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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 2004)
Uprii 1B.2QQ4 46, BOOKS ...............▼........ ou r celebration deserves y Summer S undays in th e Park distinctive location. The World Forestrq Center, special event qou may bq broad-beamed ceilings and warm wood tones inside, and breathtaking views o f Washington Park outside. For the next few months, we're o ffe rin g a special on Your Summer Sunday rental includes our Sundaq rental rates. free ticke ts fo r qour guests to our CHOCOLATE: Tree to Truffle if tjou book any exhibit in the Sunday from May Forest Discovery Museum. - September 20CH-, you will receive a 15 % T o r more information, please call Koxq a t 505--FS3-2I0I or visit discount o f f o f o ur www.worldforestnj.org regular rental rate. CHRISTINA AGUILERA WITH SPECIAL GUEST \ :hristinaaquilera com xtinaxposed.com » •1 [o < o s c H B p ff|C|al Fan Community I W ^ AT kiTUaUe CLARK COUNTY www.clarkcountyamp.com f i c k '- t s u o m I i i ' * 1 it t k r ' n , »rvt«>r r o u t « f'r j .it ill O i i t l o t » . m c l u d i ' ( J F r i *«1 M o y ’ r C l i . i r q r fiy |i»i »»’•• iM J .ii A P 4 4 4 0 0 • ( YflO) ‘*7 1 7700 Ai< cl<it*»s V**» » M C a c t s a r i d tu p rn - * * s r t » t ' 'f 1 F (|t»t tic . ln M G ary M orris a refreshmgvenue fo ra n q casual elegance highlighted V I F ^ I by Washington Park, offers O u r rental halls extend a M A Y 1 fi Senior drag queen is star of Harlem Renaissance history located in picturesque be planning. “STRIPPED” In Stores Now That night in June to be in a beautiful, G I J o ^ ' f i a n t i O tH *»r m c1C*pr»n(ir»rTt l o c a t i o n « *r.* s u h i r ' : t t o c h , » r r | e w i t h o u t n o t i e r A n n r v i c p c h . v q e . ic J r lo r l t o o a c n ( r*r p p r s o n F*r >rt».ic»,c1 fay C*c» «r CF» F n to rta m rn o rtt tic h « » t p r i c e "1 R ough A musements : T he T rue S tory of A’L elia W alker , P atroness of the H arlem R enaissance ’ s D own -L ow C ulture by Ben Neihart; Bloomsbury USA, 2003; $ 2 1 .95 hardcover A N U lt ft A N H I S T O R I C A L R ough Amusements is the third book in the “Urban H istorical” series, which, judging by this entry, means a curious, sometimes compelling mix of real characters, true events and fabricated conversations set in some specific time and (urban) place— an echo of the “nonfiction novel” pioneered by Truman Capote’s In C old Blood but in a lighter mode. Think long New Yorker essay with fic tionalized moments. The book’s subtitle, The True Story o f A’Lelia Walker, Patroness o f the Harlem Renaissance's Down-Low Culture, is colorful enough but mis leading. Walker, the daughter of leg endary black hair care magnate and activist Madame CJ Walker, does pop in and out of the narrative. But she’s only one of several figures in what is essentially a portrait in tableaux of queer black Harlem circa 1930. And she’s overshadowed by the book’s most compelling figure by far: a "cas trated fairy” known as Jennie June. Rough Amusements takes place at a 1930 Harlem “Faggots Ball” hut uses that event as a springboard for a lively, if not always gripping, survey of the queer high life of the period. We see A’Lelia happily spending her considerable inheritance on endless parties, poet Countee Cullen spumed by Langston Hughes, shipping heiress and “Negrophile” Nancy Cunard excoriating her racist mother to a distracted Carl Van Vechten. Ma Rainey and Tallulah Bankhead (or her drag queen hx)k-alike) make brief appearances. More enticing are the details of early queer life, which fall like confetti through the text. W ho knew that New York had queer sex clubs in the 1800s? Or that a “consumer guide to whores” was published in 1839? T he kx)k is loaded with this kind of choice information that stretches backward a century from the setting. Author Ben Neihart’s triumph is a searing Ulto Walk»«-, _______ __________ m Renai ssance' » Down-low Cuttur* s l i f e N EIHART 1 ;; i.' : .................................... ...... ..........—.... .................................. ...................................... portrait of 60-year-old drag queen Jennie June, who conjures a heartbreaking history whenever she appears (which is often). It’s hard to know how much of this power to attribute to Neihart and how much to June, whose actual words are quoted extensively. “His voice was so dis tinctive," Neihart admits in a postscript, “that I’ve tried to make as few alterations to his actu al memoirs as possible.” June was a highly educated queen and masochist who fearlessly lured straight toughs into her arms. This sometimes triggered brutal assaults, including numerous rapes. Other times, despite her diminutive size, she scored entire platoons of soldiers entranced by her “baby girl” routine, which included torch songs and slavish rituals with names like “Ceremony of Adoration” and “Enslaving Ceremony.” (Interested readers can kxik for her two h.x>ks, Autobiography o f an Androgyne and its sequel, Female Impersonators, published under her birth name, Earl Lind.) June and the striking inner and outer worlds she inhabited make this quick read a worthy one. jH
