Eugene Weekly : Calendar : 06.08.06

Years after the whole "love that dare not speak its name" thing with Oscar Wilde, Audre Lorde (one of our heroes) said, "Your silence will not protect you." Writers and artists have been taking her seriously ever since, and right on! It's LGBT Pride Month (the PDX Pride parade hits the streets next weekend), so we're happy to see that both Oratrix Productions and Gertrude Press present verbally gifted queer artists Thursday, June 8. We might start off at Tsunami Books with UO prof Henry Alley, PDX poet Kate Grey and Cali poet Elizabeth Simson; then we'll run/bike/bus/whatever to Sam Bond's, where Amy Mahoney, Katinka Kraft, Tara Hardy, Lane Stroud, four powerhouses of the Seattle spoken word scene (pictured), are joined by Eugene faves Jorah La Fleur, Marietta Bonaventure and Dakota Belle Witt in the Out of Apathy tour. Combined with the Q Center's First Anniversary Party Friday night, it's a queer weekend to remember! See Calendar.

Parents. They're wonderful sources of food, rules, wisdom ... and magazines. Specifically, our parents had boxes of National Geographics from back in the good ol' days. You know, when the Cold War was the Cold War, our government was funding "opposition" parties in Afghanistan and you could get in trouble for showing National Geographic pix at school. Digging through those piles of slick magazines pretty much made up for the fact that we didn't have computers or iPods. Of course, you can do far more with old magazines than wow your peers with images: You can find yummy recipes, new arts & crafts or Alice Munro stories in old New Yorkers. The Friends of the Eugene Public Library Magazine Sale provides just the chance you need to fulfill your dream of owning every Gourmet that ever wended its way to Eugene. Hey wait, that's our dream! Get your grubby hands off our loot! See Saturday Calendar.

Six years ago, Lane County Judge Lyle Velure sentenced Jeff "Free" Luers to more than 22 years in prison, essentially for ridding the world of a few SUVs. Recently, a bunch more radical environmental activists have been arrested in what some are calling an eco-defense scare, including local activist Jeff Hogg, who refused to testify about the activities of his friends. The Jeff Luers Support Network, Civil Liberties Defense Center and Eugene Peaceworks sponsor Resisting the Green Scare: A Night of Solidarity with Eco-Defense Prisoners at Sam Bond's. There's music from Resident Anti-Hero (pictured right), Visit Me In The Frozen Torso Heap and The Ol' Howl and Smash, and Cali activist and author Derrick Jensen speaks about his new book, Endgame. This is super-serious stuff, so serious we're actually worried to write this paragraph. We hope we're still around for the event. See Saturday Calendar.

Remember that whole controversy about professors from the OSU Forestry School tryin' to put the hurt on the grad student who published a paper in Science that said logging the Biscuit fire wouldn't help recovery? You gotta wonder if the timber peeps ever learn. They're still trying to go crazy on the Biscuit — the Forest Service just announced that part of the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area will be auctioned on June 9 — and the Cascadia Wildlands Project is gonna hang with 'em like a good public watchdog. With the Blues for Biscuit benefit at Cozmic Pizza on Friday, the CWP shows it won't let the pillagers of our heritage get us down for long. Local faves the Dahman Beck Band and J. Reily keep the crowd suitably tuned into the blues, but you won't be depressed 'cause your fundage helps fight the good fight. See Friday Calendar.