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AUGUST 19. 2011
music
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On September 11, 2011, New York City
will commemorate the 10th anniversary of
the 9/11 attacks. When it came time for New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to plan for
the many memorials marking the occasion,
he was quick to contact organizers with the
Pacific Northwest’s Flight for Freedom, an
effort heralded nationally as the first major
citizens’ response from another state. And
now, a decade later, they’ll bring even more
company—the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus.
Just three weeks after the attacks—the re
mains of the twin towers still coiling smoke
into the city sky over Manhattan, a nation
grieving the worst attack on its soil since
Pearl Harbor, the next step toward ordinary
daily life seemingly inconceivable—came a
response from concerned citizens in Oregon
and Southwest Washington. Organized
by community leaders Sho Dozono, Jack
McGowan and future Portland Commis
sioner Nick Fish, Flight for Freedom rallied
1,000 people from the Portland metro re
gion to fly to New York City, at a time when
almost no one wanted to
fly, to a place many folks
were afraid to visit. They
met with victims’ families,
blanketed the city with
“Oregon Loves NY” but
tons and T-shirts, and lent
a much-needed economic
hand to the Big Apple.
Flight’s collective show
of support was recognized
worldwide, be it for par
ticipants’ marching in the
Columbus Day Parade,
their ringing of the New
York Stock Exchange’s
opening bell, or their stops
at local firehouses. Flight
for Freedom signaled the beginning of the
long haul of healing for New Yorkers.
Now the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus
hopes to help in the ongoing process with
a performance at the Flight for Freedom-
sponsored Peace & Unity Concert at New
York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. A
major part of the audience is expected to
be surviving first responders. The chorus
will present “BraveSouls and Dreamers,”
the popular composition conceived follow
ing 9/11, and the United States’reaction to
those attacks.
Bob Mensel, PGM C’s artistic director
for the last 19 years, visualized what would
become “BraveSouls and Dreamers” fol
lowing the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March
2003. After a couple of years of discussion,
Mensel settled on Robert Seeley as com
poser for the piece, and Robert Espindola
to write lyrics. “BraveSouls and Dreamers,”
says Mensel, was a response from the arts
community acknowledging simply that the
country was at war. That the statement came
from a gay organization reflected PGM C’s
long-standing practice of reaching out to
the entire community, not just the LGBTQ_
population.
“A lot of gay organizations are in service
to the gay community, which is great. The
chorus is often labeled ‘ambassadors for the
gay community,m Mensel explains. “We had
long discussed that so much of the new music
that had been composed for gay choruses was
more centered at gay-centric themes. There’s
nothing wrong with that, but we wanted to
step out and devefop some new music that
OHd
at
3241-3
Portland Gay Men’s Chorus joins effort to
commemorate 10th anniversary of 9/11
5 0 3 -2 3 4 -3 7 9 0 I www.hipch1cksdow1ne.com
i m int S.
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© 2011 Ha/elden Foundation
A Flight To
Remember
“There are a lot of choruses here
and for various reasons we were
the ones asked to go. That says
not only something nice about the
Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, but
it says something really wonderful
about the gay community here and
that we’re respected and held in
high esteem.”
-BO B M ENSEL,
A R T IS T IC D IR E C T O R ,
P O R T L A N D G A Y M E N ’S C H O R U S