The Dallas Arts District, in collaboration with the Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center and Crow Museum of Asian Art, will celebrate its eighth annual Pride Block Party this year on Friday night, June 20, from 6 p.m.-midnight.
Pride Block Party is the largest Pride event held each year in downtown. Admission is free.
Pride Block Party is a free, inclusive event that includes Pride-themed tours, performances, films, artists, gourmet food trucks, makers, Dallas artists, informational tables, activities and more. The first Pride Block Pary was held in 2018, planned in collaboration with community organizations that support arts, culture and the LGBTQ+ community.
\In its first year, the event attracted 20,000 visitors, and surveys showed visitors came from more 22 zip codes, with 25 percent coming from out out-of-state. In its second year, Pride Block Party drew some 35,000 visitors from 144 zip codes, and it featured local and regional artists including Bandan Koro African Dancers and Drummers, Dezi 5 and drag queen fashion finales in three different venues including outdoor on a runway stage.
Each year a community mural is created by the visitors as a tangible imprint of the evening, helping create a unique Pride celebration seen through the lens of the arts.This year’s schedule includes, at Crow Museum of Asian Art, 2010 Flora Street, The Shogun’s World: Japanese Maps from the MacLean Collection, Anila Quayyum Agha: Let One Bird Sing, Celia Chiang: Don’t Tell Me What to Do and Cut Paper Design in Studio Gallery 3; on the Dallas Arts District Community Stage at Harwood and Flora Streets, Storytime with Cassie Nova, Uptown Players, Bruce Wood Dance Dallas, Round-up Saloon house dancers, Dezi 5 Entertainment, Bleach & Friends Fashion Finale, Community Muralist Ebony Lewis and more; at the Dallas Museum of Art, Kiki Ball presented by United Black Ellument, Round-Up Saloon partnership with line dancing, music, and more, sketching in the galleries, tours, art making, film screenings and more; and at Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St., ’Til Midnight at the Nasher with music by Otobong Nkanga: Each Seed a Body, Cure for Paranoia, DJ Natural High and Bleach & Friends, followed by a movie screening. The exhibiti Generations: 150 Years of Sculpture will also be on display.
— Tammye Nash