‘Verb’ is now a dance action

Today’s Just Out has a a mini-feature for Saturday’s In Other Words fundraiser Verb written by yours truly. Might as well move your feet for a good cause no?

There are a plethora of popular Portland Pride parties happening Saturday June 13, the night before the big parade. But only one hosted by and benefiting a women’s and feminist bookstore would appreciate such overuse of alliteration.

Verb was originally conceived by Sossity Chiricuzio, In Other Words supporter and organizer of the popular event Dirty Queer, during a financial crisis that nearly finished one of the country’s few remaining feminist bookstores.  “Verb: A Dance Party Action to save In Other Words” was a clever play on words to connect Portland’s love of all things bookish and nerdy with its inexplicable desire to bust a move. IOW Events Coordinator Katie Carter says of the party’s theme: “A verb is an action, and in this case the action was to come dance and help save the bookstore.”

Now the unstoppable Verb has evolved into more than just one part of speech. It is a celebration of our Pride as an action. It was the actions of queer rioters at Stonewall forty years ago that brought gay rights into the social consciousness of America, and spawned what we now call Pride Month. And it is our continued struggle, celebration, and remembrance, that will push gay rights forward and keep local businesses that embrace, support and promote our community, like In Other Words, going.

And it is DJs like New York transplant L Train, and DJ Gottesfinger that will keep you going throughout the night. The multi-talented artist and musician Sarah Gottesdiener, who has so eloquently taken the theme of wordplay to heart with her irreverent DJ name (most well-known for her band the Gay Deceivers who have previously performed at Pride) brings an understated and complex musical knowledge to an already thumping dance floor. This sensibility dovetails nicely with bookworms who boogie. Geeks can get down in Portland and Gottesdiener is just the DJ to hand them their beats.

If you’ve got a naughty librarian fetish, this is most certainly the party for you.