The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 6 No. 23

AIR POLLUTION

MILLENNIAL

IN TULSA

GIFT GUIDE

P10

P22 N O V . 2 0 – D E C . 3 , 2 0 1 9 // V O L . 6 N O . 2 3

A C T O F F A I T H KOJ O A SAM OA- CAE SAR ’ S CAM PAI G N TO B R I N G

N O R TH T U L SA TO WA S H I N GTO N

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now three dog night nov 21 Chase Rice Dec 6 Luann De Lesseps Dec 20 Cirque Musica Dec 22 Steve Miller Band Dec 27 John Fogerty Dec 29 Ron White Dec 31

Live Music 7 Nights a Week in 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar Fridays & Saturdays in Margaritaville!

Visit margaritavilletulsa.com for a complete schedule.

81st & RIVERSIDE • (888) 748-3731 • RIVERSPIRITTULSA.COM 2 // CONTENTS

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TRANSFORMATION IS COMPLETE

COME REDISCOVER THE

CULINARY QUEEN OF THE CORNER T U L SA A R T S D I ST R I C T • 2 01 N. M A I N ST. TAV E R N T U L SA .C O M THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

CONTENTS // 3

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 23 ©2019. All rights reserved.

ACT OF FAITH P20

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon

BY JEZY J. GRAY

EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Freed DIGITAL EDITOR Kyra Bruce

Kojo Asamoa-Caesar’s campaign to bring North Tulsa to Washington

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

SHOPPING FOR SNOWFLAKES

AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf

P22

CONTRIBUTORS Cydney Baron, September Dawn Bottoms, Becky Carman, Ty Clark, Courtney Cullison, Charles Elmore, Barry Friedman, Destiny Jade Green, Jeff Huston, Fraser Kastner, Natalie Mikles, Alexandra Robinson, Madeline Roper, Joseph Rushmore, Damion Shade, Terrie Shipley, Ethan Veenker

BY TERRIE SHIPLEY AND TTV STAFF

OK boomer—here are the local gifts millennials will love

IN STEP

The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

P24

Member of

BY DESTINY JADE GREEN

Pain and glory at the OBA 6A State Marching Band Championship The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

Competitors take the field at the OBA 6A State Marching Band Championship | DESTINY JADE GREEN

FOOD & DRINK

NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 PROPER SALUTE

B Y COURTNEY CULLISON

16 STREET SMARTS

BY NATALIE MIKLES

It’s our patriotic duty to restore the earned income tax credit

8 TRIGGER WARNING

B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN

18 BACK OF THE HOUSE

BY MADELINE ROPER

Our gun problem isn’t going away

10 SMOKED OUT

BY CYDNEY BARON Tulsa air pollution spurs community action

12 ‘IT GETS BETTER’

BY CYDNEY BARON Conversion therapy survivor brings a story of hope to LGBTQ+ youth

14 HOT BOX

B Y FRASER KASTNER

High Dive plunges into the deep end of Studio Row

Meet the workers feeding Tulsa’s restaurant scene

MUSIC 36 BE THE POWER

B Y TY CLARK

Samantha Crain takes a breath

FYI on driving high

ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 32 THEHAPS 42 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 46 ASTROLOGY + SUDOKU 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD 4 // CONTENTS

39 SPIN CYCLE

B Y ETHAN VEENKER Record Store Day Black Friday returns to Tulsa

40 TAKE ME BACK TO TULSA

B Y KYRA BRUCE

Wilderado comes home

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon PRESIDENT Juley Roffers VP COMMUNICATIONS Susie Miller CONTROLLER Mary McKisick DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Amanda Hall RECEPTION Gloria Brooks

ARTS & CULTURE 26 MAKING THE NEWS

B Y DAMION SHADE Bringing black voices back to Oklahoma airwaves

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

28 NO LOGO

B Y JEZY J. GRAY Tulsa Artist Fellows dismantle the culture of consumption

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

30 BLOOD WORK

B Y BECKY CARMAN Allison Moorer confronts her haunting past in a new memoir

Chuck D accepts the Woody Guthrie Prize in Tulsa

38 HUMAN AFTER ALL

B Y ALEXANDRA ROBINSON

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

TV & FILM AIR POLLUTION

44 DEAD WRINGER

B Y JEFF HUSTON

GIFT GUIDE

P10

Sharp scripting and a stellar cast reinvigorate a murder mystery

44 MINOR PROPHETS

B Y CHARLES ELMORE

MILLENNIAL

IN TULSA

Burning Cane is a stunning debut from a teenage filmmaker

P22 N O V . 2 0 – D E C . 3 , 2 0 1 9 // V O L . 6 N O . 2 3

A C T O F F A I T H KOJ O A SAM OA- CAE SAR ’ S CAM PAI G N TO B R I N G

N O R TH T U L SA TO WA S H I N GTO N

ON THE COVER Kojo Asamoa-Caesar PHOTO BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

T U L S AW I N T E R F E S T. C O M

Y 5 UAR JAN 3 ER 2 EMB TH NOV D WI PRES

ENTE

“Tulsans have embraced a family from the Caribbean with open arms and continue to show their love and support for local business.”

Ilana Velazquez Sisserou’s Member since 2014

YOUR PARTNER IN PROSPERITY

TULSACHAMBER.COM Economic Development • Regional Tourism • Government Affairs • Community Development THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

W

e here at The Tulsa Voice take pride in offering richly themed issues on everything from teenagers to travelogues—from the climate crisis to workers’ rights, weed culture, and points in between. But sometimes we take our foot off the pedal, fight the urge to string these pages along a common thread, and see what it looks like.

This issue is untethered from any guiding topic, but still plenty rich in its broad lens on life in Tulsa. Here you’ll meet teachers, dishwashers, environmental crusaders, record store clerks, radio show hosts, indigenous songwriters, art-minded ad busters and other homegrown heroes making our city strong and beautiful.

Our cover story is about Kojo Asamoa-Caesar, a former North

Tulsa educator who just launched an underdog campaign to represent Oklahoma’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives (pg. 20). I talked to the first-generation American about his family’s immigration story, how faith informs his vision of social justice, and how the 33-year-old plans to perform the miracle of flipping a seat that’s been occupied by a Republican since the year he was born.

Asamoa-Caesar’s story is in many ways a story about America and its professed ideals, which are stretched to the breaking point by the lived experiences of many in the district he’s running to represent. It’s also a story about Greenwood, a legacy of community trauma and black excellence, and the temerity of fighting against towering odds

to improve the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors. Other Democratic challengers will surely make a run at the throne before the general election, but Asamoa-Caesar’s story of migration and community-building is one we need to hear now.

Other stories include Madeline Roper’s reverent look at backof-the-house restaurant workers ahead of the busy holiday season (pg. 18); Terrie Shipley’s millenial gift guide for baby boomers on Small Business Saturday (pg.

22); and a photo essay by Destiny Jade Green capturing the pain and glory of the OBA 6A State Marching Band Championship in Owasso (pg. 24).

Also inside: Chuck D accepts the Woody Guthrie prize in Tulsa (pg. 36); a local nurse takes on the city’s air polluters (pg. 10);

a gay-to-straight “conversion therapy” survivor tells her story of hope (pg. 12); a new public radio show puts black voices back on the airwaves in Oklahoma (pg.

26); Tulsa-area vinyl shops prep for Record Store Day’s autumnal twin (pg. 39); an outdoor art show reclaims public space from advertisers (pg. 28) and more.

Until next time, remember: you are your own worst critic, the left lane is for passing, and healthcare is a fundamental human right that should always be free at the point of service. a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

FREE ADMISSION Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with: • Native bands and artists • Food samples prepared by Native chefs • Concert featuring Indigenous gilcrease.org/events

7-10 p.m.

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

okpolicy

E

PROPER SALUTE It’s our patriotic duty to restore the earned income tax credit

by COURTNEY CULLISON for OKPOLICY.ORG

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

arlier this month, we observed Veterans Day to honor the men and women who have served in the armed forces. Another way to honor our veterans this year is to help ensure they and their families are financially secure. Oklahoma is home to more than 260,000 veterans, and good policy choices like restoring the Oklahoma Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) would help them and their communities be economically stable.

An estimated 24,748 veteran households in Oklahoma claim the EITC, and for many of them, it is a significant financial boost.

For a single parent with one child at home making $10.50 an hour, the state credit is worth $147.75.

A married couple earning $39,463 (the median income for a veteran in Oklahoma) with two children will get a credit of $126.55. That money helps to pay down debt or buy essentials.

Low- and moderate-income working families have been struggling for decades to make ends meet with wages that aren’t growing enough to keep pace with the rising costs of living.

Our EITC provides some muchneeded yearly relief in that struggle. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma EITC is less valuable than it used to be. That’s because the Legislature cut the credit in 2016 by making it nonrefundable, which means the balance is no longer refunded to them if the credit is more than the amount the family owes in income taxes.

Refundability is critical to the effectiveness of the EITC. Without it, the credit does far less to boost the economic security of low- and moderate-income working families. It reduces the

amount they owe in income tax, but without refundability the EITC is less effective at supporting low-income families as they work to save and get ahead.

In the past three sessions, the Legislature has considered restoring the EITC to its full value, but they have yet to act. This means working families, including the families of Oklahoma’s veterans, are still struggling more than necessary. When we consider all the taxes Oklahoma families pay (sales, property and income tax), Oklahoma is not a low-tax state for many of our neighbors. Lowand moderate-wage earners are paying the highest percentage of their income in total taxes.

The lowest 20 percent of earners are paying the most (13.2 percent of income) in taxes, closely followed by the second 20 percent who are paying 11.2 percent of their income, and the middle 20 percent paying 10.7 percent of their income. When compared to the highest earners who pay only 6.2 percent, Oklahoma’s tax system clearly asks the most of those who make the least.

Restoring EITC refundability would maximize its value and is an important step to offset the high amount of sales tax (especially on groceries) paid by low-income working families. This includes nearly 25,000 veteran households that use this important credit. Oklahoma should make this choice to help improve the lives of our low- and moderate-income neighbors. It’s long overdue. a

Courtney Cullison is an economic security policy analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

Trigger warning Our gun problem isn’t going away

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

I

have been writing this column for more than 10 years—first for TulsaPeople and now for The Tulsa Voice— which has resulted in more than 200 pieces on topics ranging from prostatectomies, to escorting patients through abortion clinic parking lots, to a trip to Iceland (twice), to roughly eight columns dedicated to guns in Oklahoma and America.

I am, more often than not, flummoxed about how the conversation around firearms has been hijacked by gun-toting blowhards who like intimidating people in parks, astonished at unlicensed plumbers who wax poetically about the constitutional boundaries of the Second Amendment, furious about how indurate spokespeople from gun lobbies go after families of the dead, and overwhelmed by the sheer number of guns in America.

There are more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States, or enough for every man, woman and child to own one and still have 67 million guns left over.

(Washington Post)

From the soullessness of the National Rifle Association, to the preening of gun fetishists strapped with automatic weapons to buy a package of Double Stuffed Oreos; to the cravenness of manufacturers who believe bullet-proof backpacks will save our children; to the protestations of bought legislators who suggest arming high school chemistry teachers as the best defense against mass shooters; to the debunked (how many times 8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Don’t worry, though. There’s always this.

NO MATTER MANY TIMES THE ARGUMENT GETS REHASHED, HOW MANY TIMES YOU WRING YOUR HANDS, HOW MANY TIMES YOU SEE PHOTOS OF MASS CARNAGE—NOR HOW MANY TIMES YOU WRITE ABOUT IT— IT’S NEVER ENOUGH TO KEEP UP.

already?) notion that a nation’s safety is contingent on its level of gun ownership—there is no issue that hovers over America with quite the pall.

So why a ninth column on the subject?

Because, when it comes to guns in America, something is happening to the gravitational pull.

Let’s start with the dark bulge of the mothership, the NRA. When it comes to muzzling politicians on gun control and stymying regulations in Congress, the public often credits the group with near-omnipotence.

It’s an easy argument to make when lawmakers offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ in the wake of gun violence but shy away from legislative action.

They also tend to have a pecuniary interest in protecting the NRA’s aims.

(Newsweek)

Liberal sentiments had to be drowned.

Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th-century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.

(The Atlantic)

I lied. That’s not a liberal sentiment—it’s from former associate justice of the Supreme Court, the late and very conservative Antonin Scalia.

The extent to which the lies of the NRA have metastasized into our lives and gummed up all sanity about legislation is easy to see. Since the massacre at Sandy Hook, more than 100 pieces of gun legislation have failed in Congress. Not one reform has passed.

Keep you and your family safe where you study, work, travel, and play with a Bulletproof Backpack or Backpack Armor. (bulletproofzone.com)

Lately, though, the NRA appears to be imploding. Oliver North resigned as its president after he threatened to release embarrassing and perhaps criminal information on chief executive Wayne LaPierre (and it’s hard to imagine two guys who deserve each other more); the NRA sued its own advertising agency, Oklahoma’s own Ackerman McQueen, for financial shenanigans, which motivated the agency to countersue the NRA for having its reputation smeared (the schadenfreude is truly delicious); the agency’s television station, NRA TV, was shut down; and Dana Loesch, whose despicableness is in a league of its own—she put KKK hoods on Thomas & Friends cartoon figures and called gun safety advocates “tragedy dry humping whores”—was fired.

It got so bad LaPierre needed a new place to live.

The chief executive of the National Rifle Association sought to have the nonprofit organization buy him a luxury mansion last year after a mass shooting at a Florida high school, selecting a French country-style estate in a gated Dallas-area golf club, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions.

(The New York Times)

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

And if that all weren’t enough—and it was—there was this: The National Rifle Association acted as a ‘foreign asset’ for Russia in the period leading up to the 2016 election, according to a new investigation unveiled Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Drawing on contemporaneous emails and private interviews, an 18-month probe by the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff found that the NRA underwrote political access for Russian nationals Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin more than previously known — even though the two had declared their ties to the Kremlin. (NPR)

Remember that next time you pass the organization’s American flag-adorned booth at the State Fair or gun show.

Then on Nov. 12, this happened: The Supreme Court cleared the way on Tuesday for relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims to sue the Remington Arms Company, the maker of the rifle used in the massacre. (New York Times)

Let us now head to Idabel, Oklahoma: On the evening of the Kentucky fundraiser, another Friends of NRA chapter was holding a fundraising event — this one featuring real guns — at Kiamichi Technology Center, a vocational-technical campus in Idabel, Okla.

The school has hosted the event for 20 years without any apparent controversy, according to attendees and organizers.

But when contacted by The Post, school officials said Friends of NRA had not obtained the required permission to display actual firearms.

(Washington Post)

According to an NRA video, accompanying the fundraiser, the Grand Poobah may even show up at your home.

‘You never know who may show up that night — even Wayne LaPierre may come walking through the doors to greet attendees,’ the narrator says, referring to the chief executive of the NRA.

Keep in mind, the Friends of the NRA are not using these fundraisers to help schools— imagine a bake sale with Glocks—but to raise money for, wait for it, the NRA. That money is the leading source of cash for the NRA Foundation, a charity that supports the shooting sports. … The events combine the efforts of what organizers say are 13,000 volunteers with the NRA’s multimillion-dollar marketing machine. They are family-focused by design, helping to cultivate the next generation of gun owners and NRA members.

You cultivate crops, not human beings, but no need to worry, for no gun was actually harmed in the making of the fundraiser.

This time organizers showed only pictures, bowing to objections from parents who pointed to a shooting at another western Kentucky high school last year that left two students dead and more than a dozen wounded. (Washington Post)

It’s not just schools. This happened a few years back: The Bixby Cubs, a baseball team for boys 11 and under, is selling raffle tickets to win an AR-15 rifle as part of a fundraiser. (Tulsa World)

This past Nov. 1 in Oklahoma, House Bill 2957 went into effect, which made it easier for state residents 21 and older to carry concealed or unconcealed firearms. The background check

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

to a get a cellphone in the state is more comprehensive. This, by the way, was one of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s first acts after being sworn into office, because apparently there was nothing else in the state more pressing at the time than making sure one of those aforementioned Oreo-desiring-AR-15-carrying Oklahomans would no longer be inconvenienced when walking down the cookie aisle.

So where does all this leave us?

On one hand, you have the pre-eminent national gun organization in the country unraveling, showing itself to be even more of a rapacious canker sore than we imagined, a Supreme Court willing to hold gun manufacturers as liable for their actions in selling weapons as we hold bartenders for theirs in serving too many shots of Jameson Whiskey, and the fact that 89 percent of Americans favor some kind of gun legislation (the U.S. has a higher rate of violent gun death than Afghanistan and Iraq).

On the other, you have local communities across the nation more than willing to come to the financial aid of the NRA in its time of need, and politicians, including those from Oklahoma, continuing to act like Pavlov’s salivating dogs every time the association and/or its apologists ring the bell. The “head” of guns in America may be slowly withering, but the body is still alive, well, boisterous, and armed.

No matter many times the argument gets rehashed, how many times you wring your hands, how many times you see photos of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Pulse Nightclub, the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and Santa Clarita—nor how many times you write about it—it’s never enough to keep up. a

TULSA’S ONLY MODERN JAZZ CLUB DuetJazz.com

UPCOMING SHOWS

downstairs

Ana Berry & BOSSA Ladies Night Ladies get in free November 20

Sara Schaefer Comedy November 21

Leon Rollerson November 22

Sarah Maud November 23

Modd Oddities November 24

The Grits November 27

Gabriel Royal & Friends November 29-30

Edwin Canito Garcia Quartet December 5

Dean DeMerritt’s Jazz Tribe December 6

Combsy December 7

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

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

environment

Roughly 80 percent of survey respondents living near the Holly Frontier Oil Refinery reported air quality issues. | GREG BOLLINGER

Smoked out

Tulsa air pollution spurs community action

by CYDNEY BARON

I

t might smell like money to some, but it’s burning the throats of an entire neighborhood of Tulsa residents. Roughly 80 percent of survey respondents living near the Holly Frontier Oil Refinery along the Arkansas River reported having a problem with air quality, according to the findings of a community survey.

“It’s Tulsa’s most egregious air and water polluter. The air nearby stinks,” Nancy Moran said. A passion for public health and social justice led the local nurse and activist to embark on the in-depth study of air quality in neighborhoods surrounding the refinery.

She recalls a conversation with a stock broker when she fi rst moved to Tulsa in 1981. “He told me that when he saw the smoke, he saw money,” she said. “But if you are breathing in noxious air, it may actually cost you money in additional healthcare costs and hurt your quality of life and lead to premature death.”

Moran said she’s been shocked by the results of her door-to-door survey of nearby residents. “Of the 79 percent that reported a problem with air quality, 62 percent said they were concerned about their health or the health of their family, and 44

10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

percent said they limit outdoor activities for themselves and their children,” she said. “Thirty-one percent said they have difficulty breathing or that the air triggers asthma attacks, and 44 percent said it causes irritation to their eyes, nose and throat.”

Now Moran is helping launch a local chapter of a bold national campaign for renewable energy.

Co-organizer Gary Allison calls Ready for 100 Tulsa “perhaps the most significant community organizational project of the last 25 years.” The purpose of the campaign is to move the City of Tulsa toward clean, renewable sources of electricity by 2035 with a complete energy overhaul by 2050.

Referencing Florence Nightingale’s environmental nursing theory, Moran said the fi rst tenant of health is clean air and clean water. “More and more we’re learning that hardly any part of the body escapes the effects of air pollution,” she said. “It’s linked to heart attacks, asthma, heart disease, learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s, mental illness, low birth rates, diabetes.

It’s a chronic inflammatory state that affects people differently.”

While air pollution has devastating health effects, she said

it’s about more than that. It’s about equity and justice. “There are people in our community whose voices haven’t been heard who are being harmed today by dirty fossil fuels. If we value each other, if we value our health, if we value this beautiful earth home that we have, we’re going to have to start doing things differently,” Moran said. “It’s a matter of justice. We have to talk about who is being harmed … marginalized communities who don’t have economic power, don’t have political clout, and very often are people of color.”

Polluting industries across the United States are more likely to be located in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. “If you look at who is producing the pollution it’s disproportionately white people,” Moran said. “The same people who are being hurt most by pollution and climate change aren’t necessarily the cause of it. You can’t really address climate change or pollution without talking about justice,” Moran said.

“You can’t be just an environmentalist anymore. You have to see how the abuse of the planet is intricately connected to the abuse of people. When you trash

the planet, when you pollute the air, when you pollute the water, people are harmed and ecosystems are harmed,” she said. “We can’t treat our earth like it’s just a grab bag to get what we want and like a sewer where we continually deposit our waste and make more trash and create more pollution.

It’s not feasible.”

For many, Moran says the issue is literally a matter of life and death. “We have made such gains in improving our air quality since the Clean Air Act but in the last two years, air pollution has increased by 5 percent. What that translates into is 10,000 lives have been lost [in the U.S. during 2018].

Those people are missed. And that’s just not right,” Moran said.

The statistics are grim, but Moran is energized by the prospect of making deep change through the Ready for 100 campaign. The chapter is currently recruiting volunteers, hoping to break through despair with action.

“We need people interested in helping, learning, canvassing in each district. We will be approaching candidates for city council to get them on board because we’re going to need their support,” Moran said. “This is doable, desirable, and inevitable.” a

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

MANY OKLAHOMANS ARE STILL EXPOSED TO SECONDHAND SMOKE AT WORK.

THAT’S 100% clean indoor air laws are one of the simplest, cheapest and most effective ways to protect employees and patrons from dangerous secondhand smoke.

Let’s protect hardworking Oklahomans. Join the fight at

www.TraversMahanApparel.com South Lewis at 81st • The Plaza • 918-296-4100

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

LGBTQ+

‘It gets better’

Conversion therapy survivor brings a story of hope to LGBTQ+ youth

by CYDNEY BARON

F

or as long as she can remember, Angel Adams wanted to be a missionary. She began traveling the world doing that work at age 14 after moving to Sand Springs. It became her identity—her passion, her purpose. There was just one problem: Adams was gay.

After more than a decade of global mission work, from the orphanages of Chernobyl to the Philippines and Mexico, she was outed at age 28 and removed from the program. “[My orientation] wasn’t acceptable to them … it was a huge blow,” she said.

Adams was told she would be allowed to continue her work within the church and missionary program on one condition: that she undergo gay-to-straight “conversion therapy.” Desperate to continue her life’s work, Adams went through the excruciating process three times.

“The programs were awful,” Adams said. She had to be away from her family for months at a time. Adams did everything required of her, but she was kicked out of the program anyway.

Adams was no stranger to hardship. “We grew up super crazy poor—no electricity, no running water, no plumbing. I was 14 the fi rst time I’d ever used a telephone. Our whole house was just one room. We went to the bathroom outside,” she said.

“But I wouldn’t trade it for anything in a million years. I can’t even imagine what life would be, who I would be, without it. But that was the family joke, that I was already a missionary living in those conditions.”

But Adams’ experience in conversion therapy was an altogether different sort of trauma. “I felt like I lost my whole reason for being alive. I remember laying

12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Motivational speaker Angel Adams (left) underwent gay-to-straight “conversion therapy” three times.

GREG BOLLINGER

in the floor of my makeshift bedroom crying—crying out, praying—not understanding why things were happening,” Adams said. “I felt like I’d given so much of my life and was a good person.

I was like, ‘Where are the people who have gone through this? If I’m supposed to believe in this, in you, in the Bible, your words, where are they? Where is the person that’s supposed to help me through this that’s going to keep me alive?’”

This harrowing experience led to a new mission in Adams’ life.

Now, as a motivational speaker, she brings a message of hope and

purpose to LGBTQ+ groups across the region. She frequently speaks at schools, and churches when they’ll have her.

In many ways, Adams’ work as a motivational speaker is an extension of her past life as a missionary. “We were all about helping people, giving them hope that there are better things ahead,” she said. “Everyone is constantly going through something, but it turns around. It’s not permanent.”

So-called conversion or reparative therapy represents what the Human Rights Campaign calls “a range of dangerous and discred-

ited practices that falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.” Many states have banned the harmful practice, which can lead to suicide, but Oklahoma isn’t one of them.

The discredited “therapy” has been in the headlines recently, as McKrae Game—founder of the faith-based conversion program, Hope for Wholeness Network— came out as gay, warning against the dangers of the practice. “It’s all in my past, but way too many continue believing there is something wrong with themselves and wrong with people who choose to live their lives honestly and open as gay, lesbian, trans, etc.,” Game wrote on Facebook. “The very harmful cycle of self-shame and condemnation has to stop.”

For Adams, ending that harmful cycle was a matter of self preservation. “I’m gay. That’s just the way I am,” she said. “I would have ended up dying if I kept trying to do all that stuff.”

When thinking about her third and final experience at a conversion program, she’s reminded of a Bible passage in Ecclesiastes. “It says that there’s nothing new under the sun.

Everyone—someone, somewhere—has gone through something similar to you.”

Adams was angry, but she turned that anger into hope. It inspired her to make connections and help others fi nd the will to carry on during their own darkest moments. “I decided maybe that’s my purpose now, to bring people together. To let people know: Someone has gone through this. You’re not alone.

You can make it. This is temporary. I want to connect people.

They don’t have to be Christian or believe in anything except for themselves—and hope.” a

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

NON-DIABETIC AND DIABETIC PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR STUDY OF DIABETES & PAIN RISK • A TU, Cherokee Nation, and Oklahoma City Area IHS IRB-approved research study is being conducted at The University of Tulsa that investigates the relationship between diabetes and chronic pain risk in non-Hispanic Whites and Native Americans • Participants must either: be healthy, currently pain-free OR have Type 2 diabetes • The study takes approximately 3.5-5 hours to complete • Up to $100 compensation will be provided for completing the study. Some participants may be eligible for travel reimbursement.

• Call to find out more and determine if you are eligible Tulsa’s independent and non-profit art-house theatre, showing independent, foreign, and documentary films.

Psychophysiology Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience (PI: Jamie Rhudy, PhD) 918-631-2175 or 918-631-3565

TELL US WHAT YOU’RE DOING So we can tell everyone else Send all your event and music listings to voices@langdonpublishing.com

REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s eclectic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

cannaculture

HOT BOX FYI on driving high

A medical marijuana card won’t protect you if you’re suspected of DUI | MORGAN WELCH

The best of Tulsa:

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

Come find out what ’s happening.

14 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

SINCE THE PASSAGE OF STATE QUESTION 788, cannabis users in Oklahoma have been given more freedom to enjoy their favorite plant than ever before. But in the midst of all the excitement, it’s important to remember Oklahoma’s laws about driving under the influence of marijuana haven’t changed—even for medical card holders.

Casey Roebuck, communications director for the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department, says suspected cannabis usage is pretty common in traffic stops.

“There is no way to test for marijuana usage in the same way that law enforcement can use a breathalyzer to test for alcohol,” she wrote in an email. “However, cues for marijuana usage can be detected during field sobriety tests.”

If cannabis use is suspected, officers can call a certified Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) to conduct an evaluation. If the driver is believed to be intoxicated, they will be placed under arrest. The arrestee will then be asked to give a blood sample to be tested for THC metabolites. Drivers who refuse to take the test can have their driver’s license restricted and be required to install a breathalyzer in their car.

Jay Ramey, a local attorney who handles cannabis cases, says he’s seen more marijuana DUIs since the implementation of State Question 788, a trend he attributes to authorities finding new ways to crack down on pot.

Ramey is critical of the way cannabis DUIs are handled. The blood test administered to DUI suspects picks up THC metabolites, compounds produced by your body when it processes THC. These

metabolites can stay in your system for up to 30 days after consumption, meaning drivers can be flagged for usage that took place weeks prior.

“If you have any amount of THC metabolites in your system, you’re guilty under Oklahoma law,” Ramey says. “You have no defense.”

Another issue is the use of standard field sobriety tests, which Ramey says frequently return false positives. “They were made and designed for alcohol and they’re not even that accurate for alcohol. There were no studies on them for marijuana at all. People who are stone cold sober have trouble, sometimes, taking those tests.”

Ramey is also skeptical of the rigor behind DRE certifications. Becoming a DRE requires 72 hours of classroom training and a minimum of 12 supervised drug evaluations. Those evaluations represent the program’s final test; only 75 percent accuracy is required to graduate.

Ramey advises against admitting to marijuana usage during traffic stops, no matter how long ago it was. He also tells his clients to avoid field sobriety tests altogether, which are frequently not caught on video. “I tell them, ‘Do not take the field sobriety test whether it’s alcohol, marijuana, whatever,’” he says. “Because the police always say you failed.”

It is important to remember your rights and responsibilities as a cannabis patient.

Oklahoma is a much different place than it was just two years ago in terms of permissiveness around marijuana usage, but a medical card won’t protect you from being prosecuted if you’re suspected of driving under the influence. —FRASER KASTNER

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Visit Dog Dish soon for the best selection of holiday gifts for your pets and for the dog-lovers and cat-lovers in your life!

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THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 15

citybites

Street smarts

High Dive plunges into the deep end of Studio Row

by NATALIE MIKLES

T

here’s no better place in Tulsa for a new restaurant concept than Studio Row. This off-the-beaten-path area is home to the famed Church Studio and eccentric shops and restaurants. It’s just the spot for a bar and restaurant where you can hang out in the morning to drink espresso, stay for a lunch of Korean street food-inspired tacos and swing by for late-night karaoke, live music and wonton nachos. That place is Foolish Things High Dive.

When Justin and Kate Carpenter, owners of Foolish Things Coffee Co. and Foolish Things Bar and Biscuit, were approached about opening another concept on Studio Row, they knew they had an opportunity to do something different.

Justin Carpenter talked it over with Hunter Gambill of Oklahoma Distilling Co., and the two considered what was missing in Tulsa. After many long conversations about everything from music to Japanese whiskey, an idea for Korean street food in a bardive setting began to take shape.

High Dive’s play on words as a high-concept dive bar really fits this small, casual spot with a refined menu of great food, developed by Nick Corcoran, formerly of BurnCo. Carpenter is quick to point out he and Corcoran are not trying to pull off strictly authentic Korean food. “We are inspired by Korean cuisine. We definitely pay homage to the flavors and traditions. But we are not an authentic Korean restaurant,” he says.

And that’s good to know before you make your way over to High Dive. The tight menu features bibimpap (Korean rice bowl), fried rice and noodle 16 // FOOD & DRINK

Coffee, karaoke, cocktails and Korean-inspired cuisine—High Dive is an epicenter of entertainment on Studio Row. | GREG BOLLINGER

bowls and Asian-style street tacos. Again, the emphasis is on “style.” The Don Squatch taco, for instance, features Korean bulgogi beef, pickled daikon, orange and barbecue sauce. The combination of flavor is great, but not exactly authentic.

Bulgogi beef is used in several dishes, and to great effect. This marinated, tender beef is thinly sliced, making it perfect in the Korean rice bowl, tacos, noodle bowls and salad.

If deciding between the rice and noodle bowls and the bibimpap, go for the bibimpap. Jasmine rice is topped with sections of shredded carrot, purple cabbage, lettuce, fresh pineapple, pickled

habanero peppers and a choice of bulgogi, spicy pork, mushrooms or marinated tofu. The whole beautiful bowl is topped with a poached egg and then sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds. It’s worth taking a second to appreciate—or snap a picture—before digging in. Bibimpap ranges from $9–11.

Since opening, High Dive has become as popular for live music as food. Carpenter partnered with Horton Records to bring live acts every Thursday night, with Wednesdays reserved for karaoke. The stage features reclaimed wood from the Church Studio.

Need a little liquid courage before belting out “Endless

Love” onstage? Lucky for you, the bar menu is extensive. Along with curated wine and beer lists, you’ll find a classic mix of highballs and cocktails. Toki Time is one popular offering, featuring Suntory Toki whiskey, soda water and lemon oil. The Vellocet is a stunner with green Chartreuse, pineapple juice and lime—giving it both an herbal and sweet and sour aroma.

The bar snacks at High Dive are a great complement to any cocktail as the perfect late-night food—although some items, like the wonton nachos, are just as good in the morning. Carpenter said diners have been losing their minds over those nachos, and it’s easy to see why.

A wonton chip, freshly fried and crisp, is perfection on its own. But High Dive takes it a step further and covers them in melted cheese, marinated vegetables and green onion. Top it with the beef bulgogi or spicy pork, and you have next-level deliciousness.

You’ll also find a great corn dip served with wonton chips, a savory Korean pancake and “cheese and crackers,” which is a block of cream cheese topped with candied jalapeno and a drizzle of soy sauce. It’s perfect for passing around the table, sharing until the last cracker is gone.

Like at his other Foolish Things locations, Carpenter is committed to the idea of community space. High Dive’s hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and you’ll find people milling in and out throughout the day. It’s one reason high-quality coffee is also part of the menu. Between coffee, karaoke, cocktails and cuisine— this new Studio Row gem is sure to become a part of your regular Tulsa routine. a

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

FOOD & DRINK // 17

foodfile

Glory Wells (left) takes inventory, seasons vegetables, grills catfish, washes dishes and wipes down tables at Wanda J’s Next Generation. | SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS

Back of the house

Meet the workers feeding Tulsa’s restaurant scene

by MADELINE ROPER

G

lory Wells juggles many jobs in the kitchen at Wanda J’s Next Generation. She takes inventory, seasons vegetables, grills catfish, washes dishes and wipes down tables.

Simultaneously, Wells studies logic games and reading comprehension tips in her Law School Admissions Test practice book.

She brings the book into the kitchen with her every day.

“I’m applying to law school,” Wells said. “I’m speaking it into fruition.”

Wells operates Wanda J’s with her four sisters. They each work 50 hours a week at the restaurant while enrolled in a full schedule of college classes.

Wells and her sisters learned the ins and outs of the business while working at their grandmother’s restaurant, Evelyn’s Soul Food. Wells was eight years old when she got her fi rst summer job at the restaurant.

She learned the importance of 18 // FOOD & DRINK

teamwork and flexibility in the kitchen early on.

“I’ve bussed tables and washed dishes for many, many years,” Wells said. “We’re small, so we each do a little bit of everything here.”

Lee Brown, dishwasher at Duet, also emphasized the importance of cooperation in the kitchen. Brown spends his shifts cleaning pots, pans, plates and utensils. He has worked in the restaurant industry since 1984 and started dishwashing at Duet when they opened in August 2018. Over the years, he learned that every worker, from the head chef to the busboy, serves an integral role in the operation of a restaurtant.

“We’re a team,” Brown said.

“We all rely on each other in some way.”

At Prairie Fire Pie, if one of the line cooks forgets to refi ll toppings or clean their station, the entire restaurant suffers. Yancey Friend, pizza cook, has worked

in 13 restaurants over his 30-year career. He attended culinary school for three months, but dropped out due to the program’s high cost. Soon after, he applied to his first restaurant gig and began learning on the job instead of in a classroom.

Like Wells, Friend has worked various positions in the kitchen including washing dishes and frying burgers. Despite working some dull, repetitive kitchen jobs, Friend knows his success stems from his well-rounded knowledge and variety of experiences.

“Nobody wants to do all the tedious stuff like sweeping the oven and working the wood,” Friend said. “But you have to learn it all.”

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE Line cooks must master every station in the pizza kitchen. They spend several weeks practicing and perfecting each technique.

Once they learn how to make

the dough, they can move on to manning the oven. Eventually, they learn every aspect of operating the kitchen. Though Friend emphasizes discipline and practice, he also knows the test of a truly successful kitchen staff is how they preform under pressure.

“A lot of restaurants run on chaos,” Friend said. “Its sort of an instinct.”

Wells also attributes her kitchen skills to long hours of practice. She cooked every menu item at Wanda J’s over and over until she memorized the cook times for each dish. The team at Wanda J’s does not use recipes, so Wells relies solely on her memory to get the job done. She now knows when to start frying okra and sautéing vegetables so the customers receive their food in a timely manner. All the while, she maintains a clean kitchen and dining room.

“We’re human and we make

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

mistakes,” Wells said. “But when you make a mistake in the back, you can lose a customer.”

Brown always keeps the customer experience in mind throughout his seven-hour shifts at Duet. Friday nights are the most hectic, and he stays on his feet to quickly turn over clean cups, plates and silverware. His only break comes during the five minutes it takes him to wheel the trash out to the back of the restaurant or use the restroom. He knows his team and the patrons will suffer if he is away from the kitchen for too long.

“It’s important customers don’t have spots on their plates or lipstick stains on their glasses,” Brown said. “It’s all about satisfying the customer.”

Until September, Brown worked two kitchen jobs with long hours. He washed dishes at both Amelia’s and Duet and took naps in the back room at Magic City Books between shifts.

Friend sometimes works 12-hour shifts at Prairie Fire Pie. On busy days, he begins prepping meals at noon and doesn’t leave the kitchen until midnight.

He stays until every customer is finished eating, and puts in extra time to clean, re-stock ingredients and share tips with new hires. If he leaves the kitchen and a rush of customers floods the restaurant, he would feel guilty for deserting his team.

According to Wells, working at the back of the house means making sacrifices. While servers can usually find coverage when they get sick or need to attend family events, cooks don’t have the same luxury. They are often the only employees who know the recipes and therefore must show up to every shift.

“It requires a lot of loyalty,” Wells said. “You can’t cut corners or slack off.”

HOLIDAY HEROES Wells will work overtime during the holidays. Loyal customers order their entire Thanksgiving dinners from Wanda J’s.

Wells’ family will stay up all night the Tuesday before the holiday basting turkeys and mashing potatoes. On Wednesday, they will organize orders and make sure

every customer has a full Thanksgiving spread.

Catering holidays and parties contributes to Wanda J’s family-oriented environment. Wells cultivates a personal connection with her customers. She makes a point to remember their orders and ask about their lives beyond the walls of the restaurant.

“We’re all family here,” Wells said. “And we try to treat everybody else like family too.”

Even though Friend doesn’t work with his brothers and sisters, he sees his coworkers as family. He feels a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood with line cooks and the wait staff. Because cooking requires so much collaboration, co-workers get to know each other well. They make jokes as they knead dough and chop vegetables, and always ensure their colleagues find work when a restaurant closes.

“A lot of us misfits find our way working in a kitchen,” Friend said. “When I was a kid, I was lost until someone took time with me in the kitchen.”

Brown said it’s easier to get up and come to work if you enjoy spending time with your team.

By taking care of his job at the back of the house, he takes care of his co-workers at the front of the house. Everyone at Duet does their part so the customers can return home happy after experiencing a night of good food and great live entertainment.

Wells experiences a feeling of euphoria when customers enjoy her food. As she prepares to take her LSAT at the end of November, she does not see her law career as an end to her career in the kitchen. She hopes to use the money she makes as an attorney to grow her family’s restaurant group. She will also use her knowledge to advise the legal side of the business, including contract and intellectual property issues. Though she may not play as much of a hands-on role in her restaurants in the future, Wells will support her family’s effort to bring home-style cooking to their community for years to come.

“I want to be able to bless everyone,” Wells said. “I can do that as an attorney and with my restaurants. I think it’s a win-win.” a

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

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FOOD & DRINK // 19

ACT OF FAITH KOJ O A SAM OA- CAE SAR ’ S CAM PAI G N TO B R I N G N O R TH T U L SA TO WA S H I N GTO N B Y J E Z Y J . G R AY PHOTO BY JOSE PH RUSH MORE

Kojo Asamoa-Caesar steps into the first bitterly cold day of the season with an easy smile. Sleet had been spitting across Green Country hours earlier, making it an altogether lousy afternoon to meet up with a city paper editor after an all-day event in Bartlesville—but if the 33-year-old congressional candidate isn’t feeling it today, you’d never know.

We’re at the site of what will soon be Fulton Street Books & Coffee on West Latimer Street, operated by his wife Onikah Asamoa-Caesar, to discuss his longshot bid for Oklahoma’s first congressional district. This is where, six days earlier, Asamoa-Caesar announced his intention to win a seat that’s been occupied by a Republican since the year he was born.

Anchored by Tulsa, the district in play stretches from the top of Washington County on the Kansas border down through the southern end of Wagoner. Asamoa-

first Democrat of the century? “We’re going to be authentic,” he says. “We’re going to preach a message of bridging the divide.

The only way we get things done is if we do it together.”

Such calls for unity aren’t unusual for moderates like Asamoa-Caesar in the high-decibel, norm-shredding age of Donald Trump. Other challengers will likely make similar appeals in a potential Democratic primary, but Asamoa-Caesar’s mission to steer the district, state and country in a new direction is a personal one, uniquely colored by his experience as a North Tulsa educator—and it begins 6,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.

FROM GHANA TO GREENWOOD Growing up in the West African hub of Accra, Asamoa-Caesar’s mother—one of nine siblings—saw the United States

A SA M OA- C A E SA R ’ S B I D T O R E P R E S E N T O K L A H O M A’ S FIRST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IS A PERSONAL ON E , COLOR E D BY H I S EXPERIENCE AS A NORTH T U L S A E D U C AT O R — A N D I T B E G I N S 6 ,000 M I LE S AC R OS S T H E AT L A N T I C O C E A N .

Caesar launched his campaign with an initiative to travel across this gnarly L-shaped slice of northeastern Oklahoma, pledging to hold 50 public events in 50 days across the district.

Today is day six of his campaign’s “50 in 50” initiative, but Asamoa-Caesar has already made a dozen public appearances—including the afternoon’s icy trip to Bartlesville. “We’re trying to overachieve,” he says with a laugh. “We might hit that 50 before, you know. We’ll just keep going.”

Flipping the first would be a minor miracle, but Asamoa-Caesar is a man of faith. The former educator laughs away grim speculation about his odds. “I think people have had this mindset that Oklahoma’s a red state and so we’re not even trying,” he says. “We are coming to this with optimism—with a sense of hope, and the sense that we can actually do this.”

So why does Asamoa-Caesar think he’s the one to make history as the district’s THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

as that proverbial city on a hill. “It was the promised land,” he says of his mom’s ambition to come here. “You felt like if you could just make it to America, all your dreams would come true.”

When his mother was selected in the visa lottery—a program now under threat from the Trump administration—she left her family and life in Ghana to work toward becoming a doctor in the U.S. She arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, where she met Asamoa-Caesar’s father, a taxi driver, and began to build a new life for herself.

Baby Kojo arrived three years later, but his father was no longer in the picture.

“She was a single mom. She was working multiple jobs,” Asamoa-Caesar says. “It was difficult to find high quality childcare that was affordable. She struggled to care for me and work hard, and try to go to school.”

With her hands more than full, AsamoaCaesar’s mother sent her two-year-old

son to stay with relatives in Ghana. He lived there until age 10, where he learned the language and customs of the region before returning to the states where he’s remained since.

Stories of movement across borders run through Asamoa-Caesar’s life, and it informs his vision of the country he calls home. “Unless you’re Native American, you came from somewhere else,” he says. “We shouldn’t demonize people for wanting to come to America. We have to change our rhetoric. Nobody is ‘illegal,’ right? Folks are trying to come here to make a better life for themselves and their kids, like my mom did.”

The surest sign his mother’s sacrifice was not in vain came when AsamoaCaesar earned his law degree from the prestigious College of William and Mary in 2013. But he found himself at a crossroads after graduation. Asamoa-Caesar’s friends encouraged him to explore his earning potential somewhere like New York.

Instead, he came to Oklahoma.

TEACHING MOMENT Asamoa-Caesar first stepped foot in North Tulsa through a commitment to reach underserved communities with the Teach for America program. This, it turns out, would become one of the first-generation American’s most formative experiences.

“It gave me a sense of mission,” he says. “The most prosperous African American community in the United States was right here. And my kids are the descendants of this great legacy. That’s how I saw my kids. And I think being a kindergarten teacher was the best way to learn about our community, because you see it through the eyes of our youngest learners.”

Those young learners taught AsamoaCaesar a lot about their lives here—and not all of it was pretty. “I would hear stories like, ‘We slept in a car last night,’ or ‘We didn’t eat dinner last night,’” AsamoaCaesar remembers. “I’m trying to teach math and reading, and all these other issues are coming up.”

This experience gave the 20-something educator a crash course in the unique challenges faced by his new community, along with the importance of building rapport within it. “My kids wanted to know, ‘Can I trust you? Because I have adults in my life who have betrayed my trust,’” Asamoa-Caesar says. “Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Asamoa-Caesar carried that culture of caring with him into his role as founding principal of the Greenwood Leadership Academy, a tuition-free “public partnership” school dedicated to community engagement and economic development.

“A lot of folks try to come into North Tulsa and do great things, but they often do it without the community. There’s a quote: ‘What you do for me without me, you do to me.’ A lot of folks here felt that. So we had to really deeply engage the community and find out what their needs and concerns were, and have them be a part of the solution.”

Now Asamoa-Caesar is asking that same community, and others throughout the district, to be a part of a more structural solution by sending him to Washington in 2020. It’s an uphill battle, but it just might be the fight he was born for.

ACT OF FAITH If Asamoa-Caesar faces and defeats Republican incumbent Kevin Hern next November, he’ll make history for more than his party. He’ll be the first black person, the first millennial and the first child of immigrants to ever hold the seat. The candidate’s cheerful optimism aside, making all that history in Oklahoma’s first congressional district will take something of a magic trick—or an act of God. But this, according to Asamoa-Caesar, is how he wound up in Tulsa in the first place. “I was praying, asking God, ‘What would you have me do? How can I best serve other people and live out my purpose?’ It wasn’t going to be by practicing corporate law.”

His habit of turning to a divine power for guidance was instilled in him by his mother, who gave Asamoa-Caesar a Bible upon her return to Ghana at age 40. She told him to read it every night, and he did.

“I took that very seriously,” he says.

“It informed how I live my life and what my faith is all about. You know, ‘Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ I believe we all have this God-given purpose, and the way we achieve that purpose and fulfill our potential is by living in service to others.”

The sun is setting on the neighborhood of Brady Heights, named (for the moment) after a klansman and night watchman during the 1921 North Tulsa Race Massacre. Inside the soon-to-be-stocked Fulton Street Books, a blown-up image of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me is splashed on the wall against stylish excerpts of writing by black writers like Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. In a mural on the brick building’s western exterior, Nina Simone watches knowingly over Latimer Street.

As Asamoa-Caesar wraps up the sixth day of his underdog campaign in his wife’s soon-to-launch business, he reflects on the energy of change in his life at this moment.

In addition to new professional trajectories, the couple is expecting their first child in the spring. “My wife said the other night, ‘Pregnancy itself is an act of faith. I can’t control what’s inside of me, and all these different things can happen.’”

Such acts of faith are a major throughline in Asamoa-Caesar’s life. But even if he doesn’t make history next November, it’s clear he’s finding value in the moment. “I have this sense of feeling detached from the outcome. It’s about the process,” he says. “I’m filled with that: Trust the process, live authentically, and see what happens.” a FEATURED // 21

Shopping for SNOWFL AKES OK boomer—here are the local gifts millennials will love

BY TERRIE SHIPLE Y AND T T V STAFF PHOTOS BY GREG BOLLINGER D OU B LE S HOT

FO O LI S H TH I N G S BAR + B I SCU IT

SINCE THE TERM ‘MILLENNIAL’ became pejorative shorthand for a generation raised on participation trophies and the Internet, a diverse swath of Americans born between 1981 and 1996 has been accused of killing everything from the diamond industry to breakfast cereal.

Considering we hold a staggering 300 percent more college debt than our parents, it’s no surprise our spending patterns look a little different. But that’s not the whole picture. Millennial shopping habits are informed by a wide range of factors, including a predilection for supporting locally owned shops over big-box chain stores.

So while you may not see many 29-yearolds breaking down department store doors on Black Friday, you’ll find plenty combing the racks of mom-and-pop shops during Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30, supporting the local community and siphoning 22 // FEATURED

36 D EG R EE S NO RTH

sales tax to municipal improvements like education and infrastructure.

If you’re feeling out-of-touch with the 20 and 30-somethings in your life, here’s a rundown on some foolproof holiday gift ideas for Small Business Saturday to bridge the generational divide and find the perfect gift for the millennial in your life.

TH E COFFEE SNOB Third-wave coffee shops remain popular with the millennial cohort, where care and attention are lavished on every drink and food product. A recent trip to DoubleShot Coffee Co. at 1633 S. Boulder Ave. had me ogling the homemade English muffins (a baker starts these at 4:30 a.m.) and seasonal jams. Try it on one of their made-fresh breakfast sandwiches, or go for the hearty breakfast burrito wrapped in a spinach tortilla.

DoubleShot also has a lovely partnership with Glacier—another local foodie favorite—in creating a single-source Peruvian dark chocolate bar infused with Maduro natural Colombian coffee. It’s hearty, wonderfully balanced in bitterness and sweetness, and a little crunchy from the cacao nibs. Pair that with a local draft beer (a bonus feature of their new location at 1633 S. Boulder Ave.) and see what makes this Tulsa institution a favorite among discerning millennial coffee freaks.

It’s easier than ever to gift the experience with the shop’s handsome DoubleShot coins. These solid metal coins come in two denominations, copper ($2) and nickel ($5).

34-year-olds making up a quarter of lawn and garden retail sales. Shop for something like a pilea (a.k.a. “Chinese Money Plant”) or monstera (a.k.a.

“Swiss Cheese Plant”) at Southwood Landscape and Nursery (9025 S. Lewis Ave.) which has a great selection of trendy plants like these. Ted & Debbie’s Flower & Garden at 3901 S. Harvard has some cute planters and modern wreaths (think a simple brass hoop with a swath of luxurious florals). Or show your millennial hostess some love with a gorgeous dried arrangement by EverSomething at Foolish Things Bar + Biscuit (3524F S. Peoria Ave.) Their simple, muted look is highly au courant.

TH E PL ANT L ADY Plants are a vital component to the millennial home aesthetic, with 18- to

TH E SJW It’s no secret millennials swing to the political left. For the young lib in your life, November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

I DA R ED

DOG DISH

Ida Red (208 N. Main St.) is a goldmine.

Searching for a Kamala action figure?

Done. How about RBG, Barack, or Michelle ornaments for the Christmas tree? Check.

Pair that with a copy of Michelle Obama’s Becoming, or David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years from the highly-curated selection at Magic City Books (221 E. Archer St.) and you’ll have the perfect political gift combo for your favorite social justice warrior.

TH E SCI ENCE G EEK Since the millennial generation will be left to reckon with the devastating effects of climate change, it’s no surprise that many of us have science on the brain. Drop by STEMcell Science Shop (2415 E. Admiral Blvd.) in the Kendall Whittier neighborhood for one-of-a-kind finds to delight the curious mind. It’s also home to the studio THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

S TEM CELL SCI EN CE S HO P

of the shop’s “scientist-in-residence,” Tyler Thrasher, a local artist/chemist who crystallizes the carcasses of cicadas, beetles, snakes and scorpions to create stunning giftable sculptures you can purchase in-store.

STEMcell partners with nearby brewery Heirloom Rustic Ales (2113 E. Admiral Blvd.) for talks on topics ranging from alternative energy to medical marijuana.

Co-owner Terry Mudge calls their Think and Drink events “TED Talks with booze,” a perfect millennial match if there ever was one.

TH E START- UP BRO Tulsa is known for its startup-rich soil, which is likely to seed the next generation of businesses, big and small. In one study, 66 percent of millennials said they want to start their own business. Help your millennial entrepreneur launch a business

idea by gifting a month of a coworking membership at 36 Degrees North (36 E. Cameron St.) or the women-centered Coworking Bravely in Broken Arrow at 114 W. Commercial St. With many millennials trying to make a go of it in the “gig economy,” it’s also a great gift for the young freelancer in your life.

TH E PARENT While “millennial” remains a stand-in for “young person,” many members of this aging generation are becoming parents themselves. This is especially true in Oklahoma, where the cost of living is relatively reasonable. As the wedding season sunsets, millennials are filling their calendars with baby showers, including their own. Options abound for baby gear, but you can’t go wrong with Lolly Garden (2046 Utica Square).

They offer clothing in brands like Tea and KicKee; unique baby board books like Urban Babies Wear Black and S is for Sooner; the best loveys and stuffed animals (it doesn’t get softer than Jellycat); and fun extras like silicone teethers shaped like tacos or boba tea.

Consider, too, the many millennials who are delaying or rejecting the role of parent.

In many instances, these folks are very into their pets (an already booming industry and one that’s projected to take off).

Besides offering just about anything one needs for a four-legged fur baby, Dog Dish (1778 Utica Square) has items for people, too, including an organic dog biscuit cookbook set, complete with cookie-cutter shapes in fire hydrant, bone and squirrel.

They even have “meowijuana” pre-rolled catnip joints. Does it get more millennial than that? a FEATURED // 23

P H O T O

E S S A Y

IN STE P Pain and glory at the OBA 6A State Marching Band Championship WORDS AND PHOTOGR APHS

BY DESTINY JADE GREEN

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL BEGINS IN OKLAHOMA each summer with eager preparations in the relentless sun. Collectively we imagine goliath players in the baking heat, but for many students, summer brings the sweaty and sometimes grueling drills of marching band practice.

The preparations are the foundation for dozens of halftime shows and the glory of competitive marching band tournaments, culminating in the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association State Championships in the fall.

You might be conjuring the pejorative words band geek and smiling to yourself at the memory of braces, feathered plumes and adolescents playing your school song, but such nostalgia pales in comparison to the heat of competition during these intricate and challenging contests.

On a sunny day at the beginning of November, busses, trailers and semi-trucks arrive in Owasso for the OBA 6A State Marching Band Championship. Band boosters set up tents and snacks while students suit up and file off to designated warmup areas. Then, in the frenetic anxiety of shining horns and fluttering flags, bands take to the field for extravagant displays of musical theater featuring massive props, dancing and groups of teenagers dedicated to wowing the swelling crowds and attentive judges in the semifinal.

By the time evening rolls around, only a select few prepare for the final in the rapidly cooling darkness. Students stretch and focus as band directors deliver critiques and pep talks.

Stadium lights bounce off the shine of sequins and silver keys, and the largest high schools in the state perform for the prize. The teenage pride of Oklahoma steps out for its best show of the year. a 24 // FEATURED

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

FEATURED // 25

audiofile

Making the news

Bringing black voices back to Oklahoma airwaves

by DAMION SHADE

B

en Tipton was a radio host on Oklahoma City station KBYE in the 1960s and ‘70s. He was a charismatic figure—a 6-foot-5-inch former basketball player they called “the Tall Man.” He introduced Oklahomans to Lou Rawls and James Brown at a time when African American culture was just starting to gain prominence in mainstream media. There weren’t shows hosted by black Oklahomans on major networks back then.

Tipton eventually created an early morning weekly television show called the Black Revue that blended elements of black art and culture with the news of the day. He was a rare voice for black Oklahomans in a media space where representation was often lacking or only relegated to stereotypes.

“I was shocked to learn that it’s been 31 years since there was a mainstream broadcast show focused on black Oklahomans,” said Quraysh Ali Lansana, Tulsa Artist Fellow and Tri-City Collective member. That’s why Lansana, along with other Tulsa educators, writers and cultural justice advocates are producing Focus: Black Oklahoma, a radio show highlighting the state’s black communities.

The weekly series will air on Public Radio Tulsa beginning in February 2020.

Lansana is the author of numerous books and several collections of poetry including The Walmart Republic, Mystic Turf and They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems. Lansana was born and raised in Enid but was living outside the state until he began the Fellowship last year.

“I primarily moved back to Tulsa because I’m working on several book projects on Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre,” Lansana said. “My research

26 // ARTS & CULTURE

Focus: Black Oklahoma co-hosts Arielle Davis and Kolby Webster | COURTESY

for these projects started a decade ago looking towards the upcoming centennial. When I decided to move to Tulsa, I started thinking about things that I would like to make manifest in my new town, and I immediately looked through all of the programming schedules for Public Radio Tulsa and for all four local news affi liates. I did not find a single program devoted to black issues.”

Lansana realized this lack of representation comes with a cost.

If black Oklahomans don’t have a voice in the shared cultural conversation, it’s too easy to feel powerless.

“It’s important for our stories to be told—for the news and information that really matters to black folks and folks of color in this state be heard,” he said. “In this state I feel like the dominant narrative of black folks is being less than or being about going along to get along. [It] is so pervasive that many folks have

just been brainwashed to believe it and devalue their own import. It’s important for folks of any ethnicity, and in this case particularly black folks, to hear stories that aren’t typically focused on by the mainstream media.”

Lansana used his background in public radio to develop Focus: Black Oklahoma with his co-producer and Public Radio Tulsa host Scott Gregory. The two met in college studying journalism at the University of Oklahoma.

Once Lansana discovered the program would be unique for the state, he pitched the idea among others as he started the Tulsa Artist’s Fellowship in January.

Carolyn Sickles, executive director of the Fellowship, suggested Lansana make the radio show his top priority.

Over the next year, Lansana built a team to produce the pilot episode, organizing the show around a sophisticated notion of modern radio storytelling.

He calls it an All Things Considered for black Oklahomans. The hour-long current affairs show— hosted by locals Arielle Davis and Kolby Webster—explores various news, politics and culture of the day. Features include a youth spotlight for stories from young black people and a creative spotlight where poets, storytellers, emcees, authors and musicians from throughout the state will be featured. In addition, there’s a spiritual spotlight where houses of faith of all denominations doing social justice work in the community will be highlighted.

“We’re exploring news items that rarely make mainstream media with the exception of black newspapers in the state,” Lansana said. “The lead story in the news run down in the first pilot is that black women in Oklahoma are 30 percent more likely to die in childbirth than white women. That’s not something that mainstream media has focused on at all.”

The second episode focuses on a formerly incarcerated woman named D’Marria Monday and her work with state Rep. Regina Goodwin on House Bill 3393. This bill ended the practice of shackling pregnant women to the bed during childbirth in prison.

“When I think about what we’re doing, it’s this idea of ‘making the news,’” Lansana said.

“We’re making the news that doesn’t make it to mainstream media, and more often than not, when we make the news in mainstream media … it’s about something that doesn’t shed a positive light on black Oklahomans or black folks period. I believe knowledge is power. It’s important for people in our community to feel empowered by the news, and for black Oklahomans to feel truly heard.” a

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Over fifteen restaurants and bars in the District compete!

Benefiting Emerson Elementary Art Dept.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit nogofftulsa.com or Facebook.com/nogofftulsa. 21+ only.

A Celebration Benefiting The Education Initiatives Of The Woody Guthrie Center.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019 6:00PM CAIN’S BALLROOM Visit theleftoverlastwaltz.com/tickets for tickets and sponsorship information.

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 27

artspot

No logo

Tulsa Artist Fellows dismantle the culture of consumption

by JEZY J. GRAY

I

n his 1963 book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Oglivy writes: “Man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard.”

The founder of the famed advertising agency Oglivy & Mather goes on to fantasize about forming a secret society of masked vigilantes “who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon.”

There’s something of this spirit in the new local public art project, Add Space, which can currently be seen on billboards throughout downtown Tulsa. Spearheaded

by Tulsa Artist Fellow Richard Zimmerman, the idea is to bring works of art to public spaces traditionally used for advertising.

The first installment of the series, splashed on outdoor ad canvases across the city through November, features works by fellow TAF artists Edgar Fabián Frías and Nathan Young along with L.A.based visual artist Johnna Arnold.

The concept of hijacking ad space for public art isn’t new, with a tradition stretching back to the post-cultural revolution turn of the 1970s and into our current late-capitalist moment.

Zimmerman points to the work of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, whose Untitled (1991) billboard stopped New Yorkers in their tracks with a monochrome photo of an empty bed, made after the artist’s long-term partner Ross Laycock died from AIDS. More recently, the I-70 Sign Show took over 250 miles of interstate between St. Louis and Kansas City, fl ipping ads for forced-birth crusaders and “Missouri’s loosest slots” into provocative roadside art installations.

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

Edgar Fabián Frías’ Nuestrxs Antepasadxs Nos Hablan Directamente (Our Ancestors Speak Directly With Us) JULIANNE CLARK

Driving around Tulsa, nestled among gentle rolling green hills choked with billboards pushing bail bonds, medical cannabis and personal injury attorneys, Zimmerman saw opportunity for a similar disruption. “I thought, ‘What would it mean to have art in these spaces?’ That was the kind of curious thing that led to looking at the mechanics of how to do it.”

Through a TAF project grant, Zimmerman assembled a team of artists to take over space sold by Lamar Outdoor Advertising. The result is three distinct but cohesive works: Frías’ Nuestrxs Antepasadxs Nos Hablan Directamente (Our Ancestors Speak Directly With

Us) located at 1348 E. 6th St.; Nathan Young’s NDN Medicine at 205 W. 11th St.; and Johnna Arnold’s From Inside This Earth / sunshine is in everything we do at 591 W. 3rd St. Frías’ Antepasadxs is perhaps the most visually distinct of the trio, trading the text-driven format of traditional billboard advertising for a lush, psychedelic collage of images and cultural information—deities, sacred objects, pattern work— framing a saturated self-portrait of the artist. It is, as the title suggests, a kind of communication between Frías and their ancestors.

“It’s a way of bringing that

natural element into this public space,” Frías says. They have been working recently with elements like flower essences, things that can be bottled and taken off-site to extend arts experiences outside of gallery spaces.

“I’ve been trying to fi nd ways to kind of bring the nature more into my life. … Nature is very healing. We are nature, right?”

During the installation process, Zimmerman found another layer in the relationship between the environments bound together by this project. The canvasses of the billboards themselves, far from blank, revealed a 27-by-40inch history of past advertisements for house fl ippers, gun shows, Weed Maps and more— not unlike the annual growth rings of a tree.

This relationship between the natural and built environments has made billboard art an irresistible format for artists throughout the decades, and now Tulsans can appreciate this grand tradition of culture jamming for themselves.

Whereas large-scale outdoor advertisements are designed to influence spending patterns and behaviors, this collection of works has a different goal in mind entirely.

“A lot of advertising is used to direct people, to give a very contained message that’s very simple or complete,” Frías says. “These billboards bring up a lot more questions than answers. So that creates a pause. … That’s a really powerful thing art can do. It can traverse through some of these very calcified structures that have been formed over the years. Art has a powerful way of being able to pierce through that.” a

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Congratulations Diversity Champion: Tulsa Tech

Awarded to a company demonstrating organizational change by accelerating the adoption of DEI best practices and linking cultural diversity to organizational goals.

Equity Champion: American Airlines

Awarded to a company demonstrating strategic and measured collaboration with key partners both inside and outside the organization to ensure sustainable success.

Inclusion Champion: Teach for America

Awarded to a company demonstrating a culture of inclusion that retains its workforce, maintains an environment of lifetime learning and maximizes the workplace satisfaction of all employees.

Catalyst Award: Public Service Company of Oklahoma Awarded to an organization that embodies all three of the above categories by demonstrating excellence in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Leadership Award: Gabe Kalafat at Macy’s

Given to a CEO, business owner or nonprofit leader who champions DEI as part of the competitive advantage for their organization.

Learn more @ mosaictulsa.com

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 29

bookworm

Blood work

Allison Moorer confronts her haunting past in a new memoir

by BECKY CARMAN

A

t 14 years old, songwriter and author Allison Moorer awoke to the sound of gunshots outside her Alabama home. In the pre-dawn dark, her father shot her mother and then himself, leaving Moorer and her then-17-year-old sister orphaned. Moorer’s new memoir, both the book and its companion record, are called Blood. In them, she recounts her parents’ turbulent marriage, a childhood full of both music and fear, her ironclad relationship with her sister and fellow acclaimed musician Shelby Lynne and how that earth-shattering early morning altered her life forever.

The book is a heart-piercing work of heady prose told with astonishing detail and candor, touching on witnessing abuse, praying for the safety of her family and even reading her parents’ autopsy reports for the first time as an adult. The companion album is a case study in processing trauma through art. Combined, they’re a career-defining release of poetry found in mystery, in human complexity and in unhappy truths.

Immediately following a battery of interviews including high-profi le features on CBS This Morning and NPR’s Fresh Air, Moorer embarked on a cross-country tour to speak about the book and perform a few selections from the record. She’ll be at the Woody Guthrie Center on Dec. 5 for a free reading presented in partnership with Magic City Books and the Bob Dylan Center.

BECKY CARMAN: What kinds of conversations did you have with Shelby before you started telling your story, since this is her story as well?

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

you going to explain this to him?’

And I didn’t have an answer for her. That put the idea in me to start writing it down.

CARMAN: Unpacking a traumatic childhood event is one thing, and writing about it is another. Are those things separate for you, or was the writing a tool to work through this?

Allison Moorer will have a free reading of her memoir Blood on Dec. 5 at the Woody Guthrie Center. | HEIDI ROSS

ALLISON MOORER: I didn’t talk it over with her; I just started the work. When I got into it, I let her know that I was doing it. I needed her in some instances to check my own memory, or I wanted to get her perspective. We did communicate about it some but not as much I guess as some people might think. It’s just about this very specific place and time in my life. I do feel like I am the witness for my immediate family, the four of us. I do feel a responsibility, especially to my sister, to make sure I get it as right as I can. She has told me that because I did do this work, she has been able to see her own experience in a different way and to see her own trauma in a way that she had maybe not allowed herself to see it before. That’s the biggest reward I can ask for.

CARMAN: Why was now the right time to tell your story?

MOORER: I’ve had some people ask me, ‘Why did you wait so long?’

And I don’t even really know how to answer that other than to say I certainly wasn’t prepared to write a book about this when my first record came out. I wasn’t even prepared to talk about this part of my life. What led me to write this—and this is crazy—but in 2010, about six weeks after my son was born, I was asked to be a guest on Maya Angelou’s radio show. Of course, I said, ‘Of course.’ She asked me about my childhood, my upbringing, and she said, ‘Well, now you have [your son] John Henry, so what are you going to tell him when he’s old enough to ask? How are

MOORER: I think I’m a person who processes through art. The exercise and the discipline of writing helped me uncover a lot of my feelings and a lot of detail about this subject. There were places I put myself to recall things that I had maybe not thought about since they happened, but I had my tools: I had made my stack of index cards with memories on them or topics that I wanted to look into or just words that seem to trigger me in some way. I’ve got a lot of photographs that I would look at, a lot of artifacts.

I have to tell you, I remembered some things that shook me to my core. I remember several times just holding on to the side of my desk thinking, ‘How am I going to write this down? This is too painful, or this is too complex, or this is too much to try to put into a paragraph.’ I did my very best.

I know that. And I wrote and rewrote. I think I wrote this book four times.

CARMAN: There’s a song on the record where your sister wrote music to your father’s words. Did you have to ask her to do that?

MOORER: She found the lyric in his briefcase shortly after they died, and she put music to it, so it’s been with us all this time. Neither one of us have ever officially recorded it, so I thought this record

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

would be a good time to do that.

I feel like it serves a couple of purposes. It is a window into his character for sure, because that lyric comes straight from him.

It also let me say to him finally, ‘OK, you get to be heard.’ That was important to me.

CARMAN: In one of your journal entries recently, you talk about living on the ‘woo woo’ side of life, and in the book you talk about praying and about wanting to go to church. What do faith and spirituality look like in your life now?

MOORER: Being in touch with my own spirituality and keeping a really close relationship with faith—however it looks on whatever day that is—is really important to me. There’s so many things in life that we cannot control. In fact, we can’t control any of it, and the idea that we can is a total illusion. If I get too close to that, I can absolutely spin out. I started a meditation practice several years ago. I’ve always been interested in Buddhism and the concept of having absolutely no control over anything.

And you know, I can go both ways on that, because I am a person who seeks symbolism and seeks meaning. I can on one hand think, you know, there aren’t any accidents, and I don’t want there to be. There’s a reason for everything that happens, and we have a path, and we can choose how we walk it, but there is a greater plan than what we think there is.

And then the other hand, I can think, well, none of this makes any sense … it’s absolute chaos.

That presents a problem for me as a practical person. I’m like, well, which is it? I just figure I have to do the best with this that I can, and that means that I can only do something about me.

Also, I think if I stay in touch with my spiritual side, which calms me greatly, I’m able to do something like this. This process is making me highly vulnerable. Not only have I put all of this out into the world, I’m now having to talk about it. And it’s still not easy to talk about 33 years down the road. It’s still a painful subject, so I have to dig in there. The difference for me now, because I have done emo-

tional work that I needed to do, is I don’t necessarily feel like the world is out to get me. Because this happened, I embodied the message that the world is not safe, that the world is a very dangerous place. I’ve operated on this sort of high-alert and hyper-vigilant system. What I’m trying to do now is be OK with that vulnerability and trust that anyone who asked me a question doesn’t want to hurt me.

woodyguthriecenter.org

CARMAN: Did any of the questions about your parents that you started with get answered?

MOORER: No. So many people throughout my life have indicated that my father was someone they admired, and I understand, especially from an intellectual perspective, how he was so attractive. He was charismatic. He was talented.

He was smart. He was good-looking. A lot of these people showed up to his funeral and said, ‘He affected my life, he did this for me, or we love him for this,’ and I’ve never been able to figure out why we saw such a different person at home. I can blame a great deal of that on alcohol for sure. But that was one of my questions: Who was this person that I did not know? I didn’t get any big answer about how he turned into who he ended up being.

When I got the autopsy reports, I saw that there was a third cartridge found on the ground, and every time I would approach someone to try to help me figure that out, I would hit a dead end, or they would stop corresponding with me. I finally just had to say, ‘Well, I can stay on this track, and I can try to get an answer to this question, or I can just let it go and decide that something’s telling me I don’t need to know the answer to this question.’ I have to be OK with the unknown, or I can just stay on the hamster wheel forever.

I just had to get off. The lesson for me was I have to make peace with the fact that I’m not going to know everything, and I’m not supposed to know everything. a

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

ELLIS PAUL FRIDAY, NOV. 22 • 7pm

6TH ANNUAL LEFTOVER LAST WALTZ SUNDAY, NOV. 24 • 6pm

RAMBLIN’ JACK ELLIOTT THURSDAY, DEC. 19 • 7pm

TOM PAXTON & THE DONJUANS MONDAY, MAR. 9, 2020 • 7pm

address 102 EAST BRADY STREET, TULSA, OK

74103

phone 918.574.2710

email INFO@WOODYGUTHRIECENTER.ORG

THE STATE OF CRAFT 2019 December 6, 2019 - January 26, 2020 Walkth rough with Juror Kirsten Olds December 6, 2019 at 5PM

HOLIDAY GIFT SHOP OPENS BLACK FRIDAY, 11/29 An extension of The Shop!

ALLISON MOORER Thursday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m.

Woody Guthrie Center 102 E M.B. Brady St.

918.895.6302 108CONTEMPORARY.ORG 108 E. RECONCILIATION WAY TULSA, OK 74103

This project was supported in part by the Oklahoma Arts Council, which receives support from theState of Oklahoma and the National Endowment for the Arts.

ARTS & CULTURE // 31

LEFTOVER LAST WALTZ Cain’s Ballroom, Nov. 24, 6 p.m., $40 theleftoverlastwaltz.com

M

atthew Schultz carried on his family’s tradition of watching Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. Now in its sixth year, the event is a tradition for many Tulsa families. Before the screening, Branjae will give a live performance while guests eat, print their own posters and enjoy the photo booths. Proceeds will go to the education initiatives at the Woody Guthrie Center. Read more about the event in our story “Giving thanks” at thetulsavoice.com.

MUSIC

RUN

Through Being Cool presents another Live Band Emo & Pop Punk Karaoke with performances by NeoRomantics and The Dom TeLonges on Nov. 22 at Vanguard. facebook.com

The Williams Route 66 Marathon returns Nov. 24 so dedicated Tulsan’s can run while their less disciplined family and friends cheer them on from the sidelines! route66marathon.com

INDIGENOUS EVENING

COMEDY

Gilcrease opens their doors for the free monthly event Gilcrease After Hours: IndigeNOISE on Nov. 22 starting at 7 p.m. This month includes food samples prepared by Native chefs and a special performance by the Native band Indigenous. gilcrease.org

The hunt for Tulsa’s Funniest Person begins on Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. Sixteen comics compete for the title while being judged by three radio DJs and the entire audience. $15, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

BREW-VERSARY

‘TIS THE SEASON

Cabin Boys Brewery celebrates their second anniversary on Nov. 23 at 11 a.m. with yoga provided

by Be Love, axe throwing by Got Wood, cigars from Ultimo Cigars, an inflatable obstacle course, yard games, and beer, of course. facebook.com

It’s time to bundle up and head to Utica Square on Nov. 28 for Lights On at 6:30 p.m. This event marks the beginning of the holiday season for so many Tulsans who will show up to see over 1 million lights turn on. uticasquare.com

FULL EVENTS CALENDAR: THETULSAVOICE.COM/CALENDAR 32 // ARTS & CULTURE

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

EVENTS

Spa Slumber Party // 11/30, 7 p.m., Poppi’s Tulsa

Speaking of Which // A spoken word open mic!, 11/20, 8 p.m., Gypsy Coffee House Movie Night: Sweeney Todd // Bring a friend and drink a brew. 11/20, 7 p.m., Kiss My Ale Pub Plant and Pints // 11/20, 6:30 p.m., Marshall Brewing Company Debate Watch Party // Watch the Democratic Debate with a drink, lord knows you’ll need it., 11/20, 6 p.m., Tulsa Press Club Greenwood Art Project Artist Mixer // 11/21, 5:30 p.m., Chimera Dinner of Reconciliation // This year’s theme is “Civic Engagement & Reconciliation: The Survival of Democracy” featuring world-renowned scholar Imam Omar Suleiman. 11/21, 5:30 p.m., Greenwood Cultural Center Jo Armstrong hopes to recreate the vibe of the Blue Dome Arts Festival with the new Blue Dome Pop-up Shops, a rare opportunity to go inside Tulsa’s historic Blue Dome. | GREG BOLLINGER

BLUE DOME POP-UP SHOP Blue Dome Building, Nov. 20–Dec. 22, 10 a.m. facebook.com

T

he historic Blue Dome Building opens it’s doors for a pop-up shop consisting of Tulsa’s many talented local artists. The pop-up is open every weekend from now until Christmas, it opens at 4 p.m. on Fridays and 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. This is the perfect opportunity to get your holiday shopping done, and maybe find a little something for yourself, while supporting local artists! There will be new vendors each weekend so repeat visits are welcome.

November Writers’ Project // Graphic Novelist Sophie Goldstein, fiction writer Christa Romanosky, and hybrid writer Kathryn Savage will share selections of their works followed by a Q&A. 11/21, 6 p.m., Magic City Books Sip & Create // Create your own candle and drink some beer. 11/21, 6:30 p.m., NEFF Brewery Entwine: New Arts Foundation Showcase // 11/21, 5 p.m., Living Arts of Tulsa Grey Matter: An Evening with Poetic Justice // Come enjoy a screening of the Grey Matter documentary about Poetic Justice and learn more about the organization., 11/21, 7 p.m., Oklahoma Center for the Humanities The End of Mercury Retrograde Party // 11/21, 8 p.m., The Shrine Taking Control // Join local artists Branjae and Dillon Rose in celebrating the art of women., 11/21, 6 p.m., Dillon Rose Studio Movie Night: Pixar’s Coco // Bring the kids and bring a blanket. 11/22, 6 p.m., Living Arts of Tulsa An Affair of the Heart // 11/22/19-11/24/19, 10 a.m., Tulsa Expo Center

GIVING THANKS

Celebrate the season with your LGBTQ+ family at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center with Come Home For The Holiday Thanksgiving Lunch on Nov. 28 at noon. Mingle with members of the community and enjoy this free lunch! okeq.org

SHOP LOCAL

Small Business Saturday is Nov. 30, celebrate with festivities at the Boxyard, the Blue Dome Pop-Up Shop and Mother Road Market and by visiting your favorite local store or artist! Read more on pg. 22. facebook.com BENEFIT CONCERT

Nov. 30 is International Musicians Day of Solidarity for Rojava and Barkingham Palace is celebrating with a fundraising show featuring a line-up of locals Constant Peril, Blurt, Imgonnadie, and Holy Void. facebook.com DRINKING BEER AND DOING THINGS

New Era Fine Fermentations Brewery hosts The Project Bar – Drink & D.I.Y. on Dec. 3. Crafty Tulsan’s can choose between creating a macramé plant hanger, string art, a leather beer koozie or a paracord dog collar! $30–$40, facebook.com 34 // ARTS & CULTURE

Cabin Boys Brewery 2nd Anniversary Party // Food trucks, music, yoga, axe throwing, cigar rolling, obstical courses and beer. 11/23, 11 a.m., Cabin Boys Brewery Shining the Light on Brain Injuries // All proceeds benefit the Brain Injury Recovery Foundation. 11/23, 6 p.m., Cain’s Ballroom

Black Wall Street 1919 “Teach Not Punish” Gala // Join TNP in rasing money to impliment their TEAMS behavior intervention system in elementary schools during the 2020-2021 school year., 11/30, 6 p.m.

Family Brunch // 12/1, 12 p.m., Fassler Hall Book Club // Magic City Books presents a book club covering Elise Hooper’s Learning to See., 12/1, 2 p.m., Gilcrease How To Resist Amazon and Why // Join us for an important “Cyber Monday” discussion with writer and bookseller Danny Caine., 12/2, 7 p.m., Magic City Books The Project Bar - Drink & DIY // 12/3, 6:30 p.m., NEFF Brewery Taste of Paradise: A Crested Butte Wine Dinner // A dining experience presented by Chefs Michael Marchitelli and David Wooding of Crested Butte, Colorado. 12/3, 6 p.m., Vintage Wine Bar

PERFORMING ARTS Music at the Mansion // 11/21, 2 p.m., Tulsa Historical Society & Museum Robin Sutherland and Carlos Ortega // Don’t miss this concert!, 11/22, 7 p.m., Fly Loft Grady Nichols Christmas // 11/30, 6 p.m., Tulsa PAC - Westby Pavilion

COMEDY Steven Lyons, Jamie Campbell, Trevor Carreon, Laura Christian // 11/20, 8 p.m., Fur Shop Alex Ortiz // 11/20-11/23, 7 p.m., The Loony Bin VFW Open-Mic Comedy Night // 11/20, 7:30 p.m., VFW Centennial Lounge Young Guns // 11/22, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv & Comedy Whose Line Rip Off Show // 11/23, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv & Comedy Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood Scared Scriptless // 11/24, 7 p.m., BOK Center The Rubber Chicken Factory Improv Show” // 11/25, 8 p.m., TCC Performing Arts Center

Long Skirt/Ribbon Skirt Making // 11/23, 1 p.m., Ahha Tulsa

Whose Line Rip Off Show // 11/29, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv & Comedy

TYPROS End of Year Friendsgiving Potluck & Park Clean-Up // 11/23, 10:30 a.m., Oxley Nature Center

Mike Head // 11/29-11/30, 7 p.m., The Loony Bin

Curator Tour: Shadow of Time // 11/24, 2 p.m., Philbrook MUSED. Poetry Night // Poetry karaoke with wine, beer and coffee!, 11/24, 6 p.m., Magic City Books Booty Brunch Twerkshop // 11/24, 2 p.m., Mojo Movement Studio Truth & Reconciliation Book Club: Born a Crime // Come to Whitty Books to discuss this book by Trevor Noah., 11/24, 3 p.m., Whitty Books Native American Lit Book Club: The Grass Dancer // Swing by to discuss this book by Susan Power., 11/25, 7:30 p.m., Whitty Books LuchaGiving // 11/27, 9 p.m., Elote Café Lights on the Hill // See Chandler Park light up for Christmas. Enjoy door prizes and more. 11/29, 6 p.m., Chandler Park

Stand-Up Night // 11/29, 9 p.m., Vanguard Improv Pop: Our Clean Show! // 11/30, 2 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv & Comedy Crits & Giggles // 11/30, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv & Comedy

SPORTS ORU Women’s Basketball vs Tulsa // 11/21, 7 p.m., Reynolds Center Tulsa Hurricane vs Houston // 11/23, 6:30 p.m., Chapman Stadium ORU Women’s Basketball vs Houston Baptist // 11/23, 2 p.m., Mabee Center ORU Men’s Basketball vs Southwestern Christian // 11/25, 7 p.m., Mabee Center

Dancers (Indoor) Patio Party // Dance and meet your fellow dancers!, 11/29, 9 p.m., NEFF Brewery

TU Women’s Basketball vs Loyola Marymount // 11/25, noon, Reynolds Center

Festival Night // 11/29/19-12/31/19, 6 p.m., Philbrook

Tulsa Oilers vs Allen // 11/30, 7:05 p.m., BOK Center

Holographic Friday: A Rose Gold Pop-Up Shop // 11/29, 12 p.m., The Boxyard

ORU Women’s Basketball vs Sam Houston St. // 11/30, 2 p.m., Mabee Center

Garden of Lights Opening Night // 11/29, 5 p.m., Tulsa Botanic Garden

Tulsa Oilers vs Allen // 12/1, 4:05 p.m., BOK Center

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Days of Celebration!

FRIDAY, NOV. 28 - FRIDAY, DEC. 6 29th GLOW KICKOFF Join us at Guthrie Green to celebrate our LIGHTS ON! event featuring live music, Santa Claus on site, holiday food items, and our new holiday market featuring over 15+ vendors.

3rd

30th HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS CARNIVAL

Guthrie Green is THE place for your holiday shopping and this night, we add fun for the whole family with games and festive carnival entertainment.

4th

A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS

GUTHRIE GREEN GIVES BACK

Swing on down to Guthrie Green for a fun evening your country favorites in music, shopping, and décor! Country music station giveaways and holiday vendors make this a night for country music fans.

Non-profits will be set up at the Guthrie Green to accept donations.

We’ll have giveaways for those who take the time to donate. Hear Christmas carolers and enter to win your own Christmas tree from Southwoods!

1st INTERFAITH CELEBRATION The Tulsa community comes together on this night to celebrate the music of the holidays.

Choirs and music groups from our faith partners perform to bring the holiday spirit to Guthrie Green.

5th A CHRISTMAS STORY Join us for a showing of the holiday classic, “A Christmas Story”!

We will also have “A Christmas Story” trivia before the film and special themed items from our vendors this night.

2nd A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Guthrie Green invites you to A Nightmare Before Christmas.

Check out characters from the film, oddities and curiosities vendors, and a reading of the book during our holiday market.

6th SCHOOL OF ROCK CHRISTMAS

One of the most unique music programs for youth can be found right here in Tulsa! A School of Rock will be at Guthrie Green for this First Friday event performing Christmas classics with a fun rock spin, as well, as classic rock tunes for all ages.

guthriegreen.com/holidaymarket THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

musicnotes

Chuck D, founding member of Public Enemy, accepted the Woody Guthrie Prize on Nov. 16 at Cain’s Ballroom. | GREG BOLLINGER

Be the power

Chuck D accepts the Woody Guthrie Prize in Tulsa

by TY CLARK

C

huck D is a lot of things: rapper, author, activist, curator and overall hip-hop legend to name a few. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, the founding member of the iconic rap group Public Enemy can now add the Woody Guthrie Prize to his list of honors.

Awarded annually since 2014, the Woody Guthrie Prize recognizes artists who use their talents to speak for those without a platform. Chuck D has been bringing social issues to the forefront his entire career, and now he joins the ranks of past honorees like Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples and Kris Kristofferson.

Chuck D and Woody Guthrie might not be the most obvious pair musically, but the work of these two disparate artists shares a commitment to social justice and equality for all. “Woody

36 // MUSIC

was a fighter for the people, and Chuck D’s message has consistently aligned with Woody’s: Choose a side, fight the power, and work for a better world,” said Deana McCloud, director of the Woody Guthrie Center.

Cain’s Ballroom welcomed Chuck D to Tulsa for the award ceremony on Nov. 16. I talked to the living legend about Guthrie, music activism, the current state of hip-hop and more.

TY CLARK: Can you tell me about your connection to Woody Guthrie?

CHUCK D: I’m a musicologist, man.

So if I’m gonna hear Woody Guthrie, I’ll have to know who Woody Guthrie is. You know, Bob Dylan and Pet Seeger, those two right there would lead me

straight into that. If somebody doesn’t think that Chuck D should understand what Bob’s feeling or what Pete Seeger was about, then they’re either terribly misinformed or they’re probably not using their phones the right way [laughs]. Cause you can find out what the connection is between Chuck D and Woody Guthrie easy.

Knowing about his life, he was a character that was real— wise and wild at the same time.

I enjoyed reading about his forays not just in music … but what he did in radio and dared to explore.

[He went] out from his home territory and still gave it props and still gave a voice to the voiceless in his home territory while being in New York or L.A. or wherever. He was a musician’s musician, so I dug that.

CLARK: I spoke with your former

[Prophets of Rage] bandmate Tom Morello when he joined the Woody Guthrie Center (WGC) advisory board. Can you talk about your relationship with him and your shared involvement with the Center?

CHUCK D: Tom Morello is my brother but his dealings with the WGC and mine come from two different vantage points. Tom is in a world of rock and dares to go beyond himself and contribute and give back. I do the same in hip-hop, all around the world. It’s about two different genres coming together with the brothers in Prophets of Rage. … That was a beautiful experience, you know.

I say that we went to the University of Brotherhood for four years. We did a term together.

We went around the world together and spoke and sang and played truth to power.

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

CLARK: How do you feel about the current state of hip-hop and rap?

CHUCK D: There’s a lot of people who don’t know what [hip-hop] is. It’s because there’s not enough curation or detailing about it to let the masses be as informed as they should on the genres. There is a lot of ignorance going around, but I’m always here to clarify … I’m also here to be a voice for people who feel that music can be an asset to their lives.

We live in different times, Ty, where music to younger generations could be a combination of four different areas: sound, sight, story and style. All those, to me, are cultural projections that come outside of something we usually call music. I think imagination is a powerful aspect to be tied and woven into music.

I like to hold to those beliefs and be able to touch real people at the same time.

CLARK: What or who would you consider America’s public enemy number one?

CHUCK D: [Laughs.] Oh, stop. Just stop. It’s obvious. I’m not even gonna say his name.

CLARK: How has your approach to writing changed with time?

CHUCK D: Well, in my younger days [I wanted] to be a center fielder for the Mets but that’s not my calling. This is what I do with rap music and hip-hop. I think through use of words, words can permeate and make real change and be a reminder and informative, even though in a song you truncate and try to get the best point across with the least amount of words. I’m just thankful to be in a position where I can say something, be heard, perform it and permeate some change.

CLARK: How can music spark that change?

CHUCK D: Music can fi ll in the spaces that the newspapers and the media does not … artists and music should be in there to fi ll in the cracks. [But] you gotta be watchful for that, too, cause a lot of times genres get swept up to project the worst of it. I’m a believer that everything is everything. Just like Woody Guthrie. A lot of times he’d be in low places but that was not the projection of him. His projection was like, ‘Look: I’m trying to get up out of the low places. I don’t love being in low places.’ I don’t think the goal was, ‘I want to drag everybody down to this level.’ I don’t think that was the goal.

A lot of times when people talk about rap music and hiphop, they quantitate it in numbers, analytics and metrics and whatever’s popular—but I’m saying [just because something is] popular doesn’t mean it should be the theme or the front cap on the total efforts of the music and culture. Things get projected for a whole lot of different reasons.

When people start looking at the quantity as opposed to the quality, you know, that’s the soul of a machine.

ART SALE FIRST FRIDAY ART CRAWL FRIDAY, DEC. 6 // 6-9PM ARCHER STUDIOS 109 N. MLK, JR. BLVD. E.

CLARK: What’s next for Chuck D? CHUCK D: I spend most of my time with my label SpitSlam Records and I curate hundreds of artists who come to my [radio] station, RapStation.com. I’m not a gatekeeper of the artform. I consider myself a curator of the artform.

I’m non-biased and non-discriminating, you know. It’s about the artform.

Coincidently, one artist who I helped break his record four years ago was Jabee [from Oklahoma City]. It ended up being a [front page] article in the Oklahoma Gazette and I was like, ‘Wow,’ you know. ‘This is what it’s all about.’ It’s not about me.

I already have a story and career, and I try to give a spark to somebody else—wherever they may be. a

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

MUSIC // 37

musicnotes

Human after all Samantha Crain takes a breath

by ALEXANDRA ROBINSON

F

ifteen years have passed since Oklahoma music mainstay Samantha Crain launched her career as a singer-songwriter—breaking hearts with her worn-in voice, gutting audiences with her live performances and spinning stories to make you ache. Crain has always been something of a foot solider in the local scene, but now with five acclaimed full-length records under her belt, the 33-year-old is operating under a new philosophy, prizing flow over hustle.

Born and raised in Shawnee, the Choctaw artist emphasizes her Oklahoma roots in songs about working-class characters with radical empathy for the down-andout. Her latest release, You Had Me at Goodbye (2017), eschewed critics’ expectations of her established acoustic folk sound with synthpop stylings, electric drums and a horn section. The LP represents a deliberate effort to create, first and foremost, for herself.

“There’s so many times when I was younger that I would release a record I was really excited about and then it wouldn’t get the sort of reception that I wanted,” Crain said. “And I would mirror my worth based on that, not based on what I actually thought of it. I’ve gotten a lot better at not doing that now and just finding my worth within myself.”

Lately, Crain has carved out some time and space to rest and be human, but she has also kept busy between projects—teaching songwriting, painting, self-releasing books of poetry and taking on noteworthy commissions. Most recently, she was approached to write music to accompany the Peabody Essex Museum’s T.C. Cannon exhibit.

“It was really a spiritual experience,” she said. Crain drew inspi38 // MUSIC

Samantha Crain has focused creative efforts on connecting with her Choctaw heritage, helping carve a space for other young Native artists to do the same. | JOANNA GRACE BABB

ration from Cannon’s work and wrote two songs for the nationally touring collection featuring the work of the Oklahoma native and Kiowa/Caddo artist.

Crain has focused her creative efforts on connecting with her own Choctaw heritage, helping generate a space for other young Native artists to do the same.

“I think a lot of young Natives aren’t super in touch with their ancestry or their tribe or their traditions,” she said. “In order to give them the confidence to really start digging into that area, it’s important—and I say this to myself—it’s important to say, ‘Look, if you make something, if you write something and you are Choctaw then it’s a Choctaw song because you are Choctaw.’”

Crain’s creative placemaking philosophy has seen the artist

writing more in Choctaw, consulting tribe elders and connecting with her traditions. It’s a simple act of resistance and creative autonomy that has served a larger community of young Native artists.

Crain wrote the lyrics to the stunning “Red Sky, Blue Mountain” from You Had Me at Goodbye in consultation with Choctaw elder Dora Wickson, who guided the songwriter in translation and pronunciation. The words translate roughly to: “A red sky, a blue mountain. The dream that is real.

Born to change the world. And we did. But what have we done.”

“As I get more of a grasp on what I’m able to do within the language, I hope to just keep writing in it,” she said.

For Crain, songwriting is a vehicle to dismantle white colo-

nialism and reclaim new traditions for herself, mirroring her movement away from the harsh demands of the music business.

Her new slow-burn philosophy gives time and space for creation and softens rather than commodifies. It’s a way of life that can’t be monetized. “ I was just so unhappy with the music business in general and my inability to meet the expectations without giving up so much of myself,” Crain said about making her last record.

“So I started taking a step back and getting more in touch with what I wanted and what I saw for myself.”

Crain’s artistic philosophy is an example of decolonization and disengagement from the cruelty of commodification, a second nature many of us have subconsciously adopted from the brutality of capitalism.

“It’s really weird because we live in a society that’s obsessed with hard work, work ethic, and I think that’s really weird. I was raised with that,” she said. Plenty of small-town Okies can relate— but maybe there’s a softer, truer approach. “ Through my travels over the past 15 years around the world, I’m finding that the people [who] aren’t basing their worth … on how hard they work or how hard people think they work tend to just live a happier, more meaningful, more thoughtful life. And for me, keeping that in mind allows me to make better art I think, or at least enjoy it more.” a

SAMANTHA CRAIN W/ ALI HARTER Mercury Lounge, 1747 S. Boston Ave. 9 p.m., $10

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

musicnotes

GRADY NICHOLS CHRISTMAS SHOW

ALS Patient Services Outreach November 30 BROWN BAG IT: TULSA FESTIVAL RINGERS

Tulsa PAC Trust December 4

CHRISTMAS WITH THE PETERSENS

The Petersens December 7

THE NUTCRACKER Josey Records | JOSH NORRID

SPIN CYCLE Record Store Day Black Friday returns to Tulsa

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

American Theatre Company December 12-23 MISS SAIGON

Celebrity Attractions December 31 - January 5

TULSAPAC.COM

by ETHAN VEENKER EVERY VINYL BUFF KNOWS ABOUT Record Store Day: long lines, wild exclusive releases and special in-store performances are all touchstones of the high holiday for music geeks.

Usually on the third Saturday in April, Record Store Day (RSD) boasts absurdly limited runs of exclusive LPs, generally with fun twists like colored vinyl or picture discs. Observed across the world every year since 2008, it’s a day to celebrate independent record stores and their irreplaceable culture.

But your chances to score exclusive vinyl aren’t limited to one day in the spring: There’s also RSD Black Friday, which falls this year on Nov. 29. Since 2010, the autumnal cousin to the yearly retail music blowout has offered a holiday-season resurgence of special vinyl. It carries only about a third of the exclusives in comparison to RSD proper, but what the spinoff lacks in volume it makes up in quality.

This year’s RSD Black Friday includes exclusive releases from Broncho, Cardi B, Lizzo, Willie Nelson, The New Pornographers and more. The full list is 182 items long.

Boasting four independent record stores, Tulsa has the most participating shops of any city in Oklahoma, according to the RSD website. The oldest participating store, Starship Records and Tapes (1241 S. Lewis Ave.), which started in 1972 as a gift shop, is a great place to start. They open bright and early at 7 a.m., but people may start lining up as early as 5 a.m.

“There might be someone who sits in their

Tulsa Ballet December 7-22

car all night,” employee Brad Zimmerman says. “I’ve seen that happen.”

Josey Records (1020 S. Rockford Ave.), meanwhile, may have people lining up even earlier. The store is celebrating RSD Black Friday in perhaps the biggest way this year, advertising more than 175 RSD exclusives and storewide discounts. Black Friday patrons can expect in-line raffles for promotional records and gift cards starting at 6 a.m. Live music starts at noon, featuring performances by Tye Slagle and Sean Al-Jibouri, Graveyard Party, and Free Association.

While Josey celebrates its third RSD Black Friday in Tulsa, Studio Records (320 S. Trenton Ave.) celebrates its first. Started

by Mike Nobles about six months ago, Tulsa’s newest record store offers a treasure trove of new and used vinyl. Doors there will open at 9 a.m.

Opening at 10 a.m. is Blue Moon Discs (2606 S. Sheridan Road, Suite E), which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Storeowner Warren R. Showman says customers can expect special T-shirt giveaways throughout the day, as well as a 20 percent discount on used vinyl purchases over $20.

RSD Black Friday patrons can expect a kinder, gentler version of the post-Thanksgiving retail madness plaguing big box stores this time of year. Zimmerman from Starship says the holiday is marked more by community than competition. Can’t reach that limited-run release of Canned Heat Christmas Album? Just ask. A fellow vinyl head will be happy to help.

“People seem to work better together,” he said. a

/

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NOVEMBER GUESTS INCLUDE: NOVEMBER 6 Jennifer Loren

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THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

tulsachamber.com MUSIC // 39

Tulsa Talks Pod Cast Tulsa Voice- 4.375 x 1.5.indd 1

3/4/19 1:21 PM

musicnotes

Wilderado plays Nov. 29 at the BOK Center along with The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and more at The Edge’s Black Friday show. | GRANT SPANIER

Take me back to Tulsa Wilderado comes home

by KYRA BRUCE

I

ndie rockers Wilderado have been steadily climbing toward fame since launching the band in 2015. The quartet has released three critically acclaimed EPs, recorded an Audiotree Live session and toured with the likes of Lindsey Buckingham, Band of Horses, and Judah & the Lion.

Although the band formed in Los Angeles, they recently relocated to frontman Max Rainer’s hometown of Tulsa to write and record a new album. I talked to Rainer about coming home, touring and the future of Wilderado before the band opens for The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen and more at The Edge’s Black Friday show on Nov. 29 at the BOK Center.

KYRA BRUCE: Hey, how are you?

Are you excited to be coming back to Tulsa soon?

40 // MUSIC

MAX RAINER: Oh yeah, so excited.

I’m great. I’m tired!

BRUCE: Could you tell me a bit about your history with Tulsa?

You grew up here, right?

RAINER: Yeah, I grew up in Tulsa then left in 2007 to go down to Waco, Texas, and stayed there for like five years and then went out to Los Angeles and we just moved back to Tulsa in February of 2017.

So we’re getting ready to have our two-year return home anniversary!

Los Angeles, so we did L.A.’s circuit of all the shows you do there, and then we’ve been on the road.

So we’ve only played in Tulsa like three times.

BRUCE: How do your band mates feel about coming down to Tulsa to write and record?

RAINER: Oh, they love it! It’s really fun because they’re Texas boys, so there’s always been a fun under-the-table rivalry.

BRUCE: Were you doing music in Tulsa while you were here, or did that come later?

BRUCE: I was watching some of your other interviews and your connection to Tulsa seems to really fascinate interviewers in L.A.

RAINER: No, not at all … That’s why it’s been so fun being back home in Tulsa and having the band come down to rehearse, write and record there and in Norman. But the band started in

RAINER: Yeah, it’s honestly a lot more fun. We spent the first few years touring and talking to people and saying the band is from L.A., and then I moved home and I just felt like A.) that wasn’t

true, and B.) it just makes much more sense to say we’re from Tulsa. That’s where we want to be from—if the band gets any attention, I would much rather that be redirected to Tulsa than L.A. And I love L.A., we’ve got family there, but it just feels much more authentic to say we’re from Tulsa.

And, you know, anyone who knows music knows about the impact Tulsa has had on the music world, especially in the early ‘70s.

BRUCE: You guys are coming back to open for The 1975 and Catfish and the Bottlemen for The Edge’s Black Friday show at the BOK Center on Nov. 29. How does that feel?

RAINER: It’s crazy! I can see the arena from my backyard, so I’m really excited to play it. My daughter and I drive past it every morning when I take her to school and

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

she’ll say ‘There’s where you’re gonna work!’ But yeah, we’re obviously really excited. The size of a room we play really determines the volume we get to put out so it’s a lot of fun to be able to turn my amp up and play really loud— just totally rock it.

What’s really weird though is having not played Cain’s, having not played Brady, and then going straight to opening for someone at BOK. It seems so upside-down.

And most of the time it’s life stuff. I always try to seek out people who have families and children who are touring away from home. I’m always so curious about how they adapt and how they make their families feel paid attention to. No one knows what this is like except the people doing it, so anytime you get to be around other people who are doing it, it’s kind of invaluable.

BRUCE: What’s next for Wilderado?

RAINER: We’ve got a lot of recording to finish up with Chad Copelin in Norman at Blackwatch Studios. We’ll finish this string of dates through December and then hopefully finish this record in the first part of the year. We just put out a new song, “Surefire,” a month ago and it’s doing well.

We’re pretty patient about releasing new music. We don’t feel the

need to just have music come out as soon as possible. We like to see what a song can do and what sort of attention it can get—and once the hype for it starts going down, that’s when we feel like it’s time to release new music.

BRUCE: Well I can’t wait to see y’all back in town!

RAINER: Hopefully I’ll see you at the show. a

BRUCE: You guys have opened for some huge acts before. What’s it like to try to win over a crowd that is waiting for a huge name like Lindsey Buckingham?

RAINER: We’ve played so many more supports than headlining shows, so really it’s the headlines that are just a bit off. You feel more insecure, I would say, because you’re more responsible for the night: the show, ticket sales, all that.

We honestly feel grateful anytime we get to play support because we understand what we’re doing is trying to grow, and you’re basically playing a marketing show. It’s like free marketing that we’re getting paid to do. It’s easy to get in your head about how only a few people are there to see us, but mostly we just look at it as another opportunity to play, try to get better, and learn from whoever we’re with and meet new people.

BRUCE: Has a band you’ve played with ever given you a nugget of wisdom or advice that you carry with you?

RAINER: Every one of them. …

There isn’t really a hierarchy to music, but there are people who have done it for much longer and on a much larger scale, and there is always something to learn from that. Lindsey [Buckingham] was really cool to us. He came in several times and talked to us and gave us advice … and I’ve learned so much from Mt. Joy. I’ve learned stuff from Judah.

I’ve learned stuff from Band of Horses. I mean, everybody.

Whether we’ve learned something from observing their shows or sitting down with them, everyone is just full of little nuggets to apply.

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

MUSIC // 41

musiclistings Wed // Nov 20 Cellar Dweller – Desi & Cody – 8:30 p.m.

Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open-Mic – 7 p.m.

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

Duet Jazz – Ana Berry & BOSSA – 7 p.m. – ($10) Louies Grill & Bar – Travis Kidd – 7 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Kinky Friedman – 7 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – Tom and Bryan Unplugged – 7 p.m.

Vanguard – Jeffery Lewis & the Voltage, The Beaten Daylights, Follow the Buzzards, Celebrity Sex Tape – 8 p.m. – ($10) Whittier Bar – Jake Norstadt, Jim Watson, John Paul Ratliff – 9 p.m.

Thurs // Nov 21 Amp Bar – DJ Queen Jesseen – 7 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Riley Green, Travis Denning – 8 p.m.

– ($18 - $53) Chimi’s Mexicain Food – Rusty Swan – 5:30 p.m.

Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Sara Schaefer – 8 p.m. – ($15) High Dive – Chris Lee Becker – 8 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman – 10 p.m.

Osage Casino - Thunder Bar & Grill – Franklin Birt – 6 p.m.

Paradise Cove – Three Dog Night – 8 p.m. – ($20 - $35) Renaissance Brewing Company – Open-Mic – 8 p.m.

Riffs – FM Pilots Duo – 4 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Riffs – Stars – 7 p.m.

Soundpony – Why Not Rock? – 10 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Track 5. – Pumpkin Hollow Band – 7 p.m.

Tulsa Historical Society & Museum – Music at the Mansion – 2 p.m.

Vintage Wine Bar – Grammy Nominated ft. Malachi Burgess & Mason Remel – 8 p.m.

Vintage Wine Bar – Cody Brewer Trio – 7 p.m.

Fri // Nov 22 473 – Genix – 7 p.m.

Amp Bar – DJ Ayngel – 7 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Brad James Band Thanksgiving Special – 8 p.m. – ($5) Cabin Boys Brewery – Chloe-Beth – 7 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Read Southall Band, Wight Lighters, Zac Wilkerson – 8:30 p.m. – ($15 - $30) Colony – Vinyl Happy Hour – 4 p.m.

Colony – Gogo Plumbay, Beau Roberson – 10 p.m. – ($5) Crystal Skull – Waterfront – 9 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Leon Rollerson – 8 p.m. – ($10) Fur Shop – Without Adjectives, Hummin’ Bird, Infinate Crustacean, Natty Gray – 9 p.m.

Gilcrease – Gilcrease After Hours: Indigenous – 7 p.m.

Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks – 9 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Latin Night with DJ Adre – 9 p.m. – ($5) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – After Party – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Bassically Sax – 10 p.m.

Marshall Brewing – Jon Malone – 6 p.m.

The Max Retropub – Jeffee Fresh Mercury Lounge – Casper McWade & The Honky Tonk Rebels, Chris Stewart – 10 p.m. – ($5) Osage Casino - Thunder Bar & Grill – Dueling Pianos – 8 p.m.

PJ’s Pub & Grill – Zodiac – 7 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Earslip Happy Hour – 7 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Blacker Face, The Grits, The Earslips – 9 p.m.

The ReVue – Escandalo – 10 p.m.

Riffs – Daniel Jordan – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ 2 Legit – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Hypnotik – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – Soundpony Goes Latino Ocho – 10 p.m.

Swamphouse – Miles Williams – 6 p.m.

The Shrine – Let’s Zeppelin: A Tribute – 8 p.m. – ($10) Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Travis Marvin – 8 p.m.

42 // MUSIC

The Tulsan Bar – DJ Good Ground – 10 p.m.

Vanguard – Live Band Emo & Pop Punk Kakaoke – 9 p.m.

Vox Pop – OKC Showcase: Chase Kerby, Beau Jennings, Andy Adams – 7 p.m. – ($25) Woody Guthrie Center – Ellis Paul – 7 p.m.

Sat // Nov 23 Amp Bar – DJ Ayngel – 7 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – Index Paradox, Sixth Gear, Pitter Splatter, Spook – 9 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Piper Leigh & The Smoking Section – 9 p.m.

Cabin Boys Brewery – David Horne, Jake Brake, Desi & Cody, Velvet Music – 1 p.m.

Center 1 – Branjae – 12:30 p.m.

Colony – Damion Shade & The Boom Bap Chorus, Verse – 10 p.m. – ($7) Dead Armadillo Brewery – Chloe-Beth – 7:30 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Sarah Maud – 8 p.m. – ($10) El Coyote Manco – Conjunto Massivo – 9 p.m.

IDL Ballroom – Vixen, The Iron Maidens, Down For Five – 6 p.m. – ($25) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Stars – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Tom Basler – 10 p.m.

Marshall Brewing – Steve Shupper – 6 p.m.

The Max Retropub – Jeffee Fresh Mercury Lounge – Jason Eady Acoustic – 10 p.m. – ($10) Osage Casino - Thunder Bar & Grill – Rose Leach – 8 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Down the Rabbit Hole With DJ Afistaface – 10 p.m.

Riffs – Scott Eastman – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Kelevra – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Stolen Winnebagos – 9 p.m.

The Run – Sweatin Bullets – 9:30 p.m. – ($5) The Shrine – Stellar Ascent – 8 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – DJ A Dre – 10 p.m.

Swamphouse – Lary Cagle – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Chad Cooke Band – 8 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – DJ Skibblez – 10 p.m.

Uncle Bently’s Pub & Grill – The Trailer Park Kings – 9 p.m.

Vanguard – Greyson Chance – 7 p.m. – ($17 - $50)

Sun // Nov 24 Barkingham Palace – Will Carlisle, Joe Myside, Matt Jewitt – 8:30 p.m.

The Chalkboard – Steve Liddell – 11 a.m.

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

Gypsy Coffee House – Sundays with Hector Ulteras – 8 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark – 4 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Zach Bryan – 7 p.m.

The Shrine – BJB (Grateful Dead Tribute) – 4 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – North By North – 10 p.m.

Track 5. – Shenandoah – 8 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Christopher Fulmer – 8 p.m.

Mon // Nov 25 Colony – Saugeye – 9 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Open-Mic Jam – 7 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins – 9 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster – 9 p.m.

Tues // Nov 26 The Chalkboard – Mark Bruner – 6 p.m.

Colony – Chris Lee Becker – 6 p.m.

Colony – Chris Combs Trio & Special Guests – 9 p.m.

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

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

Marshall Brewing – Clay Norvell – 6 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Carlton Hesston – 9 p.m.

Swamphouse – The Marriotts – 5:30 p.m.

Wed // Nov 27 Cain’s Ballroom – Dreamers, Arrested Youth, Americain Teeth – 7:30 p.m. – ($18 - $22) Cellar Dweller – Desi & Cody – 8:30 p.m.

Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open-Mic – 7 p.m.

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

Duet Jazz – The Grits – 8 p.m. – ($8) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement – 9 p.m.

Mass Movement Community Arts – Steaksause Mustache, Imgonnadie – 7:30 p.m. – ($7) Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – 7 p.m.

Soundpony – Thanksgiving Roundtable – 10 p.m.

Track 5. – Boby DeGonia – 7 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – Tom and Bryan Unplugged – 7 p.m.

Thurs // Nov 28 Amp Bar – DJ Queen Jesseen – 7 p.m.

Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Fur Shop – Indigenous Bass Music – 8 p.m. – ($10) Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ Good Ground – 9 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman – 10 p.m.

Riffs – Taria Lee and Friends – 4 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Riffs – Push The Limit – 7 p.m.

The Shrine – Higher Education Thanksgiving Show – 8 p.m. – ($5) Soundpony – Afistaface – 10 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Track 5. – Running on Empty – 7 p.m.

Vintage Wine Bar – Grammy Nominated ft. Malachi Burgess & Mason Remel – 8 p.m.

Fri // Nov 29 Amp Bar – DJ Ayngel – 7 p.m.

BOK Center – The 1975, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Blue October, K Flay, Wilderado – 5:30 p.m. – ($42 - $72) Cabin Boys Brewery – New Kings – 7 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Cody Canada & The Departed – 8:30 p.m. – ($18 - $33) Colony – Vinyl Happy Hour – 4 p.m.

Colony – Whirligig Thanksgiving Spectacular – 9 p.m.

– ($5) Duet Jazz – Gabriel Royal & Friends – 8 p.m. – ($25) Hunt Club – BC and the Big Rig – 9 p.m.

Josey Records – Record Store Day: Live Music All Day – 9 a.m.

Louies Grill & Bar – Kevin Sac – 9 p.m.

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

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – Morgan Band – 1 p.m.

Marshall Brewing – Paul Gehring – 3 p.m.

Mass Movement Community Arts – At the Heart of the World (ex Ruiner), Black Magnet, Bonemagic, Latrotoxxin – 8 p.m.

The Max Retropub – Afistaface Mercury Lounge – Dalton Domino, Karly Driftwood – 10 p.m. – ($5) Osage Casino - Thunder Bar & Grill – Dueling Pianos – 8 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Earslip Happy Hour – 7 p.m.

Riffs – Scott Ellison – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Mib – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Top of the World – 9 a.m.

The Shrine – Mountain Sprout, 5 Ton Farm – 8 p.m. – ($10) Soundpony – Brax’s B-Day Black Sabbath Black Friday Bash – 10 p.m.

Swamphouse – Curt Hill – 6 p.m., 8 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Wilbur Lee Tucker – 8 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – DJ Oreo – 10 p.m.

Sat // Nov 30 Amp Bar – DJ Ayngel – 7 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – Ambitions, Dixie Wrecked, Leona, Solid Ground – 9 p.m.

Barkingham Palace – Musicians Day of Solidarity for Rojava: Constant Peril, Blurt, Imgonnadie – 9 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Brian Parton – 8 p.m. – ($5) Cain’s Ballroom – Puddle of Mudd – 7 p.m. – ($20) Colony – The Fabulous Minx, Hey Judy – 10 p.m. – ($5) Duet Jazz – Gabriel Royal & Friends – 8 p.m. – ($25) Hunt Club – November – 9 p.m.

The Joint – Holiday Dreams – 8 p.m.

Margaritaville - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Full Flava Kingz – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville - Volcano Stage – The Marriotts – 10 p.m.

Mass Movement Community Arts – Wristmeetsrazor, Serration, Piece of Mind, Give Way, End on End, Self Inflicted – 7 p.m. – ($12) The Max Retropub – Afistaface Mercury Lounge – Abe Mac Band – 10 p.m. – ($5) Riffs – Barrett Lewis – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Kelevra – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Time Machine – 9 p.m.

The Shrine – The Schwag – 8 p.m. – ($15) Soundpony – Pleasuredome – 10 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Chad Lee – 8 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – DJ Good Ground – 10 p.m.

Vanguard – My So Called Band – 10 p.m. – ($12)

Sun // Dec 1 Cain’s Ballroom – Snails, Kompany, Al Ross – 8 p.m. – ($25 - $40) The Chalkboard – Steve Liddell – 11 a.m.

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

Gypsy Coffee House – Sundays with Hector Ulteras – 8 p.m.

Heirloom Rustic Ales – Tail Light Rebellion – 3 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark – 4 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Samantha Crain, Ali Harter – 9 p.m.

– ($10) Vanguard – We the Kings, Northbound, When the Clock Strikes, The Classless – 7:30 p.m. – ($20 - $75)

Mon // Dec 2 Colony – Saugeye – 9 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – Open-Mic Jam – 7 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins – 9 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster – 9 p.m.

Tues // Dec 3 The Chalkboard – Mark Bruner – 6 p.m.

Colony – Chris Lee Becker – 6 p.m.

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

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

Vanguard – If Only If Only, The Noise Estate, Fly, You Fools – 7 p.m. – ($10)

MORE Music?

Send dates, venue and listings to kyra@Langdon Publishing.com

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

MUSIC // 43

onscreen

Knives Out | COURTESY

DEAD WRINGER Sharp scripting and a stellar cast reinvigorate a murder mystery

RIAN JOHNSON, WITH THE MOVIE, at the multiplex.

That who/what/where solves the case of one of the smartest, most satisfying entertainments of the year. Knives Out isn’t just a clever homage to Agatha Christie whodunits; it replicates her formula and then goes beyond, not only in depth of intrigue but also emotional resonance and moral weight. Anchored by a breakthrough performance from up-and-coming actress Ana de Armas (Blade Runner 2049), Knives Out is a riveting crowd pleaser that registers on a much richer level than most plotdriven genre movies.

Returning to Earth from a galaxy far, far away, the writer/director of The Last Jedi returns to crafting original material by tackling a conventional formula which has for most people become tired, passé and (ironically) predictable—a literary niche for the PBS boomer demo and kitschy dinner theaters.

Knives Out is the opposite of all those things, even as it gleefully embraces every single tenet Agatha Christie defined. Johnson isn’t out to subvert or deconstruct the genre. On the contrary, he masters every single trope in such vigorous, inventive ways that he infuses the murder mystery with mischievous command and newfound life.

The setup is familiar: a gathering at the mansion of a family estate ends in murder.

The elder patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is dead and everyone’s a suspect. An all-star cast sinks their teeth into the ensemble of archetypes (Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon and Toni Collette among them) as Rian Johnson throws suspicion and motive onto each one.

44 // FILM & TV

Enter Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), a southern fried Poirot with a gentleman’s drawl. Having been hired by a secret client, Blanc tags along for the police interviews before taking over the entire investigation.

Just when it seems safe for us to settle in for two hours of requisite misdirects and obligatory subterfuge until the killer is exposed, Knives Out goes further than we bargained for. The whodunit construct is turned on its head, rooting interests become unexpectedly conflicted, and having the truth revealed could end up being more tragic than just.

At the heart of it all is Marta, the young Hispanic maid and Harlan’s hired caregiver who has become his only trusted confidant. As the fallout unravels and the leeching family jockeys for Harlan’s riches and assets, Marta gets caught up in their tangled web and it could threaten the cover of her undocumented mother.

Played by Ana de Armas with endearing raw emotion, Marta’s tenous plight becomes the film’s heart and her moral quandary its soul. Through Marta, Knives Out is more than an intellectual exercise; it’s an ethical one with potentially devastating personal stakes.

Laughs and gasps escalate as the plot crescendos, weaving through the immaculately designed manor with Johnson’s cinematic precision, making for a classic movie with broad appeal that’s best experienced in a rapt audience. For a genre that is so often routine, the twists and turns of Knives Out create a true sense of surprise and discovery, perhaps the biggest of all being just how much you genuinely care.

— JEFF HUSTON

Braelyn Kelly in Burning Cane | COURTESY

MINOR PROPHETS

Burning Cane is a stunning debut from a teenage filmmaker PHILLIP YOUMANS DIRECTORIAL DEBUT doesn’t feature any Hollywood A-listers.

Nor does it tout the kind of genre gimmicks which typically set the film festival world ablaze. But when Burning Cane premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival—where it won the Founder’s Award for best Narrative Feature—the film’s 19-year-old director, the first black person to win the honor, found himself launched into the stratosphere. The film caught the attention of powerhouse director Ava DuVernay (When They See Us) who hand-picked Burning Cane to be distributed by ARRAY, her film distribution company dedicated to the amplification of independent films by people of color and women filmmakers.

It is, to be sure, unchartered territory for most artists below the national drinking age. At just 17, while other ambitious teenage filmmakers are busy making YouTube auditions to be the next big Marvel director, Youmans wrote, directed and shot this heartbreaking portrait of life below the poverty belt in rural Louisiana. But what makes Burning Cane one of my most anticipated films of the year is not the age of its creator, but rather its poetic contemplation of corrupted faith and toxic masculinity.

Now streaming on Netflix, Burning Cane is a portrait of a Louisiana family in distress. Helen (Karen Kaia Livers) is torn between her devotion to her Southern Baptist church and its alcoholic leader Reverend Tillman (Wendell Pierce), and her adult son Daniel (Dominique McClel-

lan) who struggles with his own demons while subjecting his son Jeremiah (Braelyn Kelly) to the same generational abuse Daniel endured. Through measured camera work and sparse poetic dialogue, we see how Helen and her son struggle, coming to grips with addiction and intergenerational trauma.

Rather than being hamstrung by the strictures of no-budget filmmaking, Youmans instead leans into his material limitations to paint this ruminative portrait of a family trapped in a cycle of alcoholism and false piety. In Youmans’ Louisiana, the word of God is nothing more than empty platitudes spat out by men like Rev. Tillman to keep an economically depressed community clutching to hope while the wheels of poverty and addiction break them.

Burning Cane may bear a few minor rough edges, but Youmans tackles the cycles of abuse and religious hypocrisy with a lyrically deft hand. At a time when our cinematic forbearers are bemoaning the state of cinema and its power to explore and enlighten the human condition, Youmans exhibits a maturity and empathy seemingly beyond his years—a beautiful new voice in American film, blending the authenticity of Euzhen Palcy and Charles Burnett with the cinematic lyricism of Terrence Malick, delivering an astonishingly assured and focused debut showing nothing but promise. Youmans is truly a filmmaker to watch.

— CHARLES ELMORE

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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

OPENING NOV. 22 A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Tom Hanks stars as beloved PBS icon Fred Rogers in this true story of how a reporter’s life was changed by his relationship with Rogers. Rated PG-13.

THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese’s new mob epic stars Academy Award winners Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Circle will be host to Tulsa’s exclusive theatrical run.

Rated R. FRANKIE Isabelle Huppert, Marisa Tomei, Brendan Gleeson and Greg Kinnear star as family members who wrestle with a life-changing experience while on vacation in a historic, picturesque Portuguese town. From writer/director Ira Sachs. Rated PG-13.

OPENING NOV. 28 MARRIAGE STORY From filmmaker Noah Baumbach, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson star as a husband and wife who broach divorce when their lives drift apart. Circle will be host to Tulsa’s exclusive theatrical run. Rated R. QUEEN & SLIM A modern-day Bonnie & Clyde with racial overtones from writer Lena Waithe (The Chi). Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Jodie Turner-Smith play a young African American couple on the run from the law when a routine police stop goes wrong. Directorial debut for Melina Matsoukas (Beyonce and Jay-Z music videos). Rated R. HONEY BOY Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for this semi-autobiographical tale about the turbulent relationship between a pre-teen TV star (Noah Jupe) and his father (played by LaBeouf). Rated R.

SPECIAL EVENTS A CONVERSATION WITH SCREENWRITER MICAH FITZERMAN-BLUE Following the 2 p.m. opening day matinee of the Mr. Rogers movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the film’s screenwriter and Tulsa native Micah Fitzerman-Blue will be on hand for a discussion. (Nov. 22, 3:50 p.m.)

THE EVIL DEAD (1981) Graveyard Shift presents this new 4K restoration of the Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell cult classic of gruesome low budget horror. Rated NC-17.

(Nov. 22–23, 10 p.m.)

NATIVE SPOTLIGHT: SUNDANCE INDIGENOUS SHORTS In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, short films from the Sundance Indigenous program are paired with shorts from Tulsa’s FireThief Productions. (Nov. 25, 7 p.m) PRESENT LAUGHTER: NT LIVE Andrew Scott (Fleabag) stars in this London stage revival of Noel Coward’s sweet, classic farce. Tickets $15. (Nov. 28, 7 p.m) 80S PARTY AND POSTER SALE FUN(D)RAISER Circle’s annual Classic Movie Poster Sale fundraiser returns as a full-fledged ‘80s party, with a DJ, cash bar and old trailers.

Guests encouraged to come dressed as favorite ‘80s character. (Nov. 30, 7 p.m) THE WINTER’S TALE: NT LIVE Kenneth Branagh directs Judi Dench in this re-imagining of Shakespeare’s mythical tragicomedy.

Tickets $15. (Dec. 4, 7 p.m) LYNN RIGGS: SANTA FE Screening of A Day in Santa Fe, the only short film ever directed by Lynn Riggs, the writer whose play Green Grow the Lilacs was the basis for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical “Oklahoma!” This 30-minute silent is one of the first from an American Indian filmmaker. (Dec. 5, 6 p.m)

THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

WE’RE GIVING AWA Y

FREE STUFF! N O V E M B E R G I V E A W AY :

SHOP & DINE LOCAL PACKAGE $250 package includes shopping and dining gift cards for Laffa, Sisserou’s, Ida Red and Travers Mahan.

R E G IS TE R B Y N O V. 3 0 AT

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FILM & TV // 45

free will astrology

by ROB BREZSNY

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): The Louvre Museum in Paris displays 38,000 objects throughout its eighteen acres of floor space. Among its most treasured thirteenth-century artworks is The Madonna and Child in Majesty Surrounded by Angels, a huge painting by Italian painter Cimabue. When a museum representative first acquired it in the nineteenth century, its price was five francs, or less than a dollar. I urge you to be on the lookout for bargains like that in the coming weeks. Something that could be valuable in the future may be undervalued now.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian performance artist Marina Abramović observes that Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus, and Moses “all went to the desert as nobodies and came back as somebodies.” She herself spent a year in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert near Lake Disappointment, leading her to exclaim that the desert is “the most incredible place, because there is nothing there except yourself, and yourself is a big deal.” From what I can tell, Sagittarius, you’re just returning from your own metaphorical version of the desert, which is very good news. Welcome back! I can’t wait to see what marvels you spawn.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Upcoming events may bedevil your mind. They may mess with your certainties and agitate your self-doubts.

But if you want my view about those possibilities, they’re cause for celebration. According to my analysis of the astrological indicators, you will benefit from having your mind bedeviled and your certainties messed with and your selfdoubts agitated. You may ultimately even thrive and exult and glow like a miniature sun. Why? Because you need life to gently but firmly kick your ass in just the right way so you’ll become alert to opportunities you have been ignoring or blind to.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Every writer I’ve ever known says that a key practice to becoming a good writer is to read a lot of books. So what are we to make of the fact that one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated novelists didn’t hew to that principle? In 1936, three years before the publication of his last book, Aquarian-born James Joyce confessed that he had “not read a novel in any language for many years.” Here’s my take on the subject: More than any other sign of the zodiac, you Aquarians have the potential to succeed despite not playing by conventional rules. And I suspect your power to do that is even greater than usual these days.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it,” wrote Piscean novelist John Irving. In the coming weeks, Pisces, you will have the power to get clearer than ever before about knowing the way of life you love. As a bonus, I predict you will also have an expanded access to the courage necessary to actually live that way of life. Take full advantage!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Beware of what disturbs the heart,” said Ibn Mas’ud, a companion of the prophet Mohammed. “If something unsettles your heart, then abandon it.” My wise Aries friend Artemisia has a different perspective. She advises, “Pay close attention to what disturbs the heart. Whatever has the power to unsettle your heart will show you a key lesson you must learn, a crucial task you’d be smart to undertake.” Here’s my synthesis of Ibn Mas’ud and Artemisia: Do your very best to fix the problem revealed by your unsettled heart. Learn all you can in the process. Then, even if the fix isn’t totally perfect, move on. Graduate from the problem for good.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus social critic Bertrand Russell won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. He’s regarded as the founder of analytic philosophy and one of the twentieth century’s premier intellectuals. But he went through a rough patch in 1940. He was adjudged “morally unfit” to accept his appointment as a professor at the City College of New York. The lawsuit that banned him from the job described him as being “libidinous, lustful, aphrodisiac, and irreverent.” Why? Simply because of his liberated opinions about sexuality, which he had conscientiously articulated in his

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

NOVICE

book Marriage and Morals. In our modern era, we’re more likely to welcome libidinous, lustful, aphrodisiac, and irreverent ideas if they’re expressed respectfully, as Russell did. With that as a subtext, I invite you to update and deepen your relationship with your own sexuality in the coming weeks.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In her poem “What the Light Teaches,” Anne Michaels describes herself arriving at a lover’s house soaked with rain, “dripping with new memory.” She’s ready for “one past to grow out of another.” In other words, she’s eager to leave behind the story that she and her lover have lived together up until now—and begin a new story. A similar blessing will be available for you in the coming weeks, Gemini: a chance for you and an intimate partner or close ally to launch a new chapter of your history together.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Some scientists deride astrology despite being ignorant about it. For example, they complain, “The miniscule gravitational forces beaming from the planets can’t possibly have any effect on our personal lives.” But the truth is that most astrologers don’t believe the planets exert influence on us with gravity or any other invisible force. Instead, we analyze planetary movements as evidence of a hidden order in the universe. It’s comparable to the way weather forecasters use a barometer to read atmospheric pressure but know that barometers don’t cause changes in atmospheric pressure. I hope this inspires you, Cancerian, as you develop constructive critiques of situations in your own sphere. Don’t rely on naive assumption and unwarranted biases. Make sure you have the correct facts before you proceed.

If you do, you could generate remarkable transformations in the coming weeks.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As you glide into the Season of Love, I’d love you to soak up wise counsel from the author bell hooks. (She doesn’t capitalize her name.) “Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high,” she cautions. “They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling.” I trust you won’t do that, Leo. Here’s more from hooks: “Dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love—which is to transform us.” Are you ready to be transformed by love, Leo?

MASTER

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Burrow down as deep as you dare, Virgo. Give yourself pep talks as you descend toward the gritty core of every matter.

Feel your way into the underground, where the roots meet the foundations. It’s time for you to explore the mysteries that are usually beneath your conscious awareness. You have a mandate to reacquaint yourself with where you came from and how you got to where you are now.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): It’s natural and healthy to feel both the longing to connect and the longing to be independent. Each of those urges deserves an honored place in your heart.

But you may sometimes experience them as being contradictory; their opposing pulls may rouse tension. I bring this to your attention because I suspect that the coming weeks will be a test of your ability to not just abide in this tension, but to learn from and thrive on it. For inspiration, read these words by Jeanette Winterson. “What should I do about the wild heart that wants to be free and the tame heart that wants to come home? I want to be held. I don’t want you to come too close. I want you to scoop me up and bring me home at night. I don’t want to tell you where I am. I want to be with you.”

Possible definition of happiness: the state that results from cultivating interesting, useful problems. What’s your definition? t h i s w e e k ’ s h o m e w o r k // T E S T I F Y AT F R E E W I L L A S T R O L O G Y. C O M .

46 // ETC.

November 20 – December 3, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

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

BETSY is a wiggly and affectionate Basset Hound mix. This gentle girl would appreciate a gentle life indoors where she is the only pet—in fact, she’d be happiest if she were the only child. Shy at first, she’ll be all over your lap after a few minutes! Betsy is about 6 years old and weighs 41 lbs.

ACROSS 1 Big party 5 “Perhaps” 9 Large sum of money, briefly 12 Cascades peak in California 18 El Prado contents 19 Rescue 20 Pro ___ work 21 Victorian game room 22 Horse coat pattern 23 Peeved state 24 Most populous Hawaiian island 25 Nut in some Hershey’s bars 26 Rat race victims 28 Behaved appropriately (see letters 9-12) 30 Con’s way out (letters 3-7) 32 Daisy’s “The Rise of Skywalker” role 33 Cloistered woman 34 Cheer syllable 35 Significant period 36 Bank staff 38 Like many Valentine’s Day gifts, in two ways 40 Comparatively cagey 42 Bagel relative 43 Ripped 45 2000s sitcom centered around a third-born child (letters 7-10) 53 Unappetizing fare 56 Heavenly sphere 57 Israeli ring dance 58 Gun, as an engine 59 Encountered coincidentally 61 Throat problem, informally 64 Delete 67 “SNL” alum Cheri 68 “Could you show me that?” (letters 2-6)

72 73 75 76

LADY is easygoing and fun to hang out with. She’s curious and clever and would make a good friend for almost anyone. Lady is 6 years old and about 50 lbs. You’ll fall in love with lovely Lady—just look at those ears!

Sort of sole Not fooled by Merry adventures Course selections?

78 Alphabetically first three-letter compass dir.

79 Bruins’ sch.

81 Director Ang 82 ___ buco 83 One of the Midwest’s Quad Cities (letters 10-13) 91 Poker hand fee 92 “___ wisely!”

93 Mister, in Mexico 97 “Do the Right Thing” actor Davis 100 Make forcefully, as a point 103 Tanning lotion spec 105 British rocker Brian 106 Army bed 107 Great anger 108 Many concert attendees (letters 5-9) 111 Hospital section (letters 5-8) 116 Scrutinized 117 Devours 118 One of three in some cakes 119 “___ Lisa” 120 Travel by tram 121 Hit that’s less common than a home run 122 ___ Christian Andersen 123 Glorifying poems 124 Approaching 125 Picks up on 126 Key rarely pressed by itself 127 In ___ (existing) 128 Makes a boo-boo DOWN 1 Their pay comes from cuts 2 Act of waking

3 Carb-loaded 4 Temporary tattoo dye 5 Bond distributor 6 Meditation chant 7 Spanish warning 8 Still 9 Castle defense 10 Whisper from one who’s hiding 11 No longer a whisper 12 Stretch across 13 In fine fettle 14 Baby carriers?

15 “Citizen Kane” actor Everett 16 Shoe part under the laces 17 Burning with passion 20 Italian tenor Andrea 27 Wagnerian work 28 Starting squad 29 Raw bar appetizer 31 Con Edison service (Abbr.)

37 Actress Jodi ___ O’Keefe 38 Indian address 39 Unionize?

41 Aztec or Inca 42 Flapper’s coiffure 44 Rep. Ilhan 46 Property developer’s buy 47 Holey shoe 48 Pronoun in hymns 49 Arizona native 50 Crowds 51 Anti-flood embankments 52 Extremely 53 Produce producer 54 National Hispanic Heritage Month honoree 55 “Almost ready!”

60 Petty peeve 61 ___ Speedy (photocopying store)

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, November is Adopt a vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives.

Senior Pet Month! Senior Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoppets like these six are tions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org. available for “Name Your Price” adoption donation at the Tulsa SPCA.

NEO is a super sweet boy.

At only 28 lbs., he is eating three times a day so he can fatten up a little bit. This smart and sweet big-headed boy loves walks and cuddling up with his people, and he will gobble up treats.

62 Disapproval sound 63 High-___ monitor 65 Summer hrs. in Orlando 66 Dejected 69 Penne ___ vodka 70 Asian flatbread 71 Many a TikTok user 74 Kick out 77 Opposite of paleo80 Deacon, for one 81 Kindled 84 “Cobra ___” (YouTube TV series) 85 Hero follower?

86 “Oh! Of course!”

87 Chemically related compounds 88 Madagascar critter 89 “Hogwash!”

90 Supports 94 More down-and-out 95 Being tracked, in a way 96 Lists of enrollees 97 Double foursomes 98 1957 Jimmy Dorsey hit 99 Cholesterol reducer 101 “Queen of Soul” Franklin 102 Describing drudgery 103 Film segments 104 “Can’t I?” 109 Shuffles and Nanos 110 “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” writer 112 Org. that delivers 113 Moscow ___ (cocktail) 114 Hairy primates 115 It’s pitched in the woods 119 “Calvin and Hobbes” bully

NOVEMBER and her sister Bonnie were returned to the Tulsa SPCA when their adopter became too ill to care for them anymore. November is a silky soft white domestic shorthair who is 9 years old and 12 lbs.

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD 'TIS THE SEASONING

By Alan Olschwang, edited by David Steinberg

© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication THE TULSA VOICE // November 20 – December 3, 2019

BONNIE, November’s sister, is a big orange girl who is 9 years old and 17 lbs. This senior kitty is sweet—her owner just became too ill to take care of the dynamic duo.

11/24 ETC. // 47

THURSDAY

TRAVIS TRITT

12.05

FRIDAY

GARY ALLAN

12.13

SUNDAY

12.15

DIAMOND RIO HOLIDAY & HITS

8PM

8PM

6PM

TURN IT ON, TURN IT UP SCAN TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Schedule subject to change.

CNENT_70188_HR_Nov20_TulsaVoice_Ad_1929583.indd 1

Pleas e re cycle this issue.

11/14/19 4:16 PM