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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2005)
Queer women speak OUT/LOUD The sixth annual music festival offered a safe space for artists within the LGETTQA community to perform BY MATT CHARAN DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER “I’m a big homo and so are all my friends,” sophomore Steph Hyde said with a nonchalance that could be found in the “safe space” of an event such as OUT/LOUD, a queer women’s music festival held Friday and Saturday night at the WOW Hall. In its sixth year, the festival was formerly known as Lesbopalooza, but “we wanted to make the event more inclusive for performers and the audience,” University senior and festival producer and organizer Stacy Borke said. Comfort and safety is what OUT/LOUD is all about. In an often threatening and homophobic world, a safe place for silenced voices becomes imperative, many festival participants said. “It’s important to have an event fo cusing on queer performers,” junior Sam Merrill said. “It’s not common and we need to highlight that. Typical ly, women performers are left out of the media.” In fact, OUT/LOUD is one of the only queer women’s music festivals in the country, and many at the ASUO Women’s Center, which sponsored the event along with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, TVansgender, Queer Al liance, contend it is one of a kind. This fact has gained the festival some notoriety. High school student Laura Marie said she planned her vis it to the University to coincide with the festival. This year’s festival is especially im portant in light of recent politics, ASUO Women’s Center Interim Direc tor Erin O’Brien said. “Measure 36 directly attacked our community, which only increases the viability of events like this,” O’Brien said. “It shows that legisla tion that claims our non-existence can’t stop us.” Friday night opened with spoken word poetry by Jes Painter and Cassie Sorensen, whom Painter called her “pseudo girlfriend” in between recita tions. “We eat sushi and watch DVDs, just no sex. It’s the best of both worlds,” she said. University senior Leslie Frye read two short stories and a poem she said she guiltily wrote while working in vain on her senior thesis. Afterward, she expressed concern for the current state of the University. “With all the attacks going on right now, campus is a hostile place for students of color, queer students, and multicultural students,” she said. “It’s important for students to be able to create their art. We need a chance to celebrate.” The next performer was Chris Pureka, whose world-weary singing belies her 23-year-old soft-spoken de meanor. Pureka said she loves being a queer musician but struggles some times with the constraints her sexuali ty can have on a musical career. Still, she looks to success stories like Melis sa Etheridge’s for inspiration. Pamela Means followed with her explosive guitar playing matched only by her buoyant afro. Her frequent anti-Bush comments were met with thunderous cheers from the audience. The final act of the night, Alix Ol son, a renowned artist within the LGBTQA community, performed her trademark folk poetry. All the per formances were accompanied by sign language interpreters. Saturday opened with a drag king show put on by local perform ers, many of them University stu dents. Lipstick Conspiracy, a hard hitting transgender power pop band from San Francisco played next. In 2004, the San Francisco Bay Guardian voted the group best all-girl band. The final act of the weekend was rapper JenRO. She said she is often confronted with the difficulty of per forming queer art within a hostile rap community. After a standing ovation, the smil ing crowd hugged for the last time. “It’s a really good way to end the year,” Borke said. “It’s one of our final events and we went out with a bang. ” Apple: Each honored for various traits Continued from page 1 crystal apple to Kintz, the 2005 recipient of the Thomas F. Herman Faculty Achievement for Distin guished Teaching. The award is granted to faculty members who have “demonstrated long-standing excellence in teaching at the University,” according to a press release. Kintz received the award based on her “her ability to translate to (her students) her dedication, her enthusiasm, her devotion to first rate scholarly work and her com mitment to service,” Frohnmayer said in a press release. — Moriah Balingit For Those Rugged Outings ACTION SURPLUS 4251 Franklin Blvd Eugene 746-1301 CHINA BLUE Restaurant 879 E. 13th 343-2832 Lunch Special $4‘ This week: Mandarin chicken with egg flower rsoup, steamed Vice and lemon iced tea. Try our dinners too! vegetarian options M-F: llam-9:30pm • Sat: 4pm-9:30pm Sun: 12-9:30 pm BOOK YOUR SUMMER IN OREGON 2005 SUMMER SESSION GROUP-SATISFYING AND ELECTIVE COURSES, SHORT COURSES, SEMINARS, AND WORKSHOPS BEGIN THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER. Summer session begins June 20. Registration begins May 2. The UO Summer Session Catalog will be available in early April. You can speed your way toward graduation by taking required courses during summer. 2005 SUMMER SCHEDULE First four-week session: June 20-July 15 Second four-week session: July 18-August 12 Eight week session: June 20-August 12 Eleven week session: June 20-September 2 http://uosummer.uoregon.edu UNIVERSITY OF ‘OREGON SUMMER SESSION 333 Oregon Hall 1271) University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1279 Telephone (541) 340-3475 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Check our website http://uosummer.uoregon.edu Oregon Daily Emerald/ADVERTISING Advertise, Get results. Call 346.37 1 2
