|
|
‘Odd Man Out’ at
Atlantis Music Conference
Aug. 11, 8 p.m.
Smith’s Olde Bar @ The Atlanta Room
1578 Piedmont Road
www.atlantismusic.com
AID Atlanta Style Spectacular
Aug. 13, 7 p.m.
1605 Peachtree St.
404-870-7823
www.aidatlanta.org
|
|
|  |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > SOVO SCENE > ON THE TOWN
By: RYAN LEE
COMMENTS |
| 
When a group of gay and lesbian musicians decided to put on a special show as part of the Atlantis Music Conference in 2001, the goal was to raise the visibility of openly queer artists, says singer-songwriter Doria Roberts, who organizes the showcase.
Four years later, the “Odd Man Out” showcase returns to the Atlantis Music Conference on Aug. 11, but with broader objectives than the political statement made in 2001, Roberts says.
“This year, I really wanted to just show how much diversity there is in the music within the queer community,” says Roberts, who is working simultaneously on the release of her sixth and seventh albums.
“In particular, the queer hip-hop community has grown a lot since the first time, and the goal is to show that all of the genres can be represented by queer musicians,” she says. “We’re not limited to the folk and punk that people usually link with queer music.”
Several Atlanta artists join Roberts for the upcoming showcase, including soulstress Angela Motter, R&B crooner Anthony Antoine, folk/pop singer Lucas Mire and Manifest Frequency, a trip-hop female duo that “seeks to stimulate the senses by blending seemingly disparate styles of music into harmonious fusion,” according to their Web site.
Melineh Kurdian, a New York-based pop singer and songwriter who makes her Atlanta debut at Odd Man Out, says she is looking forward to meeting and being inspired by fellow gay musicians.
Q-100 DJ Melissa Carter, who is gay, is scheduled to host.
In its eighth year, the Atlantis Music Conference is a diverse series of performance showcases and panel discussions aimed at helping artists break into the music industry.
The performance sets at Odd Man Out range between 15 and 35 minutes, and expose the artists to music fans and industry big-wigs alike.
Odd Man Out also features Tim’m West, a Washington D.C.-based hip hop and soul artist who, like many of the other performers, performed in the annual Queerstock Festival & Tour, which is also produced by Roberts.
“I’m looking forward to people seeing a different side of hip hop,” West says. “There are a lot of good, affirming, queer and positive messages that people can look to in hip hop, and that’s not something that’s always talked about or well known.”
Overtly asserting queer sensibilities used to be the hallmark of openly gay musicians, but the performers in Odd Man Out are successful in incorporating their sexual orientation into their overall persona as artists, which allows them to concentrate directly on their music, Roberts says.
“It is a sign of progress for me to finally be able to present myself as a whole package, and not have to splinter myself depending on what crowd I’m playing for,” she says.
For a night out with a ritzier feel for a good cause, AID Atlanta is gearing up for its first ever Style Spectacular, an Aug. 13 fashion show and silent auction that also serves as the first open house for the organization’s new facilities on Peachtree Street.
“In the past, we’ve done ‘Art for AIDS,’ and that event didn’t take place this year, so we decided to fill that gap with a fashion show and silent auction,” says Steve Balfour, development director at AID Atlanta.
The $100-a-head event also includes a silent auction, dinner and a preview of the fall fashion lines at Parisian, the retail outlet sponsoring the Style Spectacular along with Delta Air Lines.
Organizers expect about 150 people to attend, Balfour says.
| 
