LGBT Awareness Month offers new, traditional events

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Awareness Month at NIU offers a slate of new and traditional events throughout April.

Popular performers and speakers who have visited NIU before are returning to showcase their new work. In addition to these NIU favorites, new acts and events will round out a busy month of events.

Musician and singer Gregory Douglass, who performed on campus in February of 2003, will be returning with a new performance showcasing his new independent CD, "Pseudo-Rotary." His musical stylings have been compared to Jeff Buckley, Tori Amos, Peter Gabriel and Bjork. The winner of the 2003 GrammyFest in New York City, he has toured with artists such as They Might Be Giants, Tracy Chapman, Third Eye Blind, Melissa Ferrick and Michelle Branch. Douglass will perform at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, in the Diversions Lounge of Holmes Student Center.

New to NIU will be a drag show and party featuring the Chicago Kings at 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 9, in the Holmes Student Center Duke Ellington Ballroom.

Bending gender lines and breaking hearts, the Chicago Kings create a place for everyone to celebrate diversity in genders, masculinities, sexualities and cultures. The Windy City's premiere drag king troupe, the Chicago Kings are a fun-loving rowdy bunch of personas, ranging from cowboy to punk, business man to geek and everything in between. Everyone is welcome, drag attire is optional, but style and attitude is a must.

Internationally known performance artist Tim Miller, in his fourth appearance at NIU, will bring his new show, “Us,” to campus at 8 p.m. Monday, April 12, in the Stevens Building Players Theatre. His show ricochets between Miller’s love affair since childhood with Broadway musicals, crosscut with an exploration of home, exile and the injustices lesbian and gay couples face in the United States. "Us" is a funny, sassy and outraged exploration of these most American contradictions, as the piece careens from childhood memories to meditations on Miller’s impending exile from America.

Acclaimed author John D’Emilio, who spoke at NIU last April, will discuss his newest book, “Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin,” on Thursday, April 15. He will present “Listening to Bayard Rustin: Lessons from an Activist’s Life” at 7 p.m. in the Montgomery Hall Terwilliger Auditorium, as well as a seminar, “Writing the Biography of a Lost Prophet,” at 3:30 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center Room 306.

Rustin is one of the most important figures in the history of the American civil rights movement. A teacher to Martin Luther King Jr. and the organizer of the famous 1963 March on Washington, Rustin largely has been erased by history, in part because he was an African-American homosexual.

An LGBT Awareness Month tradition, Gay Jam, will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 17, in the Holmes Student Center Diversions Lounge. Gay Jam is in its eighth year, and is DeKalb’s own drag and variety show, featuring local talent and a raffle benefiting Questioning Youth Center and United Campus Ministries.

Another NIU tradition, the Eychaner Award Banquet, will celebrate its 10-year anniversary.

The Eychaner Award recognizes an NIU student, along with an NIU staff, faculty, or alumnus/a who has made a significant contribution to the LGBT community. The 10th Annual Eychaner Award Banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 23, in the Chandelier Dining Room of Adams Hall. The cost is $3 for NIU students and $8 for the general public. Tickets must be purchased by April 12 from the NIU LBGT Resource Center.

Rounding out the month will be a film series, dances, panel discussions and more. For additional information, or for a complete schedule of events, contact the LGBT Resource Center at 753-5428, via e-mail at lgbt@niu.edu or visit the Resource Center's Web site at www.niu.edu/lgbt.

4-5-04