homophobia, silence and invisibility faced by members of an ethnic group that have been stereotyped as mafiosi and femme fatales.

• Between Little Rock and a Hard Place: The New Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual Struggle for National Political Power (1993)

In Addition

• Avanti Popolo: Italian Americans Sail Beyond Columbus (2008), Italian-American Political Solidarity Club, ed. (including Tommi Avicolli Mecca)
  Italian American writers celebrate their hidden history in a literary tribute to fighting social injustice. With the current anti-immigrant sentiments filling up newspaper front pages, these writers respond with thought-provoking works that focus on breaking from mainstream tradition. On Columbus Day, instead of celebrating conquest, these poets and writers acknowledge those who stood up for justice and have fought for the rights of all immigrants, regardless of heritage. With new work by Diane di Prima, James Tracy, Kim Addonizio, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Cirelli, Michael Parenti, Thomas Centolella, and many others.

See also:

• Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1989), Carl Morse and Joan Larkin, eds.

• Remembering a Black Gay Pioneer by Tommi Avicolli Mecca (Dec. 14‚ 2006)
  Remembering writer Joseph Beam