The Bird Cage Theatre, located in
Tombstone Arizona, was
the wildest and wickedest
bordello in America between
Basin Street and the
Barbary Coast. In 9 years this
lusty den of
iniquity never closed its doors, 24 hours a
day.
The Bird Cage had 14 cage cribs lined with red velvet
suspended from the ceiling above the gambling casino and
dance hall. And it was in these bird cages that the
ladies of the night plied their trade.
The madame, Gracie, kept
a bird's eye watch over
things at the Cage until
1885, when she acted against
the ills of prostitution, and
left to start her own house
for ladies and gentleman to
find respite in, without the
fight-spurring and reckless
nature of a bordello.
Gracie wanted to encourage
community through
connections, and she
successfully did, as in
1889- when the Bird Cage
Theatre was closed due to a
string of fires and
gunfights, she remained open
as the first and only
underground hangout in the
wild west.
Gracie's Bird Cage of
Portland, Oregon is a modern tribute
to Gracie and the spirit that
she envoked in people to feel
free. It is a privately held
commercial-free haven in the
modern jungle of commercial
real estate.
At Gracie's there's
a comfortable place to
do your thing, and a great
atmosphere. There are a number
of small press supplies
including photocopiers,
printers, computers and
typewriters. You'll also find
a space waiting for you to
sit and draw while sipping
from our fine selection of
coffees and teas.
Gracie's is also the home of Pinko's, the commie coffee copy center, and is associated with Guerrilla Cheese and the Cafetistas, 2 underground socialist food service commando units located in Portland, Oregon.
-- paraphrased from the Gracie's web site, http://gracies.org
update:
In October of 2001, Gracie's moved from the industrial central southeast of Portland to a building that was once a church, in a residential northeast neighborhood.
Brunches and other events started up again at the new location. In mid-February, ultra-conservative
neighborhood busybodies made it a personal obsession to drive Gracie's from the area. They objected to noise from evening events and "scandalous" things like life drawing classes with nude models. It became obvious to the Gracie's core that the neighborhood was not a good place for them. So, at the end of March Gracie's will move again, to a location yet to be determined....
note:several noders are involved with Gracie's, or at least have participated at various times in brunches or the 48 hour movie and other projects. these include: steev, mumonkan, revphil, glowing fish, ideath, joyquality, mykle.... and probably many more i'm forgetting at the moment....