PAGE 8 Q-Notes ■ February 1987
WWMI
For York: A Homecoming; For Dobkin: Appreciation
Special To G-Notes
When Beth York takes the stage at the
first Winter WomynMusic festival in
Charlotte, it'll be the closest to a home
coming that she's ever had.
The Spartanburg native who now
lives in Atlanta has never performed in
the Piedmont Carolinas.
"Playing in Charlotte will be the next
best thing to doing a hometown con
cert,'' she said in late January. "1 hope
to see a lot of women from Spartan
burg."
York is one of almost a dozen perform
ers who will participate in the Feb. 27-28
three-session festival at UNC-Charlotte's
McKnight Hall in perhaps the first major
indoor women's music festival in the
country — and the first women's music
festival in the Carolinas,
Top names include Alix Dobkin,
Debbie Fier and the pop/reggae team
Casselberry-DuPree.
"Playing in Charlotte will
be the next best thing to
doing a hometown concert.'
— Beth York
"I feel so very appreciated
before southern audiences."
— Alix Dobkin \
Dobkin, who lives in upstate New
York, has a particular fondness for per
forming in the South.
"I feel so very appreciated before
southern audiences," she said. "The
people who come to the concerts don't
have an opportunity to listen to a lot of
women's music — not nearly as much as
on the West Coast and in the Northeast.
"In Charlotte, they'll be able to hear
Lucie Blue (Tremblay) from Canada,
Robin Ferguson, and Linda Moakes from
California. These people normally don't
get a chance to perform in the South."
Dobkin is no stranger to the South, The
r V r
QCQ Valentine Party
At Charades
Thursday, Feb. 12
Open At 9 y Show At 11
18 And Over Welcome
$2 Members y $3 Guests
WHAT A SHOW!
Boom Boom Latour T Geri O’Neal
Tina Terrell y Buffie DeMareau
Grand Prix y Kasey King
Dance To The Music Of Lynn Benfield!
y y y
guitarist/singer was in Durham Jan. 9 for
a peribrmance and has played the Car
olinas a half dozen times. She is one of
the venerated performers in women's
music. Her 1973 album with Kay Gard
ner, "Lavender Jane Loves Women,"
helped define the then-new field of
women's music.
The festival is expected to be packed
with people from at least two interest
areas, according to prompter Billie
Rose.
"A lot of women who bask in the
atmosphere of such festivals as the
Michigan Women's Music Festival and
the Southern Women's Music & Comedy
Festival will be coming to Charlotte just
because there's no other festival at this
time of year," Rose said.
"And we'll get a lot of people who
have never attended a major women's
festival, but want to find out how good
the music is. It's going to be a very
pleasant surprise for them."
New Yorkers Casselberry-DuPree
have performed with major stars such
as Whoopi Goldberg, Taj Mahal, Holly
Near and Harry Belafonte. Fier studied
piano under the woman who was Duke
Ellington's teacher and performing part
ner. York vaulted from music therapy
into composing her own New Age-style
music and has written two albums, one
of which was nominated for best New
Age recording in 198.
Casselberry-DuPree, Tremblay and
Fier will open the festival on Friday,
Feb. 27; Moakes, York and Dobkin per
form Saturday, Feb. 28. Both nights' con
certs begin at 8 p.m.
Regional artists will perform in an
afternoon showcase beginning at 2 p.m.
Feb. 28. A featured part of the showcase
will be a traveling slide show, famed in
feminist circles, by JEB which traces the
history of radical feminism.
Other showcase performers include
romantic pop singer Samis Rose of Char
lotte, musical humorist Ginny Real of
Winston-Salem, and a capella singer
Robin Ferguson, a Savannah, Ga„ na
tive now living in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Advance tickets (available through
Feb. 10): $35 all events or $17 per night
and $6 showcase. Stamped, self-
addressed envelope with check or
money order (payable to D. W. King) to
WWM, P.O. Box 221495. Charlotte. N.C.
28222. Feb. 11 and after: phone
704/545-0801 to reserve tickets — $39 all
events or $19 per night and $7 show
case.
Reviewing ’86: Mighty
Fine Year In Charlotte
CONTINUED FSOM PAGE 1
first-time gay bowling league in addi
tion to other sponsorships.
Consider that for the first time Char
lotte's powerfully influential female im
personation segment officially joined
forces with the organizations. Boom
Boom Latour and Gerri O'Neal sat on the
QCQ board of directors and Boom Boom
urged support for ONI at every opportu
nity.
The Tradesmen showed that leather-
men may know better than any other
segment of the community how to just
have fun with their hilarious club nights
THEY WANT YOUR BUSINESS
tv
LADIES EVENING WEAR
JEWELRY • COSTUMES
GLASSWARE • FURNITURE
COLLECTIBLES • GIFTS
1905 East 7th Street • Charlotte, NC 28204
704-338-9116
Ask for: Tim, Torty, Joey or John
Wfien Tour Pet’s
Look Is As Important
As Tours.
'J'flC ^ ^
^.C.2'
g205
Donald O 'Sfiietcis
Master Groomer
By Appointment
The Wordwright
Professional Writing & Word Processing
Resumes □ Business Reports □ Mail Campaigns
Form Letters □ Mailing Lists
CONFIDENTIAL/CREATIVE/PROMPT
Mark Drum, 525-1606
It's A Gift Of Health You Owe Yourself
MASSAGE
ULTIMATE RELAXATION
Ken Stikeleather
(704)333-4213
Run Your Business Card In 6,000 Copies 0£ Q-Notes For $12 Per Month
Send Check And Card To Don King, 331 East Blvd. #3y Charlotte 28203
at Brass Rail and their showing of the
colors at other bars. It was a welcome
year of coming out of the closet for
Charlotte's leathermen who previously
had been small in number and reticent
to stand out.
The community, with drag queens
and leatherwearers in full support,
turned out magnificently for activist
events. More than 100 people braved
television cameras to attend a "vigil" in
a public park to protest Dr. Paul Camer
on's visit to Charlotte. For the first time, a
voter registration campaign found
scores of new voters rather than hand
fuls. And ONI's Town Meetings drew
scores, more than 10 times the number
who had ever attended a Lambda Polit
ical Caucus meeting.
In entertainment, a familiar bar re
opened under the name Charades and
was welcomed lovingly.
There were setbacks, too. Persons 19
and 20 were banned from bars for most
of the fall as bars wrestled with North
Carolina's latest alcoholic beverage
laws. The new rules affected nongoy
persons as well.
Other negatives were minor.
QCQ, while admirably trying to es
tablish new frontiers, struggled with its
bank account, handing out only a few
hundred dollars to the organizations it
hoped to support. And QCQ learned
that Charlotte gay men and lesbians
aren't as enthusiastic about monthly
skate parties os cities with larger popu
lations may be.
In public relations, the only gain —
though a powerful one — was the
“Gay/Lesbian Forum." On the other
hand, there were few negatives. The
arrest of Bob Walton for sexual assault
on a male high school student domi
nated local news in November and De
cember, but no witch hunts were called
for. Earlier in the year, the public
learned that Charlotte police screened
gay men and lesbians from employ
ment.
Charlotte's community con hardly ex
pect as much internal growth in 1987.
But as public acceptance of "Gay/Les
bian Forum" grows, perhaps the year
will show more pluses with the city's
nongay population.