Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2007)
Gay actor John Steinkamp (right, with Kevin Jones) stars in Third Rail's A Lesson from Aloes. BodyVox presents Reverie featuring gay dancer Lane Hunter (right) through May 19. Do you yearn to be tied up? Fantasize about flogging your lover? Ms. V will teach you how to act out your kinky desires in a safe, sane and consensual way during B/D/S/M for Beginners at It's My Pleasure. All sexual and gender identities welcome. (7 pm. 3106 NE 64th Ave. $10 from 503-280-8080.) Jack Malebranche reads from Androphilia: Rejecting the Gay Identity, Reclaiming Masculinity at Powell's on Hawthorne. (7:30 pm. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) Minerva performs at the Egyptian Club. (8 pm. 3701 SE Division St.) FRI • MAY 25 Casey's Nightclub and Lounge throws a Memorial Weekend Celebration with go-go dancers and live DJs through May 28. (Noon-2:30 am. 610 NW Couch St.) The Luna Music Series Estrada Project presents Mermaid in the Rudder featuring performances by Felina, Teri Untalan, Dominique Garcia, Nicole Sangsuree, Raelyn Olson, Kate Mann and more at In Other Words. Proceeds benefit medical care for Joan Estrada, a disabled woman who is homeless because of a work-related injury. (7 pm 8 NE Killingsworth St. $5-$20 donation.) Amy Bleu performs with Katie Jean Arnold and Annie Vergnetti at Roots Organic Brewing. (7 pm. 1510 SE Seventh Ave.) The Men's Wellness Center plays bingo and serves deli cious refreshments. Really, can you think of a better way to spend a Friday night than with a foul-mouthed drag queen and 30 gay boys viciously competing for an over- I sized bottle of lube? (7-8:30 pm. 928 SW Stark St.) at Ankeny Street Studio. Lesson and refreshments includ ed. (8:15 pm. Southeast Ninth Avenue and Ankeny Street. $8.) Hey, what’s your vice? Holocene presents Double Down, the fab queer party where the player always wins, every fourth Saturday. (8 pm. 1001 SE Morrison St $5.) C.C. Slaughters presents the Oregon Bears' monthly Double X Dance hosted by JoeyCub and featuring music by DJ Peter Calandra, along with a DVD release party for Mr. Leather. (9 pm-1 am 219 NW Davis St. $2.) The Eagle presents Portland's dirtiest dance party, Jack, with DJs Grant, Stormy and Jimme Jamma throwin' down ninja style! (9 pm-2:30 am. 1300 W Bumside. $3.) SAT • MAY 26 SUN • MAY 27 The Adventure Group takes an easy five-mile hike at the lovely Triple Falls. Meet in Starbucks at Hollywood Fred Meyer. (9 am. 3030 NE Weidler St. Steve 503-758-2544.) The Adventure Group takes a moderate four-mile hike at Angels Rest, which is just like a balcony above the west- I ern Columbia Gorge. Meet in Starbucks at Hollywood Fred The Adventure Group takes a moderate eight-mile moun Meyer. (9 am. 3030 NE Weidler St. Jim 503-760-3814.) tain bike ride in Tillamook Forest on the Historic Hiking • The drag punks of Sissyboy host Trannyshack, Trail. Meet in Starbucks at Hollywood Fred Meyer or an Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party present the legendary San Francisco drag troupe featuring hour later at the trailhead. (10 am 3030 NE Weidler St. Heklina and her trashy trannies, at Someday I the forum Strike Against War: Build a Rose City Refuge Laurent 503-227-2914.) for Gl Resistance at the Bread and Roses Center. (7 pm. Lounge. (8 and 11 pm. 125 NW Fifth Ave. $5.) 819 N Killingsworth St. $2 door donation, $8 hearty buffet Gay choreographer Mike Barber presents the 13th install Out Dancing’s monthly Dance Social is every last Friday donation.) ment of 10 Tiny Dances —a twice-yeariy party, experiment Portland's Fluid Gender: A Great Reason for Dancing! It’s a fact: Portland’s “queer scene” is unique. The prominent difference between P-town and other cities is the infinitely ambiguous gray area Portland queers call gender. Seth Gottesdiener, aka DJ Girlfriends, has coined this phenomenon as “the thin pink line." Having moved to Portland from New York six months ago, he has been elated to find such fluidity between the genders. “In New York, sexuality is surprisingly black and white, gay or straight,” Gottesdiener explains. “Portland is differ ent; here, gender is a choice. It’s about pronouns and exploration and the way people feel.” * I couldn’t agree more and am thrilled that Gottesdiener has no less than three DJ nights celebrating this liberation. The Thin Pink Line, a reckless dance party thrown at Rotture, is Gottesdiener’s most ambitious and success ful project. Together with DJ Linoleum (one of my faves), he has created a scene that encompasses the genderless sentiment in Portland. After visiting Thin Pink Line a couple of times, I was impressed by the freshness these nights created. Everyone was dancing with abandon. There was a feeling of liberation and independence in the crowd. Boys and girls were dancing together—girls with girls, boys with boys, all getting freaky—and the one thing everyone had in common was they were all looking sexy! In Gottesdiener’s short time in the Rose City, he has spun for Make It Work! at the Dunes and has started a new all-ages queer dance night called 2 B Fierce at Satyricon. The latter is on hiatus until sum mer, but with DJ Automaton on the bill, it is destined to be another Portland triumph. “1 consider myself more of a music mixer than a DJ," says Gottesdiner. “My passion is throwing parties and bringing people together!” This might be true, but the hundreds of “cool” kids dancing at Thin Pink Line proved that DJ Girlfriends really knows how to spin some beats. I cannot wait to see where this guy is headed. If there was such thing as the Queer Mayor of Portland, he would certainly have my vote. The Thin Pink Line starts 10 p.m. every second and fourth Friday at 315 S.E. Third Ave. Cover is $3. The May 25 party is military themed, with free admission and vodka drinks for everyone in costume. —Mark “Zebra” Thomas Art Gallery Exhibits Latin Queers Gay-owned Onda Arte Latina presents Poder y Fuego/Power and Fire, the first Portland-area show of artwork by Latin gays and lesbians, May 31 to June 26 at 2215 N.E. Alberta St. This special exhibit is a part of Portland’s 2007 Latino Gay Pride Celebration in coordination with Pride Northwest and sponsored by El Hispanic News and the Jupiter Hotel. It kicks off with a Last Thursday artists reception from 6 to 9 p.m. May 31. Latin and gay elements combine to ignite the creative expression in this group show of original paintings, photographs and prints by nine artists. While it might not be possible to pin down exactly how these art pieces differ from others, there is a distinct sensibility affecting how the cultural themes, sexual imagery and personal exploration are portrayed. The artists include Indra Arriaga, bom in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, and now a widely exhibited and published artist who teaches in Anchorage, Alaska; Jedidah Chavez, a photographer and instal lation artist working in Portland; and Anna-Marie Lopez, a lesbian artist in Rocío Garcia's paintings are part of the group show Poder y San Antonio whose inter Fuego/Power end Fire, opening May 31 at Onda Arte Latina. pretation of the Virgin of Guadalupe became a cause célèbre when it was censored as pagan by a cultural center. The artists living in the United States are joined by several openly gay and lesbian artists living and working in Cuba. After a difficult period of intolerance during the ’70s in Cuba, the official policy of the government has now given way to a more egalitarian treatment of queers. “We have to abolish any form of discrimination against those persons,” says Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba’s National Assembly. The exhibited artists enjoy an enviable freedom of expression in this political climate. A self-taught artist, José Garcia Montebravo began to paint in 1980 and had his first solo exhibition in 1984. He paints strong portrayals of religious figures, particularly the orishas, or Santería deities. Many of his paintings depict birds, animals and the lush Cuban plant life but with a provocative sexuality and strength that suggest an allegorical or religious symbolism as well. Rocío Garcia’s paintings are ironic commentaries on the conflict and mystery of sex, profoundly philo sophical and chilling. Other Cuban artists featured are José Gallosa, Manuel Mendive and Alfredo Sosabravo, the latter two among the most revered and internationally collected artists in Cuba today.
