Out in the Mountains

Northampton/Amherst Lesbian Festival

Milci'lhornas

The second annual Northampton/Arnherst
Lesbian Festival, held on August 3, 1991,
was a bit of a wash out. A downpour flood-
ed the festival so everything was moved
inside the UMass Student Union ballroom.
However, this did not “dampen” the spirits
of those attending the festival or the frm of
the festival itself.

Thirteen performers took the stage during
the festival. The acts ranged from folk,
jazz, and performance art, to cabaret. The
festival opened and closed with Roy and
Reggie, who are two women named Zoe
Lewis and Julie Wheeler, teamed up to
“create a Lesbian Lounge Lizard ex-
travaganza.” Their last set and the festival
finale featured them singing the North-
ampton Blues, which lamented that
whereva they go, they always meet up
with their ex-lovers. It was followed by
their lesbian interpretation of The Sound of
Music, based their “discovery" of an orig-
inal version of of the script which had Ma-
ria coming out of her particular cloister or
closet.

Other performers included Catie Curtis,
Austin, Texas born Purlie Gates singing a
combination of folk and blues, and Justina
and Joyce, who performed a cappella with
breathtaking and beautiful hamronies. Nu-
rudafina Pili Abena gave a demonstration
of African and Caribbean drumming that
made many festival goers get up and dance
to the hypnotic rhythms.

 

Photo by Birdie Macbennan
Nurudafina Pili Abena

In the afternoon, local favorite Jaime Mor-
ton, an up and coming folk artist, sang a se-
lection of songs from her compact disc An-
imals are Moving. Another folk artist on
her way up and featured at the festival was
Jan Corliss, whose sound is similar to Joan
Arrnatrading’s, and whose repertoire in-
cludes reggae. The audience favorite was
Suede, a multi-instrumentalist with a strong
voice who could at one moment sing a red
hot blues number and at another give Bette
Midler some competition with her version
of From aDistance.

Comedy was provided by two stand up co-
medians and a theater group. Julie Wag-
goner gave her observations on life and
love from a “WASP-ish” point of view and
Betsy Salkind got the audience laughing
with some priceless imitations of cat nois-
es. The Lesbian Preoccupied Theater per-
formed a short skit consisting of some very
funny and observant spoofs of commercials
and game shows.

By the time Roy and Reggie gave their last
curtain call, the energy level among the fes-
tival goers was very high. The excitement
and joy of being with 1000 women cel-

Photo by Birdie MacLerman

Festival Vendor

ebrating lesbian pride was overwhelming.
The craftswomen and entertainers ex-
pressed the diversity of lesbians in their re-
spective arts. Diane Morgan and Aliza An-
sell of WOW Productions should be
congratulated for their efforts at putting to-
gether this festival. V

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