What a show! What a night! We started with dinner at the Rosetta Stone (yummy Portabella Ravioli), and then we walked over the Oakland for Out on the Town. I was in the company of some amazing Ytowners–two city school teachers, an attorney (and Youngstown blogger), a social activist, her bright and funny daughters, and their sweet friend–and then had the chance to share an inspiring cultural event with many, many more amazing Ytowners. I visited with some old friends and made some new ones.
Crowd energy is the reason I love a live performance (or a Harry Potter book release party), and the energy at the Oakland on Saturday night was lively and beautiful and loving.
Liz Rubino, a homegrown theater talent, acted as MC for the first half of the show, which featured local and regional members of the LGBTQ community sharing their artistic gifts that ranged from song to dance to poetry. This part of the show was a real treat, lasting nearly two hours, and of course, was completed by Oakland fave Starlett O’Hara.
The second half of the show featured the young people, all of whom identified as gay, lesbian, or transgendered, from Pittsburgh’s Dreams of Hope. What was amazing to me was that these mostly teenagers (I think one of the young women was 22) were so present in their art. They worked with stage professionals to craft skits, write songs, and choreograph dances. Each of these young people shared a bit of his or her coming out story, with varying degrees of pain and confusion. The youngest, thirteen-year-old twins Claire and Laura, told of coming out to each other, and then to friends on the school bus, when they were twelve.
I remember last summer speaking with a friend from Youngstown Pride about the need for safe places in the community–he called them “islands”– for our LGBTQ young people.
But I saw more than just an island of comfort and security at the Oakland last night. I was present at a celebration of whole people being their complete and complicated, sexual and spiritual selves. And what better way to celebrate than through artistic expression and fellowship.
