Remembering Mrs. Litman

Kurt Bedell and Theresa Litman on the porch of the Litman family home in Chicago, Illinois, August 2011.

Today, I honor the passing of my dear friend Laura Litman’s mother, Theresa Litman, who recently died in Chicago at the age of 93. Mrs. Litman had a heart of gold and lived her values of generosity, acceptance and duty every day in her own gentle yet powerful way.

In Mrs. Litman’s home, you always felt welcome and were always well-fed.  Growing up food insecure, she made it her mission to ensure those around her had more than enough to eat. If you entered her home, after asking how you were, Mrs. Litman would inevitably ask if you were hungry and if she could fix you a plate.

I had the good fortune of learning to make one of her signature creations, tamales, with family and friends at my 40th birthday party. Later in life, Mrs. Litman managed the lunch program at a school for Chicago Public Schools, where she fed thousands of children and staff over many years.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of joining family and friends in Chicago to celebrate Mrs. Litman’s long and beautiful life. I am grateful to have known her, felt her care, love and generosity, and seen her values live on through her many children and grandchildren. God bless and Godspeed, Mrs. Litman.

Celebrating Greg Eddie

Today, I celebrate the life of my friend Greg Eddie, who passed away this week after a long battle with kidney disease and a recent cancer diagnosis. Greg was the consummate gentleman, always willing to give his time and resources to a worthy cause or to strengthen a relationship. He understood and lived daily the values of duty and service, was a kind, compassionate, and generous friend, and loved his family deeply and unconditionally.

Greg was a dutiful volunteer who understood the importance and value of service. I first met Greg as my new neighbor when I moved into my SE Portland loft in 2009. Because of his background in finance, he was soon nabbed by me to serve as treasurer for our building's HOA board of directors, the ultimate thankless job. He willingly served seven continuous years, two of which happened during a disruptive and often frustrating $1.3 million building repair project.

Greg was an early and visible activist for LGBQT+ civil rights in Oregon. After his partnership with future Portland mayor Sam Adams ended in 2004, he and Sam sued the State of Oregon in 2007 to split Sam's state pension proceeds and won. While ever the proponent of LGBQT+ civil rights, Greg wasn't necessarily one to choose the spotlight. But on this important issue, he took the stage with Sam, paving the way for future government recognition of same-gender relationships, up to and including marriage equality.

Greg envisioned the life he wanted and acted to realize it. When he decided that the stress of flying to a new city each week to perform audits for KeyBank was too much, he returned to his roots in central Washington to run his family's apple, cherry, and grape farm. He built his dream home on the property and made a new life for himself, close to those who meant the most to him: his family.

Godspeed, Greg! Your steadfast, no-nonsense, compassionate, and generous presence was valued by so many and will be sorely missed.

Photo: Kurt Bedell and Greg Eddie at Greg’s 50th birthday celebration, April 2015

Remembering Kevin Schaer

We lost a kind, sweet and compassionate soul with the passing of my friend Kevin Schaer this past weekend.

Kevin was the kind of person who always had a smile on his face. He was perpetually positive and recklessly generous. Maybe it had to do with the particular combination of his growing up in a small, rural Oregon town paired with his love for Japanese culture and its appreciation for politeness, kindness and tradition. Wherever it came from, with Kevin you always felt seen, loved and appreciated.

We miss you, Kevin. Your husband Naoki, who was your partner in life for 27 years, deeply mourns your passing. As does your dear friend and roommate from your U of O college days, Michael, through whom I met you. So many of us miss you. We shall never forget your broad smile, your boisterous and sometimes devilish laugh, and that contagious positivity that you spread wherever you went. Godspeed, dear friend! 🕊✌🏻♥️

Happy 79th Birthday, Nancy!

Today is my Mom’s 79th birthday! In celebration of this important milestone, while recognizing the realities of gathering safely during a global coronavirus pandemic, friends and families sent video greetings Nancy’s way.

Happy birthday, Nancy!

Happy 80th Birthday, Alan!

Happy birthday to my Dad, Alan Bedell, who turns 80 years old today! Because of the global coronavirus pandemic, we weren’t able to gather in person to celebrate. So family and friends harnessed the power of Zoom and our mobile devices to create and share well wishes this year. We even collaborated on a celebratory video. Take a look. And happy birthday, Dad. I love you! ❤️

Not Your Grandfather's Digital Performance

This is not your grandfather’s virtual choral concert on Zoom!  Like so many arts organizations, the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus was just days away from its spring concert in March when the global coronavirus pandemic and quarantine hit. In fact, we were to perform a program celebrating our 40 year history with our new artistic director John Atorino.  

But this is not PGMC’s first pandemic, and we persevered!  After two months of Zoom rehearsals and our singers learning new skills as recording artists, PGMC’s first ever digital performance of “Under Pressure” debuted last Saturday, on the very day that we otherwise would have performed our Pride concert.  Check out this amazing performance, unlike any other you’ve seen this quarantine.  

And if you’re so moved, please consider a financial gift to help the Chorus.  Like so many arts organizations, we’re hoping to “bridge the gap” financially until we can do live performances for our community once again.  In celebration of PGMC’s 40th anniversary, I’m asking folks to make a financial gift to PGMC.  Please give whatever you can.  No gift is too big or small.  You'll help support the important work PGMC does to "honor and uplift our community and affirm the worth of all people.”  

Happy Pride month, everyone! 🏳️‍🌈

We Shall Overcome Someday

"We are a chorus for courage. We are a chorus for compassion. We are a chorus for change.” As the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus kicks off its 40th anniversary season, we celebrate our past, present and future with this amazing video created by our talented friends at Borders Perrin Norrander. 

What We Do For Love — PGMC's 2019 Gala

Last Saturday the Portland Gay Men's Chorus celebrated the start of its 40th anniversary season by hosting our first ever fundraising gala. Held at Kurt Beadell’s Vibrant Table space in southeast Portland and emceed by Portland’s beloved Tracy Barry, the event honored our humble beginnings in 1980, celebrated our many memorable performances, and raised over $80,000 to support our mission to “expand, redefine, and perfect the choral art through eclectic performances that honor and uplift the gay community and affirm the worth of all people.” We also welcomed our new artistic director, Johnny Atorino, who will be moving to Portland from New York City in January. Many thanks to the amazing volunteers who put it all together, and to all who attended and contributed. It was an impressive and humbling testament to the power of music to move, inspire and activate! Here’s to another 40 years!

📷: Bill Barry

#PDXGMC #PGMCGala40 #WhatWeDoForLove

The last supper

In this life, it’s not often that you get to know an angel. 

Meet Pat Schwiebert, who for the last 38 years has organized volunteers every Wednesday evening to cook and serve supper to people experiencing homelessness at the Sunnyside Methodist Church a block away from my home in Portland.  Last Sunday, at a time when Portlanders rank homelessness their #1 civic issue, the last Hard Times Supper at Sunnyside was served. That’s because the new congregation moving into the church, bowing to pressure from NIMBY neighbors, decided they didn’t want such services delivered in their space and gave Pat and team 90 days to move out. Unbelievable!  Is this how communities of faith are meant to behave?

And yet despite all the negativity, Pat and the team forged ahead, enduring frequent City of Portland inspections and added security to continue to provide meals, warm clothes and showers to those in need until they were forced to leave.  Now they’ve formed an organization called Beacon PDX that is fundraising for a new space to continue the work.  Knowing Pat and the team, they’re not going to let one setback dampen 38 years of momentum. 

After all, angels like Pat never give up.

#homelessness #houselessness #wwjd #methodistchurch #kurt3pt5 

Appreciating a mentor and friend

Yesterday I got to catch up with my mentor, friend and former supervisor, Dr. Laura Nissen, the dean of the Portland State University School of Social Work. When I was at a uncertain professional crossroads after leaving Apple in 2013, Laura hired me to be the School of Social Work’s very first marketing and communications manager. How would this twenty year veteran of corporate America adapt to a vastly different university environment concerned more with equity, access, social justice and shared governance? I will be forever grateful to Laura for the risk she took in hiring me. Laura will be stepping down as dean this spring and take a sabbatical in 2019-20. I can’t wait to see what emerges in her next exciting chapter! Thank you, Laura, for believing in me and connecting me so deeply to the field of social work and Portland State University’s higher education access mission.

#mentor #portlandstate #socialwork #kurt2pt0 #kurt3pt5

Three holiday treasures

This team rocked it!  The Portland Gay Men's Chorus holiday concert weekend broke all records, completely selling out two of three shows!  And that was in no small part because of three fine folks on our office staff, Rick, Erin and Terrill.  Today at lunch I got to play Santa and present them with a few thank you treats from our board of directors and the good folks at Providore Fine Foods. We are blessed with a stellar staff who do amazing work! Thank you!!

 #pdxgmc  #elite #gratitude #holiday

Making friends in China

With the holidays right around the corner, I guess it’s time to retire my China theming on social media and share a final reflection on my experience with the Portland Gay Men's Chorus historic trip to China. While I serve on the board of PGMC, I don’t sing in the Chorus and thus don’t have as much interaction as do the singers who are together at rehearsal every week. That’s one reason the China trip was so special for me. There’s a lot of waiting when you do group travel. And even more time in transit as you travel from place to place. And so it was during all that “down time” that I got to sit, visit and get to know more of my fellow Chorus members. And what an amazingly talented, diverse and generous group of people it is! Here’s a group shot of just a few of us in Shanghai near the end of the trip. I am proud to be a member of our rich PGMC community. On to the holidays! #pgmcdoeschina #friendship

PGMC Presents, The Most Wonderful Season

Attention Portland friends and relations — it's officially the holiday season! And I can't think of a better way to kick off the festivities than with a Portland Gay Men's Chorus holiday concert — PGMC Presents, The Most Wonderful Season! The shows are this coming Friday and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. If you don't already have tickets, you'd better get them now. They're going fast! Hope to see you this weekend!

Kurt 3.5 — A new adventure at Portland State

I’m excited to announce a new chapter in my journey at Portland State University.  Next Monday I’ll begin my new role as associate director of marketing at Portland State.  I’ll be building and implementing marketing programs that support PSU's strategic goals, enhance our brand, drive new student enrollment, and increase engagement and investment with our community.  I’ll also be steward of the PSU brand and lead the marketing of key campuswide wide programs like Portland State of Mind, commencement and summer session.  Because I already work on the University Communications team, I get to stay with the same group of passionate and talented folks that I’ve been alongside this past year and a half, up on the eighth floor of the Market Center Building in downtown Portland.   And I get to continue to do work that I couldn’t be more thrilled about — connecting potential students from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences with the life changing opportunity to get a college degree at an urban research university smack dab in the middle of Portland, Oregon!  On to new adventures...

#kurt3pt5

Playing a professor on TV

Because I work in University Communications at Portland State University, sometimes I get to stand in as “talent” in photo and video shoots that promote our programs. I recently made my debut as a “professor” in a video showcasing PSU student, friend and colleague Naureen Khan. In it she talks about her experiences in PSU’s interdisciplinary, undergraduate University Studies program. Kudos to the dream team of Peter Simon, Kenny Katz and Evan Kirkley who produced it. My favorite part? Naureen’s closing. “Because if we can learn from each other’s differences, the world might become a less divided place.”

The Great Wall and Dumplings

What trip to China would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall and dumplings in the country that invented dim sum?

We visited the Great Wall at a spot right outside of Beijing. It’s immense. We had fantastic weather for viewing and climbing. Despite that this particular viewing spot is swarmed with tourists, thinking of what it took to build this wonder of the world is next level. And then our a capella group, Cascade, sang a couple numbers to an adoring crowd.

The ancient colonial city of Xi’an is a center of culture and higher education in China. And the highlight for me was the XinQin Palace Park we visited early one morning. I’ve been to Hong Kong where I saw retirees doing their tai chi exercise routines in public parks each morning in graceful synchronicity. Here older Chinese residents were doing much more. Dance, music, kite flying. All manner of artistic pursuits. Seems the Chinese have figured out that as we get older and live in a dense city environment, we need excuses to get out and get together. And art seems to be a great vehicle.

A long winding walk through a park means we earned a hearty lunch — of dumplings! What a feast! Dumplings filled with pork and duck. And veggie ones in new and unexpected flavor combinations. Heaven! I happily digested them for most of the rest of the day.

A local taste of Beijing

One of the favorite parts of my visit to Beijing as part of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus historic outreach trip to China was touring and having lunch in a Chinese family home in the old hutong lined neighborhood of the city. We had probably the best food of the entire trip there (with perhaps the exception of the dumplings. More on those later.)

After a parade of rickshaws that took us down the narrow and congested streets and alleys of the hutong, we arrived at a modest home that has few modern facilities. Families who live here have to use public toilets and bathing facilities, as their homes lack them.

We assembled at the familiar round, family style tables for a lunchtime meal of tasty Chinese dishes, including the national dish of eggs and tomatoes (that are red and yellow, two of the luckiest colors to the Chinese).

We got to meet the proprietress, a retired woman who answered our questions about life in the hutong neighborhoods and whose husband cooked the delicious meal. A wedding photo of them in earlier years hung on the wall nearby.

When traveling I always enjoy these more authentic glimpses into everyday life at my destination. This one was no exception. 

Rebels in Beijing

One of the highlights of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus trip to China was an impromptu performance inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.  Such public gatherings are officially prohibited but, being the rebels we are, we snuck one in.  Thankfully our Chinese courier, Tony, intervened with the approaching guard (1:49) so that the chorus could finish singing “Never Ever,” one of PGMC’s most beloved songs that reminds us to "take every moment as a gift."

#pgmcdoeschina

Making history

We did it. We made history. The Portland Gay Men's Chorus is now the first US LGBTQ chorus to have toured and performed in China. Yesterday 90+ singers and tour participants returned to Portland after their historic 11 day tour of Beijing, Xi’An, Suzhou and Shanghai.And I had the privilege of being along for the ride.

We were joined in song and community with two LGBTQ choirs in China — the Beijing Queer Chorus and Shanghai Hyperbolic Singers.  It was an amazing artistic collaboration and cultural exchange.

I want to thank the many individuals who came together to make this trip possible.  Six deserve special mention. Rick, without whose vision, tenacity and indefatigable energy our China outreach never would have happened.  To Gary and Terrill, whose planning literally made every logistical aspect of the tour “sing.” And to Mary, Erik and Evan who stepped up to conduct our performances when sadly at the last minute Bob, our artistic director, couldn’t travel with us.

The trip was life changing and life affirming for me.  To support the advocacy of LGBTQ rights in China was profoundly gratifying and inspiring.

Over the next few days I’ll be posting photos and stories from my travels in China.

To borrow from the mission of the Beijing Queer Chorus, “sing for a better world.” I am so proud to be a member of the PGMC community.

Seven Last Words of the Unarmed

Michael Brown. Trayvon Martin. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Kenneth Chamberlain. Amadou Diallo. John Crawford.

These African-American men–each killed by police or by authority figures–are the subject of a powerful multi-movement choral work — Seven Last Words of the Unarmed — that will be part of the Portland Gay Men's Chorus What Unites Us concert this Sunday afternoon.

This is a powerful and important work, especially in these times. The Chorus is proud to be collaborating with 10 area non-profits who will benefit from concert proceeds.

Hope to see you there.