Texarkana native, musician and former "The Voice" contestant Stephanie Rice will perform at Saturday's Day of Pride event hosted by Equality Texarkana.
Running until 5 p.m. at the Front Street Festival Plaza, Day of Pride festivities kick off with a 10 a.m. parade. In addition to Rice's performance, there's food, vendors, speakers, a drag show and more live entertainment.
Rice serves as the parade grand marshal, and she says she's "super excited" about being back in Texarkana for this event.
"I haven't been here since the last hometown show I did," Rice said. That was indeed a memorable day about a year ago with a packed concert at Scottie's Grill and the Texarkana, Texas, mayor declaring the day to be Stephanie Rice Day.
"Obviously, I was really humbled by it," Rice said of the honor. It was a surprise. She remembers being told about a surprise coming and asking if it would make her cry. It did. She felt anxious but talking with VIP ticket holders put her more at ease.
"I wanted to sit with them and talk about why they came out to the show," Rice recalled of making that connection to people who came to see her in concert. She discovered they wanted to share their similar stories or simply be there and show love for Rice.
"I felt completely and entirely free," Rice remembers feeling about walking on that stage for the homecoming show.
Now she's returning to Texarkana to take part in a Pride event for the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and their supporters here, perhaps an unlikely outcome considering Rice, after she came out as a lesbian, became estranged from her parents and left town for Houston.
"In a million years I never thought this would happen, that's for sure," Rice said about headlining a Pride event in Texarkana. She's excited to be a voice and positive role model for LGBTQ youth in Texarkana, she says, and to work with an organization like Equality Texarkana. She knows it's important to reach out to the LGBTQ community and its allies.
"Allies are so incredibly important to our community," she said, noting she's ready to uplift the community and be "leading the way" as parade grand marshal.
On Saturday, Rice will partner with her Colonial Blue co-founder Corey Chierighino for the performance. They'll play her most recent single, "Let Me Go," songs from her first album with her band and a couple of new songs she has in the works.
"It's going to be just as energetic and exciting," Rice said, likening it to the kind of concert Texarkana enjoyed last year from her.
Now based in Los Angeles, she's coming back to where her heart is, she says, adding that it's important to spend quality time here and speak with everyone participating in the parade. This past year, she's traveled to New York City, Chicago and Florida. She played SXSW, too.
"This past year has been a very exciting ride," Rice said. She's been able to do all this with her fiancee, too. "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't met her," she said, noting they'd always talked about traveling together, and now they've been able to do so.
"That makes my heart so incredibly happy," Rice said about sharing this dream.
Rice has also been putting in studio time and writing material to add to her stockpile of songs. It's a challenge to pick out the best ones, but she vows to take her time to really think about what she wants to say. Over the next three months she'll hunker down and finalize these songs.
"I have some exciting things in the pipeline that I can't announce just yet," Rice said. But she'll be working with some incredible people.
And now for the LGBTQ community in Texarkana, she's happy to be an example for how life can get better with the resilience she's shown. "This is everything to me," Rice said.
To hear Rice perform, check out the Day of Pride festivities Saturday at Front Street Festival Plaza.
(For more information about the Day of Pride event, check out the Facebook event page and EqualityTexarkana.org.)