Jalenzski Brown
UBE brings back Red Tie Affair, adds Enchanted Kiki Ball
TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
Everybody loves a chance to get dressed up on occasion, donning your fanciest black tie or “creative black tire” apparel for an event. And such events abound in DFW’s LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS communities. The annual Black Tie Dinner each fall and DIFFA/Dallas’ spring Extravaganza are perfect — and popular — examples.
But there are, of course, those who cannot afford the costs of attending many of these gala affairs, including that segment of our community served by Resource Center’s UBE (United Black
Ellument) program — primarily same-gender-loving young Black men. That, Jalenzski Brown and Tres Brown explained this week, is how the Red Tie Affair was born some eight years ago.
Jalenzski Brown is now director of empowerment programs for Resource Center. But in 2013, he was still a UBE coordinator, Jalenzski said, “we saw a need, and we wanted to fill it. Our community has DIFFA and Black Tie — these very upscale events, which are wonderful. But there were not a lot of opportunities like that for the people we were serving. So we wanted to create an upscale event that didn’t break the bank. We came up with the Red Tie Affair.
Tres Brown
“It started as a way to commemorate World AIDS Day, to honor those we have lost and those who are still living with HIV,” he continued. “It was a nice, upscale, sit-down dinner like Black Tie but without the fundraising aspect.”
That first year, Jalenzski recalled, a huge ice storm hit the night of the event. “We had 150 people who RSVP’ed saying they would be there. And even with the ice storm, we had 75 who showed up,” he said.
The following year, organizers added the BLACK — Building Leadership And Cultivating Knowledge — Awards. Recipients were nominated by community members and then chosen by community vote, Jalenzski said. Another three award winners were chosen by the UBE staff. “So often, efforts in our community go unnoticed, so it was an amazing experience to be able to recognize and honor people who put so much effort into the community,” he said.
Red Tie happened each December for about five years, but Jalenzski said, “unfortunately, life happened, and after five years the event went away.”
Until this year.
This year, Jalenzski said, UBE Lead Coordinator Devin James “suggested that we bring Red Tie back. It seemed like the perfect way to again commemorate World AIDS Day and to recommit ourselves to ending AIDS, so we started planning it.”
This year, though, is going to be even better. “We asked ourselves, how can we do even more?
How can we top what we did before?” Jalenzski said. “So we added the Enchanted Kiki Awards Ball.”
The newly-resurrected gala is designed to “bring many people together under one experience,” explained Trey Brown, manager of empowerment programs for Resource Center. “It is an experience, an effort by the community to honor and acknowledge all the work being done, to highlight and honor all the multi-facted people we represent. Black people are not a monolith, and awards programs like this showcase that fact; they showcase the individuality, the art and the culture of the people we serve.”
And both men stressed that, like other UBE programs, Red Tie Affair and Enchanted Kiki Ball will be low-cost — “and by low-cost, we mean free.”
While UBE was originally created to serve Black same-gender-loving men, “it has become a beacon for all Black queer folks, including Black trans people, Black women and allies of the Black community,” Tres said. “The Ballroom Scene, the Kiki Scene — with this event, we are able to honor all of it.”
Tres noted that the event will also include a presentation, thanks to one of the sponsors, on the history of HIV in the Black community. It is a presentation, he said, “that shows how strong and how resilient the Black community has been in the face of the pandemic.”
But at its heart, Jalenzski said, Red Tie and the Enchanted Kiki Ball are a celebration. “It is a celebration of all of us, of all of our work together. It will take all of us to end HIV; it will take all of us to fulfill our greatest potential for good. We can get through it all if we get through it together. And when we do it together, we will better our lives and our experiences as people in the city of Dallas.”
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Red Tie Affair & Enchanted Kiki Ball
Saturday, Dec. 4, 6 p.m.-midnight
Grenada Theater
3524 Greenville, Ave.
RSVP at UBEDallas.org/Awards
Admission is free
