lifestyles
A place to feel welcome
In an attempt to better serve Lawrence's homosexual community, area establishments are sponsoring gay-friendly events.
Lisa Brunner is the manager of Teller's, 746 Massachusetts St. Brunner started the restaurant's "family night," which is held on Tuesdays and is one of several gay-friendly events in Lawrence.
By Kevin Hoffmann Kansan staff writer
With the abundance of nightclubs, restaurants and bars in Lawrence, it's hard to believe that some people want more.
But some members of Lawrence's gay community have expressed interest in seeing a gay club opened here.
Jay Elder, Lawrence senior, said he and his partner felt uncomfortable going to bars that attracted predominantly straight crowds.
"You never know how people are going to react in those kinds of bars," Elder said. "I think someone needs to open up a gay bar."
Kurt Zimmerer of Lawrence echoed Elder's uneasiness.
"I would not want to go into a straight bar as a couple," Zimmerer said. "We get weird looks all the time."
Tim Furnish of Lawrence said he also had experienced unpleasantries while in public with gay friends.
"Ive had people tell some pretty bad things at me," Furnish said.
Furnish said it was difficult to meet partners in a non-gay setting because he often was unsure of people's 'sexual orientations.
"I might go up and try to meet someone and get punched in the nose," he said.
Although Lawrence does not have a full-time gay club, many area establishments have begun sponsoring events at which gays can openly socialize.
Lisa Brunner, manager of Teller's, 746 Massachusetts St., said that her restaurant always had been gay-friendly but had not advertised it until a few months ago.
"Basically we recognized the fact that there is no gay bar in Lawrence," Brunner said.
In order to address the absence of gay bars, Brunner designated Tuesday nights as "family night," an event that has received a tremendous response from the gay community. "Family night" has become the restaurant's most popular night. From 9 p.m. to close on a recent Tuesday night, more than 200 patrons visited Teller's.
"They love it," Brunner said of the gay community. "I've had people say to me personally, 'Thank you very
much, it's so nice to have a place to go."
Brunner said that Teller's offered a relaxing atmosphere for the gay community.
"It's not like a dance club," she said. "You can come in here with a friend and have a drink and sit and chat. I am a lesbian myself, and I think that has helped us because our clientele will know our management understands and supports them."
Although Tuesday nights at Teller's are tailored to the gay community, Brunner said, everyone is welcome.
"We still get some of our straight clientele, as well," she said. "I'd say it's about 80 percent gays."
The Granada Theater, 1020 Massachusetts St., offers a more dance-oriented atmosphere for members of the gay community. Every Tuesday night, the club sponsors "Vogue," an event at which members
of the gay community can openly meet and dance.
"We wanted to generate an immediate dance opportunity for the gay community," said Ray Velasquez, who is the disc jockey for the event.
Velasquez said he was happy that Lawrence establishments were beginning to open their eyes to the needs of the gay community.
"The history of this town has always been gay-friendly," Velasquez said. "But, for one reason or another, there have been few places recently that tailored to that crowd."
But more than one crowd enjoys events toward the gay community. Velasquez said that gay clubs generally offered high-quality dance music.
"The dance culture and the gay culture go hand-in-hand," Velasquez said. "Some of the better clubs music
wise are the gay clubs."
Velasquez said that gay clubs often attracted a diverse crowd, something he first noticed while spinning records at parties sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas in the early 1980s.
"In noticed these parties drew a variety of people. Gays, straight, black, white, a lot of different people showed up," Velasquez said.
Even with the opportunities provided by Teller's and The Granada, some members of the gay community said they still would enjoy having a full-time gay bar in Lawrence.
"Most of the people here in Lawrence still go to Kansas City or Topeka," said Bill Mullin, Hoyt senior. "It's just more comfortable because you can go up to anyone and ask them to dance or talk to anyone without getting punched or having someone want to kill you."
Artist blends cultural influences
Print courtesy of Norman Ge
Art professor Norman Gee's oil and acrylic on canvas painting "Northeast Section Series with Portrait and Vessels"
Print courtesy of Norman Gee
"Northeast Section Series with Bottles and Plate Stunt." Acrylic on canvas.
By Kevin Hoffmann
Kansan staff writer
"When I was in California, I was still a student, so my work was basically Eurocentric," Gee said. "It wasn't until 1974, after I had lived here for about five years, that I started looking inward."
Although Norman Gee was surrounded by the West Coast's Chinese-American culture as an art student, he included little of his own Chinese heritage in his art.
When he took a job as an art professor at the University of Kansas, the San Francisco-born painter slowly began to incorporate his culture into his work.
Gee began depicting still-life objects from the homes of his parents and relatives in his paintings. Chinese-style figurines, dishes and furniture provided inspiration for his work.
It was then that Gee noticed that something was missing in his art — himself.
"I think an artist should connect with something inside of himself," he said. "So I started going back into my past, into the environment I grew up in."
"When I went back to Chinatown, I took many motifs, such as dragons and the different colors, and used them in my art," he said.
Gee became even more connected to his culture when he traveled to China and visited the region where his parents and grandparents had lived.
"On a personal level, that visit was one of the most profound things that I've ever experienced," Gee said. "It's going back to your roots, back to the motherland."
"Ispent my whole life in California, so when I first came here, this was such a strange place for me," Gee said. "This was such a profound place, I thought I should use it in my art."
But Gee couldn't escape the influence of the Midwest, where he had lived for 25 years with his wife and two children.
In order to capture the flavors of both the East and West, Gee began using aerial views of northeast Kansas as backgrounds for paintings that included Chinese objects.
"The West is a part of me, that's what I am," Gee said. "I am an American."
Carlos Villa, professor of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, said he appreciated the joining of cultures in Gee's work.
"He constructs a dialogue of the old Far East, the new Far East and the West," Villa said. "It's the view he has of his own culture."
Villa said Gee's art benefited from not being centered on one aspect of his background.
Gee said diversity was important in his work.
"It's not as if he has one kind of idea and then paints it," he said.
"I never like being too direct with anything," he said. "I'm always looking for an angle on what I'm doing."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MARCH 17, 1994
PAGE10
People and places at the University of Kansas.
calendar
NIGHTLIFE
The Bottleneck
737 New Hampshire St.
Tripping Daisy and Eve's
Plum, 10 tonight, $5 (18
and over)
Salty liguans, 10 p.m. tomorrow, $4
Mattoots, 10 p.m. Tuesday, $3
Slackjaw, Good Low and Venison, 10 p.m.
Wednesday, $4 (18 and over)
Grumpy, 10 p.m. March 24, $4
Grumpy, 10 p.m. March 24, $4
106 North Park West St.
Offspring and Cocknose, 10 tonight, cover charge (18 and over)
Slackjaw, 10 p.m. tomorrow, cover charge (18 and over)
Dis with Black Calvin, 10.p.m. Saturday, cover charge
Laughing Hyenas, Dazzling Killmen and God Bullies, 10 p.m. Tuesday (18 and over) Hammerhead, 10 p.m. March 24, cover charge
Granada Theater
1020 Massachusetts St.
St. Patrick's Day Party with DJ Ray, 9 tonight, cover charge
Mondo Disco, 9 p.m. tomorrow, cover charge New Grange, 8 p.m. Saturday, cover charge Vogue with DJ Ray, 9 p.m.Tuesday, cover charge
'70s, '80s and Alternative, 9 p.m. Wednesday, cover charge
Full Moon Cafe
803 Massachusetts St.
Uncle Dirty Toes. 8 tonight, free
Tim Cross Jazz Trio, 9 p.m. tomorrow, free
FineTim, 9 n.p. Saturday, free
Jazz Brunch with Michael Paull, 12-4:30 p.m.
Sunday, free
Tom's Tuesday Thing, 7 p.m. Tuesday, free
Acoustic Juice, 8 p.m. Wednesday, free
Tim Cross Jazz Trio, 8 p.m. March 24, free
Liberty Hall
642 Massachusetts St.
Robert Cray, 8 tonight, $24.30
Zoom, Tenderloin and Spamskinners, 8:30 p.m. tomorrow, $6—21 and over, $7—18-20
Benchwarmers Sports Bar and Grill
1601 W 23
Pilgrimage, 8 tonight, cover charge