GLBT SHELTER TO OPEN
LGBT Shelter Chicago, a new organization looking to provide housing alternatives for GLBT victims of domestic violence, was incorporated last month.
According to the organization, none of the city’s domestic violence shelters accept male clients, and only one accepts trans women.
Karen Rothstein, of the LGBT program at the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago, said, “This shelter is extremely necessary for our community. Many times I have had to discuss ways of staying safe on the rapid transit with a domestic violence survivor because nothing else was available. This provides a desperately needed service.”
Discussions for the shelter began at the Battering Outside the Heterosexual Framework Conference in Chicago in May 2000.
CGMC ‘GAY LOVE’ CONCERTS
If the film 2001: A Space Odyssey had been about the meaning of gay life instead of just the meaning of life in general, it might have looked something like Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus’s upcoming spring concert. 2001: A Gay Odyssey will be a musical history of gay love through the ages.
While the Kubrick film used classical music by Richard and Johann Strauss to make its points, the CGMC show is turning to the likes of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and even Neil Diamond to lend insights into the lost history of gay love from pre-historic times through the space age. The musical review was written by Patrick Sinozich and Greg Waters.
2001: A Gay Odyssey will be performed over two weekends, Friday and Saturday, April 20-21; and Friday and Saturday, April 27-28. All performances are at 8 p.m. at the Athenaeum Theater, (773) 935-6860) or (312) 902-1500 (or www.ticketmaster.com).
MEDIA WATCH
Holly Hunter plays tennis ace Billie Jean King in When Billie Beat Bobby next Monday, April 16 on ABC. It’s about the famous tennis match King played against Bobby Riggs—King won with 40 million watching in 1973.
Weston Mueller, a Chicago teen part of the FUEL LGBT youth group, was on Joan Cusack’s new TV show, expected to air April 10 on ABC.
LIFEbeat, the music industry fight against AIDS, hosts a Chicago benefit Friday, April 13 at the Metro, with Paul Oakenfold and Barry Harris of Thunderpuss.
WCT columnist Yvonne Zipter was one of 12 poets selected (out of 150) for the 7th Annual Juried Reading by the Poetry Center of Chicago. The grand prize winner will be announced, along with the other top two, at a reading scheduled for April 12, 6 p.m., at the Harold Washington Library. The top three will then be featured on the Center’s Web site. There will also be a reading on April 22 at the Evanston Library.
Bailiwick Repertory seeks volunteers to for backstage and in the tech booth from the All Girl Review 2 on Saturday and Sunday nights, April 21 and 22. The AGR2 raises money for Bailiwick’s lesbian theater series, which this season will include two works by Carolyn Gage—Sappho in Love and The Second Coming of Joan of Arc performed by Gage; Prism by Diann Russell, and Strange Light by Cynthia Cooper. Call David Zak, (773) 883-1090.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation announced corporate sponsors and Cyber Auction items for its 12th Annual Media Awards Presented by Absolut Vodka. The GLAAD Media Awards will be presented across four ceremonies in New York (Monday, April 16), Los Angeles (April 28), Washington DC (May 12) and San Francisco (June 9). This year’s media awards honorees include Vanessa Redgrave, Liz Smith, Paris Barclay and Harvey Fierstein. Special recognition also will be given to CBS’ Survivor; NBC’s The West Wing; and Equality Rocks, (310) 201-5033.