Women's night at OILA
Women walked off with prizes in nearly every category
S A N D R A
DE
HE L E N
he Oregon Institute of Literary Arts’
second annual Oregon Book Awards
ceremony was a special night for women
writers. At the first book-awards ceremony,
Ursula Le Guin had asked the judges, “ Where
are the women?”
Apparently they were all busy writing,
because this year women walked away with
awards for playwriting, poetry and creative
nonfiction; a special award was given to Calyx
and a lifetime award to historian Dorothy
O. Johansen as well.
Carolyn Gage, winner of the playwright’s
award for The Second Coming o f Joan o f Arc,
said that although “ Awards are arbitrary as
judges vary from year to year,” women “ are
living in very exciting times.” Gage took the
opportunity in her acceptance speech to come
out as a lesbian artist. She said, “ I am proud to
T
receive this award as a lesbian writer for a
lesbian play which was performed at a women’s
theater company. . . our art needs to be seen. . .
especially at a time when women are becoming
the poorest class of people in the world, when
one of four adult women are raped, when
one of three girls are victims of sexual
abuse . . . ”
Gage explained to Just Out why acknowledg
ing herself as a lesbian writer is so important:
“ Every woman writer I had read or heard of
turns out to have had a woman lover: Virginia
Woolf, Emily Dickinson, all these famous
women, Eleanor Roosevelt. When I found this
out, through my own research, and realized this
had been hidden from me as a reader, I was
outraged. Women writers being lesbian is no
accident — being a lesbian is the only way to
commit to doing women’s art.”
Margarita Donnelly of the Calyx collective
said the award “ couldn’t have come at a better
time for us.” Calyx, the only nonprofit
women’s press in the United States, has just
completed another book. “ OILA gives more
money to the literary arts than the Oregon Com
mission for the Arts,” Donnelly said. “ Mr.
Booth has taken responsibility for increasing
the amount of money available to the literary
arts, and I applaud him for that.”
Donnelly said she was “ just delighted that
Ursula gave the award.” Le Guin, in her
presentation to Calyx, spoke of the two ways to
attack the citadel: to storm the gates and
infiltrate it, or to establish cities outside it.
Calyx lives outside it — as Gage does also.
“ Unfortunately, those cities don’t have much
money in them,” Le Guin said. Calyx is proud
of its connection with Oregon women writers. It
was the first to publish the title poem from
winning poet Ingrid Wendt’s “ Singing the
Mozart Requiem.”
Donnelly said that when Calyx was standing
in line to receive the award, “ A guy in front of
us was mumbling, moaning and groaning about
women’s publishing while Ursula was giving
her speech.” Donnelly was amused. The “ guy
in front’ ’ may not have been so amused when
he realized he was doing his complaining right
before the women’s publishers’ eyes.
Last year women were nominated — Andrea
Carlisle for her magical “ Riverhouse Stories,”
for example — but didn’t win. This year women
walked off with the prizes in nearly every
category. No one asked the question, “ Where
are the men?” OILA had an egalitarian roster of
nominees.
Donnelly pointed out that the Oregon
Commission for the Arts, while actually
increasing the total amount of money awarded,
gave this year’s increases only to groups that
have over $400,000 per year and none to
literary groups at all.
OILA is doing revolutionary work for
Oregon literary artists. This year alone, OILA
contributed $ 15,000 to six writers and five
small publishers.
#
P le a s e Si th a n k y o u a r e n 't t h e only m agic w o rd s:
W hen s u p p o r tin g o u r a d v e r tis e r s m ention
J u s t O u t.
Let your body speak its mind.
• Massage Therapy
• Body Awareness
• Body-centered Counseling
Women take
to the stage
ortland’s fall theater season has been
dominated by retro (Civic’s Hair), sorta-
homo (ART’s The Fox) and full-blown hetero
(ART's Pump Boys and Dinettes). How
refreshing, then, to have women dominate the
alternative theater scene in November with a
wide variety of shows. Echo Theatre will host the
Portland premiere of Jane Smith, Jane Smith, a
highly visual music and theater collaboration
starring leading innovators Diane Schenker
and Thomas a Eckert, composer Roger Nelson
and actor Carlo Scandiuzzi. The four reveal the
private distress of a public woman through an
unravelling tapestry of musical and visual
events and imaginings. Rich vocal anthems
(Eckert is an accomplished singer) share the
stage with haltingly personal moments in this
performance study of the many sides of
“ today’s woman.”
The show premiered last June at On the
Boards’ Northwest New Works Festival in
Seattle and received great acclaim. The Seattle
Times said, “ Jane Smith fulfilled every wild
expectation that such a generic title was bound
to raise.” Certainly not for everyone,
Jane Smith, Jane Smith should prove to be an
exciting evening for the adventurous theater
goer. The show runs Friday through Sunday,
November 11-13. For ticket information, call
231-1232.
Four women artists will bring their collabora
tive vision to Portland State University's Shat-
tuck Studio Theatre with Cecilia's Daughter:
Conversations from the Kitchen. This multi
disciplinary performance piece combines the
talents of video artist Elaine Velazquez,
composer Barbara Bernstein, performance-
movement artist Susan Banyas and actress
Marie Selland-Taylor.
Cecilia's Daughter is about the different
stages of a woman’s life and her coming of age.
In it a woman goes on a journey through her
memories and dreams in order to come to terms
with the present. At the heart of Cecilia's
Daughter are Selland-Taylor’s stories — some
times funny anecdotes, sometimes poignant
observations, evoking the intimacy of kitchen
chatter. The piece explores the variety and
contradictions of women’s roles as mother,
daughter, sister and grandmother, and inter-
Gwenn Cody. B.A.. L.M.T.
2625 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
P
2 9 7 -6 9 9 2
Rem inder—Call
Thomasa Eckert and Diane Schenker in Jane
Smith, Jane Smith at Echo Theater Nov. 11-13.
weaves live theater and movement with
projected video images, recorded sounds with
spoken words, in a juxtaposition that shows —
like Jane Smith does — the contrast between
what we keep private and what we make public.
Judging from these women’s past works,
Cecilia’s Daughter promises to be an enriching
experience. It plays for three weekends:
November 11, 12, 17, 18,19, 25 and 26, at
8 pm. Tickets are $7. For more information,
call 294-0321.
Short Cuts. Playback Theatre is presenting a
comedy-drama entitled Jack. No, it’s not the
sequel to Jerker; rather, it’s all about Jack the
Ripper. It plays at 8 pm. Mondays and
Tuesdays, through November 8, at The Long
Goodbye, Northwest 10th Avenue and Everett
Street. For the price — $ 1.99 — it should be
worth a peek.
„
, „
,
— Howie Baggadonutz
KNUDSON’S
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaners
PRE-HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Any Sofa $44.95
Includes 3 Cushions
(Exceptions — Dry Cleanable
Fabrics & Indian Cloth)
Sectionals Not Included
Carpets
25% OFF
REGULAR PRICE
White & Off White Lite
Pastels .040 extra
($45.00 Minimum)
Offer Expires Dec.
31, 1988
• Restaurant/Lounge. The Ultimate in
Dining and Entertainment. Seats
approx. 180. High Gross and Profits.
Classy Decor. Contract terms. Owner
will train. Great Opportunity!
• Tavern in Friendly SE area.
Pool, darts, room to dance. Super
terms. Asking $50,000 with 10K
down. Make offer.
• Secluded loft style renovation on
.29 acre with River View. New: Hard
wood Floors, roof, electrical, gas
furnace. Weatherized. Close in with
country atmosphere. $65,000/offer!
• English Tudor in Quiet and Nice S.E.
neighborhood. 4BR, Fireplace,
Dining Room with comer china
cabinets, basement and garage.
Private fenced backyard. Estate Sale
— $64,950.
Why To Call & Save Now
1. Written Guarantee
2. Truck Mounted Equipment
3. EST. 1979
4. Experienced Technicians
K ath y Tysinger 1431 NE Weidler
Res. 66 5-2 9 3 6
NOT THE BIGGEST • NOT EXPENSIVE
JUST THE BEST
WES7SIDE
292-0917
NE
SE
287-5050
OREGON CITY
656-0765
LAKE OSWEGO
636-8510
Portland, OR 97232
287-9370
Residential or
Commercial.
City or Country.
just out • 21 • November I98K