\
53 J u s t o u t • november 7.2003
PEOPLE
▼
V
The rest of us
Genderqueer activist Kate Bornstein
will set Portland’s identity in motion
by
EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA
ALWAYS IN STOCK!
E ric P lemons
<@ > Ouamtance. 1950s paintings of half-naked
Spartans, cowboys, Aztecs. Thrilling camp. $40
( new ; Boys Will Be Boys. Tales of spooge-crazed
schoolboys They're British, of course $14.95.
(@ > Roughed Up. When bad things happen to
good people...and they beg lor more ! $14.95.
927 SW OAK • 226-8141
T he A rt
W ho knew
f iv e
YEAR S O N
A lber ta c o u ld
BE SO M U C H F U N ?
ONDA
Kate Bornstein joins San Francisco poet Katastrophe and members of the Sexual Minority
Youth Resource Center in two dynamic and personal performances Nov. 21 and 22
A r te L a t in a
2215 n e A l b e r t a
503.4931909
W o o d b l o c k P r in t b y S e v e r in o B o r g e s , B r a z il
Thank you, Marly, for carrying on lay s vision
so magnificently, anil for being so gracious
to our family over the years!
With ilttp appreciation,
Kaite ami Susie
A Class Act 2004
1 he I Oth Annual classical music and decadent dessert review
be ncfittinK the Bill and Ann Shepherd Lc«al Scholarship Fund
< )t E quity Foundation H e lp in g Ird and 4th vear law students
dedicated to lig h tin g b ig o try and discrim ination
MICHAEL ALLEN HARRISON and
IU U A N N E IOHNSO N
! rtdav. May 2 1st
8.00 p m
I*he ( )ld Church
1422 S W I i t h
’ortland Oregon
Tickets
$ 2 ' on In advance
$ 10 0 0 At the d o or
Ticket Locations
Balloons on Broadwav M 7
t.a i l ’icd#2 544 NE Broadwav
Broadwav
Information
(
5 0 1 )2 8 6 1752
Proudly Sponsored by
Christopher D Wright. PC.
Attorney at Law and C P A
Gary Boyer
Majestic Mortgage Mortgage Monkey
♦ Ty
just m u
*y?9c/
Editor's note: Rejecting the vernacular personal
pronouns o f “he” and “she ” because o f their inherent
gender and sex specificity, Kate Bornstein prefers the
alternative gender-neutral pronoun “ze." The
possessive pronoun ”htr” replaces “his" or “her."
or lack of a single term that reflects the
complexity of hir identities, Kate Bornstein
describes hirself as a “high femme, sado-
masochistic, anorectic, transsexual dyke."
Bomsteins professional credentials list hir as
an internationally renowned performance artist,
author and gender/sex activist. But for the trans
and genderqueer communities, ze has attained
an almost iconic status.
As one of the few openly trans public faces
of the queer movement, Bornstein has done a
great deal to move discussions of gender and
sex nonconformity into the queer conscious­
ness. Hir first, and perhaps most well-known,
Hxik, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the
Rest o f Us, offers a critical hut humorous per­
sonal look at our cultural understandings of
gender and sex— and what happens to those
who exist outside rigid definitions.
My Geruier W orkbook is an interactive
project that encourages the reader to ask ques­
tions about the constructs ot gender identify.
Most recently, in a departure from the overt
sex and gender toe us. Nearly Roadkill (co-
authored hy Caitlin Sullivan) is a cvber
thriller novel.
Bomstein’s htxiks are taught at more than
ICO U.S. colleges and universities. Ze lives in
New York City with hir partner and their pets.
And as a trans man who recognizes the value
ot hir contribution to the rising consciousness
of trans identity, 1 was pretty thrilled to talk
with hir.
Bornstein is, over the phone, just what ze
is in hir text: charming, funny and accessi­
ble, spiking the conversation with moments
of theoretical poignancy and personal hon­
esty that convey hir unique brand of infec­
tious energy.
F
lo m stein will visit Portland this month
I for the first tune in more than six years
as a featured performer in 2 Gyrlz
Performative Arts’ Enteractive Language
Festival. Zes very excited about participating
in the monthlong event, noting: “I love the
girls from 2 Gyrlz. W e have a sort of mutual
admiration society.”
The festival consists of performances and
interactive theater all tied together through
the theme of “language.” Bomstein’s Nov. 21
and 22 performances, titled Language o f Para­
dox, will he a collaborative effort with San
Francisco-based hip-hop/slam poet Katastrophe
and a group of kids from Portland’s Sexual
Minority Youth Resource Center.
The actual content of the piece will he
determined hy a weeklong workshop with
SM YRC youth. “We will talk about the para­
dox that is our lives and why we continue liv­
ing paradoxical lives. For example, I am nei­
ther a man nor a woman. Thar is one paradox
that 1 live within.”
Roughly half rhe evening will he Bornstein
and Katastrophe and rhe other half pieces hy
SM YRC performers. “1 intend to leam a lot hv
working with the youth," Bomsrein savs. “They
•ire the real outlaws.”
I heard Bornstein read from M\ Gender Work­
book about five years ago in New York, hut 1 have
never seen hir in pertonnance. Everv artist has a
specific and dynamic medium, and Bornstein is
quite sure that if you only knew hir through the
writing, there is lots more to experience.
“I started writing when there was no fund­
ing tor the performing arts, hut my primary art
form is performance,” :e explains, emphasizing
that the difference between reading hir work
and watching it is substantial. “In performance
you get the tire, the passion. There is a
cadence to performance that is me, me, me.
You get it unfiltered.”
Ze also admits performance allows her to flirt
(with hundreds of people all at once). “The bril­
liance of performance is the interactivity, the
unpredictability, the facial expressions...there is
a more total communication. In writing we only
have underline, bold or italics, hut we have
many more options when speaking."
Her books, though, can seem as personal as
all that, too. “I try to write my hooks in the
most interactive way possible. That is why Gen-