FEBRUARY 9, 1996 GAY PEOPle's ChroNICLE 23

EVENINGS OUT

Art and AIDS to converge at the Cleveland Clinic

by Barry Daniels

"Performing AIDS: Politics, Pedagogies, and Practices" is, in the words of Therese Jones, "an interdisciplinary conference and arts festival" which will be held at the Cleveland Clinic and the Omni International Hotel, February 22-25.

Jones, who edited Sharing the Delirium: Second Generation AIDS Plays, teaches in the Human Values in Medicine program at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown. Her desire to continue the momentum created by the publica-

Rhodessa Jones

tion of her book led her to develop this first ever conference on AIDS and performance. "Virtually a performance itself,” she notes, "a conference on AIDS and performance has all the concrete elements of conventional theatre, such as actors and setting and audience, and all the abstract effects of community ritual such as comprehension of problems, contemplation of their concomitant terrors and sorrows, and catharsis.

"There will be a diverse cast of playersartists, critics, educators, health care practitioners, social workers, community members-in a setting that symbolizes the infusion of cultural affairs into the domain of scientific objectivity, medical pragmatism, and bioethical concerns."

The idea for the conference was ambitious and, with the generous support of the Cleveland Foundation, NEOUCOM, and the

Center for Literature and Medicine at Hiram College, Jones's dream will soon be a reality. Over the four days of the conference there will be scholarly papers, panels, workshops and both on-site and off-site performances. Jones sees the skyway that connects the Omni International with the Cleveland Clinic as a symbol of what she believes the conference will achieve: "It is the connection between this institution of medical pragmatism and scientific enquiry and the cultural critic, and the artist and the activist . . . I'm hoping that because we will be there we will somehow contaminate their

space or, at least, change the environment just by our presence."

Panels scheduled include "Politics and Performances,""Lyrics and Rituals," "Birthing Women and AIDS," "Politics and Practices," "Advocate/ Activist Pedagogy," and "Healing and Spirituality.” There will also be a panel session with the performers and plenary sessions featuring presentations by David Roman from the University of Southern California and Paula A. Treichler of the University of Illinois at ChampagneUrbana. Karen Williams of Cleveland will offer a workshop "Writing Humor and Healing," and Kerk Fisher will develop a play in his workshop “Images and Movement."

On-site at the conference there will be the following performances: "Without Pity: A Play About a Man and His Times," by Tap-It, Ltd. from Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday. Friday, Alberto Antionio Araiza, a gay, Buddhist, Mexican-American from Los Angeles will perform “H.I. Vato." Director, writer and actor Michael Kearns will perform "T-Cells and Sympathy" on Saturday. Sunday's performance is "There But for Fortune" by Erin O'Malley of Darien, Connecticut.

Off-Site performances will be open to the public. On Thursday and Friday at 8 pm, San Francisco's Cultural Odyssey will present Big Butt Girls at Karamu Performing Arts Theatre. This solo performance created and performed by Rhodessa Jones with direction and music by Idris Ackamoor, "plays on the absurdity of going into prison to teach aerobics to women with larger concerns than cellulite." At Dobama Theatre on Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, Doug Holsclaw will perform his one man show, Pete in Paradise. In the piece, which is inspired by

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Dante's Inferno, Hols claw's "trashy alter ego Pete Hilton goes on a sizzling journey through the underworld he calls his life." Holsclaw is associate artistic director of Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco and is the author of The Baddest of Boys, which will be staged at the Cleveland Public Theatre in May.

Frank Green

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Cleveland Public Theatre will be a double bill of Tim Miller's My Queer Body (8 pm) and Clevelander Frank Green's The Scarlet Letters (10 pm). Miller was one of the founders of P.S. 122 in New York and is currently director of the Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California. He describes himself as "a loud obnoxious fag, and all [his] various performance art agitating goes toward articulating a queer cultural identity and trying to find an artistic, spiritual and political response to the AIDS crisis." One critic described his 1992 piece, My Queer Body," as charting "Miller's journey as a gay person, from his experiences as a homosexual spermlet entering a dyke's egg, to his first kiss and its subsequent sexual ecstacy, to a densely symbolic journey through the La Brea Tar Pits and down into a volcano-into the dark inner sanctum of his soul, where flesh, blood, pain, and pleasure dwell." [See page 19]

For a conference schedule and registration information call 216-325-2511, ext. 445. It is possible to register for the entire conference ($100) or for full days (Fri./Sat. $40.00) or half days (Thurs./Sun. $20.00). Student rates are available as well. Off-site performances are $10 and can be reserved with the conference registration or by calling the individual theatres.

"Performing AIDS: Politics, Pedagogies and Practices" is sure to be a remarkable event. As Jones notes "Performance is a political tool and an educational tool, but thirdly, it is a healing modality. It is a way to express the grief and to enact it." She eloquently argues that "We must continueboth the project of making educational, activist, and elegiac art about AIDS and of inculcating the belief that lives have been and can be saved through cultural intervention, a province traditionally monopolized by medical science."

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