8
Smoke Signals
NOVEMBER 1, 2019
Photo by Timothy J. Gonzalez
Tribal member Anthony Hudson as Carla Rossi leads a tour of what was a center of the gay community in Portland on Saturday, Oct. 19. Rossi gave the history
of the area and explained how gentrification has changed it.
‘The show is so crazy, but it works’
HUDSON continued
from front page
though drag, performance, video
and theater.
From this came the character of
Carla Rossi, who has evolved into
Portland’s premier drag clown host-
ing nightlife events that include
everything from neighborhood
gentrification tours to queer horror
film screening nights, always with
a smattering of humor.
This coming May, Hudson and
Rossi will take the stage at the
world premiere of Hudson’s first
full-length play, “Looking for Tiger
Lily,” produced by Portland’s Art-
ists Repertory Theatre.
The storyline is that Rossi has
taken over Hudson’s life and he
is trying to get it back. With an
identity including a mix of Indige-
nous/white/queer, Hudson grew up
looking to the Indian princess Tiger
Lily from “Peter Pan” for cultural
guidance.
“As a kid, I saw this mythical,
invented image of our culture,” he
says.
The play’s story follows this quest
to find validation as a Native artist
and be at peace with a confused
identity.
“Carla Rossi is my way of con-
fronting whiteness within myself,”
Hudson says. “She’s the intersec-
tion of my half-Native, half-Ger-
man mixed heritage. … As a queer
performer, Carla is also an avenue
for publicly and politically nego-
tiating gender in a heterosexist
binary.”
Hudson and Rossi have been
featured at Seattle PrideFest, the
Native Two Spirit people
reclaiming their status
Although the term “Two Spirit” is included in the umbrella of LGBTQ+,
it doesn’t mean only someone who is a Native American/Alaska Native
and gay.
Traditionally, Native American Two Spirit people were male, female
and sometimes intersexed individuals who combined activities of both
men and women with traits unique to their status. In most Tribes, they
were considered neither men nor women; they occupied a distinct, al-
ternative gender status.
Although there were variations in their roles in Tribes across North
America, they shared some common traits. These included specialized
work roles, gender variation, spiritual leadership and same-sex relations.
Among the Lakota, Mohave, Crow, Cheyenne and others, Two Spirit peo-
ple were believed to be lucky in love and able to bring this luck to others.
Most Indigenous communities today have specific terms in their own
languages for the gender-variant members of their communities, and
the social and spiritual roles they fulfill. Even with the relatively recent
adoption of umbrella terms like Two Spirit, not all cultures will perceive
it the same way.
The disruptions caused by colonial conquest and disease, together
with the efforts of missionaries, government agents, boarding schools
and white settlers resulted in the loss of many Native American traditions.
Two Spirit roles were singled out for condemnation as “sinful” and often
subjected to violence. As a result, these traditions and practices were
conducted in secret or completely disappeared in many Tribes.
Today, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Native people throughout
North America are reviving the Two Spirit role and traditions. National
gatherings have been held since the early 1990s, and regional gatherings
are held in several parts of the United States.
Source: Indian Health Service
Risk/Reward Festival and the Cas-
cade AIDS Project Auction, among
other events across the United
States and abroad. They also host
and program the film series “Queer
Horror” bimonthly at Portland’s
Hollywood Theatre, where Hudson
also serves as community program-
mer.
‘Looking for Tiger Lily’
“Looking for Tiger Lily,” which
will premiere on May 2, is Artists
Repertory’s second commissioned
work by an Indigenous playwright.
The play began as a solo show
in 2016 that Hudson performed at
Hollywood Theater with support
from the Regional Arts & Culture
Council. At one of those perfor-
mances he caught the attention of
Artists Repertory’s Luan Schooler,
director of new play development.
Marketing Director Kisha Jarrett
got to know Hudson after reading
a first draft of the play. She calls
Hudson’s progress remarkable.
“The show is so crazy, but it
works,” Jarrett says. “It’s almost
like a tripped-out ‘Sesame Street.’
Then you throw in Carla’s per-
sonality and it’s really funny. I’m
glad Luan believed in Anthony
and put this play in our new world
premiere.”
Since the Arts & Culture Coun-
cil grant, Hudson has received
Western Arts Alliance’s Native
Launchpad program grant, was
named Native Arts & Culture
Foundation’s National Artist Fel-
low in Artistic Innovation, received
a Creative Highways Award from
the Oregon Community Foundation
and an individual artist fellowship
from the Oregon Arts Commission.
The solo show made its New
England premiere in April 2018
at the Hopkins Center for the Arts
at Dartmouth College in Hanover,
N.H., and toured internationally
to Vancouver, B.C.’s Talking Stick
Festival in February 2019 and
Melbourne’s Yirramboi Festival in
Victoria, Australia, in May 2019.
Hudson views the evolution of
“Looking for Tiger Lily” from a solo
show into a full-length play as a
mirror of his own journey.
“I think of these as two distinct
performances,” Hudson says. “The
See HUDSON
continued on page 9
