7 . 2 0 0 3 -
MM ning and
der Outlaw has so many voices all over the page.
My Gender W orkbook has more questions than
statements because it promotes interactivity.
But performance is interactivity. In perform­
ance, there is a live energy present that, as an
author, 1 only hope to re-create on the page.”
aving spent the past six months recovering
from a series of surgeries, Bomstein has had
a great deal of time to create without per­
forming and to gain energy from the work of
hir peers. So where does a performance artist,
whose objective is to engage and inspire an
audience, find hir own inspiration?
Ze is particularly inspired by contemporary
artists like Holly Hughes, Peggy Shaw, Lois
Weaver, Annie Sprinkle and Nicole Blackman.
“Seeing their work gives me some heart and hope
that I can do something great,” ze says. “1 am
working on four hxiks in my head right now.”
As for reading, Bomstein notes emphatical­
ly, ze’ll “read anything by Leslie Feinberg. But
still, the most interesting work about gender is
being done by people whose Hxiks wouldn’t get
published.”
The extended periixl of rest has given hir the
opportunity to experiment with photography
and collage and to put the finishing tixjches on
a new play called Strangers m Paradox, which has
already had a limited run in San Francisco. It
explores relationships that exist between vio­
lence and beauty and violence and laughter.
Yes, Bomstein is interested in paradox these
days. “My wiwk now is less about gender and
more about sex—erotic energy and where it
comes from. My focus has gone from the nature
of identity to the study of identities in motion.
1 am interested in what happens when one
identity comes in contact with another.”
This shift in thematic fix:us mirrors the
changes in the way ze’s approached hir work,
as well. “Gender Outlaw is very gentle.... 1
don’t like intimidating people.... I think
there’s a responsibility to he gentle. It goes on
to the reader to do the work at that point. The
arc of the work started from that timid place,
not wishing to offend. But in this next
stage...here it is in yixir face.”
With such a dynamic history of writing and
performance (and an absolutely charming
phone personality), Bomstein’s collaborative
contribution to the Enteractive Language Festi­
val is sure to he a thixight-provoking, belly-
laughing and intimate exchange. JH
KATE B ornstein performs with Katastrophe arid
SMYRC youth during Language of Paradox
7 :3 0 p in. Nov. 21 and 22 at Interstate Firehouse
Cultural Center, 5340 N . Interstate Awe. Tickets
are $7 from In Other Words. For a complete
schedule o f the Enteractive Language Festival, visit
www.2gyrlz.org.
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When the devil is right...
... he is more right than all the
sanctimonious angels in the world.
E ric : P lemons is a Portland free-lance writer.
Katastrophic
Don’t miss a line when this slam poet
tornadoes through Portland
an Francisco-based
slam poet and hip-
hop performance
artist Katastrophe
will bring his tight heats
and smooth style to Port­
land from Nov. 20 to 22 as
part of the Enteractive
Language Festival.
No stranger to the
stage, the young phenom
also known as Rocco Kayi-
atos has turned heads as a
slammer on several Sister
Spit tours and as a mem­
ber of the hip-hop duo
End of the World. He
delivers quick-witted,
pressed rhythmic poetry
A Katastrophe is coming to town
with sly confidence and
“He and 1 are on parallel wavelengths in
the kind of arrogance that makes slam sexy.
our understanding of gender," Bomstein says.
A prolific writer, Katastrophe writes fre­
T he two also birth espouse a personal ethos
quently for YO.' Youth O utlook Magazine and
they call Serial Suicide— the concept of killing
was prominently featured in the recent docu­
off
personal identities as they change. “At the
mentary Poetic License.
moment of change there is a feeling of zero
The 23-year-old will join Portlanders Lori
gravity where there is nothing at all,” explains
Buckwalter and Llewyn Maire in the festival
Bomstein. “1 live for that moment before the
piece Language o f Silence l=D eathJ Nov. 20, an
roller coaster goes down that first big hill.”
event recognizing the International Transgen­
This belief in the inevitability and virtue of
der Day of Remembrance, which memorializes
personal reinvention is what makes performers
people who were killed because of hatred or
like Bomstein and Katastrophe such a joy and
prejudice.
a challenge to watch. And perhaps what will
Bomstein met Katastrophe last year at San
be most interesting is seeing two unique per­
Francisco Pride, where he performed and led a
formers like these use disparate mediums to
hip-hop poetry workshop for queer youth and
provide treatment on a common Issue.
allies. “If only I could get words like that,”
When you come to see Katastrophe do his
Bomstein says of his performance.
thing, be ready to listen hard and listen fast. If
The two have been collaborating on the
you can pry your mind away from his sex
play Strangers m Paradox and will cofacilitate
appeal long enough, you’ll find you can’t help
the workshops with the Sexual Minority Youth
but learn something.
Resource Center that will result in the Lan­
— EP
guage o f Paradox performances Nov. 21 and 22.
S
Romulus Linney's
A
Portland Premiere
October 17 - November 16
1
( 503 ) 242-0080
■
*
At TheateriTheatre!
3430 SE Belmont Ave.
www.profiletheatre.org
"Chilling. Plenty of Boldness. Fiercely Intelligent."
—
The Oregonian
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