Some People

Iran Parker

It's 2008, and Iran is 33. This means he's been holding an array jobs in queer clubs for over half of his life; a fact that becomes plain watching his broad frame flicker through the blackened vault of Portland's Silverado, be it running incessant errands between the bar, DJ booth, kitchen and back office, or chatting with patrons and coworkers and cackling quite clearly over the music. This is where I've had most of my conversations with him, a place he's worked for 11 years and regards with the easy carelessness of a teenager in the family den.

At 16 he started performing in drag as Dominique Diamond Devereaux (based on the pert disposition of the Dynasty character, and in the actress' words "television's first black bitch") at a Virginia club called The Ambush. At 18 he worked at a part-time gay bar called Private Eyes, aptly named as it was The White House Cafe by day, and frequented by closeted politicians. Years later he started Club 101 in an old movie theater in Eugene. The list goes on - with forays into positions such as singing waiter on the Portland Spirit, and morning auditor at the Joyce Hotel (a position he left after finding his 4th dead body in 6 months) - ultimately becoming known alternately as Jocelyn Onyx, a local queer event host (Peacock in the Park, Gay Pride, Mardi Gras...), and jack-of-all-positions at Silvs:
Janitor
DJ
Cook
Bartender
MC
Drag Queen
Stripper
Doorman
Bar Manager

These are all interesting facets of a life on their own, but it's not just the history that makes Iran interesting to me. What makes him interesting is his social confidence and shifting scale; how he can easily fill a room with his forward enthusiasm and steer a group, or be entirely camouflaged, working implicitly behind the scenes. How he can transition from working a crowd with sass to addressing you with candor, and how he can make people feel slightly more entitled to do whatever the fuck they want, which is something akin to being themselves. If you've met him you're familiar with his static laugh and wide-mouthed smile, and the feeling that it probably means you're the funniest person in the room even though you're not. Chances are you're also aware of the chapters of health struggles and past drug abuse which he unceremoniously references in conversation, making it more poignant that he chooses to remain active at the center of a party culture while finding ways to thrive there. I suppose I'm comforted by people who's lives have known challenges that could exhaust - but instead strengthen - their character, and who bring those frank, human selves to their everyday work and relationships with some playfulness. The effort of energizing and unifying a community of people is always inspiring to me, and it seems to be something that Iran knows instinctually.