Bent Alaska | Tag Archive | Juneau Pride Chorus

Juneau Pride Chorus at Marine Park — Friday, June 22

Thursday, 21 June 2012 – 1:37 PM | Comments Off

Please join Juneau Pride Chorus for a Concert in the Park this Friday, June 23 at Marine Park — the first of three great Pride events this weekend in Juneau.

Juneau Pride Chorus holds 2012 spring concert Saturday at the JACC

Friday, 20 April 2012 – 11:19 AM | Comments Off

Please join the Juneau Pride Chorus for their annual concert, this Saturday, April 21, at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. The concert is sponsored by PFLAG Juneau and the Pride Foundation.

Pride Foundation announces 2011 Alaska grantees

Wednesday, 14 December 2011 – 1:30 PM | Comments Off

Pride Foundation announced yesterday $10,000 in grants to five Alaska nonprofits in three Alaska cities — Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau. Congratulations!

Stories of Pride: Pride Foundation presents an evening of storytelling and celebration at Out North

Thursday, 1 December 2011 – 9:25 AM | Comments Off

Pride Foundation would like to express our gratitude to the many donors and volunteers who have made this year a success with an intimate evening of storytelling and celebration. Light food and beverages will be served, coming out stories will be powerful, and “thank you’s” will be abundant. This is a free event. All are welcome.

Juneau Pride Chorus presents gay & lesbian film festival for National Coming Out Day

Friday, 7 October 2011 – 2:34 PM | Comments Off

Juneau Pride Chorus — “a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers and grandmothers bonded by love of singing and desire to celebrate diversity” — will celebrate National Coming Out Day this coming Tuesday, October 11, with a festival of gay and lesbian short films from some of the country’s top film festivals. The Pride Chorus will sing at intermission.

Admission is free, but donations are not only welcomed but encouraged: Pride Chorus is raising funds in hopes of going, for its first time ever, to the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) International Chorus Festival, which will be held in Denver in July 2012. GALA’s festival happens only once every four years.

National Coming Out Day (NCOD) is an internationally observed civil awareness day observed by members of the LGBTQA communities on October 11 every year (or October 12 in the United Kingdom). Its date was chosen in commemoration of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, held on October 11, 1987. National Coming Out Day is also an important for another reason, the Juneau Empire reports: the Juneau Pride Chorus held its very first rehearsal on National Coming Out Day in 1997.

The Juneau Empire continues,

Pride Chorus lays claim to the title of Juneau’s only year-round chorus, not counting church choirs. It rehearses every Tuesday from 5:30–7 p.m. at Resurrection Lutheran Church, open to the (female) public—to listen or to sing.

In fact, Pride Chorus prides itself, no pun intended, on its unrestrictive admission policy, which does not limit membership by audition, voice part or even sexual orientation.

“You don’t have to be LGBT to be a member of Pride Chorus, just supportive of our causes,” [Pride Chorus director Leslie] Wood said, who estimates that a third of the women in the chorus are lesbian, a third bisexual and a third, allies.

“You don’t have to be able to sing, either, but it helps.”

Juneau Pride Chorus holds an annual concert in April and also performs annually at Alaska Folk Festival and sometimes for World AIDS Day.

If you’re in Juneau, make time next Tuesday evening for some terrific films and terrific music. As one of Bent Alaska’s friends — a Pride Chorus member — wrote on our Facebook wall yesterday, “Come hear us sing — it will be a blast!” And don’t forget to chip in to help the Pride Chorus on its way to GALA 2012!

Date/time: Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 to 9:30 PM
Location: Gold Town Nickelodeon Theater, 171 Shattuck Way, Juneau, AK (see map)
Cost of admission: Admission is free; donations accepted and encouraged: this is a fundraiser for Juneau Pride Chorus.
Further info: see Facebook events page

Growing Alaska’s LGBTQ non-profits and students

Tuesday, 19 April 2011 – 5:25 PM | Comments Off

Tiffany McClain is coming to events in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau this month to talk about Pride Foundation and the good work they’re doing to fund LGBTQ non-profits and students in Alaska.

Sunrise to Sunset: Juneau Pride Chorus concert

Monday, 18 April 2011 – 7:39 PM | Comments Off

Juneau Pride Chorus concert - Sunrise to Sunset The Juneau Pride Chorus had the honor of opening the Alaska Folk Festival last week, and announced their annual concert will be on Saturday, April 30 at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC). Chorus member Marsha Buck describes the songs they will sing at the concert and a goal for 2012:

We are singing 12 songs during the upcoming concert on April 30, including the coming out song “Annie” by Fred Small in which a teacher comes out to the rest of her faculty, the two songs heard at Folk Festival (“Over the Rainbow” and “Breakaway”), a set of three mostly humorous songs about relaxation and meditation including “Uh Huh” by Holly Near, two complex environmental songs entitled “The Peace of Wild Things” and “Sky Dances,” and we will end our concert with two jazz numbers accompanied by saxophone and percussion and bass – joined by local jazz singer Vicky Van Fleet. Other pieces include “Thank You” in several languages by Elise Witt and the gorgeous “Arise My Love” by Joan Szymko.

For this performance we are a chorus of 30 women and we have an additional 8 members who are unable to sing this concert because of schedule, family, or health conflicts.

We are beginning plans now to travel to Denver in July 2012 to sing in the GALA Choruses Festival (Gay And Lesbian Association of choruses) so the funds raised by ticket sales, donations, and the baked-goods silent auction will go toward our Denver travel fund.

We only do one major concert a season but perform in the Juneau community when asked throughout each season.

Last year’s concert was “Eye on Chicago,” a Chicago-themed concert and a fundraiser for the Chorus to participate in the 2010 Sister Singers Network Festival in Chicago. Previous concert themes were “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Strength” in 2009, and “Songs for the Soul” in 2008.

Juneau Pride Chorus is sponsored by PFLAG Juneau, and this year’s concert is cosponsored by Pride Foundation. Tiffany McClain, Pride Foundation’s regional organizer for Alaska, will be in Juneau for the concert. Stop by her table and nominate your favorite nonprofit for a mini-raffle. If your name gets pulled, the group will receive a $100 donation in your name from Pride Foundation.

Juneau Pride Chorus concert – Sunrise to Sunset
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Baked Goods Silent Auction at 6pm
Concert at 7:30pm
JACC, 350 Whittier Street

Tickets at the door:
$15 adults, $30 family
$12 students (K-12) and seniors (65+)

Pride Chorus keeps on singing

Sunday, 31 May 2009 – 3:16 PM | Comments Off

June 1 is Blogging for LGBT Families Day 2009. The Pride Chorus is “a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers & grandmothers” and Juneau Woman of Distinction Marsha Buck does her LGBT activism on behalf of her children, so this is Bent’s LGBT Families Day post. Last year’s post was Two Moms and Two Boys DO Make a Family.

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The Juneau Pride Chorus annual (spring) concert was early this year, ‘way back in February. In March, the Chorus sang at the annual AWARE Dinner, where Chorus member Marsha Buck was honored as a Juneau Woman of Distinction. In April, the Chorus sang at the Juneau Folk Festival. Then in May, they opened for a special concert by Emma’s Revolution.

“It was a privilege to open for Emma’s Revolution and sing a song with them,” writes Pride Chorus member Juanita Reese. “There was a big turn out, and they are wonderful people – funny, inspiring – with good music.”

The Pride Chorus also performed the opening set for the Women of Distinction Dinner. Marsha Buck attended the dinner with her daughter Lys, who was visiting from Wisconsin.

“She and her wife, Liz, and their two children are the ones on whose behalf I do my LGBT activism,” writes Marsha.

In addition to being a member of the Juneau Pride Chorus and a Juneau Woman of Distinction 2009, Marsha is a member of PFLAG Juneau and the Board President of Alaskans Together for Equality.

“These women were chosen for their dedication and relentless service to peace, justice and the empowerment of women,” reads the Women of Distinction 2009 page. “Each honoree has enriched the lives of women and children and has made a legacy of compassion out of their own lives.”

The 35th Annual Folk Festival described the Juneau Pride Chorus as “a chorus of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers & grandmothers bonded by a love of singing and & a desire to celebrate diversity.”

The theme of the Women’s Pride Chorus 2009 annual concert in February was Women’s Bodies, Women’s Strength. The concert was followed by a dance, with music performed by female musicians.