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.
Social Committee Seeks Volunteers
The OPALGA Social Committee has recently held a number of meetings to reconfigure itself after a break of several months. The committee meets monthly on the second Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at The OPALGA Center and is looking for additional members who want to help plan and put on events for the membership. “Your involvement can be limited to occasionally lending a hand, or you can take on and manage your own event if you have the time and interest,” said David Rappoport, OPALGA Board member and interim Social Committee Chair.
The committee plans to continue with events that have been successful in the past and to consider a wide range of activities for the future. “We can come up with totally new ideas that satisfy the needs of our members for more diverse social events,” added Rappoport. In addition, the Social Committee is developing a survey that will be sent to the membership both to obtain demographic information and to learn more about where members’ interests lie.
Anyone who wants further information about the Social Committee and its activities should contact David Rappoport at davidsteven@comcast.net.
May Book Club to Discuss “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini
The book club welcomed two new members to the April meeting—Bonnie and Mike, both from Wheaton. Yes, our first male attendee! Welcome to you both, and we hope you come back to the book club as well as other OPALGA functions.
We have made our selections through July, so over the next one or two months, we will entertain suggestions for other books to read and discuss, so please join us and bring your favorite book along.
We encourage anyone who loves to read to join us for the May meeting. The discussions are informal and enjoyable, and we always have a lot of laughs. So, if you want to find out what you’ve been missing, check out the OPALGA book club this month!
Following are our upcoming selections:
May 18 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands, and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status.
June 15 Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish
A tale that tracks five strangers who become soul mates over the course of a funeral, posthumously organized by their mutual friend Annie, who died from ovarian cancer at age 56.
July 20 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
A hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened.
The book club meets every third Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at The OPALGA Center, 947 Garfield, Oak Park, unless otherwise specified. All books are available through http://www.amazon.com. In addition, copies can be requested from the Oak Park Public Library (834 Lake St., Oak Park) or ordered from The Book Table (1045 Lake St., Oak Park). Remember, OPALGA receives a charitable donation from The Book Table for each book purchased there (regardless of whether it is a book club selection). Please let them know that you are purchasing your book as a member of OPALGA.
Book Club
February Book Club to Discuss Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”
Book club members have decided upon their initial selections for 2008:
• February 17—In keeping with the announced theme for the 12th Annual Gala (“Twelfth Night”
, the book club has decided to read Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, in which Duchess Olivia falls in love with Viola, who has disguised herself as a boy to find her missing twin brother. Festive songs and holiday spirit figure into the mood of this comic Shakespearean play of mistaken identity.
• March 16—Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran, in which the three Aminpour sisters escape the Iranian Revolution and make their way to an Irish village where they open a small café.
• April 20—Three Junes by Julia Glass, which tells the tale of several central characters during three separate Junes spanning 10 years. Paul, a newly widowed father of three grown sons on a group tour of the Greek islands; Fenno, his eldest son, a gay man in New York City; and Fern, an artist and book designer whom Paul met on his trip to Greece several years earlier, now a young widow, pregnant, and also living in New York City.
The book club meets every third Sunday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at The OPALGA Center, 947 Garfield, Oak Park, unless otherwise specified. All books are available through http://www.amazon.com. In addition, copies will be available at the Oak Park Public Library (834 Lake St., Oak Park) as well as at The Book Table (1045 Lake St.), when possible. Remember, OPALGA receives a charitable donation from The Book Table for each book purchased there (regardless of whether it is a book club selection). Please let them know that you are purchasing your book as a member of OPALGA.
Programming Committee Needs You
Is the Writers Guild strike geting you down? Do you like to plan events? Or do you just need something to do now that we are in the midst of winter and it’s too cold for sunbathing and relaxing in outdoor cafés? If you said “yes” to any of the above, OPALGA is looking for you.
Each month, Empower highlights the activities of OPALGA, both familiar and new. The fact that all of these diverse events continue to be planned and offered is in no small part due to the outstanding efforts of the OPALGA Programming Committee. With the exception of Jan and Susan, our OPALGA staff members, each event is planned and executed by OPALGA volunteers. Outside of the OPALGA Board of Directors, the Programming Committee is the primary group of people who are working to keep our organization vital and growing.
Newly appointed Board Member-at-Large David Rappoport has volunteered to become the interim Chair of the Programming Committee. This came about due to the joyous addition of two very young children to the family of current Programming Chair Laura Drumm and her partner Kim Hefner. So, while we thank Laura for her dedicated service, we now look forward to David’s expertise and enthusiasm. In essence, this is a new opportunity to revitalize the Programming Committee. “The timing of the change in leadership gives OPALGA an outstanding opportunity,” said OPALGA Co-Chair Mike Cochran. “The Board of Directors is about to receive the final strategic plan from Dr. Goldbaum, and all of us realize that we need to take a new, fresh look at programming in order to meet the needs of our members. The addition of David gives us a person who is looking at the committee with new ideas, and that is always a plus.”
So, we are now seeking new members, and we need your help. The Programming Committee meets once a month and is responsible for the planning and execution of our events throughout the year. We encourage you to come to a meeting and to get to know the dedicated and enthusiastic people who drive our programs! This is your chance to suggest a new event or to offer improvements to an existing one. To volunteer, please call The OPALGA Center at 708-848-0273. “I really would like your input,” said Rappoport. “This is a unique opportunity to take an already active committee and strengthen and energize it even more.”
December Women Like Me Group Canceled
Women Like Me, which meets regularly on the fourth Sunday of each month, will not meet this December because the date falls on December 24, which is Christmas Eve. The group will resume its regularly scheduled meetings on January 28, 2007.
