Girl in Tux
By Marion Now
“Can girls wear tuxes?”
Lane sits in the back row of the alto section. She runs her fingers through her short brown hair as she leans back in her seat, waiting patiently for an answer. It’s a normal Monday night rehearsal for the Brooklyn Heights Choir. From my seat across the stage in the first row of the soprano section, I can see the black treble clef tattoo on her wrist.
“Ladies, you can wear tuxes if you want,” Bill, our conductor, replies. “If not, then you must wear the concert dress.”
Lane is asking this question to make a point. She knows it, Bill knows it, the entire choir knows it. She keeps her gaze trained across the room on the conductor, whose white hair has billowed from its neatly combed-back style over the course of the rehearsal.
“You all
