I’m exhausted. Harboring crushes is not the cakewalk you might think. Grueling stakeouts, expensive tracking devices, plus there are only so may stalking jokes you can make before resorting to referencing Rohypnol and we all know I’m too classy for that. Just when I began to wonder how much longer I could persist, I found Sierra Kyles, February’s Crush. . A young actor/model and filmmaker, Sierra has showed off her androgyny on runways across Chicago. Now a film student at Columbia College, Sierra is producing “The Lies We Tell But the Secrets We Keep” and she looks good doing it!

Name: Sierra "Junior" Kyles
Hometown: Chicago
Profession: Producer/Writer/Model/Actress
Hobbies: Movie Watching, JB Skating, Reading and Cuddling.

Our Town How did you get into modeling?
Sierra Kyles My mentor Milon V. Parker has her own modeling runway show, she asked me to be in it and I accepted. To my surprise, I liked it.

OT It seems your androgyny has served you well. Is that always the case in the modeling world or are you an exception?
SK Androgyny can work against you. It’s more than just looking like a guy, or at least to me it is.

OT Can you give us the inside scoop about what it’s like to walk in a fashion show?
SK Your first time is always scary. Its actually fun, a lot of people don't think they can do it because they are insecure with their bodies. If you get on stage and have confidence in yourself, no matter what you look like the crowd will respect you.

OT You also act. Have you found that being openly queer has gotten in your way at all?
SK If anything it has helped. Because so many people before me had that problem they, are making it easier for my generation. The company that I work for (MVP Productions)-- the founder is a queer and we do a lot of queer films.

OT As a film student at Columbia College, what movies have influenced you?
SK Training Day, For Colored Girls, The Secret Life Of David Gale, and of course Boys Don't Cry.

OT Describe your perfect day.
SK A twelve hour day working on the set of one of my movies, coming home taking a long bath then hoping in my comfy bed.

OT Relationship Deal breaker?
SK Clinginess.

OT Who was your first crush?
SK Jada Pinkett Smith. Lawd!

OT Why are you crushworthy?
SK I'm a nineteen year old movie producer, c’mon now...

OT Any questions for me?
SK Did I ask you to be in my film or something? Whenever I play back a scene you’re in the background in your underwear.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," (Soft Skull press) is available for pre-order here. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by following facebook.com/OurTownBlog.ChicagoSunTimes and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez

Photo by Johnny Knight

Multifaceted writer/director/teacher Kelli Strickland emailed me from a swamp. Out of town for the holidays, her internet connection was spotty, but Strickland’s opinions came through loud and clear. Star of the much buzzed-about film Hannah Free, Strickland is on the cusp of opening her one-woman show "We’ve Got a Badge for That." A “love letter of sorts to the Girl Scouts,” the show has been performed locally and nationally. Below Strickland shares her thoughts on lesbian films, arts education and more.

Our Town How was your experience filming Hannah Free?
Kelli Strickland It was filmed at a rather breakneck speed but the people who came together to make that happen were a force to be reckoned with. The reception to the story was pretty overwhelming. I still get emails from people all over the world who have lost partners or grew up in a very different time period that tell me that it resonated with them.

OT How do you feel about the category “lesbian films?”
KS Categories are handy and can serve a purpose and inevitably tick some people off. You could argue that to describe any work as 'lesbian' in nature is to contribute to the gay ghetto-ization of a piece or you could argue that there are films made by and for lesbians, and why not label it that? I believe that stories are important. And so long as people are working hard to tell those stories and audiences are benefiting from hearing those stories, call it what you like.

OT I haven’t seen Hannah Free, so this isn’t a swipe at that film, but I’m pretty critical of most lesbian films. I have this sense that lesbians (even in 2011) are so desperate to see themselves reflected in art that they celebrate even the mediocre. Any thoughts on this?
KS I suppose that an under-representation in media does lead to a celebration of any and all representation. But I hesitate to lay the blame at the feet of audiences for not being discerning enough or even the art makers, for that matter. As your question suggests, that desperation for representation indicates what a dearth of films there were. Film is an incredibly expensive proposition and until recently, highly dependent on the literal and metaphorical green light from people who didn't seem all that interested in telling queer stories. So, yes, I think often the projects were and are homegrown, grassroots efforts – made by those same people who wanted to see themselves onscreen. Changes in the cultural landscape are definitely afoot, however, when a movie like “The Kids Are All Right” can not only get made, but get made with that kind of budget, that kind of cast, that kind of marketing and distribution and finally that kind of reception. Artists interested in telling queer stories, like all contemporary artists, are currently learning how to navigate a new media world where you can get product out and very process is much more affordable, accessible and therefore democratic. I think that's a good thing for storytellers, especially those storytellers who want to tell the stories that the heads of major studios won't. My guess is that we're in the midst of a great upswing.

OT If you could only act in one medium, which would you choose?
KS Theatre, without question. Especially now, when we consume so much of our films, television, music in isolation with buds in our ears and [on] a tiny screen. Nothing can replace live actors with a live audience sharing that ephemeral time together. It is pure, simple and a unifying act in an increasingly divisive time.

If this year’s unseasonably warm October was our giant flat screen TV, November is the exorbitant bill. Sure things seem unchanged this morning, sun dappled leaves, distant train whistles, drunken neighbors once again hanging their used plastic grocery bags out to dry, but soon we’ll be averaging two hours of daylight and asking trusted friends to check us in to Chicago hotspots so people think we actually leave the house.

Luckily there’s a flicker of warmth amidst November’s creeping chill: Crush of the Month Andrew Davis. Managing editor of The Windy City Times, Davis has seen Chicago’s oldest LGBTQ newspaper not only survive the age of the internet but take the shift away from print in stride. While still available weekly on newsstands, The Windy City Times attracts a growing online readership, and Davis continues to edit with aplomb! So come, Chicago, let us warm our hands in Davis’s blaze. Try not to actually touch him though; I learned not to the hard way.

Name: Andrew Davis
Hometown: Chesapeake, Va.
Profession: Managing editor, Windy City Times
Hobbies: Working out, exploring

Our Town Originally you moved to Chicago to get a PhD in microbiology. Now you’re Managing Editor of The Windy City Times. Is that as big a leap as it seems?
Andrew Davis I don't know if it's a jump as much as it is a drive down a very twisted road. However, I view myself as a Renaissance man.

OT What goes into taking WCT to press on a weekly basis?
OT A great team of writers, an incredible art director, our hands-on publisher and a (now-abused) stress ball.

OT Unlike many free papers, WCT has survived despite online media’s primacy. To what do you attribute this?
AD Well, to survive in print the sales team needs to do its job—and this one's pretty darn efficient. It also helps, once again, to have some really good writers. It really does take a village.

OT What’s your most fulfilling WCT experience?
AD Some of the most fulfilling experiences have been in putting together human-interest stories. You feel honored that people are willing to let you inside their lives; they sometimes share some pretty grueling and/or intimate details.

Erin Nekervis

I’ve been hearing about Cameron Esposito for a while now. Who was this funny woman, I wondered. And is I’ve been hearing actually grammatically acceptable? I’ve been hearing: It sounds like something the old goat farmer up the way might say. Cameron seems to appeal to the hipster lesbian demographic (See also blue, plastic 1980’s glasses, which forward thinker that I am, I was already wearing in the 1980’s.) so I decided to get close to Cameron, I’d better blend. This is a lengthy way of explaining why she opened the curtains to find me drinking PBR in her tree last night. Because Cameron is more than just a whip-smart comedian with an easy, and as it turns out, demographic-defying style, she agreed to do a quick interview before she called the police.

Full name: Cameron Anne Young Anastasia Esposito (for real)
Hometown: Western Springs, IL
Profession: Standup comic/circus ringmaster
Hobbies: yelling instructions at the screen while watching action movies; making delicious meals from various useless household food scraps (think red pepper banana pancakes, Reese's peanut butter cups dipped in salsa)

Our Town What was your first joke?
Cameron Esposito Something about how I dated a very tall Asian man in high school. [It] relied on well-placed Yao Ming reference.

OT What’s the biggest difference between being a novice comedian and a veteran performer?
CE Understanding how much work you have ahead of you. Newer comics tend to think Letterman is a year away and a lucrative film career around the corner; the longer you perform the more you are humbled.

OT With your course Feminine Comique, you teach women how to write jokes but not how to be funny. What’s the difference?
CE Jokes come from truth, from the strength of our opinions about the world. Some folks will always be funnier than others; it's inborn. But you can teach the recognition and conveyance of truth.

OT Teach me how to write a joke.
CE Had someone say something rude to ya on the train? Write it down immediately or text yourself the hurtful comment. Add context to explain that you were just riding the train, being cool. Make sure to hang onto that feeling of being wronged. Get up at an open mic and rage. Refine wording and destroy with joke at a booked show. That rude person may never hear your come back, but you just got paid to tell it, so you win!

Brian Posen

Whether you want to donate money to people raring to strip to their nipple tassels or attend a fantastic fourteen-day theatrical festival, this blog has something for you. If like me, you are suffering from seasonal allergies and want to tear out your eyes and flay yourself, I suggest an oatmeal bath. It won’t actually help much, but you’ll become distracted trying to understand why sitting in a bathtub full of breakfast cereal is supposed to soothe your skin.

First the festival: Stage773 Artistic Director Brian Posen, a twenty-year veteran of the Chicago theater scene has created 14@Stage773, a two-week celebration of performing arts. Not only does the event feature vaudeville, solo performance, visual arts, children's theater, music, film and comedy, but it also kicks off renovations on the Stage 773 space.

In curating the event, Posen was particularly concerned with providing a performance opportunity for acts that might not often have the opportunity to perform in venues like Stage 773. Says Posen, “we are providing the space for free. We believe in the community and are a strong part of it, so ticket prices reflect that. They are stupidly low and Chicago loves that.”

With only a few days of the festival remaining, Posen is excited about the closing night Graffiti Party, a “lively night of performance and visual arts. We want the neighborhood to come and say good-bye to the old space and help us welcome the new and improved building.”

As for what to expect of Stage 773’s new incarnation, Posen says the theater will “no longer be a place where you come and see a show and leave. We are striving to create a thriving, vibrant artistic home for all of the Chicago arts community. It's going to be home for so many different theater companies and artistic events. [And with] four spaces, two of those turning around shows every two hours, [the space] will be alive!”

Excuse me for a moment; I’ve got to chew off the skin on my upper arm.

But what of the naked burlesquers you ask? Saturday August 20th, queer burlesque troupe Ties and Tassels presents Queerpocalypsee hosted by Chicago comedienne Cameron Esposito. For over a year the troupe has held monthly drag/burlesque variety shows in order to raise money for the event which will take place at The Abbey Pub. However, they’ve not quite hit their goal and in order to make Queerpocalypsee a night to remember, they’re looking for Kickstarter supporters.

If you feel like helping but want some entertainment out of the deal, you can also attend Ties and Tassels’ July 16th performance at Lizard's Liquid Lounge, funds from which benefit Queerpocalypsee.

I’d write more but Lady Gaga is petting a goat in my living room. Either that or the Benadryl I took is making me hallucinate.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," is forthcoming from Counter Point Press. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by followingOur Town on Facebook and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez

The New Colony Artistic Director, Andrew Hobgood thinks lesbians are funny. And nuclear holocaust. And quiche. But then, who doesn’t, really? Originally a seven-minute sketch which stole the show at Collaboraction’s 2010 Sketchbook, Five Lesbians Eating A Quiche tells the story of The Susan B Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein, who, when catastrophe strikes, find themselves responsible for America’s future. Due to audience demand, the show is back, and more absurd than ever.

Our Town Describe the show.
Andrew Hobgood Whenever we're asked, "What's it about?" it's always fun to deadpan back, "five lesbians eating a quiche." But the show is really a dark absurdist comedy exploring America's obsessive over-active imagination which has fueled both the greatest achievements of the country and our greatest embarrassments. It tackles our sense of adventure, our fears, our idealism and our country's relationship with devout belief in a religious body. However, we take it one step further. To make the audience understand that they are just as much a part of the American persona, we have created a fully realized environmental experience. The audience walks in and is immediately treated like they are one of the fellow sisters of the society, all women in 1956.

OT What originally inspired the piece?
AH A couple years ago, during a New Colony party, Sarah Gitenstein, who is directing this show, jokingly gave me a pen and a notebook and told me to write down the title of a show The New Colony would produce someday. And as any well-intoxicated Artistic Director would, I wrote the first thing that popped in my head and found myself committing to it before I'd processed the absurdity.

OT Why remount it?
AH To develop our shows, [we ask] the actors to create their characters well beyond the needs of the script. The more that they have in their heads; the more realized the show is. The Sketchbook version could only be seven minutes; however, the cast developed enough material for a twenty-five minute show. Then reviewers and audience members started asking when we were going to do the full-length production, and then it won the Audience Favorite award at Sketchbook. This is the first New Colony show ever produced due to audience demand.

OT What went into developing it into a full-length show?
AH All the creative team members and cast [went] back into their notebooks and pulled material we’d cut from the seven minute version. The show became about specifically these five women, and what happens to them after they realize that America has been nuked.

OT How does FLEQ jibe with New Colony’s artistic mission?
AH The most valued part of our mission is the goal of attracting and educating a new arts-supporting audience. When theater is competing against film and television, we try to seek out the experiences that are impossible to recreate on film. So this show's fully realized environmental approach, performed in real-time, integrates the audience into the piece. Even though it takes place in the 50's, we work to align the vernaculars, thoughts and feelings of that period and our current times to make it emotionally and intellectually accessible. We want audiences to look at a lesbian in 1956 and say, "I totally know her!”

OT What’s it like to work both as a business consultant and in the theater?
AH Art needs structure to succeed. Business needs creativity to succeed. And both tend to believe they don't need the other. That's [how] my consulting career was born. I solve theater problems with my business expertise and I broaden businesses' imaginations to help them launch to the next level. Really, all artists are entrepreneurs. Most don't think of themselves that way. But that's the truth. You're your own boss. You handle your own marketing. You handle your own money. You handle your own sales. I wish theater departments in colleges would inspire a love of business in their students. They are doing a huge disservice by not making entrepreneurial passion, strategy, and business management a key take-away for any theater graduate. Hopefully I'll get to see that happen. And hot damn I'd love for TNC and me to be a part of that change.

Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche runs June 23rd through July 30th. Go here to purchase tickets.

A writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum freelances for a number of web sites and print publications. Her debut novel, “Herself When She’s Missing," is forthcoming from Counter Point Press. She is also a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago’s StoryStudio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She's kind of looking forward to it actually.
IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by followingOur Town on Facebook and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez

Photo by Patty Michels. Left, Darrick Malone.

Now that it’s summer and you can step outside without risking exposure, Our Town is introducing a new weekly feature: ChicaGo.

Each week, we’ll post a speedy little street interview with one lucky Chicagoan. Keep your eyes out for us, because next time it could be you!

Location: Andersonville’s Midsommarfest

Chicagoan: Darrick Malone

Our Town So what brings you to Midsommarfest?
Darrick Malone I’m here volunteering with Equality Illinois to help support marriage for all, not just for some. I’m also registering people to vote.

OT What’s your favorite summer activity?
DM The festivals. Anytime people are out getting rambunctious but staying safe.

OT Favorite Chicago restaurant?
DM What’s the name of that place? I was just there last night. Club Lucky in Bucktown.

OT What’s your favorite make out spot in Chicago?
DM Home.

OT Cubs or Sox?
DM Whoever is winning.

OT What’s the worst thing about Chicago?
DM There is no worst part of Chicago. Chicago is perfect!

To learn more about Equality Illinois, visit http://www.eqil.org/

I can’t be the only one. I can’t, because it happens to all of us. No, not getting Katy Perry’s "Teenage Dream" stuck in our heads. Death. I don’t remember how I found out about death, but from the age of four on, I feared it. Not a quiet terror, but a sobbing, sleepless, wake up the neighbors who call the police because they suspect I’m being hacked to death by my parents kind of panic. Now I knew that each person, each animal and tree and--God help me-- the planet itself held within it an expiration date, I couldn’t comprehend how my friends went on playing foursquare and eating glue.

Though my death fixation lasted a decade, ultimately, through some peculiar combination of imagination and denial I managed to force my dread to the periphery of my consciousness, where it reached up to bop me over the head only every few months. Recently however, the apprehension has sidled center stage again, upstaging my usual obsessions. While it’s a relief to no longer worry that the eunuch vampire from "Let the Right One" In lives between my washer and dryer, this mortality anxiety sure is taking up a lot of my time.

While very few people join me when I run nightly down Foster street screaming, “We’re all gonna die,” I know others like me exist and it’s for you I’ve compiled this list.

Things to do in Chicago When You’re Terrified to Die

1. Attend A.J. Durand’s Queer Yoga Workshop at Yogaview.
Running every Saturday July 2-July 30 from 2:00-3:15p.m., this class is specifically geared to provide queer folks curious about yoga with a safe, supportive, and fun environment. If you’re lucky, the practice will lend you peace and clarity. If you’re like me, you’ll have to flee the room because shavasana means corpse pose.
(Note: Heterosexuals can achieve a similar state of serenity by drinking twenty beers at a Cubs game and then preventing the Clark bus from moving more than two feet at a time.)

2. Visit XOJane, the new website launched this week by 90’s alternative women’s magazine darling, Jane Pratt. If you had a subscription to "Sassy" as a teenager, the familiar names of her contributors and editors will induce a form of nostalgia, which, if you are lucky, will fill you with awe as to how far you’ve come. If you’re like me, you’ll drop to the floor moaning as if trampled by time’s grime march.

3. Come to A Taste of StoryStudio, an evening of wine, cheese, and StoryStudio classes designed to help students interested in honing their writing skills at this Chicago mainstay. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. sharp May 20. If you’re lucky, you’ll come away pleasantly buzzed and brimming with inspiration. If you’re like me, you’ll spend the night certain the end of the world is mere hours away.

4. Sample free frozen yogurt at the opening of Red Mango’s new Loyola location. The giveaway runs 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., also May 20. If you’re lucky, you’ll enjoy a delicious, low fat desert in the vicinity of an institution of higher learning. If you’re like me you’ll convince yourself it’s possible to choke to on yogurt. Or maybe freeze to death from the inside.

5. Adhere to out-of-touch-rich-celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow’s list of places to visit while in Chicago. (This item is kind of like if a genie granted you three wishes and you used one to wish for a bunch of extra wishes, because it allows me to refer readers to a slew of other Chicago options while technically not exceeding five selections. I’m very clever.) If you’re lucky, you’ll have a number of lovely dining experiences and learn how it feels to sleep on 100,000 thread count sheets. If you’re me, you won’t be able to afford any of Paltrow’s suggestions, but the smoldering envy you’ll experience just might distract you from your mortality.

A freelance writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sarah Terez Rosenblum, when not writing, supports herself as a figure model, Spinning instructor and teacher at Chicago's Story Studio. Inevitably one day she will find herself lecturing naked on a spinning bike. She’s kind of looking forward to it actually. IMPORTANT: the official Our Town site doesn't support comments. Join in the conversation by followingOur Town on Facebook and Sarah on Twitter: @SarahTerez

Photo by Stephanie Richardson and Jeff Steinmetz

John Stamos may be tweeting backstage passes to Beach Boys fans and Lady Gaga personally Facebooking with followers, but in this moment of increasing celebrity accessibility, folk group Girlyman can honestly say they did it first and maybe with more integrity.

Formed in 2001, the band has always maintained a close relationship with their supporters, arguably grounds for their consistently swelling fan base. However, according to band member Ty Greenstein, it was member Doris Muramatsu’s 2010 leukemia diagnosis, that further solidified that unique connection. Now in addition to down to earth post-gig conversations and personally mailed CDs, the girly people have begun openly blogging about everything from body dysmorphia to musical self-doubt.

While on tour, Greenstein spoke with Our Town about Muramatsu’s positive prognosis, recent addition, JJ Jones and why the band will never change its name.

Our Town Most bands say the secret to maintaining a good working relationship is time apart, but Girlyman socializes on and off the road. Why does it work?
Ty Greenstein We really are best friends, soul mates who share a life path. The bond was personal first. Our lives lined up in this incredible way so we get to be in a band together and take our life lessons into our work. That's really how it happened, not the other way around where a band of random musicians gets together and hopes they have some personal chemistry. In some ways the band is a theater where we can play out all our dynamics and work through whatever comes up, which we're all committed to doing. If things feel good in the relationships, the music also feels solid, and if personal revolutions are happening, I think you can hear it in the music or see it in the shows.

OT Recently you added JJ to the group. Was the addition as seamless as it appeared?
TG It really was. I forget she's a newcomer; we all laugh at the same jokes, obsess over good food, and have long conversations about the meaning of life. Her vision for the band is very much in line with ours; we want to keep opening people up in all kinds of ways with music, and basically just have fun and keep growing. But she also has a freshness to her approach and a perspective that having done this for almost ten years, we sometimes lack. Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to have gotten this far.

OT You famously have a very open relationship with your fans. Any regrets?
TG After Doris was diagnosed in November, that kind of blew the whole thing open. We were all personally shaken and humbled. I was facing the mortality of my best friend of thirty years, plus the specter of an end to the band and my career. I didn't care anymore about arbitrary divisions between "performer" and "fan," and frankly, the fans helped get us through. They wrote to us, prayed and visualized for us, sent packages and donations and inundated Doris with love. Everyone should have that kind of support network when the sh*t hits the fan. We know how lucky we are, and how special our fans are.

OT How is Doris?
TG She's doing really great, responding very well to the drug she's on. She's active and for the most part, leads a normal life. This is largely thanks to the incredible advances in CML treatment over the past ten years. The drug she's on was only approved as a first-line treatment a month before her diagnosis, talk about being born at the right time. These targeted therapies have turned CML from a terminal disease where people had a few years at most, to a chronic illness that just needs to be managed. At her three-month checkup, Doris went from 100% leukemic cells at diagnosis down to 4%.

OT What was the personal and professional impact on the band?
TG In six words or less, it has put everything into perspective. Doris started keeping a blog about her health on CaringBridge, and then we basically turned our whole website into a blog where we post our thoughts about life in general, in addition to pictures and videos of the band in action and behind the scenes. I think the whole "fame" thing has been transformed in a great way with social networking and real time interaction via the internet. Everyone is just a person now, and we're sharing our lives.

OT What can fans do to help?
TG Please keep coming to the shows. And if you want to make a donation to Doris or to the band, you can do so at http://girlyman.com/donate/

OT Careers in the arts can be rife with disappointment. Any derailing early experiences you could share?
TG Plenty. Before Girlyman, when it was just me and Doris as the Garden Verge, we once played a gig where so few people came that not only didn't we make anything but we had to pay the sound guy his fifty bucks out of our own pockets. Then when Girlyman formed, there were plenty of places that wouldn't book us, even for free. Those early days can be pretty rough. I've blocked out a lot of it. We once played a whole show to one person. That was pretty special.

Photo by Honey Lee Cottrell

For almost three decades, feminist sex writer Susie Bright has taken America on a guided tour of her sex life, offering political ruminations, writing advice and titillating anecdotes. But what do we really know about her life outside of the bedroom? Her new memoir, “Big Sex, Little Death” addresses this omission, offering characteristically frank, often startling accounts of topics as varied as Bright’s early work as a founding member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, her fraught family life, and the truth behind her ongoing feud with anti-sex crusaders.

Our Town Why write a memoir now?
Susie Bright When the publisher approached me, my parents had died recently and I was learning things I never would have discovered if they were alive. I thought I knew everything about my family, but there are people who come out of the woodwork, there’s a box of letters that falls in your lap. I also had a twenty-year perspective on the highlights of the feminist sex wars, things I didn’t discuss when we were in the thick of it. It’s funny how some of the biggest things in your life, you realize you’ve never told anyone.

OT You write that women’s memoirs are often diet books or tell-alls. Why?
SB It’s the snake biting its own tale. Mainstream media and publishers say no to anything truly original. I once proposed a book about my experience as a sex positive feminist and parent to one of my former publishers who said, ‘You can’t be a mom and a sex goddess at the same time.’ I laughed my ass off, although I could only laugh so much because it was a rejection. The professional climate is rife with male chauvinism. A friend of mine’s daughter recently got an editing post at a digital media company, but she wants to do international reporting. She’ll hafta buy her own ticket and airdrop herself into the gnarliest situation she can, because of the gender rigidity in mainstream media publishing. There’s a tracking regime, like, ‘Would you like to write about diapers? How about edit these very important men’s work? You don’t want to do news and hard Op-ed, are you kidding? Wouldn’t you feel better working in PR and marketing and all these other areas where strangely, there are lots of other women?’ We’re faced with those obstacles, which you can get really mad about, and stamp your feet, but you might also find you’re participating. It’s not enough for me to worry about where I get to publish or what I get to say. What am I doing in terms of publishing other women’s real life adventure stories? If I’m not doing that then I can just shut up.

OT Reading your book, I was struck by your bravery. You talked your way out of many explosive situations. Do you look back in amazement?
SB In the moment I didn’t have any doubts. Like, I have to hitchhike to San Francisco, what the hell are you doing obstructing my path with your gun and your psychosis? Afterward is when you open your eyes in the middle of the night. In a narrative, of course, those elements are dramatic highlights. Most of the time my life could be called ‘the kindness of strangers.’ I’m talking to you from Baltimore, where I’ve just been kissed and fed and treated like a queen by people I’d never met. Being plugged in and open to new experiences is definitely worth it.

OT You write about anti-sex advocate Kittie Mackinnon publicly decrying porn and rough sex, but privately sleeping with a woman who in your mind embodied kinky sex. Why do people like her condemn what they enjoy?
SB Look at the GOP Christian zealots who get caught with their pants down in the public square. Same reason, they believe they’re special. If they have a kinky sex life, if they like naughty pictures, if they entertain themselves with taboos, if they have secret prostitute friends, they can handle it because they’re different, they’re entitled. You see this all the time among the uber elite. It’s an aristocratic point of view, which is why sexual freedoms and sexual speech is the foundation of democracy, the litmus test. If people can’t make their own decisions about their sex life and speak freely about it--we’re talking everything from reproductive rights to what you like to fantasize about-- it means there’s a group of people setting up and enforcing public policy in vindictive and prejudiced ways.

Interviewing someone you’ve never heard of is easy. Sure you gotta research, but becoming informed on a deadline is cake compared to fielding a phone call from an icon. Amber Benson may be a minor mainstream star, but for fans of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” she’s a major deity. Thankfully, she’s also one of the most genuine, forthcoming celebrities I’ve had the privilege of interviewing. On the final leg of her book tour, Benson hits Challengers Comics Saturday April 9th, and she’s looking forward to it, but maybe not as much as she’s looking forward to grabbing a burger while she’s in town.

Our Town How’s the tour?
Amber Benson A little crazy. I feel like I haven’t been home in months. We had a really amazing turn out in New York and Houston, people waiting in the rain, crazy stuff.

OT You knew early you wanted to act. When did that goal crystallize?
AB I was a hyperactive child. My mom put me in ballet and lots of after school programs to wear me out so I would sleep. I remember being onstage in “The Nutcracker,” this little marshmallow rolling out of some guys skirt and realizing I did not like ballet. It’s beautiful and I appreciate it, but the rigor was not very appealing as a child. But being onstage and having people clap? That was like catnip, so I sort of matriculated over to the drama world.

OT Acting led you to everything from producing to writing for TV to novels; surprising or part of the plan?
AB If you have a brain and you’re a woman, being one thing isn’t enough. As a creative individual, you have to diversify. Plus you can’t really make a living as an actor. A small percentage does, but then there’s everybody else who’s struggling. As an actor, you’re regurgitating somebody else’s dialogue invented in their world rather than yours. I knew I would go crazy just being an actor. I had always written short stories, bad poetry, plays, that sort of thing. When I was approached about doing the Willow/Tara comics for Dark Horse, I was excited to try something new and writing-centric. After the BBC read the comics, Chris Golden and I were asked to do the “Ghosts of Albion,” an animated program. Then Random House asked us to novelize that universe, so that was my entré into writing long form prose.

OT "Death’s Daughter" was your first solo novel. Since then you’ve written two more. Is it getting easier?
AB I’m at work on the fourth as we speak. You have to treat writing like a business. I like to go places to write. Like, ok, I’m leaving to go to my office. I try to do 1500 to 3000 words every time I sit down. It’s daunting to see a blank computer screen and know you have to fill it with 90 to 100,000 words. But the process gets easier—maybe easier is the wrong word. I get better at the process because I’m doing it more. Especially revisio where the book comes together. You vomit it up as a first draft, then go back and rewrite until you get it to a place where it’s not vomit anymore, it’s cotton candy.

OT You blog, tweet and are active on facebook. Social media, boon for artists or distraction?
AB Traditional ways of reaching people don’t work anymore. Magazines and newspapers are going under, everything is becoming internet based. You have to use what you got and what we have is social media. It puts you in connection with fans in a very intimate way. It’s awesome but frightening because all the walls separating the creative from the real world are knocked down.

OT Any social media regrets?
AB I did something just stupid. I was trying to direct message a friend to give them my new e-mail address and whoops, it popped up on Twitter for everybody to see. But I work hard not to talk about where I am while I’m there. I was at the New York comic-con a couple years ago and another writer, a friend, Anton Struass was at the booth and I tweeted, “I’m at such and such booth,” and then I went to do my signing and he’s like, “dude you left and a bunch of people came over, going ‘where’s Amber, she says she’s here.’” I’m learning you have to be protective of your personal space. I’m not on Foursquare. If I get checked in it’s somebody else doing it and I have to beat them up later.

My crushes are unpredictable: one day the glistening ebony man on the adjacent elliptical, the next that dreadlocked checkout hobbit at Whole Foods. So when comedian Sarah King wrote to nominate a crush, I was intrigued but trepidatious. Also vaguely nauseated, but only because I was eating some yogurt I thought might have expired. Having a crush selected for me felt like being set up on a blind date, so like anyone in my position, I googled.

Turns out King isn’t just some yenta trying to tell me how to live my life, she’s Fate’s noble messenger. Her nominee, it seems, is no stranger. Unbeknownst to me, I’d seen her perform, even felt those familiar stirrings. At the time, however, my Rolodex of crushes fairly burst and I didn’t feel I could offer a new crush the attention and disquieting stares for which I’m known. But now, with King’s prodding, I’m ready to unveil actor/writer/producer Kate Lane, April’s Chicago Crush.

Name: Kate Lane
Hometown: Lexington, MA. Suburban, liberal, [home of the] "accidental" gunshot that started the whole American independence thing.
Profession: Actor. And on Friday and Saturday nights you can find me popping bottles at Excalibur.
Hobbies: I like to guess peoples astrological signs. If you're reading this, you're probably a Cancer or an Aries. Or a Gemini because those people are cray-cray.

Our Town Why acting?
Kate Lane My grandmother got me and my two sisters involved in acting when we were very young, not in the “Toddlers and Tiaras” kinda way, but in the performing Albee's “Three Tall Woman” in a barn in your grandmother's period dresses way. I can't not do it.

OT Other than that, what's your training?
KL Interlochen Arts Camp, Vassar's summer program for actors, and when I was seventeen, I walked into Richard Foreman's notorious Ontological Hysteric Theatre, [in New York City], asked if I could sweep floors for the summer, and ended up getting this amazing internship. Then I went to the conservatory at DePaul, which is basically like getting a degree in mind f***s. It was a wonderful experience.

OT You're an out actor. Any concerns?
KL It's not exactly in my best interest to be out as an ingénue, but a couple months ago, I [experienced] a life-changing event, involving a girl flying in from L.A. to sabotage my life and make me fall in love with her. She's a comedian, and together we sorta came out professionally, mainly because it was too big a love to [lie] about. [Since then], I’ve missed out on roles I would have been auditioning for. As one industry person put it, "we don't want you to be that lesbian girl,” but that doesn't much make sense to me. What if a guy only loved his wife, would he not be able to play Romeo with another actress? If you don't think I can play Juliet because I'm dating a girl, you don't understand a thing about what actors do.

Some know AJ Durand as a yoga teacher (perhaps the only one to claim Johnny Weir-asana as a pose. In the realm of yoga humor, this is actually really funny.) Others may recognize him as Our Town’s first ever Crush of the Month (Because love means never having to say “Fine, I’ll stop following your every move and also I will return your underwear.”)

Lately, however, Durand has been living the dream as a gender fluid android, host of Sh*t’s and Giggles, a monthly themed variety show. S&G, which next takes place April third at The Parlour, is Chicago’s one stop shop for all things gender-bending, think “Cabaret” if Joel Grey were an alien android (and I’m not saying he isn’t.) This month, the line-up includes Sherri Stein, Marlene Biscotti (Kristen Studard), Steve Hnilicka and more. Space is limited, so arrive before the 9:30 curtain.

Our Town How did you come up with the Trandroid character?
AJ Durand In the summer of 2005 I was playing with some makeup and costume pieces and my neighbor had a camera and we created this being who appeared on the roof, curious to explore the sexual nature of humans. As a performer, I wanted to blur gender. Trandroid is ambi-gendered, all genders.

OT Trandroid has killer style. Where does zie shop?
AJ Oh, you know, all the finest boutiques, like the village discount thrift in Roscoe Village, Ragstock, my closet, my friend's closets, you know Plato, right? I try not to spend too much money on Mamsir Trandroid because I tend to hack apart and sew together most of it. Although, the sweater dress just made an appearance unaltered. Some garments are just built for bots!

OT What do you look for in a performer?
AJ Light and cheeky, over-the-top sexy, gaudy, but never mean. I don't think mean is entertaining. [We’ve had] comedians, burlesquer/boylesque, drag kings and queens, animal impersonators, jugglers, sword swallowers, belly dancers, and once we had a stripper robot. I encourage people to add a touch of queer to the mix and many do. I send out a once monthly "call to perform" email to performers. If anyone would like to be added, email me at TrandroidChronicles@gmail.com or "like" Trandroid on Facebook.

OT What aspect of the show are you particularly excited about this month?
AJ I don't just host the show, I host the event, so it's nice to see some familiar faces and meet new people and talk about gender and queerness and fun. Every month I'm excited to hang out with the audience. We have some returning artists this month and some new, so I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with. [Also], Maxx Hollywood, a former Chicago King is performing and never fails to win our hearts!

Writer/comic Kelly Beeman and the women of Gayco know their way around gay-themed comedy. A not-for-profit theatre, Gayco has been bringing the LGBTQ fun since 1996. This year, Gayco presents Breast in Show, an original lesbian sketch piece.

Overcoming her fear of public spelling, Beeman spoke via e-mail with Our Town about the show adding, “You can make fun of my spelling if you want. I'm from Virginia.”
Don’t worry, she’s been edited.

Our Town Why a lesbian comedy show?
Kelly Beeman [At] Gayco our audience and most of our ensemble is gay [but] we find in some gay and lesbian shows, the lesbian material gets overshadowed by the big crazy gay material.

OT What’s the line between laughing at and with a minority group?
KB I always think its fine to laugh at yourself. And it’s always fine to laugh at someone when they are being ignorant (looking at you Fox News). For me, its like how I can make fun of my family, but you better not.

OT What writing the show like?
KB Our director Katie Watson gave us a lot of assignments. Instead of bringing in a fully written scene, we improvised off concepts and beat sheets. It made this show a truly collaborative effort.

OT Tell us about your co-performers.
KB Well, there's Judy Fabjance, one of Gayco’s founders, an amazing, smart improviser and writer, great at taking issues from her life and writing about them. Kathy Betts is a fellow nerd. Her Ellen impression is great. Kelly Yacono is the "actress" of the bunch, drama as well as comedy. She has an amazing singing voice. Michelle Marquardt is one of the best improvisers in the bunch and a great dancer. Arianna Wheat is the newest to Gayco and has a great future ahead. Her spoken word poem scene is amazing and something you don't normally see in sketch comedy.

What happens when you combine one talented comedian and singer and one rocking pianist and improviser? You get LA-based lesbian cabaret duo, That’s What She Said. Comprised of pianist Kathryn Lounsbery and singer Amy Turner, the two have been wowing LA audiences since 2007. Now it’s Chicago’s chance. Thank goodness they brought their rainbow jackets!

Our Town What brought you together?
Kathryn Lounsbery I was looking to do something different [when] I saw Amy perform [at Second City], improvising amazing and funny songs. I knew I had to work with her.
Amy Turner After the show, Kathryn gave me her card, and we started working on songs that were already written. Then we started writing our own.
KL And they happened to be about lesbians.
OT You two are a couple. Any challenges?
KL Of course!
AT You answered really fast.
KL See what I mean? Can you imagine living AND working with this attitude?

BY SARAH TEREZ ROSENBLUM

As a kid I loved The Keatons. A fictional family, but unabashedly liberal and loving, they reminded me of my own family, just funnier. Like my dad, Steven Keaton even sported a beard. While Alex was my crush and unlikely fashion muse (baseball shirts, dark Levis and red windbreakers? Check check check.), Elise intrigued me. My best friend’s mother, Barb, was a lesbian, an open secret I wouldn’t discover for a few years. For reasons I couldn’t articulate, Elise reminded me of Barb.

When Meredith Baxter outed herself on the Today show in 2009, I felt as if I’d always known. Whether or not Baxter, married three times, spent her life dodging the obvious or truly came to her lesbianism later in life, her sexual fluidity seems part of a recent trend: celebrities like Cynthia Nixon and Kelly McGillis going gay.

Queer culture vulture and lesbian writer Trish Bendix is one of many women writing on the subject in a new anthology, “Dear John, I Love Jane.” A forthright investigation of female sexuality and personal choice, the book is comprised of essays, some witty, some wrenching, about women leaving men for women.

Bendix, who spoke with Our Town about sexual mutability and Elise’s exodus, will read from the collection at 7:30 p.m., Friday November 12th at Women and Children First.

Our Town Tell us about the anthology.

Trish Bendix Seal Press publishes some of the best feminist and queer books, especially when it comes to collections. Around the time the editors were putting out a call for submissions, there was this craze with Kelly McGillis and Meredith Baxter coming out, so a lot of publications were writing pieces on "the late in life lesbian." I came out at age 20 - not exactly middle age. When I heard about “Dear John, I Love Jane,” I wondered if I'd be the right fit or not, but my essay fits right in amongst the writings from women of all ages and places who assumed they were straight until attraction proved otherwise.

BY SARAH TEREZ ROSENBLUM

Seems everyone from Kathy Griffin to Barack Obama has joined advice columnist and all-around messiah Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better Project,” reaching out to gay youth. But director Stu Maddox is focusing his efforts on an often forgotten, perhaps even more vulnerable group, LGBT elders. His film, “Generation Silent” takes an intimate look at the lives of older LGBT people, their struggles with health care workers, homophobic legislation, and yes, even bullying.

Maddox says he became interested in the subject while doing an earlier film “about two guys who have been together for more than half a century. Doing the film, it became clear [seniors] have a whole lot of fears and anxieties around some pretty scary issues like social security, survivor benefits and being able to take care of each other in nursing facilities. The inequality that’s out there between gay and straight couples really magnifies when you get to the other end of your life.”

"Generation Silent," which screens on November Sixth at the Reeling Film Festival, represents Maddox’s effort to direct attention to these issues. Along with Executive Producer, Barrie Atkin, Maddox has been working to raise funds and awareness, opening minds and gaining supporters along the way. According to Maddox, “Making the film was the easy part. As an independent filmmaker, [now] is the most stressful. We’re doing a lot of fund-raising, film festivals, hopefully starting a grassroots effort to raise money and continue growing the viewings of this film. We’re just trying to change people one group at a time.”

BY SARAH TEREZ ROSENBLUM

As you know, crushes are my purpose, my sustenance, my raison d’etre (that’s French for grape). Succor for my vacant soul, they distract me from daily hardships.

Standing room only on the Clark bus? Jewel’s out of sandwich meat? Facebook won’t let me sign in? With my crushes to bolster me, these trials, though agonizing, can be endured. November’s crush is particularly potent, necessary as the days grow short and Seasonal Deficit Disorder sets in. Playwright, performer and co-founder of Hell in a Handbag Productions, David Cerda, first drew my unblinking attention as Lt. Betty Blitzen in "Silent Night of the Lambs,” Hell in a Handbag’s 2009 Christmas show.

Since then I’ve been delighted to spot him (purely accidentally of course) at a range of benefits, street fests and theatrical productions. Captivating in drag or out, Cerda is a sort of two for one obsession: dapper man and classy dame.

Sarah Terez Rosenblum (@SarahTerez) is an MFA-holding writer, teacher and Spinning instructor. She's also the Theater Listings Editor for Centerstage Chicago. Look for her posts twice a week.

What will the gay daughter of an ordained Southern Baptist Minister and a deaf mother say onstage at Gorilla Tango Theater? Not a politically incorrect joke, but a legitimate question. Find the answer at comedian Lianna Carrera’s solo show, “Father, Son and The Holy Gay! or Where in the World is Jennifer Knapp?” From her debut at age four in The Deaf Choir for Jesus to her mom’s secret to dodging a speeding ticket; she’ll tell all on July 18th and 25th at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, here’s a sneak peak into Carrera’s irreverent mind.

Halsted Tastes Better
6 p.m.-midnight on Halsted between Belmont and Addison; $25-$30
Foodies around the city unite at this Boystown feast featuring local restaurants like HB, Chicago Diner and Ann Sather.

Caribou, Budos Band
6:30 p.m at Millennium Park; free
Experimental Canadian rockers, Caribou, perform a free show as part of the New Music Mondays series. Their synthesized and airy dance grooves will be a perfect foil to the grit and thunder brought by Afro-rock aficionados Budos Band.

Miss Wicker Park Pageant
8 p.m. at Double Door; $10
Help crown the queen of Wicker Park as a panel that includes rapper Rhymefest will choose among 10 finalists. The winner will rule the land of Wicker Park all year long (and also gets a $1,000 cash prize).