<\/p>\n
Patti LaBelle holds up a sign after signing it during a celebration July 2, 2019, while the block of Broad Street between Spruce and Locust Streets is renamed Patti LaBelle Way.<\/p>\n
TOM GRALISH<\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA \u2014 On a bitterly cold afternoon last month, Patti LaBelle walks gingerly down Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church\u2019s center aisle, her left hand grazing the top of each pew, steadying her balance.<\/p>\n
Half a dozen content creators, directors and Visit Philadelphia staff coax the Grammy Award-winning songstress toward the 18th century church\u2019s magnificent altar, their voices overflowing with encouragement, reverence, and love.<\/p>\n
LaBelle\u2019s stockinged footsteps are deliberate, her unblinking eyes affixed on the organ pipes in front of her.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s as contemplative as she is careful.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, Miss Patti,\u201d cooed Kyra Knox, the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who is directing Visit Philadelphia\u2019s Black History Month promotional video, \u201cWe Are the Fabric. We Are the Thread,\u201d starring the Philadelphia legend. \u201cYou are doing great.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Are the Fabric\u201d is part of the nonprofit tourism agency\u2019s “Indivisible<\/a>” campaign, a yearlong initiative highlighting Philly\u2019s diverse tourist destinations during\u00a0America\u2019s 250th birthday<\/a>\u00a0and Black History Month, which, coincidentally, is celebrating its 100th birthday this year. (Carter G. Woodson introduced\u00a0Negro History Week<\/a>\u00a0in 1926. It was extended to Black History Month in 1976.)<\/p>\n The videos are streaming on several online platforms including Hulu and HBO Max in seven markets including Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. During the month of February, Visit Philly will conduct a series of neighborhood walks through the city\u2019s historic districts with a special focus on Black history courtesy of the historical arts organizations\u00a01838 Black Metropolis<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the Black Journey<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot tell the story of American culture, innovation, music, art, and food without Black Americans because they are woven into every thread of the national narrative,\u201d said Angela Val, president and CEO of Visit Philly.<\/p>\n First stop: Mother Bethel<\/p>\n The filmmakers squeezed in a lot of places on the cold Thursday afternoon.\u00a0Mother Bethel<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the home of America\u2019s first Black Christian church founded by formally enslaved Richard Allen \u2014 is the first stop on the hours-long shoot.<\/p>\n After recording takes of LaBelle\u2019s coffin-shaped ivory nails in prayer and the centuries-old church\u2019s sunlit stained glass windows, LaBelle and the crew drive 14 blocks west to South Philadelphia\u2019s Union Baptist Church.<\/p>\n Film rolls and cameras flash as LaBelle, wrapped in an ankle-length vintage chocolate brown fur, is reflective in front of Union Baptist\u2019s 111-year-old stately exterior. Inside,\u00a0barrier-breaking early 20th century contralto Marian Anderson<\/a>\u00a0once sang in the choir. Like Anderson, LaBelle got her start singing gospel at Southwest Philly\u2019s Beulah Baptist Church.<\/p>\n After a few windy takes, the crew made its way to the southwest corner of City Hall in front of the statue of martyred 19th-century civil rights leader Octavius Catto. The day ended at the Arden Theatre, a nod to Philadelphia\u2019s vibrant Black performing arts community.<\/p>\n LaBelle stars in and narrates the video. She\u2019s accompanied by 9-year-old Riley Mills, who visits the historical sites and modern locations, like Uncle Bobbie\u2019s Coffee & Books in Germantown, reminding us that Black history is to be passed through the generations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Constitution couldn\u2019t hold us, we held each other,\u201d LaBelle says, her voice clear, sharp and determined.<\/p>\n \u201cWe made the music you move to,\u201d she continues as images of Teddy Pendergrass, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff fill the screen. And then, in an \u201cif you blink, you will miss it moment,\u201d there LaBelle is, in an old photograph flanked by her Labelle group members\u00a0Sarah Dash<\/a>\u00a0and Nona Hendryx, followed by her powerful words: \u201cWhen they wouldn\u2019t give us a stage, we built one.\u201d<\/p>\n Living Black history<\/p>\n Patti LaBelle is 81. She knows she\u2019s Black history. She\u2019s proud of it and doesn\u2019t take it lightly.<\/p>\n \u201cBlack people stand for everything,\u201d LaBelle told The Inquirer in between takes at Mother Bethel, her voice barely a whisper, worn out from her performance in the\u00a0\u201cQueens: 4 Legends Tour\u201d<\/a>\u00a0starring LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Stephanie Mills. They all came of age before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we continue to. We continue to fight while things are being taken away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n As Visit Philly filmed \u201cWe Are the Thread,\u201d the National Park Service was in the midst of\u00a0dismantling an exhibit honoring nine enslaved people\u00a0<\/a>who worked at George Washington\u2019s house when Philadelphia was America\u2019s capital city.<\/p>\n The removal was part of President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0executive order \u201crestoring truth and sanity to American history<\/a>.\u201d Last week, Trump shared a video that\u00a0depicted former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as cartoon primates<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t fight to keep what is ours,\u201d LaBelle said, her scratchy voice taking on urgency. \u201cIt will be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n Visit Philly\u2019s choice of LaBelle as its Black history spokesperson this year is thoughtful and necessary.<\/p>\n Her generation of civil rights warriors bridge the gap between Black Americans who lived through Jim Crow and those of us who only heard horror stories of how difficult it was for our ancestors to go to school, work, and vote.<\/p>\n As this administration claims that the Civil Rights Act resulted in\u00a0\u201cwhite people being very badly treated,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s important that stories like LaBelle\u2019s aren\u2019t just repeated but remembered and celebrated \u2014 especially as they get up there in age.<\/p>\n Without Patti LaBelle, Philadelphia \u2014 and its music \u2014 would be a different place.<\/p>\n \u2018A Philadelphia girl\u2019<\/p>\n LaBelle was born Patricia Louise Holte in Southwest Philadelphia in 1944. Her dad, Henry, came to Philadelphia from Georgia in the early part of the 20th century during the Great Migration. He worked on the railroad, was a singer, and an occasional gambler. Her mom, Bertha, was a homemaker. LaBelle was the youngest of five.<\/p>\n She went to Bartram High and sang at Beulah Baptist before becoming the lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s 1962 hit, \u201cI Sold My Heart to the Junkman,\u201d sold millions of copies, cementing LaBelle\u2019s stardom, getting her a spot on the Chitlin\u2019 Circuit for performances at Uptown Theater. She appeared on “American Bandstand” and\u00a0Jerry Blavat\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0radio show.<\/p>\n By 1975, the group was simply known as Labelle and was a visual smorgasbord of Afrofuturistic sequins and space suits. It released the iconic \u201cLady Marmalade\u201d that catapulted Labelle to the cover of Rolling Stone, becoming the first Black music group to be featured.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of wonderful moments in my career,\u201d LaBelle said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to remember, to be proud. We made a lot of history.\u201d<\/p>\n (Christina Aguilera, Lil\u2019 Kim, Mya and Pink covered \u201cLady Marmalade\u201d in 2001 for the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack. And in 2003 Labelle\u2019s \u201cLady Marmalade\u201d was\u00a0inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame<\/a>.)<\/p>\n In 2016, LaBelle received the Marian Anderson Award. Three years later, the city named Broad Street between Spruce and Locust\u00a0Patti LaBelle Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n LaBelle, who lives in Villanova now, never left the Philadelphia area.\u00a0<\/p>\n