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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2011)
I« 38 NOVEMBER It, 2011 La Femme Magnifique Oregon Proudly Presents CONFLUENCE W I L L A M E T T E VALLEY LGBT CHORUS presents ( ' ) / / / '< - / ' . / ) r / A An Evening of KoCiday Ç [amour — performance — tfoliday WCihe^ Glamour Shots Kaj-anne Pepper’s Genderfantasy to debut at The Headwaters Theatre BY RYAN J. PRADO K osted by IL La Lemme Oregon Vj HeavenCy <B(iss &ÊÊt La Lemme OregorrL^ I M ay, I wCiJv X ...be at peace, open hearts, spread joy, share the love. A concert of choral wishes for this holiday season. K ß ftfo fm n n a j s M P o r t la n d Saturday, December 3 at 7:30 pm Now performing at Metropolitan Community Church 2400 NE Broadway Sunday, December 11, 2011 P>a reelle X V ShowpCace 208 K W 3rd A te. To purchase tickets and for directions, see a Chorus member or go to (Doors 5 — Show 6pm conf1uencechorus.org S 5. 00- 10.00 donation To ßenefit <BradCey-AngCe e£ Lsther's Lantry Also find us on Fatebook. PROCRASTINATORS REJOICE! 0p«*> Every D*y Dec. 17 - 24 Portlàhd SxtuKcl^y M*rk*t FESTIVAL OF THE V. * LAST MINUTE Sf>o*>Sor«<i ¡1% p X r t l»y Porti kudSadurdiky Sometimes all it takes to get a great idea Reed and Lillian Rossetti, reveling in fluid off the ground is a little bit o f support. As a movements while donning dirty glamour member o f notorious drag troupe Sissyboy, makeup and teased blonde wigs. “Tranny- Kaj-anne Pepper established a fertile founda pop” purveyor Cabiria Jones— o f CJ and the tion for the power of collaborative art, con Dolls— contributes beats to Pepper’s sound ceptual dance and the strange beauty o f gen- collage, and local business Fliptography will derqueer narcissism. W ith Sissyboy a thing provide an installation for attendees to par of the past, Pepper’s oeuvre had taken on the ticipate in, producing 60-page personal form o f drag, painting, dance and much more, flipbooks to take as souvenirs. The concept o f image and gender as so but one project loomed on such a grand scale that without a strong shoulder to lean on, it cial constructs resides at the heart o f Pep may not have happened. per’s creation, and with flourishes like Fliptography, he hopes Thanks to a generous “ It’s always going to be audiences will be able to grant from the Regional evolving, just like our better grasp the ideas Arts and Culture Council behind his performance last December, a whole lot construction of gender is o f rehearsing, planning by delving headfirst into always evolving, and just them. and collaboration— and like the construction of how the artistic flexibility in “[The partnership herent in facing a giant we see each other in our with] Fliptography is learning curve, Pepper’s own identities, how gender another comment on the Genderfantasy has finally construction o f a person lays on the body, and how I come to life. ality and o f image, and how rapidly each still, Pepper, 26, describes the believe that gender in work’s drag/dance premise frozen moment changes essence is a fantasy.” and how we’re really a as “an exploration of queer -K A J-A N N E PEPPER collection of these frozen glamour and quicksilver identities which shift and change alliances moments, and how that applies to gender and relationships.” But the scope of the per and relationships,” explains Pepper. “W hen formance isn’t easily summed up in a sound everyone is going through that installation, bite. Instead, Genderfantasy is prone to ab they’re allowing themselves to be part of straction. Based as it is in an undefined, that process o f the construction o f their own dream-like habitat that could be a nightclub glamour. They’re literally initfating them or a theater, with the choreography repre selves into an aspect o f what we’ve been senting either dance pageant or competition, working with for a while.” nothing in Genderfantasy seems certain As a performance, Pepper says Genderfan within the’identities o f the characters or the tasy is also a vehicle to reveal histories of lib location. eration, and to pay homage to his queer an The performance itself consists o f Pepper, cestors. Through the process of self-discovery along with dancers Keyon Gaskin, Michael and identity, Pepper hoped to answer for him-
