The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 6 No. 15

J U L Y 1 7 – A U G . 6 , 2 0 1 9 // V O L . 6 N O . 1 5

NEW WORK FROM TULSA’S BLACK MOON ART COLLECTIVE P18

TULSA’S HIDDEN LITERARY HISTORY P20 SUMMER STAYCATION GUIDE P22

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now tony danza july 19 reo speedwagon july 27 chicago August 1 dr. ken jeong August 10 nickelback August 16 vince gill August 17 chris isaak August 22 MARY J. BLIGE August 23 PEPE AGUILAR September 5 PAT BENATAR & NEIL GIRALDO September 6 SEBASTIAN MANISCALCO September 12 DWIGHT YOAKAM September 19 GABRIEL IGLESIAS September 20 Southern Momma CleDus T Judd Comedy Experience September 27

Live Music

Friday & Saturday Nights Starting at 9PM in 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar and at 10 PM in Margaritaville!

Visit margaritavilletulsa.com for a complete schedule.

81ST & RIVERSIDE 888-748-3731 RIVERSPIRITTULSA.COM

2 // CONTENTS

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

WINESDAY

AT THE TAVERN H A L F- P R I C E B O T T L E S O F W I N E E V E RY W E D N E S DAY

4 PM - CLOSE NO ST R INGS. J U S T D E L IC I O U S , H A L F - P R I C E W I N E .

TAV E R N T U L SA .C O M

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

CONTENTS // 3

MY BLACK LIFE P18

BY DAMION SHADE

New Black Moon show explores the complicated concept of blackness

BOOKS AND MORTAR P20

BY MARK BROWN

A Tulsa revival reveals a layer of invisible lore

PARTY LIKE A TOURIST P22

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 15 ©2019. All rights reserved.

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Freed DIGITAL EDITOR Kyra Bruce CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf CONTRIBUTORS Alicia Chesser Atkin, Mark Brown, Kimberly Burk, Charles Elmore, Angela Evans, Barry Friedman, Ryan Gentzler, Destiny Jade Green, Greg Horton, Jeff Huston, Fraser Kastner, Lyndsay Knecht, Makaila McGonigal, Kevin Pickard, Michelle Pollard, Alexandra Robinson, Damion Shade, Sandra Soli, Alexander Tamahn, Jessica Vazquez, Valerie Wei-Haas The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

Member of

BY ANGELA EVANS

Tulsa’s best staycation spots The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

Alexander Tamahn of Black Moon Collective | MAKAILA MCGONIGAL

NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 BY THE NUMBERS

B Y RYAN GENTZLER

FOOD & DRINK 14 FROM EUROPE WITH LOVE

BY GREG HORTON

New dashboard puts Oklahoma criminal justice data at the public’s fingertips

Wine tour brings German and Austrian specialties to Oklahoma

8 TAX TO THE FUTURE

B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN

16 BUZZED

BY TTV STAFF

Out with the old, in with the revenue

10 DREAMS DETAINED

B Y JESSICA VAZQUEZ

‘ Real talk’ on immigration and human rights

12 CANNABIS CO-OP

B Y FRASER KASTNER Tulsa native works to connect Oklahoma’s budding industry

ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 38 THEHAPS 40 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 46 ASTROLOGY + SUDOKU 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

Drunken Spelling Bee comes to local cidery

MUSIC 42 YOUTH IN REVOLT

B Y KYRA BRUCE Local teens organize festival to showcase non-binary and women artists

TV & FILM 43 DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

B Y ALEXANDRA ROBINSON

Los Espookys brings gothic absurdity to your summer television lineup

44 THE BORING KING

B Y CHARLES ELMORE The latest ‘live-action’ remake of a Disney animated classic is a low-hanging cash grab

44 A STAR IS BORN

B Y JEFF HUSTON Brit drama about singer pursuing her dream pulls no punches 4 // CONTENTS

ARTS & CULTURE 28 THE POETRY OF LIFE

B Y ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN Magic City Books celebrates Yevgeny Yevtushenko

30 FREE VERSE

B Y POETIC JUSTICE PARTICIPANTS

Poetry by incarcerated women

in Oklahoma

32 WARLORDS

B Y SANDRA SOLI

Flash fiction

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

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD Send all letters, complaints, compliments & haikus to: voices@langdonpublishing.com FOLLOW US @THETULSAVOICE ON:

34 STILLNESS IS A MOVE

B Y LYNDSAY KNECHT Exchange Choreography Festival sparks a dialogue on dance

35 MEET THE FELLOWS

B Y TTV STAFF

In the studio with Kalup Linzy

J U L Y 1 7 – A U G . 6 , 2 0 1 9 // V O L . 6 N O . 1 5

36 NATURAL STATE

B Y KIMBERLY BURK

Daytripping in Northwest Arkansas

NEW WORK FROM TULSA’S BLACK MOON ART COLLECTIVE P18

TULSA’S HIDDEN LITERARY HISTORY P20 SUMMER STAYCATION GUIDE P22

ON THE COVER Black Peopling PAINTING BY ALEXANDER TAMAHN PHOTO OF ARTWORK BY VALERIE WEI-HAAS July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

OPEN HOUSE

Saturday, August 3

TH E94WE S T.COM

RUS TIC MODERN LI V I NG 10 H O M E POCK E T N EI GH BO R H OO D GR A N D L A K E ACCE SS • GAT ED CO M M U N I T Y 56 420 94 Wes t Dr, Monkey I sland, O K THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

I

f you can remember a time before 2 Fast 2 Furious, you’re older than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The agency was created in 2003 under the newly-minted Department of Homeland Security, a year after Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears called it quits, in the post-9/11 hysteria that produced the invasion of Iraq and the USA PATRIOT Act. Last weekend, agents representing an institution as old as the kids from Stranger Things were predicted to target more than 2,000 migrant families through a series of nationwide raids at the direction of the Trump administration.

“They’re going to take people out,” the former game show host threatened from the Rose Garden.

While the promised mass round-ups have yet to materialize

(for the second time in weeks) reports across the country show communities chilled with fear and driven into darkness. A teenager in New Jersey huddled with her parents in the Sunday morning dark as ICE agents surrounded their home. Vibrant neighborhoods in Houston and Los Angeles, normally filled with the bustle of vendors, the sounds of musicians and the laughter of children, fell deadly silent under the threat of armed abduction.

“I want people to get a sense of how this is affecting those who aren’t getting picked up,” sociologist Dani Rosales told The Tulsa Voice. “I want people to understand the families who are shutting themselves up in their homes because they are afraid to leave.” You’ll find Jessica Vazquez’s conversation with

Rosales, along with local advocates Rosa Hernandez and Jorge Roman-Romero—ahead of their panel discussion on immigration and human rights happening at the Woody Guthrie Center later this month—on page 10.

“Immigration is no longer just a story,” Boulder Weekly editor Joel Dyer told a room full of journalists last week at the 2019 Association of Alternative Newsmedia Conference in Colorado. It is instead, he argued, the story of this century—the metric by which we’ll be measured by future generations. When asked how we met this dark beat of history, what will we say?

The question was ringing in my head all weekend as I scrolled past images of the vice president standing stiff-lipped across a cage stuffed with hundreds of

human beings at a border camp in McAllen, Texas. In the video, men plead with the camera, desperate to tell the world about the squalid conditions of their detention.

“We learn to think of history as something that has already happened, to other people,” Masha Gessen wrote last week in The New Yorker. As a mass deportation strike force and inhumane border camps become a more regular part of our public life, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that history is happening now, here, to us. a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

He Built the Taj Mahal for Her. 1,200 years of Islamic Art. NOW ON VIEW!

Unknown artist from India. Double portrait of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592–1666) and Empress Mumtaz (1593–1631), late 19th century. Painting: colors and gold on ivory; frame: gold, wood, and brass, 2 ½ × 3 ¼”. Newark Museum, Bequest of J. Ackerman Coles, 1926, 26.1133.

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

okpolicy

A IN CUSTODY

SUPERVISION

BY THE NUMBERS New dashboard puts Oklahoma criminal justice data at the public’s fingertips

by RYAN GENTZLER for OKPOLICY.ORG

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

s of this week, Oklahoma’s state prisons hold 26,063 people, and an additional 32,179 are under the supervision of the Department of Corrections. The number of people imprisoned in Oklahoma has dropped by about 3.9 percent over the last year, while the supervised population has fallen by about 5.1 percent. In order to reach the national average incarceration rate, the state would need to reduce its total incarceration population of 39,000 (including both state prisons and local jails) to about 23,221—a change of about 15,779 people, or -40.5 percent.

Though Oklahoma’s incarceration crisis is a constant topic of debate, it is often difficult to find basic information about where it stands: How many people are incarcerated? How does that compare to other places? The Oklahoma DOC Tracker, a tool released last week by Open Justice Oklahoma, aims to bridge that gap by providing convenient access to the most current data about our state’s incarceration crisis and allowing comparisons to other states and to benchmarks like the national average.

The Oklahoma DOC Tracker draws on weekly public data releases from the Department of Corrections and reports released by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. It attempts to clarify the differences among various incarceration rate figures that are often referenced in debates, which can vary widely based on whether they include people incarcerated in local jails or only state prisons, or whether they are calculated based on the adult population or the total population.

Regardless of the calculation, the Oklahoma DOC Tracker reinforces the fact that our state’s justice system is far out of step with the rest of the nation when it comes to the proportion of our citizens that we put behind bars. Recent reforms to parole appear to be making a dent, with the prison population decreas-

ing by more than 1,000 people since November. However, if we hope to fall out of the top 5 in incarceration—much less to the national average—we must accelerate our efforts and pursue ambitious reform proposals in the coming years.

Gov. Stitt’s administration has indicated that they aim to reduce Oklahoma’s incarceration ranking to 20th in the country. As reform advocates, we are encouraged that the state’s leadership is setting lofty goals. Using the Oklahoma DOC Tracker’s comparison tool, we know reaching the number 20 spot in imprisonment will require the state to reduce our prison population from its current size of 26,063 people to about 15,409, a reduction of about 10,654 people, or -40.9 percent.

Achieving that drastic reduction would require a sea change in our legal system, a wholesale rethinking of who we punish and how harshly. The last three legislative sessions have shown all too clearly that despite broad public support and encouraging rhetoric from state leaders, justice reform advocates must fight tooth and nail for even modest changes to our criminal legal system. Strong leadership from the highest state office will be absolutely essential to achieving meaningful reform that is up to the enormous task ahead. We hope the Oklahoma DOC Tracker provides a useful tool to understand our incarceration crisis and gauge our progress towards alleviating it.

Open Justice Oklahoma is a project of Oklahoma Policy Institute designed to provide Oklahomans with a better understanding of how Oklahoma’s justice system operates and how we can use it to efficiently reduce crime and improve rehabilitation. The Oklahoma DOC tracker is available at bit.ly/DOCtracker. a

Ryan Gentzler is the Director of Open Justice Oklahoma at the Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org).

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

Tax to the future Out with the old, in with the revenue

by BARRY FRIEDMAN Well, what do you know?

As we near the end of FY 2019, General Revenue collections have already come in $360 million ahead of the year’s estimate, which will ensure a large end-of-year deposit to the Rainy Day Fund.

Next year’s revenue collections are projected to be more than 20 percent higher than last year’s, which has allowed the Legislature to approve two straight years of substantial funding increases. (OK Policy)

How did that happen?

Magic.

Actually, it was math.

During the 2018 legislative session (the special 2017 session started the ball rolling), Oklahoma legislators raised taxes— most notably on the production of oil and gas, the extraction industry’s pouting notwithstanding. If it had any manners, the O&G sector in Oklahoma would have simply thanked state taxpayers for their largesse over the past decade and tiptoed out of the building.

Until 2017, some older wells were taxed at just 1 percent during their first three years of production while new wells were taxed at just 2 percent for three years. (OK Policy)

You’re welcome.

To put this in context, figures from 2016, show the following gross production tax rates nationwide: Wyoming: 13.4 percent Louisiana: 13.1 percent Arkansas: 12 percent Texas: 8.3 percent 8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Take a billion dollars out of the treasury, and the problem is not that government is spending too much— it’s that its ability to function has been gutted.

States known for their (ahem) hotbeds of socialism and liberalism.

Oklahoma averaged 3.2 percent for the same period, the lowest in the nation; still, after the modest increases of 2017 and 2018, industry executives warned they just couldn’t (and wouldn’t) do any more.

Devon Energy executive Wade Hutchings, chairman of OKOGA [Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association], told the crowd his association is very much supportive of an effective education system as well as a pay raise for teachers. (OK Energy Today)

What a prince.

“But I’ll just be very clear here. We will not back down from a very clear position that any increase in taxes on new wells drilled in Oklahoma will ultimately result in a loss of wells being drilled. That principle is iron clad with us.” (OK Energy Today)

You want some low density crude with that whine?

And guess what?

Over the 12-month period through February 2019, Oklahoma oil production averaged 17 million barrels, which is 30 percent higher than during the peak years of the early 1980s.

You mean the oil and gas industry didn’t just pack up its rigs and move to New Jersey in protest?

Of course not. And why not?

Because New Jersey doesn’t have oil and gas deposits.

Now a word from the Almighty, a.k.a. George Kaiser (with his philanthropy in these parts, it’s hard to distinguish between the two): “We drill where God put the hydrocarbons, not where the tax rate is lowest.” (Tulsa World)

Kaiser, himself an oil guy, slammed home this point by reminding us in an editorial in The Tulsa World that the benefits from those lower GPT rates all those years didn’t stay in the state anyway.

More than 70 percent of the benefit goes to out-of-state shareholders of publicly held companies at the expense of Oklahoma taxpayers.

But it wasn’t just the Gross Production Tax that fueled Oklahoma’s newfound cash flow.

There were also bills that added $1 to a pack of cigarettes, three cents to a gallon of regular gasoline, six cents to a gallon of diesel, and mandated sales tax on online purchases.

Income taxes weren’t raised, which would have made the most impact and been the fairest revenue measure—smokers, after all, didn’t cause the budget crisis—but it was heartening that legislators recognized the debate was no longer how big or small government should be, but how much government we need in Oklahoma. For too long in the state, and the country for that matter, government was seen as a beast that needed to be starved— and then, once starved, could then be criticized for being lethargic, inefficient and unresponsive.

These revenue bills at times had to be dry-birthed, but eventually were all signed into law by then-Gov. Mary Fallin, who, while not actually seizing the moment, didn’t let it go by, either.

“This is a very historic moment in Oklahoma,” Fallin said. “I’m pleased to sign this bill that provides a significant increase in spending for our public school system. I’m hoping this additional funding will result in improved K-12 public school results.

Our job as a state is to empower our students, parents and teachers to succeed by setting the bar high and challenging July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

each other to succeed.”

(Tulsa World)

And then a funny thing happened in the 2019 legislative session, even with the rosier figures.

Not one representative proposed a new round of tax cuts. Now, I wouldn’t bet the combine harvester that such restraint makes it all the way through the 2020 session, but it’s worth mentioning there seems to be a new-found financial maturity.

That cutting taxes would spur growth and pay for themselves, while raising them would stifle such expansion, really only ever made sense on a bar napkin, anyway.

[Dick] Cheney wasn’t following. So [Arthur] Laffer grabbed a napkin, uncapped a Sharpie, and drew two perpendicular lines and a blimp-shaped curve, halved by a faint dotted line. With the tax rate on the y-axis and tax revenue on the x-axis, the chart showed that, except at its bend, there were always two points on the curve that generated the same amount of government funds: a higher rate on a smaller base of economic activity, and a lower rate on a larger base of economic activity. (Quartz)

Not everyone was impressed, and this includes economists who rarely agree with each other.

Harvard economist N. Greg Mankiw, an outspoken conservative who led George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, has called supply-siders “Charlatans and Cranks” and compared them to a “snake-oil salesman.”

Paul Krugman, the liberal New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize–winning economist, often argues with Mankiw on economic policy, but also thinks, “The supply-siders are cranks” who adhere to a doctrine “without a shred of logic or evidence in its favor.” (New Republic)

And while there are still plenty of fans of supply-side economics— one huge one (but we’ll get to that in a moment)—there is also this: Supply-siders often credit President Reagan’s huge 1981 tax cut with spurTHE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

ring robust growth in the ensuing years. But while growth was strong during the 1980s, it was stronger still in the years following President Clinton’s 1993 tax increase on top earners. Whereas GDP grew at an average annual rate of 3.5 percent during the seven years following the 1981 cut, it grew at 3.9 percent per year over the seven-year period following the 1993 tax increase.

(Democracy Journal)

Cuts to Oklahoma’s income tax began in earnest around 2004, when the top figure was 6.65 percent—it’s about 5 percent today— and the reduced revenues over the years go a long way in explaining teacher shortages, college tuition hikes, understaffed and combustible prisons, lower reimbursement rates for medical providers and, until this year, budget deficits.

And both parties share the blame.

The cautious approach to tax cuts was abandoned in the mid-2000s, once Democrat Brad Henry became Governor and Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives. (OK Policy)

The mindset was codified back in 1992, when voters approved State Question 640, which stipulated that revenue bills could only become law if approved by a 3/4th vote of both legislative chambers. You can’t get 75 percent of Oklahoma legislators to agree Jesus didn’t tap Donald Trump on the shoulder and tell him to run for president, so the—and I’ll use the word—courage it took for state representatives to propose and pass these tax bills was impressive, especially considering GOP party elders like Tom Coburn kept peppering them with the dusty, bankrupt tropes.

Former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn joined former Gov. Frank Keating and former Secretary of State Larry Parman in penning a letter that landed on the desks of Gov. Mary Fallin, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and lawmakers. The trio of conservatives quoted from Ronald Reagan in warning that, “Government is the problem” and “the problem is that government spends too much,” words

they say apply directly to Oklahoma in 2017.

(The Oklahoman)

Hoary clichés, line one? Take a billion dollars out of the treasury, Saint Tom, and the problem is not that government is spending too much—it’s that its ability to function has been gutted.

Gov. Stitt, who never supported the tax increases when he was running for governor, now likes the way they look on his resume.

“For the first time in state history, we are setting back an additional savings account of $200 million without the law forcing it,” Stitt said. “This is going to allow us, at the end of the year, to have $1 billion in our savings account.” (US News)

For him to suggest, though, that any of this had to do with him or his leadership skills is truly gobsmacking.

But let’s not dwell on that.

We end today’s episode with a joke from our own Will Rogers, circa 1934.

“Money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover was an engineer. He knew that water trickled down.

Put it uphill and let it go and it will reach the driest little spot. But he didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night anyhow.”

Why bring that up now?

Because the father of supply-side economics and trickledown economics, Arthur Laffer, he of napkin fame, was just awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump.

Whether national GOP reps want to admit it, whether their brethren and sistren in Oklahoma want to admit it, their economic policy going on 40 years now was literally based on a joke.

Or maybe they knew it all along. a

TULSA’S ONLY MODERN JAZZ CLUB DuetJazz.com

UPCOMING SHOWS

downstairs

FRIDAY, JULY 26

Charlie Hunter + Lucy Woodward

An exhilarating blast of blues, soul and funk Jared Johnson July 17

July Writers’ Project Presented by the Tulsa Artist Fellowship July 18

Mike Cameron Collective Farewell Send Off July 19 + 20

Dave Meder and Michael Geib July 24

Comedy Night July 25

Charlie Hunter and Lucy Woodward July 26

Devre Jackson July 27

Janet Rutland * Ladies Night * Ladies get in free July 31

For complete citations, visit the hyperlinked version of this article at thetulsavoice.com.

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

statewide

Dreams detained ‘Real talk’ on immigration and human rights

by JESSICA VAZQUEZ

D

ani Rosales is aware she can’t fit everything there is to know about immigration in an hour and a half, but that isn’t stopping her from planning a nuanced conversation that goes beyond the headlines of the hot-button issue.

Rosales, a sociology PhD student at the University of Texas-Austin, will be the host of “Dreams Detained: Immigration & Human Rights,” a conversation on current immigration policies and the “recklessness of ICE.” The conversation will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 20 at the Woody Guthrie Center.

“I want people to feel like they have a better sense of how these policies affect vulnerable folks, and not just the vulnerable folks that are getting detained,” says Rosales who is working with the event organizer to curate the topics of discussion for the conversation.

“I want them to get a sense of how this is affecting the people who aren’t getting picked up,” she adds. “I want people to understand the families who are shutting themselves up in their homes because they are afraid to leave.”

In choosing topics, Rosales says she wants the conversation to be broad so that everyone—regardless of how much they know about the current immigration debate— feels like they can join the conversation. Potential topics range from national issues like the criminalization of migration at the southern border to local issues like the Tulsa County Sheriff’s 287(g) contract with ICE. Rosales doesn’t want to limit the conversation to policy, however. She is also interested in discussing the racialization of anti-immigrant sentiment, intersecting identities and the ideol10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Hundreds protest immigrant detention at David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center in Tulsa on June 30, 2018.

JOSEPH RUSHMORE

ogies that uphold the country’s current immigration policies.

“We have come from a previous presidential administration that did a lot of deporting of immigrants and we’re in one that continues to do so, but clearly in a different way,” Rosales says. “The rhetoric surrounding immigration and deportation have changed, so I definitely want to talk about that as well.”

The conversation will feature three guests who will engage with Rosales in an informative and lively discussion in front of a live audience. The guests include Stephanie Maldonado, senior at Holland Hall High School, Rosa Hernandez, president of Dream Alliance Oklahoma - Tulsa, and Jorge Roman-Romero, law student and co-president of the Tulsa University Immigration Law Society.

“We really want to promote the voice of brown and black people in Tulsa,” says Bracken Klar, a Tri City Collective member and the curator for the talk. “And with this specific event, we want to bring voice to

immigration as perceived by the non-majority culture.”

Maldonaldo, a lead for the Latinx Affinity Group at Holland Hall High School and guest at the upcoming conversation, says speaking out against injustice is one of the most important actions people can take.

“What’s happening down in Texas with detention centers is inhumane and they shouldn’t be called detention centers but concentration camps,” Maldonaldo says. “That is something where we all have a role—either we fight back or we stay quiet, and staying quiet is the worst thing you can do.”

Hernandez, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient and conversation guest, says she feels it is her duty to speak out for those who are unable to do so for fear of retaliation.

“As someone who was undocumented and now has the luxury of some type of protection—or whatever DACA is—I think it’s up to people like us to voice our concerns, the concerns of the real

undocumented community,” Hernandez says. “I think it’s a responsibility of mine to do that, to use the little protection I do have to be vocal.”

Roman-Romero emphasizes that migration is a human right.

He was among a group of Tulsa law students and lawyers who traveled to San Antonio to receive migrants as they were released from a nearby detention center with pending asylum cases and little information.

“This is not—or it should not—be a political issue. We’re talking about the lives of people,” Roman-Romero says.

“Dreams Detained” is the second conversation in Real Talk: Voicing the Margins, a series of curated live conversations on issues and topics of critical importance to marginalized communities.

Beyond providing a unique platform to shed light on the topic of immigration, organizers hope this conversation will spur action, as did the first conversation of the series, “Blacknificent!: Black, Queer and Okie.”

“From that conversation came the request for more ‘Blacknificent!’ events all over the city as well as an invitation to work with Denita White to develop a curriculum for Tulsa Public Schools,” says Quraysh Ali Lansana, creator of the Real Talk series, Tulsa Artist Fellow and Tri-City Collective member. “Those are the kind of amazing actions and next steps that can be born of just people getting together and talking.”

The Real Talk series is a partnership between the Woody Guthrie Center, the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Tri-City Collective and Folk Alliance International.

The third conversation in the series will discuss K-12 education and take place on Aug. 17. a July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

ALL THINGS DYLAN July 26 | 7 to 9 p.m.

Celebrate Bob Dylan, the musician, poet and artist, with our exhibition Bob Dylan: Face Value and Beyond.

The evening will include: • Whiskey tasting • Musical performances • Dylan look-alike contest Presenting Sponsor:

gilcrease.org/gah The University of Tulsa is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action institution. For EEO/AA information, contact the Office of Human Resources, 918-631-2616; for disability accommodations, contact Dr. Tawny Rigsby, 918-631-2315. TU#

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

cannaculture

Tulsa native Allison Sims is working to organize the cannabis industry. | GREG BOLLINGER

CANNABIS CO-OP Tulsa native works to connect Oklahoma’s budding industry

JOIN THE FIGHT FOR ALZHEIMER’S FIRST SURVIVOR.

At the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s®, people carry flowers representing their connection to Alzheimer’s — a disease that currently has no cure. But what if one day there was a white flower for Alzheimer’s first survivor? What if there were millions of them? Help make that beautiful day happen by joining us for the world’s largest fundraiser to fight the disease.

Register today at tulsawalk.org.

Walk to End Alzheimer’s - Tulsa Veterans Park September 21 Party starts: 7:30 am Ceremony/Walk starts: 9 am 12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

WITH THE PASSAGE OF SQ 788, A BRAND new legal cannabis market sprang into existence. This market presents many new and unexpected challenges to those who have bought in. Tulsa native Allison Sims believes that she can help solve some of those challenges.

Sims has been involved in insurance for 15 years as vice president at Mullen Benefits Inc., a company her father founded.

She was initially reluctant to let cannabis into her life. Both she and her husband had faced addiction before and were very protective of their sobriety. But when her husband was prescribed opioid painkillers for chronic pain, they changed their minds.

“We didn’t want to bring that back into our house,” Sims said. “And so we decided we had to bring cannabis in instead, and I’ve become really open minded to it.”

Now Sims believes cannabis has the potential to end the opioid crisis. She and her husband got a licence for a small grow-op, planning to sell their weed to friends who own dispensaries. But once Sims got involved, she realized Oklahoma’s new cannabis industry is too disorganized, its players too disconnected with one another. It needs, as she says, a mother’s touch.

Sims started a Facebook page, Tulsa Grower’s Society, to boost Tulsa cannabis entrepreneurs and to connect them to each other. Her ultimate goal was to start a cannabis co-op, helping businesses organize and advocate for themselves.

She thinks of it as a “cannabis chamber of commerce.”

One topic Sims is addressing with the co-op is the potential for recreational sales in Oklahoma’s future. Sims fears recreational marijuana in Oklahoma would open the market to larger companies they just can’t compete against. “I think almost every single one of the mom-and-pop shops would shutter.”

Another issue Sims hopes to address concerns how existing industries will interact with the cannabis industry. “Security people, people that do the tests, people that do the insurance, people that do the real estate—we need a spot to coordinate efforts,” Sims said.

Sims reached out to cannabis lobbyist Bud Scott and learned he founded his own cannabis lobbying group years ago, New Health Solutions Oklahoma Inc. Already 300 strong, his chamber accounts for about 5 percent of licences. Sims liked Scott and the benefits New Health offered, so she joined another group he was involved in, the Oklahoma Cannabis Industry Association (OCIA) as their Communications Director, which led to her current project: finding funding and a building for the OCIA’s first Tulsa branch. Once they’re established, Sims hopes it will be a place for cannabis entrepreneurs to meet, collaborate and host events for the public.

Sims envisions a strong community of cannabis entrepreneurs in Tulsa, well-organized and able to fully advocate for themselves. But most of all, Oklahoma’s weed industry, a baby in the entrepreneurial world, just needs a mother’s touch.

— FRASER KASTNER July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

downthehatch

From Europe with love

Wine tour brings German and Austrian specialties to Oklahoma

by GREG HORTON

T

erry Theise is one of the premiere wine selectors in the world, and his annual crop of wines from Germany and Austria typically ends up in heavy rotation at the world’s best restaurants and wine bars. Theise’s portfolio is a who’s who of Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Grüner Veltliner producers, including some of the oldest houses in central Europe.

When Thirst Wine Merchants announced Oklahoma was one of five states chosen for a U.S. tour of some of Theise’s best growers, the industry was understandably excited—and a little perplexed.

Why Oklahoma?

“We have a great relationship with the brand manager for Theise wines in the U.S.,” said Alex Kroblin, co-owner and founder of Thirst. “We can’t really take any credit for getting these wines here since he did most of the work, but we are excited that they chose Oklahoma.”

Christoper Loewen from the Carl Loewen estate was part of the tour, and he talked about moving through the U.S. and marveling at the country’s relative youth. “We were in New York City for the tour, and I saw a big banner on a store, and it said, ‘Since 1972!’” he said with a short laugh. “I’m a 14th generation winemaker, so 1972 is not so old.”

Indeed, the kind of quality that 14 generations of practice can produce is astounding, and that’s why Kroblin hopes that Oklahomans will embrace the new selections. Many are already in the state—including several selections at Ranch Acres Wine & Spirits— and even more will arrive in the next few months at Bull in the Alley, The Tavern, Vintage Wine Bar, Summit Club, Lowood and PRHYME: Downtown Steakhouse.

14 // FOOD & DRINK

Berger Grüner Vetliner, Jakob Schneider Riesling Kabinett and Dönnhoff Riesling Estate are available at Ranch Acres Wine & Spirits. | MICHELLE POLLARD

“The tour was built around wines that aren’t typically stocked in the U.S.,” Kroblin said.

“Beginning in the 1980s, Theise started reintroducing German and Austrian wines to U.S. tables; they’d been absent from the market in any meaningful way for nearly 20 years at that point. Since then, he’s helped foster the reputation for these wines—and Grower Champagnes—around the world.

This group of wines features some of the rarest and best, and I don’t mean rare and expensive.

Some are very affordable.”

The fi rst of the wines to occupy shelf space in Oklahoma was the Berger Grüner Veltliner, but in the mid-2000s, the wine tended to end up on shelves next to bulk wines. The liter size and bright green bottle were oddities in American wine shops, and so merchants didn’t always know what to do with Berger. Still, the brand stuck around because it was super affordable, with zippy acid, good fruit and solid accessibility. The descriptors are pretty typical for German and Austrian wines.

“When people try these wines, I think they’re going to discover that German wines aren’t what they think they are,” Kroblin said.

“It’s not just inexpensive, sweet Riesling. These wines are also dry, crisp and complex, and they’re made to age for a long time.”

As for Austrian wines, Kroblin said most people don’t have a fully formed idea of what an Austrian wine is, to say nothing of what they’re like.

Ludwig Hiedler is an eighth-generation winemaker from the eponymous Weingut Hiedler in Austria. His family has been the driving force behind the classification of Austrian vineyards, as well as sustainable practices throughout the region. The Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners they produce were described by Theise as “jammed with soul and personality,” and they do seem to sing with vibrancy and intensity.

If they are the apex of Austrian winemaking, then Oklahomans are in for a very pleasant surprise.

“We like stability and continuity in our wines,” Hiedler said.

“We don’t make ‘natural wine’ because we are winemakers. If you’re making natural wine, what is your actual job? We farm sustainably, and we practice minimal intervention, but our task is to intervene when necessary.”

The Hiedler wines are bright, crisp, complex, layered and still somehow approachable. The same could be said for Jakob Schneider and Ott, and for those who have never tried an Austrian red, the Glatzer Zweigelt is the perfect chillable, light red, with tart fruit and solid acid.

Kroblin believes Oklahomans are ready to embrace these rare treats from Theise’s portfolio, and it’s clear that some of Tulsa’s best restaurants and bars are on board. a July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

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FOOD & DRINK // 15

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Zach Coker, Anne Jessup and Hunter Stone Gambill put on the Drunken Spelling Bee at Local Cider & Angry Bear Mead | GREG BOLLINGER

Buzzed

Drunken Spelling Bee comes to local cidery IF YOU WERE THE SPELLING BEE champion of your middle school, it’s time to polish your trophy and dust off your dictionary for one last job: Local Cider & Angry Bear Mead’s Drunken Spelling Bee. The cider-soaked spelling throwdown takes place on July 28 at Tulsa’s new cidery and meadery on E. 7th Street. The first event on March 28 featured 14 competitors and went 11 rounds, according to Anne Jessup, the beverage manager and event coordinator for parent brand Oklahoma Distilling Co. “It was the first time I had planned something from top to bottom, so there were a few rough spots when it came to pacing,” Jessup says. Turns out it’s pretty difficult to keep 14 adults steadily drinking and competing, but host Ryan Embree took it in stride.

“I was lucky enough to have a lot of friends turn out to compete and support, and our host Ryan Embree was perfect,” Jessup said. “I think he really made the event, honestly.” With Embree slotted to emcee again, Jessup expects this event to be even better than the first.

Jessup and her crew throw in a few twists to the competition as well. “We had decided to make every sixth round a speed round, where competitors had 10 seconds to spell their word or they risked immediate elimination,” she says. “One woman forgot that information when she went up to the microphone to spell and was having a lot of fun taking her time bantering back and forth with Ryan, which was a fun thing to have to re-explain.”

If you’re looking to get a leg-up, though, you won’t find any curated spelling lists online. Jessup chooses the words by hand.

“The first list of words I made consisted of roughly 160 words, and took probably 5+ hours to put together,” she says. “I also asked a lot of my bar guests at the cidery and sat at my friends’ bars and asked them.

So if anyone reading this has had a weird, tipsy, blonde girl ask them what words they always misspell, that was probably me!”

In addition to bragging rights, all competitors will receive a participatory shot glass and spelling bee ribbon. “Between the two bees, I’ve probably logged 20+ hours of Googling and arts-and-craftsing,” Jessup says. “Shout out to Ashley Porter and Austin Ferrell for spending many of those hours with me glittering and hot gluing the dang things.”

To sign up for the July 28 bee, email Jessup at anne@okdistilling.com, and show up at 5:45 p.m. before the event for a $10 pre-game tour of the distillery and a sample swig or two. Jessup and her team make one request to participants, other than to spell their hearts out: “Please drink and spell responsibly. We just put the word ‘drunken’ to get your attention. We love drinking cider, but we love being safe more.” — TTV STAFF

DRUNKEN SPELLING BEE Sun., July 28, 6–9 p.m.

Local Cider & Angry Bear Mead 1724 E. 7th St., Suite D July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: The Lemon-Aid Project Will Celebrate 25 Years With 100 Lemonade Stands to Raise Money for the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless!

FREE LEMON-AID KITS will be made available to the first 100 volunteers who sign up to sell lemonade around Tulsa over Labor Day weekend. All money raised will benefit the Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless.

Volunteers will receive enough lemonade for 50 glasses, cups, t-shirt, poster and instruction manual.

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Arrive Early. Stay Late.

The Tulsa Arts District is home to retail and service shops, restaurants, bars, clubs, galleries, museums, parks, private businesses, residences and historic music venues. Plan to arrive early and stay late in the Tulsa Arts District!

Featuring First Friday Art Crawl

Donate your time, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit over Labor Day Weekend. Then join the 25th anniversary celebraton on Labor Day at Guthrie Green!

Sign up at thelemonaidproject.org to volunteer.

Remember: It’s Free. It’s Fun.

IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO! THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

facebook.com/TulsaArtsDistrict @TulArtsDist

#TulArtsDist

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FOOD & DRINK // 17

MY BLACK LIFE New Black Moon show explores the complicated concept of blackness

BY DAMION SHADE PHOTOS BY MAKAILA MCGONIGAL SCENES FROM MY BLACK LIFE AT TULSA ARTISTS’ COALITION GALLERY

“I AM INVISIBLE, UNDERSTAND, SIMPLY BECAUSE PEOPLE REFUSE TO SEE ME … IT IS AS THOUGH I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY MIRRORS OF HARD, DISTORTING GLASS. WHEN THEY APPROACH ME THEY SEE ONLY MY SURROUNDINGS, THEMSELVES OR FIGMENTS OF THEIR IMAGINATION, INDEED, EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING EXCEPT ME.” –Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man The first definition of the word black in the dictionary is “of the very darkest color owing to the absence of or complete absorption of light; the opposite of white.”

Synonyms for the color include words like dark, pitch black, jet black, inky, coal-black, blackish, sable, Stygian.

Somewhere, between references to Dante’s Inferno and the color of the infinite void, black people actually exist. When it comes to a personal sense of my own blackness growing up as an “articulate” kid in Jackson, Mississippi, no metaphor has ever felt more honest than the one used by Oklahoma’s own Ralph Ellison: invisibility.

18 // FEATURED

Blackness often feels like a kind of force field simultaneously obscuring me from the world while projecting identities and assumptions onto my life. Do I talk white? Am I real enough, hip-hop enough, appropriately woke? These are questions and concerns that always seemed tied to my life whether I liked it or not. Whether they fit me or not.

For the first time in my life, this unhealthy cultural dynamic seems to be changing. Beauty and the fact of our blackness have begun to share a bigger space in America. Black is sexy. Black is limitless, vulnerable and strong. Black people are reclaiming the power of their blackness and defining it for themselves.

On July 5, Black Moon, a collective of local black artists, debuted a new exhibition of works at the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition (TAC) Gallery downtown. My Black Life is dedicated to exploring the complicated concept of blackness through art and the personal stories of the artists.

Just a year into the group’s formation, Black Moon has been the subject of a national news story at NBC and been fea-

tured by numerous galleries and art spaces in Oklahoma. This collective has changed Black Moon founder Elizabeth Henley’s life in ways she could never have imagined.

“There are times when it’s really hard to balance a full-time job, being an artist, and orchestrating calls, meetings, and events,” Henley said. “I’ve been stretched in positions I’ve never thought I would have step into, like public speaking, business negotiations, and defending our artists and their work.”

For Henley, one of the most transformative aspects of the group’s rise over the past year has been belonging to a supportive community of artists with a shared vision. “We motivate, support, encourage and validate one another,” Henley said.

“I know that I wouldn’t have grown as an artist, an individual, or as a member of this community if I wasn’t around these amazing creatives who make up Black Moon.”

My Black Life showcases a diverse collection of genres. The works include textured mixed media, photography, detailed fabric work, and paintings both abstract and figurative with an emphasis on expressive

color and imagery. The show is structured like a timeline, organized around statements of each artist’s life experiences.

Each piece of art is supplemented by sentiments that reflect personal experiences involving blackness. I was told I talk like a white person and Someone asked to touch my hair appear next to the art where negative space might ordinarily exist.

Each artist’s sense of blackness is unique and deeply personal. Aundria Braggs, a Sailor Moon enthusiast and one of the collective members featured at the show, described growing up with a genuine disconnect between her personal feelings of blackness and her art.

“For a time the color of my skin had little to do with the work I created,” Braggs said. “While attending college I realized if I wanted my work to make an impact, it had to be personal. Many successful artist chose this path, and it is clear to see why. If I do not draw from my personal experience, what story can I tell?

My blackness has much to do with how the world sees me, and I want to reflect the world back on itself.”

For some members, like the photographer Nosamyrag, the questions and culture associated with blackness have July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

always provided an anchor for his work.

As a kid the sketches he drew of the mundane parts of his world—his Nike shoes with peach colored laces, his neighborhood, his favorite cartoon characters— were the foundation of his art. Later, he started to document his life in real time with a disposable camera.

“It’s hard being black as-is and sometimes, certain things is all that you have.

Photography is all that I have,” Nosamyrag said. “It gives me avenues to other things to where my thoughts and ideas are put for the public to see. It’s wild that people gravitate to it. It motivates me to take it to another level any way possible.”

The painter MOLLYWATTA reflects on the odd way media has fractured black cultural memory. Many black people who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s formed emotional attachments to television shows and movies in which people who look like them rarely appear. Her painting, A Shady-Bunch Spoof plays with this contradiction.

“The Brady Bunch opening grid [is] a strange and nostalgic image in my head,” MOLLYWATTA said. “I enjoy the idea of positively promoting blended black family, which is rarely embraced in media. My goal is to highlight the black family in modern-day.”

Some artists also expressed the question of blackness as though their blackness were a trap. It can be an emotional space that feels like quicksand where any decision makes things worse. The artist Christina Henley powerfully expresses this sentiment in her artist statement: I remember at a previous job, a White coworker commenting on my hair, and then reaching their hand towards my head.

Grabbing my hair. Fingers on my scalp and pulling my curls. Then wiped their hand on their pants and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to know how that feels.’ This was done in front of my other coworkers. They were quiet and wouldn’t look at me directly, but their faces looked worried. I just stood there and nervously laughed it off. I felt ashamed about my reaction. It was humiliating.

Christina Henley continues: “I’ve tried to be the safe black girl and woman.

Non-threatening. Trying to assimilate. Too black for some. Too white for others. How am I supposed to be comfortably myself, if I’m constantly ostracized racially? I can’t change that. I don’t want to. So be it if I fit into some stereotypes and not others.”

Several artists emphasized the aesthetic beauty of blackness and black power in both their pieces and artist statements.

Summer Washington’s pieces The Queen - Reluctant Warrior and Love in Chocolate - Snow Black both upend traditional white-centric notions of beauty.

“My objective is to showcase the beauty of the African woman within a contextual imagery typically depicted as Caucasian,” Washington said. “We are Lucy, THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

AL 288-1, our Ethiopian ancestor, the first human, the origin of this world.” Washington was inspired by the writing of the Malawian poet Upile Chisala who wrote, “I am dripping melanin and honey. I am black without apology.”

Artist Erica Martez’s work also celebrates the beauty and power of black women. Her piece, The Most Disrespected Person in America is the Black Woman, referencing a speech by Malcom X, gets to the heart of her project. Martez believes that her creative gift has given her a platform to express and bring attention to the struggles of black people both past and present.

“Black women experience many intersections of oppression including racism, sexism, colorism and many more,” Martez said. “The plight of a black woman, it’s difficult. We are told to be strong without ever given the opportunity to show our weaknesses. If we do, we are told that we are angry, loud and bitter! We are held to unrealistic standards of beauty. When we need help, we are told we are lazy and weak— so, we carry burdens that were never meant for us. I decided to highlight the definition of beauty for black women; in spite of the stereotypes we face daily. We are beautiful without qualifications or explanation. We are magic.”

Alexander Tamahn is another Black Moon artist who views his work through an anthropological lens. “Art, for me, has been the convergence of creative expression and anthropology,” he said. “I have found employing mixed media best helps me consolidate the litany of things I could say about both my subjects and audience alike. My compositions are an amalgam of the sum of my developmental experiences, my spirituality, and my evolving perspective of the society and cultures to which I belong.”

While Tamahn’s work is focused and intellectual, the emotion is profoundly visceral. Tamahn’s canvases are teeming with dense, implacable color. His painting Black Peopling features a group sitting in repose, their surroundings soaked in layers of shimmering color: gold and red and green that appear transfigured like flame.

Even the charcoal black wall behind them shimmers with texture and tiny pinholes of sparkling light.

Tamahn describes this paradoxical but lovely depiction of blackness in spiritual terms: “It is a unique privilege; an infinite ache; a resounding joy to see the world through these eyes.”

Black Moon has given new voice to an entire group of Tulsa artists. This type of community and creative freedom is one of the few sources of escape I’ve found from the sense of invisibility that often seems attached to blackness. On the group’s first anniversary, they seem collectively poised for new artistic milestones. The last year has been a wild ride, but these artists are just beginning to build their power together. a FEATURED // 19

Books and mortar A Tulsa revival reveals a layer of invisible lore

BY MARK BROWN

“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”

- Walter Benjamin, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections Idling in Brookside traffic, I found myself glaring once again at the sad facade of the Brook Restaurant and Bar, remembering fondly the patio now swallowed whole by tall panes of looking glass.

I pass by it all the time, often four times a day, but seldom ponder further than the reflection, blue-green like golf visors. But that day I channeled deeper and recalled Lewis Meyer’s bookstore, the former landmark it displaced, at the corner, flanking the Brook Theater. It was a different Brookside indeed, and a much sleepier Tulsa, the day I walked into the shop for the first time, looking to pad my home library.

Over the next four years, following the off-speed pitches of Meyer and his then bookman, Mike Vogle, I bought volumes. Thick things: Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, the Constance Garnett translation of War and Peace, The Cantos of Ezra Pound, a bunch of Michener I never read. And curiosities: The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide. I was an easy sell.

They’d give me tea and cake and I’d give them money. Money I didn’t necessarily have, credit being Monopoly money.

Later, when I got around to A Moveable Feast, a line came home to roost: 20 // FEATURED

In those days there was no money to buy books.

Books you borrowed from the rental library of Shakespeare and Company, which was the library and bookstore of Sylvia Beach at 12 rue de l’Odéon.

Reagan was in office. Why rent when you can own?

I’d go after work, pulling up along 34th Street in front of the door. Inside, I was spellbound to a century’s worth of literature dressed in slick jackets. Meyer’s shop was a bandbox, too small for loose curation. I knew every book in the place. The ones I did not own owned me.

I tried, once, in a Brook booth over a platter of nachos and a beer, to recreate the aisles, the stacks, of those days, but they were too incongruous. As were the two halves of my life, each at opposite ends, with only books between.

The city is undergoing an editorial revision. In this, the 121st anniversary edition, entire chunks of the first draft, previously abandoned, are being reclaimed for new chapters. Outdated excerpts are being rewritten, polished, targeted to a newer, broader audience. Whole scenes have been scrapped, but others shape-shift, their ghostly remnants residing in the margins, tantalizing tales told between the lines.

Certain characters, inevitably, get lost in translation.

Lewis Meyer has been called, by those who profiled him back in the day, “a small cyclone,” “the elfin man with the leprechaun smile” and “the pixie with the pointed ears.” “His words can be like shiny little knives,” one reviewer wrote before praising his candor. “Lewis Meyer is a madman,” wrote another, less a commentary on Meyer’s psyche than his energy, which was infectious.

He was enough of a novelty in 1967 to make a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the only game in town before cable and YouTube. The significance of this cannot be overestimated. Imagine Henry Primeaux on Jimmy Fallon.

Meyer hosted his own program on KOTV, Lewis Meyer’s Bookshelf, a kind of Romper Room for the bookish, from 1953 until his death in 1995. And he wrote, too: Preposterous Papa, eight editions published between 1959 and 1992, in five languages; Off the Sauce, on his alcoholic bouts; some half-dozen others.

Then there was the shop, which first appears under “Bookstores” in the 1956 edition of the Tulsa White Pages, joining scant others.

“There was no competition,” said the poet Ron Padgett.

“The other bookshops were either religious or newsstand/ soda fountains. Plus, I guess, the used book stores downtown around Archer.”

In high school, Padgett hung out in Meyer’s shop so much that he got offered a job. When he, Dick Gallup and Joe Brainard launched a literary journal, The White Dove Review, Meyer let him sell it in the shop. All five issues July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

reside in a bound volume in the special collections at the McFarlin Library at TU. “Lewis and Natasha ran a personal bookshop,” Padgett said. “It had a kind of hominess to it—including their cat, Chat. Between the two of them, Lewis and Natasha could give you a synopsis of every book in the store.”

It became personal for Padgett, too. When Meyer began selling trade paperbacks, he put the young editor in charge, allowing him to stock to his mind’s content, modernists such as Camus and Kenneth Patchen, Lorca and Baudelaire. Books, Padgett recalled, “by authors that Tulsans weren’t reading or buying.”

“Through Lewis,” he said, “I started feeling that I was part—a small one—of the literary world.”

I felt that, but from the outside looking in, a nascent itching I would scratch, always reading and sometimes dreaming, wondering how I was ever going to make time for all the tantalizing stuff crammed into the rows of shelves like Baltimore rowhouses.

Meyer moved his store in 1994 to London Square— down from the Bull and Bear, on Lewis Avenue, named for S.R. “Buck” Lewis, a lawyer, an idea that Lewis Meyer, a lawyer, would have deplored—and of course it was never the same. Out of the nest, he died a year later.

One of Meyer’s books, Pooped!, I found in downtown branch of the city-county library. “The Last Word on Sex Manuals,” the subtitle promised.

Published in 1972 by Nash Publishing of Los Angeles, it joined a wave. Sex lit was to the ’70s what celebrity cookbooks were to the aughts. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask). The Joy of Sex. The Happy Hooker. Our Bodies, Ourselves. Human Sexual Inadequacy. Deep Throat.

From Pooped!: “Take it from me, whoever advocated having sex in Jell-o was crazy. Words cannot describe the awful sensation of having all that rubbery stuff up to your chin. Irma chose lime-flavored Jell-o because I happen to be allergic to orange. Even so, in words of one syllable, I couldn’t get it up.”

The ‘70s, however revolutionary in terms of sex, may have been the beginning of the end of satire. Meyer wrote well in the form. It was in his wheelhouse, for one, but also likely because he knew that it sold. Whatever, that last line triggered a memory.

“Mark, you ever read any Hemingway?” Mike Vogle asked me one day.

I’d not—an almost unimaginable confession for those who know me.

“Read this,” he said, handing me a paperback—Scribner Vintage, with the flapper on the cover and the toro lying dead in the sand—of The Sun Also Rises. “You’ll love it. It’s about writing and drinking and fly-fishing—” “No, no, Mike,” Lewis said from his corner. “It’s about a man who can’t get it up.”

I took it home, flipped to page one, and that, as they say, was all she wrote.

This past Easter morning, with most of my coffee shops closed, I went to the one on Cherry Street. While the granola has long been baked out of Brookside, Cherry Street, with its farmers market and New Age bookstore-massage den and myriad pizza joints reeking of oregano and garlic, at least still smelled hippy.

I ordered and went to a table outside. Across the street, where a two-story house turned retail shop had been, was a hole in the ground, and a construction fence roping the perimeter. The wind, or something, kicked up, and I went to find a seat inside.

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

LEWIS MEYER | COURTESY TULSA WORLD

Waiting for my Americano, it occurred to me, as it sometimes but not always will, that I used to buy used books here, when CHOCS was First Edition, owned by the mother of a guy I used to work with on The Tulsa World copy desk. So much has changed, so many nooks abolished, so much glass case given over to desserts, that I can’t picture it anymore as the den of bookly delight it once was.

Then I noticed another change. Gone were the screen doors that used to let in the breeze and the woodsmoke from the patio chimney, replaced by steel-and-glass commercial units. I went outside and crossed the street, to look back. The facade had been painted, cleaned up, modernized. The wacky mural on the west wall, thankfully, remains untouched.

Easter Monday, back in the saddle, I Googled “Cherry Street construction” and found a line from a World story too precious to paraphrase: “Bruce G. Weber will feature an expanded selection of Rolex products. Store 5a, an upscale, preowned jewelry concept by the owners of Weber, will occupy the first floor of a new four-story building along with CycleBar, a premium indoor cycling studio.”

Four stories? On Cherry? This struck me as excessive.

Patrick Fox, of Fox Allen Realty, which recently moved its offices to 15th and Quincy from 624 Boston, the old Oklahoma Natural Gas Building, ca. 1928, occupies a one-story building on Cherry Street.

“We begged for stuff to get better here,” he said, “and I know they are when people start bitching about it.”

The renaissance of Cherry Street, if I may stretch it to that, has been years in the making. Decades, really, ever since the brewpub moved into the Lincoln School building.

Jason’s and Chimi’s followed, to anchor. But when Chipotle and others paid more than $20 a square foot for the buildout at Troost almost a decade ago, that’s when things turned.

Bruce G. Weber Precious Jewels, a presence in Utica Square since 1975, took over the not-so-old la Madeleine space. Tidy rows of Birds and Limes line the sidewalk out front. The construction up and down the street reminds me of the supersized mansions taking over neighborhoods like Bryn Mawr and that whole mile south of Edison Prep, all mahogany and gray slate and white stone.

“Keep in mind, the future doesn’t mean all old buildings are torn down and replaced with shiny new buildings,” Fox said. “Good buildings live multiple lives. It’s exactly why Cherry Street is thriving now. Because the buildings are good. The urban environment is good.”

No one thing tipped it, but Fox cites the combination of new housing north of Cherry, and thoughtful renovation of the remaining good bones.

“If a city is static, that’s bad,” he said. “You’re either a futurist, or you’re not. They’re getting nearly $30 a foot in some places on Cherry Street because the old is the future.”

What goes around.

Back in my car on Brookside—baby Riverside, but for the last three years, when it became the default rerouting for Gathering Place and the Arkansas overflowed its banks.

In the Raw, about to open on the roof of the new Vast Bank building, launched its sushi flagship in the old Dunwell Cleaners building in 1998, across 34th from Lewis Meyer’s bookstore. An irony that Lewis, I like to think, would have applauded.

A horn honked and I got back in step. A young woman stood at a crosswalk, about to take her life into her hands.

The old Ribbon, still restless, shining white like the Dover cliffs. a FEATURED // 21

TULSA’S BEST STAYCATION SPOTS B Y

22 // FEATURED

A N G E L A

E V A N S

As beleaguered Tulsans endure the oppressive conditions of a deep Oklahoma summer, the urge to escape to an exotic locale is strong. But, for most of us young-yet-responsible humans, jet-setting to a luxurious beach isn’t financially feasible. OK, so you don’t have enough moolah to go on an extravagant vacay to Iceland, but do not despair; you can still have plenty of fun exploring your own town like a tourist thanks to this handy-dandy Tulsa staycation guide.

Tulsa is flanked on all sides by world-class casinos, which means easy access to a resort-style experience is not only within reach, but also potentially lucrative. Each casino has its own flair, and its own unique nearby attractions, so it’s easy to just roll the dice and plan a long weekend or midweek jaunt that won’t break the bank.

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

staycation

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THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

PROUD RECIPIENT OF

FEATURED // 23

BUCK ATOM’S COSMIC CURIOS ON 66

TULSA ZOO

MOTHER ROAD MARKET

GET

Your local, friendly Tulsa Zoo has more than 80 acres filled with thousands of creatures from around the globe. Maybe you can’t finance that trip to Asia, but you can meet some of the endangered animals who live there in the new Lost Kingdom exhibit, which features animals like tigers and komodo dragons in a cool, cave-like (read: chilled!) setting. And don’t forget to stop by to say “happy birthday” to baby giraffe, Ohe, who turns one this month.

Down the road a bit, there is an extravagant animal of a different ilk worth visiting—the famous Blue Whale of Catoosa. Hop on Route 66 and make your way to this iconic roadside attraction to soak in a bit of history and snap some super ‘gram-able photos. Stay on the strip and cruise back down 11th Street to explore the new shops and oddities that now line the famous stretch of road, and are now conveniently located in your very own town. A few stops you won’t want to miss include Fuel 66 (drinks, food trucks, yard games) Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on 66 (art, apparel, souvenirs), and Mother Road Market (“Tulsa’s first food hall”).

24 // FEATURED

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BUCK ATOMS: VALERIE WEI-HAAS; TULSA ZOO: MICHELLE POLLARD; MOTHER ROAD MARKET: FORSYTHE CREATIVE

WILD

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

SUMMER TR AVEL

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa is the perfect spot for a staycation because they are guest-centric and offer an unforgettable experience. Between the hotel’s golf course, several restaurants, spa, live music venues, family and adults only pools, there is something for everyone at this vast hotel and casino.

Hard Rock is different because they never stop working to deliver the greatest possible experience for each and every guest. They boast over 2,400 electronic games, one of Oklahoma’s largest non-smoking sections and one of the state’s largest selections of table games.

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

If gambling isn’t your thing you can always go for a swim, visit the bar, spa, or one of the many restaurants or just relax in one of the hotel’s 454 luxurious hotel rooms.

HARD ROCK HOTEL & CASINO TULSA 777 W. CHEROKEE STREET, CATOOSA, OK 74015 (800) 760-6700 | HARDROCKCASINOTULSA.COM

FEATURED // 25

ALONG THE RIVE R

CASINOS

BURN CO

FLYING TEE

OKLAHOMA AQUARIUM

BURN CO.: MICHELLE POLLARD; FLYING TEE, AQUARIUM: VALERIE WEI-HAAS

A short jaunt down the river from River Spirit Casino Resort is The Riverwalk, a strip of restaurants and shops nestled along River Parks trails. Tulsa restaurant mainstays—like The Bramble, Burn Co. (open for dinner!), Los Cabos and Andolini’s give hungry staycationers options to satisfy any appetite.

To add some friendly competition to your itinerary, perhaps a few rounds of golf are in order—but we’re not talkin’ about your grandpa’s golf course. Flying Tee is where golf meets technology, featuring a huge driving range accessible from your own private air-conditioned bay. The cold beer and nacho cheese will flow while you explore some of the most famous courses in the world.

Even if golf isn’t your thing, Flying Tee is 53,000 square feet of entertainment options, like shuffleboard, pool and oversized yard games in their putting garden.

If crystal blue waters and beach appeal is what you’re after, the Oklahoma Aquarium is just over the bridge in Jenks. Discover funky creatures from the deep, like gelatinous disco-hued jellyfish, or get up-close-andpersonal with sea turtles, perhaps the most charming of all the sea creatures.

Or, make your way to the shark exhibit (also known as Tulsa’s most anxiety-inducing tornado shelter), a murky immersive experience where several species of these stoic eating machines patrol the waters above.

RIVER SPIRIT CASINO RESORT River Spirit is the perfect one-stop staycation that will transport you to a Caribbean cruise right from south Tulsa.

Home to the only swim-up bar in town, River Spirit’s pool resort is worth writing home about. (It’s currently closed due to the recent flooding, but is expected to open again this month.) Non-hotel guests may purchase daily pool passes, pending occupancy. Booking a room gets you wristbands to access the pool resort. Hotel guests can rent the cabanas along the poolside, and enjoy food and beverage service from Margaritaville’s Tiki Bar & Dining.

OSAGE CASINO HOTEL The Osage Casino Hotel north of downtown traffics in loc ales by the luxurious outdoor pool or hot tub. Nine Band Hotel is known for its newly-renovated hotel, complete wi phase two of hotel renovations—a new tower set to hold include freestanding tubs among other amazing amenitie

QUICK FACTS: • Six dining and drinking spots • Two casinos in one, each with a unique theme • Poker, table games and 3,000+ electric games available • Paradise Cove Theater holds 2,500+

QUICK FACTS: • Four dining and drinking spots • Casino includes table games, black jack and 1,600+ elect • No ante necessary Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday

UPCOMING SHOWS: • Tony Danza (July 19) • REO Speedwagon (July 27) • Chicago (Aug. 1)

26 // FEATURED

UPCOMING SHOWS: • The Fray (July 12) • Spin Doctors (Aug. 17)

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

TULSA BOTANIC GARDEN

BACKCOUNTRY

E X P L O R AT I O N S

BOTANIC GARDEN: EVAN TAYLOR; GILCREASE: MICHELLE POLLARD; GATHERING PLACE, CASINOS: COURTESY

GATHERING PLACE

Within the rolling hills of northwest Tulsa are hidden gems just waiting to be discovered. Taking an early morning stroll through the Tulsa Botanic Gardens can make any Tulsan feel like they’ve been transported to a fairy tale world. Lush gardens resplendent with blooms and foliage blanket the grounds and create Secret Garden-esque paths that wind lazily throughout the grounds, including a three-quarter mile trail around the lake and a 1.5-mile nature trail. Embrace your inner faerie and traipse through some of the most gorgeous gardens and whimsical sculptures Green Country has to offer.

To cool off, take your day trip indoors and pay a visit to the Gilcrease Museum— the Philbrook Museum’s brainier, less ostentatious older sibling. The museum contains a breathtaking selection of art, along with fascinating cultural and historical objects from North America. The Gilcrease is also home to the largest, most impressive collection of art of the American West, and hosts ongoing exhibits like Bob Dylan: Face Value and Beyond, currently offering visitors a sneak peek of The Bob Dylan Center’s collection.

We would be remiss if we didn’t recommend making Gathering Place a stop along the way. Tulsa’s newest and most amped-up playground is bursting with wonderland-like appeal. The park’s new restaurant venue, Vista at the Boathouse, opened its doors recently and features a beautiful menu with high-end offerings to elevate that picnic experience. Even if you’ve already made your rounds, with so much to discover, visiting GP is truly like the first time, every time. a GILCREASE MUSEUM

cal flavor. With a craft brewery on site, you can sip artisan Brewing Co. also features a full menu. The Osage Casino ith art by Osage artists. In fact, they just broke ground on 145 new rooms. Luxury loft-style suites are available and es.

tronic games

HARD ROCK HOTEL AND CASINO The Hard Rock is known for knockout shows and world-class gaming, but they also boast a huge selection of oneof-a-kind music memorabilia. The Hard Rock is home to a snazzy Elton John costume designed by Bob Mackie, the denim bra Nicki Minaj wore on her 2012 Pink Friday tour, Carrie Underwood’s custom-designed dress from her 2018 Super Bowl Performance and outfits worn by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, among many other iconic items.

The 454-room hotel tower features state-of-the-art rooms, and guests can enjoy the free shuttle to Gathering Place and the adults-only pool (don’t worry, they have a family pool too).

QUICK FACTS: • Eight dining/drinking locations, plus a buffet • Casino includes table games, poker and 2,600+ electronic games • The Joint venue holds 2,700 UPCOMING SHOWS: • Sugarland (Aug. 1) • 38 Special (Aug. 4) • Deep Purple (Sept. 21)

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

FEATURED // 27

bookworm

The poetry of life

Magic City Books celebrates Yevgeny Yevtushenko

by ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN

I

n his brightly colored suits and cloth caps, the dissident Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko was an unlikely and unmissable presence here, where he taught poetry and fi lm studies at the University of Tulsa for 25 years.

He died in 2017, leaving a massive body of work from which his son, Zhenya Yevtushenko, will read on July 18 at Magic City Books.

out of the university these days.

What do you think your father would have said about the importance of poetry in a community like ours?

ALICIA CHESSER ATKIN: What’s the occasion for the celebration?

ZHENYA YEVTUSHENKO: July 18 is my father’s birthday. For as long as I can remember he had a big poetry reading in the heart of Moscow every year as a birthday celebration, inviting friends and colleagues to share the stage with him. I was seven years old when I first read poetry with my father on his birthday. I hope to be able to recreate something like that on a smaller scale this year in Tulsa.

ATKIN: How are you choosing which poems to read?

YEVTUSHENKO: His best-known poetry will fi ll the evening, poems like “Babi Yar.” I’m also picking poems that trace my father’s literary journey through life. My aim is to bring a living biography to the stage. My dad started writing poetry when he was four, and he wrote for a modest 79 years after that, so there is plenty to choose from. Family members are also sending their recommendations from around the world. Some of the works will be read in both Russian and English, so the audience gets a sense of the musicality of the language.

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

Yevgeny Yevtushenko | COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF TULSA

ATKIN: Your father had more than a nodding acquaintance with authoritarian regimes. What do you think his response would be to America’s political situation today?

YEVTUSHENKO: During his time in the U.S., my dad had always noticed what was similar in American and Russian politics. The two countries are quite different, but regardless of who is in power the abuse of that power is very clear to see, no matter which country one observes. My father was always quick to remind me that a country’s government and her

people are two widely different things. He always held out hope that if the people spoke up and listened to each other, then even the most impossibly rigid system can better itself. He never lost his faith in hope.

ATKIN: For those like me who were his students at TU, your dad was a legend, yes, but also a terrifically generous man who served us “Russian caviar” and dared us to stand up for what we believed and to be able to argue for it. He challenged us as human beings and as students, both. There’s a lot of “job-readiness” language coming

YEVTUSHENKO: I hope he didn’t embarrass anyone in your class too much. He liked to put people out of their comfort zones.

Like many art forms, poetry does just that. Poetry challenges us, it liberates us from ourselves.

It is not just important in Tulsa or in an academic setting but in everyday life. My dad liked to say that everyone was a poet. It was the poetry of life—learning with calloused hands, open ears and eager-heartedness.

If a boy from a small provincial Siberian train junction can empathize with a 19th century American woman, an 18th century French novelist, some obscure 17th century Englishman, then his world is already so bright and rich.

As a man he would then be able to tell stories from his life, about his grandfather’s, write about his children, his failures in marriage, what outraged him, what saddened and what inspired him. All of these experiences were translated and shared in 72 languages across the world. New York City, Paris, Beijing, Tulsa, Zima Junction (my dad’s hometown), and every person in the world are all connected.

Poetry is such a powerful way to discover these connections across time and space. It is not about being job-ready, but about being life-ready. a

A CELEBRATION OF YEVGENY YEVTUSHENKO Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer St. July 18, 7–8:30 p.m., Free July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 29

litfix

FREE VERSE Poetry by incarcerated women in Oklahoma

by POETIC JUSTICE PARTICIPANTS illustrations by HANNAH BELLER

Poetic Justice offers restorative writing workshops to incarcerated women across the state of Oklahoma, with the goal of emphasizing voice, hope and the power to change. Their students learn transformational communication skills to lead restored, meaningful lives. For more information, visit poeticjustice.org. a

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

Love I have watched it recede I have reached for it I have called out to it And I cried when it vanished.

Some things never come back.

-L.W.

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

We Speak Each Other I want my home with the cypress wild Clinging to the edge of the cliffs With grief-scrabbled talons, Roots seizing stone.

The battle to survive is all.

Winds and rain come, Come hard and swift and relentless.

It’s the season for storms.

How does the cypress stand tall?

How do twisted limbs prevail?

When morning breaks --and break it shall-Will home be as I remembered?

Will the cypress ever whisper of me?

Came in with a name, Walk their halls and leave their walls, As an inmate number, a number.

You find yourself remembering just as quickly Like a social, birth date or death date.

-Jax

-B.N.

Number

———— PRESENTED BY ————

AUGUST 16 & 17 • HATBOX FIELD MUSKOGEE, OK OKBALLOONFESTIVAL.COM THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 31

litfix

WARLORDS fiction by SANDRA SOLI

T

he checker ringing up my butterfly pork chops says, “Did you know one in every twenty people is related to Genghis Khan? That guy got around, know what I mean?” I squint. Name tag says Jeffrey. He wears a star for top producer of the month.

“I like history,” offers the female sacker. “I’m going to be Sir Francis Drake next Halloween.” I tell her to be sure to find a big plume for her hat.

“What gave you that idea?” I ask.

“Oh, because on ancestry.com I found out I am related to him.”

Jeffrey grins. “Genghis Khan is better. Everybody knows who that is.”

“One in twenty, really?” I ponder this as dinner purchases ding by, thin-sliced beef, bok choy, broccoli, carrots, Asian noodles, chicken tenders, mushrooms, a bulb of garlic, green onions. A chocolate torte waits at home, laced with something memorable.

My weaponry tonight: a mighty, irresistible gourmet menu.

I used to laugh at Kevin Bacon’s assertion that if the six degrees of separation concept held true, then he had worked with every actor in Hollywood. Back in the seventies, a research study concluded that only three degrees actually were necessary in order 32 // ARTS & CULTURE

MORGAN WELCH

to connect everyone in the country, maybe all of North America.

With computer modules now in place, who knows—Washington leaks could reach every household, secrets rippling down washroom drains and across the planet. There would be no need for spies or war. With no one responsible, the buck couldn’t stop anywhere at all. Everybody would be related—a human

World Wide Web, a family that would not be a cliché.

weapon of choice,” I banter.

“An ax.”

Jeffrey scans coupons. “Genghis Khan was a rascal and progenitor of thousands, including Dostoevsky.” He rolls his eyes and R’s simultaneously as he counts out my change.

“Warlords rule.” Jeffrey winks.

“Two for dinner?”

“That explains Raskolnikov’s

Jeffrey waves me out. Exit, hopeful. a

“Yeah. Mongolian Grill, actually.”

“Good luck!”

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

OPEN NOW

RENT: SCHOOL EDITION

Theatre Tulsa July 18-21

SUMMER HEAT INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL

Choregus Productions July 25-28 EXCHANGE CHOREOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

July 26-27

MICHAEL CAVANAUGH

The Music of Elton John & Billy Joel August 1 BROWN BAG IT

Tulsa PAC Staff Revue August 7 MAMMA MIA!

Theatre Tulsa August 9 - September 1

KING OF THE BOOGIE

TULSAPAC.COM

/

918.596.7111 ALL EVENTS/DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S TO THE WINNERS MARY K AY PLACE AWARD JAMES WATTS OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE CAST OF CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION

- AMERIC AN THE ATRE CO.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION DAVID BLAKELY

- CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN AND DÉCOR RICK HARRELSON

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN GRANT GOODNER

OUTSTANDING MARKETING THE GUN SHOW

OUTSTANDING PROPERTIES LISA BERRY, JOHN CRUNCLETON III, & DAVID BLAKELY

CARLY CONKLIN

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL WORK AS YOU LIKE IT

– CIRCLE MIRROR TR ANSFORMATION

– THE GUN SHOW

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN ANNA PUHL & DAVID BLAKELY – THE GUN SHOW

OUTSTANDING COSTUME, HAIR & MAKEUP DESIGN PAULETTE RECORD & AYLIN REYES - TR ADE PRIVILEGES

– CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME – DENIM DOVES

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL WORK TRADE PRIVILEGES – DAVID BL AKELY

LAS NINAS DE LA TIERRA – SHADIA DAHL AL

– MIDWESTERN THE ATRE TROUPE

– CL ARK YOUTH THE ATRE

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION SECOND RUNNER UP: THE GREEN BOOK – THE ATRE NORTH

FIRST RUNNER UP: CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION – AMERIC AN THE ATRE COMPANY

WINNER: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME – THE ATRE TULSA

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

onstage

Exchange Choreography Festival Q&A 2018 | NATHAN HARMON

Stillness is a move

Exchange Choreography Festival sparks a dialogue on dance

by LYNDSAY KNECHT

W

hen the subject of discussion is modern dance, what is there to say? German choreographer Pina Baush was known for turning down interviews with journalists. Some of her peers assumed she could not assign language to her pieces, which engulf the viewer with the genre’s premise of experimentation.

Audiences in the 1980s watched Baush’s dancers wander across the stage with their eyes closed, knocking over tables and chairs.

Actual dogs paced through a makeshift field of flowers.

And yet the dancers knew she had words—poetry, even. Her universal prompts for the performers broke ground for each work. What do you do when you feel tender toward someone? Baush might ask to evoke feelings for improvisation. How do you behave when you’ve lost something?

At the Exchange Choreography Festival on July 26–27, the public gets a rare chance to participate in the intimate dialogue of modern dance. The event is distinct for its focus on work created outside traditional dance

34 // ARTS & CULTURE

companies, and because of the talkbacks after each performance.

Why is it so common in theater, visual art and literature to involve the public in live discussions, but not so with dance, especially modern dance?

“I think there’s this idea that modern dance is esoteric, or an art located solely in feeling or in feats of grace and strength,” says Alicia Chesser Atkin, whose piece “Wait” is staged on the first night of the festival. “It’s not. It’s something that’s built and edited and intuited and crafted with a human mind and heart, just like a painting or a play.”

Atkin came on as a curator and assistant artistic director for this festival season. She writes about dance, sometimes for this publication. So she knows to look for a series like Mondays With Merce on YouTube, in which the late Merce Cunningham reflects on movement and presides over classes in his latest years. The team behind Exchange is reaching toward what Atkin calls “dance-curious” members of the arts community in Tulsa: people who may not know who Merce Cunningham is.

“Exchange is an experience that drives me to try to make better work and I hope allows the public to have a richer understanding of what they’re seeing,” she says.

Exchange champions the idea that work really can evolve when choreographers share their process. That’s especially true when would-be collaborators are in the audience, says Rachel Johnson, executive and artistic director of the festival.

“Many dance-makers in towns along the I-35 corridor and then north in this region that come to fellowship, show work and share ideas. Many go on to make future work together that would not otherwise have the opportunity to work together,” Johnson says.

“An example of this would be the seasoned dancer/choreographer/ dance educator, Susan Douglas Roberts, who, upon attending the festival, reached out to The Bell House [Exchange’s parent non-profit] to initiate a dance collaboration that will premiere in Tulsa at the festival next year.

The other festivals that work on a similar format are in New York or

Seattle or Massachusetts and can be difficult to experience if you live far from these places.”

For the less initiated, a first entry of curiosity comes with the titles in this year’s program. Like “the sexualization of my body gave me bad posture” by Jolie Hossack, University of Tulsa. Scan the list and you’ll see a reference to the Myers Briggs personality indicator test and a stark claim to “Life and Death.”

Exchange invites others into the mysteries of modern dance which are so often related to mundanities of the physical world.

Johnson took the master choreography workshop led by Doug Varone at last year’s festival. He presented two pieces of paper to the choreographers. How might they affect two dancers in different ways?

“It was a fascinating exercise and reminded me that every decision I make does not have to be profound to be useful,” Johnson says. “Play is a very important element in creating something that can be delightful to watch.

It can even lead to the profound and beautiful.” a July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

inthestudio

Tulsa Artist Fellow Kalup Linzy | DESTINY JADE GREEN

MEET THE FELLOWS In the studio with Kalup Linzy

MEET THE FELLOWS TAKES YOU INSIDE the studios of the 2019 Tulsa Artist Fellowship recipients for a look at their life and work. Since 2015, Tulsa Artist Fellowship has recruited artists and arts workers to Tulsa, where they “have the freedom to pursue their craft while contributing to a thriving arts community.” For more information, visit tulsaartistfellowship.org.

THE TULSA VOICE: Can you tell us a little about your background and work?

KALUP LINZY: I was born in Clermont, FL, and raised in a small close-knit unincorporated community called Stuckey. I was primarily raised by my grandmother, aunts, uncles and father. My mother battled mental illness and drug addiction, so members of my family stepped in to help. As a child, soap operas were always on and relatives spoke of them as real people. They even told stories of how my great grandmother and her daughter-inlaw gathered around the radio to listen to The Guiding Light on radio 15 minutes a day … in high school, I asked my teachers if I could make video soap operas instead of writing a paper, they said yes. In graduate school, I combined elements of the soap opera with comedy, pop culture, music, personal history, video art and performance art developing what became a seminal work, Conversations Wit De Churen II: All My Churen (2005). I continued the series and it led to a substantial amount of opportunities.

TTV: How are you enjoying the life and work of a Tulsa Artist Fellow?

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

LINZY: Having the weight of housing and studio rent lifted has afforded me the time and space to refocus and shift my energy to projects that were on the back burner.

In addition, I am meeting new people and making new friends.

TTV: You’ve collaborated with artists as disparate as James Franco and Jillionaire.

Can you talk a little about those partnerships, and how the spirit of collaboration informs your work in general?

LINZY: Franco reached out to me in 2009 after attending one of my lectures. He has supported several projects of mine since then. Jillionaire is also a fan of my work, and I invited him to be a part of one of my latest projects. … Because being a visual artist can be an isolating experience, collaboration allows me to get out of my own head and consider another perspective. The majority of the time, my collaborators are on the same wavelength, and they either bring something to the work I can’t or they assist in expanding the ideas I am mining.

TTV: Any future shows or projects on the horizon you’re excited to share?

LINZY: My web series As Da Art World Might Turn, Season 3, drops later in the year. It stars Jillionaire, local artists and yours truly.

Paula Sungstrong: Legend Recordings is an EP for a deceased fictitious character I am recording with local producer Mark Kuykendall, local musician Johnny Mullenax and others. On May 8, 2020, I will be doing a performance at the Philbrook Museum. I am also in talks to do an exhibition at Liggett Studio in June 2020. Those are just a few things I am excited about! — TTV STAFF

JUNE 21-OCT. 13 Experience contemporary art from Tulsa Artist Fellows inspired by the Gilcrease collection and grounds, and by Oklahoma’s distinct history.

The University of Tulsa is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action institution.

For EEO/AA information, contact the Office of Human Resources, 918-631-2616; for disability accommodations, contact Dr. Tawny Rigsby, 918-631-2315. TU#

gilcrease.org/taf

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

dispatch

Natural state

Daytripping in Northwest Arkansas

by KIMBERLY BURK

T

here are no shortage of great day trip destinations in Oklahoma, but when was the last time you paid a visit to our neighbors to the east?

The northwest Arkansas metro area stretches from Fayetteville in the south to Bentonville in the north. The cities are connected by four-lane highways lined with name-brand hotels, restaurants and retail offerings, which makes it easy for visitors to get around town and shop for whatever they forgot to pack.

But the fun starts at the exit signs, with each city offering a scenic downtown and attractions that cover everything from the Civil War to modern art.

DAISY AIRGUN MUSEUM — ROGERS Ralphie yearned for only one thing for Christmas: the “official Red Ryder carbine action, 200shot, range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.”

Visitors to the Daisy Airgun Museum in Rogers, learn that the popular BB gun did not actually have a compass or sundial in its stock. But Daisy saved the day and made several prop versions of such a rifle for the 1983 movie, A Christmas Story.

The nonprofit museum, housed in an 1896 building in Rogers’ downtown historic district, opened in 2000 and is staffed primarily by Daisy retirees. It offers a history of air guns in general, with examples dating back to the 1600s, as well as the rather amazing story of how a metal air rifle given as a premium to Michigan windmill customers grew into the market-dominating Daisy Manufacturing Company.

The factory moved to Rogers in 1958.

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

North tower and lobby at Crystal Bridges Museum of Art (added in 2017) from the north lawn | COURTESY

THE INN AT CARNALL HALL — FAYETTEVILLE Arguably the best place to stay in Fayetteville is the Inn at Carnall Hall, a boutique hotel on the campus of the University of Arkansas.

The spacious brick building was the state’s first women’s dormitory when it opened in 1905. It later became a fraternity house, then housed university offices and classrooms. In 2001 it was spared from demolition through a public-private partnership, and the hotel opened in 2003 after a $6.3 million renovation.

There’s a wrap-around porch with access from the lounge, a fabulous restaurant and well-appointed shared spaces throughout.

The Inn is popular with Razorback fans and visiting parents, so early booking is recommended.

Not far from campus is the Clinton House Museum, where Bill and Hillary were married and set up housekeeping while they taught at the University of Arkansas. Ever the scholars, they devoted one room of their small

home to a library and another to an office. There’s a replica of Hillary’s Gunne Sax wedding gown, purchased at a department store after her mother insisted she at least make an effort to look like a traditional bride. Take the guided tour to hear the wallpaper story.

CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — BENTONVILLE Walton philanthropy is evident all across the town of Bentonville, but the high point is the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Even people who don’t consider themselves great students of art recognize such names as Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol, John Singer Sargent and Georgia O’Keeffe, and their paintings hang in the galleries that surround two spring-fed ponds on the 120acre campus.

The excellent restaurant, Eleven, is in a glass-enclosed bridge overlooking the ponds, and the gift shop features pottery and other creations by regional artists including several Oklahomans.

Admission is free except to temporary exhibits. Check the website, as the museum is closed on Tuesdays and hours vary with the seasons.

Call ahead to reserve a spot on a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright house, as capacity is limited.

Known as the Bachman-Wilson House, it was built in 1956 near the Millstone River in New Jersey and moved to Crystal Bridges in 2015 as the house was in danger of flooding.

The house is an example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, a word derived from “United States of North America” for the architecture he developed during the Great Depression to create homes within the financial reach of middle-class families.

PEA RIDGE NATIONAL MILITARY PARK Ten miles northeast of Bentonville is the Pea Ridge National Military Park, where more than 23,000 soldiers fought on March 7–8, 1862, a turning point of the war in the West.

The 4,300-acre park is one of the most intact Civil War battlefields, and the east overlook offers an unobstructed view of the level ground where the Union Army faced Confederate troops, including two regiments of Cherokee Indians, as well as the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard.

A fi lm at the visitor center provides an overview of the battle, which dashed Confederate hopes of occupying Missouri and secured Missouri for the Union.

Information markers are found at 11 stops along the seven-mile driving tour of the battlefield area. Federal trenches can still be seen on the bluff above Little Sugar Creek, the final stop on the driving tour. a July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

WE’RE GIVING AWA Y

FREE STUFF! J U LY G I V E A W AY :

TULSA FAVORITES DINING PACKAGE $200 package includes gift cards for Caz’s Chowhouse, In the Raw, Laffa and Queenie’s Cafe.

R E G IS T E R B Y JU LY 31 A T

the tu ls avo ic e .c

om

REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s eclectic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

GILCREASE AFTER HOURS: ALL THINGS DYLAN Friday, July 26, 7-9 p.m.

Gilcrease Museum, Gilcrease.org

This month, Gilcrease After Hours celebrates Bob Dylan’s life and legacy with musical performances, a whiskey tasting and a Dylan lookalike contest. The Bob Dylan: Face Value and Beyond exhibit will be open to the public during the festivities. Drop in to see some of the artists portraits and early drafts or lyrics.

COURTESY OF THE BOB DYLAN ARCHIVE

FOR WRITERS

ART TOUR

Duet will host the July Writers Project presented

by TAF and Duet on Thursday, July 18 from 6:30–8 p.m. Tulsa Artist Fellows Clemonce Heard, Rhett McNeil and Steve Bellin-Oka will read and discuss their past and current works. duetjazz.com

On July 19, Philbrook Curator Christina E. Burke leads a tour through the museum’s indigenous art to explore the humor it holds. Tricksters & Contraries Tour: Humor in Indigenous Art is $19 and begins at 7 p.m. philbrook.org.

BLUES OUTSIDE

CONCERT

Gathering Place hosts a Blues Night as part of its Concert Series on Friday, July 19 from 6:30–9:30 p.m. at the QuikTrip Great Lawn. The Seth Lee Jones Band, Tinsley Ellis, and other acts will perform. gatheringplace.org

Latrotoxxin, surrealist drummer Trevor A. Tree, and The Black Star Experience come together to create their dreamsludge minimal wave sound at PH Community House on Friday, July 19. $5, doors at 7 p.m. phcommunityhouse.com

FULL EVENTS CALENDAR: THETULSAVOICE.COM/CALENDAR 38 // ARTS & CULTURE

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS Movie Night: How to Train Your Dragon 3 presented by Cox // 7/17, Gathering Place, gatheringplace. org Food Truck Wednesday // 7/17, 7/24 Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.org Cosmic Candle Making // 7/18, Broken Arrow Library - Large Meeting Room, events.tulsalibrary.org Art Opening // MAT Graphics (AKA: Maria A Trester) will be live painting during her art opening at Heirloom., 7/19, Heirloom Rustic Ales, facebook.com Tricksters & Contraries Tour: Humor in Indigenous Art // 7/19, Philbrook, philbrook.org VALERIE WEI-HAAS

FIRST FRIDAY ART CRAWL Friday, August 2, 6-9 p.m.

The Tulsa Arts District, thetulsaartsdistrict.com

Galleries, artists, museums and more open their doors on the first Friday of each month to welcome Tulsans for free or reduced admission. You can see art exhibits, gallery openings, artist talks, dance battles, live music and much more in the Tulsa Arts District.

ON STAGE

Mary Poppins flies all the way from England on her umbrella into TCC’s VanTrease PACE from July 12–21. Don’t miss this musical event, tickets vary from $15–$50.

DANCE

In the midst of the Summer Heat International Dance Festival there lies the Exchange Choreography Festival from July 26–27. To learn more about the fest read our article on pg. 34.

ART ACTIVITY

The Tulsa Botanic Garden hosts Nature Collages on Saturday, July 20 from 10 a.m.–noon. For $8 you can create a collage or suncatcher from the flowers and leaves in the garden. Garden members and children under two are free. tulsabotanic.org MEET TIM

Tim Blake Nelson comes back to Tulsa for a meetand-greet before a screening of O Brother Where Art Thou? on the Philbrook lawn. For $75 you can have a drink with the Tulsa actor on Friday, July 26 starting at 6:30 p.m. philbrook.org THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

Home & Garden Expo of Oklahoma // 7/19-7/21, Tulsa Expo Square, coxradiotulsa.com Kendall Whittier Mercado // 7/20, Kendall Whittier District, visitkendallwhittier.com/mercado Dreams Detained: Immigration & Human Rights // 7/20, Woody Guthrie Center, facebook.com Funday Sunday // The third Sunday of every month Gilcrease offers free admission, art projects and tours!, 7/21, Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org/events

Manuel Vignoulle - M/Motions // Manueel Vignoulle defies the human body’s limits in his performance as part of the Summer Heat International Dance Festival., 7/25, John H. Williams Theatre, choregus.org Giordano Dance Chicago // This comapny brings their innovative jazz choreography to Tulsa for the Summer Heat International Dance Festival., 7/27, John H. Williams Theatre, choregus.org FLY Dance Company // 7/28, John H. Williams Theatre, choregus.org Michael Cavanaugh: The Music of Billy Joel and Elton John // 8/1, John H. Williams Theatre, tulsapac.com

COMEDY Ben Creed // 7/17-7/20, The Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com OK, so Story Slam (Animal Themed) // 7/18, IDL Ballroom, idlballroom.com Whose Line Rip Off Show // 7/19, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Lady Improv // 7/20, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Tim Gaither // 7/24-7/27, The Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

Speed Dating // For $5 you get a seat and a beer!, 7/21, Whittier Bar, facebook.com

Whose Line Rip Off Show // 7/26, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

Malicious but Delicious // This fundraiser benefitting The Nature Conservancy challenged local chefs to create delicious dishes using invasive species! 7/25, The Mansion at Woodward Park, nature.org

Busted! // 7/27, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

La Fiesta De Tulsa // 7/26, Gathering Place - QuickTrip Great Lawn, gatheringplace.org O Brother Where Art Thou? // 7/26, Philbrook, philbrook.org The Tulsa Wedding Show // 7/28, Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center, thetulsaweddingshow.com Movie Marathon: Harry Potter Birthday Bash // 7/31, Central Library, events.tulsalibrary.org Movie Night: The Secret Life of Pets // 7/31, Gathering Place - QuickTrip Great Lawn, gatheringplace.org Garden to Table Dinner // 8/1, Tulsa Botanic Garden, tulsabotanic.org

PERFORMING ARTS Rent: School Edition // 7/19-7/21, John H. Williams Theatre, tulsapac.com Snow White Variety Show // 7/197/21, Spotlight Children’s Theatre, spotlighttheatre.org

Kristin Key // 7/31-8/3, The Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Insult Attack // 8/1, Renaissance Brewing Company, facebook.com Whose Line Rip Off Show // 8/2,Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Crits & Giggles // 8/3, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

SPORTS Tulsa Drillers vs Frisco // 7/17, 7/18, ONEOK Field, milb.com Tulsa Drillers vs Midland // 7/19, 7/20, 7/21, 7/22, ONEOK Field, milb.com Tulsa Roughnecks vs LA Galaxy 2 // 7/24, ONEOK Field, roughnecksfc. com Tulsa Roughnecks vs Phoenix Rising // 7/27, ONEOK Field, roughnecksfc. com Tulsa Drillers vs NW Arkansas // 8/1, 8/2, 8/3, 8/4, ONEOK Field, milb.com Tulsa Drillers vs Springfield // 8/5, 8/6, ONEOK Field, milb.com

Shrek the Musical Jr. // 7/24-7/28, VanTrease PACE - Studio Theatre, tulsacc.edu ARTS & CULTURE // 39

musiclistings Wed // July 17 Duet Jazz – Jared Johnson – 8 p.m. – ($5) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Jerry Jacobs – 7 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Tori Ruffins Juicemaker Jam Open-Mic Jazz Blues Funk Rock – 9 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Steve Liddell – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Zene Smith Solo – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz Depot – Eicher Wednesdays – 7 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – Speedo Torpedo – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project – 8 p.m.

The Vanguard – Picturesque, Sunsleep – 8 p.m.

– ($12)

Thurs // July 18 Crow Creek Tavern – Dan Martin – 8 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Jacob Dement – 4 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – The Juice – 7 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Dewayne Bowman and Swinging West – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Patron Presents Hi-Fidelics – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Electrik Duo – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Myron Oliver – 5 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2 Legit – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – DJ Burak – 10 p.m.

The Colony – David Hernandez Happy Hour – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night – 9 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Songswappers with Jimmy Taylor The Shrine – Bart Crow – 9 p.m. – ($10) The Vanguard – Cryptic Wisdom – 8 p.m. – ($10 - $35)

Fri // July 19 1002 N. Peoria Ave. – Don’t Tell Dad 2: Graveyard Party, The Daddyo’s, Sylvia Wrath, Glacial Plains – 6 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Slaughterfest – 8 p.m. – ($8) Cain’s Ballroom – Robert Earl Keen – 6:30 p.m. – ($30 - $45) Dead Armadillo Craft Brewing – Dan Martin – 7 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Mike Cameron Collective - Farewell Send Off – 8 p.m. – ($15) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Caleb Fellenstein – 5:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ 2 Legit – 6:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Live 80 – 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Nathan Dean – 8 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Weekend Allstars – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Reccomended Dose – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Weston Horn Duo – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jason Young – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Jesse Alan – 10 p.m.

Max Retropub – Boo Ya w/ DJ Moody Mercury Lounge – Chris Welch and the Circada Killers – 10 p.m.

40 // MUSIC

PH Community House – Latrotoxxin & The Blakstar Experience, Video Nasty, Junfalls – 7 p.m. – ($5) River Spirit Casion Resort - Paradise Cove – Tony Danza – 8 p.m.

Soul City – Katy Guillen and the Drive – 9 p.m.

– ($10) Soundpony – DJ Why Not?! – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Folk Family Revival – 10 p.m. – ($5) The Hunt Club – Deacon The Rabbit Hole – The Normandys, The JuJu Beans – 8 p.m.

Sat // July 20 473 – Multiphonic Funk – 9 p.m. – ($10) Blackbird on Pearl – Brad James Band – 9 p.m.

– ($5) BOK Center – Shawn Mendes – 6:30 p.m. – ($27 - $90) Cain’s Ballroom – Parker McCollum, Grant Gilbert – 7 p.m. – ($17 - $32) Duet Jazz – Mike Cameron Collective - Farewell Send Off – 8 p.m. – ($15) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino – Paralandra – 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Barrett Lewis – 5:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ Mib – 6:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Paralandra – 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Taria Lee – 8 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Full Flava King’s – 8 p.m.

– ($7) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Dos XX Presents Ssquad Live – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Brent Giddens Band – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Maveric and Goose – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Hi-Fidelics – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Jacob Dement – 10 p.m.

Max Retropub – DJ AB Mercury Lounge – Sick Ride, Redwitch Johnny – 10 p.m.

Rabbit Hole – Koodookoo, Doctor Junior – 8 p.m.

Soul City – Blues Summer Showcase “Them Tulsa Boys” – 9 p.m. – ($15) Soundpony – Pony Disco Club – 10 p.m.

The Dixie Tavern – Oklahoma Alibi – 8 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Hosty The Rose District Farmer’s Market – Klondike5 – 8 a.m.

The Shrine – Ben Miller Band – 9 p.m. – ($10) The Taproom at Marshall Brewing – Cassie Latshaw – 12 p.m.

The Vanguard – My So Called Band – 10 p.m. – ($10) Wine Loft – Lost Dog – 8 p.m.

Wyld Hawgz – Murderous Mary, SEVERMIND – 8 p.m.

Sun // July 21 Bluestone Steakhouse – Bobby Cantrell – 6 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Effron White – 10 a.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Rod Robertson – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Chris Clark – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens – 9 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Arlo McKinley and the Lonesome Sound – 9 p.m.

The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing – 10 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Randy Crouch – 4 p.m.

The Shrine – My Posse in Effect (Beastie Boys Tribute) – 8 p.m. – ($12) The Vanguard – Omni Zero: EP Release Show with Violent Victim, Lights of Alora, The Less Fortunate, Dark Matter, S. Reidy – 6 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Ego Culture Unit D – The Electric Rag Band – 7 p.m.

Utica Square – Tulsa Playboys – 7 p.m.

Mon // July 22

473 – The David Horne Fun Fun Fun Time Show – 9 p.m.

Baby Ruth’s Sports Bar – Alan Doyle – 9 p.m.

Barkingham Palace – Pity Party, The Shame, Soaker – 9 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Kashmir – 9 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Charlie Hunter and Lucy Woodward – 8 p.m. – ($25) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Jesse Joice – 5:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ 2 Legit – 6:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – That 80’s Band – 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – David Ball – 8 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Imzadi – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Southern Shine – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Chris Clark Duo – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Weekend All Stars – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Dane Arnold – 10 p.m.

Max Retropub – Afistaface Slo Ride – Chris Hyde – 7 p.m.

Soul City – Travis. Fite Reggae Nite – 9 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – Eclectic Sounds with DJ $sir Mike – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Beach Friends, Cliffdiver, Bringer – 10 p.m.

The Hunt Club – The Lone Wild, All About a Bubble The Shrine – Chris Duarte Group – 9 p.m. – ($20) The Vanguard – An Evening with Zac Maloy and Tyson Meade – 8 p.m. – ($25 - $50) Wyld Hawgz – 1994 – 9:30 p.m.

Brady Theater – Clutch, Killswitch Engage – 6 p.m. – ($30 - 179) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jesse Weaver – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – And Then Came Humans – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Tues // July 23 473 – Singer/ Songwriter Night – 8 p.m.

Bluestone Steakhouse – Bobby Cantrell – 6 p.m.

BOK Center – Cardi B – 6 p.m. – ($86) Guthrie Green – Starlight Concert Series: “The Blue Note Sound” – 8 p.m.

Gypsy Coffee House – Open-Mic Night – 7 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz Depot – Depot Jams – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Deerpaw – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup – 10 p.m.

The Taproom at Marshall Brewing – TuesJay Night – 6 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Tuesday Bluesday – 7 p.m.

Wed // July 24 Duet Jazz – Dave Meder – 8 p.m. – ($5) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Nick Hickman – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Weston Horn Duo – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Wesley Michaels Hayes – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed – 9 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Franks & Deans – 8 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Frank and Deans – 8 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz Depot – Eicher Wednesdays – 7 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – Professor Fuzz – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project – 8 p.m.

Whitty Books – Desiring Dead Flesh, Soaker, Tom Boil – 8 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Tori Ruffins Juicemaker Jam Open-Mic Jazz Blues Funk Rock – 9 p.m.

Thurs // July 25 Cain’s Ballroom – Ashley McBryde, Lainey Wilson – 7 p.m. – ($18 - $33) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Travis Kidd – 4 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Squadlive – 7 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Jesse Keith Whitley – 8 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Patron Presents Local Sprin Trio – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Oklahoma Alibi – 5 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – TC Love & OK Alibi – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Steve Liddell – 5 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2 Legit – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – Bodeen – 10 p.m.

The Colony – David Hernandez Happy Hour – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night – 9 p.m.

The Compound – XII Minutes, Chaotic Resemblance, The Protest – 6 p.m.

Fri // July 26

Sat // July 27 Blackbird on Pearl – Mike Hosty – 9 p.m. – ($5) Duet Jazz – Devre Jackson – 8 p.m. – ($12) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Weston Horn – 5:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – DJ Mib – 6:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Time Machine – 9 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – James Rogers – 8 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Reggae, Afro Beatz, Soca – 8 p.m. – ($8) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Doctors of Replay – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – House Party – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Local Spin – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Radio Nation – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Ayngel & John – 10 p.m.

Max Retropub – DJ Ali Shaw River Spirit Casion Resort - Paradise Cove – REO Speedwagon – 8 p.m.

Soundpony – Pleasuredome – 10 p.m.

Studio 308 – The Retro Rockets July Jukebox Jump & Jive – 8 p.m. – ($15) The Colony – The Imaginaries ft. Giakob Lee – 10 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Tripsitters – 10 p.m.

The Shrine – SRV Tribute – 9 p.m. – ($10) The Vanguard – Guys on a Bus – 8 p.m. – ($10)

July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Sun // July 28

Fri // Aug 2

Bluestone Steakhouse – Bobby Cantrell – 6 p.m.

Guthrie Green – Sunday Concert Series – 2:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – Marshall Tucker Band – 6 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – Stonehorse – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Franklin Birt – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens – 9 p.m.

The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing – 10 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Leon Rollerson – 8 p.m. – ($12) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Stars – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Electrik Duo – 6 p.m.

Max Retropub – DJ Jeffee Fresh Mercury Lounge – Dylan Stewart – 10 p.m.

Soundpony – DJ Why Not?! – 10 p.m.

The Hunt Club – November – 9 p.m.

Mon // July 29 Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jesse Weaver – 9 p.m.

The Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Sat // Aug 3 Cherry Street Farmer’s Market – Klondike5 – 8 a.m.

Crow Creek Tavern – Vintage Five Band – 9:15 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Olivia Duhon – 8 p.m. – ($12) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Rockfisch – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Brent Giddens Trio – 6 p.m.

Max Retropub – DJ Ali Shaw Mercury Lounge – Ester Drang, Lord Buffalo, AMP – 10 p.m.

Soul City – The Grits – 9 p.m. – ($10) The Colony – Golden Ones – 10 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Doc Fell and Co. The Vanguard – Greenhouse V3, Rosegold, St. Domonick, Outline in Color, Cliffdiver, Yung Trunkz – 8 p.m. – ($10)

Sun // Aug 4 Bad Ass Renee’s – Fools’ Brew, What Lies Ahead, Gadgets Sons, Had Enough – 6 p.m. – ($10) Guthrie Green – Sunday Concert Series – 2:30 p.m.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – 38 Special – 8 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Dave Kay – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – The Rainbow Treatment – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing – 10 p.m.

Mon // Aug 5 Soundpony – GÜRSCHACH – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Tues // Aug 6 Bad Ass Renee’s – The Heroine – 8 p.m.

Bluestone Steakhouse – Bobby Cantrell – 6 p.m.

Gypsy Coffee House – Open-Mic Night – 7 p.m.

The Colony – Deerpaw – 6 p.m.

The Taproom at Marshall Brewing – TuesJay Night – 6 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Tuesday Bluesday – 7 p.m.

Tues // July 30 473 – Singer/ Songwriter Night – 8 p.m.

Bluestone Steakhouse – Bobby Cantrell – 6 p.m.

Gypsy Coffee House – Open-Mic Night – 7 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Jrod the Problem, Technition – 8 p.m. – ($7) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz Depot – Depot Jams – 6 p.m.

Rabbit Hole – MDC, Verbal Abuse, The Elected Officials, Amenaza – 8 p.m. – ($10) The Colony – Deerpaw – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup – 10 p.m.

The Taproom at Marshall Brewing – TuesJay Night – 6 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Tuesday Bluesday – 7 p.m.

Wed // July 31 Bad Ass Renee’s – Motive, Esc Ctrl, Seven Deadly Sins – 9 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – The Dead South, Wood & Wire, The Hooten Hallers – 6:30 p.m. – ($22 - $37) Duet Jazz – Janet Rutland – 7 p.m. – ($10) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Track 5. – James Muns – 7 p.m.

Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Usual Suspects Duo – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Jenks – Scott Pendergrass – 6 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame Jazz Depot – Eicher Wednesdays – 7 p.m. – ($10) Slo Ride – Chris Hyde – 6:30 p.m.

The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project – 8 p.m.

The Vanguard – Alex Di Leo, Cody Lovaas – 8 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Tori Ruffins Juicemaker Jam Open-Mic Jazz Blues Funk Rock – 9 p.m.

Thurs // Aug 1 Duet Jazz – Rachel Bachman - Chamber Quartet – 8 p.m. – ($5) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – SugarLand – 8 p.m. – ($80 - $100) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Patron Presents Hi-Fidelics – 6 p.m.

Los Cabos - Owasso – Steve Liddell – 5 p.m.

River Spirit Casion Resort - Paradise Cove – Chicago – 8 p.m.

Soundpony – After Judo, Old News – 10 p.m.

The Colony – David Hernandez Happy Hour – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night – 9 p.m.

The Marquee – Jamestown Revival – 4 p.m.

The Shrine – Ward Davis – 8:15 p.m. – ($20) The Vanguard – Jamestown Revival – 8 p.m. – ($17) Tulsa Performing Arts Center – Michael Cavanaugh – 6 p.m.

Utica Square – Red Dirt Rangers – 7 p.m.

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

MUSIC // 41

musicnotes

Youth in revolt Local teens organize festival to showcase non-binary and women artists

by KYRA BRUCE

T

oday’s teenagers are poised for a rotten inheritance: an escalating student loan crisis, stagnant wages and a dying planet, to name just a few. But this bleak reality hasn’t stopped a group of local 2019 high school grads from banding together to celebrate the fi ner things. The result is the second-annual Don’t Tell Dad festival—a two-day music and art show featuring local art and a line-up of exclusively non-binary and women-fronted bands.

“Don’t Tell Dad is a way for kids—well I guess we’re practically adults at this point [laughs]—but like young artists to come together in a collective process and express themselves,” said Dax Dyson, one of the event’s organizers.

The young art collective launched the festival last year as a way for the then-high schoolers to show their art in a more professional way. The fi rst year went so well, they are back again.

“I feel like right when the show ended, we were like, ‘We’re defi nitely doing this again next year,’” Dyson said. “It actually turned out to be way bigger than we thought it would be.

Throughout the day we probably had like 150 people that came out, and this year hopefully we’ll have even more.”

This year’s Don’t Tell Dad will be bigger and better with more immersive art, the Waffle That food truck, an extra day and more music. The event’s seven recentlygraduated organizers have spent months collaborating on ideas for the show, booking bands and creating the immersive artwork.

“This year we wanted it to be more installation-based,” said organizer Charlotte Bumgarner.

42 // MUSIC

Don’t Tell Dad, a two-day music and art show, features a lineup of all female and non-binary artists.

HANNAH ESCHE

“We were inspired by The Experience at ahha to have different rooms with different colors and themes.”

Of course, with any DIY venture, the planning includes a healthy amount of improvisation.

“We’re kind of just making it up as we go,” Bumgarner said. “This is kind of a new thing for all of us but we trust each other as artists and our vision, so we know it’s gonna be cool. We’re just getting there slowly but surely.”

Bumgarner booked the bands for both nights of the show with the goal of showcasing only non-binary and women artists whose work is so often overlooked. “We thought it was important that we had a message and we weren’t just booking random bands. It’s good to have

intention behind it. I think it will be one of the only shows like this for a really long time,” she said.

Bumgarner plays in the band Graveyard Party, who will kick things off on Friday night, and she is also a solo artist. She knows first-hand how hard it can be as the only woman performing at a show or festival, and she wanted this one to be different.

“I have defi nitely felt really isolated in the scene … and I wanted to put something together like this, knowing that those were the voices being heard,” Bumgarner said. “I’ve never been so excited for a show.

I even played last year, but we didn’t have this theme of non-binary and female-led bands just because it was so hard to try to do that. I played solo and that is

such a scary thing. But this year is gonna be so different.”

Another change coming this year is sponsorship from the Tulsa American Film Festival (TAFF).

The planning committee originally started with a GoFundMe. “Because, like, we’re kids—we don’t have money,” Bumgarner said. “Dax’s dad has some connections, which is ironic because it’s called Don’t Tell Dad [laughs] but he really wanted to help us make this cool.”

TAFF offered valuable financial help to these artists trying to get their work seen. “I feel like it brings another crowd out too, like everyone who is familiar with them will see the logo and be like, ‘Oh cool, let’s check that out,’” Dyson said.

If live music, immersive art installations, live painting and supporting young local artists sounds like your idea of a killer weekend, Dyson urges you to come out. “Show some support for creatives in the community and just see what the community has to offer because I feel like this is giving an outlet for hidden talent to show itself to Tulsa.” a

Don’t Tell Dad 1002 N. Peoria Ave. Doors: 6 p.m. / Show: 7 p.m.

All ages, free Fri. July 19 Graveyard Party The Daddyo’s Sylvia Wrath Glacial Plains Sat. July 20 Alexis Onyango Space Horse Ramona & The Phantoms LCG and the X July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

popradar

Devil in the details

Los Espookys brings gothic absurdity to your summer television lineup

by ALEXANDRA ROBINSON

“I

t’s too big for my little hand,” Andrés says. It’s a languid protest from a slight, blue-haired man whose air of disinterest is palpable after receiving a fl ippant but aggressive proposal of marriage and a huge, ridiculous gemstone ring from his insufferable boyfriend, Juan Carlos.

“Okay, then you’re gonna have to make a little fist at all times,” his boyfriend earnestly responds.

It is exactly this brand of deadpan absurdity that makes HBO’s Los Espookys so worth your time this summer. There are many TV shows vying for your long July evenings, but I’m not here to interrupt your Stranger Things season three bender. All I ask is you make space in your hearts, minds and TV queues for this weird, delightful, disarmingly absurd show.

Created by and starring Ana Fabrega, Fred Armisen, and the other-worldly Julio Torres, Los Espookys is all at once familiar but not, an alternate reality that is only slightly out of alignment with the one we live in. Tonally, this bilingual pièce de résitance lands somewhere at the cross-section of a Spanish-language Twin Peaks and an inside-out Scooby Doo —a combination you didn’t know you needed.

The show follows the self-proclaimed “Los Espookys,” a group of young goth-tinged misfits living in an anonymous but essentially Latin American city as they set out to begin their peculiar business: manufacturing horror for an odd set of clients. In the show’s pilot, the group is called to their first assignment by local

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

Los Espookys | COURTESY HBO

priest Father Francesco, who has a big problem—the convent’s new glossy-lipped priest is so pious, young and hot that he’s stealing Francesco’s priestly prowess.

There’s only one way to solve this: Los Espookys must help Father Francesco stage an exorcism of a demon-possessed orphan to prove he’s still got it.

Fortunately for Father Francesco, the group is up to this task and the exceedingly weird ones that follow in the show’s six-episode arch. Leader Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco) is a man of one mind, obsessed with his identity as a manufacturer and connoisseur of horror. Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) is the straight-shooting dental assistant who takes no shit and always gets paid. Her younger sister, Tati (Ana Fabrega), is brought in as the group’s wild card, often tak-

ing on the role of dead-eyed stunt dummy.

However, it is Julio Torres’ presence that makes Los Espookys a delicious experience for those of us who delight in a very specific brand of nonchalant surreal humor. Torres is the cerulean-haired, impeccably dressed space prince of my dreams as the adopted-heir-to-a-chocolate-empire Andrés. The show spins an ever-more complex and ridiculous backstory for Andrés throughout its six episodes. Affl icted with ennui and saddled with aforementioned terrible boyfriend Juan Carlos, Andrés is plagued by the mystery of his own life circumstances: Does he really belong in the chocolate business? Will he ever know who left him at the orphanage? Can he make peace with the parasitic demon who lives inside him and knows all the

secrets of his past but won’t lend him the answers until he watches the movie The King’s Speech?

The show‘s biggest success is its employment of small and inconsequential detail to manipulate tone within the structure of the magical world the writers have created. When Andrés attempts to coax the story of his adoption from the nun at the convent where he was left as a baby, the nun waxes poetic in a dramatically moody montage that ultimately offers our chocolate prince no helpful information. Andrés’ response is flat and unaffected: “This brings no clarity or further insight into my past, but thank you for the beautiful flashback.”

Bilingual and Latinx-centered, Los Espookys is a breath of fresh air. This show isn’t meant for only an audience of Spanish speakers, but also proves a Spanish-language show can be just as appealing to a so-called “mainstream” audience of English-speaking HBO subscribers. In doing so, the show both centers Latinx actors and stories in a way that is much needed while respecting its English-speaking viewers’ intelligence enough not to dumb itself down (stop looking at Instagram, you have subtitles to read).

Though the final episode of the first season has yet to be released, it’s clear that the writers have spun many complex and ridiculous threads into a satisfying tapestry on July 19. A series about horror that is never scary, Los Espookys’ devil is in the details; it’s a show that takes time to linger on the absurd, with a comic mastery that requires no translation. a FILM & TV // 43

onscreen

THE BORING KING Jessie Buckley in Wild Rose | COURTESY

The Lion King | COURTESY

The latest ‘live-action’ remake of a Disney animated classic is a low-hanging cash grab IT’S A BLEAK ERA IN AMERICAN CINEMA when Walt Disney Studios, the world’s largest, wealthiest entertainment conglomerate, even after accumulating more than 2 billion dollars in box office receipts this year—and that’s just from Avengers: Endgame—continues to raid the tomb (“vault”) of its pre-existing animated classics rather than throwing money at original animated stories. Yet, this is where we find ourselves in 2019 as we plop down in our overpriced, reclining seats to catch Disney’s latest “live-action” update to the 1994 animated classic, The Lion King, opening this Friday.

One would think, much like the updating of a favorite classic song by a fresh, new artist, they would allow for a re-imagining of the source material. But 2019’s The Lion King, much like Smash Mouth’s cover of War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” is a soulless, capitalist cash grab by Disney to curry favor with ‘90s nostalgists while giving their children something to look upon agog in hopes it’ll keep them entertained for a couple hours.

Trust me, dear reader, when I say there are only a miniscule handful of new and original shots in this film. Understand that I am not overexaggerating when I tell you that this Lion King is a near shot-for-shot remake of the animated film. Directed by John Favreau, responsible for other Disney classics like Cowboys & Aliens and the first two Iron Man films, he shepherded another Disney live action remake The Jungle Book to almost a billion dollars. This go-round, his role as director seems more like supervising this IP refresh than lending anything close to an auteurist’s update.

The idea of re-creating the classic Disney film with VR-augmented cinematog44 // FILM & TV

raphy and photorealistic updates to characters like Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumba and more sounded very enticing when the film was announced. And with an inspired cast of some of the most popular actors, comedians and musicians—like Donald Glover, Beyonce and Chiwetol Ejiofor— seemed an inspired refresh to the classic animated film.

What audiences will endure is nothing more than a near-two hour episode of “Planet Earth,” Serengeti edition, featuring a new cast of famous people reading lines, verbatim, from the original script with the occasional flourish of genuine humor.

And what of the craft on display in this update. Does it elevate the hero’s journey Simba faces or reimagine everything the sun touches in the original, a world that was so gorgeously rendered in saturated, Lisa Frank-style colors? This Lion King doesn’t so much as elevate Simba’s journey as it trudges through it; and it doesn’t reimagine the world as much as it drains any sign of life and color from the original, replacing it with a color palette that seems more inspired by a desaturated beige-wasteland. The only real moments of genuine surprise and laughter comes from the comedic banter between Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as the new meerkat and warthog ride-or-die duo, Timon and Pumba.

This new Lion King is a tepid, cynical cash grab from the mouse house. Its inevitable box-office success will undoubtedly ensure the carcasses of many of our favorite animated Disney characters to be re-animated, literally, and paraded around in the newest “Live-Action,” VR-fueled, IP-controlled hellscape that is our modern American cinema. — CHARLES ELMORE

A STAR IS BORN

Brit drama about singer pursuing her dream pulls no punches WILD ROSE NEVER FLINCHES IN ITS depiction of a self-destructive singer, yet it has us rooting for her every step of the way.

That stark contrast upends genre clichés and gloriously transforms them through an emotional gauntlet.

Infusing a “follow your dreams” template with uncompromising realism, Wild Rose is equal parts inspirational journey and cautionary tale. Rose-Lynn Harlan, a young woman in Glasgow, U.K., has just been released from jail after serving a drug trafficking sentence. She wants nothing more than to leave Britain, set out for Nashville, and become a country star.

Rose isn’t fooling herself. Her gifts are obvious, as is her irresistible charisma.

But the spirit that drives her raucous Janis Joplin style may lead to self-sabotage. Rose can’t even adhere to the most basic forms of adult responsibility. As one local bartender tells her, Rose is her own worst enemy.

What unfolds is an underdog story where the biggest odds stacked against Rose are the one’s she’s stacked against herself. Two of those odds—a young daughter and son—could also be her greatest joys, unless she allows her personal ambitions to abandon them.

Director Tom Harper (Peaky Blinders) and screenwriter Nicole Taylor complicate the standard dream-chasing plot beats by checking them with responsibilities that dreams often want to run from. That not only includes Rose’s children but also her mother Marion (Julie Walters, Harry Potter’s Mrs. Weasley) who’s been raising them, and Susannah (Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda), a potentially wealthy benefactor that Rose isn’t being honest with.

Newcomer Jessie Buckley (TV’s Chernobyl and Taboo) is an absolute pow-

erhouse, showcasing a virtuoso display of talent, and performing rowdy original songs with a magnetism that could land her on the country charts. Compellingly flawed, Rose is selfish but not heartless, and being able to make both things be true (especially as they collide in a guilt-ridden crescendo) is vital to making the whole movie resonate.

Okonedo embodies the faith and hope we have for Rose while Walters vents our frustrations by pointedly articulating them.

Buckley and Walters should be bound for Oscar nominations.

Wild Rose doesn’t question or marginalize aspirations; if anything, it celebrates the passion that fuels them. But it also rightly prioritizes them. Passion isn’t enough, and it can be damaging if unbridled. Rose has the necessary talent and drive to go far but her lack of discipline could easily undercut her dreams, all while hurting the people who are most important to her.

Wild Rose may not break new ground or reinvent many wheels, but it drives a familiar formula in different, unexpected directions. Along the way it packs a raw heartrending verisimilitude, one rooted in the need to face (and make) life’s most important decisions, compromises, and sacrifices.

Owning up to your responsibilities may still lead you to your dreams, or it may reshape them into something you never thought could be rewarding. Or, truth be told, it could actually close the door on them forever. Wild Rose doesn’t wilt into an easy, affirming arc of wish fulfillment.

It tells a tale that morally defies our YOLO culture, credibly showing that there’s no point in living the dream if you can’t live with yourself. — JEFF HUSTON July 17 – August 6, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

The Last Black Man in San Francisco COURTESY

O Lord…

You are the fountain of life.

July 21 Bible Lesson: Life July 28 Bible Lesson: Truth

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST 924 S. Boulder Church & Sunday School • 10:30am Wednesday Meeting • 6:00pm Reading Room • One hour after services

The best of Tulsa:

A BRIEF RUNDOWN OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE CIRCLE CINEMA

NEW CURRENT RELEASES WILD ROSE Jessie Buckley gives a star-making turn as talented country singer from Glasgow, U.K. Her dreams of making it big in Nashville may be undercut by her selfdestructive life choices. Julie Walters co-stars in this criticallyacclaimed music drama. Rated R. THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO Director Joe Talbout and writer/actor Jimmie Fails craft a poignant modern-day portrait of race and class inequality in modern day San Francisco. This directorial debut opened to critical raves at the Sundance Film Festival. Rated R.

OPENING JULY 19 THE FALL OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE Acclaimed French-Canadian writer/director Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions, Jesus of Montreal) returns with this darkly comic thriller of a man who finds himself caught between criminals and cops in the wake of a major crime. Rated R. THE LAST Multiple generations of one Jewish family must come to terms with a stunning revelation from their 92-year-old matriarch about her life during World War II. Not Rated. (Special event Skype Q&A with director Jeff Lipsky following the 2 p.m. showing on Sun., July 21.)

THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

SPECIAL EVENTS HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD Summer Kids Film Series matinee presentation of the third and final chapter in this popular animated series. Free.

(Thurs., July 18, 1:30 p.m.)

Tulsa’s independent and non-profit art-house theatre, showing independent, foreign, and documentary films.

music, arts, dining, news, things to do, and more.

Come find out what ’s happening.

THE LEGO MOVIE 2 Summer Kids Film Series matinee presentation of the popular animated film. Free.

(Thurs., July 25, 1:30 p.m.)

NT LIVE: THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Academy and Tony Award winning director Sam Mendes directs this London stage production of a story told in three parts, about a family and a company that changed the world, and the rise and fall of their banking empire. Tickets $15. Pre-show trivia and prizes with Nick Cains starts at 6 p.m. (Thurs., July 25, 7 p.m.)

THE HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN THE WALLS Summer Kids Film Series matinee presentation, based on the popular scary kids novel starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett.

Free. (Thurs., Aug. 1, 1:30 p.m.)

GRATEFUL DEAD MEET-UP 2019 The 9th annual presentation of the concert film event, screened on Jerry Garcia’s birthday. Tickets $12.50. (Thurs., Aug. 1, 7 p.m.)

PRESENTED BY

A TODA MAQUINA (1951) A classic action-comedy-thriller from Mexico’s cinematic golden age.

Presented by Cine de Oro. Free.

(Tues., Aug. 6, 7 p.m.)

FILM & TV // 45

free will astrology

by ROB BREZSNY

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): What would you say if I asked you to tell me who you truly are? I wouldn’t want to hear so much about your titles and awards. I’d be curious about your sacred mysteries, not your literal history.

I’d want to know the treasured secrets you talk about with yourself before you fall asleep. I’d ask you to sing the songs you love and describe the allies who make you feel real. I’d urge you to riff on the future possibilities that both scare you and thrill you. What else? What are some other ways you might show me core truths about your irrepressible soul? Now is a good time to meditate on these riddles.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Isaac Asimov wrote a science fiction story about a physicist who masters time travel and summons William Shakespeare into the present time. The Bard enrolls in a night school class about his own plays—and proceeds to flunk the course. Modern ideas and modes of discourse are simply too disorienting to him. He is unable to grasp the theories that centuries’ worth of critics have developed about his work. With this as a cautionary tale, I invite you to time-travel not four centuries into the future, but just ten years. From that vantage point, look back at the life you’re living now. How would you evaluate and understand it? Do you have any constructive criticism to offer? Any insights that could help you plan better for your long-term future?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to buy yourself toys, change your image for no rational reason, and indulge in an interesting pleasure that you have been denying yourself for no good reason. In addition, I hope you will engage in at least two heart-to-heart talks with yourself, preferably using funny voices and comical body language. You could also align yourself gracefully with cosmic rhythms by dancing more than usual, and by goofing off more than usual, and by wandering in the wilderness and seeking to recapture your lost innocence more than usual.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Although you’ll never find an advertisement for Toyota or Coca Cola or Apple within my horoscope column, you will find hype for spiritual commodities like creativity, love, and freedom. Like everyone else, I’m a huckster. My flackery may be more ethical and uplifting than others’, but the fact is that I still try to persuade you to “buy” my ideas. The moral of the story: Everyone, even the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, is selling something. I hope that what I’m saying here purges any reluctance you might have about presenting yourself and your ideas in the most favorable light. It’s high time for you to hone your sales pitch; to explain why your approach to life is so wise; to be a forceful spokesperson and role model for the values you hold dear.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are growing almost too fast, but that won’t necessarily be a problem—as long as you don’t expect everyone around you to grow as fast as you. I suspect that you also know almost too much—but I don’t anticipate that will spawn envy and resistance as long as you cultivate a bit of humility.

I have an additional duty to report that you’re on the verge of being too attractive for your own good—although you have not yet actually reached the tipping point, so maybe your hyper-attractiveness will serve you rather than undermine you. In conclusion, Scorpio, I invite you to celebrate your abundance, but don’t flaunt it.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The snow leopards of Central Asia crave a lot of room to wander. Zoologists say that each male prefers its territory to be about 84 square miles, and each female likes to have 44 square miles. I don’t think you’ll require quite that vast a turf in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. But on the other hand, it will be important not to underestimate the spaciousness you’ll need in order to thrive.

Give yourself permission to be expansive.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “I want to do things so wild with you that I don’t know how to say them.” Author Anaïs Nin wrote that in a letter to her Capricorn lover Henry Miller. Is there anyone you could or should or want to say something like that? If your answer is yes, now is a good time to be so candid and bold. If

Place the numbers 1 through 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once.

NOVICE

the answer is no, now would be a good time to scout around for a person to whom you could or should or want to say such a thing. And if you’d like to throw in a bit more enticement, here’s another seductive lyric from Anaïs: “Only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Did you hear the story about the California mom who started a series of forest fires so as to boost her son’s career as a firefighter? She is an apt role model for behavior you should diligently avoid in the coming weeks. It’s unwise and unprofitable for you and yours to stir up a certain kind of trouble simply because it’s trouble that you and yours have become skilled at solving. So how should you use your problem-solving energy, which I suspect will be at a peak? I suggest you go hunting for some very interesting and potentially productive trouble that you haven’t wrangled with before—some rousing challenge that will make you even smarter than you already are.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The heroine of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is curious, adventurous, and brave. First she follows a well-dressed rabbit down a rabbit hole into an alternate universe. Later she slips through a mirror into yet another parallel reality. Both times, with great composure, she navigates her way through many odd, paranormal, and unpredictable events. She enjoys herself immensely as she deals with a series of unusual characters and unfamiliar situations.

I’m going to speculate that Alice is a Pisces. Are you ready for your very own Alice-in-Wonderland phase? Here it comes!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): An Aries reader sent me a boisterous email. “I was afraid I was getting too bogged down by my duties,” he said, “ too hypnotized by routine, too serious about my problems. So I took drastic action.” He then described the ways he broke out of his slump.

Here’s an excerpt: “I gave laughing lessons to a cat. I ate a spider. I conducted a sneezing contest. I smashed an alarm clock with a hammer. Whenever an elderly woman walked by, I called out ‘Hail to the Queen!’ and did a backflip. I gave names to my spoon (Hortense), the table (Beatrice), a fly that was buzzing around (Fallon), and a toothpick (Arturo).” According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Aries, you’d be wise to stage a comparable uprising.

MASTER

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Welcome home, homegirls and homeboys. After observing all your homesteading in homes away from home, I’m pleased to see you getting curious about the real home brew again. I wonder how many times I’ll say the word “home” before you register the message that it’s high time for you to home in on some homemade, homegrown homework? Now here’s a special note to any of you who may be feeling psychologically homeless or exiled from your spiritual home: the coming weeks will be a favorable time to address that ache and remedy that problem.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The world is full of eternally restless people who seethe with confused desires they don’t understand. Fueled by such unfathomable urges, they are driven in unknown directions to accomplish fuzzy goals.

They may be obsessed in ways that make them appear to be highly focused, but the objects of their obsession are impossible to attain or unite with. Those objects don’t truly exist!

I have described this phenomenon in detail, Gemini, because the coming months will offer you all the help and support you could ever need to make sure you’re forever free of any inclination to be like that.

Name something you could change about yourself that might enhance your love life. t h i s w e e k ’ s h o m e w o r k // T E S T I F Y AT F R E E W I L L A S T R O L O G Y. C O M .

46 // ETC.

July 17 – August 6, 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

Look at beautiful BONNIE’s luscious coat!

She came to SPCA very matted on her back end.

Now she’s back to normal, but her adopters need to understand the commitment to maintaining her gorgeous coat will take some effort on their part—but this sweet girl is worth it!

ACROSS 1 Overgrown 6 Went for enthusiastically 13 African antelopes 19 Composer Morricone 20 “Sweet Child O’ Mine” vocalist 21 50/50 wager 22 “Lethal Weapon” or “Rush Hour” (first word) 24 Folgers alternative 25 UCSD athlete (Neptune) 26 Back muscle, familiarly 27 Woodworking tools 29 Chucklehead 30 Kill, as a bill 31 Folk hero Daniel 33 Queen dowager of Jordan 34 Eighth letter 36 Actress Rachel of “Spotlight” 38 Quick chess game ending (last word) 40 Domicile 44 ___ center 45 Boost 47 Styx ferryman (Pluto) 48 Thin 50 Karaoke need 51 Dumpster smell 52 2000 stoner film (first word) 58 Sign of joy or sadness 61 Perlman of “Cheers” (Saturn) 62 Antsy 63 Chemical bond former 65 Arduous journey 67 One may ring or have a ring 68 Horace, for one 69 Lawn figure 70 See 6-Down

LUCK was brought in with several of his siblings.

He and his sister Clover would love to be adopted together. Sweet boy Luck is about 3 months old and has been spayed, vaccinated, microchipped, and tested for FeLV/FIV (negative). You can meet him in our Kitten Colony Room at Tulsa SPCA!

71 “Star Trek” helmsman 73 Corn ___ (Southern bread) 74 Job with wrinkles?

75 Far from ruddy 76 Match up 78 Brit’s “Good job!” (last word) 81 Princes, e.g.

83 Multinational financial corp.

84 Italia’s continent (Jupiter) 85 Blazing 88 Popular show recorder 90 JFK overseer 93 Did an outdoor chore 94 His face appears on many masks (first word) 96 Steering wheel attachment 99 The Little Mermaid (Uranus) 100 “La ___ Bonita” (Madonna hit) 102 Financial guru Suze 103 Adages 107 End of many hotel names 108 Perfume oil from petals 109 Part of TNT 110 Martial art with slow movements 112 Free app that frequently prompts you to pay 115 New York Times headline from 50 years ago on 7/21/69, and a hint to five tworow arrangements in this puzzle 118 Served ice cream 119 “Insecure” actress 120 Like Eric the Red 121 Beliefs

122 Encouraging 123 Add on DOWN 1 Netflix domain 2 Accustom (var.)

3 Break up 4 Inflicted upon 5 “Walk the dog” toy 6 With 70-Across, Taoism founder 7 Blow up 8 Annual fact-filled book 9 For the time being 10 “Mazel ___!”

11 From Thailand, perhaps 12 Hot under the collar 13 Days before holidays 14 “___ Miserables” 15 Mandela’s org.

16 Kevin Durant, e.g.

17 Actual 18 Scary King 21 January, to Juanita 23 “Deal or No Deal” channel 28 Cesar Chavez’s suit type 32 Propel, in a way 34 Give it ___ (try) 35 Turkish lodging 36 Feline plaint 37 Gunk that a kid may make 39 Digital readout, for short 40 Guitarist Segovia 41 Historic German art school 42 Neat 43 De Matteo of “The Sopranos” 46 Aloof 49 Joyful yell 50 High USAF rank 51 Start of a line

by Juliet 53 Funds

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.

Charming SISTER is happy to be a lap dog on your couch or take a run around your yard, as long as you are with her! This excited 2-yearold may be too much for a mellow dog or small children she could accidentally knock over.

54 Marie Antoinette, par exemple 55 ’50s Ford flop 56 Religious law 57 Make amends (for) 59 Work event?

60 Make over 64 Singer Haggard 66 Security system component 69 Hot rum drink 72 Risky 74 Fool 75 Prefix with “phobia” or “bat” 77 Apt lipstick shade for a scuba diver 79 Airplane bathroom, informally 80 Asinine 82 “What’s ___?”

85 Not in favor of 86 Hot spot 87 Atop 88 College Board offering 89 Kind of calendar 90 Lamborghini competitor 91 Italian football club 92 Pie-mode filling 95 Passed bad checks 97 Hair removal substance 98 “Do ___ others ...”

101 Playground retort 103 Cowell on “America’s Got Talent” 104 Oak tree’s start 105 Question of ownership 106 Vicks spray brand 108 Father of Eros 111 Faris or Kendrick 113 Anguish 114 Suitable 116 Code-cracking org.

117 One may be full of Natural Light

SHELDON is a big goofball of a dog! He enjoys all kinds of toys, playing with other dogs, and pools. He was rescued from a flooded backyard in June and is now learning all about crates, house training and how to be a good indoor dog in his foster home.

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD ONE GIANT LEAP

By Kevin Christian, edited by David Steinberg

© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication THE TULSA VOICE // July 17 – August 6, 2019

Sweet, somewhat timid NATASHA will crawl to you on her belly and then help herself to your lap. She has lived happily with other dogs before, loves toys and would do well in almost any quiet, patient home with kids over 6 years or without children.

7/28 ETC. // 47

SUNDAY

07.28

THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND

6PM

THURSDAY

SUGARLAND

8PM

SUNDAY

38 SPECIAL

8PM

08.01

08.04

TURN IT ON, TURN IT UP SCAN TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Schedule subject to change.

CNENT_67000_HR_Jul_TulsaVoice_9x12-25_1927436.indd 1

Pleas e re cycle this issue.

7/8/19 4:20 PM