THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Lit notes: The New York Times Book Review ( 3/26 ) looks at 'The Collected Poems of C.P. Cavafy,' translated by Aliki Barnstone. Cavafy, an Egyptian Greek who was gay, wrote poetry that influenced many later poets. Writing at the turn of the last century his poems '... obsess over the unattainable,' usually a pretty but callow young man or even more unattainable, a beautiful man centuries dead. Cavafy may have been reticent but he never hid behind vague pronouns—the object of his desire was always referred to as 'he.'

Same lit file: Lesbian author Sarah Waters jumps from her Victorian historical novels ( such as Tipping the Velvet ) to World War II. The Night watch follows a group of women through the Blitz in London. Not as bouncy as her dyke Victorians but a good read. ( The Chicago Sun-Times—4/16 )

Still the same lit file: Our Oscar is still being successfully revived 100 years after his death. The New Yorker ( 5/8 ) greets a new version of Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest with enthusiasm. Lynn Redgrave stars in the play as Lady Bracknell. The reviewer does say that Wilde's distaste for women shows but a different interpreter might say, 'How much can Oscar dislike women if he gives them the best lines?' He's not showing they're catty; he's showing they're smarter.

Did you catch the Chicago Tribune's story ( 4/23 ) on Chicago's underground ball scene where gay men vogue, strut and dance in full and half drag weekly and monthly? 'Young gay black men form houses that act as fraternities or families—often named after fashion designers like the House of Escada or House of Balenciaga.' This tradition dates to the 1930s says the Trib, but gay scholars say it goes back decades before that.