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
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