Homomentum Press
>Homomentum is back with a bang. 1/9/11. QPDX.com
>Best of Stage 2011. 1/5/12. QPDX.com
>Ho-Ho-Homomentum. 12/11. JustOut
>Last Homomentum of the Season. 4/11. Just Out.
>Homomentum: Love Potions. 2/11. WWeek.
>Celebrating Queer Talent with Homomentum. 1/2011. KBOO
>High Voltage! 10/2010 Just Out>Homomentum off to a Raging Start 10/2009 QPDX.com
>Freakeasy Speakeasy 10/2009 JustOut.com
Homomentum is back with a bang (photos & live review)
Jan 9th, 2012. by Alley Hector. QPDX.com
photo by Ty Chance. Doriloves Youall & Puppetrator X
Friday’s re-introduction to Homomentum with its third season opener, Myths & Legends,
was quite possibly the best one yet. The stellar lineup surprised and
delighted finding new energy in performance artists we’ve seen grace
their stage before, as well as creative first timers. It was a fairly
lengthy show, and yet I was never bored.
Glitterfruit started the show with an inspirational and beautiful protest song that had emcee Max Voltage in a slightly more
serious (dare I say butch?) outfit that transitioned perfectly to the
be-maned and sparkly unicorn outfit for the rest of the show. Swagger,
the skillful but fun dance and teaching troupe, has reinvented
themselves as Compound and were as fashionable and compelling as ever. Felice Shays
had a particularly successful comedy routine that eschewed her usual
food porn in favor of a more restrained but incredibly hilarious
narrative about the rules of polyamoury.
And yet, over the top most definitely still has its place at
‘momentum. Chipmunk burlesque with some truly brilliant between the
legs surprises from Baby LeStrange
might be my favorite new form of drag. But that’s probably because I
have been told I have chipmunk cheeks since birth and it’s some sort of
sexy validation. But frogs, pigs and unicorns also got plenty of
attention.
Kermit found out that sometimes it is easy being green when you’ve got a sexy pig to help you stroke your banjo when Doriloves Youall and Puppetrator X
took over the stage. Just the right amount of wrong applied to beloved
childhood characters that were already a little more naughty than a
purple dinosaur. And nothing could have been more mythologically epic
than the birthing ceremony of the nearly extinct creatures of the Gillicorn Blessing.
Their act was the perfect show closer, with bright spikes of ticker
tape, rainbow boas, sparkly manes, tails and horns and I believe a
metaphor for unicorn coitus. Whatever it was it was fabulous, and the
crowd went crazy, satiated from the night of spectacle.
If you missed it, or just want to relieve the color, check out these amazing shots by Ty Chance.
Best of Stage 2011
Jan 5th, 2012. by Hans Ryan. QPDX.com
This year we introduce a best of stage category running down some of our favs in theater, dance, drag and performance art.
5 – Beat me with a coat hanger, Clarice. Back in
March, Christopher Kenney and hubbie Jamie Morris created a twisted
insight to the famous films, “Mommy Dearest” and “Silence of the
Lambs.” Joan Crawford drag queen? Amen! There are not enough words to
describe the amazing talent and creativity these men portrayed in these
two infamous stories! I hope there is more in store for 2012! Cheers,
boys!
4 – Looking for Normal? Jane
Anderson’s transgender comedy graced us in July-with a funny plot
addressing gender roles with-in the family dynamic. Characters are
searching for answers from the bible and other places to understand
and cope with the gender identity crisis that arises. This show will
leave you rolling on the floor with it’s witty one-liners and humorous
approach to the issues.
3 - Need some queer in your cabaret?Pants-Off Productions Homomentum; a
queer cabaret mixture of dance, burlesque, and performance art. 2011
was the 3rd season of the show, with a different theme every month.
Don’t worry, fellow Homo’s-if you missed the show, there is more in
store for 2012. produced Homomentum 2012 Season!
Jan 6th: Myths & Legends
Feb 3rd: Love Knots
March 2nd: Singin’ in the Rain
April 6th: Science/Fiction
May 4th: Homo’s Got Talent
2 – Sweet, sweet fantasy baby.This year Genderfantasy (Reviewed by Alley Hector last month)
invaded Portland with its original style and gender-bending attitude.
Genderfantasy is theatrical performance combining a multitude of
different things; such has sexuality, gender, and glamorous power. This
dance performance is embodied by its creator, Kaj-Anne Pepper
and 3 others; Lillian Rosetti, Micheal Zero Reed, and Keyon Gaskin. The
costuming, although simple, was brilliantly done by Raijah Antionette.
This was a great show for anyone, no matter how they chose to identify.
“Genderfantasy is dedicated to the lineage of queer and trans
performing artists who have passed on from this life and whose lives
have shaped and made possible for my exploration into these luminal
states of gender, power, sexuality, movement and representation. This
is dedicated to our ancestors and our descendants.” Quoted Pepper in a previous interview. The project was able to reach their donation goal of 2,500, with 87 backers via www.kickstarter.com. Good job, Pepper and co.!
1 – “Angels in America”, a play written by Pulitzer
Prize winner Tony Kushner, made its Portland debut in early December at
the World Trade Center Theater. The play, written in ’93, has also been
made into a television miniseries (see IMDb review). The diverse plot
takes place in an America that is taken over by the AIDS epidemic. This
story of sex, lies, greed and the power of the gay community will pull
at your heart strings. With a strong cast and an amazing message, it
was a must see of 2011.
Ho-Ho-Homomentum: Queer cabaret spectacle returns after the holiday season
Dec 12. 2011. by Ryan J. Prado. Just OutBeen feeling less than whole lately? Like
since April there’s been something missing? Something important? It
could just be coincidence, we suppose, that April just so happened to
mark the final installment of the 2010 Homomentum season. Sure, just keep telling yourself it’s allllll a coincidence.
In any event, that void you’ve been experiencing is about to be
vanquished with glitter glitz, and lots of gay—all hail the return of
Homomentum! Commence collective sigh of relief!
Helmed by Max Voltage, care of her
Pants-Off Productions, Homomentum will launch its third season with a
bang Friday, January 6, 2012 at the Fez Ballroom. The queer cabaret
series is slated to build upon its indefinable performance past with
dance, burlesque, drag, horseback riding, competitive quilting, puppet
go-go dancers and… whoa, wait. A few of those aren’t necessarily
on the list of attractions. The point is that each and every Homomentum
brings out the crafty in all its performers, and you never know what
you’re gonna get.
The third season kicks off under the theme
“Myths & Legends,” where our personal fantasy insists that someone
facilitate a burlesque piece utilizing Sasquatch and/or the Loch Ness
Monster and/or Chupacabra. We won’t even take credit for it… This
“queer-fabulous journey of epic tales reimagined through drag, dance,
burlesque, performance art and camp” will also feature audience
participation, MC Max Voltage, prizes and more. Homomentum continues
every first Friday through May, with each month providing a new theme
for performers to prepare for.
Voltage is packing more acts into a shorter
run this time around, something she says will only add to the
“gaymazingness” of the show.
No doubt our third season will prove to be
as sexy, silly, campy and magical as ever,” says Voltage. “Expect to see
crowd favorites as well as lots of new faces on the Homomentum stage.
We’re always on the lookout for new talent!”
Remember, a little Homomentum goes a long way.
Fri., Jan. 6, doors at 7 p.m., show at 8; The Fez Ballroom, 316 SW 11th Ave.; $5-$10 sliding scale; 21+; pantsoffpdx.com.
photo credit: Zaq Banton. Design Credit: Motherwit.com
Last Homomentum of the Season…Tonight!
April 1, 2011. by Ryan Prado. Just Out
If you’ve been putting off checking out Homomentum,
tonight marks your last chance to witness the queer cabaret showcase in
action for a while. “Birds & the Bees” is Homomentum’s final
staging of the season, and features the queer dance, burlesque, drag and
performance art that has made it a staple of the queer arts scene in
Portland.
“BUT WHAT IS IT?” you ask? You’ll have to see it to believe it.
From 7 to 10 p.m. at the Fez Ballroom (316 SW 11th Ave.), the likes of Felice Shays, Shazaam, ChiChi and Chonga, Drag Mansion, Swagger,
Baby Le Strange and many more will dazzle you, dare you and undress
your inhibitions. We’re gonna go ahead and tell you not to miss what is
likely to be an explosive evening of performance.
Doors for Homomentum open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8; $5-$10 sliding scale; 21 and over.Homomentum: Love Potions
Feb 3, 2011. By Kelly Clark. Wilamette Week
Portland's genderfuck cabaret Homomentum gets all sexy-sappy for V-Day
with a "Love Potions" line up featuring dragsters and glitter queens
from Chi Chi & Chonga and Pidgeon Von Tramp to Blossoming Implosion
and the Little Beavers Destroyer Squadron. Really, your guess as to
what all these gay-friendly groups will actually do up onstage is as good as mine, but, come on, "Beavers Destroyer Squadron" performed a tribute to Zena: Warrior Princess soundtracked by Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" at a past edition of Homomentum. Shit like that's gotta be worth $5.
Celebrating Queer Talent with Homomentum
01/04/2011. Interview by Carla Remey. kboo.fm
Happy New Year from KBOO's queer culture radio show! Tonight we start off the new year highlighting the rainbow spectrum of talent in our community. Max Voltage, from Pants Off Productions, joins us as we focus on Homomentum.
This queer cabaret showcases queer dance, burlesque &
performance-art, with tons of glitter and ridiculousness at every turn.
Also joining us on tonight's radio show are some of the upcoming
cabaret performers. In addition to Max, the MC for Homomentum, we'll hear from Mr. E, CJ & The Dolls, and Swagger, who will talk about their dance classes. Music breaks between acts include: Ashleigh Flynn's 'Last Chance Saloon' and 'Evangeline'. Ashleigh performs Friday Jan 7th at the Doug Fir Lounge. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts 'Change the World' and 'Androgynous'. Thanks to our guests tonight for sharing their talent/s with the
community via Homomentum. And another round of thanks to ALL of the
artists who share their talent/s with the community! Art can change the
world.....Thank you for listening! Until next time, stay proud and live out loud!!
To listen to the interview, click here!High
Voltage! Pants Off Productions
capitalizes
on Homomentum
October 15, 2010 by Ryan Prado.
Just
Out
photo
credit: A Picard: www.bloodhoundphotography.comAs Max Voltage and Jodi Bon Jodi
headed back to Portland following the International Drag King
Extravaganza (IDKE) in October 2007, they visualized a circus-themed
night of gender bending—a stage for radical art in the Rose City’s queer
subculture. Little did they know that when their idea would materialize
in May 2008, they’d tap the pulse of an artistic undercurrent coursing
just below more mainstream queer entertainment. Freakshow-A-Go-Go, as it
was dubbed, transformed the idea of performance art, meshing drag,
burlesque, dance and performance art into a free-for-all cabaret of epic
proportions. So much so, in fact, that the concept outgrew Portland and
has now been staged in cities like Seattle and Austin, with an upcoming
event slated for Madison, Wis.
The explosion marked the birth of Pants Off Productions, the
brainchild of Voltage. She was surprised at the response, to say the
least. “We had no idea what it would become!” says Voltage. “It just
sorta
took off!” Voltage says she loves the idea of sharing a national queer
performance wealth with a different city each year, to inspire and rally
various local cultures. Making things happen on stage has been a
constant all of her life.
Born in Corvallis and raised in Lake Oswego, Voltage, 28, is a
classically trained violinist since age 5 and has been coordinating
performances since about the same age, recruiting neighborhood kids
along with her brother to put on shows for parents and friends. When she
was in college, Voltage was the president of the queer alliance at a
Jesuit university and created the first drag show at a Catholic
university in the United States. “I had never even been to a drag show
before, but I rallied my
theater friends, put together a boy band and made it happen,” recalls
Voltage.
She found herself completely addicted and went on to win the San
Francisco Drag King competition in 2003. Around the same time, Voltage
started a Portland-based troupe with her brother called Ubergay Cabaret,
which fueled the local drag movement along with DKPDX and Sissyboy. But
following the dissolution of those crews, the queer performance art
scene dwindled—until Freakshow (FAGG), and her concept of exposing
“radical queer art.”
“To me, radical queer art means creating space that is
anti-oppression,” explains Voltage. “I’ve always seen art as a powerful
tool of activism. I want to share the stage with others who are
dedicated to making the world a less racist, sexist, classist,
homophobic, sizeist place. Dykes, fags, femmes, drag stars, gender
queers, fat queers, queers of color, working-class queers all taking the
stage is itself a radical act because we don’t often get a voice. I
want to create space for those of us who don’t often get to have a stage
of our own.”
Voltage says that performance art that seeks to offend just for the
sake of offending misses the point, that the “anti-PC backlash” is
little more than spectacle. She’s not interested in being explicitly
political but rather maintaining radical politics as the foundation,
with glitter, choreography, spandex, watermelon fisting, dirty miming,
cake sitting and more being what you actually see. “The reality is, if
you’re being ‘offensive,’ often you’re just
recreating the oppressive paradigms of mainstream culture,” she says. “I
have no interest in that type of ‘art.’ I think it’s lazy. You can’t be
empowering some people while tearing others down.” Voltage’s
cornerstone of creating art that’s innovative, empowering
and fun to watch has taken on the form of some of Portland’s most
successful events, all courtesy of POP.
Following the popularity of FAGG, POP launched other events including
Homomentum, Kick/Ball/Change, Homo’s Got Talent and Untrained, I—each
marked by challenges for performers that encapsulate the freedom of
gender identity, sexual identity and artistic expression that Voltage
aims to empower. Take the uber-popular Homomentum, which returns on
Friday, November 5
at the Fez Ballroom after a summer hiatus. The cabaret showcases queer
dance, burlesque and performance art within a revolving theme each
month, with Voltage emceeing and sometimes performing.
“The Homomentum themes help catalyze performances and ensure that
each show is unique,” says Voltage. “It’s so exciting to watch
performers bring their own particular interpretations, and sometimes the
acts have nothing to do with my theme. That’s okay too.” These
interpretations—November’s theme is “Rebels and
Outlaws”—feature performances that incorporate the aforementioned
watermelon and cake play, along with radical cheerleading, cucumber
bobbing, vibrating dryer-riding, airport strip searching, snowman
accessorizing, Xena homoeroticizing and more. Voltage views these
experimental efforts as the doorway to the future of Portland’s queer
arts scene.
“I see Portland becoming one of the top destinations for queer
culture in the United States,” she says. “Queer folks are already moving
here from all over the country, and I see that growing more and more
over the next few years.
“Performers have been coming out of the woodwork, with quality and
invention, humor and brilliance beyond what I even imagined. There is so
much brilliance and art in our community; sometimes people just need a
little push, some inspiration and a space to show it off. Homomentum has
proven to me that our community craves to be challenged artistically,
and when challenged, will rise to the occasion.”
Homomentum hits the Fez Ballroom (316 SW 11th Ave.) on
Fri., Nov.
5; doors are at 7 p.m., show at 8; $5-$10 sliding scale; 21+. The
gaymazing lineup includes The Cattitude Dance Ensemble, The Dolly Pops,
Felice Shays, All of the Above, Little Tommy Bang Bang and Slim Pickins,
Pidgeon Von Tramp, Shazaam and Swagger. For more information, visit
pantsoffpdx.com.
Homomentum off to a raging start with Saturday's Freakeasy
Speakeasy
October
12th, 2009. by Alley Hector. www.QPDX.com
Homomentum’s
first performance in the aptly named E Room Tomb was a dark Halloween
success. Fall has seen a slowdown in the queer nightlife calendar, but
by shortly after 8pm the Tomb was filled with bright eyed audience
members. Clocking in at just an hour it left us wanting more, which,
luckily, we only have to wait a month for.
Jodi Bon Jodi opened the show with a mummy
striptease. All those wrappings are perfect for the tease, and who
doesn’t appreciate a little creepiness mixed in with sexuality. This
theme continued with with dark makeup sported by CJ in
his accented rendition of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.”
My favorite piece, however, was dark and creepy only in
it’s close relation to the truth. In a melancholy jig about breakups, Untrained,
I’s
Max and Roz literally tugged on each other’s heartstrings, as they also
pulled on the audience’s. Something that easily could have been trite
was instead tender, even as the strings attached to their sweatshirts
were finally cut.
Cute, silly, creepy and hot, Freakeasy Speakeasy was low key
success. Fun and inspiring, it left plenty of time to go out afterword
properly inspired. At a mere $5-7 its the perfect Fall performance
trick and treat. November’s Time Warpt Talent Show and December’s
Snowpocalypse are already on my social calendar.
Homomentum:
Freakeasy Speakeasy: (Left to Right) Untrained, I, CJ, Cattitude.
photos by Kina Williams
Freakeasy Speakeasy: Homomentum Rocks
The Body at the E-Room
October
2nd, 2009. by Nick Mattos. www.JustOut.com
Sometimes
all a gay wants to do is to kick back, drink a cold beverage, and watch
some performers freak out with variety theater. You’re in luck—riding
the hot buzz of its recent events Kick/Ball/Change and Homo’s Got
Talent, Portland’s own Pants-Off Productions is ready to explode some
gay skulls with new endeavor Homomentum!
This queer cabaret
promises to deliver the cutting-edge subversion and high drama that’s
earned Pants-Off a dedicated following of glitter-encrusted queers. The
inaugural performance—a Halloween-themed “Freakeasy Speakeasy”
spectacular—will feature such crowd pleasers as Cattitude, Beefcake
Burlesque, Untrained I, Under the Radar and other singing, dancing,
tassel- shaking displays of queer ingenuity. And MC Max Voltage will
keep the crowd begging for more. Future Homomentum showcases are likely
to leave audiences in a fabulosity- induced coma. Planned themes include
November’s “Time-Warp Talent Show” and December’s “Snow-pocalypse.”
And
Pants-Off Productions always empowers its performers to put their own
spin on themes, so expect nothing less than to be dazzled! Do you have
happy feet—or happy nipples, for that matter? Pants-Off Productions has
issued an open call for dancers, burlesque talents, and performance art
freaks for future Homomentum events. To inquire about opportunities,
contact queermcgay@gmail.com. Submissions are accepted first-come,
first-served until all spots are filled.
The Homomentum gets
moving October 10 at the E-Room (3701 SE Division). Future events are
scheduled every second Saturday—that’s November 14 and December 12 for
those without a calendar handy. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the
performance art madness kicks in at 8. Admission runs on a $5-$7 sliding
scale. Sorry, kids—this variety show’s for the 21-and-over set. Freak
it easy!