From a backyard to WOW Hall, the ASUO Women’s Center’s annual Out/Loud event has grown into the Northwest’s biggest queer women’s music festival. This year’s festival, a free event to be held May 13-14, will mark its 10th anniversary. @@http://pages.uoregon.edu/women/@@
“I would say it’s evolved quite a lot,” said Lindsey Holman, the Women’s Center lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, queer, question and intersex issues coordinator and festival organizer. “I couldn’t tell you how many people came to the first one; I don’t imagine a lot of people fit in that person’s backyard, but I know this year we’re expecting 600-plus people.” @@Lindsey Holman: http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Lindsey+Holman@@
To honor the event’s long history, the festival will offer different kinds of performances, from musicians to a film to a comedian. In selecting the performers, Holman and her team wanted artists who represent what the Women’s Center and Out/Loud specifically are all about.
“Part of our job as student leaders here at the Women’s Center is to represent those people in our community that are marginalized or historically silenced, or who just don’t get a lot of focus,” Holman said. “We really wanted people who used activism through their music. All of our musicians that we’re bringing this year have some form of activism within their music or within the individuals in the band.”
Holman wanted the diversity of the artists at the festival to reflect the diversity within the community, choosing artists with unique stories that only they could tell. The curiosity with which she had to hear those individual perspectives helped her choose this year’s lineup.
“Part of the selection of Heather Gold as our comedian was, well, how often do we get the perspective of somebody who identifies as Jewish and a lesbian coming out in the Bay Area? When do we get to hear that story?” Holman said. “We picked Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde because it was a Puerto Rican sound that we hadn’t really heard before. Melissa Li and the Barely Theirs is coming from an Asian activist who identifies as queer. What does that music sound like?” @@http://www.heathergold.com/@@
For the University to be inclusive of all orientations and identities, it is important to have events like these, Holman said. The LGBTQQI community makes up a big part of the greater University community, and without queer events celebrating their differences, Holman believes they would not feel as accepted. What sets Out/Loud apart from other LGBTQQI events on or around campus is that its main purpose is “just to have fun.”
“This is a place where everybody can come and celebrate our queer culture in a manner that we don’t often get because a lot of times it’s about education and raising awareness, and it’s more of a serious tone,” Holman said. “Now, people can come within the queer community and ally communities and just have fun and support each other.”
Last year was Holman’s first time attending Out/Loud, and she said it was the first place where she as a queer student felt truly accepted and safe within the University community. Everyone’s differences made the festival a welcoming place for her. However, Holman was quick to point out those outside the queer spectrum can enjoy the festival. LGBTQQI allies are encouraged to come to the festival to show their support.
“If you like music and you like having a good time, you’re welcome,” Holman said. “Yes, you’re celebrating queer culture, but it’s not at all something that only people who identify within the alphabet spectrum will appreciate.”