auuust 6 .2QQ4
DIVERSIONS
Art is a drag
[a garden, a war]
ueer feminist art is alive and welkin
Portland this month. Take a trip on
the magical mystery tour with me,
won’t you?
Our first stop (left to right on your help
ful city map) is the Standard Arts Window
at 1715 N.W. Lovejoy St. A 24-hour view
of the evolving window exhibition shows us
bi Portland artist Marne Lucas’ Full M etal
W indow through Aug. 15. Lucas is well-
known around town for her erotic photog
raphy under the name Gina Velour and
until recently curated art for the gay-owned
Aalto Lounge.
Dance diva Amber plays the C .C .
Her latest deceptively simple display is
Slaughters Block Party on Aug. 14
made up of two large self-portraits printed
onto plexi-mirrors and mounted in baroque-
ish gold carved frames.
“They are inspired hy the colors and
textures found in amusement parks,” says
ance hit starlet Amber will play the
Lucas, “specifically the Gravitron.” She also
third annual C.C. Slaughters Block
cites a heavy metal and hip-hop ambiance.
Party Aug. 14.
T he name of the display and the deci
You might remember her from such
sively camouflaged “Beyatch Blanket Blin-
hits as “This Is Your Night,” “Above the
go” piece, though, give away other inten
Clouds,” “Sexual (Li Da D i),” “Yes” and
tions. Like, “W H A T IS T H IS FUCKIN G
“If You Could Read My Mind” (a cover of
W AR DOING T O O U R BR A IN S!” Or
the Gordon Lightftxn classic from the
possibly “LET’S U SE O U R BRA IN S T O
movie 54 that Amber,
G E T O U T O F T H IS FUCKIN G W A R !”
Ultra Nate and Jtx:elyn
But that’s sncx)ty art criticism, so whatever.
Enriquez really
Next on our peregrination is the visual
shouldn’t have touched).
and sound installation V ertical Q arden by
Amber’s fourth full-
newlyweds Hilary Pfeifer and Heather
length album, My Kind
Perkins, on display in the lobby of the Port
o f W orld, will be released
land Building at 1120 S.W. Fifth Ave.
in October, and the
This beautiful exhibit has a creepy
sappy, happy blonde is a
undertone of the “outd(X>rs” of the future.
nice little cherry on top
“We can’t take it for granted anymore that
of the best bkx:k party
nature is all around us,” the couple note in
you’ll find this summer.
their artist statement. “Will we come to a
The event starts at 6 p.m. on Northwest
day when the majority of the ptrpulation
Davis Street between Second and Third
relies solely on past memory, photographs or
avenues. Amber plays at 10 p.m., and a
television to describe their relationship with
host of other entertainment is included.
nature?”* Whoa, very Soy lent G reen.
Cover is $ 10.
Pfeifer has oft displayed her little
wcxxlen, painted
forms, but they’ve
never seemed so at
home as in this
remarkable floral-
wall landscape.
Perkins, who has an
extensive back
ground in music, the
ater and video sound
work, provides little
noises you might
hear if you were in a
real garden (playing
on headphones).
O ff we go, then,
outdcxirs (scanning
for greenspace) across
the (polluted!)
Willamette River
to Newspace at
1632 S.E. 10th Ave.,
where we find the
ultra-cool Art Is a
Drag exhibit by
Chicago photograph
er Christa Holka.
A member of the
Chicago Kings drag
troupe, Holka has
shot several of her fel
low kings in tradi
tionally “feminine”
and “masculine”
attire. “I was inspired
Marne Lucas’ Full Metal Window is part amusement park,
by comments," she
part head injury
Q
by Lisa Bradshaw
Living on
the down low
aurice Townes and Kevin F. Allen, owners of
Atlanta-based Senwot Nella Films, are worried
about black queer men and the women who
love them. Specifically, they’re worried about
the down low.
No! Not down below, the down low: a term African
American men coined for those who act straight but
play gay— on the side. Men on the down low frequently
live double lives— girlfriends and wives in the “real”
world, sex with men in the secret one.
Although being secretly gay or bi certainly cuts
across ethnic lines, African Americans and other peo
ple of color particularly struggle with the down low
and the STD s that result. Socio
logically, this is based on the
same reasons black men often
find it more difficult than white
men to come out in general:
You’re already a black man in a
white man’s world, you don’t
want to he a homo, too. And
many of these men have a funda
mentalist religious background.
So Townes and Allen made
themselves a little DVD series
they call The Closet. Although not available for screen
ing at press time, the bits I’ve seen have hixiked me
already. It’s essentially a queer African American soap
opera.
“I think it’s a great t(x>l to validate those
m en...w ho are living their lives on the down low and
who are not out and who are seeing women— or mar
ried to women— and having sex with men,” says
Stephan Herrera, HIV program manager of Portland’s
Brother to Brother, a support and advix:acy organiza
tion for African American gay and bi men. “When 1
think of men on the down low, what comes to mind
first is that most of those guys who have sex with men
and go back and have sex with their wives aren’t using
protection...so they’re putting their wives at risk for
STD s and HIV.”
W hich Townes says precisely. “African American
women are dying in staggering numbers from being
infected with HIV,” the director rails. “Men who are
sleeping with women have to hide the fact they’re
sleeping with men.”
Townes says he made the series for straight women
as much as for men on the down low. “You do not have
to live your life hiding behind a woman or using our sis
ters as trophies.”
But here’s the problem. (You knew I’d find one, did
you?) The Closet is available only through subscription
at a whopping $24 99 per two-epis<xJe DVD. Or you
can order the whole first season for $260
(at www.rhecloset.tv).
One wonders if-Senwot Nella Films approached PBS
or a distribution company about putting out DVF)s to
rent. “In terms of the viewer audience, it’s going to
appeal mostly to black, gay men,” says Herrera, “rather
than to men who are leading a double life.”
Men on the down low and the wives who don’t
know about it are not going to order DVDs to be
mailed to their homes. If Townes and Allen really
want to reach their intended audience as they say,
they’d better make a few phone calls to a few cable
channels.
M
jn
Amber to play C.C.
Slaughters Block Party
D
says, “from people who feel very strongly
that a girl should ‘dress like a girl.’ But what
if that ‘girl’ likes to dress like a ‘boy’?”
So she juxtaposes images of the same
friend differently dressed. “I want the viewer
to ltx)k at the girl in ‘girl’ clothing and feel
the girl’s discomfort and then feel uncom
fortable themselves.”
Holka will he in attendance at the
Aug. 6 opening, which includes a film
screening of T h e U rulergrad, a smarmy lit
tle take on The G raduate by Michele
Mahoney, also a Chicago king.
And that’s your early August art, people.
Be careful out there.
Sex lives of Portland
actors— revealed!
tark Raving Theatre continues its more
daring late-night fare this month with
Thrust, a new show conceived and
directed by Portlander Michelle Seaton.
T he one-act is a series of scenes, mono
logues and movement pieces all dealing
with sexuality in its many varied forms.
“It’s very unaplogetically honest,” says
Stark Raving’s gay artistic director,
Matthew Zrebski, who wrote some of the
show and arranged the music and choreog
raphy. “There’s some very, very honest dia
logue about what people really go through
in the bedroom.”
In a unique twist to average theater, cast
members, including Portland gay actors
Michael Tuefel and Todd Pozycki, penned
most of the script themselves. “They’re all a
bit autobiographical,” Zrebski says of the
separate scenes. “Everyone in the cast has
written pieces...people dug into their own
closets, dealt with their own demons.”
Thrust includes scenes of straight and gay
sexuality as well as all those pesky shades of
gray in between and plays at 10:30 p.m. Fri
days and Saturdays through Aug. 13. Tickets
are $12 from 503-232-7072.
S
Donate to
Bob Hackney
fund
ortland Gay Men s
Chorus softball
team member Bob
Hackney, who was hit
by a fly ball during a
July 11 game, may need
surgery, says Rose City
Softball Association
assistant commissioner
Sean Canavan.
“Along with the 18
stitches to close the
wound, Boh may need
to have metal plates put
in his head to ensure
that the bones heal cor
rectly,” shares Canavan.
Unfortunately,
Hackney is uninsured,
so the team has set up
Portland Gav
an account for him at
M
en’s Chorus
U.S. Bank. (Contact any
softball team
branch to donate to the
member Bob
Bob Hackney Medical
Hacknev mav
Fund.
need surgery
“None of us would
want to be in his posi
tion,” notes Canavan, “and if we were, we’d
appreciate all the help we could get!’ ¡H
P
il
( 'ompiled hy LlSA BRADSHAW
*45