by MK Scott
I first heard of Ari Shapiro two years ago. I knew he was someone from
my hometown of Beaverton, OR and was a nationally known journalist
working for NPR (National Public Radio) who'd become a co-host of the
famed 'All Things Considered' program. We listen to him daily, here at
the SGN offices.
I personally met Shapiro, 39, last fall at the Association of LGBTQ
Journalists Convention in Philadelphia. About a month later I was
thrilled to learn he would be in Portland to perform his one-man show,
'Homeward,' which he presented at the World Trade Auditorium in Portland
last month. (On other occasions when he's in Portland he performs with
the Portland-based band, Pink Martini.)
For his show Shapiro wore a dark suit and shared compelling stories of
the people he had met during his travels and sang songs related to those
stories in multiple languages including French, Kurdish, Arabic, Scots
Gaelic, Ukranian and English. For his stories related to Syrian refugees
he sang 'Ay Shengal' in Kurdish and 'Belsharea' in Arabic and for his
experience in Scotland covering their 2014 Referendum on Scotland
becoming independent from the United Kingdom he sang 'Flower of
Scotland' in Scots Gaelic.
Other songs on the program included 'Fils de' sung in French and 'Plyve Kacha' sung in Ukrainian.
Because he was in Portland Pink Martini band members Storm Large and
China Forbes came to the show and each joined him on alternating nights
for one song. The night I was there Forbes joined him on stage for the
duet and, coming up from her seat in the audience, together they sang
'Boys in the Back Room/When the Saints.'
After all the seriousness, Shapiro started to show off his fun side
with the Nina Simone version of the Beatles classic, 'Here Comes the
Sun.'
For the encore, Shapiro told the story of how his husband of 12 years,
Michael, suggested that he needed to end the show with something upbeat
like 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and as he was looking back at the show
he realized that the song did fit into the show after all.
Shapiro then remarked, 'Always listen to your husband.'
After the show, Shapiro answered questions on note cards from the
audience. With a full house, Shapiro was indeed welcomed 'Home.'
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OutView Online by MK Scott is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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