Portland Queer Arts Spectacular Highlights Local Artists and Performers

The Portland Queer Arts Foundation is hosting its first ever Portland Queer Arts Spectacular, an event highlighting local queer artists and performers, at 5 pm Sunday, Sept. 8, at Alberta Rose Theatre in Northeast Portland.

The event features dance performances by Open Space Dance and Tony Carnell; music by Garrett Bond, Kimo Camat, Juliet Terrill, Mak Kastelic, Matt Katz, and Patrick Rowley; spoken word performances by Roxy Allen, Avery Gadling, and Sage Lilac; drag performances by Val E. Dation (who also serves as MC) and Fool’isha; and video art by Michael Gearheart.

“This is our first event; we’re a relatively new organization,” says Portland Queer Arts Foundation co-founder John T. Perry. “Our goal is to create a platform for performers to showcase their art and showcase work that is authentically queer and authentically themselves.”

Perry, a 20-year veteran of the tech industry and supporter of the arts, started the Portland Queer Arts Foundation earlier this year alongside animator Chryssa Cooke Sanders and musicians Alexander Frazier and Gary Carroll to support local queer artists through grants, scholarship programs, and events such as the Spectacular.

“We believe art brings people together regardless of politics and can create a social container for change,” Perry says. “We founded this organization in order to support artists directly and give them the opportunity to tell queer stories and create an environment that can be a force for positivity and change in the community.”

Though this is the first Spectacular, Perry hopes the event will become a yearly tradition.

“I think it’s a very authentic and authentic and moving place,” he says. “People will laugh, people will cry. It’ll be an awesome evening.”