With Music, Art And Vibrator Races, Dallas Partied While Raising Money For Planned Parenthood And The Texas Equal Access Fund At The Double Wide On Friday.
All photos by Ashley Gongora.
When The Double Wide goes big, the Deep Ellum venue goes big. And when it partnered with the Texas Equal Access Fund and Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas on Friday night to throw an event called “Friends with benefit” supporting comprehensive reproductive healthcare and the right to reproductive choice for all, it went pretty damn huge.
There was live music in the venue’s performance space courtesy of Dallas acts Pool Lights, Lizzie Boredom and a Echo & The Bunnymen cover band called Happy Death Men. There were curated sounds blaring throughout the expanded-into-the-parking-lot space courtesy of Dallas DJ crew The Good Taste Collective. There was art to be purchased through silent auctions that was donated to the cause by such artists as Mike Arreaga, Alan Cook, Andy Don Emmons, Scott Horn, Sarah Jaffe, Howard Kelley, Casey Orr Erik Schuessler, Joey Seeman, Jackie Dunn Smith, Clay Stinnett and Bruce Lee Webb, just top name a few. And there were prizes raffled off from area businesses including Barcadia, Beauty Bar, The Bomb Factory, Dead Wax Records, Dolly Python, It’ll Do Club, Jade & Clover, The Libertine Bar, Lounge Here, lululemon, Mudsmith, Pints and Quarts Dallas, Texas Theatre, Top Ten Records and Trees Dallas, among others. There was also food provided by the Easy Slider team, on-site “forever art” from Ellie Tippit and Gypsy Ratzlaff of Saints & Sinners Tattoo Shop, photo sessions courtesy of the Photo-Wagon crew and beer specials provided by Martin House Brewing Company.
Oh, and there were vibrator races, too. They’re exactly what your in-the-gutter mind thinks they are, and they were a hit.
More important, though, is the fact that there were tons of attendees, each of whom showed up with a smile on their face and with $5 that they were ready to donate to the cause right at the main entryway into the venue’s parking lot. That much is clear thanks to the photos our own Ashley Gongora snapped of the festivities throughout the course of the night.
Check out her pictures of the night’s beautiful — and beautifully supportive — ongoings above.
Update on June 27: Organizers now say they raised more than $11,000 to be donated to Planned Parenthood and the Tea Fund on Friday night. Congrats to everyone involved!