Benefit for Pueblo Unido

I was invited to make photos Saturday night of a benefit performance for a terrific Portland non-profit that helps immigrants negotiate the byzantine and hostile US immigration system. I hope the evening brought the group some of the support it needs.

It was a large venue with a bar, filled with about sixty twenty-somethings. I was the only old person there. This fellow was lead singer with a band that I think would be called alternative rock--very loud, a drum set and three guitar-like instruments, probably one of them a bass. (I wish I'd had Folkiebooknerd or her brother with me; they understand how to talk about young people's music.) I couldn't understand the words, and I didn't understand what they were trying to achieve with the music, as it sounded like each person was playing a different piece entirely, all at top volume, but I know the butterflies on this young man's shirt are symbols of migration, and I liked their forcefulness and passion. This was the band's first public performance, so I made many pictures of them and will send them to this young man. Maybe he can use them in future publicity.

There was also a folk band I know well and love, singing in Spanish; a spoken word performer whose powerful poetry was a blend of Spanish and English; and a woman comedian whose jokes (all in English) ridiculed old people for being stupid, forgetful, controlling, and sexually repulsive. I was so put off by the comedian that I had a strong urge to to leave, and it was after 10 anyway and I'm trying to take care of myself better than I used to, so I left. That meant I missed three more standup comics and the main attraction, a band called Mujahadeen, which I think is heavy metal, but they weren't going to come on till after midnight. 

I was glad to be invited to make photos, glad I felt well enough to make it. It was a little like visiting another country: the country of the young. Between acts I was observing, remembering the hormonal rushes and social insecurities of my own youth, feeling affection for them all (even the comedian) and relief that I'm not a nervous young person any more and could leave when I wanted to.