JANET MACOSKA

Pride Guide 2001 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

B-7

Judy Tenuta, Ultra Naté headline Cleveland Pride festival

New parade route ends in downtown, a short walk from lakeshore festival site

by Anthony Glassman

Cleveland-Thirteen, they say, is an unlucky number. Just look at the unfortunate effect the Friday the 13th movies had on American cinema.

Thirteen, however, will be the luckiest number of all for Cleveland Pride, now in its thirteenth year.

A slew of diverse events will mark this

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follow sidewalks one block to East 9th St., then north to the festival on the lake shore.

The festival will run until 8 pm in Voinovich Park at the north end of East 9th St. behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It will have two stages of entertainment, the main stage and the dance/drag stage, as well as a beer garden.

Of course, the entertainment will be some of the most memorable of the day's events. Everybody knows Judy Tenuta. Comedian, actor, self-styled Love Goddess, Blesser of Bunions, Queen of Elvis Impersonators, the woman has her own religion, Judyism. In addition to being the first standup comedian to win Best Female ComeIdian at the American Comedy Awards, Tenuta is a longtime supporter of LGBT rights, often playing to predominantly gay audiences and huge ovations.

Dykes on bikes rev up their machines at the start of the 2000 parade.

year's festivities, from an eight-night pool tournament to square dancing; dance parties to a Pride interfaith spiritual service.

For entertainment, no less stellar of personalities than Judy Tenuta, little flower and Goddess of Love, and Ultra Naté, dance diva extraordinare, will headline the Pride festival itself.

However, to start at the beginning, the first official Pride events involve the EightBall Pool Tourney, which started June 5 at Rockies. The single-elimination tournament will go on June 9 at the Rec Room, June 11 at Muggs, June 12 at Victory's, June 13 at the Grid, and the finals will be at Rockies, where the whole thing began. The winner will get $300, with a $50 prize for the runner-up.

Chevrei Tikva, Cleveland's LGBT Jewish congregation, will have a Pride Shabbat service at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 2728 Lancashire in Cleveland Heights, just west of Coventry. The service will be at 8 pm on Friday, June 15.

The official Friday dance party of Cleveland Pride will be at the Grid, 1281 West 9th St. The word on the street is that the Grid will be moving, so this will be one of the last chances to burn up the dance floor at their current location.

Ultra Naté is less well known, unless

you like to dance. She hit the scene in 1989 with her single "It's Over Now," which made a huge splash in dance clubs all over the world. Her later hit, "Free," climbed the dance charts domestically and topped them abroad before it became a big crossover success. Like many other dance music stars, Ultra Naté has given back to the community, playing at LGBT and AIDS fundraisers and

Judy Tenuta

Ultra Nate

Pride

Of course, on Saturday, June 16 the parade and festival will take the day. The rally will start assembling at 12:30 pm at East 18th St. and Euclid Ave., in front of Cleveland State University's law school. A pre-parade rally begins there at 1

pm.

This year, the Cleveland Pride Parade honors six local activists as grand marshals, six people from diverse backgrounds, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of Cleveland: Judy Montgomery, co-founder of the Cleveland chapter of the GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network; Larry Webb, co-founder and board member of BlackOut Unlimited; Patrick Shepherd, one of the founders of the Cleveland Stonewall Democrats; Ashley Simone, Ms. Black Gay Ohio; Marcia Lane, board member of BlackOut Unlimited, and Bruce Kriete of Cleveland's P-FLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Safe Schools Are For Everyone.

The parade follows a new route this year. Stepping off at 2 pm, marchers head west on Euclid to Public Square, go around the BP building onto Superior Ave., and finish at East 6th St. and Rockwell Ave.

From the end of the parade, marchers can

events around the world. In addition to Ultra Naté and Judy Tenuta, singer, pianist and songwriter Skott Freedman will perform for

festival-goers. Freedman, a native of New Jersey, has toured with such luminaries as Sister Sledge and CeCe Peniston. He started playing the piano as a small child, performing a mournful reworking of the Israeli national anthem for his dismayed parents.

Singer and guitarist Doug Wood will also bring his moody mastery of acoustic guitar to the festival. Born in Denver, Wood's I Am Kiroc album is available at Amazon.com, and has gained attention for the artist, especially on college radio stations. Now solo after the 1997 breakup of his Boston-area band Watts Gnu, Wood's music is introspective, thoughtful, and sincere, a welcome change from today's music scene filled with artificially created boy bands and teen idols.

Kelly Zullo, sexy siren of alt-country, will also be on hand, spinning her minimalist webs of music. Described as a "fine example of how less can sometimes be more," Zullo uses simple basslines and guitars, along with

her own grrl-rock vocals, to ensnare the audience. Her debut album, Thin Line, got her a lot of attention from alternative and college rock stations across the country.

Local folk-rockers Ann's Decline are also slated to play, fresh from their May 18 concert at the Symposium with Alexis Antes. Rounding out the bill will be dancers Fire & Desire with their Diva Tribute act, originally commissioned for the Womyn's Variety Show, a far cry from their usual ribald fare.

The fun does not end at 8 pm, however. Saturday's dance party will be held at Club Faces, 1020 Euclid Ave.

Don't stay up too late, though. At 8 am on Sunday, June 17, there will be a 5k Pride Fun Run on the beach at Edgewater Park on the shore of Lake Erie. The event will be coordinated by the Cleveland Frontrunners; more

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For those feeling spiritual after the run, Trinity Cathedral at East 22nd and Euclidtwo blocks from where the march stepped off--will host a Pride Interfaith Worship Service at 3 pm, featuring clergy from a number of denominations, including Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, author of the new book Omnigender: a Trans-Religious Approach, advocating a more accepting, wellrounded view of gender roles.

Pride Weekend will wrap up with a Sunday night dance party at Funky Buddha, located at 1360 West 9th Street.

For more information on the Cleveland Pride parade, festival, or any of the other events, call 216-371-0214, or see their web site at www.clevelandpride.org.

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Best Wishes

for a successful

Pride 2001 Celebration!

Councilman at Large

Michael J. Skindell

City of Lakewood

Paid for the Friends of Michael J. Skindell, 16800 Delaware Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107