The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 5 No. 18

S E P T. 5 – 1 8 , 2 0 1 8

//

VOL. 5 NO. 18

INSIDE PHILBROOK MIX 2018 P19

DISPATCH FROM NICARAGUA: A NEIGHBORHOOD INSPIRES A NATIONAL REVOLT | P26

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now

billy currington sept 14 dwight yoakam sept 20 slash FEAT. MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS sept 21

bob dylan AND HIS BAND oct 12 garbage oct 13 paula abdul oct 18 dr. ken jeong oct 25 BOZ SCAGGS oct 26

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

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

MCNELLIE’S HARVEST BEER FESTIVAL

OCTOBER 13, 2018 drink good beer w good people

OVER 70 BREWERIES ON SITE!

1ST & ELGIN DOWNTOWN TULSA

TICKETS $50

SESSION 1

INCLUDES TASTINGS & SOUVENIR CUP

12PM-3PM

SESSION 2 5PM-8PM

tickets available at McNellie’s & beerfests.com THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

CONTENTS // 3

4 // CONTENTS

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

PHILBROOK MIX 2018 P19

BY JEREMY CHARLES AND MELISSA LUKENBAUGH

September 5 – 18, 2018 // Vol. 5, No. 18 ©2018. All rights reserved.

First look at Philbrook’s cocktail event

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Buchanan DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon

THE COCKTAIL HISTORIAN WHO SHAPED THE FUTURE P24

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger

BY ANDREW SALIGA

A conversation with David Wondrich

AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf

FROM NICARAGUA TO TULSA P26

CONTRIBUTORS Linda Allegro, Kimberly Burk, Jeremy Charles, Alicia Chesser, Courtney Cullison, Barry Friedman, Carl David Goette-Luciak, Megan Hosmer, Eric Howerton, Jeff Huston, Clay Jones, Judy Langdon, Melissa Lukenbaugh, Mary Noble, Mason Whitehorn Powell, Zack Reeves, Alexandra Robinson, Joseph Rushmore, Andrew Saliga, Holly Wall The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

BY LINDA ALLEGRO

A local take on revolution, migration and violence in Central America

¡VIVIRÁS MONIMBÓ!

P27

Member of

BY CARL DAVID GOETTE-LUCIAK

The saga of the indigenous neighborhood in Nicaragua that inspired a national revolt

The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

SOLIDARITY FROM AFAR P29

1603 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK 74119 P: 918.585.9924 F: 918.585.9926

BY ALICIA CHESSER

JustHope provides a local base for sustainable global partnership in Nicaragua

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:

A woman walks past a dismantled barricade in the Monimbó neighborhood in the city of Masaya, Nicaragua. | JOSEPH RUSHMORE

NEWS & COMMENTARY 8 NEIGHBORLY NEGLECT

B Y COURTNEY CULLISON

30 ‘YOUR VAGINA IS MY BUSINESS’

Y HOLLY WALL B

Denying immigrants access to the safety net would have terrible consequences for us all

Sultana Steam offers alternative treatments for ‘womb care’

10 EGO AND DENIAL ON 11TH STREET

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN

Why TU should sack football

FOOD & DRINK S E P T. 5 – 1 8 , 2 0 1 8

//

12 TULSA TACO CRAWL

B Y ERIC HOWERTON

VOL. 5 NO. 18

INSIDE PHILBROOK MIX 2018 P19

A two-day tour of T-Town’s tastiest taquerias

ETC. DISPATCH FROM NICARAGUA: A NEIGHBORHOOD INSPIRES A NATIONAL REVOLT | P26

ON THE COVER Victor See from Sisserou’s as “The Coral Reef” for Philbrook MIX 2018.

PHOTO BY JEREMY CHARLES THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE

6 EDITOR’SLETTER 11 CARTOONS 40 THEHAPS 45 MUSICLISTINGS 46 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

32 ‘ALL WOMEN ARE STRONG’

Y KIMBERLY BURK B

Dana Tiger’s art continues a family legacy

34 MANY HANDS MAKE ART WORK

B Y ZACK REEVES

MUSIC 42 ‘ SEALED BY FIRE, FILLED WITH LOVE’ B Y ALEXANDRA ROBINSON Neko Case talks fairy tales, women producers, and ‘bad luck’ ahead of her performance at Cain’s Ballroom

44 ‘YOU’RE A PART OF THE PROBLEM’

Y MARY NOBLE B Tulsa’s new post-punk band Tom Boil is here to make you uncomfortable

TV & FILM

Black Wall Street Gallery offers a new kind of ‘conciliation’

35 MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

B Y JUDY LANGDON Native Tulsan is part of the touring production of ‘Wicked’

36 WORD ON THE STREET

B Y TTV STAFF What’s got you most excited about Gathering Place?

46 BREASTAURANT: IMPOSSIBLE

B Y MASON WHITEHORN POWELL

‘ Support the Girls’ is more ‘tragi-’ than comedy

46 IDLE WORSHIP

B Y JEFF HUSTON Love, fidelity and fandom are explored in the pensive charmer ‘Juliet, Naked’

38 MOTHERHOOD/ WOMANHOOD

B Y MEGAN HOSMER

Contact sheet CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

“T

o take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”

Susan Sontag wrote the above in her famous book about photography, “On Photography.” She says that photographs are a kind of memento mori—like a skull in an old painting: a reminder that life is fleeting.

That’s probably true. When I study a photograph of someone (or worse, myself) I’m pricked by a sharp feeling of loss. The moment lives forever, but I will not, and the evidence is frozen right there in front of me.

Roland Barthes calls that pricking quality the punctum in another famous book about photography, “Camera Lucida.” It’s the thing

in a photograph that jumps out and pops you. It “bruises” you, Barthes says. It punctures you.

This is a photo-forward issue of The Tulsa Voice. I’m thrilled to be sharing these images with you for a lot of reasons, but the one throughline is their bruising quality. Punctum abounds. These pages are lousy with it.

First up is our annual spread of otherworldly bartender portraits by Melissa Lukenbaugh and Jeremy Charles. It marks the occasion of this year’s Philbrook MIX cocktail competition, where locals compete for glory at Cain’s Ballroom during Philbrook Museum’s anticipated yearly fundraiser (pg. 19). You’ll find jaw-dropping photos of these plucky hopefuls that will stun and delight you, alongside a Q&A with MIX judge and James Beard Award-winning cocktail historian, David Wondrich (pg. 24).

Next we take a sharp turn left—south, really—to Nicaragua, where a popular uprising against the regime of President Daniel Ortega has been met with brutal, deadly violence. Local photographer and TTV contributor Joseph Rushmore traveled there to document the crisis earlier this summer, and the images he came back with are pulsing with white-hot urgency. You’ll find his photos alongside original, on-the-ground reportage from Carl David Goette-Luciak (pg. 27), whose reporting for The Washington Post, The Guardian, and elsewhere has been instrumental in exposing the contours of this unfolding and underreported humanitarian crisis.

Bookending that story are voices from here, your neighbors, whose hearts are in Nicaragua.

First is Linda Allegro, project manager at New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, who writes about

RECYCLE THIS Plastic jugs & bottles

her Nicaraguan roots, the current crisis, and how it informs her advocacy for immigrants here in Tulsa. After that you’ll meet Rev. Leslie Penrose, founder JustHope, a local “social-profit” organization providing “solidarity from afar” with communities in Nicaragua.

You’ll also find photographs

by TU student Megan Hosmer, whose series “Motherhood / Womanhood” explores its title concepts through vivid portraiture and tender domestic scenes.

I hope you love it, along with the rest of the words and images here, as much as we do—from the light, to the dark, to the shades in between. a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

NOT THAT Plastic toys

Throw toys away in your gray trash cart or donate them

Plastic jugs and bottles are perfect for recycling, but

plastic toys

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

are NOT!

LEARN MORE AT

TulsaRecycles.com September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

100 DAYS OF CELEBRATION

100 DAYS OF MEMORIES Starting September 8, 2018, Gathering Place will open with 100 days of world-class music and never-before-seen activities for all.

WWW.GATHERINGPLACE.ORG #GatherTulsa

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

okpolicy

B

NEIGHBORLY NEGLECT Denying immigrants access to the safety net would have terrible consequences for us all

by COURTNEY CULLISON

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

ad luck and hard times can hit any of us—and when that happens, there should be something to keep us from falling into destitution while we work to get back on our feet.

That’s why most Americans agree that it’s important to have a safety net, and it’s in our best interest to make sure that anyone who needs this help in an emergency can access it without fear. But recent proposed changes to immigration policies could mean that immigrant families and their U.S. citizen relatives will no longer be able to access these crucial programs without risking their ability to stay in the country.

For more than 100 years, federal immigration law has contained a “public charge” provision.

Someone is considered a public charge if they are likely to become “primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.” Anyone seeking a visa to come to the U.S. or anyone already here with a temporary visa who is applying for a Green Card must demonstrate that they, or someone in the United States sponsoring them, can provide for them and their dependents so they won’t be dependent primarily on public programs.

A recent proposal from the Trump administration would substantially expand the public charge test to include benefits from many more programs. If these changes take effect, using programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and even educational benefits like Pell Grants would count against you.

Many of these programs are commonly used by people with full-time jobs who are paying taxes and contributing to the economy.

The Center for American Progress estimates that if this test were applied to all Americans, more than 100 million people—about one-third of the U.S. popula-

tion—would fail. The changes would apply to anyone seeking an immigration visa or legal permanent residency, all immigrants who have come to the U.S. legally or are trying to enter legally.

The proposed rule would have an especially harsh impact on pregnant women and new mothers, because they would become afraid to access the basic health care needed at this especially vulnerable time. Children may lose access to benefits that would have meant better health, educational achievement, and earnings over the long term.

This would hurt all Americans, immigrant and native-born alike.

We are all better off when children can get the care they need to become healthy adults. We all see health benefits from increased access to immunizations and routine health care. Society and the economy improve when everyone who can work is able to find a decent job because they’ve had access to education and job training.

It doesn’t benefit anyone to make immigrant families go hungry, or to scare families away from seeking out health care when they need it. It just makes them, and our whole community, worse off.

American values are about helping people move forward and up—– not back down into sickness, hunger, and poverty.

It’s important to remember that right now these proposed changes are still just a draft. After the administration formally publishes changes, there will be a period for public comment. Advocates will be active during this comment period, and you can further those efforts by contacting your federal representatives and senators to express your concern with the proposed changes. a

Courtney Cullison is a policy anal yst with Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org).

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THIS IS NOT APPLE JUICE. It’s flavored tobacco.

Big Tobacco knows kids love sweets. They also know that kids are especially susceptible to addiction. It’s no coincidence that tobacco now tastes — and looks — like a sweet treat.

MAKE TIME TO TALK ABOUT VAPING. Get the facts, talking tips and more at

T.C. CANNON

AT T H E E D G E O F A M E R I C A

ONE MONTH LEFT! Expand your view of American identity through the vibrant artwork, poetry and music of T.C. Cannon. gilcrease.org/cannon T. C. Cannon (1946–1978, Caddo/Kiowa), Mama and Papa Have the Going Home Shiprock Blues, 1966. Acrylic and oil on canvas. Institute of American Indian Arts, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico. © 2018 Estate of T. C. Cannon. Photo by Addison Doty.

T.C. Cannon: At the Edge of America is organized by the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

SAT. SEPT. 15 || 7:00PM || ONEOK Field Fireworks & Hispanic Heritage Night

WED. SEPT. 19 || 7:00PM || ONEOK Field Bark in the Park & Buck Night

SEPT 7 FRIDAY NIGHT FIREWORKS SEPT 8 (if nec.)

BUCK NIGHT $1 Beer, Sodas and Hot Dogs

SAT. SEPT. 22 || 7:00PM || ONEOK Field Clunker Car & Star Wars Night

SEPT 9 (if nec.)

KIDS EAT FREE KI

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW:

TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

| 918.744.5901 |

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

Ego and denial on 11th Street Why TU should sack football

by BARRY FRIEDMAN n Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, University of Tulsa faculty received an email from then-president Steadman Upham (now deceased) about the need to 1.) protect the quality and strength of the academic core; 2.) protect the quality and richness of student life; and 3.) achieve sustainable long-term efficiencies across the enterprise. Under a subhead entitled Immediate Expenditure Reductions, this was one suggestion on how to do that:

O

Benefit Change – Effective Oct. 1, 2016, the university will temporaril y suspend contributions to retirement for all employees. However, employees may continue to make contributions on their own to the plan. A restructured matching contribution retirement plan will be announced at a later date.

What did this have to do with football?

The previous year, on April 20, 2015, Upham sent an email admitting its financial drain on TU. The university is currently providing Athletics with a $9.0 million subsidy to cover the department’s operations, about $1.0 million more than in FY 2013-14.

Were the two emails connected?

In a moment.

Specific numbers aren’t known, but recent budget cuts have affected all aspects of TU’s operation. In an effort to avoid a reduction in services for student-athletes, Derrick Gragg said, Hurricane football coach Philip Montgomery, men’s basketball coach Frank Haith, 10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

The university has tried everything to increase attendance at home games, short of letting a lucky fan return the opening kickoff.

TU didn’t even sell out when OU played here in 2014.

Maybe the problem is more fundamental.

and Gragg himself all have accepted pay cuts.1

It won’t make a dent.

In 2011, when the school was in Conference USA, the school’s expenses on football alone were $9,420,693 against revenue of $6,340,835, or a loss of $3,079,858.2 And things have only gotten worse.

How much so?

Borderline pathetic.

University of Tulsa student athletes make Tulsa a better place to live in many, many ways. Tulsa, it is now your opportunity to return the favor.

I hope you are willing to show these extraordinary young people your appreciation by coming to their games in all of our sports and cheering them on to victory. Do it For Our City! 3

That was Gerard Clancy, TU’s president, who might as well have

donned a sandwich board and walked along 11th Street outside H.A. Chapman Stadium handing out koozies.

TU athletes are doing the city a “favor” and should be rewarded for it? Please.

The university has tried everything to increase attendance at home games, short of letting a lucky fan return the opening kickoff. TU didn’t even sell out when OU played here in 2014. Maybe the problem is more fundamental.

The city doesn’t care.

H.A. Chapman, by the way, is the smallest stadium in the AAC, seating just 30,000; still, on most Saturdays, to quote Paul Simon, one sees nothing but “ghosts and empties.”

According to the NCAA, in 2017, TU drew a total of 110,751 fans for its six-game schedule, or 18,459 per game4—second lowest in the AAC. And those figures are mostly Enron-style accounting and delusion.

But let’s say 15,000 (generous) came to each game and spent $20 per ticket (also generous)—that’s $300,000 gross. Take out 30 percent for game-day expenditures for security, staff, Jumbotron, etc., and we’re left with $210,500.

TU plays six home games, so the school is netting approximately $1,260,000 per season.

That about covers Montgomery’s salary.

Add in salaries for assistant coaches and staff and you’re already in the hole before stocking the locker-room with Nutri-Grain bars.

According to the USA Today in April 2015, 11 schools with major-conference football programs budgeted around $600,000 each for the NCAA’s new [food] provision.5

I met with Chris Lincoln, former sport director at KTUL and college football announcer, who reminded me TU also receives between $2-3 million as part of the AAC’s TV distribution, another $1 million for radio, and about $3 million comes from boosters (most goes toward salaries).

In 2018, the school will also get approximately $1.5 million from payouts when it travels to Austin (Texas) and Fayetteville (Arkansas) to get its head handed to it.

Total: $8.5 million, which isn’t enough to cover 2011 expenses, much less today’s.

TU officials won’t talk much about this, but two university professors did discuss, albeit anonymously, the giant sucking sound coming from TU’s football stadium.

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

“What do we want the university to be? What is at its core?

Let me just emphasize my and my colleague’s frustration over feeling like we’re less of a priority than athletics,” one professor said. “When you’re willing to cut a pound of flesh out of your faculty, which is the reason why you have a university, to keep a football program that loses money—it’s very frustrating.”

After receiving the emails from Upham, he said some in the faculty inquired about downgrading football to Division II. “The trustees do not consider that an option,” they were told.

The school’s faculty weren’t the only ones saying it.

In a April 2018 report released by Higher Learning Commission6, an organization responsible for accrediting colleges in the U.S., while lauding TU’s “sound understanding of its financial challenges,” noticed the university’s blindspot when it came to football.

The team also noted that the athletics program at TU continues to lose a significant amount of money.

While rather significant cuts were being made in expenditures in other parts of the university, the coach of the football team was given a significant raise. Within the context of the mission and strategic plan, the football program appears to be less critical than funding instruction programs and/or academic support.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

The university received this in April and, as mentioned, in August, asked the hoops and football coaches and athletic director to take a pay cut.

“They told us [the faculty cuts] were the least painful thing they could do, rather than firing some of us—you know, cutting things like Russian and other programs,” the professor said. “And they have a point and we understood it, but those are our core aspects of the university mission. Football is not.”

The other professor with whom I spoke said TU allows football to play by different rules than the rest of campus—and she’s just about had it.

“That just drives me nuts.

When it comes to something like football, all of that business sense—where you have to be financially responsible—goes out the window. It’s a university, not a life-support system for the football team. I want to sue them for breach of fiduciary duty. People lost their jobs. Departments are understaffed. The libraries cancelled subscriptions. It is horrible.”

In 2016, when Tulsa went to the Miami Beach Bowl and won 10 games, the team drew 113,404 spectators for the season at H.A. Chapman—or about the same total as last year when it won two games; so, clearly, what’s going on has nothing to do with success or failure.

Even if TU and ORU were to win big and do it with popular coaches, is it impossible

now for these small, private schools to achieve healthy attendance figures? Wichita State averages nearly 11,000 for home basketball games, but Wichita State isn’t battling OU, OSU and the Oklahoma City Thunder for market share.7

Wichita State is also smarter than TU when it comes to football—it dropped it in 1986. And left it there.8 I emailed Gragg about all this and never heard back.

There is another matter, too.

Considering the sheer savagery of football, there will come a time, I predict, when society views the sport with the same revulsion it does boxing—something famed sportswriter Jimmy Cannon characterized as the “red light district of sports.”

The question will be asked: What were universities doing putting their imprimatur on such brutality and carnage?

A study released Tuesday found the degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in 110 out of 111 donated brains of former NFL players. In addition, 48 out of 53 brains of former college football players showed CTE as well … In the Journal of the American Medical Association report, researchers looked at 202 former players at all levels of the game. Nearly 88 percent of the brains studied showed CTE. Also announced in the study’s release, three of 14

athletes who played only in high school, 9 of 14 semi-pro and 7 of 8 Canadian Football League players had CTE.9

Even if TU football made money and Chapman was filled each Saturday, this is a ghoulish business model.

Tulsa is many things these days: a place of museums, parks, a thriving downtown, funky book stores, festivals, raucous cycling events, and its own musical and cultural iconography. It is the jewel of Oklahoma, on the cusp of something heretofore unseen. But it is not a college football town—and hasn’t been for years. It’s time for the university that carries its name to stop pretending otherwise. a 1)

2)

3)

4) 5)

6) 7)

8)

9)

tulsaworld.com: Bill Haisten: Derrick Gragg, Philip Montgomery and Frank Haith accept pay cuts, but there’s no panic at TU businessofcollegesports.com: How Profitable is Football in Conference USA? tulsaworld.com: Gerard Clancy: TU athletics acts 'For Our City,' and now it's our turn to return the favor fs.ncaa.org: 2017 Football Attendance sbnation.com: What's it cost to feed a ma jor college football team? About $500,000 a year hicommision.org: Find Institutions tulsaworld.com: Bill Haisten: For entertaining games, sobering attendance figures at TU and ORU kwch.com: Study: Bringing football back to Wichita State could cost tens of millions landof10.com: CTE found in brains of 48 of 53 former college football players, study says

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

citybites

Tulsa taco crawl

A two-day tour of T-Town’s tastiest taquerias

by ERIC HOWERTON

S

potting a bad taco is easy.

See yellow cheese? Turn up your nose. If your food’s been injected with sour cream that oozed from a caulk gun, run for the hills. And if the salsa comes in a little foil packet, shed a tear for the chiles sacrificed in this preservative-laden indignity.

I’m not ashamed to admit that the 15 years I spent in New Mexico and Texas turned me into a bit of a taco snob. If you know where to get world-class tacos for a dollar and change, why settle for anything but? Unless I’m desperate or in a real bind, I don’t suffer bad tacos—and neither should you.

I fell victim to bad tacos a few weeks back at a downtown eatery with a decent Yelp rating. On top of other offenses, multiple tacos were inattentively prepared, and were bland to boot.

One of my tacos sat atop a single corn tortilla while the other sat atop two corn tortillas. This inconsistency puzzled me and made me despair for the state of our nation’s math skills.

Even worse: None of the three tortillas on my plate were griddled, which left them tasting raw.

Griddling is essential in preparing tortillas. Doing so lightly caramelizes some of the natural sugars and moves the oils around so the locked-in flavors activate. (If you’ve ever wondered why those yellow Mission tortillas hanging out in your fridge taste like sawdust straight from the package, now you know.)

Another benefit of griddling is that excess water evaporates, adding structural integrity so your tortillas don’t disintegrate when you pile on meats, salsas, and vegetables. Tacos—like pizza—are a hand-held food. If you’re forced to eat them with a knife and fork, something has gone horribly awry.

12 // FOOD & DRINK

(tamarind, grapefruit and guava are my personal favorites), a Mexican Coke (made with cane sugar), some tamarind candies, and generous gratuities. Remember, when eating food that’s this good and this inexpensive: 20 percent is the new 15 percent.

Pastor tacos from El Rio Verde | GREG BOLLINGER

This experience left a hole in my heart and another in my stomach. To fill it, I drafted my trusty dining companion J. and our friend C. to accompany me on a two-day taco crawl. Call it a scavenger hunt for the monomaniacal Mexicophile. Call it a recipe for salsa-induced ulcers. Call it what you will. We called it a brazen attempt to prove that “gorge” meant more than just a hole in the ground.

After all was said and done, we visited eight taquerias over the course of a single weekend, ordering multiple street tacos at each

location. Street tacos—for those unfamiliar—can be consumed in three or four bites and, are rarely beleaguered by cheese or excessive toppings. They typically range from $1 to $1.50 and are meant to be eaten on the go. Our plan was to eat some tacos, then go eat some more. Then some more.

And then some more!

The size and affordability of street tacos meant we could sample multiple specialties at each location without being forced to re-notch our belts or go broke.

In total, we spent less than $100 for 40+ tacos, multiple Jarritos

FRIDAY Our first foray was at Tacos Don Francisco (4008 E. 11th St.), where we snacked on chips while waiting for our food to arrive. The chips were airy and light, allowing us to consume large quantities without risking early derailment.

After the chips, we dug into tacos al pastor (pork cooked with pineapple and annatto seed), cabeza (made from various face meats, most notably beef cheeks), carnitas (crispy, fried pork), pollo (chicken), and tripas. Tripas, literally translated from Spanish, means “tripe” (cow’s stomach), which is the shared ingredient in menudo and certain Vietnamese soups. However, when served as a taco, tripas refers to a cow’s small intestine, which has more flavor and a less gelatinous texture than the honeycomb tripe encountered elsewhere.

When properly prepared, tripas are perhaps the most underrated taco. The perfect combination of crispy and chewy, Don Francisco’s tripas provided a safe introduction for those looking to test the waters rather than dive in. As the saying goes: You eat with your eyes first.

So, if appearances can put you off your meal, take heart in the fact that Don Francisco chops and flattens their tripas so the offal takes on the appearance of thinly shredded beef.

The cabeza taco at Don Francisco had a pleasing pastoral quality and was not nearly as greasy as expected. The same can be said of the carnitas, which were rich and crispy without spurting fat. The September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

pollo and al pastor tacos were both satisfying and worth $1.50, but our socks remained firmly on our feet.

Our next stop, just a few blocks away, was La Flama (2603 E. 11th St.), an unassuming, two-room eatery tucked inside a strip mall.

La Flama offers a different assortment of authentic Mexican cuisine than Don Francisco, and we were thankful for the variety.

We ordered tacos de pollo, al pastor, nopales (cactus pads), and pechuga adobada (chicken breast in red chile). The pollo and the adobada were both tender and flavorful, but the nopales stole the show, offering a delicious departure from our otherwise carnivorous selections. With just the right amount of browning from the flattop grill, the nopales had a subtle vegetal flavor and a texture that fell somewhere between green beans and zucchini.

La Flama’s tacos al pastor came decorated with pineapple chunks.

For those who appreciate the way acidic fruit can cut through the richness of pork and the heat of the salsa, these tacos are for you.

The grilled fish taco was unique in that it arrived tucked inside a fluffy, flour tortilla and had an enviable crust that showed masterful technique. The fish was nicely seasoned and came topped with an avocado slice and shredded iceberg.

While every taco at La Flama stuck the landing, the gold medal went to the garlicky chile de arbol salsa, which seared our tongues briefly but never so painfully as to discourage additional samplings.

In fact, the chile de arbol salsa was so outrageously good we greedily asked for some to go.

Jogging distance from La Flama is Mexican Corner (507 S. Utica St.), a restaurant/convenience store hybrid with arguably the best chorizo taco I’ve ever had. The term “spice” gets thrown around indiscriminately, especially when talking about Mexican food, but in this instance the term covers not only the addition of chile powder, but also—if our palates were discerning correctly—a touch of cinnamon.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

The chorizo taco also lacked the puddling grease that can result from cooking the chorizo in too much water or buying an inferior product made from organs that contain an excessive amount of fat and lymphatic fluid. Instead, Mexican Corner’s chorizo was dry and meaty enough to develop a proper sear, which added a delightful crunch to what is traditionally a rather soft ingredient.

C.’s pollo taco was the best chicken we tried that day, and it wouldn’t be rivaled until the Saturday leg of our taco tour. The al pastor and lengua tacos were passable, but not impressive. The consistency of the pastor was more sausage-like than previously encountered, but the main issue was simply that it lacked signature sweetness and flavor. The lengua had great texture but also lacked flavor. The tripas taco, however, was on par with Don Francisco’s and prepared in a manner that also reduce visual scariness.

The salsas at Mexican Corner were somewhat lacking in heat, but this only allowed the brilliance of the chorizo and pollo to shine through without heavy interference. I’m prone to dousing my tacos in more hot sauce than is necessary, so I appreciated that Mexican Corner forced me to acknowledge the flavors as intended.

As we headed to our last stop for the evening, we spotted a taco truck parked next to a gas station.

Because we had a schedule to stick to and feared straying from our chosen path, we continued onward toward El Rio Verde, whose shrimp taco and wet burritos have earned them a devoted following.

Nevertheless, I made a mental note to add an additional stop to our Saturday schedule, even if it meant deepening our commitment to abdominal distension. (The impromptu addition would not fail to impress.) a

Tune in next issue for the second installment of “Tulsa taco crawl,” where our intrepid diners finish their Friday feast before heading to the east side of town to encounter freshl y-made tortillas, a famil y connection, goat-milk caramel churros, and a visit to the mystery truck.

MEET ME AT THE MAX! 4p – 6p HAPPY HOUR

MON – FRI

FUNDAY: OPEN AT NOON

$2 DOMESTICS & FREE GAME PLAY

FREE HURTS DONUTS CHAMPAGNE MIMOSA BAR LIVE EVENT BINGO @ 2pm

THE MAX IS

TURNING 8!

MONDAY: $1 COORS BANQUET ON TAP ALL DAY

ANNIVERSARY PARTY

SEPT. 17-23

TUESDAY: FREE GAME PLAY

COORS ALL WEDNESDAY: QUESTIONABLE COMPANY $1MONTH LONG TEAM TRIVIA NIGHT @ 8pm

THURSDAY: DJ MOODY @ 9pm

our out ge ck ok pas e h o C eb tail ng i Facfor de com y up rsar t u e abo nniv kend a ee ts! w en v e

FREE GAME PLAY FOR THE LADIES

FRIDAY: 9/7 • DJ JEFFIE FRESH

9/14 • SWEET BABY JAYSUS

SATURDAY: 9/8 & 9/15• DJ AB NEVER A COVER/21 & UP FREE WIFI SKEE BALL & PIN BALL

THEMAXRETROPUB

BLUE DOME DISTRICT • 114 S ELGIN

Think you’re going to find better Italian?

Fuggedaboutit!

CALL FOR RESERVATIONS & CARRY OUT 918.561.6300 • 3410 S. Peoria Ave.

FOOD & DRINK // 13

A Tulsa Tradition!

• Delivery Available • Daily & Weekly Specials • Full Service Catering • Banquet Facilities 14 West M.B. Brady • 918.582.3383 MexicaliBorderCafe.com

Open Tues. - Sat. 11am - 7pm 217 E. Archer Historic tulsa Arts District (918) 619-6353

An urban park and event space in the heart of Tulsa’s Art District.

It’s back!

111 East M.B. Brady Street, Tulsa, OK 74103

www.guthriegreen.com 14 // TULSA ARTS DISTRICT GUIDE

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THANK YOU TULSA,

WE LOVE YOU!

T H E B E S T-TA S T I N G W E E K O F T H E Y E A R I S S E P T. 7 - 1 6 !

Voted Best LGBT Bar/Club

TOP 3

Best Night Club Best Place to Dance

T U L S A’ S P R E M I E R E D A N C E C L U B

124 N. Boston Ave • 918-584-9494 clubmajestictulsa.com

Not just an ordinary bar Join Tulsa’s best restaurants for a 10-day celebration of Tulsa’s culinary scene benefiting the Food Bank!

BRUNCH

21 E M.B. Brady St 918-585-8587

18 East M. B. Brady St. 918-588-2469 cazschowhouse.com

includes $3 donation

includes $2 donation

2-3 courses

includes $3 donation

DINNER

DINNER

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL

$35

3-4 courses

$45

includes $7 donation

Prices exclude tax, tip and beverage.

$15

3 courses

includes $5 donation

THE WOODY GUTHRIE CENTER PRESENTS

DINNER

2-3 courses

$22

Join us for the tastiest Chicken & Waffles in Tulsa!

LUNCH

2-3 courses

$20

at participating restaurants, includes $1 donation.

Each prix fixe menu includes an automatic donation to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma’s Food for Kids programs. Proceeds will be matched up to $25,000 by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

50 PARTICIPATING RESTAUR ANTS:

August 31st – January 13th PRESENTING SPONSOR IN TULSA

DOWNTOWN SOUTH

BROOKSIDE ON THE HILL

BROOKSIDE SOUTH

DOWNTOWN SOUTH

BROOKSIDE RIVERSIDE

CHERRY STREET SOUTH

DOWNTOWN SOUTH

DOWNTOWN ON YALE

102 East M.B. Brady Street • 918.574.2710 woodyguthriecenter.org THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

Visit TulsaPeople.com for prix fixe menus and to make reservations with OpenTable!

Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope

Sponsors:

Benefiting:

Community FOOD BANK of Eastern Oklahoma

www.okfoodbank.org

FOOD & DRINK // 15

2-course Lunch for $15

3-course Dinner for $35

(includes $2 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 8 meals)

(includes $5 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 20 meals)

Meet fondue’s new best friend!

Visit us during Restaurant Week to try our new tabletop grilling.

LUNCH Appetizer

Greek Pita and Choice of One Mezze (There are 12 to choose from)

Entrée

My Big Fat Greek Brown Rice Salad Brown rice, cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet red onions tossed in an oregano mint vinaigrette on mixed greens topped with feta, chicken breast, pine nuts and fresh parsley. Served with Greek pita.

Can be made vegetarian. Gluten free.

Healthy Lunch Plate Classic egg salad but with avocado, on “pilpel” side salad: romaine, spring greens and cherry tomatoes tossed with a roasted red pepper and mint dressing, feta, grape nuts and honey roasted peanuts.

Served with warm za’atar pita. Vegetarian.

Can be made gluten free.

Laffa Roast Beef or Smoked Turkey Wrap Turkey or rare roast beef with avocado, thyme cream cheese, roasted red pepper relish, romaine and cucumbers tossed with tzatziki, cherry tomatoes and a bit of mango chili sauce on a spinach wrap. Served with a lemony mint side salad, fruit salad or sweet potato fries.

The Aleppo Panini Ciabatta panini oozing with feta, provolone, mozzarella, red pepper relish, spinach and chermoula salsa (a flavorful cilantro marinade) and avocado. Served with a lemony mint side salad, sweet potato fries or fruit salad. Vegetarian.

DINNER

4-course Dinner for $35

Appetizer Chorizo Stuffed Olives

(includes $5 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 20 meals)

Hand-stuffed and battered, fried golden brown and served with house-made mayo

DINNER

Bruschetta Classic tomato, garlic and fresh herbs served on house-baked crostini with fresh greens

Maryn’s Salad Spinach and romaine, red onion, carrots, cherry tomato, goat cheese, and garlic croutons tossed in citrus vinaigrette

Entrée Sesame Seared Tuna Hand-cut, six-ounce sushi-grade tuna filet seared rare. Served over lobster asparagus hash, topped with queso fresco and balsamic reduction

48-Hour Short Rib Slow braised tender beef short rib served over a smoked pepper purée with grilled asparagus and garlic mash. Topped with stout demi-glace

Roasted Chicken Two large airline cuts served over a carrot purée, with rosemary potatoes and seasonal vegetables, topped with a pesto cream sauce

Dessert Bread Pudding Apple Pie

1. Cubed King salmon, scratch ponzu sauce, avocado, cucumber salad

Cheddar cheese blend, Green Goddess, Garlic and Wine Seasoning, potatoes, bacon and scallions

2. Graved salmon, capers, red onion confit, crostini

Salad Apple Bacon Spinach Salad

3. Cheek tartare, 413 egg, black truffle, fresh peppercorn, chives

Fresh spinach, cremini mushrooms, sliced hard-boiled egg and sweet and spicy pecans in an apple-bacon vinaigrette, topped with crisp green apples

Entrée Southern Fusion Berkshire Pork

Entrée Buffalo Chicken, Roasted Garlic Shrimp, Teriyaki-Marinated Sirloin, Pork Tenderloin Medallion and Chicken Pot Stickers

Dessert BOMB! Beignets

Served with seasonal vegetables and signature dipping sauces

Breaded and fried forested pork, ginger-garlic potato and pepper hash, brown curry gravy, sunflower shoots

Chili and vanilla infused French pastry, chocolate and coffee ganache

Dessert Caramel Toffee Crunch Fondue Creamy milk chocolate blended with caramel and topped with crunchy Heath Bar pieces

Holy Water — $9 Spiced rum, cognac, house-made almond syrup, fresh lemon, lime and grapefruit juice, bitters, green chartreuse

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL (Includes $1 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 4 meals)

The Melting Pot Mule — $9.95 Absolut Vodka and Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, fresh mint, lime and topped with ginger beer.

Party In My Pantry - $9 Spiced rum, rice milk, half & half, honey, a fun spice mix

16 // FOOD & DRINK

Appetizer Salmon Three Ways

(Includes $1 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 4 meals)

(Includes $1 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 4 meals)

111 N. Main St. • 918-728-3147 laffatulsa.com

BRUNCH

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL

SIGNATURE COCKTAIL

Laffa Medi-Eastern Restaurant & Bar

Appetizer Loaded Baked Potato Cheese Fondue

3-course Brunch for $22 (includes $3 donation to the Food Bank which will provide 12 meals)

Maryn’s Taphouse & Raw Bar 400 Riverwalk Terrace, Suite 180, Jenks 918-946-2796 marynstaphouse.com

The Melting Pot 300 Riverwalk Terrace, Suite 190, Jenks 918-299-8000 • MeltingPot.com

Prairie Brewpub 223 N. Main St. • 918-936-4395 prairiepub.com September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

ENJOY SOME OF THE BEST DINING TULSA HAS TO OFFER D U R I N G R E S TA U R A N T W E E K

DILLY DINER

2-COURSE LUNCH FOR $15

ELGIN PARK

$35 DINNER FOR TWO

EL GUAPO’S DOWNTOWN 2-COURSE LUNCH FOR $15 3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

EL GUAPO’S SOUTH

3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

FASSLER HALL

3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

MCNELLIE’S DOWNTOWN 3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

MCNELLIE’S SOUTH CITY 3-COURSE DINNER FOR $35

THE TAVERN

3-COURSE LUNCH FOR $35

YOKOZUNA DOWNTOWN 3-COURSE LUNCH FOR $15 3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

YOKOZUNA ON YALE 2-COURSE LUNCH FOR $15 3-COURSE DINNER FOR $20

VISIT TULSAPEOPLE.COM FOR PRIXE FIXE MENUS THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

FOOD & DRINK // 17

18 // FEATURED

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

A DRINK IS A PIECE OF PERFORMANCE ART. It’s not in the bartender’s flourish with a shaker or the delicate touch of her pour—at least, not entirely. From the seated side of a bar, the physical act of making a drink is simply an overture. Curtains rise with a first waft of intoxicating aroma. The show begins in earnest as the concoction makes its way past its audience’s lips and into the spotlight. The true performance takes place between first sip and last, in minute variations in detail: temperature, dilution, inebriation.

At Philbrook MIX, 16 bartenders will take center stage in a cocktail competition on Saturday, Sept. 15 at Cain’s Ballroom. Winners will be named in two categories. James Beard Award-winning author David Wondrich will lead a panel of judges who will choose a Critic’s Choice winner, and attendees will cast votes for People’s Choice. Since its inception in 2012, MIX has raised more than $550,000 for Philbrook Museum of Art’s educational programs.

As is tradition, bartender’s competing in MIX have brought the spirit of their cocktails to vivid life in portraits by Jeremy Charles and Melissa Lukenbaugh. For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit mix.philbrook.org. —TTV STAFF

PHILBROOK 2018 THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

FEATURED // 19

SUZANNE BURROUGHS YOKOZUNA “Suz on First”

JACK WOOD CHIMERA “Dog Ate My Cocktail” 20 // FEATURED

JOSH GIFFORD SOUNDPONY “The Satanico”

ERIK ERQUIGA SATURN ROOM “One Flue Over the Cuckoos Nest” September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

HANK HANEWINKEL III MIXCO “Stardust”

LESLEY NELSON AMELIA’S “Imperishable”

READ RICHARDS OREN “Technopolitan”

VICTOR SEE SISSEROU’S “The Coral Reef”

PHOTOS BY JEREMY CHARLES THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

FEATURED // 21

LUKE BRENNAN BULL IN THE ALLEY “40–Love”

NICK ROESLE ANDOLINI’S “Last One Standing”

OLIVIA EDGERTON TAVOLO “Cacaca-Chachacha-çaçaça”

22 // FEATURED

JACKIE HISKETT JUNIPER “On Trend”

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

SARA STEWART DOC’S “Freefall Fantasy”

BIC NGUYEN PRHYME “Saigon Sunset”

BENJAMIN WALKER VALKYRIE “New Republic”

LOGAN SWEETWOOD HODGES BEND “Duck, You Sucker”

PHOTOS BY MELISSA LUKENBAUGH THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

FEATURED // 23

Congratulations Nick Roesle!

Come try the

“Last One Standing” at

and Support Philbrook!

1525 E. 15th St. 918-728-6111 andopizza.com

Congratulations Jacqueline Hiskett!

Come try the

“On Trend”

at

and Support Philbrook!

324 E. Third St. 918-794-1090 junipertulsa.com

Congratulations Hank Hanewinkel III! Come try the

“Stardust”

at

and Support Philbrook!

3rd and Denver 918-932-8571 mixcotulsa.com

THE COCKTAIL HISTORIAN WHO SHAPED THE FUTURE A conversation with David Wondrich

by ANDREW SALIGA SIXTEEN OF TULSA’S TOP BARTENDERS are scheduled to throw down once again for the coveted title of Philbrook’s MIX cocktail champion. The judges panel will consist of David Wondrich, Chef William Lyle (The Summit Club), and myself (The Humble Garnish).

The mention of Wondrich’s name to cocktail aficionados is sure to perk ears and raise glasses. Wondrich was an integral figure in what has been dubbed the “cocktail renaissance”—a period of enlightenment when the research and

dedication of a small group of cocktail geeks created what is now the modern craft cocktail movement. He spent years as Esquire’s Cocktail Correspondent, authored five books, and has won numerous awards for his work.

In lieu of a flight to Brooklyn and a bar tab at Clover Club—which, between Wondrich and myself, would rival the cost of the ticket—I opted to phone him early on a Monday morning, as he was finishing his first cup of coffee, to discuss cocktails and MIX.

Congratulations

Congratulations

Bic Nguyen!

Olivia Edgerton!

Come try the

“Saigon Sunset” at

and Support Philbrook!

111 N. Main St., Ste A 918-794-7700 prhymetulsa.com 24 // FEATURED

David Wondrich | DORON GILD

Come try the

“CacacaChachachaÇaçaça” at

and Support Philbrook!

427 S. Boston Ave. 918-949-4498 tavolotulsa.com September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

ANDREW SALIGA: You’re a household name to cocktail enthusiasts, but how would you describe yourself to the uninitiated?

DAVID WONDRICH: I basically invented my own job. I’m a former English professor, former rock and roll musician, who writes about cocktails and spirits and their history—and I have been doing it for the last 19 years.

SALIGA: Do you ever order a specific cocktail to gauge the quality of a bar program?

WONDRICH: I try not to put unrealistic tests on bars. I'm kind of over the elaborate cocktail as a ritual. I like Manhattans and martinis, then daiquiris in the summer. A sazerac if the bar looks like they've got all the stuff to make them, but I don't really try to push the bar too far. I no longer have to do the Esquire Best Bars in America every year, so I'm kind of in retirement from quality assessment of bars.

SALIGA: Is there a particular cocktail history you unearthed that you’re most proud of?

WONDRICH: The big one for me was punch.

That involved a lot of reading sailors' accounts and going to the British library and looking through the incredibly rare recipe and apothecary books. Discovering how primary punch was and getting into where it comes from, how it was diffused around the world, and how it came to underlie everything we drink today.

SALIGA: You collaborated on the Plantation O.F.T.D. Overproof Rum, which features an illustration of you on the label. Tell me more about that.

WONDRICH: It was something that Alexander Gabriel wanted to do and so he put together a group of his friends that knew something about rum. He got his board together and we met at New Orleans during Tales of the Cocktail and tasted a bunch of components and made some suggestions.

Then we all went to Cognac for the final blend and we spent the afternoon tasting, and nothing. Then we remembered that there was some good pot still rum that we had tasted, but it didn't really have anything to do with the project. We suggested putting some of it in and then it was like, “Oh, O.F.T.D.—Oh, fuck. That's delicious!”

SALIGA: So the story is true. It’s not just a marketing ploy on the label?

WONDRICH: It’s totally true. I was the one who shouted it.

SALIGA: You’re the guest judge for Philbrook’s MIX this year. What’s your approach to judging?

WONDRICH: I always look for the simplest drink that’s interesting. The more elaborate it gets, the more skeptical I get. I look THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

for professional bartending, of course, and somebody who’s confident behind the bar and doesn’t put the burden of their nervousness on the judges. Basically, it’s a holistic approach.

SALIGA: Tulsa isn’t thought of as a cocktail hub; however, cocktail culture is so prevalent that you can order a great cocktail in almost any city. Is there anywhere you plan on checking out while you’re in Tulsa?

WONDRICH: I’ve long given up on that thinking about, “this place is a cocktail

THANK YOU TO ALL THE

2018 PHILBROOK

MIX

SPONSORS

& PATRONS!

hub,” or “this place isn’t.” I have no doubt that there are some great, world-class bars in Tulsa. There are world-class bars all over America, thank God. And from what I hear, Tulsa’s a very pleasant place to live.

So, I would be shocked if it didn’t have some great bars to go along with that.

Despite being one of the most qualified people to judge MIX, Wondrich has no air of pretension. Confident in his knowledge, his demeanor is casual and direct

with nothing to prove. Regardless, tensions will still be high for the competing bartenders.

The Philbrook’s 7th annual MIX competition is Sept. 15, and tickets sales fund Philbrook educational programming and museum operations. In addition to the main event, Philbrook has added a more relaxed Friday House Party as part of their new Friday night programming.

Both nights are sure to be incredible opportunities to enjoy the creations of Tulsa’s world-class bartenders while supporting the world-class Philbrook Museum. a

Premium Sponsor Osage Casino & Hotel

Competition Hospitality Sponsor 624 Kitchen & Catering

House Party Entertainment Sponsor Stinnett & Associates

Crafting the Future Sponsor HUB International Nabholz Construction Trust Company of Oklahoma Valley National Private Bank

Top Shelf Patron

Argonaut Private Equity, LLC Conner & Winters, LLP Julie & Sanjay Meshri Holly & Andrew Ryan Susan & Bill Thomas Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts & Culture

Mixer Patron

Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Jessica & Jeremy Case Pat Chernicky Commerce Bank Laura & Keith Colgan Payton Fesperman & Jared Lyon Cathy & Andrew Fox Ranan Gangel Thomas Golden Lisa & Josh Hairston Jillian & Will Ihloff Ashley & Olaf Jarochowski Mike Keys & Ty Kaszubowski Kelly & Hai Lam Tony Li Jeff Wilbers & Lee Ann Liska Regina & Michael Lodes Sarah Martin & Margie Martin Jill Croka & Adam Murphy Old Village Wine & Spirits Susanne & Millard Pickering Luisa Velasquez Monica Williford & Steve Bayles Steve Wright

Bartender Photography Sponsor

First Round Patron

Billie & Howard Barnett BKD CPAs and Advisors Sarah & Craig Buchan Megan & Ryan Buchan Mollie & JW Craft Sarin & Brett Crump Lara Foley & Andrew Wakeman Francis Solar Graves McClain PLLC Leigh Ann & Nick Gustafson Lane & Chris Hartshorn Sarah & Jared Jordan Aaron Kesler Marilyn & Larry Lee Stephanie & Michael Madsen Matrix Service Company Megan & Colin Nesbit Whittney & Joey Stauffer Cassie & Evan Tipton Warburton Capital Jennie & Chris Wolek Megan & Don Zetik

Liquor Sponsors

James E. Pepper Rye Whiskey Provisions Fine Wine & Spirits Koval Gin Artisan Fine Wine & Spirits Manik Tequila Premium Brands Oklahoma Distilling Co. Indian Grass Vodka Thirst Wine Merchants Oklahoma Distilling Co. Rose Rock Rum Thirst Wine Merchants

Macaron Sponsor Antoinette Baking Co.

Competition Game Sponsor Justin Thompson Restaurants Kitchen 27 The Max Retropub

Media Sponsor The Tulsa Voice

Special Thanks

Andrew Saliga – The Humble Garnish David Wondrich Chef William Lyle – Summit Welltown Brewing

Jeremy Charles Photography Melissa Lukenbaugh Photography

FEATURED // 25

From Nicar agua to Tulsa A LOCAL TAKE ON REVOLUTION, MIGRATION AND VIOLENCE IN CENTRAL AMERICA

BY LINDA ALLEGRO MY MOTHER IS FROM THE COLONIAL TOWN OF GRANADA, Nicaragua. During the 1950s, she worked in nearby Managua at the newly-established Social Security agency as the country entered a new era of modern reforms and institution building. Last April, proposed cuts to social security benefits prompted an uprising that was met with brutal violence by the regime of President Daniel Ortega.

As of the time of this writing, it is estimated that more than 300 people have been killed by the regime’s excessively repressive tactics, including the deployment of snipers to kill student protestors and terrifying patrols by heavily-armed, hooded gunmen roaming through villages and marketplaces.

Because of my mother’s deep roots in Nicaragua, my brothers and I spent every summer there with our relatives. During the summer of 1978, we witnessed the triumph of the Nicaraguan Revolution firsthand, as the Sandinista Liberation Front ousted the long-running Somoza dictatorship. Now, nearly 40 years later, a massive uprising surges against the very government that betrayed that popular revolution.

Witnessing the Nicaraguan Revolution as a child was so transformative that I went on to study Latin American politics at the University of South Florida and the New School for Social Research in New York City before coming to Tulsa in 2006, where I now serve as the project director at New Sanctuary Network Tulsa.

I have always been interested in transnational migration—how people move, why they move, and what happens to them in their adopted cities and the communities they leave behind. I am a believer in the freedom of movement, including the right to cross boundaries and borders to pursue dreams and reach goals. The world seems to be doing the opposite, though, putting up more barriers and restrictions to the freedom of movement.

At New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, we are trying to prevent the deportations of undocumented immigrants who are too often vilified and criminalized for not having “the right papers.” Their lives are flattened by an incident— sometimes a small infraction, like driving without a license—deeming them unworthy of living safely in this country, despite having made a life here as they buy homes and raise families like everyone else.

We also help asylum seekers fleeing horrific situations in their home countries seek refuge and safety by connecting them to a sponsor. It is tremendously moving to hear stories between tears and expressions of utter despair by grown men and women who recount their journeys by sea, desert, and 26 // FEATURED

other dangerous terrain to seek refuge. I feel very proud to work with a group of people who, despite language barriers, can see the sincerity of their stories and heartfelt pleas for help. Most people don’t want to leave the places they are from. They leave because they have few other choices.

Since the popular uprising erupted in April, thousands of Nicaraguans have fled—mostly to neighboring Costa Rica, which has graciously tried to accommodate thousands of refugees. Living in makeshift shelters in parks and along highways, the Nicaraguan refugees are hoping peace and safety will be restored so they may return to their lives on the other side of the San Juan River. Some of the refugees have fled because a loved one has been killed by the paramilitary forces or personally threatened with death by the Ortega government. Fear is the essential driver.

As a Nicaraguan, American, and human rights activist, I am deeply troubled over the increasingly volatile political situation in Nicaragua. Having grown up as a Sandinista sympathizer and having admired and studied at length the Sandinista Revolution and its ideals—I even served as interpreter to Daniel Ortega during one of his fundraising tours in New York City in the mid 1990s—it was enraging to see how the movement was corrupted by power-hungry, self-proclaimed “owners” of the revolution using the very tactics they once abhorred in their fight against the Somoza dictatorship. Most Nicaraguans can see right through this hypocrisy. The parallels are too obvious.

Nicaragua has produced many greats, including literary giants, world-class baseball players and boxers, poets, and revolutionaries. I am confident it will produce a new generation of social justice and civic-minded leaders to build a new path forward for Nicaragua.

In the meantime, I worry about the refugees: the thousands of displaced people who are the victims of greed and lust for power. Six Nicaraguan asylum seekers who made it to the southern U.S. border in May were transported to David L. Moss detention center here in Tulsa. Two of the men “passed” their credible fear interviews. The others were denied and deported. I worry for the fate of those deportees.

I ask that if you have any connections to Nicaragua, if you have ever done mission work there, surfed the beaches, participated in eco-tourism, toured with your students, bought fair trade coffee, chocolate, rocking chairs, maquiladora made jeans; or if you’ve ever enjoyed a Flor de Cana rum or a Toña beer—yes, they sell them at Soul City—that you take a moment to think about the lives behind those commodities. And if you have a chance to sponsor someone, do it. a

¡VIVIRÁS MONIMBÓ!

T he saga of t he indigenous

neighborhood in Nica rag ua t hat inspired a

nationa l revolt

BY CARL DAVID GOETTE-LUCIAK PHOTOS BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

IN APRIL, MASAYA WAS NICARAGUA’S vibrant cultural destination, before it became the epicenter of a conflict that shook the nation. By May, its tourist attractions were burning to the ground. Gunfire echoed through the alleyways from dawn to dusk.

Rebels ousted government forces in June and declared the city’s independence— only to be overwhelmed by a terrifying paramilitary operation in July. Masaya lived under occupation all of August, a town of latched doors and drawn blinds—hiding families who grieved the recently departed and whispered fears of who might be next.

After the most turbulent five months in the city’s history, no one can predict what will come next. But every Nicaraguan knows the impact of what happened in Masaya: The indigenous neighborhood of Monimbó inspired a rebellion that spread across the country.

Since April, protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega have grown into a national crisis that has engulfed the small Central American country. The

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

announcement of controversial pension reforms sent thousands of Nicaraguans into the streets on April 18. Government authorities tried to suppress the rallies with violence, opening fire on the crowds and leaving dozens dead in the first days of unrest.

Rather than extinguishing dissent, the brutality of government repression transformed national discontent into outrage, fanning the flames of a nation-wide revolt. Ortega quickly withdrew the pension reforms. But the next day, hundreds of thousands marched in the nation’s capital, Managua, now demanding justice for the dead and an end to Ortega’s long rule.

Masaya became a symbol for the tumult in Nicaragua almost immediately. The city was once the cradle of the Sandinista Revolution, which deposed the Somoza dictatorship and brought Ortega and his comrades into power. After Ortega lost the 1990 election, Masaya stayed true to the comandante and his party—the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)—helping propel him back into office in 2007.

Many revolutionary leaders left the party soon after, claiming it had abandoned the socialist principles of Sandinismo for the ideology of Danielismo: devotion only to the increasingly autocratic president.

Ortega’s electoral victory was bolstered by pacts with longtime FSLN enemies in the right wing and Catholic Church. Critics allege that, as a result, Ortega consolidated control over the nation’s courts, legislature, and electoral tribunal. Some opposition parties were barred from participating in elections and the FSLN-dominated national assembly abolished presidential term limits.

Ortega, now in his 22nd cumulative year as head of state, has been accused of building a family dictatorship not unlike the one he helped overthrow decades ago, fighting alongside youthful men in Masaya.

Now elderly, many of those men protested the changes to their pension plans in Masaya’s central park on April 19. When the retirees were attacked by police, the city’s younger generation came to their defense.

Witnesses said police opened fire on the unarmed crowd, wounding dozens and killing three young men: Masaya’s first martyrs.

In response, the young protesters took a page from their parents’ rebel playbook and pried up the concrete bricks that paved the city’s streets. Stacking them together, they formed walls that blocked off roads and impeded the movement of police—a tactic that quickly spread across the country. Protesters in Monimbó employed these barricades to hold off police, firing home-made mortars from behind their protection.

On May 8, the ubiquitous red and black colors of the FSLN had been painted over

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

CLOCKWISE: A pro-government paramilitary member ransacks the home of a family that had been supportive of the protests. Following the cleansing operation, the family members were disappeared. President Daniel Ortega arrives at the annual Liberation Day celebration in Managua, Nicaragua, to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution’s victory. After the cleansing operation, the FSLN flag flies over the central square in Monimbó for the first time since the neighborhood renounced their historic allegiance to the party of Daniel Ortega, three months earlier. Citizens had torn the flag down and replaced it with the Nicaraguan flag, whose blue and white colors became the ubiquitous symbol of the national civic protest movement.

in the blue and white of the Nicaraguan flag. This Sandinista stronghold turning against Ortega was the canary in the coalmine for many observers, a sign of how much ground the government had lost. For protesters, it was an inspiring example, especially the indigenous neighborhood of Monimbó, where dozens of small, self-organized resistance groups began fighting on the frontlines to wrest control of the city from police.

In the center of Monimbó, Father César Gutiérrez waited in the doorway of the San Sebastian church, by a mural commemorating those who had died protesting. “It’s lamentable,” he reflected, “but the situation came to a breaking point … they shed innocent blood.” Residents drifted anxiously in and out of the church; Gutiérrez held their hands in his, listening to their worries patiently. “The church is with the people,” he said solemnly. As the visitors walked away, Gutiérrez mused: “They want

to put fear in the population, they’re trying to make it so that people don’t go out into the streets to protest—but this civic, pacifist cry for justice can’t be stopped.”

Protesters, makeshift mortars in hand, patiently watched the roads leading into Monimbó. I asked a young man— who hid his identity behind a bandana— what motivated him. “We’re fighting for the withdrawal of the government,” he explained. “We don’t want any more of this dictatorship.” When asked if this was still a Sandinista city, he replied: “Of course—Masaya has always been Sandinista” then clarified: “Sandinista—not Danielista—the people have stayed firm on being revolutionary.”

The plaza was still bustling with women selling bowls of pork-bone broth and chewy corn tortillas. These remaining slivers of normal city life were rapidly becoming smothered by the escalating violence nationwide.

As the barricades went up, paramilitary groups began to appear. In days, they became as ubiquitous a sight as jingling ice cream cart vendors had been before. Usually dressed in black, these bands of masked men, wielding AK-47s and shotguns, rode around in Toyota Hilux pickup trucks—the government’s preferred brand—attacking demonstrations and storming barricades, often alongside uniformed police.

On May 12, the increasingly militarized pro-government forces set out to end Monimbó’s rebellion for good. Holding out defiantly—under an assault lasting 12 hours and riddling the neighborhood with bullet holes—Monimbó became an icon of resilience, beloved by a burgeoning movement nationwide. But conditions for residents only worsened.

Masaya’s central market was looted. Banks closed down and businesses were sacked. The municipal offices and artisanal market were burned down.

FEATURED // 27

On June 18, the rebels who had seized and held Masaya against regime forces declared the city’s independence. It was a first for the national rebellion, but militant cities across Nicaragua were again inspired to follow their example.

On June 19, waist-high barricades sheltered nearly every city block inside Masaya. Stores were shuttered. Most business had vanished. The once-bustling central market had been made into a massive garbage dump to collect the sequestered city’s waste. Sidewalks were empty. The sound of gunfire erupted sporadically at all hours.

On safer streets, residents still gathered to joke and gossip. But the specter of violence lurking around each corner cast its long shadow over everything. Neighbors discussed the day’s sniper positions as if it was the weather. Residents who ventured out crouched low and darted across the avenues, bodies close to the barricades and heads ducked down below them. The words “vivirás Monimbó” were painted in an alleyway off the central avenue. (“Monimbó, you will survive!”)

In July, Ortega demanded that Monimbó be “cleansed” in time to celebrate the Sandinista Revolution’s 39th anniversary on July 19. In a fiery response, police commissioner Ramón Avellán, promised: “We will do it—at whatever cost!” At dawn on July 17, church bells rang frantically throughout Masaya, warning citizens and rebels of an assault.

The “cleansing operation,” involved thousands of police and paramilitary who overwhelmed the city’s defenses and flooded the streets of Monimbó. During eight hours of fighting, hundreds fled into the hillsides; paramilitary and police with dogs soon followed. Rebels who survived described to me a desperate chase, one in which innumerable young men and women were slain in the mountains.

Days later, Monimbó’s transformation was surreal. The Sandinista red and black had been painted over the monuments in Monimbó. An FSLN flag flew high in the central plaza. Alleyways were congested by long lines of Hilux trucks packed with masked men and automatic weapons.

Some businesses had returned. An ice cream shop—closed since May—was reopened. The owner was elated. “This was change for the better. [The barricades] brought us only poverty,” she said, asserting that Masaya had been liberated.

Outside, Donald Telica, a shoemaker 70 years old, bitterly disagreed: “They haven’t liberated anyone.”

At a main avenue vegetable stand, José Gonzales, the vendor, celebrated Masaya’s return to government control. “There were gangs being financed and paid; delinquents took advantage of it,” he re-

28 // FEATURED

called with disgust, arranging dark green avocadoes. “There were forces that wanted to topple the government for their own gain, a coup d’état.” FSLN supporters said they lived as shut-ins for months. Now the shoe was on the other foot.

Most residents of Monimbó refused to talk about what had transpired, insisiting it was dangerous to say anything. Two separate street vendors began to cry and retreated back inside their homes when I asked what had happened on the 17th.

One middle-aged woman offered her story, but only if anonymity was guaranteed.

“We spent those seven hours [during the assault] lying on the floor. You could hear the whistle of the bullets flying by,” she recalled. “It was horrible, how they killed them.” She spoke softly from behind her half-closed doorway. “Now they’re going around taking people from their houses.”

Videos shared on social media July 17 showed paramilitary dragging young men from their homes. Some were later released. Others were imprisoned in Managua. Many were still unaccounted for.

A growing number of distraught parents found themselves inside a nightmare.

“They snatched him up right here,” said 55-year-old saddle craftsmen Agustín Hernández of his son, pointing just a few feet from the family’s home in Monimbó.

The family searched everywhere. Finally, Hernández checked the last place he wanted to: the morgue. There, he found the mutilated body of his 30-year-old son, Edgardo—he’d been tortured, then shot in the head and chest.

Neighbors gathered in a packed-dirt space behind the Hernández home. Some brought coffee and pico sweet bread for the mourners. Edgardo’s daughter sat patiently in her mother’s lap. She smiled, open-mouthed with recognition, at a photo of her father passed around the group, reaching out to play with it, bending the portrait between her tiny hands. As her mother softly cried, the one-year-old studied her mother’s face with wide-eyed curiosity that slowly became anxious confusion.

The girl’s grandfather leaned against a wall around the corner from the wake.

“The paramilitary is worse than [Somoza’s] national guard was,” the anguished father raged. “Daniel Ortega says we’re at peace—lies!—they massacred my son, who wasn’t even protesting … they’ll just take anyone they come across.” It seemed impossible for Hernández to grasp how— or why—Edgardo lay dead inside the house. He told me his son had just graduated from the national police academy. “I was a Sandinista,” the bewildered father decalred. “But after what they did to my son,” his voice faltered, “I’m not one anymore.” a

TOP: Edgardo Hernández’s daughter holds of picture of her father, who was killed during the cleansing of Monimbó, while family gather at his wake. CENTER: A truck filled with paramilitary and national police, one of a dozen forming convoy unit, patrols Mon the cleanse. BELOW: Protesters march in remembrance of the students killed during the uprising. Managua, Nicaragua July 23,

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

Jennifer Payton, Rev. Chris Moore, and Rev. Leslie Penrose | GREG BOLLINGER

SOLI DA R I T Y F ROM A FA R

R

and friends nimbó after 3, 2018.

JUSTHOPE PROVIDES A LOCAL BASE FOR SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP IN NICARAGUA

Rev. Leslie Penrose started working to combat poverty in Central America in 1986, the year the United Nations’ International Court of Justice ruled that the U.S. violated international law in backing a right-wing rebellion against Nicaragua’s government. The country was in chaos as a result of the conflict, and Penrose, then a new seminarian, found herself encountering a human reality far more complex than what was reported in the news—so complex that it called her to explore a model of aid that could better reflect that nuance.

Dropping off supplies and going home, she saw, just wasn’t working.

In 1998, after Hurricane Mitch dealt the region another devastating blow, Penrose gathered a small group to begin working in long-term partnership with community leaders in Chacraseca, a town of 8,000 people near Nicaragua’s western coast. In 2007, that partnership took official form as JustHope, a Tulsa-based “social-profit” organization that provides opportunities for North Americans to work with Nicaraguan community leaders to bring about sustainable change.

For the past decade, that effort has happened mainly through the PartnerTrips program, which takes groups of eight to 20 people—from TCC nursing students to members of church congregations—to Chacraseca. Participants spend weeks immersing themselves in the community and assisting with needs identified by local leaders. Every project is guided by what executive director Jennifer Payton said is an informal tag line for JustHope: “Nothing for you without you.”

It’s the opposite of a flashy, quick-fix program. This is—like slow food—slow aid: a refusal to shape an outcome according to one’s wishes (however well-intentioned they may be), an effort to help the community speak for itself and stand on its own.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

BY ALICIA CHESSER Both words in the organization’s name are mission-critical, part of a commitment to cross-border aid based in the principles of solidarity, mutuality, collaboration, and sustainability.

“Our developmental model is the ‘hope’ part of it,” Penrose said. “The ‘justice’ part is that we don’t take a single group down there that doesn’t get sociopolitical education. That part comes also when they come home and watch the news and say, ‘That doesn’t sound like the people I met.’ Maybe they come back with more questions than they went with, with a long-term hunger to understand whatever context they’re working in here through the eyes of the people on the ground.”

The current conflict in Nicaragua has thrown JustHope a massive curve ball, said board president Rev. Chris Moore. For the safety of staff and participants, all planned trips for the rest of 2018 have been cancelled, resulting in a significant hit to the organization’s budget and an equally significant challenge in how to think about what their mission means without on-theground contact. If North Americans aren’t able to be present with their Nicaraguan counterparts, what does sustainable help look like? How can someone stand in solidarity from afar?

In reality, JustHope’s programs in Nicaragua—education, agriculture, health, and social enterprise (or microcredit)—are running all the time, regardless of trip participants being there, according to Payton. “This how we know that the work we’ve been doing works. Our staff of nine in Nicaragua is fully capable of continuing these programs without Americans there to make sure it’s happening. There’s sustainability there.”

At the same time, maintaining financial, organizational, and volunteer support for those programs remains critical.

“If we are paying that Nicaraguan staff member who goes to Chacraseca every day to run a program, the community knows that, and they know that JustHope is standing with them,” Penrose explained. “In continuing to run this organization, we’re providing the ability for Nicaraguans to stand on our behalf.”

Given the gravity of the current crisis, Moore said it didn’t feel right for JustHope’s annual “Wine for Water” fundraiser on Oct. 11 at the Greenwood Cultural Center to be just another “dinner, drinks, and dancing” event.

“Standing in solidarity means that when things change there, things change here,” Moore said. This year’s event will be an opportunity to gain some human-scale, sociopolitically contextualized understanding of the situation on the ground, as well as information on ways to get involved with the organization’s uniquely post-colonial approach to mission work.

Payton said the crisis has created an opportunity for JustHope’s staff, board, donors, and volunteers to think about global engagement in creative ways. “It’s heartbreaking, but it’s also amazing,” she said. “What we’ve helped the Chacraseca community achieve so far in terms of its own resiliency, sustainability, and decreased dependence—we get to put that to the test at this point. I’m inviting people to be part of that. The potential is limitless.”

Up close or from afar, this sort of aid is primarily about developing and sustaining relationships. It can be more challenging to support the kind of growth JustHope facilitates than to help in ways that make us feel that hit of “rescuer” gratification. But that’s the difference between charity and solidarity. The latter, in Penrose’s words, means this: “Dreaming another’s dreams with them, instead of your dreams for them.” a FEATURED // 29

‘Your vagina is my business’ Sultana Steam offers alternative treatments for ‘womb care’

by HOLLY WALL

ILLUSTRATION BY MORGAN WELCH

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

W

hen Melissa Williams and Meashalik Knox opened Sultana Steam in Tulsa last April, they weren’t really aiming to start a business as much as they wanted to try something new.

“It originally started because we were curious,” Knox said.

Sultana Steam is the fi rst franchise of a Houston-based peristeam hydrotherapy practice—vaginal steaming, to put it more plainly, although the practice is also known as v-steaming and yoni steaming. Knox and Williams like to refer to it as “womb care.”

Modeled after ancient Eastern and African medicine, yoni steaming involves sitting over a bowl of hot water, to which various herbs have been added, and allowing the steam to waft upward toward the reproductive organs. The practice garnered some attention a couple of years ago when celebrities like Gwenyth Paltrow and Chrissy Teigen started blogging and tweeting about it.

Proponents of the practice claim it helps to regulate menstrual cycles, heal infections, reduce cysts and fibroids, aid with healing after childbirth, increase fertility, alleviate symptoms of menopause, decrease depression and anxiety, and more. (Most claims are subjective; so far, no formal research on the practice has been published.)

Williams and Knox were mostly looking to try it out when they got in touch with Knox’s friend, Sultana Nailor, who lives in Houston and owns Sultana Steam. At the time, no one in Tulsa was offering v-steaming; a spa in Edmond was the only place in Oklahoma to have it done. So Nailor offered to come to Tulsa and help the two women throw a “peristeam party,” a service offered by Sultana Steam where women gather in groups of three to six and steam together.

But the more Williams and Knox learned about the practice and its benefits, the more they started to think about finding a way to offer the service to other people in Tulsa.

“The history of gynecology is traumatic,” Williams said. “Women’s bodies were test subjects—

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

especially black women. And so to know that we can help with some of the same issues women go to the doctor for… especially if you’ve ever been victimized sexually, a pap smear can be traumatic.

So for me knowing that women can come here and have their needs met, and it doesn’t need to be a traumatic experience, is just a blessing in and of itself.”

Both Knox and Williams are full-time therapists—they book v-steam appointments during their lunch hours, after work, and on the weekends—and they approach the practice as a “body, mind, spirit process,” Williams said. They feel like this sets their service apart from others.

“It’s a partnership. We feel like whatever plan or goal that you have, we want to be with you step by step,” Knox said. “It’s more to us than just ‘steam and bye.’ It’s a relationship.

“It’s also peaceful—a time to reset, gather your thoughts, process your feelings,” she said. “A time for you.”

Knox and Williams begin each of their sessions by offering clients a warm mug of herbal tea, made with some of the same herbs used in the steaming process. You fi ll out an intake form that lets the practitioners know what womb issues you may have—fibroids, endometriosis, heavy or painful menstrual cycles, etc.—and what goals you have for the session. Knox and Williams offer each client a small journal to make notes in, or to set an intention for the steam session.

Then you change into a terry cloth robe while they prepare the steam bath based on your answers to the questionnaire.

For instance, they may use basil, chamomile, and calendula to help regulate your cycle, or basil, mugwort, and raspberry leaf to treat fibroids and cysts.

When it’s ready, you’re led into a dimly lit room to a wooden box with a hole in the center that’s been draped with sanitation paper and padded with thick white towels. You break a hole into the paper with your hand, then sit down over the hole in the seat.

They lay a blanket over your lap and leave you with an eye mask (if you want it), your journal, and THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

your thoughts. The journal isn’t mandatory—I used mine to scribble down notes for this story—but they do encourage you to relax.

At first, the steam was really hot, and I had to sort of squat over the seat and let some of it release. After a couple of minutes, it cooled down to a comfortable temperature and I was able to sit and relax.

There were essential oils diffusing and nature sounds playing.

Tapestries hung over the windows blocked out most of the sunlight, and a couple of salt lamps were turned on. I brought a friend with me, who finished steaming after 10 minutes. (People with IUDs aren’t allowed to steam any longer than that; they don’t want to risk dislodging it.) My session lasted 20 minutes.

I didn’t feel completely changed after my session, although some say that’s what they experience, but I did notice some increased softness—sort of like how your skin feels after you’ve had a facial. And I slept really well that night.

Williams said results differ for everyone, and she loves hearing from clients afterward. “People will send a message and say, ‘I wasn’t enjoying sex … and now I am, or I was having an odor or some discharge and now that’s clearing up for me,’” she said.

Knox and Williams both said clients tell them things they won’t tell their mothers or closest friends—mostly because of the stigma they associate with talking about their reproductive systems.

“During this process, we learned how uncomfortable women were with their bodies,” Knox said. “I don’t want to whisper ‘vagina.’ I want to yell ‘vagina!’

We actually made shirts that say, ‘Your vagina is my business.’ We want to normalize that word and have the conversation.”

“And let’s put away the misconceptions,” Williams added.

“There’s a lot of shame that a lot of women carry—about vaginal odors, for example—when it’s really something very simple.”

Knox continued: “We’re all about empowering women, letting them know there’s a place that genuinely cares about your whole wellbeing.” a

New Glass Tunnels in 16 colors - 8g up to 1” $7 to $20 per pair

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

Great PEACE have they which LOVE thy law.

The best of Tulsa: music, arts, dining, news, things to do, and more.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST 924 S. Boulder Church & Sunday School • 10:30am Wednesday Meeting • 6:00pm Reading Room • Mon. & Wed. • 11am-1pm

WE’RE GIVING AWAY

FREE

STUFF!

REGISTER BY SEPT. 30

AT

thetulsavoice.com

AUTUMN BREWS PACKAGE $200 package includes gift cards for: Prairie Brewpub, McNellie’s, George’s Pub and Blue Rose Cafe.

FREE IT ’S L E G A L T IL L

Tulsa’rsee F ONLY u na Marij yaer Law

Free legal representation for first offense marijuana possession.

Tulsa District & City Courts only.

No juvenile cases.

Reasonable fees for other charges.

Some restrictions apply.

Michael Fairchild • Attorney at Large • 918-58-GRASS (584-7277) ARTS & CULTURE // 31

artspot

‘All women are strong’ Dana Tiger’s art continues a family legacy

by KIMBERLY BURK

T

he watercolor resting on Dana Tiger’s easel in her Muskogee studio wasn’t nearly finished, but it already had a title.

The painting would be called “Seven Women Riding in Stressful Times,” and the models for the Native American horsewomen were the seven granddaughters of Lucinda Tiger, who died June 28 at the age of 96.

Dana, her sister Lisa, and their five cousins had come together to surround their grandmother’s hospital bed in her final hours.

The night before the funeral, they convened at a church near Eufaula, per tradition, to stay awake with the body.

“Lisa is crazy. I’m crazy. We laughed all night,” Tiger said.

Tiger, 56, lost yet another significant woman in her life when she said goodbye to her mother just the year before. But she finds inspiration everywhere for her art, which she describes as “paintings of strong women.”

“I think all women are strong,” she said. “Just by being a woman, you have that strength.”

Her mother, Peggy, showed her what a strong woman could do after her father, Jerome Tiger, died at age 26 in an accidental shooting.

Dana was five.

Jerome Tiger painted professionally for only five years but left behind a large body of work. His 24-year-old widow provided for their three children by turning his legacy into a business.

“She took Dad’s work and made the world know about it,” Dana Tiger said.

Peggy’s business partner was Jerome’s brother, Johnny Tiger Jr., who was also an artist and a mentor to his nieces and nephew.

“We practically were forced to do art as children,” Dana Tiger

32 // ARTS & CULTURE

Dana Tiger paints in her Muskogee studio | KIMBERLY BURK

said. “We couldn’t go play until we did art work for the shows. Art was the family business, and my mom was a great businesswoman.”

Peggy Tiger contracted with JC Penney to produce T-shirts bearing silkscreened images of Johnny Tiger’s art.

“We turned out thousands,” Dana Tiger said. “That was lucrative.”

Dana studied political science at Oklahoma State University and didn’t get serious about art until she sold out her first show at a festival in Tulsa at the age of 24.

“With that show I was able to buy my own home and buy my own car,” she said. “I set myself up to never get married.”

But her new home was a cabin in the country. “I started getting a little lonesome,” she said.

So she uttered a prayer, asking for a man “who was handsome, who had read a few books, and who wouldn’t dominate my life.”

It wasn’t long before Donnie Blair came along. He met all her

criteria, and was Cherokee to boot.

Tiger is Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, and Cherokee.

Blair does the matting and framing at the Tiger Gallery, and he took on important domestic duties while their son Lisan and daughter Christie were growing up. “Donnie did all the cooking,” Tiger said.

Christie’s painting of her young son was featured on the March cover of Native Oklahoma. Lisan is a sculptor. The family gallery also showcases the work of basket weaver Britteny Cuevas and apparel artist Michael Deo. Dana Tiger’s art “is an excellent example of a Muskogee Creek woman’s perspective,” said Tom Farris, manager of Exhibit C Native Gallery and Gifts in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown district.

“Most Southeastern tribes were matrilineal,” Farris said. “It makes sense to get the strong female point of view.”

Several of Tiger’s paintings are

currently on display in an exhibit called “Perspectives” that continues through Oct. 31 at Exhibit C. Kevin Workman, who lives in Broken Arrow and was working recently in Muskogee, made an unscheduled stop when he spotted the Tiger name on the front of the gallery. He said he has been a fan of the family’s art since he first saw Jerome Tiger’s work many years ago.

“I think what first grabbed me was the colors and the lines, and how everything was put together,” Workman said. “It was very pleasing to the eye, and gave me a little bit of an escape.”

In 1999, Dana Tiger began having symptoms that were eventually diagnosed as Parkinson’s Disease. She takes medication every three hours that enables her to walk. As a result, her art has evolved to accommodate her physical challenges. “My work has changed from more realistic to more abstract,” she said.

But Tiger said the disease has not progressed as quickly as she expected it to, and she credits traditional healers coupled with modern medicine.

“I’ve seen our Indian doctors,” she said. “They know the songs and the healing plants handed down from a long time ago.”

Tiger has donated art to fund breast cancer and AIDS research, and she volunteers at the Murrow Indian Children’s Home in Muskogee. Her family foundation, the Legacy Cultural Learning Community, teaches Native culture to children. Tiger was inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001.

“I’ve had the craziest, happiest, most wonderful life,” Tiger said. “Keeping alive the traditions and art of my people is the most important thing to me.” a September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

over!

Ge t

lB

rew

eries!

Pr

ib h o

n is itio

an in

side l ook a

t

Loc

a

We drive you to drink.

A

R

1 3

T

H

T

A

EROKE

T

H

E

C

Book now to begin your journey with us on Tulsa’s ale trail.

(918) 403-9483 • pearlbrewerytours.com

MARK

N

E

N

U

A

L

CHEROKEE ART MARKET OCTOBER 1 3 & 1 4

Sequoyah Convention Center at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa CherokeeArtMarket.com | (877) 779-6977

Bill Glass Jr. - “The Discussion Revolves” (sculpture) Best of Class

© 2018 Cherokee Nation Businesses. All Rights Reserved.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

artspot

Many hands make art work Black Wall Street Gallery offers a new kind of ‘conciliation’

by ZACK REEVES

D

r. Ricco Wright, the chair of Black Wall Street Arts, isn’t phased when asked why the first Black Wall Street Arts exhibition doesn’t exclusively feature black artists.

“You’ve got to understand that there were white patrons of Black Wall Street,” Wright said. It was more that we didn’t have access to that other world, because integration wasn’t the case at the time …

I’m using the moniker Black Wall Street because of the spirit of it. I believe in that entrepreneurial spirit. I believe in inclusion. The more I learn about Black Wall Street, the more I want to emulate that.”

Wright, an animated speaker, is a Tulsa native who spent a few years in New York City getting a doctorate in mathematics education at Columbia. And to hear it from him, he came back from New York with a specific purpose.

“I think the most important part of my being back home is unifying Tulsa,” he said. “I don’t believe in segregating ourselves anymore. I don’t believe in separating opportunities. I don’t believe in not granting access.

When I put on events, it’s always a diverse crowd; I’m intentional about that.”

That will undoubtedly be true when Black Wall Street Gallery opens this Friday. The exhibition is the first part of the “Conciliation Series,” which will pair up one black artist with one white artist on a rotating basis throughout the course of its one-year run. The first two artists in the series are Alexander Tamahn, a member of Black Moon Collective, and JP Morrison Lans, a painter and portraitist who worked on ahha’s THE EXPERIENCE. Tamahn grew up in Grand Rapids and Chicago: a latch-key 34 // ARTS & CULTURE

“Worthy” | ALEXANDER TAMAHN

kid who rode the subways alone and used art to avoid doing his homework. He transplanted to Tulsa to study at ORU and has stayed on ever since.

“There’s been this exponential upswing in the growth and character of this town,” Tamahn said. “It’s been pretty cool. So I’m grateful to be a part of that.”

Tamahn’s work is lush and colorful, mostly in acrylic, though he identifies his work as mixed media.

He paints otherworldly pictures of figures and faces, often suspended in bright celestial or floral atmospheres. You’ve probably seen his yellow #blacklivesmatter mural

among many other Day of the Dead murals behind Elgin Park, inscribed with the names of Eric Harris and Terence Crutcher.

JP Morrison Lans also works in mixed media, blending human body parts in a gleeful neglect of anatomy: One human may have three faces, or be made entirely out of legs. Her works, too, are colorful and bright, something you may have noticed if you walked through THE EXPERIENCE at ahha. Lans was one of the five lead artists on the project.

Lans has been working in the region for almost two decades.

At age 16, her work was chosen

for an exhibition with the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition; since then, she’s gotten a degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. She lived in Australia for a spell, but ultimately came back to Tulsa to stay in 2014.

They bond over their focus on hands: both artists isolate hands in their work and paint hands with roots growing out of them—they’re both self-admitted hand-enthusiasts. It’s something that Wright, the organizer of the show, was drawn to: “[They] emphasize hands. We do so many things with our hands; we even say, in this metaphorical way, ‘the world is in our hands.’

“I personally think Alexander is the Basquiat of Tulsa,” he said.

“It evokes emotion, when he puts that paintbrush on the canvas.

He knows exactly how to impress upon the viewer whatever it is that he’s trying to convey. I like that.

“And then with JP Morrison, I think you find a sort of abstract avant-garde; but then, she’s so particular with details. The way she can actually draw skin and make it look so real—but then, some of it is surrealism, too. So, I like her flirting with realism and surrealism and putting it on the canvas. I’m just fascinated by her ability and her skillset.”

Tamahn and Lans are, in Wright’s words, “the two artists leading the pack … I admire their work; I also like them as individuals. When I think about a progressive Tulsa, I look at the two of them: on the chocolate side, and on the vanilla side.” a

BLACK WALL STREET GALLERY OPENING Friday, Sept. 7, 6 p.m.

101 N Greenwood September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN Native Tulsan is part of the touring production of ‘Wicked’

by JUDY LANGDON Jason Graae as the Wizard of Oz | JUSTIN BARNES

W

hen Chapman Music Hall’s curtain rises Sept. 5 for Celebrity Attractions’ three-week run of the Broadway smash “Wicked,” a Tulsan will be among the leading actors.

Jason Graae, 1976 graduate of Tulsa’s Edison High School, was named to the role of the Wizard of Oz this past May when the show hit Omaha. “That’s where the Wizard is from, so it was kind of perfect,” Graae says.

“Wicked,” written by Stephen Schwartz, tells the story of two witches and their relationship with the Wizard. “I feel mighty lucky to be part of this big, beautiful show,” which is the sixth-longest running in Broadway history, Graae says. “It was daunting when I first joined this incredible company. Now, I’m so proud to have

the opportunity to help tell this wonderful story.”

Growing up, Graae played oboe for Tulsa Youth Symphony and participated in Theatre Tulsa.

A musical theater degree brought him to New York in 1980. “I love the immediacy of a live audience,” Graae says. “You and the audience are in the same hall living and breathing the experience together. You have more control in the theater.”

When he’s not on the road, he splits his time between the Big Apple and Los Angeles. But between his Tulsa performances this month, Graae plans to enjoy “running along the river,” catching up with friends and exploring around the Tulsa PAC. He says, “I hear downtown has built up, and I look forward to spending time there.” a

E V E N T S @ T PA C

onstage

Katie Pernu PAC Art Gallery Now - Oct. 1 Wicked Celebrity Attractions Sept. 5-23 Piaf – No Regrets Choregus Productions Sept. 7 Montrose Trio Chamber Music Tulsa Sept. 23 Diary of a Worm, a Spider and a Fly Tulsa PAC Trust Sept. 28 Black Violin Innovations Arts & Entertainment Sept. 29 The Second City: Made In America Tulsa PAC Trust Sept. 29

TICKETS @ TULSAPAC.COM 918.596.7111

ABOUT ‘WICKED’ Before Dorothy’s house fell into Oz, struggle raged through the land. The governor’s daughter was born under a curse—thus, she had emerald green skin. A dramatic adaptation of Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” the smash hit musical follows a pair of curious friends and the evolution of their relationship until its ultimate demise.

Two young women meet at Shiz University, where they are studying sorcery. Glenda (or Ga-linda, as she emphasizes at the beginning of the play) is blonde and popular; she is the Barbie of Oz. She even sings a song called “Popular.” Meanwhile, there’s Elphaba, whose emerald skin has always cast her as other—as a misfit. After initially not getting along, they become friends. For a while.

When the pair gets the chance to meet the Wizard—shout out to Tulsan Jason Graae— much like Dorothy and her “Wizard of Oz” companions, they find out he isn’t the great and powerful leader he claims to be. In fact, he is an oppressor who must be stopped. That’s a deal-breaker for Elphaba but not for Glenda, who becomes his right hand.

Eventually they become the characters we know from “The Wizard of Oz,” Glenda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. The story of how they got there is a turbulent one of love, infidelity, secrets, and adventure. Tickets can be purchased at tulsapac.com.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

WORD ON THE STREET What’s got you most excited about Gathering Place?

SEPT. 29 @ 8 P.M. Tulsa Performing Arts Center

Tulsa’s newest urban park opens Sept. 8, and people of all ages have something to look forward to. The $465 million project has transformed the area surrounding Riverside Drive near 31st Street into an outdoor space with BMX and skate parks, places to dine, trails, and a plethora of playground equipment. Riverside Drive will open to traffic Sept. 10. We asked around town to get an idea of what everyone is excited about, and this is how they answered.

John H. Williams Theatre

TICKETS @

TULSAPAC.COM or 918.596.7111 VIP MEET & GREET TIX ALSO AVAILABLE!

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

TYLER KNAUS, BAKER “I’m looking forward to being able to bike through the river (area) again.”

ELISEO CASIANO, ARTIST “The Roots show on opening night!”

MARGARET STALL, BARISTA “I’m excited to use Riverside again.

It’s going to be great.”

DAVID GARDNER, BARISTA “I can’t wait until I can walk on the land bridge knowing that I’m over Riverside (Drive).”

JESSICA FREED, NURSE “A sandbox used to get kids outside. With our children’s world constantly evolving, technology pulls them inside. The outdoor world needed a big win, and I think Gathering Place has done that.”

WAYMON BROWN, OSU GRAD “I can finally get to my destinations, and it will unclog Brookside.” a

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

contactsheet

MOTHERHOOD/ WOMANHOOD words and photos by MEGAN HOSMER A doula once told me that women are unique in their ability to flourish in the face of discomfort. Childbirth is one of the most natural and uncomfortable experiences, and only women undergo it. While this strength that all women share is incredible, the ability to bring life into the world is simultaneously used to define women as one identical unit. Some women choose to be mothers, but all women do not share that experience. Female identities are largely defined by cultural constructs of womanhood and motherhood.

The women I photograph are strangers. I photograph women in places that are comfortable and where they feel their identities are accurately represented.

This is essential to my work as I want to portray an organic and authentic image of the different lifestyles these women hold. I want to understand the social and individual characteristics that make up their versions of womanhood and motherhood. My goal is to meet and understand a variety of women and the influences motherhood has had on their everyday. Not all women are mothers, but all women are daughters, and the role that their mothers play in their lives shapes the people they become.

The images of different women and experiences displayed as a unified whole is my method of portraying the strength in discomfort that unites women. I work to acknowledge and accept differences while creating a platform for honest connections to be made between subjects. Moreover, I aim to give women agency in how they are portrayed through these images and to show the importance of understanding the social implications of womanhood and motherhood, along with the different ways women utilize their ability to grow from discomfort in the patriarchy. a

Contact Sheet is a place for local photographers to share their projects. If you’re interested in submitting, write to voices@langdonpublishing.com.

You can follow Megan on Instagram at @mango_megan.

38 // ARTS & CULTURE

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 39

POP CULTURE

TULSA PEARL FEST Saturday, Sept. 15 | Pearl & Meadow Gold Districts, facebook.com/tulsapearlfest Local businesses and art are the focus of this multifaceted celebration taking place at several locations including: Big Om at Home Yoga Festival A full day of yoga classes and live music at Centennial Park

Route 66 Cookout and Market Hosted by Josey Records and Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios and featuring music from The Shelter People, Acid Queen, and Amerigo Brewery Events Games, music, and beer at Cabin Boys Brewery and The Willows Family Ales

6th Street Shutdown Pearl Fest culminates with an outdoor audio/visual party known as Neon Dreams

WizardWorld Comic Con returns to Cox Business Center with appearances by Hellboy (Ron Pearlman), The Fonz (Henry Winkler), and the “Rookie of the Year” (Thomas Ian Nicholas), among many others. Sept. 7–9, $40-$475, wizardworld.com FOOD FUNDRAISER

50 restaurants will offer prix fixe menus during the 12th annual Restaurant Week. For each meal served, restaurants will donate to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma’s Food for Kids.

Sept. 7–16, tulsapeople.com/restaurantweek

GRAND OPENING

It’s finally here. The Gathering Place Grand Opening kicks off 100 days of events with a free concert

by Black Thought, ?uestlove, and The Legendary Roots Crew, and others. Sept. 8, 2:30–8 p.m., gatheringplace.org

THEATRE

LATINX CULTURE

See seven original short plays by local writers at the ninth annual Heller Shorts: On Cloud 9. Sept. 6–9, $14–$20, Nightingale Theater, hellertheatreco.com

Learn dance moves under the stars at Salsa Night, Sept. 13, and celebrate Mexican Independence Day (a day early) at Kendall Whittier Mercado, Sept. 15. visitkendallwhittier.com

THEATRE

FESTIVAL

A rock goddess suffers a botched operation in Theatre Tulsa’s encore production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Sept. 6–15, $20, Dennis R. Neill Equality Center, theatretulsa.org

Higher Plains Hip Hop & Jazz Festival returns to The Vanguard with performances by Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy, Dynamo, Steph Simon, Sativa Prophets, and more. Sept. 14–15, $10–$100, thevanguardtulsa.com

FIRST FRIDAY

FESTIVAL

This month’s First Friday Art Crawl includes Tulsa Symphony’s annual Symphony in the Park performance under the skyline at Guthrie Green and Nouveau Cru’s evening of local art and performance at Vanguard. Sept. 7, thetulsaartsdistrict.org

Oklahoma ScotFest will feature 20 bands on traditional Celtic and Celtic rock stages, Highland Games, Scottish and Irish beers, whiskey tastings, food, crafts, and workshops. Sept. 14–16, $5-$275, Broken Arrow Events Park, okscotfest.com

GRAND OPENING

BALLET

Black Wall Street Gallery will celebrate its grand opening with a block party on Greenwood. Sept. 7, 5–10 p.m., facebook.com/blackwallstreetgallery

Tulsa Ballet’s annual evening of new works, Creations in Studio K, will feature the first major collaboration between the company and Philbrook, as well as pieces by Alejandro Cerrudo and Jennifer Archibald. Sept. 14–23, $25–$75, tulsaballet.org

FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL

Now in its 39 year, Bluegrass & Chili Festival will take place in Downtown Wagoner for the first time, with music from Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and more. Sept. 7–8, bluegrasschilifest.com th

40 // ARTS & CULTURE

The second-annual MisFEST celebrates and empowers women in music and will feature performances

by Katie Herzig, Faye Moffett, Lauren Barth, Nightingale, Rachel Bachman, and more. Sept. 15, River West Festival Park, misfest.com September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE REST

Kountry Wayne // 9/9, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

EVENTS

Open Mic Comedy // 9/10, The Fur Shop, facebook.com/ TheFurShopTulsa

Tulsa Artist Fellowship Writers’ Salon // 9/5, Rudisill Regional Library, tulsaartistfellowship.org The Business of Music with Hanson // 9/6, 36 Degrees North, 36n.co Innovative Impressions Conversation // 9/7, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org Meet David Grann, Author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” // 9/7, Central Library, events.tulsalibrary.org Labapalooza // 9/8, Guthrie Green, labrescue.net Tulsa Music Mixer + Panel w/ Branjae, Casii Stephan, and Paul Benjaman // 9/10, Woody Guthrie Center, tulsafmac.com

Hannibal Buress // 9/11, Cain’s Ballroom, cainsballroom.com VFW Comedy Open Mic // 9/11, Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577, facebook.com/ vfwcomedyopenmic Tom Clark // 9/12–15, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

Landry Miller and Synth Swarm // 9/14, The Beehive Lounge, facebook.com/beehivetulsa

Swimsuit USA Swimsuit Competition // 9/8, Hard Rock Casino - The Joint, hardrockcasinotulsa.com

Open Mic Comedy // 9/17, The Fur Shop, facebook.com/ TheFurShopTulsa

Ride and Skate with the Pros // 9/10, Gathering Place Skatepark, gatheringplace.org

VFW Comedy Open Mic // 9/18, Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577, facebook.com/ vfwcomedyopenmic

Joy in the Cause 5K // 9/14, River West Festival Park, joyinthecause.run

SPORTS Ride and Skate with the Pros // 9/8, Gathering Place Skatepark, gatheringplace.org

Tulsa Roughnecks FC vs San Antonio FC // 9/15, ONEOK Field, roughnecksfc.com WWE Smackdown Live: Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match & Six Man Tag Team Match // 9/18, BOK Center, bokcenter.com

WICKED HAS LANDED IN TULSA

Story Time at the Reading Tree w/ Globetrotter Saul White // 9/11, Gathering Place, gatheringplace.org Story Time at the Reading Tree w/ teacher Kirby Mackenzie // 9/13, Gathering Place, gatheringplace.org Tattoo Roulette // 9/14, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org MisFEST Kickoff w/ Katie Herzig // 9/14, Woody Guthrie Center, woodyguthriecenter.org Classics at the Drive-In Car Show & Swap Meat // 9/15, Admiral Twin Drive-In, facebook.com/ oklahomacarshows Story Time at the Reading Tree w/ Casa De Cultura // 9/18, Gathering Place, gatheringplace.org

PERFORMING ARTS WICKED // 9/5–23, Tulsa PAC - Chapman Music Hall, tulsapac.com Piaf - No Regrets // 9/7, Tulsa PAC - Liddy Doenges Theatre, tulsapac.com

The untold true story of the Witches of Oz

The Streisand Songbook // 9/7–8, Van Trease PACE, signaturesymphony.org Steampunked! - Tulsa Camerata // 9/13, Philbrook Museum of Art, tulsacamerata.org Ok, So Story Slam - Theme: Hero // 9/13, IDL Ballroom, facebook.com/ oksotulsa

COMEDY Marc Rubbén, Michael Zampino // 9/5–8, Loony Bin, tulsa. loonybincomedy.com

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

Now Thru September 23 TULSA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER MyTicketOffice.com 918-596-7111

ARTS & CULTURE // 41

Neko Case | EMILY SHUR

musicnotes

‘Sealed by fire, filled with love’ Neko Case talks fairy tales, women producers, and ‘bad luck’ ahead of her performance at Cain’s Ballroom

by ALEXANDRA ROBINSON

A

fascination with the mystical sets the tone for “Hell-On,” the latest release from critically-acclaimed singer, songwriter, and producer Neko Case. “Let’s say you walk under a ladder, and it’s bad luck for whatever reason,” she muses over the phone. “It’s basically like doing a spell!”

Her first since 2013’s “The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You,” Case’s latest finds her in a moment of renewed empowerment and vulnerability, with the same penchant for a strange story.

Case has stayed plenty busy during the time between solo albums. The past couple of years have seen her through the release of The New Pornographers’ “Whiteout Conditions,” a collaboration with k.d. Lang and Laura Viers (aptly titled “case/lang/ viers”), her appearance at the firstof-its-kind “WomanProducer” Summit in Brooklyn, and the fire that burned down her 225-yearold Vermont home just before the album wrapped.

For a work that is all but literally “sealed by fire, filled with love,” as the accompanying press release describes it, “Hell-On” is a collection of tales from an artist who’s been through the fire and emerged from the flames. Case plays Cain’s Ballroom in support of “Hell-On” Sept. 9.

42 // MUSIC

ALEXANDRA ROBINSON: Tulsa’s really excited to have you back! Especially at Cain’s Ballroom which has such a deep honky-tonk history.

NEKO CASE: Yeah, I played there with The New Pornographers one time—loved it!

ROBINSON: I’d love to talk “HellOn.” I’m actually really obsessed with the way this record opens.

I love a good kalimba.

CASE: [laughs] I’m glad there’s a fanbase for kalimba out there.

ROBINSON: It gives me the chills in the same way I got as a kid reading “Arabian Nights.” I know you have a similar fascination with fairy tales—where does that come from?

CASE: I just was a super rabid reader as a kid, and I heard a lot of fairy tales as a kid but they were kind of a little dull […] And then I got into eastern European fairy tales that didn’t have a moral—they were more cautionary, and they strayed away from things that were religious […] they were a little cultural, but more often than not they were just common sense. And they were super dark and super funny. And animals did a lot of stuff with people, because, you know, people turn animals into the human trait they were trying to exhibit, so that the third party could examine that and go, “Oh, I totally do that!” or, September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

“Oh, I was just gonna go out in the woods covered in peanut butter after dark—maybe I shouldn’t do that now.” But they’re often really funny and sometimes they’re just super sad and super dark.

ROBINSON: Did you have any specific stories in mind as you were writing this album?

CASE: Not so much this album […]

I like superstition a lot—or, like, what is considered good luck and bad luck, and why we think those things. Let’s say you walk under a ladder, and it’s bad luck for whatever reason, and you have to go backward underneath it three times. It’s basically doing a spell!

And it’s always super ridiculous, the things you have to do to get out of it! […] I’m fascinated by the fact that we don’t tend to talk about fairy tales as things that we write anymore. Those are things that are done. But there’s no reason why we can’t make fairy tales about our current time, or what we think about. And it doesn’t have to adhere to our current time.

Does that make sense?

no way that I could go home and help or anything […] It’s still not resolved. So, it’s still an event that’s happening, just because I haven’t been there really. I mean, I go there sometimes but it’s a smoking hole in the ground. There’s not a lot going on.

ROBINSON: Your appearance at the “WomanProducer” summit in Brooklyn was an important moment for you.

CASE: I had no idea how bad I needed that, and none of the

other women at the conference knew either […] We had no idea how starved we were for dialogue with other female creators and producers. And it was a huge deal […] But women have always been there, and nobody really knows that there are female producers.

It’s a strange thing that people don’t know.

CASE: I don’t listen to it for that reason. I’ll listen to it probably in a couple months. Because I feel like I just finished it. I’m working right now to get it into what it sounds like live, which is super different from being in the studio, but it’s also kind of a lot more hilarious.

There’s a lot more spontaneity going on right now.

ROBINSON: Now that the record’s been out a couple months, are you able to appreciate it with some distance, or are you still hearing it through the ears of a producer?

ROBINSON: Well, we’re really excited to see you in Tulsa.

CASE: I’m really excited to come to Tulsa! Thank you! a

ROBINSON: Yeah, absolutely!

CASE: I want it to make sense so bad. [laughs] ROBINSON: I kind of love that it doesn’t always make sense. You’ve said you don’t want to over-explain your music to your audience, because you want your fans to “wear your songs like a vest.”

CASE: Yeah, it’s like your punk rock vest and you can put whatever patches you want on it, you know?

It’s your vest. I made it for me and for you, and you can interpret it as you like. It feels good, and that’s how you make a connection with a song I think. At least that’s how I do it, but you know, we all do it differently.

ROBINSON: You recorded the vocals for “Bad Luck” the same day you found out your house was on fire.

What was that day like for you?

CASE: Yes. I was pretty numb. I didn’t really know what else to do—so, I went to work that day.

And it was good, because I was thousands of miles away [recording in Stockholm] and there was THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

MUSIC // 43

musicnotes

‘You’re a part of the problem’ Tulsa’s new post-punk band Tom Boil is here to make you uncomfortable

by MARY NOBLE

“Y

ou’re not a victim for sharing your story. You are a survivor setting the world on fire with your truth. And you never know who needs your light, your warmth, and raging courage.”

— Alex Elle Sexual assault and abuse in the music industry is nothing new— and it’s endemic. Whether it’s a drunk concertgoer fondling an innocent crowd surfer or an industry powerhouse exploiting young artists, this issue festers as victims continue to be silenced and disregarded. Local band Tom Boil has been around only a few short months, but the group wants to bring attention to this oft-ignored issue. And they’re already making waves in Tulsa’s music scene.

I first saw Tom Boil perform at Colorfeed A/V, an all-ages venue.

The lead singer had her back to the audience for the first half of the show. She screamed each word fervently over vibrant yet gloomy riffs. When she turned to face the crowd, her cheeks scarlet and eyes wide, raw energy permeated the crowd. “Everything’s fine and that’s the problem / Listen to victims not their assaulters / Everything’s not fine and you’re a part of the problem.”

In between songs the band would make eye contact with each other and smile, making it clear that they were a unified front.

Lead vocalist Allison Ward, guitarist Brandon Smits, bassist Poe Hendricks, and drummer Joe Harari say they perform with a mission: to bring awareness to sexual assault and abuse through raw, uncensorced lyricism.

Many fans have been inspired

by Tom Boil’s mission. Others who attend the shows say that the

44 // MUSIC

Joe Harari, Poe Hendricks, Allison Ward, and Brandon Smits | GREG BOLLINGER

band makes them feel uncomfortable. But that’s precisely the point.

“It’s a very uncomfortable subject,” Smits said. “But it’s a [conversation] we need to have for this to conclude, or at least be a little bit better.”

Tom Boil was only supposed to be around for a few short months, as Ward and Smits had plans to move out of state. But they changed their minds when they began to see the impact their band had on the scene. “The other day, a girl walked up to me at Soundpony and said, ‘I just want you to know that your lyrics made me cry.’ I’ve never had anyone come up to me and say that in my life,” Hendricks said.

Each band member said they heard similar testimonials. So, they decided to stay in Tulsa to continue to effect change within the scene. “I want to make the place I’m living the best place I can possibly live,” Hendricks said.

Tom Boil’s intent is not to publicly shame abusers. “If you have a call-out culture environment, especially here in Tulsa, people aren’t

going to listen—they’re going to hear the names of the people they know and immediately try and push it away,” Harari said. Instead, Tom Boil hopes to foster an inclusive environment where it’s OK for victims to feel enraged while at the same time leaving a space for those who are misinformed to ask questions and grow.

“I am from the mindset that people can own up to the things they’ve done wrong and change,” Ward said. “I’d rather speak about abuse that I’ve experienced in a way that isn’t necessarily calling people out, but rather calls attention to it.”

The band just finished recording a five-track demo that is set to be released mid-October. The cover art for the record will feature a collection of photos of places individuals have been abused. All photos have been sent to Ward who has kept all names and stories confidential.

For Ward, this project is very personal. “We were in OKC a few weeks ago and we passed by the place where I was roofied,

the night I was raped essentially—and it’s the first time I had seen that since it had happened, and I thought, ‘Good thing we are playing a show in an hour because I’m really fucking triggered right now,’” Ward said.

While everyone’s path to healing may differ, there’s an undeniable solace in learning that you are not alone. Tom Boil’s mission is to make sure people know that.

Many of the people who come to listen to the band can most likely relate to the experiences Ward sings about. Nearly one in five women and one in 71 men in the U.S. have been raped at some time in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As I listened to Tom Boil talk about their advocacy for victims, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own past experience of abuse. I wondered if my journey would have been different if I had someone other than family members screaming in anger at what had happened. What if I had someone, like Ward, screaming that I was not alone—that I was believed?

As I left my meeting with the band, I returned for a moment to that place of isolation and loneliness. I imagined what it would have been like to come across a group like Tom Boil who were as angry as I had been. It felt good.

It felt cathartic. a

Abuse is pervasive and comes in many forms. If you or someone you love is a victim of abuse or sexual assault, please call Domestic Violence Intervention Services (DVIS) 24-hour hotline 918-7HELPME (918-743-5763).

All of DVIS’s services are free no matter how long ago the abuse or assault took place. D VIS also offers free counseling to perpetrators of abuse.

September 5 – 18, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

musiclistings Wed // Sept 5 Blackbird on Pearl – Wubby Wednesday Cain’s Ballroom – *The Mountain Goats, Al Riggs – ($23-$25) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Wayne Gerner Hard Rock Casino - The Joint – Mark Chesnutt Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Daniel Jordan Los Cabos - Jenks – Nick Whitaker Main Street Tavern – Little Joe McLerran Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Weston Horn Soul City – Don and Stephen White Soundpony – Octopus Tree The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project The Vanguard – Little Image, The Brothers Moore, New Time Zones – ($10)

Thurs // Sept 6 Blackbird on Pearl – Dead Duo Cain’s Ballroom – Whiskey Myers, BC & The Big Rig – ($16-$31) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Miracle Max, Nighttrain Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Hi-Fidelics Los Cabos - Jenks – Local Spin Los Cabos - Owasso – Steve Liddell Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman MixCo – Cypher 120 River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – The Begonias The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night The Colony – Chris Lee Becker - Happy Hour The Fur Shop – New Rules: Kelevra, Kudos The Hunt Club – Bonny Rackham The Venue Shrine – Dirtfoot – ($10-$15)

Fri // Sept 7 Blackbird on Pearl – *Meet The Kushers LIVE w/ Keezy Kuts, Dial Tone and The Vets, 1 of O.D. – ($5-$10) Cain’s Ballroom – Anderson East – ($20-$35) Colorfeed A/V – Zigtebra, Kudzu, Audio Product Manufacturing Ed’s Hurricane Lounge – EverFade Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Scott Ellison, The Get Down Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Steve Liddell Band Los Cabos - Jenks – Stix N Stones Los Cabos - Owasso – Rockwell Duo Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Cucumber and the Suntans Osage Casino Tulsa - Thunder Bar & Grill – Travis Kidd Band & Friends River Spirit Casino Grand Ballroom – *DJ Diesel aka Shaquille O’Neal – ($25) Soul City – Scott Musick & Friends Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soundpony – DJ Mooneyham The Colony – *Rachel LaVonne – ($5) The Hunt Club – Hosty The Vanguard – *Nouveau Cru – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Layzie Bone & Lil Eazy E – ($20-$25)

Sat // Sept 8

Gathering Place Great Lawn – *The Roots, Larkin Poe, Hot 8 Brass Band Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Alaska and Madi, Weekend All Stars Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Speak Easy Los Cabos - Jenks – Str8ght Shot Los Cabos - Owasso – Local Spin Mercury Lounge – Casii Stephan and the Midnight Sun – ($5) Osage Casino Tulsa - Thunder Bar & Grill – Travis Kidd Band Soul City – The Round Up Boys – ($10) Soundpony – Soul night The Colony – Beau Roberson The Hunt Club – Ben Neikirk The Vanguard – Had Enough, FEENIX, Dab Tha Rippa, Meta4, Dee Hym, Bradley Yougene, Frank Thompson – ($10-$20) The Venue Shrine – Dixie Wrecked, The Plums, Had Enough, Alan Doyle, Follow the Buzzards – ($12)

Wed // Sept 12

Sat // Sept 15

Bad Ass Renee’s – TheDopestMatrix Blackbird on Pearl – Wubby Wednesday Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Johnny Lee Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Fabulous Two Man Band Los Cabos - Jenks – Caleb Fellenstein Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Weston Horn Soul City – Don and Stephen White Soundpony – Lyrical Smoke The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project The Venue Shrine – Andy Frasco & The U.N. – ($15-$20)

Beehive Lounge – The Beaten Daylights, Søaker BOK Center – Chris Young, Kane Brown, Morgan Evans – ($42.50-$82.50) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Rapture, Replay Josey Records – *Route 66 Cookout w/ The Shelter People, Acid Queen, Amerigo Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Lost on Utica Los Cabos - Jenks – Local Spin Los Cabos - Owasso – The Fabulous Two Man Band Osage Casino Tulsa - Thunder Bar & Grill – 5th Element Pearl District – Tulsa Pearl Fest: 6th Street Shutdown - Neon Dreams River West Festival Park – *MisFEST w/ Katie Herzig, Faye Moffett, Lauren Barth, Nightingale, Rachel Bachman, Lincka, Brother Rabbit – ($15-$50) Soundpony – Unwed Sailor, Early Day Miner The Colony – *North By North, The Fabulous Minx, Girls Club, American Shadows – ($5) The Hunt Club – Smunty Voje The Vanguard – Higher Plains Hip Hop & Jazz Fest w/ Mark Lettieri, Dynamo, Combsy, We Make Shapes – ($10-$100) The Venue Shrine – Killing Katie – ($10)

Thurs // Sept 13

Cain’s Ballroom – *Neko Case, Thao – ($30-$45) Gathering Place Great Lawn – *Pedrito Martinez Group, The Swon Brothers, Paul Benjaman Band Guthrie Green – *Bob Schneider, Levi Parham, Calliope Youth Circus Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Chris Clark Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Dustin Pittsley Gospel Blues Brunch The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing – ($5) The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee The Vanguard – The Brass, The Uncouth, The Penny Mob, The Shame – ($5)

Chimera – Groundhog Day Colorfeed A/V – *Plastic Psalms, Tom Boil, Super Thief, Bummer Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Barrett Lewis, Empire Hard Rock Casino - The Joint – Air Supply – ($29$49) Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Local Spin Duo Los Cabos - Jenks – Jacob Dement Duo Los Cabos - Owasso – Weston Horn Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman MixCo – Cypher 120 River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Psychotic Reaction, Tight Rope The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night The Colony – Chris Lee Becker - Happy Hour The Hunt Club – The Round Up Boys The Vanguard – Scooter Brown Band, Jesse Joice – ($13) Whitty Books – Space Horse – 6pm

Mon // Sept 10

Fri // Sept 14

Blackbird on Pearl – The Portal Brady Theater – Alice In Chains – ($49.50-$59.50) Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriott’s Soundpony – Ttownboys: Adam Keebles Big Move Live The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Colony – Ryan Browning - Happy Hour The Venue Shrine – The Situation – ($5)

Beehive Lounge – Ringdown, Infinite Crustacean, Landry Miller Blackbird on Pearl – Electric Billy Club Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Daniel Jordan, Rapture Lennie’s Club – Danny Baker Band Lennie’s Club – EverFade Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – C-Plus Los Cabos - Jenks – Aviators Los Cabos - Owasso – Caleb Fellenstein Duo Mercury Lounge – Sam Pace and the Gilded Grit Osage Casino Tulsa - Thunder Bar & Grill – Annie Up River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Billy Currington, LOCASH – ($40-$105) Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soundpony – Afistaface Spinster Records – Claire Morales, Hey Judy, Ramona & The Phantoms The Colony – Roots of Thought – ($5) The Hunt Club – The 5th Element The Vanguard – *Higher Plains Hip Hop & Jazz Fest w/ Sativa Prophets, Steph Simon & The Vets, Henna Roso, iamDES, Tea Rush, Oilhouse – ($10-$100) The Venue Shrine – Subkulture Presents – ($5) Bad Ass Renee’s – Machine in the Mountain, Devil Theory, She The Serpent

Sun // Sept 9

Tues // Sept 11 Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam Lefty’s On Greenwood – Jennifer Marriott Band Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Vanguard – Bad Bad Hats, Cumulus, Breakup – ($10) The Venue Shrine – A Killer Confession, Natas Lived, Screaming Red Mutiny, Less Than Human, Sign of Lies – ($5)

Sun // Sept 16 Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Rockwell Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Dustin Pittsley Gospel Blues Brunch Soundpony – Santoros!

The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee The Hunt Club – A.H. Pierce and the Arrows The Vanguard – <PIG>, Esoterik, Pittersplatter – ($15)

Mon // Sept 17 Blackbird on Pearl – The Portal BOK Center – *Jack White – ($46.50-$76.50) Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriott’s Soundpony – Dr. Joe The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Colony – Ryan Browning - Happy Hour The Venue Shrine – The Situation – ($5)

Tues // Sept 18 Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam Cain’s Ballroom – Gov’t Mule – ($30-$45) Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Fur Shop – Lead Pony, The Beaten Daylights, Follow The Buzzards

Colorfeed A/V – Sonny Falls, Maddie Razook, Space Horse, Ramona & The Phantoms Ed’s Hurricane Lounge – EverFade THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

MUSIC // 45

onscreen

BREASTAURANT: IMPOSSIBLE Dylan Gelula, Shayna McHayle, Regina Hall, Haley Lu Richardson, and AJ Michalka in “Support the Girls” MAGNOLIA PICTURES

‘Support the Girls’ is more ‘tragi-’ than comedy IF YOU’RE HAVING A BAD DAY, SEEING Lisa’s might make you feel better about that. She’s the general manager of Double Whammies—the fictional equivalent of Hooters or Twin Peaks—where servers wear small hot-pink tops with short denim shorts and try to upsell big mugs of beer to men who just wanna watch the fight.

A distinctly American film taking place somewhere in Texas that looks like Dallas metroplex, “Support the Girls” follows Lisa (Regina Hall) along a purgatorial workday, while carefully avoiding the stereotypes one might associate with “breastaurants” or the Lone Star State.

Director Andrew Bujalski’s avoidance of typecasting amplifies this film’s Americanness. Just as the Texas clichés are toned down and servers are written as performers rather than props, the film features strong black women leads— Hall, alongside hip-hop artist Junglepussy (a.k.a. Shayna McHayle)—whose roles do not depend on jokes about their culture nor their blackness alone. An honest portrayal of diverse American workers and patrons feels refreshing to watch when most comedies today go for cheap laughs.

It’s almost unfortunate that “Support the Girls” is billed as a comedy. Tragedy far outweighs the humorous aspects: Everyone is generally having a shit day in the movie—that’s its premise. Half of the time, it feels masochistic to laugh at the level of tension and misfortune onscreen. But Bujalski’s writing does express an absurdity behind the shittiness. In turn, the characters deal with their problems cathartically: they let go, cry, scream, and laugh at themselves. Audiences expecting sexy laughs à la “American Pie” might not know how to 46 // FILM & TV

feel, but this film wasn’t meant for them.

Banter between Lisa and a regular sitting at the bar sums up the humor pretty well: “So, since ya’ll aren’t on your shift,” he asks, “does that mean that you still have to laugh at my jokes, or no?”

“Are your jokes funny?”

“Half the time.”

“Okay, that’s not good enough.”

Whether this was an intentional meta-comment on the film’s heavier themes, the absurd situations are taken up a notch as the “sports bar with curves” devolves into chaos when Lisa is led to her wits’ end.

Bujalski expertly balances the girls’ personal / work relationships, and some of the best parts of the film are when this line is crossed.

“Support the Girls” ends up presenting itself as a heartfelt portrait of contemporary American culture. Bujalski even includes a subtle critique of corporate restaurants talking over metropolitan areas—even if Lisa’s incompetent, small-business-owner boss Cubby (James Le Gros) kinda deserves to be swallowed by the competition—Lisa shows us how a good manager should treat their underlings, which isn’t like commodities, as corporate might think.

Ultimately, this film defies expectations by presenting the service industry in a realistic way we can all relate to. It derives its humor from the real-life fact that work sucks. The extraordinary aspect of the film is its ordinary tone—this is a film without embellishment, and it’s believably absurd.

“Support the Girls” opens Friday, Sept.

7 at Circle Cinema. — MASON WHITEHORN POWELL

Rose Byrne and Chris O’Dowd in “Juliet, Naked” | COURTESY

IDLE WORSHIP Love, fidelity and fandom are explored in the pensive charmer ‘Juliet, Naked’

REVOLVING AROUND A HAS-BEEN FOLK music icon from the 1990s, “Juliet, Naked” plays like an indie film from the same decade—the kind that would charm the flannel off coffee-drinking cinephiles at the Sundance Film Festival and beyond, akin to something Cameron Crowe might’ve made a generation ago.

Such comparisons might normally suggest something tired or anachronistic, but for “Juliet, Naked,” they’re sincere sentiments—especially when it comes to Ethan Hawke, an actor who’s anchored many classic, low budget Gen-X portraits.

And while he’s never gone away since then, Hawke’s really having a moment in 2018. Fresh off the Oscar-buzz for “First Reformed”—a challenging character study rooted in contemporary existential fears—Hawke returns to the kind of role that fits him like a glove, playing a carefree philosopher who ponders the complexities and mysteries of life but with a glint of joy rather than angst, even as he wrestles with midlife regrets.

Based on the 2009 novel by Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “About a Boy”), “Juliet, Naked” is an ensemble charmer that explores a range of themes and ideas, all woven together organically: long-term relationships, settling, (in)fidelity, and overzealous fandom.

That last one, actually, is a driving undercurrent in “Juliet, Naked,” but it’s explored thoughtfully (as is everything here) with effacing humor, and not simply as some condescending critique.

Annie (Rose Byrne) is the long-suffering girlfriend of Duncan (Chris O’Dowd).

They’re a London couple who have been living together for awhile under an agreement—reluctantly for her—that they

won’t have children. It’s ironic, given that Duncan is an overgrown adolescent in one key respect: He’s the world’s biggest fan— obsessively so—of Tucker Crowe (Hawke), an American singer-songwriter who’s been a recluse for more than 20 years following his final album “Juliet,” a masterpiece inspired by heartbreak.

As tensions rise between Annie and Duncan, a surprising chain of events leads to Annie and Tucker striking up a transatlantic e-mail correspondence that, over its course, becomes a genuine connection.

Byrne carries her life’s discontents with convincing melancholy. O’Dowd gives emotional cred to a music nerd who would otherwise be easy to mock, and Hawke— even as a penitent deadbeat—shines in full Linklater mode (ala “Boyhood” and the “Before” trilogy).

Inevitably, Annie and Tucker meet, and it complicates the dynamic in rewarding ways. Each gets to see the other at their worst, yet witnessing brutal truths only causes their empathy and understanding of one another to grow. What evolves between them, and how, is as endearing and soulful as any film of its kind since “You’ve Got Mail.”

Duncan meeting his idol is also inevitable, and the script—co-written by Oscar-winner Jim Taylor (“The Descendants”)—beautifully humanizes the duality of fandom. Yes, it’s completely ridiculous, even misguided, but it’s also 100 percent sincere and heartfelt because the artist’s work struck a chord for the fan in a profound, defining way.

That’s ultimately the point behind all of these swirling emotions, relationships, and ideas: Being “naked” is nothing to be cynical about. — JEFF HUSTON September 5 – 18, 2018 // 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

This pretty girl’s name is LADY. She doesn’t have teeth, but that doesn’t stop her from eating hard food.

If you’re looking for a pet to take long naps with, she’s your girl. Lady is 4 years old and weighs about 7 lbs.

ACROSS 1 Baby’s father?

5 .035 ounce 9 Some cops, undercover 14 Abet 17 Studio effect 19 It’s near Sparks 20 Here or there, roughly 21 Bake in the sun 22 Like speakers of the Gospel 24 A capital of Bolivia 25 Ely of “Tarzan” fame 26 A Mexican couple 27 Not fitting 28 Check for strength, e.g.

30 Capital of Saskatchewan 32 Active 34 Letter furthest from alpha 36 Verizon is one 37 Home of 300 million+ 38 Creature with long arms 40 Poi source 41 Sidle 44 Bridges in films 46 Stuff on display 47 Singles 48 Negative connector 49 Wall’s two-by-four 50 Join, as the air force 54 “___ got to go!”

55 Bashful forest creature 56 Places for sleds 58 They have your money 59 Use solder 61 Elizabethan, historically 62 Shoelace part

This cool cat is RALPH. He loves to chase toys and sleep in your lap. If you’re looking for a cat for your family, he would be a great choice! Ralph is 3 months old and weighs about 4 lbs.

63 Historical El 64 Shopping indulgences 66 Total, cut 67 Totally mismanage 69 Big name in small planes 72 Pipe for plumbing 73 Oysters-on-thehalf-shell place 75 Card spot 77 Cultural mores 78 “That’s doubtful!”

79 Better ___ ever 80 It’s slow with three toes 82 Sketches 83 Boxing legend 84 “___ been real” 85 It involves a rant 87 Like empty threats 88 Ns, in Greek 89 Piedmont wine city 91 Positive statement onboard 92 Conical abode 94 Daffodil part 95 Wine dregs 96 Huge, colorful mammal 100 Economic grp. since 1948 102 Happening soon 104 Light, semitransparent fabric 105 In large amounts 109 “Arrive on time!”

110 Half scores?

111 Iron Maiden genre 113 “... boy ___ girl?”

114 Title for Khan 115 Use, as paper plates 117 Road flattener 120 Jail cell feature 121 Missouri River’s tributary

122 Units of geologic time 123 Became sword enemies?

124 Beg a favor 125 Nearly priceless strings 126 Overdo TLC (with “on”) 127 Associations DOWN 1 Cattle variety 2 Salt-y halt 3 Room for an easy chair 4 Bickers 5 Film set worker 6 House for a minister 7 Prefix for 5-Across 8 Like magma 9 Long Island county 10 Be tangent to 11 “Arabian Nights” flyer 12 Shock wave provider?

13 Construction material 14 Ivory producer 15 Smelted stuff 16 Energetic people 17 Completely change 18 Powerful cat 23 “7 Faces of Dr. ___” 29 Halloween projectile 31 Recover from 33 Color quality 35 Like neat beds 36 Some sweet pastries 38 A whole bunch 39 Chore 41 Make lovable 42 Welcoming thing 43 “Jaws” devourer 45 Quiet periods

This is AMERICA, and she won’t leave your side. You’ll get all of the love and affection you could possibly want. She loves kids and gets along with other cats.

America is 1 year old and weighs about 7 1/2 lbs.

49 Some tribal VIPs 51 “Blindspot” network 52 Not clerical 53 “Oh, really?”

54 Stalemate 57 Lethargy 60 Bring down in worth 64 Creature in the mountains 65 Split of a sort 68 Gyro bread 70 Thing on a 9-ball 71 Good thing on a hot day 74 Plain-weave cotton 76 Advanced deg.

80 Genre 81 Stead 86 List-ending abbr.

89 Legendary password user 90 Some dried medicinal roots 91 Up-to-date 93 Constituent part 94 U-turn from NNW 97 Leveled 98 Earned the title 99 Sounded reptilian 101 Exhaustive, as an effort 103 Dunkable cookies 105 Cash convenience, briefly 106 ___ prosequi (court-record entry) 107 Some ashes 108 Rusher’s gain 110 Roman attire 112 Make less difficult 116 Roofing sealant 118 “This ___ shall pass” 119 Neckpiece of Hawaii

Find the answers to this issue’s crossword puzzle at thetulsavoice.com/puzzle-solutions.

THE TULSA VOICE // September 5 – 18, 2018

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.

This fun guy is ROCKY. Don’t let his looks deceive you—he’s a sweetheart. He also loves to kick back, relax, and get belly rubs. He loves kids but might be a little too big and strong for small children.

Rocky is 2 years old and weighs about 49 pounds.

This sweet girl is MAE. She is a little shy at first, but if you go slow with her and take your time, she will warm up and be the biggest love bug. She’d be the best companion for your kids! Mae is 2 years old and weighs about 49 pounds.

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD IN DANGER

By Timothy E. Parker

© 2018 Andrews McMeel Syndication

9/9 ETC. // 47

Pleas e re cycle this issue.