Woodlands Literacy Charity Holding Fundraiser Aug. 27

THE WOODLANDS, TX — Children’s Books On Wheels, a literacy non-profit, will hold a special “White Party” on from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m on Saturday, Aug. 27, at the Sleepy Hollow Multipurpose Building, 9845 Sleepy Hollow Rd., in The Woodlands-area.

Tickets are $25, but funds raised at the party will go to Children's Books on Wheels shoes for scholars program, which gives disadvantaged school children gift cards to by new shoes.

There will also be a live band playing Motown, funk, R&B, jazz and Top 40 and a Caribbean inspired menu.

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A 'white party' according to Rita Wiltz, executive director of Children’s Books on Wheels, is a social event where people "can dress cool and wear white."

While Wiltz's description is technically correct, it does ignore how the queer community helped popularize the phrase 'white party.' In the gay community, the White Party is synonymous with the circuit party scene.

Although the first gay oriented white party was held in New York at the Flamingo, it was the Miami White Party that really took the concept and ran with it. The first Miami White Party was held in 1985, at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to raise money for research.

Over the years the Miami event grew into White Party Week, a week-long celebration that brings major money, major stars and major exposure to South Florida. The Miami White Party was in two episodes of Queer as Folk, W magazine, Vanity Fair and the New York Times. It's also bee the subject of and setting for two documentary films.

There is also the Palm Springs, CA White Party — which attracts 20,000 gay men, has its own Ferris Wheel and fireworks display, and was in The L Word and the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

But yeah, it's just a party where people get together and wear white clothes.