By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

A shower of “firsts” will fall in midsummer and some hope the growth that springs from it will bear a future harvest.

The Twin City Gay Men’s Chorus is slated to visit the Azalea City for the first time when they appear Wed., July 12 at Bishop State Community College. In a fundraiser for local charity Bay Area Inclusion, the Minnesota chorale-one of the nation’s oldest of its kind-will swing through the South on a multi-faceted tour de force.

Dr. Stan Hill, Chorus Artistic Director for the last six years, hopes to not only raise money in Mobile but to also leave something behind. “We’re trying to get some similar groups started in the towns we visit,” Dr. Hill said recently. “We were started 25 years ago when the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus came through Minneapolis. We want to kind of do the same thing.” The chorus has grown from about 70 initial members to around 150 present singers although 104 will make the trip southward.

In addition to Mobile, the chorus will also visit Nashville, Birmingham, Jackson, Miss., Biloxi and New Orleans. While in Nashville, the group will perform at the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry, in the first appearance of a gay men’s choir at the historic venue.

They will also meet up with a similar organization in New Orleans that has been together for around 15 years. Dr. Hill said the Crescent City group has suffered from Hurricane Katrina. “They had about 26 members,” he explained, “but I think they’re down to about 15 now. They’ve just been scattered everywhere.”

Richard Perez, the Mobilian coordinating the event, expects the best in the two-hour performance from the visitors. “It’ll be really professional,” said Perez, also a board member for Bay Area Inclusion. “It’ll be a really varied program.”

Dr. Hill spilled the beans about the added features. “Well, part of it is going to be a tribute to Patsy Cline. We’re playing the Grand Ole Opry so we just had to,” he laughed, “but we’re going to throw some country dancing in there.”

“We’re billing it, ‘a show worth coming out for,’” Hill added wryly.

Dr. Hill said the only problems to arise in tour arrangements have involved finding venues. “We’ve had some churches back off,” said Hill. “We even had one tell us we could perform there if we just agreed to change our name, to take the ‘gay’ out.” The chorus didn’t relent.

Hill also opens the book on a bit more of the program. “We’re going to be doing some other stuff. There’s one number named “Not In Our Town’ based on an incident in Billings, Mont., where the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) tried to terrorize a Jewish family that displayed a menorah during Hanukah, so everyone else in town started displaying menorahs too, as a sign of solidarity.”

“We’re also doing a song entitled ‘Marry Us,’” said Dr. Hill. “That’s kind of self-explanatory.” The director made no note of Alabama’s recent passage of a constituional amendment barring gay marriage.

Richard Perez hopes that the group can spark something in the Mobile area. “We’ve got the talent here,” said the Mobilian, “we just need to coalesce. It’s ripe right now.”

Perez also appreciates the effort on behalf of the visitors. “A lot of these guys are taking their vacations from work to do this,” he said. “They could be anywhere but they’re coming down here to entertain us.”

This isn’t Dr. Hill’s first journey to Mobile, though. “It’s a beautiful city,” he said, “and the people seem really nice.” He’ll have a chance to indulge in both of those attributes as the chorus will have a public reception at the Mobile Arts Council prior to the performance, and a similar ‘meet and greet’ at the auditorium following the show. They will also enjoy a tour of the historic Azalea City on Thursday morning.

Another Gulf Coast feature stands out in Hill’s memory. “I’ve seen some of the most incredible beaches there,” recalled the director. He expressed concern over the post-Katrina fate of Biloxi’s white sands, an area he deemed “gorgeous.”

Another first, a long time coming, will take place in Mississippi. “We have one member of the chorus,” said Hill, “a gentleman in his 60s now, who was in the army and stationed in Biloxi. He saw those beautiful beaches down there but when the guys in his unit went to the beach, he couldn’t go with them. He’s a black man. His friends were white.

“So while we’re down there, we’re going to go out there first thing and let Mr. Richard Long walk out on those white beaches and dip his toe in the water.”

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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