Saturday, October 9th, 2010
10 am – 8 pm
Pride in the Desert is an all-day festival held at Reid Park that attracts more than 6,500 participants each year. Highlights of the festival are local, regional, and national entertainers performing live on our main stage as well as several smaller stages and dance areas featuring drag shows and other live entertainment. In addition to the multitude of entertainment venues, Pride in the Desert features commercial and non-profit exhibitors, a food court, and interactive displays and activities. Every year, our event grows to accommodate an ever-expanding number of vendors, exhibitors, and entertainers. Tickets are $13 in advance, $15 at the door.
Purchase your Pride Tickets online! Advance tickets are $13 each.
Pride in the Desert Performers
Sophie B. Hawkins
Sophie B. Hawkins emerged in 1992 with a fierce bidding war for her debut album, Tongues & Tails. The Columbia Records release quickly went gold, earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, and fired a single, “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover”, into the Top Five. Another gold album, Whaler, followed two years later along with the single, “As I Lay Me Down” that would chart in Billboard for a record-breaking sixty-seven weeks.
By the time she got to Timbre in 1999, she had won universal respect for her rare blend of gutsy honesty. Hawkins subsequently worked out an agreement that allowed her to leave her label while retaining ownership of the masters to Timbre. She re-released Timbre on her Trumpet Swan imprint and hit the road–on her own, with her band in a station wagon.
2004′s Wilderness followed. Working out of her home studio near Los Angeles Hawkins wrote and laid down Wilderness’ tracks on a variety of instruments: guitar, cello, drums, keys, plus the exotic percussion that has fascinated her since her studies while growing up in New York with African drum legend Babatunde Olatuni and at the Manhattan School of Music. On Wilderness, these elements flow through nuanced arrangements, in which echoes of Nina Simone, Laura Nyro, and other influences only enhance Hawkins’ unique sound.
August 2006 saw the release of her debut live album, the Bad Kitty Board Mix. Recorded in Seattle, the two-disc set captured the true energy and essence of Sophie as a performer. In her words, “This live album is primarily a gift to my fans. Beyond that, it’s a gift to myself–in that I am finally comfortable with who I am REALLY as a musician, as a storyteller/improviser and as a living the moment creative human.”
The last year has been a busy one for Sophie, personally and professionally. In November 2008, she became the proud mother of a son Dashiell. At the present time she is hard at work writing a broadway musical for Kristin Chenoweth and working on her new album.
Eric Himan
Eric Himan is so grassroots, his face is green. Though his music tells a different story. Without the help of record labels, booking agents, publicists, or management, Eric Himan is touring to more places, getting great press coverage, and still has time to run his record label, Thumbcrown Records, home to his six studio albums. He just released his newest (selling out of his first shipment before the drop date), Resonate, and has five years of solid touring in the US under his belt. Magazines in the LGBT community took notice right away (The Advocate, OUT Magazine, Instinct) and newspapers (such as the Boston Herald, Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, and Phoenix New Times) interviewed him to find out what makes this work horse stay in the game despite obstacles such as major label artists, rooms that are booked by big agencies, and finding his audience.
Fender Guitars even recognized his talent by not only endorsing him but featuring him in their 2004 Fender Catalogue. As he toured more frequently, he began to appear on Sirius Radio’s OUTQ Channel and his music videos began heavy rotation on MTV’s owned LOGO Channel. This led to a nomination for music artist this year at the NewNowNext Awards where he appeared alongside Cyndi Lauper, Project Runway’s Christian Syriano, and pop sensation, Leona Lewis.
His music draws comparisons to male artists such as Maroon 5 and John Mayer but also female singer-songwriters, Ani DiFranco and Tracy Chapman. He is on his way to your town and you would be a fool to miss this much charisma. He will have you singing along to his songs till your blue in the face, or should we say green.
You can find Eric’s music at: BORDERS BOOKS AND MUSIC NATIONWIDE, BARNESANDNOBLE.COM, iTUNES, RHAPSODY, CDBABY and more!:)
Billy Dorcht
I am Billy and I was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. A few years ago I moved to Los Angeles to pursue what many do here, acting and modeling 
A slashy as I like to call them… heh. I have kind of fallen into music, and it has sparked a new passion in my life. After going out to karaoke one night with my friend and producer Gabe Lopez, he convinced me to stop by his studio for a demo. That was late September 08 now I have a few songs under my belt. I am learning a lot, cant wait to record more!
Jennifer Corday
CORDAY WILL WIN YOU OVER WITH HER CHARM, HER WIT, AND HER IRRESISTABLE CHARISMA ON AND OFF THE STAGE! She performs live on the local circuit and travels throughout the U.S., rockin’ the house with her brilliant all-boy band! She has also assembled an all-girl band and works regularly as a smaller acoustic act. Corday is an excellent solo or duo act, and can adapt to any live situation—whether it’s background music or high energy dance, Corday can do it all! It is rare to find not only a fantastic vocalist and musician, but a true entertainer like Corday.
Joshua Klipp
What does a talented vocalist do after hitting the Billboard Charts, screening music videos worldwide, touring internationally and being featured on national television? Naturally…it’s jazz, man.
Jazz vocalist Joshua Klipp has spent the last six years focused on his pop music project, and continues to work with trail-blazing music producer Kristopher Cloud while foraying back into his first vocal love – jazz. In late 2009, Josh teamed up with acclaimed pianist Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls) and went in studio to record the first of several tracks for his new jazz album (work in progress) with studio engineer Jon Evans (Tori Amos). This album is scheduled to release late 2010, early 2011. In March 2010, Joshua also re-teamed up with filmmaker Aarin Burch to shoot his music video for “Little Girl” – the track released in 2007 that made music history and was featured on both The Tyra Banks Show and The L Word.
A Midwest transplant now living in Northern California, Josh also founded and is the Creative Director for Freeplay Dance Crew – a diverse crew of hip hop dancers since 2000. For more information on Josh contact him and become his fan on Facebook, MySpace, or follow him on Twitter (@joshthelover).
Leila Lopez
Leila Lopez has been compared to the likes of Ani Difranco and Fiona Apple. Her original finger picking style and poetic lyrics have captivated listeners both locally and nationally.
Leila grew up in Tucson Arizona, surrounded by a musical family and slowly began to cultivate a passion towards music at an early age. Encouraged by her family, Leila began to play Guitar when she was eight years old, and eventually moved on to learn the bass guitar, piano, cello, drums, banjo and mandolin.
Leila’s music was recognized in 2008 during the Tucson Area Music Awards (TAMMIES) receiving an award for best female vocalist, and again in 2009 winning in both the female vocalist category, as well as an award for best folk artist.
Leila has been working on a new album and playing out extensively in Tucson Arizona and the surrounding area.
Namoli Brennet
Webster’s defines anomaly as a deviation from the common rule, but look a little farther and you’ll find another definition: hard to classify. And that might be the best way to describe musician Namoli Brennet. Brennet was born male and transitioned to female, but like many gender-variant types, she simply identifies as “trans”. There’s something touching and achingly poignant about Brennet’s voice – maybe it’s the sound of transgender, the experience of knowing what it feels like to be unstable, on the edge, a little hard to define. In the wrong hands, that poignance could easily turn sentimental, but with Brennet’s deft touch the songs have an edge, a rawness and a gritty realness that steers clear of typical singer/songwriter territory. And just like you’d expect from an over-achieving multi-instrumentalist with a composition degree: she does play nearly everything.
Listening to Brennet, you realize this is not just another acoustic singer/songwriter with a guitar. Her technique draws on a wide range of influences, everyone from Shawn Colvin and Jonatha Brooke to Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell There’s also the fact that she’s equally at home on the piano or mandolin. But beyond the technical is something way more important: Brennet has an innate understanding of the language of music, and she skillfully uses it to communicate insights that are both poetic and powerful.
As someone who both engineers and produces her own CDs, there isn’t much stopping Namoli from putting out records, and her prolific output is pretty remarkable: since 2002 she’s self-produced and engineered 6 CDs starting with Boy in a Dress; her 7th CD, Until From This Dream I Wake is due out in June 2009. In addition to her songwriting, Brennet has also written several commissions for Chorus & Piano as well as scoring 2 plays: Boy (2008), and an adaptation of The Odyssey written by Pulitzer-Prize winner Derek Walcott. Her music has also been featured in the upcoming documentary Out in the Silence. So yes, she’s hard to classify, but like all good things yet undiscovered she’s just waiting to be found.
“Gorgeous and introspective.”
-Jamie Manser, Zocalo Magazine
Troupe Shuvani
Troupe Shuvani is a Flagstaff, Arizona based bellydance troupe directed by Sherry Hammond (Crimson). The troupe currently consists of seven dancers and performs with a small talented musical ensemble. Troupe Shuvani’s style is a fusion of Middle Eastern, Gypsy and American Tribal style belly dance. The troupe incorporates skirt and veil dancing, guedra/trance, sword, candle and basket balancing along with unique choreography, creating a dynamic performance.
Whiskey Rodeo
Drink Too Much, Write Alot Of Music, Get Great People Together, And You Have Whiskey Rodeo. Meet The Guys. Greg Does The Vocals. Chase He’s The Lead Guitar Player And P.T. Barnum Of The Group. Chad, Brings In The Groove. We Have Been Together Is Some Capacity For About A Year Now. It Started With Greg And Friends Playing The Patio At Uptown Billiards Just An Acoustic Guitar. Then We Hooked Up With Chase And The World Became Electric. Low And Behold Chad Showed Up With That Huge Hollow Body Bass Of His, Things Really Started To Click. Now We Have A Wicked Combination Of, Desire, Talent, And Experience. So Hold On To Your Knickers Flagstaff. We’ll Be In You Favorite Bar Real Soon!
