Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association
Since its inception in 1989, OPALGA has become one of the largest community based, multipurpose lesbian and gay membership organizations in Illinois.
Book Club Announces New Selections, Full Schedule
November’s book-club meeting was a great success. With seven in attendance (five prior members and two newcomers), Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees was discussed. All enjoyed the nuances of this incredibly captivating novel.
On Sunday, December 17, the book-club discussion will center around Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. We hope this meeting will be just as well-attended because this, too, is a very engaging novel. Set in an unnamed South American country, terrorists attack at a birthday party for a Japanese industrialist in the vice president’s home. Captors and their prisoners settle into a strange domesticity, and romantic liaisons soon develop.
On Sunday, January 14, Fall on Your Knees by Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald will be discussed. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the novel centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father.
The OPALGA book club also decided on their selections through April, 2007:
February Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
The son of a poet with a “wild mental imbalance” and a professor with a “pitch-black dark side,” Burroughs is sent to live with Dr. Finch (his mother’s therapist) when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian.
March Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
From her childhood in Harlem to her young adulthood, Lorde writes in detail of her cultural heritage from the Caribbean island of Grenada and recalls what it was like to be a young, black lesbian in the 1950s.
April The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Esperanza Cordero, a girl coming of age in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, uses poems and stories to express thoughts and emotions about her oppressive environment.
Note: January’s meeting has been changed to Sunday, January 14, because the holiday brunch has been scheduled for Sunday, January 21.
The book club meetings take place on Sundays from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at The OPALGA Center, 947 Garfield, Oak Park. All books are available through amazon.com. In addition, copies will be made available at the Oak Park Public Library as well as at The Book Table. Remember, OPALGA receives a charitable donation from The Book Table for each book purchased there. Please let them know that you are purchasing your book as part of the OPALGA book club.
Other books being considered (join us and voice your preferences) include the following:
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. A womanizing Czech surgeon is forced to flee Russian invasion and takes on menial roles.
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. A young woman and a married mother fall in love.
• Aquamarine by Carol Anshaw. An Olympic swimmer is seduced and edged out for the gold medal by a rival.
• When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. A memoir recounts childhood in rural Puerto Rico and teenage years in New York City.
• The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. An interracial affair in pre-AIDS London.
• Sula by Toni Morrison. Two women—friends since childhood—are reunited as grown women.
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Story of a young, black woman on a journey of self-discovery.
• Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan. A tale of two doomed Osage Indian families in the 1950s.
OPALGA and the Center on Halsted Join Forces to Bring You “Brunch with Hemingway”
Do you often find yourself visiting Chicago-area landmarks only when you have family or friends in from out of town? If you do, you are not alone. Well, OPALGA and the Center on Halsted have come together to give you an opportunity to see a part of Oak Park history and meet new people while you are doing it. On Sunday, January 28, we will be hosting an event where you can learn more about the Center on Halsted as well as OPALGA, make new friends, have brunch at Oak Park’s Hemmingway’s Bistro, and visit both the Ernest Hemingway Museum and his Birthplace Home.
The brunch will start at 11:00 a.m. at Hemmingway’s Bistro, 211 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, and will include, along with socializing, a brief introduction to the Center on Halsted. Following brunch, attendees will be treated to a tour of the Ernest Hemingway Museum, which features rare photos of Hemingway, his childhood diary, letters, early writings and other memorabilia as well as videos documenting the author’s life and work. This event will also include a tour of the Victorian home where Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 and you will learn a great deal about his early family life.
Tickets for the event are $35.00 per person, which includes brunch as well as the tours of the museum and birthplace home. Tickets can be purchased by calling The OPALGA Center at (708) 848-0273 or by visiting the Center on Halsted Web site at www.centeronhalsted.org.
We hope that you will be able to join us!
Don’t Miss This Month’s Coffee House
On Friday, November 17th, the OPALGA Coffee House features the compelling voice & guitar stylings of Jeffrey Altergott.
Born and raised within earshot of the sprawling Chicago music scene, Jeffrey Altergott has been a player in its ranks for over a decade. Influenced by the music of the Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman and other acoustic guitar-slinging woman troubadours, he got his start as half of the acoustic duo Carnival of Faith. The group released two CDs. Jeff kicked off his solo career with the art-folk CD, Little Blue Record Player (1997), touted by Chicago Reader’s Monica Kendrik to have “bite and funk and a sense of wonder”. Altergott’s sophomore release was the hopeful melancholy that is Icarus Grounded. It’s release prompted the Chicago Tribune to feature Altergott in its Artist Watch and then on their Metromix television program.
Jeff’s latest musical offering, Runt (2004), is a collection of songs that are as driving as they are thought provoking. Quiet, reflective, rowdy and raucous, Runt satisfies true music lovers who long for the individual styling found in the likes of the Indigo Girls and Tom Waits.
Come join us at the Buzz Cafe, 905 S Lombard in Oak Park, at 7:00 PM and bring your friends.
November 2006 Message From The Co-Chairs
We are fortunate to live in a time and region of the world that is tolerant, if not accepting, of the LGBT community as an integral and productive part of its village. Historically, many individuals have risked their personal security—physically, financially, and emotionally—to wage the war on discrimination and hate. It has been an act of courage and integrity for these individuals to stand up and declare themselves gay at times when to do so was often a lonely, singular act and sometimes cost them their lives.
Even though the national climate against gays and lesbians has been one of consistent loathing used to foster conservative political action, we still have felt buffered by our residence in a community that strives for diversity and inclusion.
But we are not immune to bigotry and discrimination.
You will remember that soon after the Oak Park domestic partnership registry was passed, a referendum to strike down that registry gained enough momentum to be included on the spring ballot. Although this was significantly defeated, 2,000 Oak Parkers turned out to vote in favor of stopping same-sex partners from being counted. Recently, a church employee who had been openly gay in this church’s congregation was fired, reportedly, for his homosexuality after several years of service. He was devastated, as were a number of parishioners who had grown to love him.
Alan Amato writes in this month’s Empower about how gays and lesbians are being tortured and executed as they are discovered by authorized Iraqi “gay death squads.” American troops, despite the shortage of enlisted persons in numbers enough to provide safety for our own armed services, are being “found out” and court-marshaled with dishonorable discharges for their sexuality. These are people who have volunteered to serve in this conflict despite how they are viewed or how they have been treated.
These reminders of harsh reality serve to heighten our commitment to this local organization, OPALGA. In our small way, for every person whose life we can touch and say to him or her, “You have a purpose being here,” we can stand in the face of discrimination and hate, holding our ground and make this a better world, One Gay at a Time!
October Feast Weekend A Success
The weekend of October 20 through October 22 was OPALGA’s first OCTOBER FEAST fundraising weekend. Dinners, parties, and brunches were held by various members, and they were hailed by attendees as very successful. Co-Chair Cheryl Haugh, who, with her partner Betsy Ritzman, hosted a brunch, said, “It was a little bit of work to get the menu and then the food ready, but we had a great time. Our guests loved the idea.”
The concept for the fundraising event was quite simple. As a host, you were asked to hold a party in your home and create your guest list. It could have been a cocktail party, a sit-down dinner party, a dinner buffet, or a brunch. Hosts selected a date and time during the OCTOBER FEAST weekend and were provided with invitations, information regarding OPALGA for their guests, and any guidance that they might have needed. Hosts received a gift-in-kind donation credit for their expenses and a host gift. OPALGA then received the donations from the parties.
Co-Chair Brad Bartels, who hosted a dinner party with his partner, Joe Langley, reported, “We had so much fun. We sat down for dinner at 8:15 p.m. and the next thing we all knew, it was 2:00 a.m. My partner outdid himself preparing a marvelous meal. One of our guests, who isn’t an OPALGA member, turned to me during dinner and said that she was having a great time and asked if she could host a dinner next year.”
OPALGA thanks all who hosted and attended an OCTOBER FEAST party. Your donations of both time and money are greatly appreciated.
What’s The Buzz?
On Friday, November 17, the OPALGA Coffeehouse will feature the compelling voice and guitar stylings of Jeffrey Altergott. Born and raised within earshot of the sprawling Chicago music scene, Altergott has been a player in its ranks for over a decade. Influenced by the music of the Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, and other acoustic-guitar-slinging women troubadours, he got his start as half of the acoustic duo Carnival of Faith. The group released two CDs. Altergott kicked off his solo career with the art-folk CD “Little Blue Record Player” (1997), which was touted by the Chicago Reader’s Monica Kendrik to have “bite and funk and a sense of wonder.”
Altergott’s sophomore release was the hopeful melancholy that is “Icarus Grounded.” Its release prompted the Chicago Tribune to feature Altergott in its “Artist Watch” and subsequently on its Metromix television program. Jeff’s latest musical offering, “Runt” (2004), is a collection of songs that are as driving as they are thought-provoking. Quiet, reflective, rowdy, and raucous, “Runt” satisfies true music lovers who long for the individual styling found in the likes of the Indigo Girls and Tom Waits.
Come join us at the Buzz Cafe, 905 S. Lombard, Oak Park, at 7:00 p.m., and bring your friends!
Programming Committee Update
Join BUNGALO and OPALGA bowlers on Sunday, November 12, for Turkey Bowl ‘06. This fantastic event costs $15 and will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Oak Park Suburban Lanes, 6046 Roosevelt Rd., Oak Park (corner of Lyman and Roosevelt). See you all there for the fun!
On Sunday, November 19, the OPALGA book club will meet to discuss The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. The search for a mother and the need to mother oneself are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. The informal and lively discussion will start at 2:00 p.m. at The OPALGA Center, 947 Garfield, Oak Park.
The Programming Committee would like to thank all of the home hosts, volunteers, attendees, and advertisers who took part in the Third Annual OPALGA Home Tour on October 1. By all accounts, this year’s tour of four homes was a great success, and the fabulous weather only added to the enjoyment of the day.
