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Aug. 25th, 2003 09:25 amIt was a busy weekend, but good. On Saturday I worked the chorus booth at Ebony Pride; a few women expressed interest in singing with the choir. Mostly we spoke to a lot of folks who had never heard of us and were curious. I've only been with the choir for two years, but it's been in existence since '89. It's a little disheartening to constantly hear "I didn't even know there was a women's chorus" especially when it comes from queer women attending a queer event. Clearly we need to improve our networking skills; not just getting advertising, but getting out in the community so new people see us. It's a long haul, but I think that making the rounds of all the Pride festivals in town is a good start. Dyke March is coming up, and we absolutely need to attend (and hopefully sing). There is much to be done.
A cool thing; we connected with a woman who's independently producing a concert for a Jazz-world beat duo. She says she knew nothing of the process before she started, but like a good 70's-era lesbian feminist she decided that if no one else would put on the show, then by golly she'd do it. So far so good, from what I can tell. We got to talking to her about shows, and about cds--specifically how we as a group would like to record one. We're going to Montreal next summer for a choral festival, and it would be a super groovy thing to have a disc to sell-swap-whatever. She seems to think that it wouldn't be half as difficult or expensive as we think, and has now decided that she will find out what it takes for a vocal group to record a cd. There you have it!
During this whole exchange, one of the women in the choir observed that "the men (ie men's chorus) record cd's, but the men always have more money than we do." I disagreed with her. As a whole, I don't see the members of the Gay Men's Chorus as inherently being well-to-do, or having more money than our members; a lot of them are working schlubs like us. I just think the men just know how to network. That's something we as an organization need to improve. Hopefully we made a good start this weekend.
A cool thing; we connected with a woman who's independently producing a concert for a Jazz-world beat duo. She says she knew nothing of the process before she started, but like a good 70's-era lesbian feminist she decided that if no one else would put on the show, then by golly she'd do it. So far so good, from what I can tell. We got to talking to her about shows, and about cds--specifically how we as a group would like to record one. We're going to Montreal next summer for a choral festival, and it would be a super groovy thing to have a disc to sell-swap-whatever. She seems to think that it wouldn't be half as difficult or expensive as we think, and has now decided that she will find out what it takes for a vocal group to record a cd. There you have it!
During this whole exchange, one of the women in the choir observed that "the men (ie men's chorus) record cd's, but the men always have more money than we do." I disagreed with her. As a whole, I don't see the members of the Gay Men's Chorus as inherently being well-to-do, or having more money than our members; a lot of them are working schlubs like us. I just think the men just know how to network. That's something we as an organization need to improve. Hopefully we made a good start this weekend.
