D IV E R SIO N S ▼ PHOTO BY OWEN CAflEV Ahoy there, lady! rolific lesbian author Barbara Sjoholm sails into In Other Words, 3734 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 to read from Steady as She Qoes: Women's Adventures at Sea. W ithin this new anthology are contempo­ rary stories of seafaring women Sjoholm co l­ lected while doing research for her forthcom­ ing lxx>k The Pirate Q ueen, In Search o f G race O ’M alley and Other Legendary W omen o f the Head out to sea with Barbara Sjoholm Sea. “1 simply felt that there wasn’t enough women’s maritime writing out there, either in on Nov. 19 at In O ther Words the classic anthologies of sea literature or in anthologies of our own. So I decided to put earn enough money to provide yourself with one together,” says Sjoholm, who’s written a fixxl and housing, much less health care.... If we number of hooks as Barbara Wilson, includ­ don’t understand the problem, and if we fail to ing G audí Afterruxm and Sisters o f the Road. encourage others to understand the problem, “Wilson was my fathers adopted name and we’re never going to fix it.” N ickel and Dimed runs through Nov. 16 at it was, frankly, always a bit boring to me. After Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N. quite a bit of thought, I just decided to make a change,” explains Sjoholm of the surname Interstate Ave. Tickets are $15-$30 from 503-241-1278. that now reflects her Scandinavian heritage. In 1975, the writer founded Seattle-based Seal Press with Rachel da Silva. They sold the business in 2001 to an umbrella group formed by their distributors, which ensured some sta­ bility for its editors and authors. “Over the last 27 years, hundreds of women have been orld-class talents have been in Portland rehearsing for Turandvt, and opera involved in the press in one way or another, and it’s something I’m very proud of,” she says. lovers lucky enough to get rickets to the sold-out Nov. 8, 13 and 15 performances are A t In Other Words, she’ll be joined by in for a feast of beautiful music, extraordinary Columbia River kayaker Ginni Callahan. Sjo- singing and pageant-like spectacle. holm says their reading is “a chance for every­ body who loves boats— or who fantasizes about Up-and-coming dramatic soprano Caroline them— to come and hear some great stories.” Whisnant makes her Portland Opera debut as Aye-aye, Captain! the icy princess who swears no man will ever possess her. She devises three impossible rid­ dles. Any man who can answer them can claim her as his prize, but any man who guesses incorrectly will lose his head. Chinese tenor Yu Qiang Dai, hailed as “the next Pavarotti,” is the suitor Calaf who, mes­ merized by her beauty, risks his Artists Repertory Theatre presents Nickel and I)imed through Nov. 16 at life to seek the unattainable. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center And Portland audiences have the privilege of hearing the radiant, shimmering voice of internationally recognized soprano Cynthia Haymon, who has I n h e r e s a daily struggle to survive; so many performed at most major opera houses around I Americans are just a paycheck away from the world (and brilliantly stepped in as a last- I disaster, and more people need to get hip minute replacement in 2002’s The Pearl to that!” proclaims Stephanie Mulligan in her Fishers). directorial debut for Artists Repertory Theatre’s Turandot also promises to be one of the queer­ 2nd Stage production Nickel and Dimed. est prexiuctions at Portland Opera in a long time, Mulligan finds Joan Holden’s stage adapta­ with out director Peter Rothman and singers Jon tion of undercover reporter Barbara Ehrenre- Kolbert (who recently moved to Portland) as ich’s btx>k about trying to manage on mini­ Pang, Jeffrey Morrissey as Ping and Just Out mum wage politically affirming, but shirking. columnist Marc Acito as the Emperor. The chance to make the topic both personal and entertaining is what drew Mulligan— who more acts as stage manager— to direct this slice of life that blends human dignity issues with the rights of the working poor. “My sense was that Holden’s play could bring » n at Boy has a heart, and that heart is to light the issues that so intrigued and infuriated ■ C Wade McCollum,” prcxdaims the press me, and the production would inspire conversa­ mm release from Portland Center Stage tion, contemplation and, ideally, action,” explains Mulligan, a lesbian Portlander who regarding its much-ballyhixxxJ new produc­ tion Bat Boy: T h e Musical. comes from a long line of union workers. “If you work full time for minimum wage, you will not No doubt the gay actor honed that heart P Last girl standing f she were in your average slash-’em-up horror flick, Daphne Gottlieb would he that ineluctable last girl standing. I The San Francisco queer poet has trav­ eled with the Slam America Bus Tour and Sister Spit, hut, unlike some slam-types, her words res­ onate equally well in print as they do from her mouth. “1 write first and foremost for the page,” says Gottlieb, who will lie in Eugene Nov. 11 and Portland Nov. 12 and 13. “After all, a book can go all sorts of places that I’ll never be able to, regardless of how ambitious my tour schedule is.” But her appearances with delightfully cyni­ cal poet Hal Sirowitz will still be something to see. Or, rather, hear. “In performance, it’s the pleasure of breath, the danger of live theater, of dialogue and community; on the page it’s a solitary pleasure, almost a mminative one. My job on the page is to use all aspects to let the words perform for themselves.” Gottliebs third hook of poetry, Final Girl, is threaded together by the evocative theme of the horror and slasher movie genre’s heroic women— the final girl alive. “I’m fascinated by ‘low culture,’ especially things that are geared towards getting Kxlily responses from us. Horror— vomit and/or screams. Pornography— cum and breath. And women’s weepies— tears. 1 think that a lot of genre work— detective, mystery, sci-fi— and pop culture in general func­ tions as a mirror of our collective unconscious, sort of an encoded love letter of what we’re thinking about at the time.” W hat’s beautiful about Final Girl is relating each piece, however seemingly distant, back to the theme. Consider: it's on but I don’t know whether I want to be her, fu ck her or borrow her clothes Daphne Gottlieb This poem, “the frightening tmth about desire,” takes on a new meaning when you think about this girl as a character fighting for her life, possibly with other women, against a generally unknown, generally male, assailant. “T he figure of the final girl and her coun­ terpart, the femme fatale, sort of embody the extremes of female gender representation,” explains Gottlieb. “The final girl is androgynous— sort of an adolescent boy— and is assured survival, and the femme fatale is excessive, monstrous and is forced to d ie.... So there’s sort of this odd continuum of the representation of femininity.” The 3 5-year-old lost her mother to lung cancer while writing the new book, which, she says, “made this curious sort of intellectu­ al exercise about death and gender incredibly soul-searing and...makes the book intensely personal. The writer is sort of de facto always a ‘final girl’— the one who has survived to tell the story.” See the Just Out calendar for details on all three Daphne Gottlieb readings. JH1 Opera more gay than usual W Working for the man McCollum strikes gold again Wade McCollum didn’t even need makeup for his new run in Bat Boy: the Musical. (Ha ha, just kidding.) playing the lead role in the long-running Hedwig and the Angry inch for triangle produc­ tions! Both Hedwig and Bat Boy, a character based on W eekly World News tabloid cover stories about a bar boy discovered in a West Virginia cave, are “on the outside trying to find their place,” says McCollum. But where “Hedwig throws her differences in your face,” he continues, “Bar Boy tries to hide them and disguise himself as ‘normal’— two very different ways of trying to find a home in a world saturated with judgment and violence.” The musical is directed by P C S’ gay artistic director, Chris Coleman. “Anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider will relate” to Bat Boy, notes Coleman. Bat Boy: The Musical nins through Nov. 23 at Newmark Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway. The Nov. 11 and 13 performances include post-show dialogue with the cast. A discussion of tabloid journalism follows the matinee Nov. 9. Tickets are $16-$51 from the b»>x office or 503-274-6588. Because women like sex, too acific Friction, a relatively new organization planning an annual Kinkfest-type event for women only, has come up with a brilliant fund-raiser: Portland’s first-ever Women’s Only Bath House Night from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Nov. 14 at Club XES, 415 S.W. 13th Ave. Gtxxl heavens, it’s about time. “Why should guys have all the fun?” asks ^ie Web site PacificFriction.org. “Women, now’s your chance to find out what makes the bathhouse scene so hot.” Althixigh the organization was founded by women in the B/D/S/M scene and leather chicks should attend in abundance, “If you’re not into B/D/S/M, the women’s bathhouse night can still be lots of fun," notes Ruth Thomas of Paci- ficPriction and Portland Leather Alliance. “No one is ever, ever expected.. .to do anything or act in any way.. she dties not chtxise. It’s all aKxit having fun and being who y