Dallas Southern Pride’s Holiday Gala is an event for everyone, says organizer Kirk Myers

TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com

Kirk Myers

It was just last weekend, on Dec. 4, that Patti LaBelle took to the stage at the Kennedy Center Honors to pay tribute to her longtime friend, Gladys Knight. And in just a little over a week, LaBelle will take to the stage at The Fairmount Dallas as the special guest when Dallas Southern Pride presents its 2022 Holiday Gala. The event is a fundraiser benefitting Abounding Prosperity, Inc.

Singer Kelly Price headlined the last Gala, noted DSP lead organizer Kirk Myers. “This year,” he continued, “we wanted to have a living icon. That’s what we got.”

LaBelle, 78, has long been known as “The Godmother of Soul.” While she started her career on stage in the 1960s, performing with Cindy Birdsong (who left in 1967 to join The Supremes), Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash as The Blue Belles, later changing the name to Patti and Bluebelles and finally, just LaBelle. While their big breakthrough hit came in 1974 with “Lady Marmalade,” Patti LaBelle’s versions of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “You Are My Friend” have long held special meaning for her thousands of LGBTQ fans.

She has been an icon for the LGBTQ community for much of her career, and in the 1980s, when many celebrities and elected officials were refusing to even say the word “AIDS” out loud in public, LaBelle participated in AIDS awareness campaigns, urging people, “Don’t listen to rumors about AIDS.

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In her 2017 book Living Through This: Surviving the Intersections of Sexuality, God, and Race, author Caly Cane called LaBelle “the greatest gay icon of all time and a prime example of the intersection of the LGBT community and black female artist.” And in a 2017 with gay journalist Chris Azzopardi of Q Syndicate, LaBelle herself said, “When I think about it, the gay fans are some of the reason — one big reason — I’m still standing, ’cause they loved me when other people tried not to. Everybody always says, ‘What makes gay men like you?’ ‘I have no clue,’ I say. I still don’t. But I know that love has lifted me up for many, many years.”

Myers said that DSP “had to call in a few favors” to get LaBelle to headline this year’s Gala. “Actually,” he continued, “a couple of years ago I was supposed to attend a Christmas party at [LaBelle’s] house. But then my mother passed, and I was not able to go. But Patti sent a video tribute to me [to honor my mother]. So we have had a relationship through mutual friends for a couple of years.

“Patti typically has her own Christmas party each year on that day [when the Gala] is scheduled, but she agreed to come to our event,” he added. She will be performing a 40-minute set at the Holiday Gala.

The Holiday Gala
The event will include a cash bar, complimentary champagne and a variety of hors d’oeuvres such as carving stations and custom charcuterie boards, all in a setting decorated as a winter wonderland, Myers said.

“There will be more than 50 trees decorated to help transform the Fairmount into a winter wonderland. It is going to be very visually appealing,” he said, noting that valet parking will be available.

There will also be a silent auction with a wide range of donated items to bid on, including a portrait of Patti LaBelle by O’Brian Jones. “He does these amazing portraits, and he has done one of Patti and donated it to us for this auction,” Myers said. “We are expecting that to be one of the center focal points of the auction.

“But we have lots of other outstanding items, too. We have vacation packages, other packages. We even have a custom tuxedo package,” he said.

The whole idea of the event, Myers said, is for people to come and to enjoy mixing and mingling with each other, to enjoy the food and drinks, get something great in the auction and then top it all off with a performance by Patti LaBelle.

“We want people to know that everyone is welcome here,” Myers stressed. “Gay, straight, Black, white, brown, mixed — It’s not limited to any one community. I’d love to see this be a mixed event. That’s my dream, my vision — to see people who love Patti LaBelle coming together for a party. And it’s the holidays, and you know the gays and lesbians love a good holiday party!”

General admission tickets are $100, with VIP standing tickets — which include three drink tickets and access to the VIP area near the stage — available for $175. VIP tickets are $1,500 that include entry for up to four guests, reserved seating area inside VIP section and three drink tickets. Only a limited number of tables will be available, and VIP table tickets are $2,000 and include entry to the event for up to eight guests, a reserved table inside the VIP section and three drink tickets.

Tickets are available online at DallasSouthernPride.com and at the door.

House of Rebirth is gifting tickets to 10 Black transgender women to attend the Gala. Send an email to pocahontas@houseofrebirth.org or visit the website at HouseOfRebirth.org.

The rest of the weekend
Even after the icon’s performance, Myers said, the party continues. While the Gala ends at 11 p.m., he explained, that’s when the DSP Naughty or Nice Christmas Party is just getting started. Also being held at the Fairmount, the party, from 11 p.m.-1 a.m. will feature a performance by Kash Doll, with champagne and a cash bar, and everyone who has purchased a ticket to the Gala gets into the party, as well.

Tickets can be purchased for just the Naughty or Nice party, and are $25, also available at DallasSouthernPride.com and at the table.

The weekend wraps up Sunday, Dec. 18, with the DSP Gospel Brunch, from noon to 3 p.m., again at The Fairmount, hosted by Kelly Price and featuring performances by LeAndria Johnson and Yolanda Adams, a mimosa bar and a brunch buffet. Tickets are $75 for general admission and $1,250 for entry for up to eight guests and seating at a VIP table available at DallasSouthernPride.com and at the table.