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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2001)
42 J-»«« > march 16 .2 0 0 1 DIVERSIONS .....................▼..................... S a fe t y f i r s t I t 's t h e ir f ir s t tim e S T S p a n n in g g e n d e r s A w a lk on th e w ild s id e excapades: A Safer Sex Resource Fair and Dance Party is being put on March 29 by YouthNet, a program o f Love Makes a Family, along with the Sexual Minority Youth Recreation Center and Portland State University Queers and Allies. Planned as an opportunity to educate youth in a fun environment, the free evening fea tures performances by drag kings and queens, in cluding Abby, Rosebud XXIV, plus a speaker from Cascade A ID S Project. Also look for free lube, dams and condoms as well as free HIV testing on site. Expect great door prizes, including gift certifi cates to Blackhole Piercing, Envy Hair Design, In Other Words Women’s Ekx>ks and Resources and Urbaca Day Spa and Salon. DJ Amber will keep the tunes spinning all night. The event, which will take over the Multicultural Center in the basement of P SU ’s Smith Memorial Center, runs from 8 p.m. until midnight. B ridges Vocal Ensemble is a unique, profes sional-caliber choral group formed in 1990 when members o f the Portland G ay M en’s Chorus and the Portland Lesbian C h oir joined forces. Today, it has evolved into a fine singing group that strives to foster good relationships among all facets o f the community. Members perform a wide range o f styles, including jazz, folk, spirituals, sacred tunes, love songs and freedom stings and work from contemporary musical theater. A nother com m itm ent they have is to sing at a broad spectrum o f spiritual gatherings: Buddhist, Christian, U nitarian and New Thought churches am ong them. They are even available for com m itm ent cerem onies and memorials. A nd that’s not all— they also do corporate gigs, fund-raisers and, o f course, queer events. You’ll have several good oppor tunities to hear them soon during their co n certs 8 p.m. M arch 16 and 17 at the C om m u nity Music Center, 3350 S.E. Francis St. T he show is called The Way We Think We Were. ..Favorites from O ur First Decade, and tickets are $ 15 at the door or $ 12 in advance from 503-242-1675. T hen they’ll perform at a March 25 benefit for Sw an House, a new A ID S hospice. D on’t miss a chance to support these fine musicians who represent our community so well. he folks at White Bird continue to amaze us with their unerring taste in dance. On April 3 they bring to the Schnitz the Portland premiere of the electrifying Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo. This 20-member troupe is gathering rave reviews wherever they perform, and this promises to be an unforgettable evening of dance. One critic de scribed them as “so flexible they seem practically boneless.” The com pany, which was founded in 1975, is known for its remarkable fusion of dance styles and, of course, Latin fla vor. Catch this dynamic group at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $18-$39 from Fastixx (now rek)cated inside Safe way stores) or www.whitebird.org. T he Portland Leather A llian ce plays host to the third annual pan- sexual conference Kink- Fest 2001 from M arch 30 to April l at the A ce o f Hearts. C elebrate B/D /S/M and fetish diversity at a private function fea turing work shops, ven dors, lunches and evening play parties. You must be 18 or older to par ticipate, and you are required to mail in an application postm arked no later than M arch 16. Forms can de downloaded at w w w .pdxleatheralliance.org/KF2001. C a tc h th is if y o u c a n D o Jum p! Extremely Physical T heatre pre sents its repertory show Up in the Air four nights only— M arch 16, 17, 23 and 24— at Echo Theatre. Featured are “W hat You M ake o f It,” which has the cast playing make-believe with a forest o f P V C pipes, plus three stellar aerial pieces. Two of those are performed to the bril liant choral sounds o f Joan Szym ko’s group, Viriditas. A lso included is a fun romp called “Laughing and C rying," which proves laughter is indeed infec tious. It all starts 7:30 p.m. at 1515 S.E. 37th Ave. Tickets are $13-18 from 503-231-1232 and are now only available for the last weekend. S h e lo v e s to m a k e tro u b le n O ther Words welcomes Elana Dykewomon, author o f the Jew ish lesbian historical novel Beyond the Pale, a Lambda Award winner, 7:30 p.m. March 23. A n activist since the ’70s, she also wrote Riverfinger Women and N oth' ing Will Be as Sweet as the Taste: Selected Poems. In addition, she served for nine years as the editor o f Sinister Wisdom, a feminist jour- I nal o f arts and politics. You’ll find the bookstore at 3734 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. To learn more, call 503-232-6003. A R o s ie is a R o s ie is a d y k e N ew York magazine devoted m ost o f its M arch 5 issue to m ultiple stories on “G ay Life Now ,” which included an in- depth poll tracking the state o f gays in N ew York today. T h e results were tallied in the article “T h ey ’re Here, T h ey ’re Queer, W e’re U sed to It,” which featured such nuggets as: 71 per cent o f gays and lesbians polled are out to their families, while only 58 percent are out to their co workers; 68 percent o f straight N ew Yorkers say they would vote for an openly gay presi dential candidate. But the article getting the m ost buzz, “ Inside O u t,” tackles the question o f m edia collusion in keeping the closet door shut on gay celebs. In particular they dwell on the case o f Rosie O ’D onnell, a well- known career hom osexual. T h ey carp that although sh e’s been outed routinely in the tabloids, the m ainstream press m aintains a discreet distance, w hich allows her the free dom to flaunt her girlfriends in public w ith out fear they’ll be w ritten about. A s the author o f 1997’s Rosie O ’Donnell: Her True Story, the first published biography of the star, I can attest to the truth o f that. I dis cussed at length the com plex web o f silence that surrounds the Q ueen o f N ice as well as the teasing games she plays with her television audience. It’s alm ost as if she wants to come out but still has one foot caught in a vacuum cleaner hose in her closet. In a famous exam ple, she and Ellen DeGeneres did a whole riff on her show in which they about being W hen asked to com ment on the story in New York magazine, O ’Don- PR flack didn’t deny she’s queer but did offer this mind-bog gling comment: “Rosie’s sexuality has never been very important to her.” My extensive research reveals that’s not the case. I suspect what she really m eant was: W hat other people think about her sexuality is not very important to Rosie. In any case, this does represent a step forward for an influential member o f the gay com munity who has the potential to do a lot o f good. N ow if som eone just will wrench her foot from that vacuum clean er.... | D Compiled by O riana G reen H o lly w o o d h a p p e n in g s ill & Grace continues to add to its impres sive hardware collection with several new trophies. A t the recent T V Guide Awards, Sean Hayes won Favorite Supporting Actor in a Comedy for his jumpin’ Jack work. A nd the whole gang won for Best Comedy Ensemble at the prestigious Screen Actors Guild Awards on March 11. All four stars were present to accept the statue and genuinely seemed to enjoy their close collaboration. A lso honored was Vanessa Redgrave, who won for Best Actress in a T V Movie or Miniseries for her poignant portrayal of an elderly lesbian dealing with the death o f her partner in If These Walls Could Talk 2. If you missed it on the tube, it’s worth a rent just for her performance. -A
