aprii 7. 2000 ’
MUSIC
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K, they don’t really get naked, but I want
ed to be sure you’d read this article. If
you’ve never heard the Portland Gay
Men’s Chorus, run— do not walk— to
rtland Community College’s Sylvania cam-
on the weekend of April 14 through 16
d hear for yourself the group’s performance of
illennium M osaic and Naked Man.
First, you’ve got to understand that I’m not
fan of choral music at all. I’ve always found it
rribly precious and twee— y’know, all that
or unto us a child is bo-ho-ho-hom ” and fa-
-la-la-la-la business. S o imagine my surprise
hen I attended an early rehearsal and more
an once found myself moved to tears. If
xi’re anything like me (and since you’re read-
g this paper, you are, Blanche, you are), you
having a good cry.
Let me give you some background. The first
If of the concert features the world premiere
f Millennium M osaic, which its creators believe
the world’s first song cycle based on the lives
nd perspectives of gay and lesbian youths,
oets and partners Janice Gould and Marie-
lise Wheatwind collaborated in compiling the
ords, images and ideas of local gay and lesbian
ouths to create a collection of verse— no easy
’sk, I might add. But Gould and Wheatwind
Dund ample inspiration in the person of one
ery inspiring 15-year-old lesbian, Kat Wilson.
Wilson stands maybe 5 feet tall and is prob-
bly 90 pounds with her boots on. She appears
n every way to be a thoroughly typical teen-
ger, popping her gum and pushing her hair
’hind her ears. Yet this is a teen-ager who,
hen asked how she knows for certain she’s
ay, looks at me like it’s a dumb question
which it is) and says quietly, “How do you
now your eyes are blue? How do you know
our hair is brown?”
Wilson’s poems provide the cornerstones of
he piece, bracketing the other half-dozen
;ms by Wheatwind and Gould. In Cold
tone, Wilson writes: “I am tired of waiting and
atching / and pushing on bound’ries without
eaning. . . / I a m pounding against a cold
tone wall, / I am crying against its smooth-
ess.
For anyone in the chorus over 30, it’s diffi-
ult to imagine the opportunities that today’s
:xual minority youths (or “gaylings” as I prefer
o call them) have to express themselves pub
ic ly.
Bob Mensel, a conductor and the chorus’s
rtistic director, is fervent in his commitment
to this groundbreaking project. W hen asked if
e’s prepared for accusations that the chorus is
“recruiting” gay youth, Mensel becomes fierce.
“We will never be able to mentor gay and
lesbian youth if we are controlled by the
rhetoric of recruitment,” he says. “But we know
Portland Gay Men's Chorus to get Naked
Fearless chorus lets it all hang out in Mille n n iu m Mosaic and Naked Man
by
M arc A cito
From left: Mosaic makers Janice Gould, David York and Marie-Elise Wheatwind
better, so let’s not buy into that. We’re pre
pared to take the flak.”
He need not worry about flak as far as W il
son’s remarkable parents are concerned. When
I asked Paul Wilson, Kat’s father, how he felt
about his daughter taking part in such a public
event, he simply smiled and said, “I’m just
excited for her to have had a tutorial with two
poets and a composer.”
That’s it. This is how far we’ve come. (With
two gay nephews, one gay niece and one niece
on her way to becoming a nephew, Wilson was
as equipped as anyone possibly could be for his
daughter’s coming out, I suppose, but his mat-
ter-of-factness staggered me.) As Barney Frank
said recently at the Human Rights Campaign
Dinner: “Face it, folks, we’re not exotic any
more.”
I don’t think I can adequately describe how
enormously moving it was to see 90 full-grown
gay men stand and applaud this one brave
young girl. I get choked up just thinking about
it and will remember always the beaming face
of Linda Farris, Kat Wilson’s mother, tears
shining in her eyes as she heard for the first
time her daughter’s words put to music:
I will says these words as many times as a cloud
cries on a rainy day.
I will bare my heart until your face shines
beams o f light through these dark gray skies.
Truth under my wings, liftin’ me up!
I am flying, I am breaking free. I am free!
Could you in a million years imagine your
parents crying tears of joy at the public expres
sion of your sexuality when you were 15? Think
about it. Where were you back in the days
when field hockey or the drama club was your
only opportunity to be authentic with yourself?
Millennium M osaic composer David York
relates that he “dated a ‘good girl,’ so I didn’t
have to ...”— he glances at the minor present
in the room— “well, y’know, do the things that
straight boys had to do.”
Poets Gould and Wheatwind were angry
and anorexic, respectively. And Bob
Mensel says he worked as a tour guide at
the Mormon Temple in Washington,
D.C., which is a scream for anyone who
knows him— “And over here we have a
fabulous diorama of Brigham Young...’’
T he second piece on the program,-
N aked M an, picks up where the other
leaves off, inspired as it was by the lives
of the men of the San Francisco Gay
M en’s Chorus. The music reflects the
change: Whereas Millennium Mosaic is,
in the words of its composer, “unapolo-
getically pop,” N aked Man is more clas
sical— “like easy Brahms,” says Mensel.
Yet the influences range from Gregorian
chant to show tunes; in short, some
thing for everyone.
The connections among the singers
and the music and words are palpable
and real and powerful. Everything I usu
ally hate about choral singing— the
excessive restraint and fussy precision—
is completely absent in the PGM C’s
full-on, open-throated sound. The
singers’ vigor and virility match N aked
Man’s theme perfectly: “W hen I am
dressed up, / Disguised and masked, / I
am a sham, / All I want to be / Is that I
am, / A naked man.”
These “naked men” proudly give
new meaning to the term “singing out.”
I’ve heard people say time and again,
“Where is the gay community— we’re so divid
ed, blah, blah, blah, b la h ...”
I’ll tell you where the gay community is. It
is in the strong, virile voices of 90 out and
proud men; it is in the sumptuous music of a
gay composer; it is in the affecting poetry of a
lesbian couple; and it is in the hauntingly sim
ple words of one brave 15-year-old girl.
■ The P o r tla n d G ay M en ’ s C h o r u s performs
Millennium Mosaic and Naked Man at 8 p.m .
April 14 and 15 and at 7 p.m . April 16 at the
Performing Arts C enter on the Sylvania campus o f
Portland Community C ollege. Tickets cost $12 to
$20 and are available from Fastixx. M ore infor-
motion can be found online at www.pdxgmc.org.
M arc A c ito wanted to be on Broadway
when he was 15 years old. Somehow he ended up
owning a Fastsigns store in Tigard and drawing the
comic strip ‘‘The Boys Next Door. ”
th e lo w e s t p r ic e s
o u r m o m s a re v e r y p r o u d o f us.
Buy. s e l l a n d t r a d e CD’s, v id e o s , D V D ’s, l a s e r d i s c s an d r e c o r d s
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V i d e o s a n d D V D s at W W W . d j a n g O S . c o m
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i m Sout hwest Stark (1 bl ock south of Powel ls) t 503 227 4381