The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 6 No. 5

HEALING THE HEALTHCARE DIVIDE IN NORTH TULSA P12

FEB. 20 – MAR. 5, 2019

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VOL. 6 NO. 5

R.L. JONES AND THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE P33

CELEBRATING TULSA’S AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS • P25

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now Michael Bolton Feb 21 Charlie Wilson Feb 22 chris young mar 14 wayne brady mar 23 paquita la del barrio & ángela aguilar mar 29 bellamy brothers apr 11 foreigner apr 18 the doobie brothers apr 19 michael carbonaro apr 27

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February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

16TH ANNUAL

st. patrick’s day Celebration Begins S at u r d ay, M a rc h 16 t h at 6PM

Celebration Continues S u n d ay, M a rc h 1 7 t h at 10 A M Dow n t ow n T u l s a | M id t ow n Ok l a hom a Ci t y

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CONTENTS // 3

4 // CONTENTS

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 5 ©2019. All rights reserved.

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Freed DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf CONTRIBUTORS Hunter Cates, Alicia Chesser Atkin, Ty Clark, Russell Cobb, Courtney Cullison, Andrew Deacon,

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Charles Elmore, Angela Evans, Barry Friendman, Greg Horton, Jeff Huston, Cassidy McCants, Mary Noble, Deon Osborne, Andrew Saliga, Valerie Wei-Haas The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

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BY MARY NOBLE

The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

Celebrating Tulsa’s African American entrepreneurs

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FEB. 20 – MAR. 5, 2019

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VOL. 6 NO. 5

8

PROSPERITY PROBLEMS

Economic rankings show Oklahoma falling further behind

BY COURTNEY CULLISON

10 HEAL THYSELF

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN Oklahoma’s insane refusal to expand Medicaid

12 PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE

BY HUNTER CATES

Tiffany Crutcher pushes to transform Tulsa Police

MUSIC 42 OFF BEAT

B Y TY CLARK Fred Armisen brings punk rock comedy to Cain’s Ballroom

CELEBRATING TULSA’S AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS • P25

ON THE COVER Rose Tax Solutions owner Latoya Rose PHOTO BY VALERIE WEI-HAAS

BY RUSSELL COBB

BY MARY NOBLE

Richard Lloyd Jones and the 1921 Race Massacre

FOOD & DRINK

NEWS & COMMENTARY

14 BUILDING TRUST

BY DEON OSBORNE R.L. JONES AND THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE P33

P31

Co-owner of Black Label Grooming AG Guipttons works with a client at the salon. | VALERIE WEI-HAAS

Closing the gap on healthcare disparities in north Tulsa

HEALING THE HEALTHCARE DIVIDE IN NORTH TULSA P12

P33

Q&A with Trey Thaxton

1603 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK 74119 P: 918.585.9924 F: 918.585.9926 PUBLISHER Jim Langdon PRESIDENT Juley Roffers VP COMMUNICATIONS Susie Miller CONTROLLER Mary McKisick DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Amanda Hall RECEPTION Gloria Brooks

‘NO APOLOGY’

44 TULSA SWAG

B Y CASSIDY MCCANTS

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Tori Ruffin brings the funk at Juicemaker Lounge

16 BREADWINNERS

B Y ANGELA EVANS

Local bakers rise and grind

18 DISTINCTLY DECO

B Y ANDREW SALIGA DecoDrinks combines local sources with global inspiration

20 EXPANDING THE MAP

B Y GREG HORTON

Stellar wines from unexpected regions

21 INSIDE-OUT

B Y ANGELA EVANS

The Dog House serves up Cali-inspired fast food burgers

TV & FILM 46 BLACK LIFE ITSELF

B Y JEFF HUSTON

ARTS & CULTURE 36 TIME WILL TELL

B Y ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN Philbrook Downtown exhibit looks backward, forward, and below

37 CONVERSATION PIECES

B Y BLAYKLEE FREED Black Wall Street Gallery’s sixth installment is a stunner

38 BROTHERLY LOLZ

B Y ANDREW DEACON Randy and Jason Sklar return to Tulsa for a night of comedy

ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 40 THEHAPS 45 MUSICLISTINGS 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

An Academy Award-nominated documentary meditates on rural black America

46 FALLEN ANGEL

B Y CHARLES ELMORE Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron misfire with a dull adaptation

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

O

n Feb. 4, a hate grouptracking website published a story alleging an employee of the Tulsa County Clerk’s Office to be a “longtime [member] of the Ku Klux Klan.”

The article included disturbing details about the activities of the public employee and her husband, including the couple’s documented affiliation with Christian Identity churches and speaking appearances at conferences held by the Knights Party, the selfproclaimed “voice of America’s white resistance.”

The two provided entertainment at one such event, performing a parody song accusing Barack Obama of faking his U.S. birth certificate—a racist smear that launched the political career of the 45th President of the United States, whose name is reportedly

emblazoned on the side of the couple’s station wagon.

This isn’t the only white supremacist on the public payroll in our state. News broke last year of a police chief with neo-Nazi ties in the southern Oklahoma town of Colbert, about half an hour from where I grew up. He resigned amid national media scrutiny, only to be hired onto another police force in the nearby town of Achille, where a transgender student had recently been run out of town after being threatened online by the parents of her classmates.

(One of those parents was two years ahead of me in high school.)

White supremacy is not a bug in our system, but a feature. You can’t understand life in America— and certainly not Tulsa—without grappling with that dumb, cruel fact. It’s why railroads are where

they are; why poverty exists where it does; why some people go to jail more than others; why some women die in childbirth more than others; and why, until last August, black students at Tulsa’s Council Oak Elementary were expected to learn at a public school named after a man who fought and killed so white men could own children like them as property.

Our latest feature story by Russell Cobb grapples with Tulsa’s racist roots (pg. 33). Specifically, he looks at the role played by former Tulsa Tribune editor Richard Lloyd Jones in sparking the rhetorical flame that burned Black Wall Street to the ground in 1921. It’s a jaw-dropping longform piece that dives deep on the famous newspaper-man’s relationship to the KKK, his role in founding Tulsa’s most famous liberal church, and

RECYCLE THIS Cardboard, Newspapers and Magazines

the construction of a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. Wild, right?

You’ve gotta read it.

Of course, Tulsa’s black community is not a prop in a tragic historical drama. When you’re done with Russell’s story, flip back a few pages to meet some of the people who make Magic City great in 2019, and see how you can support black-owned businesses that are thriving in the once-decimated Greenwood neighborhood and beyond (pg. 25). a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

NOT THAT Pillows and Bedding

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Cardboard, newspapers and magazines are perfect for recycling, but pillows and bedding are NOT acceptable for the blue recycling cart.

LEARN MORE AT 6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

okpolicy

T

PROSPERITY PROBLEMS Economic rankings show Oklahoma falling further behind

by COURTNEY CULLISON for OKPOLICY.ORG

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

here are quite a few reasons to be optimistic about Oklahoma this year. Unemployment is low and the state expects to have its first budget surplus in quite some time. But despite this good news, too many Oklahomans still struggle to make ends meet and build a better future for themselves and their families. For the third straight year, Oklahoma has dropped in the Prosperity Now Scorecard rankings. We now rank 43rd in the nation for financial health and overall well-being of our residents—down from 34th in 2016.

The Scorecard shows Oklahomans are struggling in several areas related to financial security.

On businesses and jobs, we have a mixed record. Our unemployment rate is lower than the national rate, and nearly half of private employers in the state offer health insurance. But the percentage of jobs in Oklahoma classified as “low-wage”—more than one in four—outpaces the national rate, indicating that many Oklahomans are working hard for paychecks that are too small to meet their basic needs.

Many Oklahomans are just one minor emergency away from financial disaster. More than onethird of Oklahoma households do not have a savings account, and only three in five Oklahomans have access to revolving credit they could use to cope with an unexpected expense. As a state, we rank in the bottom 10 in nine of the 15 measurements of financial health.

Oklahoma struggles most for healthcare, with a rank in the bottom 10 states on all six measures in the Scorecard. Our uninsured rate (16.6 percent) is the second-highest in the nation, and nearly one in 10 Oklahoma children do not have health insurance.

In turn, one in six of us report forgoing a visit to the doctor because of the cost.

This year, the Scorecard added

a new measure: racial disparity, which measures the gaps in outcomes between white residents and residents of color. As a state, Oklahoma ranks eighth in this new category. This means that we have comparatively small gaps in the well-being of white Oklahomans and Oklahomans of color.

But that doesn’t mean that we’re all doing equally well. In Oklahoma’s case, it means that a lot of white Oklahomans (especially in rural Oklahoma) are struggling just as much as Oklahomans of color—we’re all finding it difficult to make ends meet.

These rankings tell us that Oklahoma does face significant challenges. But the good news is that we have good policy solutions that could address these issues.

The Earned Income Tax Credit has a proven history of helping to lift working families out of poverty. But for families to receive the full benefits of this credit, it must be refundable—families must be able to claim the credit even if the amount exceeds their income tax liability. That’s why it’s important that legislators restore the refundability of our state EITC. Oklahomans use payday loans at a higher rate than residents of any other state, and these predatory loans trap working families in a cycle of debt that can be nearly impossible to escape. Oklahoma needs stronger policies to protect our people from predatory lenders.

For too many Oklahomans, a lack of access to health care puts them at risk of debilitating illness and massive debt. We could ensure all Oklahomans have access to affordable, quality health care by accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid.

With these solutions, we can set Oklahoma on a path to a more prosperous future.a

Courtney Cullison is an economic opportunity policy analyst for Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org).

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

Heal thyself

Oklahoma’s insane refusal to expand Medicaid

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

T

here’s a moment in Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four,” when Bouton, an MLB pitcher, armed with his past season’s statistics of wins, losses, saves, and earned-run average, tries to persuade his general manager to give him a raise. The GM, duly unimpressed, tells Bouton, “Tell your statistics to shut up.”

Which brings us to the debate about Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma and those elected GOP officials who, though plied with facts and figures—all positive and certifiable outcomes from states that have expanded the program—keep telling the statistics to shut up.

Like these: • 14.2 percent of Oklahomans are uninsured.1 • 8.8 percent of Americans are uninsured.2 • Oklahoma is one of 14 states that has not expanded Medicaid.

• An additional 233,000 Oklahomans could be insured if Medicaid coverage was expanded.

• The state will forego about $11 billion over the next year in federal funds.3 As of late, though, the newly-elected Gov. Kevin Stitt and GOP leaders say they are open to expanding Medicaid in this state—not ready to do it, mind you, but considering it—as long as they get to demagogue the issue until we’re all dead.

“I’m going to be very careful where I don’t put Oklahoma in a tough situation … where we’re stuck providing more government services and a billion-dollar price tag,” Stitt said about the idea of expanding Medicaid. “We’ve got to be very careful, but absolutely.” 3 10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

the Trump Administration for approval), said, “It is imperative to provide expectations for all of our citizens who are able to work.”

Please. As The Journal Record points out, “Oklahoma’s application states that the number and categories of affected residents are unclear.” 7 So the legislators passed a law without first doing due diligence, and having no idea its effects and on whom?

Be still my heart arrhythmia.

This is a profi le in incrementalism.

The issue of Medicaid expansion has been a thorny one for Oklahoma Republicans, many of whom see the benefits the increasing federal funds would bring to the state’s health system but who also have demonized the Affordable Care Act on the campaign stump. The federal government would offer a 9-to-1 match for state funds to pay for the expansion, but Stitt and GOP leaders said they want the ability to opt out of the expansion if the state’s share became much larger. 4

A nine-to-one match on state funds to pay for a program that would insure almost an additional quarter million Oklahomans, and GOP leaders still can’t make the call?

It’s free money! More to the point, it’s our money.

For even though Oklahoma has refused to expand Medicaid, its residents still pay federal taxes, which means our money is going

to those states that have expanded it, all the while refusing to take money from these very states to expand health services here.

That’s a special kind of stupid.

And counterproductive: House Bill 2932 asked the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to request federal permission to require able-bodied adults who meet certain criteria to work for 20 hours a week, engage in work-training programs, or a combination of both to qualify for Medicaid benefits. 5

[A] study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute Center for Children and Families found that very poor mothers, especially in rural areas, would be the most affected. About 60 percent of parents using Oklahoma’s Medicaid program saw incomes significantly below the poverty line: 20 percent of that cutoff or less. That means they bring in no more than $4,156 annually or $346 a month.

That’s just brutal.

And unnecessary:

Gutting people’s insurance because they didn’t leave a forwarding address is mean, since one of the byproducts of being poor is that housing is always in flux, and work requirements are a con, since the jobs available—and we’re only talking about at most about 6,000 Oklahomans who will be affected —don’t pay a living wage, but pay too much to keep people eligible for Medicaid.6 Stupid and mean is no way to run a state.

Gov. Fallin, who signed the bill into law (it now goes to

Among Medicaid adults (including parents and childless adults — the group targeted by the Medicaid expansion), nearly 8 in 10 live in working families, and a majority are working themselves. Nearly half of working Medicaid enrollees are employed by small firms, and many work in industries with low employer-sponsored insurance rates.8

Another byproduct of the state’s decision to not expand Medicaid is that our rural hospitals are closing. There are many reasons, including reimbursement rates and state budget cuts, but also because when the uninsured get sick, they go to emergency rooms for treatment, and unlike private facilities, public hospitals

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

cannot by law turn away patients for their inability to pay.

And when the sick can’t pay in a for-profit healthcare system, hospitals can’t function.

There’s something else at play: hypocrisy. At present, Oklahoma receives about 34 percent of its total revenues from the federal government.9 If you’re scoring at home, nine of the top 10 states most dependent on the federal government are Red States.10 Presently, Oklahoma ranks 21st in the nation in federal dependency. We rank in negative balance of payments between what we send to Washington in taxes and what we get back.11 In short, we’re sponges. We’re the kind of state against which we rail. We take federal money for roads, for agriculture, for environmental quality, for more than 900 federal programs, but we draw the line at Medicaid expansion? Why? One word: Obama.

When the former President of the United States proposed and was successful in passing the Affordable Care Act, he was called a socialist. The Supreme Court did allow states to opt out of Medicaid expansion, though, which some did, because of ACA requirements—and nobody was going to tell Oklahoma what it had to do, even though every other federal program for which we get funds also has strings attached.

As to those socialist claims, spare me. Approximately 13 percent of Oklahoma’s population is over 65, meaning in a state of 3.9 million people, there are about 500,000 of us in toupees and gabardine pants on “socialized medicine”—you may know it as Medicare. To this point, once in Las Vegas, I had dinner with my father and about a dozen of his friends, all upper-middle class, all mid 80’s, all on Medicare, and all bitching about government-run healthcare.

“You know, you’d all be dead without it,” I said. “You’re welcome.”

In 1965, when Medicare (and, for that matter, Medicaid) began, it provided basic healthcare for Americans 65 and older. It was thought a nation as rich as the United States owed its seniors something.

Before Medicare came into existence, onl y about half of Americans over age 65 had health insurance. One of the primary reasons for this was because coverage for individuals in this age category was unaffordable.

Because of this, roughl y one in four seniors went without medical care at all due to cost issues. By making care available to more people, Medicare has essentiall y advanced the effort to not just treat illness and disease, but to also deliver more preventive care and to address more issues before they become acute. Today, onl y 2 percent of Americans over 65 are uninsured – and, according to anal ysts, Medicare has even helped to increase the life expectancy for Americans over age 65 by five years. 12

Certainly wouldn’t want to unleash that kind of calamity today.

During his campaign, Stitt said Obamacare was “a disastrous law that Congress should repeal and replace with a solution that encourages a competitive business climate to drive down cost for all Oklahomans and increase health care health-care options.”

Private insurance companies always do such a bang-up job; by all means, let’s shovel more business their way. What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, this: “Combined, the nation’s top six health insurers reported $6 billion in adjusted profits for the second quarter.” 13 In one quarter.

But medical costs are out of control because some able-bodied male in north Tulsa refuses to get a job?

Stitt’s desire to opt out of expansion if the feds don’t honor their agreement of a nine-to-one match in funds is a disingenuous and dusty dodge. The federal government has always kept its word on the funding mechanism equation. Who hasn’t kept their word, though? The state GOP. Or maybe I forget how well those Republican-led tax cuts ushered in an era of prosperity for the state.

One final thing. Here’s what happens if Oklahoma expands Medicaid:

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Additional lives saved per year: 484 Additional cancer diagnoses per year: 132 Additional early-stage cancer diagnoses per year: 104 Bankruptcies prevented per year: 48

modern american RESTAURANT + JAZZ CLUB

Reduction in families’ accrued medical debt: $214.4 million Reduction in families’ collection balances: $265.6 million Money kept in families’ pockets from less costly credit per year: $66.2 million

UPCOMING SHOWS

downstairs

Savings to local communities from enhanced public safety per year: $265.2 million 14

Curious thing about statistics.

No matter how many times you tell them to shut up, they never do. a

Janet Rutland FEBRUARY 20

Garrett Jacobson 1)

2)

3) 4)

5)

6)

7)

8) 9) 10)

11) 12) 13)

14)

New Census data shows that Oklahoma fell further behind the U.S. on poverty and uninsured rate for second consecutive year healthaffairs.org: Two New Federal Surveys Show Stable Uninsured Rate healthinsurance.org: Oklahoma health insurance apnews.com: Oklahoma governor, GOP leaders open to Medicaid expansion newsok.com: Oklahoma’s work requirements for Medicaid criticized in new report thehill.com: Oklahoma seeks Trump approval on Medicaid work requirements journalrecord.com: Medicaid work requirements target Oklahoma’s poorest gkff.org: Understanding the Intersection of Medicaid and Work taxfoundation.org: Which States Rely the Most on Federal Aid? cheatsheet.com: 15 States Most Dependent on the Federal Government moneytips.com: Is Your State A Net Payer Or A Net Taker? medicareconsumer.com: Has Medicare Been Successful? cnbc.com: As Obamacare twists in political winds, top insurers made $6 billion (not that there is anything wrong with that) americanprogress.org: RELEASE: New CAP Report: Expanding Medicaid Would Save the Lives of More Than 480 Oklahomans Per Year

FEBRUARY 22

Sarah Maud FEBRUARY 23

Smoochie Wallus FEBRUARY 27

Tommy Crook and Shelby Eicher MARCH 2

Collective Improvise Music Night MARCH 6

New Orleans Dance Party with Adam Ledbetter MARCH 8

NATIONAL TOURING ARTISTS

Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings, Bill Stewart Trio MARCH 13

DuetJazz.com

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

community

D

riving to Crossover Health Services from midtown Tulsa feels like venturing to a frontier outpost in the uncharted desert. Wide, acrelot-size blotches of brown grass flank either side of the nondescript white building where the clinic operates. The isolated area almost feels rural, but it’s heavily populated.

The drive to Crossover’s location at 36th Street North gives you some idea of what it must be like to travel miles for basic care.

Just imagine if you didn’t have a car, and had to rely on a bus or your own two feet. Now imagine you’re traveling with sick children.

For years that was north Tulsans’ everyday reality. For many it still is. Since 2014, Crossover Health Services has tried to fix that, by offering family medical services at 940 E. 36th St. N, the Hawthorne neighborhood. The clinic is part of Crossover Bible Church and its affi liated nonprofit organization, Crossover Community Impact.

Executive director Justin Pickard is a graduate of the University of Tulsa who also holds a master’s degree in urban development from Harvard University. Crossover Community Impact was born thanks to Pickard and Rev. Philip Abode’s shared vision. Rev. Abode is also a TU graduate, as well as a former Golden Hurricane football player, who is pastor of Crossover Church. They have been joined by numerous others who grew weary of watching their fellow human beings suffer in silence.

For the Crossover team, this clinic is personal. Instead of commuting to work from different parts of the Tulsa metro, they have built their lives and are raising their families in north Tulsa.

“All of us live out here. This is our community too. It means something to us,” said Louise Whitley, Crossover’s RN, DSN. “We’re not just coming in and working and leaving. This is us.”

“I’m one of the patients. My family is the patient. You can’t treat me any differently than

12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Crossover Health Services, located at 940 E. 36th St. N, offers family medical services. | GREG BOLLINGER

PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE Closing the gap on healthcare disparities in north Tulsa

by HUNTER CATES anyone else,” said Angelia Barnett, Crossover’s administrative manager.

Being both patient and provider gives the team a grassroots perspective when it comes to serving a patient’s needs. With people’s lives on the line, the providers don’t fret about customer service or patient experience, and will prescribe a heavy dose of tough love.

“Sugar and salt are both white, so you might not get what you expect, but you’ll always get what you need,” Barnett said. She has called patients every hour on the hour just to make sure they pick up their prescriptions. “That’s the family aspect of it. It’s getting what you need, not always what you expect.”

Like a family, the Crossover team is united by stronger bonds than you find in most workplaces.

Chatting with Pickard, Barnett,

and Whitley is like watching a play with overlapping dialogue or sitting around the family dinner table, as the three expand on each other’s thoughts.

“Nobody thought we could do this,” said Whitley.

“No. Everybody told us [you can’t do this],” said Barnett.

“Executives told us this would not be a profitable venture.”

“Well, they were right about that!” said Pickard.

“We make enough,” said Whitley.

“We’re not federally funded,” said Barnett. “We’re not swinging from the chandeliers. But we’re making it.”

“This is what I think medicine should be,” said Whitley.

“But it’s turned into a business. It shouldn’t be a business, but it has, I feel like. Ours is not a business.”

“Our doctors work for way less,” said Pickard. He credits

this for keeping the clinic afloat.

While Pickard says that Crossover’s healthcare providers are able to make a living and feed their families, they each work for a fraction of what they would make elsewhere. This allows the clinic to serve a patient population that would otherwise fall through the cracks.

The national debate over healthcare justice has been with us for generations. Every election cycle brings with it another round of arguments between advocates for universal, single-payer coverage and more market-based reforms. In the meantime, the status quo remains. Working within the confines of our current system, Crossover Health Services finds its purpose in the Bible. The organization’s symbol is the lion and its mission is unapologetically scriptural.

“This wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for the Christian mission,” Pickard said. “The people willing to come over here and work and invest in it, they wouldn’t do it without the Christian mission.”

“For your ordinary person, that makes no sense, ‘Yeah I’ll go make half what I can make elsewhere.’

That’s where the Christian mission makes [our clinic] present here where it just wouldn’t exist otherwise,” said Pickard. “We can take as many SoonerCare patients who come through our door and other places literally don’t do that. That’s an example of injustice in our city that affects health outcomes. They just flat out won’t take the people because of the money.”

A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM Systemic issues like this put places like north Tulsa at an inherent and what at times seems like an insurmountable disadvantage. When a community is affl icted, every man, woman, and child who lives there suffers.

Mayor GT Bynum shined a light on this nearly two years ago in his statement following Police Officer Betty Shelby’s acquital for the shooting death of Terence

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Crutcher: “We have a long way to go as a city when there is a 10-year life expectancy disparity between the most predominant African-American part of our city and the rest of our city.”

The racial disparity that Mayor Bynum called “the great moral issue of our time in Tulsa” is the result of a perfect storm of plight.

“Healthcare is a problem.

Poverty is a problem. Then there’s segregation by race that we have in north Tulsa that is a problem,” Pickard said. “You can be poor in another part of town, but you have access to services because of the wealthier people around you.

It’s the isolation over here … that leaves you with this space without a whole lot of services. Poverty is an issue. It’s a real issue. The broken healthcare system is an issue. But we have stacked on top of those this geographical issue that leads to that health disparity.”

The dearth of primary care providers in an area with north Tulsa’s population is disturbing, and is the side effect of the system as it now stands. While it’s a huge part of the disparity, a healthy population needs more than hospitals and clinics; they need quality food. Greasy spoons and fast food joints abound, but grocery stores, or even places to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, are nearly nonexistent. North Tulsa’s status as a food desert contributes to the obesity, type-II diabetes, and high blood pressure which plague residents and shorten lives.

“There’s a two-mile radius to even get to a grocery store,” said Barnett. “You try walking two miles with groceries. It’s not going to happen.”

COMPASSION AGAINST THE ODDS As insurmountable as the odds may seem to those on the outside, the Crossover staff does not think the battle is lost. Quite the opposite. Patient by patient, day by day, they are seeing the difference they are making in people’s lives.

“The Tulsa Health Department opening up that branch [at 5635 M.L.K. Jr. Blvd] is a good move. [OU Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic] is a good move…[but] the real impact is on this relational level,” said Pickard.

“The relationships are the best chance at getting that change.

It’s not about billing or ‘you’ve got to see X number of people.’ If you want to see change, people have got to believe that you care about them at this deep-heart level. It’s a little bit of a drop in the bucket in a sense, but we have 4,400 patients. That’s a lot people that have come through, been loved on by the staff … so I know that means something.”

“It’s coming,” said Barnett.

“Prayerfully, it’s coming. And that’ll be the change.”

The Crossover team believes the conversation around north Tulsa is changing, and that barriers built over decades are finally coming down. But talking about the problems isn’t enough.

“I think that’s the problem: There’s too much conversation.

It’s all talk and no action. Stop talking. I don’t want to hear you.

If you’re not out here doing something, get on it.”

Health discrepancies still exist.

Fresh produce is still hard to find, and much of the community is still isolated from the rest of their city. The challenges are great, but nobody at Crossover is waiting to be rescued. “[We’re] changing from a culture of poverty, to a community. We love on each other. We help each other out,” said Whitley.

“Just having a clinic here isn’t going to make big changes, but if we can love on people, be an example, show their value and their worth, there’s hope in that.”

Slowly, but surely, change is coming to north Tulsa. For those who don’t live here, that change begins within. It means not being afraid to travel north of Admiral, and not seeing the community as separate from the rest of our shared city.

“We’re kind of in the gap of what the status quo leaves you with,” said Pickard. “People who want to see what’s being done here, we love to show people and would support people doing similar things in other neighborhoods.

We’re actively trying to do that.”

“I feel more loved here [in north Tulsa] than anywhere...

People are missing out,” said Whitley. “You don’t even realize it. It’s such an awesome place.”

Barnett agrees and states simply: “If everybody does a little, it turns into a lot.” a

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

community

Building trust

Tiffany Crutcher pushes to transform Tulsa Police

by DEON OSBORNE ore than two years after a Tulsa Police officer shot and killed unarmed north Tulsa resident Terence Crutcher, his twin sister Tiffany is still seeking justice for her slain brother and accountability for the Tulsa Police Department.

To that end, Crutcher is voicing her support for the Mayor GT Bynum’s proposed Office of the Independent Monitor.

In an effort to build trust between the community and law enforcement, Mayor Bynum has proposed creating a new agency to “review best practices and provide recommendations on policy and procedure” for a better approach to community policing, according to a press release.

The push to provide oversight for the Tulsa Police Department comes amid a year of changes to address a report from the Community Services Council and the City of Tulsa highlighting racial disparities in police use-of-force and trust among minority communities.

The Equality Indicators Report found, among other disparities, that black Tulsans are more than twice as likely to experience police use-of-force as white Tulsans.

For Tiffany Crutcher, bringing citizen oversight to the Tulsa Police Department has been a major goal since creating the Terence Crutcher Foundation after former Tulsa Police officer Betty Shelby was acquitted in the shooting death of Tiffany’s twin brother.

“The verdict is what put the fire in our belly to go ahead and keep this fight going,” Crutcher said. Tiffany Crutcher described the moment the jury read the verdict acquitting the officer who fatally shot her unarmed brother as “painful” and “defeating.”

Crutcher said her mother, Leanna Crutcher, had a quiet strength throughout the deliber-

M

14 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Tiffany Crutcher is the founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation and is the twin sister of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man who was killed by police in 2016. | GREG BOLLINGER

ation process until the moment they walked past the cameras and entered the elevator.

“Once those elevator doors closed, she collapsed in the elevator and just started screaming out, ‘She killed my baby! She killed my son!’”

Despite wanting to give up, Tiffany Crutcher said family, friends, and community members inspired her to give a statement, which inspired her family to establish the Crutcher Foundation and pursue police oversight.

Tiffany Crutcher and her family are approaching these new developments with guarded optimism. “The Office of the Independent Monitor is definitely a first step,” she said.

While Tulsa’s Fraternal Order of Police threatened to sue the Mayor’s office if they implement the proposal without the union’s participation, some police officers came out in support of the proposal.

The Tulsa Black Officers Coalition acknowledged that they are the servants of the people and therefore accountable to the people.

“There are times when you have to get uncomfortable to gain a true perspective of the impact that you are having. However, if you continue to talk to yourself,

you will always be right,” Sgt. Marcus Harper, president of the coalition, wrote in an email.

Tiffany Crutcher welcomes the support for oversight coming from the coalition of officers, saying it was “long overdue.”

“We’re not going to remember the words of our enemies, but we’re going to remember the silence of our friends,” Crutcher said, quoting the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not everyone in city government feels as strongly in favor of the proposed oversight, however.

Tulsa City Councilor Cass Fahler for District 5 received mixed reviews from constituents after he wrote a Facebook post condemning the proposed Office of Independent Monitor as judicial overreach.

“Action to place TPD on trial

by City Council via judicial hearings is being attempted,” Fahler posted. “This has further concerns because of future authority the OIM may attempt to seize, and its regulatory makeup … I call on all available Tulsa Police Dept. officers, family members, citizens and residents to stand with me in the fight to protect TPD,” Fahler said.

When asked whether his post caused more division than solutions, Fahler said he wishes his post had been clearer.

“It became convoluted between OIM and city council hearings on TPD. What I meant to do was to help contact, collect, and inform all police that the Mayor would be providing info, and that they’re welcome to attend,” Fahler said.

Fahler said that four councilmembers will be traveling to assess Denver’s Office of the Independent Monitor. Councilor Hall-Harper, Councilor Dodson, and Councilor Cue will be joining Councilor Fahler on the trip.

“I do not feel like there’s a lot of tension between the community and police,” Fahler said.

“We hear from a very small, vocal group that I don’t consider to be representative of all people.”

When asked whether he doesn’t believe the numbers from the Equality Indicators report indicating a majority of black Tulsans don’t trust the police, Fahler said he doesn’t know how the survey was conducted.

“I don’t know who they selected to conduct the review, but I’m diligently looking into those reports to find out exactly how the numbers relate to people trusting the police and how we can improve that environment,” Fahler said.

Tiffany Crutcher disagreed with Fahler’s post and called it divisive. “It was appalling and very tone deaf,” Crutcher said.

“We’re trying to build trust with community stakeholders, law enforcement, and policymakers.

How do you do that when you have an entity that’s pushing a narrative that this is anti-police?”

Crutcher asked.

Through her continued efforts to transform the police in Tulsa, Tiffany Crutcher will never forget the last words her brother said to her. “I’m going to make you proud. God is going to get the glory out of my life.” a

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 15

citybites

H

omo sapiens wouldn’t be breaking bread, getting that bread, or yearning for the upper-crust without three simple ingredients—flour, water, and salt. Before early civilization conjured the supernatural phenomenon of fermentation, breads gracing ancient tables were as flat as the so-called “Earth.” But the turning point in human history is the discovery and subsequent harnessing of fermentation.

The human eye couldn’t even detect the microbes responsible for leavened bread until the invention of the microscope in 1860, and mass-produced yeast didn’t make its appearance until the 1900s. Pandora’s bread box was opened, resulting in rows of uniformly-sliced bread in clinically-sealed plastic bags glistening under garish supermarket fluorescent lights.

However, a few quaint local bakeries are giving rise to a renaissance in baking, where Old World methods and ingredients are embraced, and bakers tinker with techniques that border on alchemy.

LEVAIN KITCHEN & BAKERY 10021 S. Yale Ave., #108 A great baker isn’t always born; oftentimes, they rise to the occasion. Trey Winkle began exploring the technical and artistic ins-andouts of baking sourdough only a few years ago. But simple experiments with bread-making would soon become the backbone of his future French-inspired bistro, Levain Kitchen & Bakery.

“I’ve always liked to learn things that I’m not comfortable with, and baking bread is pretty complicated, especially if you aren’t using packaged yeast,” Winkle said. “It’s like you are having to tame something that’s wild by nature.”

A simple sourdough depends on two ingredients—equal parts flour and water, inoculated with lactobacillus (friendly bacteria), that will transform into a fermentation-fed, hot air balloon of dough, thrumming with bubbles of carbon dioxide and aromatic acids. This is the process behind each slice of sourdough and toasty 16 // FOOD & DRINK

Tasty treats on display at Esperance Bakery | GREG BOLLINGER

BREADWINNERS Local bakers rise and grind

by ANGELA EVANS English muffin served at Levain.

After years of research, Winkle strives for the perfect prototype—a glossy loaf with a deep auburn crust that can only be attained through proper steaming then roasting.

“You know the people like to pop bubble wrap?” asked Winkle, putting a two-pound loaf of intoxicatingly fragrant sourdough on the table. “It’s also really satisfying to feel the crunch of the sourdough with your fingers right out of the oven.”

Levain’s crew bakes up several loaves each day, along with tiny baguettes, burger buns, English muffins, and biscuits. Levain also serves a full breakfast, lunch and, now, dinner menu featuring the breads, meats cured in house, French fries with béarnaise (!), trout picatta, and cold cut sandwiches on that heavenly sourdough.

BAKESHOP 1124 S. Lewis Ave. Bakeshop is the brainchild of three women inspired by the art of baking. The bakery was born from the restaurant concept incubator Kitchen 66, which has helped the tiny operation grow into their new storefront in the newly-opened food hall at Mother Road Market.

The bakery, known for its all-natural ingredients, unique flavor combos, and sophisticated pastries, was pushed to expand beyond their baked goods to include savory soups and hearty salads. The pastry side of things is managed by Morgan Barkley, and Emily Price takes care of the freshly-baked bread and the ever-growing selection of flavor-packed soups and hearty salads that round out the lunch and dinner menus.

“We’ve been more-or-less vegetarian during our lives, which helped us have that ability to combine healthy ingredients,” Landry said. “We aren’t a health food restaurant, but we do want it to be something that is really nourishing and fi lling for people.”

Barkley and Price are producing some of the most mouth-watering vegetarian-ish dishes in town. The bread is still the star, but the salads stacked with kale and tantalizing accoutrement, and steamy bowls of soup are worthy of their toasty accompaniment.

Bakeshop offers various sourdough and seeded loaves, along with a full selection of scones, and a satisfying gluten-free bread that can’t be beat when toasted and slathered with a big ol’ pat of butter.

Bakeshop’s eclectic selection of toasts make mere avocado toast look pedestrian by comparison.

Start simple with the sweet-and-savory combo of fig and goat cheese, or mix it up with squash, hummus, pesto, and pickled onion.

Bakeshop can be found inside the Mother Road Market Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

ESPERANCE 610 W. Main St., Jenks Baking the perfect croissant became a mathematical and chemical curiosity to Hope Alexander, owner and baker at Esperance Bakery, during a pivotal career change.

“You know those idiots that see something really challenging [and think], ‘If someone else can do that, so can I?’ That’s me,” Alexander said. “I had some time at home and a Julia Child cookbook. The thing is, I made batch of the croissant and just feeling it—if something can feel beautiful—the dough, the smoothness of it felt beautiful to me.”

The dough itself is used for other items, like the mushroom, walnut, caramelized and onion tartlet. The melding of mushroom with the walnut lent itself to the heavenly, buttery crunch of the croissant. Each bite creates an audible crunch, unleashing a flurry

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

of golden, feather-light flakes.

“You have to have good butter, and you have to have enough of it,” Hope said. “If you bite into a croissant and you don’t make a mess, something is wrong.”

Leftover croissants are transformed into hatch chili and sausage bread pudding. The ever-changing dessert case at Esperance regularly features items like sticky toffee pudding, pear en croute, and chocolate hazelnut bourbon tortes.

Esperance is open 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 7:30 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

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SAINT AMON BAKERY 6333 E. 120th Ct., Suite F Sarah Saint Amon, along with her husband, Jean (J.B.) Baptiste met while working together as pastry chefs. The two were married and now own their own patisserie, Saint Amon Baking Company.

J.B. hails from Dax, France, where he began his pastry preparing tutelage at 18.

Saint Amon’s dessert case bursts with sophisticated pastries, artfully-crafted desserts and an ever-dynamic line-up of delicacies the couple feel inspired to create.

“That’s when we have a moment to have fun,” Sarah said.

“But our specialty really is croissants. Most croissants you’ll find are too dense. There are about a dozen different nuances, but mainly because they are machinemade, or they are really rough with the dough and smash the lamination.”

The lamination refers to the layers of dough that give the croissant its delicate strata that is created by alternating layers of dough and butter. The Queen Amon is a regal manifestation of croissant dough, with layers of sugar sprinkled between the layers, and a glossy coating of bruléed brown sugar on top.

Though Saint Amon’s always has something to treat the sweet tooth, they also have a selection of savory items. Their version of a sausage roll—featuring kasewurst from Siegi’s Sausage—will ruin you for all future sausage rolls.

They feature classic sandwiches, like ham, brie and butter on an authentic baguette. Saint Amon is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. a THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

FOOD & DRINK // 17

downthehatch

Deco Drinks, located at 5097A E. 51st St., serves high-quality coffee, loose leaf tea, matcha, and craft boba tea. | ANDREW SALIGA

Distinctly Deco

DecoDrinks combines local sources with global inspiration

by ANDREW SALIGA

F

rom the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church to the Philcade, Tulsans are familiar with the influence of Art Deco on the architecture downtown. The design movement’s popularity intersected with an oil-industry boom in the early 1900s, resulting Tulsa’s high concentration of Art Deco-inspired architecture. What’s perhaps lesser known is that the Art Deco movement borrowed inspiration from a variety of aesthetics and cultures with the intent of creating a modern unified theme.

One of Tulsa’s newest establishments, DecoDrinks, honors that tradition by serving a wide range of drinks, sourced both locally and internationally.

DecoDrinks owner Alex Coffey’s background is business, but he developed an appreciation for tea culture while earning his MBA in China. The slow and meditative tea brewing process was a stark contrast to Americans’ ritualistic coffee, which tends to be consumed with haste and often only as caffeine delivery mechanism.

Sensing the need for a career shift, Coffey decided to leave the oil and gas industry and applied to the Kitchen 66 Launch Program in 2016. DecoDrinks’ 18 // FOOD & DRINK

concept was simple: serve high-quality coffee, loose leaf tea, matcha, and craft boba tea.

“Globally, there are good drinks from different cultures that work well in the cafe and coffeehouse setting,” Coffey said. After completing the Kitchen 66 entrepreneur program, Coffey opened his doors in January.

Nestled into a cozy retail space at 51st St. and Yale Ave., the interior of DecoDrinks is part coffee and tea bar, part merch shop. It’s reminiscent of a small cafe you might find in a larger city, with a mixture of barside and cafe-style seating. The storefront’s large glass windows allow for natural light with a clear view of LaFortune Park across the street.

Tulsa has numerous places to get an excellent cocktail or coffee, but few that emphasize tea. “I always held onto this idea of trying to do something that connected the tea culture experience I had in China with an American experience,” Coffey said. All of the coffees and teas featured on the menu are also available for purchase, along with the gear to brew and serve them.

Coffey wants people to experience the ritual of tea—the meditative beauty of taking a moment

to be present and simply enjoy the visual and aromatic elegance as freshly-steeped tea leaves dance around the infusion vessel.

“I’ve recently noticed an emphasis on mindfulness and incorporating that into tea. People are looking for ways to relax, take a second, and slow down. Tea is really good at that,” Coffey said.

While all tea can foster that experience, the CBD teas on the menu do this with a little more oomph. Coffey only serves these teas by the glass, but they are available in bulk at the business next door, FeelGood CBD Wellness Emporium.

DecoDrinks’ craft boba teas are one of their more unique offerings. Rather than use a powdered mix, their boba teas start with small batch preparations of loose leaf teas or matcha.

The result is a boba tea that is less sweet, more complex in flavor, and true to its Vietnamese origins.

For those wanting an entirely different cultural sipping experience, DecoDrinks also serves horchata.

Local options abound as well. When sitting barside, one can’t help but notice the three tap handles for draft beverages.

Local Cült Kombucha is one of

the staples on tap. The other tap handles feature rotating options like a nitro sencha green tea.

For DecoDrinks, serving high-quality drinks is key, but that doesn’t mean they won’t experiment with flavor combinations. “I’m not trying to be so pretentious about coffee that we have to be purists,” Coffey said.

“We really push to mix it up.”

A current customer favorite, the camo latte, is a blend of matcha, espresso, and vanilla.

The cafe-style shop would be remiss if it didn’t provide some food options. To this end, DecoDrinks serves baked goods from local Great Harvest Bread Co. and uses Farrell Family Bread for their two types of avocado toast—avocado and feta, or avocado and lox.

DecoDrinks uses Onyx coffee out of Arkansas as their house option, and also carries beans from local spots such as Cirque Coffee Roasters. Because of Tulsa’s thriving coffee roasting scene, they don’t currently have any plans to roast, but at the same time prefer not to be constrained by definitive words like “never.”

DecoDrinks is open 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends. a

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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FOOD & DRINK // 19

downthehatch

Expanding the map Stellar wines from unexpected regions

by GREG HORTON

W

ith all due respect to your Sunday school teacher, the wine they’ve been making in Israel for more than 3,000 years has alcohol in it. That’s why they called it wine, not juice. While many wine drinkers function under the impression that all good wine comes from about a half dozen places—especially the U.S. and France—the fact is that unexpected regions have been making wine for centuries or millennia.

Yarden imports wine from Israel, and their Golan Heights winery, Mount Hermon, makes stellar white and red blends that pair well with food. The white is a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, so the varietal characteristics will be familiar to regular drinkers. The red is a more traditional Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cab Franc. In addition to the remarkably low price point, the Mount Hermon wines are a great place to start experimenting with wine from unexpected places because the varietals are so familiar and the wine is produced in traditional ways.

The tendency to buy familiar varietals can get in the way of experimenting with wines from regions that American consumers consider non-traditional. Kiralyudvar from Hungary is a fantastic dry Furmint—the grape used to make the world famous Tokaji (toe KAI) dessert wines—that is light, fi zzy, and very easy to drink.

Good wine shops and wine bars can help demystify the process of reading labels, and so can events with winemakers. Alvar Roosima, the owner and founder of Jaanihanso wines in Estonia, was in Tulsa and Oklahoma City 20 // FOOD & DRINK

From left: Kiralyudvar, a dry Furmint from Hungary; Colliano Cuvée Red from Slovenia; and a white blend from Israel’s Mount Hermon. | GEORGIA BROOKS

in early February, meeting wine lovers and introducing his line of apple wines to the market. The Tulsa event was at Hodges Bend, and Roosima talked about producing a wine made from apples.

“We started in 2013, and the goal was to make high quality sparkling wines from apples,” Roosima said. “We went with ‘methode Champenoise’ (the method used to make Champagne) because we wanted to make the best wine possible—a serious wine, not cider.”

How does a winemaker from Estonia end up in Oklahoma?

Travis and Becky Smith, who own Rooted Selections, an Oklahoma-based portfolio of imported wines, met Roosima at a wine expo in Germany last year.

“We were looking at the guide

for all the wines at the show, and there were hundreds of wineries from Germany, France, Italy, and Spain,” Travis Smith said.

We would never have had time to work through all of them, and we’re looking for unique stuff anyway. We saw Estonia, and there was one winery listed. We laughed, and said, ‘We can definitely work through Estonia.’”

The wines are excellent, and the current crop includes a Brut, a Sec, and a Rosé, the latter made by adding about ten percent black currant wine. Roosima only presses seasonal apples, and he only presses apples from around the winery. Estonia is a huge apple-producing country, so the varietals vary greatly from season to season.

Another so-called non-tra-

ditional region is situated just northeast of Italy’s northern border. Slovenian wine is produced in many cases within walking distance of some of Italy’s famous vineyards—an important reminder that borders are manmade and have nothing to do with agriculture. As such, the wines that come from Slovenia are as likely to be high quality as any other European wine region.

In fact, a Ribolla Gialla from Slovenian producer Colliano won a gold medal and best white at the State Fair of Oklahoma in 2018. (Full disclosure: the contest is judged blind, and I was one of three judges.)

Closer to home is the Pearl Morissette “Metis” Chardonnay from the Niagara Peninsula.

The peninsula is actually a land bridge between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, making it one of the oddest wine regions in the New World, but the Chardonnay and Pinot they produce are of the highest quality. Scott Large, co-owner of Provisions Fine Beverage Purveyors, who represents the brand, said the wine are produced in very conventional ways, leading to a traditional style of Chardonnay, that is full-bodied and not lean in spite of the cool, Canadian climate.

As for finding the wines, the usual suspects will have the most comprehensive selections: Ranch Acres and Parkhill’s. Tulsa Hills Wine Cellar has an excellent selection of Israeli wine, including the Mount Hermon. Duet Restaurant will be releasing details soon of an upcoming Israeli wine dinner featuring the Yarden wines, and Laffa has the Mount Hermon red on the list. The Kiralyudvar is available at Phryme and Vintage Wine Bar. a

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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INSIDE-OUT The Dog House serves up Cali-inspired fast food burgers

T UL S A’ S BURGER L O V ER S W ERE supremely punked last year when a banner emblazoned with the In-N-Out Burger logo appeared in front of an empty lot. Social media—and regular media—went wild about the alleged new home for an In-NOut Burger, a California-based fast food joint that has developed its own lore, with its secret menu and limited availability in the heartland.

Josh Lynch, owner of The Dog House food truck (and Cali kid from way back) watched it all go down on social media.

“Around this time last year, I started making my own In-N-Out-style burgers.

And because of that brilliant person who pulled that prank, everyone in the city was craving an In-N-Out burger,” Lynch said.

Lynch started frying up his own “OutN-In” burgers and “panda style” fries at his stationary location at 37th Street and Harvard Avenue.

“It was nuts,” Lynch said. “I was selling out when it was freezing outside.”

Food-trucking during the winter months is especially difficult, so the Great Burger Hoax of 2018 came at an advantageous time.

“They [In-N-Out] will probably hit us up in three-to-six months to tell us to change our shit and quit jacking their stuff,” Lynch said. “I hope it happens, actually, because that’s just more promotion!”

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“animal style,” which means the addition of grilled onions, cheese, and a special sauce.

Lynch’s panda sauce mimics a more zesty, thinner Russian-style dressing— creamy with a hint of tomato.

Burgers come as single or double, and are topped with cheese (optional), lettuce, tomato, pickle, and that thoroughly-addictive panda sauce. Make it panda style and Lynch will throw some grilled onions in the mix. The burgers can be ordered sans sauce and dressed with mustard, mayo, or ketchup, and you can add on bacon or an egg.

“If you want me to cut up a hot dog and put it on there, I can do that, too,” Lynch said.

Starting at $4, the Out-N-In burger is sure to satisfy the INO craving. But don’t sleep on the panda style fries, which feature hunks of golden, crunchy fries that stand firm against the cheese, grilled onions, and sauce.

The Dog House will be slingin’ these tasty burgers Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and serving up dinner from 5 to 8 p.m., depending on the weather. Lynch posts the schedule regularly on The Dog House’s Facebook page. When the weather gets nicer, he’ll be open later at the static location at 3711 S. Harvard Ave., but will also be taking the burgers out-and-about, along with the signature hot dogs, on his Dog House food truck. — ANGELA EVANS

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

FOOD & DRINK // 21

FOOD & DRINK BEST BREAKFAST Bramble Breakfast & Bar Brookside By Day Dilly Diner Savoy Restaurant Tally’s Good Food Cafe BEST BRUNCH Bramble Breakfast & Bar Brookside By Day Dilly Diner Doc’s Wine & Food Kilkenny’s Irish Pub SMOKE. On Cherry Street BEST BLOODY MARY Cosmo Cafe Doc’s Wine & Food Kilkenny’s Irish Pub James E. McNellie’s Public House SMOKE. On Cherry Street BEST COFFEE SHOP 918 Coffee The Coffee House on Cherry Street DoubleShot Coffee Company Fair Fellow Coffee Roasters Shades of Brown BEST BAKERY Antoinette Baking Company Bakeshop Merritt’s Bakery Pancho Anaya Ludger’s Bavarian Cakery BEST GROCERY STORE Aldi Reasor’s Foods Sprouts Farmers Market Trader Joe’s Whole Foods Market BEST FOOD TRUCK Andolini’s Pizzeria Lone Wolf Masa Mr. Nice Guys Rub BEST DELI Bill and Ruth’s Jane’s Delicatessen Jason’s Deli Lambrusco’z Trenchers Delicatessen BEST DINER Brookside By Day Dilly Diner Freeway Cafe Tally’s Good Food Cafe Phill’s Diner

THE NOMINATIONS ARE IN! Thank you for participating in our fifth annual Best of Tulsa readers’ choice awards! You really know your town. Here are the top five nominees in each category (or more in the case of ties for fifth place) as selected

by TTV readers.

Now it’s up to you again to select the best of the best.

There’s no shortage of tough choices, but we believe in you! The polls are open through Feb. 28.

Happy voting!

WWW.THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT

BEST SANDWICH Dutch Crunch – Trenchers Delicatessen Pastrami – Trenchers Delicatessen Phat Philly – Phat Philly’s Reuben – Trenchers Delicatessen The Trencher – Trenchers Delicatessen BEST BURGER Fat Guys Burger Bar Goldie’s Patio Grill Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Smitty’s Garage Society The Tavern BEST CHICKEN The Brothers Houligan Celebrity Restaurant Charlie’s Chicken Chicken and the Wolf Wanda J’s Next Generation BEST CHICKEN FRIED STEAK The Brook Restaurant & Bar The Brothers Houligan Charleston’s Nelson’s Buffeteria Tally’s Good Food Cafe

BEST BARBECUE Albert G’s Billy Sims BBQ Burn Co. Barbecue Oklahoma Joe’s Rib Crib BEST PIZZA Andolini’s Pizzeria East Village Bohemian Pizzeria Hideaway Pizza Pie Hole Pizzeria Umberto’s Pizzaria BEST TAKEOUT PIZZA Andolini’s Pizzeria Hideaway Pizza Mazzio’s Pie Hole Pizzeria Umberto’s Pizzaria BEST STEAK Bull in the Alley Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar Mahogany Prime Steakhouse Ruth’s Chris Steak House Prhyme: Downtown Steakhouse BEST SEAFOOD Bodean Reastaurant & Market Bonefish Grill Nola’s Creole & Cocktails Peacemaker Lobster & Crab White River Fish Market BEST TACO Calaveras Mexican Grill Elote Café & Catering Mr. Nice Guys Tacos Don Francisco Torchy’s Tacos BEST CHINESE Golden Gate Guang Zhou Dim Sum Mandarin Taste P.F. Chang’s Pei Wei Roka BEST INDIAN Cumin Desi Wok Himalayas India Palace Tandoori Guys BEST ITALIAN Dalesandro’s Italian Cuisine Mondo’s Ti Amo Villa Ravenna Zio’s Italian Kitchen BEST JAPANESE/SUSHI Fuji In the Raw Osaka Sushi Hana Yokozuna BEST KOREAN Gogi Gui Korean Garden Lone Wolf Seoul Bistro Sobahn Sura BEST MEXICAN Calaveras Mexican Grill Casa Tequila El Guapo’s Cantina El Rio Verde Tacos Don Francisco BEST MEDITERRANEAN/ MIDDLE EASTERN Laffa Medi-Eastern Restaurant & Bar Papa Ganouj Shawkat Mediterranean Grill Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe Zoës Kitchen

BEST BEER SELECTION Bricktown Brewery Fassler Hall James E. McNellie’s Public House Prairie Brewpub Roosevelt’s

BEST VIETNAMESE Lone Wolf Pho Da Cao Pho Nhi Ri Le Viet Huong

BEST WINE LIST Amelia’s Bull in the Alley Doc’s Wine and Food Polo Grill Prhyme: Downtown Steakhouse Vintage Wine Bar

BEST VEGETARIAN/HEALTH FOOD Big Al’s Healthy Foods Chimera Ediblend Superfood Cafe Pure Food + Juice Whole Foods Market BEST PATIO Blue Rose Cafe El Guapo’s Cantina R Bar & Grill Roosevelt’s Saturn Room BEST VIEW Blue Rose Cafe El Guapo’s Cantina In the Raw On the Hill The Penthouse Bar at The Mayo Hotel The Summit BEST FAMILY DINING The Brook Restaurant & Bar Charleston’s Dilly Diner Hideaway Pizza Tally’s Good Food Cafe BEST CHEF Nico Albert – Duet Ben Alexander – The Tavern Matthew Amberg – Oren James Schrader – Palace Cafe Justin Thompson – JTR Group BEST SERVICE Amelia’s Bull in the Alley Duet Hideaway Pizza Kilkenny’s Irish Pub BEST NEW RESTAURANT Chicken and the Wolf Duet Nola’s Creole & Cocktails Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Shuffles: Board Game Cafe BEST RESTAURANT FOR LOCALLY SOURCED INGREDIENTS Amelia’s Chimera Elote Café & Catering Juniper Oren BEST SPOT FOR DAY DRINKING Fassler Hall Hodges Bend James E. McNellie’s Public House R Bar & Grill Roosevelt’s Saturn Room BEST PLACE TO WATCH THE BIG GAME Bricktown Brewery Buffalo Wild Wings Elgin Park Fassler Hall R Bar & Grill BEST BAR FOOD Elgin Park Fassler Hall James E. McNellie’s Public House R Bar & Grill Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill

BEST COCKTAILS Cosmo Cafe Hodges Bend MixCo Nola’s Creole & Cocktails Saturn Room Valkyrie

ART & ENTERTAINMENT BEST ART SHOW/ EXHIBITION OF 2018 Blue Dome Arts Festival Día de los Muertos – Living Arts The Experience – ahha The Nude Art Show – IDL Ballroom Tulsa International Mayfest BEST STAGE SHOW OF 2018 “Newsie’s” at Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Theatre Tulsa “The Nutcracker” at Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Tulsa Ballet U2 at BOK Center Jack White at ONEOK Field “Wicked” at Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Celebrity Attractions

BEST SMALL VENUE Duet Mercury Lounge Soundpony The Vanguard The Venue Shrine BEST LARGE MUSIC VENUE BOK Center Cain’s Ballroom The Joint – Hard Rock Casino Tulsa Tulsa Performing Arts Center Tulsa Theater (FKA Brady Theater) BEST VENUE FOR LIVE LOCAL MUSIC Cain’s Ballroom The Colony Guthrie Green Mercury Lounge Soundpony The Vanguard

BEST BARTENDER Chadwick Breedlove – The Coffee Blues Erik Erquiaga – Saturn Room Michael Flora – Saturn Room Hank Hanewinkle III – MixCo Gavin Hatcher – Saturn Room Lynn Robertson – The Starlite Chloe Willhite – Valkyrie

BEST LOCAL ALBUM OF 2018 Bad Behavior – Broncho Born on Black Wall Street – Steph Simon Contenders – Eric Himan Small Hours – Cliffdiver Yes, This Is Killing Us – Desi and Cody

BEST OPEN MIC The Coffee House On Cherry Street The Colony The Fur Shop The Gypsy Coffee House Ok, So… Story Slam – IDL Ballroom Renaissance Brewing Company Soundpony

BEST BREWERY American Solera Cabin Boys Brewery Heirloom Rustic Ales Marshall Brewing Company Prairie Artisan Ales

BEST GALLERY 108 Contemporary ahha Black Wall Street Gallery Living Arts M.A. Doran Gallery Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery

BEST RECORD STORE Blue Moon Discs Josey Records Spinster Records Starship Records & Tapes Vintage Stock

BEST TAPROOM American Solera SoBo Cabin Boys Brewery Heirloom Rustic Ales Marshall Brewing Company Welltown Brewing BEST NEW BAR Duet Foolish Things Bar and Biscuit Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill The Starlite Vintage Wine Bar BEST DIVE BAR Arnie’s Bar Caz’s Pub Cellar Dweller Soundpony The Starlite BEST LGBTQ+ BAR Club Majestic The Revue Soundpony The Tulsa Eagle Yellow Brick Road BEST BAR FOR SMOKERS Arnie’s Bar Caz’s Pub Drake’s Tavern James E. McNellie’s Public House Sharky’s Yellow Brick Road BEST LIQUOR STORE Collins Midtown Liquor Deep Discount Wine & Liquor Modern Spirits Parkhill’s Warehouse Liquors & Wine Ranch Acres Wine & Spirits BEST LATE NIGHT DINING Dilly Diner Kilkenny’s Irish Pub Phat Philly’s Tacos Don Francisco The Tavern

BEST MUSEUM Gilcrease Museum The Outsiders House Museum Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa Air and Space Museum Woody Guthrie Center Woolaroc BEST PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY American Theatre Company Theatre Tulsa Tulsa Ballet Tulsa Opera Tulsa Symphony BEST PERFORMING ARTS VENUE ahha BOK Center Guthrie Green Living Arts Tulsa Performing Arts Center BEST COMEDY NIGHT Blue Whale Comedy Festival The Fur Shop Loony Bin Comedy Club Soundpony The Starlite BEST PODCAST Museum Confidential Opinions Like A-Holes Pub Talk So Many Sequels Tulsa Talks BEST FREE ENTERTAINMENT First Friday Art Crawl Gathering Place Guthrie Green Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill Soundpony The Starlite BEST ALL-AGES VENUE BOK Center Cain’s Ballroom Gathering Place Guthrie Green The Vanguard

BEST MOVIE THEATER AMC Southroads 20 B&B Theatres Tulsa Starworld 20 Broken Arrow Warren Theater Cinemark Tulsa Circle Cinema BEST CASINO Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Osage Casino Downtown Tulsa River Spirit Casino BEST TRIVIA NIGHT Saturn Room Buzzer Trivia – Questionable Company Shuffles: Board Game Cafe – Questionable Company Soundpony – Trivia with Jack The Starlite – 918 Trivia Welltown Brewing BEST PLACE FOR DANCING Cain’s Ballroom Club Majestic Soundpony Unicorn Club Whiskey 918 BEST KARAOKE Elote Café & Catering Mainline Art & Cocktails Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill The Starlite The Warehouse Bar & Grill BEST NIGHTCLUB Club Majestic Duet She Theatre and Lounge Soundpony Unicorn Club BEST ANNUAL FESTIVAL Blue Dome Arts Festival The Hop Jam Linde Oktoberfest Mayfest Tulsa Tough

AROUND TOWN BEST PLACE TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW ahha Central Library Gathering Place Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa Community College BEST PLACE TO TAKE OUT-OF-TOWNERS The Center of the Universe Gathering Place Mother Road Market Philbrook Museum of Art Shuffles: Board Game Cafe Tulsa Arts District BEST HEALTH/FITNESS CENTER Life Time Fitness Planet Fitness St. John’s Siegfried Health Club Sky Fitness & Wellbeing YMCA BEST PLACE TO STRIKE A (YOGA) POSE Be Love Yoga Studio Guthrie Green Press Cafe x Yoga SALT Yoga StudioPOP BEST RUNNING/ATHLETIC STORE Academy Sports + Outdoors Dick’s Sporting Goods Fleet Feet Runner’s World Tulsa Runner BEST FOOT RACE/RUN The Color Run McNellie’s Pub Run Route 66 Marathon Tulsa Run ZooRun BEST BIKE SHOP Bicycles of Tulsa Phat Tire Shop Spoke House Bicycles T-Town Bicycles Tom’s Bicycles BEST PLACE FOR CYCLING Cry Baby Hill Gathering Place River Parks StudioPOP Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area BEST PLACE TO HIKE Chandler Park Gathering Place Oxley Nature Center Redbud Valley Nature Preserve Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area BEST PICNIC SPOT Gathering Place Guthrie Green Mohawk Park River Parks Woodward Park BEST PARK Gathering Place Guthrie Green LaFortune Park Mohawk Park River Parks Woodward Park BEST FAMILY OUTING Gathering Place Safari Joe’s H2O Shuffles: Board Game Cafe Tulsa Botanic Garden Tulsa Zoo

BEST PLACE TO GO WITH YOUR DOG Benjamin’s Biscuit Acres Gathering Place Dog Nights Guthrie Green Joe Station Dog Park River Parks Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area BEST PLACE FOR PEOPLE WATCHING Gathering Place Guthrie Green Tulsa State Fair Walmart Woodland Hills Mall BEST HOTEL Ambassador Hotel The Campbell Hotel Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hotel Indigo The Mayo Hotel BEST LOCAL GIFT Boomtown Tees Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on 66 Decopolis Glacier Confection Ida Red Made: The Indie Emporium Shop BEST SALON The First Ward Ihloff Salon and Day Spa Jara Herron Salon Raw Elements Z Studio BEST CLOTHING STORE Abersons Dillard’s Goodwill Kohl’s Stash BEST VINTAGE CLOTHING STORE Cheap Thrills Goodwill Jo and June SoBo Co. Vintage Vault BEST ANTIQUE STORE Generations Antique Mall Good Mischief I-44 Antique Mall Jo and June Retro Den River City Trading Post BEST TATTOO PARLOR Black Gold Tattoos and Piercings Brookside Tattoo and Piercing Geek Ink Tattoo Spaded & Jaded Tattoo Tulsa Tattoo Co. BEST ELECTION RESULT The Blue Wave City Councilor Kara Joy McKee Congresswoman Kendra Horn House Representative John Waldron Passage of State Question 788 BEST NONPROFIT Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma Gaining Ground George Kaiser Family Foundation John 3:16 Mission Youth Services of Tulsa

OTE AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT VOTE AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT VOTE AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT VOTE AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT VOTE AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT VOTE

BEST THAI Bamboo Thai Bistro Keo Lanna Thai My Thai Kitchen The Tropical

24 // FEATURED

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BLACK BUSINESS GUIDE “Who you give your money to, is who you give your power to.”

– Frederick Douglass

CELEBRATING TULSA’S AFRICAN AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURS

BY MARY NOBLE PHOTOS BY VALERIE WEI-HAAS THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Social and economic justice are hot topics today, but many are left wondering what they can do to contribute and create positive change. While supportive tweets in solidarity are nice, many have begun putting their money where their mouth is by funneling their hard-earned dollars into minority-owned businesses.

A report by the Institute for Policy Studies found that between 1983 and 2016, the wealth of the median black family dropped by more than half while the median white household saw a 33 percent increase in wealth. Meanwhile, the number of households with $10 million or more shot up by 856 percent. This report was released on would have been Martin Luther King’s 90th birthday—a sadly ironic anniversary, considering King’s fight to include economic justice and equal opportunity in the Civil Rights Movement.

The report highlights the fact that the United States continues to move even further from King’s dream as extreme income inequality is perpetuated by systemic racism and unjust policies. While these numbers are alarming, many communities are fighting back by building successful businesses and voting with their dollars.

In Tulsa, the entrepreneurial spirit that animated Black Wall Street in the early 20th century is going strong once again. Successful black-owned businesses continue to grow all over the city, and resources to help build them are becoming easier to find. Here are just a few of the many successful black-owned businesses in Tulsa.

If we missed your business, please send an email to voices@langdonpublishing.com to be included in the online version of this listing. You can also find other resources online, such as the Tulsa Black Owned Business Network (bit.ly/TBOBN_Tulsa) and the Black Wall Street Times Business Directory (theblackwallsttimes.com/tulsa-black-pages).

FEATURED // 25

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT BLACK WALL STREET GALLERY 101 N. Greenwood Ave. Open daily, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 521-8201 bwsarts.org EDUREC YOUTH AND FAMILY FUN CENTER 5424 N. Madison Ave. Mon. – Fri., 4 – 8 p.m.

(918) 430-3947 facebook.com/ edurecnorthtulsa GREENWOOD CULTURAL CENTER 322 N. Greenwood Ave. Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 596-1020 greenwoodculturalcenter. com

BLACK LABEL GROOMING CO-OWNER AG GUIPTTONS

BLACK LABEL GROOMING Black Label Grooming is a men’s barber shop located at 63rd Street and Memorial Drive. Owners AG and Amber Guipttons celebrated the shop’s fifth anniversary on Feb. 3 of this year.

“We have a lot of fun. It’s a place where men from every race get to come laugh and talk about every day stuff,” AG said.

For the Guipttons family, the barber shop is more than a business—it’s a place where families gather in fellowship. “Whenever people come and get their haircuts here, they’re more than just clients. It’s a community. I have clients that I’ve been cutting for over 10 years. I know their families, I know their children. It’s a good atmosphere.”

26 // FEATURED

THEATRE NORTH Various performance locations facebook.com/ theatrenorthtulsa

EVENTS AND CATERING 36TH STREET NORTH EVENT CENTER 1125 E. 36th St. N (918) 200-9046 36theventcenter.com PARTY OF THE YEAR (918) 282-5512 tulsapartyoftheyear.com TISDALE23 EVENT PLANNING AND CATERING 907 S. Detroit Ave. Mon. – Fri., 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 899-2005 tisdale23.com TOUCH OF SOUL CATERING & DELIVERY (918) 946-0736

TRISTEN'S SPECIAL OCCASIONS (918) 852-3100 facebook.com/ tristenspecialoccasion YVONNE V. MATTHEWS BUSINESS CENTER 240 E. Apache St. Mon. – Fri., 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sat., 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

(918) 728-7008 facebook.com/ yvonnevmatthewscenter

FOOD AND DRINK THE BURGER 405 E. 46th St. N Mon. – Sat., 10:30 a.m. – 7:50 p.m.

(918) 428-2008 ELMER'S BBQ 4130 S. Peoria Ave. Tue. – Wed., 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Thurs. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.

(918) 742-6524 elmersbbqtulsa.com EVELYN'S SOUL FOOD 3014 N. 74th E Ave. Mon. – Fri., 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

(918) 835-1212 evelynsoulfood.com THE FREEZE 212 E. 46th St. N Mon. – Sat., 10:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Sun., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 425-8102 JUICEMAKER LOUNGE 3508 S. Sheridan Rd. Mon. – Sat., 4 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.

Sun., 11 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.

(818) 209-6345 facebook.com/ juicemakermusic LEON'S SMOKE SHACK BBQ 601 S. Sheridan Rd. Thurs. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.

(918) 798-7907 leonssmokeshack.com

MRS. T’S KOUNTRY KITCHEN 2115 N. Cincinnati Ave. Thurs. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Sun., 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

(918) 794-8894 facebook.com/ mstskountrykitchen OKLAHOMA STYLE BAR-B-Q 2225 N. Harvard Ave. Mon. – Thurs., 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Fri. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.

(918) 835-7077 facebook.com/ oklahomastylebbq REBA DALE’S BBQ 782 E. Pine St. Fri., 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Tues. – Thurs., Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 425-1122 facebook.com/ rebadalesbbq RETRO GRILL & BAR 800 N. Peoria Ave. Mon. – Wed., 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; 6 p.m. – midnight Thurs. – Fri., 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; 6 p.m. – 2 a.m.

Sat., 8 p.m. – 2 a.m.

Sun., noon – 2 a.m.

(918) 587-3876 facebook.com/ RETROGB30 ROZAY’S WINGZ 2627 E. 11th St. Mon. – Thurs., 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Fri – Sat., 11 a.m. – 4 a.m.

Sun., noon – 6 p.m.

(918) 271-5051 facebook.com/ tulsawingspot RUBICON 2248 N. Harvard Ave. Tues. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

(918) 398-0306 facebook.com/ rubiconrestaurantllc February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

STYLE BY LISA J

STYLE BY LISA J THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Lisa J launched her styling and fashion design business, Style by Lisa J, in May of 2017. With a background in fashion journalism and business entrepreneurship, Lisa J has over 18 years of fashion expertise. She provides consultations with clients on looks to get an idea of who they want to portray—whether it’s on stage, at work, or around town.

“I use the draping method. I don’t really sketch, I just really do what you do.

I sit down and let people talk to me, because I’m naturally a storyteller. I get a visual of the piece and go drape,” Lisa J said.

Lisa J has designed for celebrity clients and recently designed a look for local singer/performer Branjae for an upcoming music video. “She wanted a Grace Jones/Mad Max [look]. I thought that was very powerful—dangerous, and soft at the same time,” Lisa J said. The theme of the video was surviving domestic violence, and Lisa J created a leather black dress paired with a silver crown adorned with long silver spikes. Lisa J will soon be launching a website where she will be featuring her retail items.

FEATURED // 27

SWEET LISA'S CAFE 1717 N. Peoria Ave. Thurs. – Sat., Tue., 11 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Sun., 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Wed., 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

(918) 561-6099 TNT WANGS Food truck (often located at 409 N. Main St.) Opens at 7:30 p.m.

(918) 955-1739 instagram.com/ tntwangstulsa WAFFLE THAT Food Truck (often located at Apache St. & MLK Blvd.)

Wed. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. instagram.com/wafflethat WANDA J'S NEXT GENERATION 111 N. Greenwood Ave. Mon. – Sat., 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 861-4142 wandajs.com

GOODS STORES $1 STORE AND MORE 1605 N. Peoria Ave. Mon. – Fri., 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sat., 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(918) 794-1280 facebook.com/ 1dollarstoreandmore BETHEL PHARMACY 205 E. Pine St., Suite 7 Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(918) 505-9650 bethelpharmacy.com BLACK WALL STREET MARKET 5616 N. Osage Dr. Tue. – Sat., 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(918) 770-6020 facebook.com/ blackwallstreetmarket CBD PHARM 2324 E. Admiral Blvd.

Tue. – Sat., 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

NATURAL HEALTH CLINIC 112 N. Greenwood Ave. Tue. – Sat., 11:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.

(918) 587-4500 nhgreenwood.com THE WHAT NOT SHOP 4747 N. Peoria Ave. Mon. – Sat., 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 425-5811

INSURANCE AND FINANCE 5 STAR SOLUTIONS 8218 E. 71st St. (918) 863-3000 5starsolutionspro.com JAMES COLLINS, AGENT AT FARMERS INSURANCE 10159 E. 11th St., Suite 420 (918) 933-3821 jcollins2@ farmersinsurance.com

EVELYN’S SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT

SMILEY ELMORE & ASSOCIATES 4158 S. Harvard Ave., Suite E-2 (918) 745-9154 moneyconcepts.com/ celmore

THE OKLAHOMA EAGLE 624 E. Archer St. theoklahomaeagle.net

KEITH EWING, AGENT AT FARMERS INSURANCE 10159 E. 11th St., Suite 420 (918) 388-3934 kewing@ farmersagent.com

ALLIE’S CROWN FLORIST 250 E. Apache St. Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 430-1250 alliescrownflorist.com

ROSE TAX SOLUTIONS 107 N. Greenwood Ave. (918) 358-7900 rosetaxsolutions.com

MEDIA THE BLACK WALL STREET TIMES 17 W. 5th St. theblackwallsttimes.com

SERVICES

AYD TRINITY TRAVEL 460 N. Xanthus Ave. (918) 809-3743 aydtrinitytravel @yahoo.com BARBARA’S GRAPHIC ARTS & WORD PROCESSING SERVICES 240 E. Apache St. Mon., 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Tues. – Sat., by appt (281) 903-6068 barbara.middlebrook @yahoo.com

EVELYN’S SOUL FOOD RESTAURANT OWNER WANDA J

Wanda Armstrong, better known by many as Wanda J, has been cooking most of her life. She opened Evelyn’s Soul Food (named after her mother) in 2005, decades after establishing herself with Wanda J’s Soul Food Kitchen in 1974.

“It’s just something we love doing,” Wanda J said.

“I can truly say the community has really supported us, we have a lot of people that come through.”

Many celebrities have passed through Evelyn’s doors, such as MC Hammer and Danny Glover to name just a few. The menu at Evelyn’s features comfort foods like chicken fried steak, fried catfish, and fried pork chops paired with veggies and soulful side items such as candied yams and fried okra. Wanda’s entrepreneurial spirit has been passed down with the opening of Wanda J’s in Greenwood, owned and operated by her grandchildren.

28 // FEATURED

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE MOVERS (918) 505-8387 A BETTER LAWN EXPERIENCE (918) 841-2378 cmelvin874@gmail.com BIGLOW FUNERAL DIRECTORS INC. 1414 N. Norfolk Ave. (918) 687-5510 biglowfunerals.com DYER MEMORIAL CHAPEL 2103 E. 3rd St. (918) 425-5549 dyermemorialchapel.net ELIZABETH HILL, REALTOR (918) 810-1302 ehillhomes.com FRUIT HEAD, FRUIT BASKET ARRANGEMENTS (918) 886-7124 facebook.com/ imafruithead GREENWOOD AVENUE GIFT SHOP 19and21.com

WAFFLE THAT CHEF AND OWNER ROY TILLIS

HUSH HARBOR, GRANT WRITING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING (918) 408-6821 hushharbor909@aol.com JACK’S MEMORY CHAPEL 801 E. 36th St. N (918) 428-4431 jacksmemorychapel.com LANE’S LAWN SERVICE (918) 585-6921 (918) 734-5249 LYONS REPAIR SERVICES (918) 409-4899 SKIP'S BODY SHOP 3251 N. Peoria Ave. Mon. – Fri., 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 425-1635 SMITH REPAIR SERVICES (918) 998-6161

WAFFLE THAT

Local food truck Waffle That has only been on the scene for nine short months, but business is booming. In fact, chef and owner Roy Tillis plans to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant soon. I met Tillis just off MLK Boulevard and Apache Street, where the truck was operating that day. Despite freezing temperatures, cars lined the parking lot occupied by customers waiting on orders.

“We use our own syrup. Everything is made from scratch. My menu is one of a kind,” Tillis said. Customers can pick from traditional chicken and waffles or try one of their flavored waffles (Nutella, cookie butter, and cinnamon roll) topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

Don’t miss their signature menu item, “Chicken in a Cone,” a homemade waffle cone filled with fried chicken bites and drizzled with syrup.

FEATURED // 29

STINGRAY PRINTING AND GRAPHICS 4533 N. Frankfort Pl. Mon. – Fri., 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sat., 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sun., noon – 6 p.m.

(918) 810-1207 STREET GEEKZ 1717 E. 40th St. N Mon. – Sat., 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Sun., 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

(918) 841-8874 sgeekz.com TULSA DREAM CENTER 200 W. 46th St. N Mon. – Sat., 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

(918) 430-9984 tulsadreamcenter.com ROSE TAX SOLUTIONS OWNER LATOYA ROSE

ROSE TAX SOLUTIONS Latoya Rose is a third-generation entrepreneur. After moving back to Tulsa in 2017, she opened her tax firm Rose Tax Solutions on Greenwood Avenue. The firm provides financial literacy programs, business coaching, and financial strategic planning.

“We do more than just tax prep. We are very much concerned with the overall vision of a person, and helping them connect the dots,” Rose said.

In addition to running her business as CEO and senior tax accountant, Rose is an author who travels to conduct trainings and speak on economic justice, and is the force behind the Black Wall Street Exchange, an event that brings minority business owners, speakers, and civic leaders together to network and promote the circulation of the minority dollar.

“We’re looking for those merchants who don’t want to not just make a dollar but who are going to also transform their community,” Rose said.

30 // FEATURED

TULSA WINDOW TINTING & GRAPHICS Locations in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Bixby, and Owasso (918) 889-9477 tulsawindowfilms.com VISION BRANDING, BUSINESS BRAND CONSULTANT (918) 587-1428 rnadams78@gmail.com WISE MOVES DANCE ACADEMY (918) 812-5617 wmdanceacademy.com

STYLE AND SELF CARE BEADS PLEASE, LLC (918) 720-6420 facebook.com/ mybeadsplease BLACK LABEL MEN'S GROOMING 6373 S. Memorial Dr., Suite B Tue. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Mon., noon – 6 p.m.

Sat., 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(918) 270-3444 blacklabelmg.us

BLOW OUT HAIR STUDIO 109 N. Greenwood Ave. Tue. – Sat., 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Sun., 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 576-6200

SHE-PHIT ATHLETICS Mon. – Fri., 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sat., 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

(918) 973-7448 she-phit.com

CLAUDIA HATS & JEWELRY (918) 995-2787 claudia.hats@gmail.com

SISTADOS SALON & FINE GROOMING 6614 S. Memorial Dr., Suite 29 Mon., Wed., 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Thurs. – Fri., 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sat., 10:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

(918) 346-8397 facebook.com/ sistadosalonfinegromming

ELEGANCE BEAUTY SUPPLY & GIFTS 205 E. Pine St. Mon. – Sat., 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sun., 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

(918) 582-5858 elegancebeautygifts.com EJDEZIGNS, CUSTOM JEWELRY (918) 200-8539

STYLE BY LISA J (405) 633-1693 facebook.com/ LisaJBrands

HOWELL’S DESIGNER SUITS 202 E. Marshall Pl. (918) 587-7775 howelldesignersuits2.com

TAI B. BEAUTY & MAKEUP ARTISTRY By appt. taibbeauty.com

JADED ONYX SOAP AND BEAUTY 2005 N. Owasso Ave., Owasso (918) 904-9382 jadedonyx.com

TEE’S BARBER SHOP 120 N. Greenwood Ave. Tue. – Sat., 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 584-1189

KIMBERLY KWEEN TULSA STYLIST 6614 S. Memorial Dr. Mon. – Sat., 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(910) 896-6776 styleseat.com/ kimberlykween LOCKS & STRANDS SALON 1044 E. Pine Pl. Tue. – Sat., 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

(918) 282-2018 NU CELEBRITY IMPRESSIONS (610) 467-7377 nucelebrityimpressions .com RALPH'S MENSWEAR 736 E. 36th St. N Mon. – Sat., 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.

(918) 425-3933

UNITED WE STAND, INC., TAILOR 205 E. Pine St., Suite 16 Mon. – Thurs., 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Fri., 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

(918) 382-1766 THE XCLUSIV BODY SUIT HEALTH & HOLISTIC 1624 S. 107th E Ave. (918) 986-4627 getsuitedxv.com a

If we missed your business, please send an email to voices@ langdonpublishing.com to be included in the online version of this listing.

You can also find other resources online, such as the Tulsa Black Owned Business Network (bit.ly/TBOBN_Tulsa) and the Black Wall Street Times Business Directory (theblackwallsttimes.com/ tulsa-black-pages).

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BRANDING BLACK WALL STREET Q&A WITH TREY THAXTON

BY MARY NOBLE

LOCAL GRAPHIC DESIGNER Trey Thaxton recently launched a project called Greenwood Ave. to celebrate the original pioneering entrepreneurs of Black Wall Street. The clothing company recreates vintage logos from the district’s long-gone businesses. Ten percent of proceeds from sales go toward arts and culture, economic development, and education in north Tulsa.

MARY NOBLE: How did you come up with the idea to start your company?

TREY THAXTON: I saw a need for a black-owned design agency and I always wanted to focus on projects that promoted life, promoted excellence, unity, creativity, and entrepreneurship. … A friend of mine [and I] were walking along Greenwood talking about how we can promote and celebrate what happened on Black Wall Street. A lot of the focus on 1921 is the [Massacre] but there were great things happening before and after that time, so we wanted to do something to really highlight and celebrate the entrepreneurs.

NOBLE: Tell me about the mission of the company.

ORIGINAL BLACK WALL STREET BUSINESS LOGO DESIGNS REIMAGINED BY GREENWOOD AVE. THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

THAXTON: My background is in branding and logo design, so the bulk of my work is in branding and identities for different companies. I was trying to think of a way that I could use my skills to do something to celebrate Black History Month and Black Wall Street, so I thought what if we took those names of the original shop owners and the original shops down there and reimagined the logos—and do it in an adventurous way, and put them on T-shirts to help tell some of those stories.

Along with the shirts, we also want to do a video series to kind of show the history of some of these companies: who started them, how they got started.

We are looking into finding some of the descendants and really highlight how some of the black-owned businesses that are still on Greenwood today. This is me learning this history in real time, and I’m excited to share what I am finding out with others through this lens. … The crazy thing is I moved to Tulsa when I was 11 and I didn’t hear about Black Wall Street or Greenwood until I was 21.

I thought that it was a disservice that all these amazing entrepreneurs had businesses down there that were thriving and, as a black entrepreneur, I think it’s important to see that representation that it is possible. These people were doing it in 1921 with very little resources. With all that we have in 2019 we should be able to recreate that today.

NOBLE: Why is it important to support black-owned businesses in Tulsa, especially on Greenwood?

THAXTON: I think it’s important anywhere, but especially in Greenwood because of that history. It’s unfortunate that it got swept under the rug, and it kind of still does. I know with the 2021 centennial coming up, I feel like all eyes will be on Tulsa—but it’s just sad that I lived here for 20 years and heard more about Black Wall Street from people coming into Tulsa than people living in Tulsa. So I think it’s a great opportunity to let people know, ‘Hey, this happened.

It’s part of history.’ … We want to let people know what happened and hopefully get some healing and reconciliation from it. Hopefully this does help the conversation. a FEATURED // 31

THE LEMON-AID PROJECT WILL BENEFIT THE TULSA DAY CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS Newly formed non-profit provides a new generation with the tools and encouragement needed to run with simple ideas to better our communities

About The Lemon-Aid Project The Lemon-Aid Project, a newly formed non-profit organization, has announced plans for a series of fundraising and awareness-building events and activities throughout 2019 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Lemon-Aid, an annual Labor Day Weekend city-wide fundraiser held from 1994 to 2000, where kids across Tulsa donated their time to sell lemonade to raise money for children and families at the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless. Over the course of 7 Labor Day Weekends, with the help of more than 10,000 youth volunteers, Lemon-Aid raised more than $350,000.

Proceeds from the 25th anniversary activities will also benefit the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless.

“When my siblings and I created Lemon-Aid 25 years ago, I never in a million years thought it would still have the impact it does in the Tulsa community,” said Katie Eller Murray, founder and chair of The Lemon-Aid Project. “Reflecting this huge milestone, we believed it would be a disservice to the community and to the Tulsa Day Center if we didn’t bring Lemon-Aid back to

celebrate — with a twist, of course — and introduce a whole new generation to the cause.”

“The Lemon-Aid Project was a hallmark event when I was a kid, and helped introduce a generation of Tulsans to public service and the challenges our homeless community faces on a daily basis,” said Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum. “I’m so thankful to Katie for reviving this event on its 25th anniversary, and for providing another generation of young Tulsans with the opportunity to support our homeless residents.”

In addition to Murray, the board of directors for the newly created Lemon-Aid Project includes Los Angeles-based educator and 20 year non-profit veteran Patti Jo Wolfson and Caren Kelleher, former Google executive and founder of Austin-based Gold Rush Vinyl.

The Lemon-Aid Project is currently in the process of confirming its 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. In addition to the support of the Tulsa Mayor’s Office, sponsors for the 25th anniversary of Lemon-Aid include the Justin Thompson Restaurant Group, TulsaPeople, and ROAM Communications, with more to follow.

EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS: LOGO AND T-SHIRT DESIGN CONTESTS

25TH ANNIVERSARY COOKBOOK

Aspiring and professional graphic designers can submit their ideas for the official Lemon-Aid Project logo, while youth across Tulsa can share their designs for the 25th anniversary t-shirt logo. Both designs will be selected through public voting.

Professional and amateur chefs and bakers can contribute their favorite lemon and lemonade inspired recipes for inclusion in the 25th anniversary Lemon-Aid Cookbook.

Tulsans of school age can also submit their lemon and lemonade inspired artwork for the cookbook.

Deadline: March 8

Deadline: March 27

25TH ANNIVERSARY LEMON-AID CELEBRATION Tulsans and neighbors of all ages can join us on Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 2) at Guthrie Green from 11am 5pm for a day of fun, food trucks, lemonade stands, local bands, contest, games, arts and crafts, and more. Tickets can be purchased online or throughout the summer from Tulsa youth volunteers.

Details on how to submit can be found on www.thelemonaidproject.org.

For more information on The Lemon-Aid Project, including sponsorships and volunteer opportunities, visit www.thelemonaidproject.org.

32 // FEATURED

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

‘NO APOLOGY’ RICHARD LLOYD JONES AND THE 1921 RACE MASSACRE

BY RUSSELL COBB

T

his story could begin shortly before midnight on May 31, 1921, when thousands of white invaders streamed into Deep Greenwood, transforming Magic City into a national shame. But by now, you know some version of that story. You probably know the main plot points: a false accusation of rape, a botched attempt at a lynching, and then the full-scale destruction of black Tulsa.

The cone of silence covering the history of 1921 has been lifted. But the role of one of Tulsa’s leading men in sparking the Massacre, and then taking down the Governor of Oklahoma with the support of the Ku Klux Klan? The role of this same man in founding Tulsa’s most famous liberal church and constructing a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece?

That story, in all its contradictions, has yet to be told.

To begin, we have to travel back to a Madison, Wisconsin, newsroom just before the entry of the United States into World War I. On an unseasonably hot day in 1916, the editor and publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal, Richard Lloyd Jones, readied himself to push out another broadside against the German war machine and its threat to civilization. Dressed in an allwhite suit, white bowtie, and hair perfectly parted down the middle, Jones found himself caught in the middle of a debate tearing the Progressive movement apart.

On one side, Jones formed part of a pro-war media alliance urging President THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Woodrow Wilson to reverse the U.S. position of neutrality. This put Jones at odds with his own father, the pacificist Unitarian pastor Jenkin Lloyd Jones. Also on the antiwar side of the Progressive movement was Senator Robert “Fightin’ Bob” LaFollette, the Bernie Sanders of his day.

LaFollette had once been a friend and mentor to Richard Lloyd Jones. At one point, Jones had been a booster for LaFollette’s presidential campaign in 1912. The prospect of war, however, drove a wedge in the friendship. But when the Senator forged common cause with the Socialist Party over his opposition to U.S. intervention, Jones denounced his old friend in print. From this point on, LaFollette was nothing short of a “pro-German” agent, a Bolshevik, a damn Red. Jones had become so embittered with Fightin’ Bob that the lifelong Republican did the unthinkable in the election of 1916: he endorsed the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson.

The Jones faction lost the battle for Wisconsin, but won the larger war in the fight for the heart of the Republican Party.

By 1919, Jones was looking around for a new challenge, a new crusade for Christian civilization and against the vices of booze, race-mixing, and socialism. During his travels as a celebrity journalist with Collier’s Weekly, he found just the place: Oklahoma.

Another Wisconsinite friend of Jones’s had relocated to Tulsa and, in a few short years, made himself into “Oklahoma’s Rockefeller.” Charles Page bought up Native American lands on the cheap. Page

struck paydirt, making millions and turning sleepy Sand Springs into a boomtown.

Page also bought himself a newspaper in Tulsa, but wanted to focus on his main mission of making money. Page sold the paper to Richard Lloyd Jones in 1919, who quickly renamed it from The Tulsa Democrat to The Tulsa Tribune.

Jones’s newspaper initially played second fiddle to the more sober-minded Tulsa Daily World, but Jones had a vision.

Together with Page, Jones would lead a full-scale attack on the Democratic establishment to remake the entire political and social landscape of the city and the state.

Jones took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to tout Tulsa’s Magic City image in 1920. Without citing any sources, the ad proclaimed Tulsa as “the wealthiest city per capita in the world.” The city had “one big dominating” newspaper: The Tulsa Tribune. Tulsa, Jones told New Yorkers, was the “greatest jobbing, shipping, and banking of the greatest wealth producing region of the world.”

The ad was mostly hyperbole, but there was an element of truth to the boosterism. Jones’s friend and business partner Charles Page tapped into an immensely wealthy oil field west of Tulsa. Wrangling an oil lease from the mother of a dead Creek boy, Tommy Atkins, Page suddenly became one of the richest men in Oklahoma, owning the deed to an oil field that produced onefifth of the nation’s entire petroleum output in the late 1910s and early 1920s. While The Tribune sang Page’s praises as a

philanthropist, The Tulsa World portrayed him as little more than a mafia boss. Page acted as a “self-appointed dictator” with a scheme to dominate the city’s water and power supply.

Richard Lloyd Jones struck back, not only in his defense of Charles Page, but with an ominous note of warning to the mayor and police chief. “The people of Tulsa are becoming awake to conditions that are no longer tolerable,” he said of crime and corruption in the city on May 14, 1921. The Tribune sounded an alarm that if the city was not cleaned up, and cleaned up quickly, “an awakened community conscience will do it for them.” This community conscience was not embodied in the police force, but in vigilante organizations like the American Protective League and the Ku Klux Klan.

What, exactly, was the nature of the intolerable vice and corruption? Who was responsible? Richard Lloyd Jones remained vague on the subject during his first year in Tulsa, but by May, 1921, his newspaper had found the culprit: ideas about racial equality being spread by the likes of the NAACP. The booming neighborhood of Greenwood fostered pernicious ideas about social mobility and equality. On May 15, The Tribune ran a small item on a black man named Gilbert Irge who was arrested for riding a white streetcar in Tulsa. The black man “thought he owned the car,” ran the headline.

A front-page story on May 21 made the case against racial equality more explicitly.

FEATURED // 33

RICHARD LLOYD JONES IN 1909 COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE TULSA TRIBUNE ON JUNE 1, 1921.

COURTESY CENTRAL LIBRARY LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION 34 // FEATURED

An ad-hoc commission of a white pastor, a former judge, and a private detective told of their undercover adventures in Greenwood to The Tulsa Tribune. Liquor was available at every hotel and rooming-house they visited. At hotels, black porters offered to connect the men to prostitutes, some of them white women.

The committee visited a roadhouse where they “found whites and Negroes singing and dancing together.” A subversive new kind of music—jazz—filled the air. A milky, boozy, concoction called Choc beer, invented by Choctaw Indians, flowed freely. “Young white girls were dancing while Negroes played the piano.” The prospect of racial equality was, itself, a threat in a young state that had yoked itself to the Jim Crow laws of the Old South. But throw in the element of white girls enjoying themselves in the company of newly-wealthy black men, abetted by jazz and liquor, and The Tribune had a city’s attention. The situation was intolerable. Or a lot of fun.

THE FIRE LAST TIME All of this brings us to the morning of May 30, when Dick Rowland, a young black man who shined shoes downtown, entered the elevator of the Drexel Building. Rowland needed to use the bathroom, and the Drexel had one of the few “colored” bathrooms in downtown Tulsa on its top floor. When Rowland came back down, the elevator stopped a few inches short of level with the ground floor. Sarah Page, a young white woman, operated the elevator, and Rowland grabbed her as he tripped on the way out.

Various theories have been suggested over the years: Page and Rowland were in a lovers’ quarrel, or Rowland put the moves on Page. The Ockham’s Razor theory is that it was simply clumsy move on Rowland’s part. They say that journalism is the first draft of history, and every retelling of this incident reprises first written account of it in The Tulsa Tribune on May 31, 1921.

With the headline, “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in an Elevator,” the hysteria over race-mixing acquired a violent tinge.

The story followed with this lead: “A negro delivery boy who gave his name to the public as ‘Diamond Dick’ but who has been identified as Dick Rowland, was arrested on South Greenwood avenue this morning

by Officers Carmichael and Pack, charged with attempting to assault the 17-year-old white elevator girl in the Drexel building early yesterday.”

The City edition of The Tribune hit the streets Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. Newsboys hawked papers on street corners, calling out the headline.

The mere thought that a black man could “attack”—code for rape—a white girl in downtown set off an almost-immediate clamor for a lynching. The Tulsa of 1921 was a dense, bustling city of around 100,000 people, populated by fortune seekers, many—if not most—transplants from the Old South.

Much has been made of one of these transplants, W. Tate Brady, and his affinity

for the Confederacy. Brady, however, was the tip of an iceberg of white supremacy in the Oklahoma establishment. The first order of business in the new State Senate (Senate Bill 1) had been the imposition of rigid segregation based on southern laws.

In 1918, the city rolled out the red carpet for a reunion of Confederate veterans and named one of its new schools after Robert E. Lee. Lynchings were commonplace in eastern Oklahoma.

The effect of the “Nab Negro” story, then, was predictable. Forget Twitter: The Tribune had published the most viral story in the short history of Tulsa. Within three hours of publication, a small mob gathered at the Tulsa County Courthouse. Callers to the Courthouse told Sheriff McCollough that plans were being made to lynch Rowland.

By 8 p.m., the mob numbered close to one thousand people. McCollough ordered his deputies to take up positions to defend against an invasion to seize Rowland.

On the other side of downtown, on the top floors of the Tulsa Tribune building, Managing Editor Victor Barnett begged Richard Lloyd Jones to revise the next edition of the paper, the more widespread State Edition.

Other Tribune staffers joined in. Sarah Page had changed her story. Acquaintances of Rowland’s testified to his nonviolent nature.

The charge of rape would eventually be dropped. Eyewitnesses recall an even more incendiary editorial in the back of this early edition of The Tribune. Eddie Faye Gates cited survivors in a book called “They Came Searching” who recalled an editorial directly calling for the lynching of Rowland, presumably penned by Jones.

Historians such as Scott Ellsworth have tried to track down the infamous editorial in vain. The Oklahoma Race Riot Commission, a governor-appointed agency to study and make recommendations about the event, was likewise unable to track down the original editorial. University of Tulsa Special Collections librarian Marc Carlson believes its disappearance resulted from poor handling of the actual newspaper.

Dates around May 31 are likewise in bad condition. The plate for pressing the newspaper would have had to been broken to excise the editorial. Even if there was no Jones editorial calling for a lynching of Rowland, however, the deliberate cutting of the lead article in the City Edition indicates a cover-up. Likewise, Carlson believes, the verbal coding of a white girl “attacked” by a black shoeshine boy conveyed the message of rape: the pretext for a lynching.

Following the Massacre, however, Jones seemed to implicate his paper in the attack. He insisted that he would make “no apology” to city officials for urging them to clean up Greenwood. Furthermore, he wrote, the burning of Greenwood should be seen as an opportunity. In the June 4 edition of The Tribune, he wrote the following: Such a district as the old ‘N— town’ must never be allowed in Tulsa again. It was a cesspool of iniquity and corruption…In this old February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

‘N—town’ were a lot of bad n— and a bad n— is the lowest thing that walks on two feet. Give a bad n— his booze and his dope and a gun and he thinks he can shoot up the world. And all these things were to be found in ‘N—town’ – booze, dope, bad n—s and guns.

For a Northern audience, Jones struck a moderate tone. He wrote in The Detroit Free Press on June 5, 1921, that the result of the “race riot” would be a reborn city where “Negroes will have better homes.” Jones proclaimed that “with that splendid spirit that is characteristic of the aggressively progressive Tulsan, Tulsa lifts its head from its hour of shame to clean house.”

THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE COMES TO TOWN With Greenwood in ruins, The Tribune became even more open in its support of the Klan. What had been a Tulsa-based conflict erupted into a statewide war between Klan supporters and Gov. Jack Walton. During the election of 1922, The Tulsa World endorsed Walton, the closest thing to a socialist governor Oklahoma ever had. After an earlier dalliance with the Klan, Walton became convinced that the organization was a menace to the nation, declaring them “an invisible empire.” As soon as he came into office in January, 1923, Walton went after the Klan with every tool at his disposal. He shut down a Klan parade in Tulsa. He ordered state troopers to arrest anyone in a white hood and told them he would immediately pardon state officials who shot Klansmen.

Richard Lloyd Jones howled in disapproval against Walton’s censorship of The Tulsa Tribune, which the governor considered a mouthpiece of the KKK. Jones filed suit in a federal court against Walton and counted on Klan support in a nasty dispute with the governor that led to a physical confrontation between Klansmen and a Walton supporter in a downtown hotel.

National media outlets talked of a “civil war” between the Klan and Gov. Walton.

The Tribune stopped short of a wholesale endorsement of the Klan, and occasionally offered mild rebukes to vigilantism, but there is much evidence to suggest complicity with the KKK. In September 1922, Richard Lloyd Jones, along with high-ranking officers in the Klan, was named in a lawsuit relating to damages from the tarring and feathering of a young Jewish man, who the Klan claimed was a narcotics dealer. At the time, the Klan had a posse of men with blacksnake whips who kidnapped and tortured people like the Greenwood publisher A.J. Smitherman, whose ear was cut off by his abductors. All of this was done in the name of protecting American values and Christian virtue. When cases surfaced of Klansmen torturing and murdering white Americans nationwide, however, public opinion turned against them. By the end of the 1920s, America—and Richard Lloyd Jones—were ready to move on, to bury this violent period in history.

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

CORNER OF ARCHER STREET AND GREENWOOD AVENUE | VALERIE WEI-HAAS

Jones was Tulsa’s celebrity journalist, a man whose connections with the national Republican Party ran deep. He had served on a presidential commission on prison reform and served as a delegate to the national convention. His post-Massacre effort to paint the tragedy as an insurrection by lawless African Americans seems to have been effective. No one was ever found guilty of a single crime against black Tulsans. Within a year, the Tribune effectively erased the incident from Tulsa’s identity.

On June 1, 1936, The Tribune ran a column on the noteworthy events of that day 15 years ago. Miss Carolyn Skelly had been a “charming young hostess.” Central High School held its prom. Miss Vera Gwynne prepared to leave for the University of Chicago to study kindergarten education. Nary a mention of an attack, an invasion, or a burning. Ten years later, on the 25th anniversary, The Tribune ran a similar column about the events of 1921, also neglecting to mention anything about the violence.

ALL TULSA’S SOULS By the time of Jones’s death in 1963, white Tulsa had seemingly erased all memories of the Massacre. His enmity with The Tulsa World ended and the two papers wound up publishing under the same roof, with similar politics and journalistic styles.

The Tulsa World, to this day, continues to hedge when it comes to the local media’s responsibility in cultivating the conditions for the Massacre. (It uses the terms “riot” and “massacre.”) The Norman Transcript wrote that Richard Lloyd Jones “was a rare

combination of liberal and conservative; liberal in advocating human rights and protecting the weak; conservative in his attitude toward government bureaucracy and curtailment of individual rights and freedoms.”

Jones’s childhood friend and cousin, Frank Lloyd Wright, held a different view.

In the view of the architect, Jones was “a Puritan and a publican of the worst stripe,” as Wright wrote. “The hypocrisy necessary to be these things is bred to the bone, dyed in the wool.” The Lloyd-Jones connection, however, was profoundly meaningful to Frank Lloyd Wright. Both cousins were proud of their blood ties to the Welsh founder of the first All Souls church in Chicago, Jenkin Lloyd Jones.

Seven years after the Massacre, Richard Lloyd Jones contracted with Frank Lloyd Wright to build the 8,000-square-foot masterpiece, Westhope, which still stands at 37th Street and Birmingham Avenue. By the late 1920s, Jones was immensely wealthy.

He spent half a million on Westhope (about $7.3 million in today’s dollars) but still found the house unsatisfactory. The glass cubes made it too cold in the winter, too hot in the summer. When it rained, it leaked right on Jones’s writing desk. “Move your desk,” Wright responded in a letter.

The irascible Jones, at the height of his powers, also co-founded All Souls Liberal Church—the “liberal” moniker was later dropped—and oversaw its tremendous growth to become, for a time, the largest Unitarian congregation in the world. The contradictions of all of this are difficult to wrap one’s head around: The same fear-mongering racist media tycoon was

also a major supporter of the most liberal church in Tulsa, a church now known for its anti-war, pro-LGBTQ, pro-social justice activism.

For the head pastor of All Souls, Marlin Lavanhar, the connection to Richard Lloyd Jones is a teachable moment about Tulsa’s racist past. After all, many newcomers to All Souls are also newcomers to Tulsa who know nothing about 1921. It might have been easy to put Jones’s skeleton in the closet, but Lavanhar has done the opposite.

He takes new members to sites connected to the Massacre: the Jones family house, the Tribune building, and the Greenwood district. Then, Lavanhar says, “We talk about what happened and how we are connected to these events, and how it shapes our understanding and commitment to racial justice and healing.”

By the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Richard Lloyd Jones’s church is planned to be relocated at ground zero of the tragedy, across the street from the courthouse where Dick Rowland was held and where the first shots were fired. Lavanhar says the new sanctuary will face north, only three blocks from Greenwood Ave. “We are literally facing our history with a sense of mission for healing,” Lavanhar wrote in an email. “We see this new location and the new design and the fact that it is being built, funded and designed and worshiped in by black and white Tulsans together as part of our story and Tulsa’s story of reconciliation.”

Not everyone shares Lavanhar’s views on Richard Lloyd Jones. His grandson, Jenkin Lloyd Jones Jr., has continued to defend a “family history that is counter to any racism.” In an interview with Voices of Oklahoma in 2011, Jones said he had not seen the article that sparked the Massacre until shortly before the interview was recorded.

Ninety years after the Massacre, Jones defended the article. “If that’s an inflammatory headline, I don’t know journalism,” he told longtime radio journalist John Erling. “It was very much the style of the day in newspapers everywhere. You wanted a strong, active verb early on and the term ‘negro’ is what blacks were known as in those days.”

Jones maintained that his grandfather hid blacks in his basement during the Massacre, and had once hosted Booker T. Washington in his house during his Wisconsin days. Jones’s son, Richard Lloyd Jones, Jr. continued his father’s business as the publisher of The Tribune and an advocate for Tulsa aviation. Tulsa’s westside airport—the busiest airport in Oklahoma—is named after him.

As for The Tulsa Tribune itself, it ceased publishing in 1992, the end of an era in which newspapers served as a catch-all media hub, now replaced by Twitter feeds, cable news, clickbait, and gossip magazines. The Tribune’s tradition of spinning fake news stories to inflame the prejudices and passions of its readers, however, is very much still a part of our lives. a FEATURED // 35

artspot

W

ith a set of three new installations, Philbrook Downtown continues to strengthen its presence as a space for meditative deep-diving in the Tulsa Arts District. Right off the bustle of Guthrie Green, the space lets a few pieces of boldly-curated art speak for themselves. The voices are weighty ones, beautiful ones, and the austerity of the gallery makes room for the noise to fade out and listening to fade in.

Art as a practice of attention, a conversation rather than an entertainment (elite or otherwise).

Time as a medium in which to work, play, consider, and live with more awareness. These ideas are part of the bigger vision of Philbrook under Scott Stulen’s direction, and they’re present in super-concentrated form at the downtown location.

That’s not to say the new works by Richard Barlow, Peggy Weil, and Joel Daniel Phillips don’t have a “wow” factor. In fact, they’re absolute showstoppers of scale, theme, and virtuosity.

In “The Sea of Ice, Receding,” Barlow covers a long horizontal wall with a meticulously detailed chalk drawing of ice floes at the edge of the Arctic’s melting pack ice, inspired by photographs he took during a residency in the Arctic Circle. Weil, a last-minute addition to the show, uses music and projection in “88 Cores” to take viewers inside the 110,000year history—layer by layer—of some of that same ice. And in “It Felt Like the Future Was Now,” Phillips, a 29-year-old Tulsa Artist Fellow, renders early-20th-century photographs in pencil drawings that are massive in dimension and overwhelming in sensitivity.

But the real wow isn’t the showstopping. It’s the time-stopping.

Considering historical records and the edges of planetary apocalypse—the past and the future, layered together in a delicately suspended, temporary present moment—the works still viewers into thoughtfulness.

“I have always had an interest in how meaning is produced

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

Joel Daniel Phillips, “This is the New Appearance of Venice,” 2018.

Charcoal, graphite, and ink on paper. | COURTESY

Richard Barlow, “The Sea of Ice, Receding,” 2019. Chalk on blackboard paint.

Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. | COURTESY

TIME WILL TELL Philbrook Downtown exhibit looks backward, forward, and below

by ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN by images, and how that maps metaphorically onto how meaning is produced in our lives,” Barlow said. “When I first considered making drawings on blackboard paint, I didn’t think they’d be particularly sophisticated images.

I was imagining blackboards as pedagogical tools, a place to make a diagram or sketch to explain something to someone.

“Once I started working on these images, the metaphorical meanings of the fragility of the medium, and its fleeting presence, felt like they clearly mapped onto

both the ecological and existential concepts within my work.”

For Phillips, who researched Los Angeles Public Library records of early oil industry disasters on the California coast for this body of work, these hyperrealistic drawings are a way of meditating on the emotional impact of particular moments in time, the immensity of which our minds struggle to compute rationally.

“We’re saturated in images, drowning in information,” he said. “But when we don’t truly, from an emotional and sympa-

thetic standpoint, understand the impact of the decisions that we’re making, we keep making those decisions in the easiest, cheapest, most capitalistically efficient way.”

Phillips’ drawings (not black and white, but the whole spectrum of gray) depict the California of dreams—dreams containing hidden nightmares, like the smoky explosion in one image, or in another, distant oil derricks at Huntington Beach, where tar comes up through the sand.

“I’m interested in that ambiguous moment, that knife edge between beauty and terror,” he said. “How could something—in this case, the oil boom—have been so celebrated in one moment and become so apocalyptic in another moment? How does that transition happen?”

For both Barlow and Phillips, the sheer physical effort involved in creating these works is a way of pulling these geopolitical realities out of the abstract and into the embodied. To spend 400 hours drawing an explosion with his own hand, as Phillips did, is to bear visceral, sympathetic witness to the truth—something it’s all too easy for us to have amnesia about because it’s past, it’s future, it’s far away, it’s too massive to register.

As well, Barlow explained, “the idea of the amount of labor inscribed in the work adds more charge to the fact of its eventual erasure.” His chalk drawing will be erased at the end of the exhibit.

These scenes are, in Phillips’ words, “impossible, Orwellian— and yet, they really happened.”

Time is easily lost. So is history, and nature, and every complex thing we know and love. The momentary timelessness of art— and the time it takes to make it, and to take it in—is a wellspring of power in a moment when we need it more than ever. a

“THE SEA OF ICE, RECEDING” / “IT FELT LIKE THE FUTURE WAS NOW” / “88 CORES” Feb. 1–May 19, 2019 Philbrook Downtown 116 E. M. B. Brady St

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

artspot

MOONSHINE BALLADS AND VARIOUS CHARMS Featuring Patricia O’Callaghan and the Gryphon Trio

The work of artists Western Doughty and Christina Henley is on display through February at the Black Wall Street Gallery as part of the Conciliation Series. | BLAYKLEE FREED

Conversation pieces

Songs by Arlo Guthrie, Aaron Copland, Charles Ive, Randy Newman, and More!

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 2019 – 7:30P.M.

Renaissance Square Event Center on Route 66 Includes wine and hor d’oeuvres

Tickets & Info:

BLACK WALL STREET GALLERY’S SIXTH INSTALLMENT IS A STUNNER

ChamberMusicTulsa.org

AFTER SIX INSTALLMENTS OF A GROUNDbreaking art exhibitions and droves of visitors (including Method Man!) the Black Wall Street Gallery is still experiencing firsts.

The Conciliation Series at the BWS Gallery features a pair of artists every month—one black artist and one white artist—designed to spark engagement between Tulsa’s black and white communities. This month features work from Christina Henley and Western Doughty.

Like the duos of artists before them, Henley and Doughty didn’t know each other before participating in the exhibition. They met at the opening, where Doughty bought one of Henley’s pieces.

“That was the first time one of the pairs purchased a piece from the other,” said Dr. Ricco Wright, curator of the gallery and chairman of the Black Wall Street Arts nonprofit.

Doughty bought “We Three Kings (Stand Your Ground),” a mixed-media sculpture inspired by the killing of Trayvon Martin. The centerpiece of the work is a hoodie-clad mannequin fastened to the wall. Plastic molds of guns in the shape of Florida are positioned underneath, with cans of Arizona Iced Tea and piles of loose Skittles spilled on the ground below.

Henley specifically made “We Three Kings” for the BWS Gallery. Her other work on display includes metal sculptures,

pastel drawings, and a multitude of other media—one thing Wright said was so unique about her work. “Christina is the most versatile artist we’ve had in the gallery,” he said.

Henley’s ability to use a variety of media is rooted in practicality. “It mostly depends on what I have access to, because I don’t have a designated studio,” she said. “If I’m trying to come up with something, I’ll think about what materials I have easy access to create a piece and what I’m wanting to portray.”

Doughty’s work speaks to the diverse Tulsa experience, Wright said. Shot from the same wide angle at the QuickTrip at 11th Street and Utica Avenue, each photo exposes the variety of people and stories that make up Tulsa.

“I like to people watch,” Doughty said.

“I’ll just sit there and observe—[that’s how] this story fell into place. A lot of people think [that] QuikTrip is sketchy, and it’s really not. If you want to see a microcosm of Tulsa, it’s probably the best place to go. It’s really one of the few places in Tulsa that’s integrated.”

Artists for the Conciliation Series are slotted through August. Next month’s installment will feature the work of Stacie Monday and Marjorie Atwood. Until then, you can catch the current installation at Black Wall Street Gallery, 101 N. Greenwood Ave. a

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

E V E N T S @ T PA C

by BLAYKLEE FREED Sunday in the Park with George American Theatre Company Feb. 15-24 The Sleeping Beauty Tulsa Ballet Feb. 21-24 My Fair Lady Theatre Tulsa Feb. 22 - March 2 The Play That Goes Wrong Celebrity Attractions Feb. 26 - March 3 Best of Enemies World Stage Theatre Company Feb. 28 - March 3 Gryphon Trio Chamber Music Tulsa March 3 Compagnie Herve Koubi Choregus Productions March 5 Platon Tulsa Town Hall March 8

TICKETS @ TULSAPAC.COM 918.596.7111

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

lolz

Randy and Jason Sklar bring their one-of-a-kind comedy to IDL Ballroom on Feb. 22. | MATT MISISCO

Brotherly lolz

Randy and Jason Sklar return to Tulsa for a night of comedy

by ANDREW DEACON

T

he career of Randy and Jason Sklar is as impressive as it is diverse. The identical-twin comedy duo from St. Louis is known for their rapid-fire standup, finishing each other’s jokes at a breakneck pace as they take on everything from fatherhood to the process of making comedy. The brothers went on to host the popular ESPN show “Cheap Seats” in the mid-00s, where they would roast old, campy sports broadcasts. Since then they’ve made appearances on several popular shows including “Better Call Saul,” “Comedy Bang Bang,” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” to name a few.

Their recent comedy special “Hipster Ghost” can be seen on Starz.

I talked to the Sklar Brothers about their recent audio documentary on Audible (“Sklars and Stripes”), their podcast (“Dumb People Town”), and their positive feelings about Tulsa ahead of their Feb. 22 performance at IDL Ballroom.

38 // ARTS & CULTURE

ANDREW DEACON: How have you both been since your last performance in Tulsa?

RANDY SKLAR: I mean, there’s a hole in our hearts aching for us to come back to Tulsa, so that’s what we’re going to do.

DEACON: We’ve brought a lot of comedians to Tulsa for Blue Whale Comedy Festival, and it always makes me happy to see those comics go experience Tulsa while they’re here. You guys are probably our best example of that.

What was your impression of our city as people who travel a lot?

RANDY SKLAR: We were surprised, and honestly, we didn’t know what to expect. It’s a city somewhere in the middle of Oklahoma. You say to yourself, ‘What is this going to be like?’ There’s a great arts district downtown. You have great coffee shops, great restaurants in that area, and of course you have Cain’s Ballroom right there. It was

really cool! We met great people.

There’s a great scene of artists that want to stay in Tulsa. We were super impressed.

stuff about your city for the first time. It was a great chapter and I think maybe it was one of our favorites.

JASON SKLAR: We went to Oral Roberts.

DEACON: How did it get started?

Was it a project you approached Audible with?

RANDY SKLAR: We were there 15 minutes, and they gave us both honorary degrees.

JASON SKLAR: It felt really good.

RANDY SKLAR: No, it was really cool. We tried to do as much as we could while we were there. We were doing this project for Audible at the time, where we went around to 10 cities and tried to write comedy about the cities we were in.

JASON SKLAR: It’s called “Sklars and Stripes” and it’s available right now. One of the chapters is called “Tulsa.” It was a great episode to include because it was a place we had never been to before, and you [can] really hear us experiencing

RANDY SKLAR: We were starting to do it on the road. When we would go on tour, we would challenge ourselves to try and write some material about the town we were in. Instead of just launching into our material, let’s ease into it by actually trying to figure out what this town is about. … What are they dealing with, and can we write comedy about it? It’s kind of a high-wire act, but if you do it right, it’s a wonderful way to start a set.

So we were doing this already when we recorded a few cities for [podcast network] Earwolf’s premium site. They weren’t really interested in doing any more of them, but Audible was very interested. So we put together this 10

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

city audio documentary. The crazy thing was the very first city we recorded in was in San Diego. It was the first weekend after Trump won the election. We were both raw nerved. San Diego was a mix of some people that were really happy and some people that were really scared. It was fascinating.

Then, what happened over the course of the next year-and-a-half when we recorded this documentary, was our country became more divided than it’s ever been, and here we are as comedians romping through the center of it.

Going to Tulsa. Going to Kansas City. Going to Houston. We went to places like Portland and San Francisco, too, but it was interesting experiencing red cities in blue states and blue cities in red states. It was amazing to see our country in that way and wonder, ‘Can we even really laugh at ourselves right now?’

I think it’s got increasingly harder since the time that we completed that project, but it’s an incredible timestamp for our country.

JASON SKLAR: I think it was also born out of being away from our families and our kids for work, which is hard for both of us.

When we’re on the road, we don’t want to sit in a hotel room all day long or sleep until three in the afternoon. … We have this amazing opportunity to discover this city for ourselves that we might not have come to if it weren’t for our jobs, and now we love it. I want to bring my kids to a Drillers game or take them to the Woody Guthrie Center.

DEACON: You all have a great podcast called “Dumb People Town.” Can you describe the premise behind the show and how it came about?

JASON SKLAR: We believe firmly that the world is getting dumber.

Dumb is getting louder. Dumb and smart are fighting, and dumb has the strength right now and is beating smart down. The only way to fight back is using comedy.

So we get unbelievable true crime stories of people doing dumb things. It’s not always crime.

Sometimes it’s a story of a woman who got her arm stuck in a toilet because she was trying to get her “Livestrong” bracelet out. You know, things like that.

These unbelievable stories get sent to our co-host Dan Van Kirk. He breaks down these news stories and then shares them with us. We’ll riff on them, tell jokes and improvise. We’ll have guests on like Tiffany Haddish, KeeganMichael Key, Jon Hamm, or Thomas Middleditch.

It’s been an unbelievable experience, and what we’ve realized is that people that aren’t dumb are mad right now. Dumb is winning in this country overall and we have no recourse, but this podcast helps. Plus, no matter what dumb things you’ve done in your life, you listen to this podcast and you feel better.

DEACON: I think the charm of the show comes from acknowledging they’re dumb without exploiting them.

RANDY SKLAR: Well, we’re roasting these people. You can’t properly roast someone without having some love for them. There was a story that we did about a guy who was stealing cars to try and impress his 18-year-old son. He stole a bunch of cars and then would park them one street away.

We as fathers totally understand that need to connect with your children. It was really funny.

That’s what we try to do with the podcast. Where’s the humor in this? What’s the human element?

JASON SKLAR: All of the stories we’ve used have been great. Truth be told, we’re developing the show as a narrative animated series for Sony and YouTube. It’s kind of like The Simpsons or Family Guy. We’ve created the dumbest town in America, where all this dumb stuff happens. It’s really a show about twin brothers. One is dumb and happy and the other is smart and right and miserable.

It makes you ask yourself, is it better to be dumb and happy or is it better to be smart and know what you’re talking about and be miserable right now? We try to explore both sides and give it to both sides. … It’s a curse to kind of know too much, you know?

Sometimes I wish I didn’t know as much and [I could] just hang out on my Jet Ski and eat a Tide Pod over the weekend and not care.

Sometimes we worry about too much stuff. a

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

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CONVERSATIONS

NEW GENRE ARTS FESTIVAL Friday, Mar. 1 through Sunday, Apr. 7 Living Arts, livingarts.org

The TU Graduate Diversity & Inclusion Coalition will host Reframing Reconciliation After 100 Years featuring Jamaal Dyer, project manager for the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission. Feb. 28, 5:30 p.m., Gilcrease Museum, facebook.com/tugradcoalition

ACTIVISM

“Best of Enemies” tells the story of the 1971 community meeting co-chaired by civil rights activist Ann Atwater and KKK leader C.P. Ellis on the desegregation of schools. Feb. 28–Mar. 3, $5–$20, Tulsa PAC – Liddy Doenges Theatre, okworldstage.org

TED TALK

The annual new media and experimental art festival will open on 3/1 with installations by Tulsa-based artists Michaela O’Brian, Christina Henley, and Xia Zhang, and will conclude with a weekend of performances and workshops, 4/5–7.

TEDxUTulsa: Connect the Dots will feature 17 talks and demonstrations on such disparate topics as gluten-free brewing, prison reform, and Irish dance.

Mar. 1, 12:30–4:30 p.m., $8–$15, Lorton Performance Center, tedxuniversityoftulsa.com

BALLET

MASQUERADE

Tulsa Ballet presents the classic fairy tale, “The Sleeping Beauty.” Feb. 21–24, $25–$115, Tulsa PAC – Chapman Music Hall, tulsaballet.org

The third annual Mardi Gras Masquerade—benefitting VFW Post 577—will feature Cajun cuisine, Dixieland brass, magicians, burlesque performances, and complimentary masks. Mar. 2, $30–$45, IDL Ballroom, tulsamardigrasmasquerade.com

R&B

DISCUSSION

Gap Band founder Charlie Wilson will come home to perform at Paradise Cove. Feb. 22, 8 p.m., $70–$85, riverspirittulsa.com

Jesse Holland, AP reporter and author of the “Black Panther” novelization will discuss “The Chisholm Kid to Black Panther: Black Heroes & Pop Culture.”

Mar. 3, 3 p.m., Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org

COMEDY

HISTORY

Twin comedians The Sklar Brothers will perform at IDL Ballroom with support from Josh Fadem, Dan Fritschie, and Rick Shaw. Read more on pg. 38.

Feb. 22, $25–$40, drillercitycomedy.com

Sterlin Harjo will moderate a conversation with author David Treuer on his book, “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee,” a history and counter-narrative of Native American life from 1890 to the present. Mar. 4, 7 p.m., Duet Restaurant & Jazz, magiccitybooks.com

DANCE

PARADE

See free screenings of dance-based art films during the Oklahoma Dance Film Festival in the Aaronson Auditorium at the Central Library. Feb. 24, 1:30– 4:30 p.m., facebook.com/okdff

Tulsa ArtCars will host a Mardi Gras Parade through the Blue Dome District. Mar. 5, 8 p.m., facebook.com/tulsaartcar

MUSICAL

MUSIC & FOOD

A classic murder mystery show goes off the rails in the madcap comedy, “The Play That Goes Wrong.”

Feb. 26–Mar. 3, $45-$75, Tulsa PAC, Chapman Music Hall, celebrityattractions.com

Elote Cafe & Catering will host Mardi Gras with Count Tutu, which will include a parade through the Deco District, Cajun dinner specials, and hurricanes.

Mar. 5, 8 p.m., elotetulsa.com

40 // ARTS & CULTURE

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS

COMEDY

Fred Armisen // 2/21, Cain’s Ballroom, cainsballroom.com

Todd Rexx, Scott Shaffer // 2/20, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

Gilcrease After Hours: Oklahoma Delicious // 2/22, Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org

Both: A Sketch Comedy Duo // 2/22, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

Pristine Mind Meditation with Orgyen Chowang Rinphoche // 2/22, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com

Comedy Survivor w/ De’Marrio Oates, Ethan Sandoval, Adam Benson, Gary Thompson, Lacey Hunt, Mike Modlin, Terrell Norton, Tony Farra // 2/24, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

The Oddities & Curiosities Expo // 2/23, Central Park Hall - Expo Square, odditiesandcuriositiesexpo.com Kendall Whittier Ale Trail // 2/23, Fair Fellow Coffee Roasters, visitkendallwhittier.com Calm Before the Storm // 2/23, The ReVue Stung Tongue Festival - Baby D’s Bee Sting’s 2nd Anniversary // 2/24, Heirloom Rustic Ales, babydsbeesting.com MUSED Poetry Night w/ Deborah Gist // 2/24, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com Coming of Age & Riding the Waves: An Evening with Michael Wright // 2/26, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com

Smokes & Jokes w/ Scott Shaffer, CR Parsons, Rick Shaw // 2/25, Classic Cigars & Lounge Carl Payne // 2/26, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com GretchYo Comedy Open Mic hosted by Andrew Deacon // 2/26, Reds Bar Erik Myers // 2/27, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com MATv Awards hosted by Adam Benson // 3/1, Chimera Funny Makes Laugh // 3/1, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

Silver Social // 2/28, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org

Comfort Creatures // 3/2, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

Mardi Gras Party w/ DJ Bananas // 3/2, Inner Circle Vodka Bar, icvodkabar.com

FunnyMaine // 3/5, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

The First Street Flea // 3/3, The First Street Flea, thefirststreetflea.com

GretchYo Comedy Open Mic hosted

by Andrew Deacon // 3/5, Reds Bar

Facts & Fictions: George W. Bush w/ Thomas Mallon // 3/5, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com

SPORTS

Witches in Arkansas w/ John Wooley // 2/27, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com

PERFORMING ARTS Music for Enchanted Rock Multi-Media Performance w/ Montopolis // 2/22, Living Arts, livingarts.org My Fair Lady // 2/22, Tulsa PAC - John H. Williams Theatre, tulsapac.com 74th Annual Akdar Shrine Circus // 2/28, Expo Square Pavilion, akdarshrine.org Reenactments: A Night of Poetry with Hai-Dang Phan // 2/28, Tyrrell Hall - TU, humanities.utulsa.edu Oliver Twist // 3/1, Spotlight Theatre, spotlighttheatre.org Gryphon Tio // 3/2, Tulsa PAC- John H. Williams Theatre, tulsapac.com Compagnie Hervé KOUBI // 3/5, Tulsa PAC - Chapman Music Hall, tulsapac.com

VISUAL ART

TU Men’s Basketball vs Wichita State // 2/20, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Turkey MTB Festival // 2/23, Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, riverparks.org TU Women’s Basketball vs Uconn // 2/24, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs Omaha // 2/28, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs Omaha // 2/28, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com TU Men’s Basketball vs Tulane // 2/28, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com TU Softball Doubleheader - vs Northern Iowa & Illinois // 3/1, Collins Family Softball Complex, tulsahurricane.com ORU Baseball vs Purdue // 3/1, J.L. Johnson Stadium, oruathletics.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Allen Americans // 3/2, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Softball Doubleheader - vs Seattle & Syracuse // 3/2, Collins Family Softball Complex, tulsahurricane.com

Artist Talk: Altars of Reconciliation // 2/23, ahha, ahhatulsa.org

TPS School Pride Race // 3/2, Guthrie Green, tulsaschools.org

First Friday Art Crawl // 3/1, Tulsa Arts District, thetulsaartsdistrict.com

ORU Baseball vs Purdue Doubleheader // 3/2, J.L. Johnson Stadium, oruathletics.com

Will Eisner Comic Fest // 3/2, Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art, jewishmuseumtulsa.org

Tulsa Gators vs Noble Bears // 3/2, Neinhuis Park, tulsagatorfootball.com TU Women’s Basketball vs ECU // 3/2, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Runway Run // 3/2, Tulsa Air & Space Museum, tulsamuseum.org Tulsa Oilers vs. Kansas City Mavericks // 3/3, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 41

musicnotes

Off beat

Fred Armisen brings punk rock comedy to Cain’s Ballroom

by TY CLARK

B

efore Fred Armisen became a household name in the world of comedy, his aspirations were musical. He played drums for the punk band Trenchmouth, which formed in 1988, and he stayed involved in the scene through the 1990s.

While other bands broke during the punk resurgence of that decade, Armisen’s band was on the less-than-glamourous grind until finally calling it quits in 1996.

Armisen eventually found success as a musician through a different route, as the leader of the 8G Band on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” But it’s comedy that put Armisen on the map.

He brought his quirky, off-beat humor to “Saturday Night Live” in 2002, before co-creating and co-starring in the award-winning IFC sketch show “Portlandia,” alongside Carrie Brownstein of the critically-acclaimed punk band Sleater-Kinney. (Brownstein said in a 2012 Vulture interview that a Season 3 Portlandia sketch was inspired by a visit to DoubleShot Coffee on a Tulsa tour stop.)

I caught up with Armisen a few days before he hit the road on his new endeavor. It’s a comedy tour with a name that says it all: Comedy For Musicians But Everybody Is Welcome. Armisen comes to Cains Ballroom on Feb. 21.

TY CLARK: Have you ever been to Tulsa?

FRED ARMISEN: Yeah. In the 90s my band played there. I can’t remember the venue, but it wasn’t Cain’s—and I remember because I took a picture of our lead singer Damon in front of, like, a dome building. I can’t remember. That 42 // MUSIC

erences and jokes are specifically for people who play music, and a lot of it is about music, but it’s not so specific that people can’t get into it anyway. It’s for everybody, but the focus is music and talking about music.

CLARK: So, guitarists are welcome?

Do they need an escort?

ARMISEN: [Laughs] Guitarists are welcome, but they have to bring a bass player.

CLARK: Is touring something you may do more of ?

ARMISEN: I think it’s like 19 shows, but I’m gonna do more later. It was just sort of my thought [that] it’d be great to do a tour and, little by little, more shows got added.

So, I think I’m gonna do more a couple months after.

Fred Armisen performs during his 2018 Netflix special, “Standup for Drummers.” | COURTESY OF NETFLIX

was the last time I was there. I went to Oklahoma [another time] but it wasn’t Tulsa. The Flaming Lips shot a short film called “Christmas on Mars,” so I went there for that.

You know, I’m sure everyone you talk to who goes through [Cain’s] has the same thing to say, but I am really really looking forward to being in the same place that the Sex Pistols were. It really is a part of Sex Pistols’ history and I can’t wait for that.

CLARK: Cain’s Ballroom is everything you hope it will be.

ARMISEN: Oh, great! I’m very excited to do it. It’s happening!

CLARK: Are there any Oklahoma bands you are particularly fond of?

ARMISEN: Well, I am always going to consider The Flaming Lips an Oklahoma band. I really love Flaming Lips so much. I really admire them as people and I actually really like their approach to making things, and it’s like exactly what I want to do. So, I really admire them. They’re just one of my favorites.

CLARK: What can we expect from a Fred Armisen comedy show?

ARMISEN: So, the show is called Comedy For Musicians But Everybody Is Welcome. A lot of my ref-

CLARK: Jerry Seinfeld talked about not knowing real pain until a comedian bombs on stage. Do you have any insights about the struggles of an upcoming musician or comedian relating to that?

ARMISEN: Yeah, I have plenty to say about that. That’s a very good question. I do standup and am a comedian because I played so many music shows to nobody. I was in a band and we’d go on tour and, you know, three shows in a row there’d be literally five people there—or zero. I had a great time.

I’m glad I travelled, and glad I got to play the drums, but that is soul sucking because when you have a dream you’re like “I’m gonna be a famous musician. I wanna be as big as Jesus Lizard or Fugazi.”

You’re just like, “We gotta do it!

We’re gonna make it!” It’s soul sucking because when you see an

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

empty hall it’s very like, “Oh it’s supposed to be filled with people.”

Now because of that I just stopped. I couldn’t do it anymore.

I was getting older, and this was not gonna get any better, so I switched to comedy … It’s a different thing when I “bomb” onstage [now] because, as a comedian, I feel better about what I do. What I did is every time I was met with silence, I used that to my advantage. That awkwardness is sort of what I lean in on. So, if it’s weird, it’ll still work for me.

That’s what ended up getting me on “Saturday Night Live” because the fact [that] these characters don’t necessarily have a punch line or a [specific] joke to them … so it worked out. It doesn’t bother me as much. Also, if I bomb … it’s less like, “Oh no—my dream!” It’s more like, “What can I do to be entertaining in this moment?” If its not working, it’s not working, then [there is] another day after that. But it’s worked out, I think, pretty good.

drummer questions at you before we wrap up?

and it’s just like they hadn’t perfected it yet.

ARMISEN: Sure! No problem, at all.

CLARK: Bonham or Ringo?

CLARK: Do you prefer vintage or new drums?

ARMISEN: Ringo. Because there’s two reasons. Beatles’ music moves me to this very day. I mean Led Zeppelin are great, but Beatles’ music moves me, and he’s part of that music. His fills are artistic: they have a signature; they’re musical; they’re weird and cool and punk and artsy

ARMISEN: Oooooo … I am so sorry to be uncool, but I gotta say new. Cause vintage ones, I know they look great and everything, but you start trying to work them and they’re so pointy and antiquated

and sparse. I love his sound. So that’s the first reason. The second reason is Bonham has so many fans. It’s just like with anything—I don’t wanna get in line. I just don’t want to be the millionth person saying it.

CLARK: Well, we’ll be in line for Fred Armisen, and we’ll see you when you get here!

ARMISEN: Great! I can’t wait!

Thanks, Ty. a

CLARK: Would you agree being the band leader on NBC’s “Late Night With Seth Myers” is a sign of successful musician?

ARMISEN: Thank you. Yeah. I go there either every month or every other couple [of] months and I’ll do a week of shows. I love it!

CLARK: Do you write to entertain yourself or others, or both?

ARMISEN: It’s more specifically towards certain people. It’s the same way people do podcasts. It’s more specified. I’m sure there’s people, music nerds out there who grew up on punk rock and have the same experience of going to shows and buying records and maybe play an instrument. The work that I do, I like that it’s for a specific group of people. I think once you do that, I think people in general come around to it. It just has some focus to it. Just in the same way I like listening to podcasts about things I don’t really know about. Like, I would love to listen to a comedy show just for tennis players—just to kind of hear what their world is like.

CLARK: Drummer to drummer, can I throw a couple one-offTHE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

MUSIC // 43

musicnotes

Tulsa swag

Tori Ruffin brings the funk at Juicemaker Lounge

by CASSIDY MCCANTS

T

orrell “Tori” Ruffin is a longtime guitarist, composer, arranger, producer, performer—and, now, full-time bar/club owner. Originally from Los Angeles—“to make a long story short,” he says—Ruffin met Charlie Redd of the Full Flava Kings while playing in cover bands in Austin in the late ‘80s/ early ‘90s. Years later, while on tour with the legendary Morris Day & the Time, he again ran into Redd, who encouraged him to move to Tulsa for the great venues and happening bar scene.

“I was like, ‘Where’s Tulsa?’”

Ruffin reflects. But Redd was adamant, and eventually Ruffin came to town to play a show with his band Freak Juice—and he fell in love with the place. “In L.A. there’s not much of an original scene—it’s bleak, more of a payto-play thing. Here they paid me.”

After making a habit of visiting Tulsa for a couple of weeks at a time every few months, Ruffin finally rented a place here about four years ago, making Tulsa more of a home base. He developed a friendship with Max Steininger, owner of Utopia Bar & Lounge and BlockHouse Grill & Pub. When Steininger announced he was selling Utopia a few months back, Tori was curious about taking over the space—especially when offered a good deal.

Step one for Ruffin was to consult his younger brother, Greg Ruffin, one of many businesspeople in their family. “I’m the musician,” Tori said. “I’m kinda like the black sheep. I didn’t go the business route. I was more of the artsy type.” Greg, an entrepreneur who owns three charter schools in Florida, said taking over the club was a great idea, so Tori made the leap into new and unexpected territory. Juicemaker 44 // MUSIC

Tori Ruffin, owner of Juicemaker Lounge, plays guitar at the venue sporting a jacket with his band’s name.

GREG BOLLINGER

Lounge (3508 S. Sheridan Rd.) was born.

“I’ve been a touring musician all my life,” Ruffin said. “I just wanted to do something special for Tulsa. The opportunity just kind of fell in my lap.”

Step two for Ruffin: Create a little more “LA/Florida swag vibe” at the club—think couches, ever-changing visuals on the walls, mood lighting. Then, most importantly, bring in the talent.

“When you’re a musician, you always think, ‘Man, if I had a club …’ My goal first was to have an environment that catered to musicians. I want them to feel like we’re in partnership.”

Ruffin treated the walls of Juicemaker for sound, got a full set of instruments to keep onstage so musicians can just show up and play, and installed a quality PA system to ensure both the players and the listeners would have a great experience. “I think if you bring that synergy together, you’re gonna have an awesome time. It’s a great, clean environment I’m trying to create for Tulsa. Everything is centered on the music. It’s a live music venue, not an afterthought, for the musicians. Tulsa too is on a new upswing—I’m seeing a lot of new developments, and I think it’s gonna be a good place to hang.”

But owning a club is a fulltime job, Ruffin has learned quickly. “It’s a lot more involved than I realized—a lot of moving parts. But I’m older now and it’s fun, a new challenge.” Freak Juice is and has been Ruffin’s labor of love for years, and he’s had to work to juggle his artistic life and his business life since taking on this new role. “Now, here recently, I’ve gotten things calmer. Now I have the day to get into my music, focus on Tori Ruffin the artist. But it’s a balance; it’s a dance. Tori Ruffin’s life as he once knew it is not over—it’s just a new beginning.”

Ruffin is also passionate about promoting all genres at Juicemaker. He’s played and/or composed within almost any style you can think of—he’s toured with not only Minneapolis R&B funk icon Morris Day but also afro-punk pioneers Fishbone and the one and only Prince. He’s also worked with Mariah Carey, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson—the list goes on and on.

“I love everything, so I wanted the lounge to reflect that.” Among the acts Juicemaker has offered so far are Jared Tyler (catch him Wednesdays), Mike Cameron, Faye Moffett (catch her Tuesdays), Paul Benjaman, and the “Juicemaker All-stars,” for whom Tori plays guitar.

“It’s all-inclusive, but it’s a pro lounge. When you go to Juicemaker, I want to make sure it’s quality pro action—no matter what night of the week, no matter your genre, no matter what, it’s gonna be a great, quality show.”

And so far Tulsa musicians have responded well; it seems Ruffin is offering something Tulsa desperately needed. “We’re really trying to do this the right way,” he said. “The musicians deserve it.” a

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

musiclistings Wed // Feb 20

Sat // Feb 23

Tues // Feb 26

Cain’s Ballroom – Hippie Sabotage, Sebastian Paul – ($25-$40) Cain’s Ballroom – Tom Skinner’s Science Project Duet – Janet Rutland – ($5) Juicemaker Lounge – Jared Tyler Band Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesday w/ Sarah Maud & Stephen Shultz – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Fite Soundpony – Scky rei The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Vanguard – Moon Hooch, Elena Shirin – ($15)

36th Street North Event Center – Black & Red Affair w/ Keeng Cut, Heeeymade Yungin, Apache Kidz – ($10-$15) Bad Ass Renee’s – Hersker, Spook, Basses Loaded, Agents of Chaos Blackbird on Pearl – Bebo & The Evildoers – ($5) Bull & Bear Tavern – Siembra Cain’s Ballroom – Russell Dickerson & Carly Pearce, Logan Mize – ($22-$40) Cain’s Ballroom – Dan Martin & Jason Scott – ($5) Chimera – Spotless Mind EP release w/ The Odyssey, Achorway, All for More, Tribesmen Duet – *Sarah Maud – ($10) IDL Ballroom – Luca Lush, mOntell2099 – ($15-$18) Inner Circle Vodka Bar – DJ Feenix Juicemaker Lounge – DJ TNice, DJ Juice Lefty’s On Greenwood – Faye Moffett Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman The Max Retropub – DJ Robbo Oklahoma Distilling Company – Casii Stephan and The Midnight Sun Reds Bar – DJ ECOG River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The get Down Band River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Dane Arnold Soundpony – Pleasuredome Studio 308 – Retro Rockets The Fur Shop – New Time Zones, Follow The Buzzards, Animal Names, Strothers The Hunt Club – Jesse Joice The Rabbit Hole – Lilith, Electric Sheep, Vagittarius The Vanguard – My So Called Band – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Electric Okie Test (Grateful Dead Tribute) – ($6) Woody Guthrie Center – Carter Sampson and Jared Tyler – ($15)

Cain’s Ballroom – Trampled By Turtles, The Ghost of Paul Revere – ($25-$40) Cain’s Ballroom – Dane Arnold & The Soup Cain’s Ballroom – Deerpaw - Happy Hour Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Juicemaker Lounge – Faye and Bobby Moffett Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Faye Moffett Soundpony – Portrayal of Guilt The Rabbit Hole – Tavo Carbone, Space Horse, Noun Verb Adjective The Rabbit Hole – The Tuesday Night Show w/ Evan Hughes The Vanguard – Okilly Dokilly, Playboy Manbaby – ($12)

Thurs // Feb 21 Blackbird on Pearl – Bryce Dicus Cain’s Ballroom – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night Cain’s Ballroom – David Hernandez - Happy Hour Hard Rock Casino - Track 5 – Restless Heart Heirloom Rustic Ales – Landry Miller, Nathan Pape, Eli Wright Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Trio Moose Lodge 862 – Don Morris & Mike Peace River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Michael Bolton: The Symphony Sessions – ($40-$50) Soul City – Don & Steve White Soundpony – The Beaten Daylights, The Mules The Hunt Club – Songswappers The Starlite – DJ Xylo Sesame

Fri // Feb 22 American Legion Post 308 – Double “00” Buck Blackbird on Pearl – Whirligig – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Stoney LaRue, Austin Meade – ($22-$40) Cain’s Ballroom – Isaac McClung, Erik Oftedahl – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Adrienne Gilley - Happy Hour Cimarron Bar – 1994 Colorfeed A/V – The Phlegms, Bambis, Tom Boil, Plastic Psalms – ($5) Duet – Garrett Jacobson – ($5) Hard Rock Casino – Jason Boland & The Stragglers Heirloom Rustic Ales – Brian Payne, Nature & Madness, Elvis Cow Juicemaker Lounge – FlyCity DJs – ($5) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Jam Econo Living Arts – Montopolis - Music for Enchanted Rock – ($12) Mercury Lounge – BJ Barham The Max Retropub – DJ Afistaface Osage Casino Tulsa - Skyline Event Center – Jake Owen, Dustin Lynch – ($50-$75) Retro Grill & Bar – That. One. Guy. K. River Spirit Casino – Full Flava Kingz River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Charlie Wilson – ($70-$85) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Blake Turner Soul City – Susan Herndon Soundpony – The Chocolate Proclamation Part II w/ Dialtone, YungTrunks, Kru, DJ $ir Mike The Fur Shop – Jennifer Marriott Band The Hunt Club – BC and the Big Rig The Rabbit Hole – The Grits, The Dull Drums, Rachel Bachman, Dane Arnold & The Soup, Cucumber and the Suntans The Starlite – ResurXtion 54: Aftermath w/ Jessy James, 950 David, Axis, Dress to Distress The Vanguard – Hells Bells (ACDC Tribute), Dr. Rock Doctor – ($10-$20) The Venue Shrine – Valentine’s Day Hangover Concert w/ Acie James, Golden Ones, Steve Liddell – ($20-$25) Woody Guthrie Center – Seth Glier – ($25)

Sun // Feb 24 Cabin Boys Brewery – Hot Toast Music Company album release w/ The Lonelys Cain’s Ballroom – Burn Co. Barbecue Brunch w/ Beau Roberson & Friends – ($15) Cain’s Ballroom – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing w/ Seth Lee Jones Cain’s Ballroom – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ David Hernandez Doc’s Wine & Food – Mark Gibson East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Heirloom Rustic Ales – Constant Peril Living Arts – Young Composers Concert – ($6) Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Blues Brunch w/ Dustin Pittsley & Dave White Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – DJ Good Ground The Starlite – Adrienne Gilley w/ Jordan Hehl The Vanguard – Dream Ritual, Brooding – ($10)

Mon // Feb 25 Cain’s Ballroom – Dropkick Murphys, Booze & Glory, Lenny Lashley’s Gang of One, Amigo the Devil – ($34-$49) Cain’s Ballroom – Seth Lee Jones Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Lefty’s On Greenwood – Stephanie Oliver, Johnny Mullenax, and friends Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino – Travis Kidd The Rabbit Hole – Chris Foster

THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Wed // Feb 27 Cain’s Ballroom – Tom Skinner’s Science Project Duet – Smoochie Wallus – ($5) Inner Circle Vodka Bar – Laron Simpson Juicemaker Lounge – Jared Tyler Band Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesday – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Fite Soundpony – DJ Slam Pig The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Vanguard – The BellRays, Follow The Buzzards – ($12)

Thurs // Feb 28 Blackbird on Pearl – Bryce Dicus Cain’s Ballroom – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night Cain’s Ballroom – David Hernandez - Happy Hour Chimera – Death Threat, Piece of Mind, The Penny Mob, Tell Lies – ($15) Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Moose Lodge 862 – Don Morris & Mike Peace River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – The Begonias The Hunt Club – Ego Culture The Starlite – DJ Xylo Sesame

Fri // Mar 1 American Legion Post 308 – Round Up Boys Blackbird on Pearl – Wasteland – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Boogie T.Rio, The Russ Liquid Test, Mersiv, VAMPA – ($15-$75) Cain’s Ballroom – Wink Burcham w/ Stephen Lee & Paul Wilkes – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Justin Bloss - Happy Hour Cimarron Bar – Imzadi Gypsy Coffee House – The Beyana Band Juicemaker Lounge – A Night for Chill w/ FlyCity DJs, Kenyatta – ($10) The Max Retropub – DJ Jeffeee fresh pH Community House – Sludge Crawl w/ Grass Giant, We The Undead, Cloud of Unknowing – ($5) Philbrook Museum of Art – Bruce Adolphe – ($10-$12) Renaissance Square Event Center – Moonshine Ballods & Various Charms w/ Gryphon Trio & Patricia O’Callaghan – ($35) Soul City – Susan Herndon Soundpony – Soft Leather The Fur Shop – Out of System, The Mules, Jim Watson – ($5) The Hunt Club – JT and the Dirtbox Wailers The Vanguard – Chiefy, Gangar, Maxx Quotes, KMJ, Chico, Spadez, Drag Dinero, Winny, Ausi – ($10)

The Venue Shrine – Arkansauce, Klondike5 – ($5) Vox Pop – Firekid, Kalo – ($20-$25)

Sat // Mar 2 Bad Ass Renee’s – To Kill Porter, The Alive Blackbird on Pearl – Mike Hosty – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys – ($25-$40) Cain’s Ballroom – Paul Benjaman Band – ($5) Cimarron Bar – Imzadi Duet – Tommy Crook and Shelby Eicher – ($10) Fassler Hall – Henna Roso Inner Circle Vodka Bar – DJ Bananas Mercury Lounge – Max Stalling The Max Retropub – DJ Robbo Soundpony – Soul Night Studio 308 – Sweet Randi and the Love Thang Band – ($15-$20) The Fur Shop – Light // Sound, Young Readers, Damion Shade The Hunt Club – Josh Yarbrough Band The Vanguard – Rose Gold EP Release w/ You.th, Give Way, Carvist – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Psymbionic, Thelem, Of Faces, Noizmekka – ($12-$15)

Sun // Mar 3 Bad Ass Renee’s – One Finger Discount, Voice of Addiction, Soaker Cain’s Ballroom – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing Cain’s Ballroom – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ David Hernandez Chimera – Summer Hearth, Brothertiger, Beta Betamax Colorfeed A/V – Darku J, Ject, George Turbo – ($5) East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Blues Brunch w/ Dustin Pittsley & Dave White Soul City – Bruner & Eicher The Vanguard – Outline in Color, Dropout Kings, Deadships, Dead Crown, Skysia, Gangar – ($13)

Mon // Mar 4 Cain’s Ballroom – Seth Lee Jones Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd The Rabbit Hole – Chris Foster

Tues // Mar 5 Cain’s Ballroom – Dane Arnold & The Soup Cain’s Ballroom – Deerpaw - Happy Hour Elote Cafe – Count Tutu Flavors of Louisiana – King Louie and the Second Liners Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Heirloom Rustic Ales – David Dondero, Justin Bloss, Eli Wright Juicemaker Lounge – Faye and Bobby Moffett The Max Retropub – Fat Tuesday with DJ Afistaface Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Faye Moffett Soul City – Kalo The Rabbit Hole – The Tuesday Night Show w/ Evan Hughes The Vanguard – Elvis Drepressedly, Niights, The Cordial Sins, My Heart & Liver Are the Best of Friends, Midday Static – ($10) MUSIC // 45

onscreen

“Hale County This Morning, This Evening” | COURTESY

BLACK LIFE ITSELF An Academy Award-nominated documentary meditates on rural black America

AT A TIME OF HEIGHTENED RACIAL BIGOTRY and tension, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” works a bit like a cinematic Rorschach.

This hypnotic, free-flowing documentary about black life in rural Alabama takes an empirical posture rather than a journalistic one. Of the many feelings it provokes, it’s likely to spark whatever instinctive, latent perceptions or prejudices the viewer may hold.

A project five years in the making, 36-year-old novice filmmaker RaMell Ross—who moved to the southern “Black Belt” in 2009—saw his photography hobby evolve into filming. Through that transition, Ross was (as he states in the movie’s opening text) “using time to figure out how we’ve come to be seen.”

Inevitably then, despite Ross’s warm, domestic, communal Americana, how these black Alabamans “come to be seen” could elicit a wide range of impressions.

“Impressions” is the key word here, as Ross completely eschews narrative for something wondrously impressionistic.

Part portrait, part collage, this isn’t the story of “Hale County.” Rather, it’s a collection of experiences. In one shot, people stand outside a mobile home as an ominous storm swirls overhead. The next shot is a close-up of a man getting his nose pierced, a tear exposing the moment of pain.

The film goes on like this—sporadic, yet elegant, and always with clear tonal purpose. Family, church, food, sports, music, school, and other life events are seen in standard docu-coverage, which is then mixed with colorful, enhanced photography and evocative time lapsing.

46 // FILM & TV

Ross gazes on simple moments as well, like a toddler running back-and-forth between points A and B in a toy-strewn living room, over and over and over again, while mom and dad stay glued to the TV. It’s cute, but it’s also—in its own elemental way—poignantly universal. So, too, are heartbreaking tragedies, tenderly observed.

To the extent residents speak directly to camera, which is rare, it’s not descriptive reportage. Instead, it’s people sharing their hopes and dreams and fears—common aspirations and angsts that transcend race or region.

Often in the movies—if not almost exclusively—rural Black America is defined in the context of the white Deep South and a persisting Confederate culture. Here it seldom is, and certainly not in a confrontational way, while crime, drugs, and violence are, refreshingly, entirely avoided.

Even so, from generational poverty and segregated neighborhoods to limited opportunities and the cycles those realities create—beginning with slavery and continuing through Jim Crow—the implications of racist legacies remain.

And to put a fine point on it: at exactly halfway through, Ross intercuts the image of an old plantation house with black-andwhite archive footage of a man in black face, peaking from behind some bushes, as if to represent the ghosts that linger. It’s a haunting bit of poetry.

Anthropological in form yet philosophical as a piece, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” becomes more than just one fabric of Black America. It’s the whole tapestry. — JEFF HUSTON

Rosa Salazar in “Alita: Battle Angel” | COURTESY

FALLEN ANGEL Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron misfire with a dull adaptation

JAMES CAMERON WANTS YOU TO SEE “Alita: Battle Angel.” I mean, really wants you to see it. And why shouldn’t he? He’s only been trying to get this story, adapted from the titular manga, for going-on 20 years.

“Alita: Battle Angel” kicks off with Dr. Ido (Christoph Waltz), an apparent robot surgeon who augments humans with mechanized weapons, fishing the body-less head of a girl out of a heap of garbage. He takes her home and decides to name her Alita after his dead daughter in hopes of reconnecting with her. From there she awakens with a wicked case of amnesia and sets out to discover her purpose.

Alita’s journey of self-discovery is filled with breath-taking digital vistas, violent confrontations (albeit the PG-13 kind), and lots of anime-sized eyes staring longingly into each other. Alita (Rosa Salazar) falls in love with Hugo, a handsome fellow with the physique of a pro-athlete and the face of a 14-year-old boy. Hugo may or may not be working with the bad guys as a scrapper for parts to pay his way to the fantastical paradise, Zalem, a floating city looming over the junkyard that is Iron City. Alita, too, has hopes of leaving the Iron City for Zalem.

She decides to compete in motorball, which is like Rollerball but with robots, in hopes of winning her way to Zalem.

Unfortunately, every performance feels like a literal translation of the hand-drawn characters from the original manga— broad and cartoonish. You’d be hard

pressed to discover any real actor was used at all, but rather scanned into a computer and directed pixel by pixel on how to act.

“Alita: Battle Angel” is as much a garbage dump of a movie as the pile of detritus from which Alita was formed. The script is from Cameron and a frequent collaborator Late Kalogridis, who present Alita as an icon of female empowerment, but it’s all for naught because she immediately falls in love with Hugo and does everything seeking his approval and validation.

It says a lot when the brilliant mind behind the billion-dollar box office behemoth “Avatar” as well as the Oscar-winning “Titanic” decides to pass the directorial buck to Rodriguez, who is known for making special-effects bonanzas on the cheap. I’m sure this is one of those films that would probably look better in 3-D. (After all, Cameron pioneered a whole new 3-D type of cinematography with his partner John Landau.) However, at this point Robert Rodriguez’ specific aesthetic feels so flat and reliant upon CGI and set extensions that it’s no different than any of the mindless CGI fodder in his portfolio.

This film is a veritable Old Country Buffet of sci-fi tropes. You like serial killer subplots? It’s got one! Futuristic bounty hunters? Of course! Intergalactic battle between good and evil? Check! But despite the presence of all these subplots from the original nine-volume manga, the end result is disappointingly flat and hollow.

— CHARLES ELMORE

February 20 – March 5, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

2910 Mohawk Blvd. | MON, TUES, THURS, FRI & SAT, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 918.428.7722

BEXLEY is one of a kind!

She loves to play and is still learning manners. She likes to jump when excited; however, she can easily be disengaged and redirected to a toy. She would be better in a home with older kids over age 13.

ACROSS 1 Large gap, in typesetting 8 Impressive opera note 13 Fumbled one’s chance 19 Beneficial 21 Yelling, as a crowd 22 Sonia Sotomayor, e.g.

23 Take our cue and buy this ___ 25 Ones putting people in their place?

26 Whom Dory found, in film 27 Ancient Norse saga 28 Moisten during roasting 30 Spiky succulent 31 Never miss a date thanks to this ___ 35 Cast a long shadow, say 39 Dog owner’s “Here!”

40 MLK Day’s weekday, briefly 41 ’60s antiwar grp.

42 Approved 43 The other guys 44 Keyboard sounds 47 Impulse 48 Sizzle in the kitchen with this ___ 53 “Insecure” actress Issa 54 Skipjack and albacore 56 “In ___ case ...”

57 Bitter conflict 58 Cummerbund’s place 60 Boats stored upside down 63 Specks in la mer 64 Bolster your decor with these ___

Sweet MONA LISA has a big personality! She has lived with another cat in her past life and should easily be able to adjust to other cats in the home. However, we do recommend that she doesn’t go home with toddlers. Mona Lisa is about four years old.

70 Threadbare 71 Connecticut Ivy Leaguers 72 Gamer’s lament 73 Mardi Gras song with an echoic title 76 News crew vehicle 77 Nifty 79 Short-lived obsession 82 Be a champion woodworker with this ___ 86 It’s pumped up 87 “Gently!”

88 Carne asada holder 89 Longtime CBS dog 91 Occupy a throne 94 ___ Lanka 95 The sun in “sunny-side up” 96 Arthurian grail-quest figure 97 Serve stunning eggnog in this ___ 102 Slanted type (Abbr.)

103 Seize wrongfully 104 Neutrogena rival 105 Stand (with) 109 Final tallies 111 Protect your family from surges with this ___ 115 Close soccer result 116 Stuffed deli item 117 Detached forcibly 118 How often “Time” comes out 119 Handle 120 Timothy Leary dropped them DOWN 1 “SportsCenter” airer 2 Zebra mama 3 Thin

4 “The Godfather” author Mario 5 Had a bite 6 Frolicked 7 Worn away 8 Fedora or fez 9 Nest egg letters 10 Talk turkey?

11 Kosher, in Islam 12 Musical opposite of dimin.

13 Colorful flower worshipped in ancient Egypt 14 ___ Cruces 15 “First Reformed” star Hawke 16 Brandishes 17 Bit of progress 18 Police stunners 20 “The Last Jedi” guru 24 Gate closers 29 Florida city on a bay 31 Aspiring M.A.’s hurdle 32 Misfortunes 33 Pile of snowballs, perhaps 34 Ratify 35 Docent’s offering 36 Cajun veggie 37 Crusade against 38 Spotter?

43 Pan Am competitor 44 Half a carpenter’s dovetail 45 Thus far 46 Risks 48 Unable to sit still 49 Warthog features 50 Swimmer once thought to aid navigators 51 Not many 52 Loch ___ monster 54 As late as, informally 55 Employ 59 Storefront overhang

The Tulsa SPCA has been helping animals in our area since 1913. The shelter never euthanizes for space and happily rescues animals from high-kill shelters.

They also accept owner surrenders, rescues from cruelty investigations, hoarding, and puppy mill situations. Animals live on-site or with foster parents until they’re adopted. All SPCA animals are micro-chipped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives. Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoptions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org.

GRADY is affectionate and playful. Barely one year old, he still is learning manners and enjoys running, sniffing new things, and walking on a leash. This smart, athletic boy weighs 46 pounds and will need a privacy fence or monitored yard time.

60 Sending the same email to 61 Pitching pro 62 Pitching pro’s patter 64 “Just saying,” in texts 65 Mischievous Norse god 66 Hangs on to 67 “She’s ___” (Tom Jones hit) 68 Fluish 69 (U r a riot!)

74 Mall booth 75 With difficulty 77 ’50s dance party 78 Try to win over 80 Diva’s solo 81 Ownership document 83 Julius Caesar’s first name 84 British boys school 85 Anti-rash powder 86 Airport checkpoint agcy.

89 Trying people?

90 The whole megillah 91 Bunny slope conveyance 92 Recite robotically 93 Just so 95 Stereotypical ’80s Beemer driver 96 Desert one’s post 98 Armor sound 99 Warthog features 100 Maintain a hedge 101 Ink mishap 105 “Buzz off!”

106 Cedar Rapids’ state 107 Without sparkle 108 Midwest ice cream brand 110 Tiny, quickly 112 Imprecise no.

113 P, to Plato 114 Roulette color

COCO CHANEL is quick to greet people and responds well to soft voices and ear scratches. She doesn’t seem aggressive to other cats in our Cat Colony Room.

Coco is a diva who prefers the pampered life. She would do well in a home where she is Queen Bee!

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD COME TO OUR GARAGE SALE!

By Matthew Sewell and Brad Wilber, edited by David Steinberg

© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication THE TULSA VOICE // February 20 – March 5, 2019

Sweet MAE loves everyone!

She is two and half years old and weighs 53 pounds.

She doesn’t mind most other dogs, as long as they give her some space. Mae tends to get anxious if she’s left alone, so she’ll need a good crate.

2/24 ETC. // 47

THURSDAY

3.07

BRUCE BRUCE

THURSDAY

3.14

THURSDAY

3.28

CARROT TOP

8PM

8PM

3 DOORS DOWN 8PM ACOUSTIC

TURN IT ON, TURN IT UP SCAN TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Schedule subject to change.

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