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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2000)
juna lfL2000_?. Pan Asian Cuisine Proud to play Join Us On Our Patio L is a B Lunch M -F D inner every night The dedicated musicians of Rose City Gay Freedom Band toot their own horns for many good causes by Reservations Recommended W E D E L IV E R 2 8 8 -3 9 6 0 To zip codes 97212 & 97232 1411 NE Broadway r a d s h a w i M T A i i m r M te le n Sugar!* § C LezW kat? is serving Cocktails! h WNNANA' (Starting Easterweekend) Specials day and night. Tues. is Basketti Madness! Thurs. is vegan night. Always choice of meaty or vegan. t Portland’s 1990 pride festival, 10 musi cians sat on metal folding chairs under a tree in the North Park Blocks and played for passers-by. That was the first performance of the Rose City Gay Freedom Band, according to member Brenda Dworschak. She shows me pictures from a well-kept scrapbook that records the band’s performances and growth. To my sur prise, I note that the leader of that first event is conducting with one hand and playing the tuba with the other! Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the nonprofit R C G FB boasts a long list of achievements and a solid future. It’s beefed up to about 35 members and it holds two major performances a year, in addition to playing at benefits and collaborating with other groups. Most notably, the main concert band has given birth to several musical offspring. Rose City Swing, a popular 17-piece big band, started in 1993— before the Lindy Hop’s resurrection became a full-fledged trend— and now produces two dance parties a year. There’s a Dixieland hand, the Dixie Rose, and a brass quintet, the Brass Rose, both of which are “on call,” forming and playing when requested. Then there’s the Flag Corps— which per forms, Dworschak says, “off and on,”— and the occasional woodwind ensemble. All these off shoots also play benefits and private engage ments. Because the band is a tax-exempt organiza tion, none of the players are paid; they simply love to play music. Proceeds from all the shows go toward the management of the band or are donated to other queer organizations. Todd Johnson, performance committee chairman, emphasizes the hand’s role in raising money for the community: “We are always look ing to do more in the realm of community out reach," he explains. “If community organizations need our help, they’re welcome to contact us.” The group’s mission statement reflects its desire to be a charitable organization as well as an artistic outlet, and also to provide “positive role-modeling” and “community representation.” Dworschak, who has been playing trumpet with the band since its beginning, describes music as R C G F B ’s “number one thing” hut also emphasizes the social opportunities the hand offers. “When I joined the hand, I didn’t have diversified gay friends. 1 hardly had any gay male friends,” she says. “Now I have all kinds.... That’s tine of the neat things about the group; A we’re a mixture— fifty-fifty male and female— and we come together because of music.” The hand’s ultimate goal, explains general manager Loren Dixon, is to raise enough money through grants and major sponsorships to offer free concerts. Currently, the price of admission to a concert is $8 to $10, and to the swing dances about $ 12. The performances themselves, although not free yet, certainly are musically accessible. I ask, jokingly, if they play mostly show tunes. O f course they play some, I’m told, hut also classi cal pieces, marches, contemporary, folk, rock, ethnic, swing, pop and blues. The swing dances offer members of Rose City Swing a chance to concentrate on the big- hand tunes of the ’40s and also to incorporate more modem swing music. The atmosphere is a lively dance party, notes sax man Johnson. “The dancing is really open,” he remarks. “It’s not like you have to bring your own dance partner. Everybody’s dancing with everybody.” Dworschak, also a member of the swing band, adds that these dances successfully fulfill part of the hand’s mission to integrate commu nities in a positive way. “You see heterosexual and gay couples all dancing together on the dance floor, all having a great time,” she says. “That’s the part about bridging the gap and presenting this positive image and getting us all together.” Dixon concurs, observing that the dances also allow gay couples a venue to dance togeth er “without being labeled or without people looking at them .... They can be themselves." Having long since stored away the metal chairs of its first performance, the RCGFB turns into a marching band for the gay pride parade, this year on June 18. Dworschak says the band members love the parade: “We’re waiting and waiting and waiting to go, and pretty soon it gets to th at.... Right there, on cue, drums start playing, music starts going, and people start screaming and holler ing. I’m in the middle of the band going, 'This is pride.’ ’’ Cfc ^ - L i W ^ * *»nana is V * 2 2 0 3 NE Alberta, Portland 281-1717 Hours: Sun.9-3 Mon. 8-3 Tues-Sat. 8-10ish (expanding soon) | J 2 l 4 N O R T H W E S T ->KST 2 7 4 - 2 5 5 9 CJliez W liat? Heapin Helpings of Heartu Americana W i l l i a m ' s o n 12 “One of the top 20 restaurants in Portland. ” - open 7 days - — th Oregonian (503) 963-9226 Sun to Thurs 5-9pm • Fri and Sat 5-10pm 207 SE 12th, Portland, OR 97214 SSBSBBSa eating out * — d a ta b a n A N a fta s 2821 L\ £ la r k £ t. "petllM nb, O ft. 2 3 2 -0 9 4 8 T Tues-Thur 5:30-10^ Frf-Sat 530-10i Sunday 530-9 pm * ■ m » 7 ■ Í- /V cw ccm e in a n ? en jo y c u r Lim ite? b a r * I Ifc r € % ftOXY P O R T L A N D ' O R I *« > 1 I ' , * - - t k l tuA Tt o f the ¿ t fr t A H t O H r Z & ' u t r ic t " I O O N 1121 SW Stark Street. Phono: 223-9160. Oo«n 24 Hours. ■ ■ ■ ■ The R ose C ity G ay F reedom B and is always looking for new members and is accepting applica tions far a new conductor. C all the group at (503) 790-2170, visit www.ramheaux.net/rcgfh, or stop by the hand's booth at the Portland pride festival June 17 and 18. is a free-lance w ater who can't play any instruments but highly respects peo- hie who can. L is a BRADSHAW Stop by the just out booth at Portland gay pride and pick up your free copy of the 2000 just out pocketbook 51
