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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 20, 1992

Thank You

To the Many Businesses, Benefactors, Volunteers and Attendees Contributing to the Success of Take A Stand

And the Extraordinary Performance of

"A Country Beyond Tears"

Contributions are still very welcome and very

Won't You

TAKE

Moment

A STAND

Again

Mail Your Check or Money Order To: Take A Stand 1507 Hunter Chase Drive Westlake, Ohio 44145 For More Info Call: (216) 899-9249

needed

TAKE 1

STAND

Purpose: To raise money for direct services to people and families with HIV/AIDS in our community. All proceeds will go to a fund administered by Health Issues Taskforce to provide assistance and emergency aid to meet the needs for rent, utilities, medication, health care, food and clothing.

Visions

Visions is a gay/lesbian social and community service organization.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

First Thursday dinner

Thurs., Nov. 5

at Snicker's

Monthly social meeting Sat., Nov. 21 Pot luck

Call or write for more information,

or to receive a membership application.

Phone: 864-9634

Address: P.O. Box 26556

FOOD CO.OP

Food for People not for Profit

11702 Euclid Avenue Cleveland Ohio 44106 (216) 791-3890

Akron, OH 44319

A full line, natural foods grocery in University Circle.

You can do all your shopping at the Co-op, from fresh organic produce and free-range chicken to bulk herbs and spices. Featuring a whole foods deli with fresh prepared salads, sandwiches, and entrees and many vegetarian, low-fat and sugar-free alternative foods.

Cónsumer owned.

No work requirement!

Bring this ad for member prices. Open 7 days.

Flamingo Productions Antiques & Art Gallery "Promoting Womyn's Music"

2924 Bridge Ave (Corner of Bridge & W. 30th)

Shop Hours: Mon, Tues, Thurs 6-9 pm Sunday 2-6 pm

(Go Around to back of building)

Bonnie Nolan

Office: 861-5916

Your Miscellaneous Jobs Are My Specialty

MISC. MELANIE

(216) 398-0329

• All Job's Big & Small

• Home Repairs ● Remodeling • Carpentry Plumbing • Painting • Cement Work

Melanie Chapuis

HIT's Take a Stand benefit brings standing ovation

by Bob Boone

"If we let this happen, we will let anything happen."

Originally made as comment on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, Honey Lazar invoked this quote in the tenth year of the AIDS pandemic to inspire the participants of Take a Stand 1992. As an organizer of the event, Lazar along with Jillian Wolstein and Janie Weiss helped to coordinate a silent auction, a dramatic reading of selections of author Paul Monette, as well as a formal dinner, all as a benefit for the Health Issues Taskforce.

The fund-raiser took place at the Cleveland Play House on the night of November 2 and began with a silent auction. Some one hundred items with a total value near $40,000 were donated by various individuals, galleries, businesses, and organizations for the auction. Items included many paintings, furniture, jewelry, orchestra tickets, dinners and pottery as well as an autographed poster and CD of k.d. lang's ingenue valued together at $100. Those who attended walked along the tables of items and wrote their bids on slips of paper, then waited until the end of the evening to see who had placed the highest bid. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres were served as the auction continued and the participants mingled. In the lobby were posted proclamations of support from President-elect Bill Clinton, Mayor Michael White and Senators Howard Metzenbaum and John Glenn.

At 8:00 p.m. people moved into the Bolton Theater for the world premiere of A County Beyond Tears, a dramatic reading based on the work of Paul Monette, author of Love Alone, Borrowed Time, and Becoming a Man.

The audience was first addressed by Lazar and Josephine Abady, artistic director of the Cleveland Play House, who had

arranged to donate the services and space of the Play House for the evening. Lazar called for "compassion without judgement, hope without delusion," and said that while we "cannot offer a cure, together we will offer dignity."

Calling the evening "a stand against ignorance and for compassion," Abady then introduced members of the Lab Company of the Cleveland Play House. The five members, all students at Ohio University, consisted of three men and two women-each of whom portrayed Paul Monette. Through their interactive readings the actors told the story of Monette and the emergence of AIDS in his life and in society.

From the HIV-positive diagnosis of Monette's lover Roger Horowitz in the spring of 1985, to trials with Suramin and AZT and the reactions of family and friends and the impact of the virus and the disease on the lovers' relationship, the reading created an emotional time line of the nineteen months until Horowitz's death in October, 1986. "What am I going to do without him?" Monette asks himself, and then provides his own answer. "Write about him, Paul. That's what you have to do." The audience responded to the performance with an enthusiastic and touching standing ovation that drew the actors back to the stage for a surprised curtain call.

In support of the Take a Stand event, the cast of Of the I Sing volunteered their time to conclude the performance with music. The cast gathered around a piano at center stage and warmly sang "In My Life" and "Love Don't Need a Reason." Written by Peter Allen, who has since died of AIDS, the second song tenderly reminded the audience, "Love is all we have/ For now, what we don't have is time."

The benefit concluded with a formal dinner and the closing of the silent auction.▼

Contemporary art center plans World AIDS Day events

The Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art will recognize World AIDS Day, Tuesday, December 1, with a number of special events.

Ongoing events will include the Names Project Quilt on display December 1 through 6 in the Play House lobby; "Luis Cruz Azateca: The AIDS Epidemic Series" November 20 through January 7; an exhibit of AIDS photography by Kyle Rose, and local documentation of AIDS in Cleveland in the CCCA stairwell. There will also be information tables staffed by local AIDS Organizations.

are:

Events scheduled for December 1 only

5:00 p.m.--Secrets, an AIDS awareness play for teens presented by the Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre Dept.

6:30--"Community Commitment,” remarks by local and state officials.

7:00--Gallery talk by artist Luis Azateca on his AIDS Epidemic Series

8:00--A Country Beyond Tears, reading based on the writings of Paul Monette performed by the Cleveland Playhouse Lab Company

World AIDS Day is presented as a collaborative effort of the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Play House, the Design Industry Foundation for AIDS of Northeast Ohio (DIFFA), the Health Issues Taskforce, the Living Room, and the Names Project.

Everyone is welcome to attend. All events are free to the public. PLW A volunteers are

encouraged to call the Living Room at 5221998 for more information. The Cleveland center for Contemporary Art is located at 8501 Carnegie Ave., in the same complex as the Play House.

Gay deaf

group says goodbye

The Buckeye Rainbow Society of the Deaf, a northern Ohio group for deaf gays and lesbians, voted at its November 8 meeting to dissolve itself.

The vote came after it became evident that no one would be nominated to fill its officer positions, due mainly to member burnout. The current officers have served multiple terms. Twelve members attended the final meeting at the Center.

The organization was founded in the early 1970s as a social group. Members attended lesbian and gay community functions such as Pride marches and and the Goodtime III cruises.

The group was affiliated with the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf, anational federation of 18 gay and lesbian deaf organizations. Buckeye Rainbow sponsored two international conferences here in Cleveland, one in 1979, and one in 1989. The 1989 conférence, at the Airport Marriott Hotel, was attended by more than 200 people from the U.S. and Canada.