Badu dinner to be auctioned for charity

DALLAS, May 3 (UPI) -- A dinner with singer Erykah Badu will be auctioned off to help raise money for the African American Museum in Dallas, museum officials say.

Museum President Harry Robinson said the dinner will be up for auction at the 23rd annual African American Museum Gala and Auction, which marks the museum's top fundraising event of the year, The Dallas Morning News reported Saturday.

"We usually hover around 800 to 1,000 guests," Robinson said of the May 10 event. "But in 2004, when we had Isaac Hayes to entertain, we had a record crowd of 1,300."

This year's top performer will be the funk group Lakeside, the Morning News said.

Robinson told the newspaper the museum, which he founded in 1974, was thankful for the generous assistance from Badu and other fundraiser volunteers.

"We are really grateful to all our volunteers," he said. "We really couldn't exist without them."