10
GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
March 4, 2005
AFRICAN
FILM
SPORA
FESTIVAL
Travel around the world with us as we explore the lives, loves and legacies of Black LGBT people through films and discussion.
Thursdays, 7pm
Free Refreshments Provided at the Center (6600 Detroit)
For more info: 216.651.LGBT www.lgcsc.org wild plum
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productions
'LESBIAN GAY
7
1
Sponsored by the Brother 2Brother and Positively Sexual programs of the AIDS
Taskforce of Greater TASKFORCE Cleveland and the City of Cleveland Dept. of Public Health HIV Unit.
MARCH 10
That's My Face (Africa, Brazil, USA) A gay African American man produced this documentary to show his experience of being Black in America, Africa and Brazil. While in Brazil he encounters the religion Candomble, a version of Voodoo, in which an Orisha, or god, turns out to be a man who dresses as a woman. This film also deals with Light skin vs. Dark skin, Christianity vs. African Religions and self hatred.
Of Men and Gods (Haiti)
This documentary was made by a Haitian who interviewed gays who worship or who are priests of voodoo. The film explores if being gay is a choice or if Haitian gods, the Loas, make people that way. Spiritual possession, homophobia and AIDS are also discussed. Two high priests, one a masculine male and the other transgender woman, are interviewed.
MARCH 17
Living with Pride: Ruth Ellis (USA) This film chronicles the life of a 100year-old lesbian who lives in Detroit, Michigan, including her experiences through World wars, desegregation, racism and race riots.
Looking For Langston (USA) Actual footage of Langston Hughes and a scripted story merge to explore homophobia, racism and relationships.
MARCH 24
Chocolate Babies (USA) People living with HIV/AIDS ban together to fight New York city's government plan to keep the names of HIV positive people on file.
COMMUNITY The Center is a proud sponsor of the Cleveland CENTER OF International Film Festival, March 10-20. GREATER CLEVELAND DJ www.clevelandfilm.org
Cleveland
Public Theatre
Near West Side Geta wa y
MAKE A BREAK
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1
Join us in the funky, ethnic, charming, mixed-up, revival
neighborhoods of Ohio City and Detroit/Shoreway..... at more than a dozen fantastic restaurants and four cozy B&Bs, all within a mile or so of CPT!
Hungry for a steak? Fishing for some great seafood? Interested in an Irish pub? Wanting some world cuisine?
—we make all the arrangements for you!
Funded by a Cuyahoga County Commissioners grant for Arts & Culture as Economic Development
4 Minutes to Happy A solo piece by Sarah Morton Mar. 2-13
CPT
Cleveland Public Theatre | 216-631-2727 x221 | travel@cptonline.org www.cptonline.org
eveningsout
Mag-aw
SANDY UNDERWOOD
Todd Almond as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in I am My Own Wife.
A long strange trip through Germany of the 20th century
by Anthony Glassman
Cincinnati-A dictatorial father. The German army in World War II. The Berlin Wall. The rise and fall of communism. Neo-Nazi skinhead gangs.
These are the things that Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, née Lother Berfelde, survived in her journey to adulthood.
Born on March 18, 1928, von Mahlsdorf always felt out of place in her little boy's body. While her mother was sympathetic and her lesbian aunt Luise was quite helpful, Charlotte's father was a petty tyrant who was chagrined at having a “sissy boy” for a son.
The elder Berfeld was a violent, angry man who, in addition to trying to shoot his wife when she told him she wanted a divorce, had shoved a co-worker so hard against a fourthstory window that it broke, nearly sending the man plunging to his doom.
Charlotte eventually beat her father to death, after being threatened with the murder of herself and the rest of the family if she did not declare loyalty to him over her mother.
She was tried and sentenced to four years in a juvenile detention facility, but that sentence was cut short by the arrival of the Soviet army in the waning days of the war.
That was always the story of Charlotte's life, strings of seemingly random and amazing events coming together to deliver her from one adventure to another.
Now, audiences in Cincinnati will have the chance to see the Pulitzer Prize-winning play based on her autobiography, while those who do not have easy access to Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati can read the book I Am My Own Wife, now available from Cleis Press.
ROCHI
LAJMI.NET CUST
Ensemble's production of I Am My Own Wife stars Todd Almond as Charlotte, who in later life started a museum of Gründerzeit furniture, one of her abiding passions over the course of the last seven decades. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she was given the Service Cross on the Ribbon of Merit for her preservation of German culture through the mu-
seum.
Her life was always an anomaly. Although she remains to this day biologically male, she was allowed to live as a woman in Communist East Germany, walking the streets with a degree of impunity despite being officially viewed as "anti-social."
The Village Voice said of her, "Charlotte's been smacked and pawed for decades by a gallery of rogues and brutes... and she's resisted. In drag. It is not the transgendered soul that is perverse, but the situation in which it lives."
Almond, a Cincinnati Conservatory of Music alum who achieved major success in his starring role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Ensemble, is exactly the actor to handle the role with the warmth and passion it deserves.
I Am My Own Wife plays until March 20 at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St. Performances are Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.. There will be a sign-language interpreted performance on March 16.
Tickets are $28 for adults and $25 for students and seniors, available at the ETC box office at 513-421-3555 or www.cincyetc.com.
The book, translated by Jean Hollander, is available at most bookstores, retailing in paperback for $12.95.
BIG FUN
VOTED CLEVELAND'S BEST TOYSTORE!
the fun
Rock 'em Socken
1827 COVENTRY RD
SMALL PRICES!
WE BUY TOYS!!
60's, 70'S & 80S' STUFF!!
COOL T-SHIRTS
CRAZY POSTCARDS
BLACK & WHITE PHOTO BOOTH
COLLECTIBLES
FUNK & JUNK!
CLEVE. HTS. OH 44118
216-371-4FUN (4386)