BOOKS
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Labor of love
Groundbreaking author ushers
the Progressive E ra into Portland
by
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‘Portland JRggionai
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uch has changed in
the 30 years that
Elana Dykewomon
(bom Elana Nach
man) has been publishing.
For one, “there weren’t many
lesbian writers,” she says.
Her first book, 1974’s
Riverfinger Women , was con
sidered to he revolution
ary— not because of its les
bian characters and sexual
violence, hut because it had
a happy ending. At that
• :
time, Dykewomon says,
“characters were punished
for being lesbians. Now, it’s
taken for granted that there
is lesbian fiction.”
Pioneer of lesbian
She notes that queer
women are writing
romances, mysteries, pulp fiction. “There is no
longer a focus on coming-out stories,” she notes.
Never one to shy away from difficult
topics, Dykewomon addresses anti-Semitism,
loss and women’s labor laws in the Lambda
Award-winning Beyond the Pale, originally
published in 1997 and reprinted last year. She
reads from the popular novel, as well as her
2003 book of short stories, Moon Creek Road,
March 11 and 12 in Portland.
With regard to Jewish history, popular culture
tends to focus on the Holocaust, but Beyond the
Pale details the pogroms in Russia that displaced
hundreds of Jews and fueled an exodus to the
United States. One message that Dykewomon
hopes to convey is that “the Holocaust didn’t
come out of nowhere. There is a whole history of
anti-Semitism throughout Europe and Russia.”
Events in the book are triggered by a 1903
pogrom in the Russian town of Kishinev. A
total of 49 Jews were killed, hundreds were
injured, and thousands of people were dis
placed. “At the time, the reaction to what hap
pened at Kishinev was similar to the reaction
to Matthew Shepard," Dykewomon explains.
“People rallied around it.”
The writer, who makes her home in O ak
land, Calif., fears a rise in anti-Semitism as a
kind of backlash to the conflict between Israel
and Palestine. “ It’s generally scarier to he a Jew
than a lesbian.”
M
B
“Two Crowns to Be Awarded
eyond the Pale, a wonderfully rich and com
plex novel, tells the story of Gutke
Gurvich, a midwife with one eye brown,
the other gold, and one of her deliveries, Chava
and
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fiction Elana Dykewomon visits Portland on March 11 and 12
Meyer. After Chava’s birth, Gutke falls in love
with Dovida, who dresses in men’s clothing and
goes by Dovid for the sake of convenience.
C hava, daughter o f a rabbi, struggles to
find her place in society, especially after her
parents are killed in Kishinev. She eventual
ly moves to the United
States with her aunt, uncle
and cousin Rose. Gutke
and C hava finally meet
again in New York City,
where both become
involved in the union and
suffrage movements.
Writing and researching
Beyond the Pale has given
—
Dykewomon a sense of
_____________
depth, she says, “to have
that long line of women who have worked
and struggled to change the world. To work
for social justice is not something that you do
just in your teens as a rebellious stage. It’s a
lifelong project.”
Before writing the book, Dykewomon had
“ lived with the idea that the current moment
was evolutionarily the most advanced time.”
But research proved that women of Beyond the
Pale’s “Progressive Era" had taken many of the
actions that characterized the women’s move
ment of the ’60s and 70s. They formed multi
ethnic, cross-class communities but spent more
time debating issues. “Definitely women
activists of the Progressive Era inspired most of
the New Deal labor legislation,” Dykewomon
says, noting that Eleanor Roosevelt was part of
the Women’s Trade Union League.
“Labor conditions have mostly improved
in general,” Dykewomon remarks, but even
in Oakland, there are “sweatshops with
Asian immigrants, mostly women, who are
afraid to speak up. We don’t have a strong
grassroots labor organization.”
Another difference
between this tum-of-the-
century and the last, she
learned, was the spontaneity
of strikes, which were often
met with violent retaliation,
and the willingness to take
a stand. “People had a dif
ferent frame of mind about
Elana Dykewomon what an individual could do
to effect change. Now, with
the rise of mass culture, big
money politics, third party squashing....”
But Dykewomon, like so many, has hope. In
the preface of Beyond the Pale’s 2003 edition
she writes: “At the beginning of the 21st cen
tury, as at the beginning of the 20th, millions
around the world are putting their ideals into
action. And women continue to form the word
‘peace’ in our mouths like a kiss. Those kisses
might still change our destiny.” J H
200J La femme Magnifique +“flus
International
Tiffany Crystal
Salt L alf City. VfT
Sunday, M
“ arch 14, 2004
“Door 7pm ~ ‘Pageant 8pm -$10
Dorcelle XV Showplcice
eo 8 NW Third Avenue
Portland, OR 91209
Ph: 503 222 5338 Fx: 503 ¿.48 6771
em ail: darcellexvuoaol.com
www.darcellexv.com
"Jo work for social justice
is not something that
you do just in your teens
as a rebellious stage.
It's a lifelong project.
E lana D ykewomon reads 7:30 p.m. March 11
at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 S.W. Capitol
Highway, and 7 p.m. March 12 at In Other
Words, 3734 S.E . Hawthorne Blvd. The In
Other Words reading is ASL interpreted.
A Judged
tPageant
to Cronm
the Most
(giamo rotes
+ i Pius Size
Jemaie
Impersonator
in fPortiand
and
The ‘Entire
‘Worid!
EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA
ALWAYS IN STOCK!
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Bad Boys. Torrid true stories of group sex.
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GddJDads Bedtime Tales Vol. 4. More daddy/boy
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(
DOWNTOWN (a i)2“ SW OAK
226-SUI
KAREN K ud EJ is a Portland free-lance writer and
program associate at Literary Arts.
REVIEW
Q u e e n s in t h e K in g d o m :
T h e U l t im a t e G a y a n d
L e s b ia n G u id e t o t h e
D is n e y T h e m e P a r k s
by Jeffrey Epstein and Eddie Shapiro;
Alyson Publications, 2003; $14.95
softcover
arch is here! Time to plan
your summer vacation. You’ve
always wanted to go to Disney
World, you say.7 Have we got a book
for you!
Jeffrey Epstein and Eddie
Shapiro’s gay guide to all of the
M
Disney theme empires (including the
newest, Disney’s California Adven
ture Park) answers the most perti
nent questions: Where can I hold
hands or grab a kiss without being
stared at.7 Where are the bathhouses
in Orlando.7
And, unlike the Disney-produced
official guides (where everything is
made to sound fabulous), the caustic
pair are willing to tell it like it is
using a five-star rating system that
ranges from “sucky” to “fantabulous."
They call Queens m the Kingdom "the
Patsy and Edina of guidebooks."
Witty descriptions abound for
every attraction, restaurant and
shop in the enormous Disney uni
verse, including this gem about
Disneyland’s Chip ’n’ Dale Tree-
house: “There’s nothing gayer
...than the neat...tastefully
decorated treehouse where these
two...share their lives together.
All they need now is a hot tub.”
The authors have also included
“Fairy Facts” about each ride, which
serve to simultaneously delight and
enlighten the savvy queer traveler.
— Floyd Sklaver J H
Corner o f finncty H/vti <¥ A tE doth
3 1 0 6 N E 6 4 th • Portland, O R 9 7 2 1 3