The Tulsa Voice | Vol 6. No. 24

THE SAGA

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TRANSIT

PERRYMAN

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TULSA

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VOL. 6 NO. 24

P26

HIDDEN CITY LIFE WITHOUT SHELTER ON THE ARKANSAS RIVER P22

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now 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 frank caliendo jan 10 mike epps jan 24 chaka khan jan 30

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

December 4 – 17, 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 // December 4 – 17, 2019

CONTENTS // 3

December 4 – 17, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 24 ©2019. All rights reserved.

WHERE THE BUFFALO ABIDES

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon

P20

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

BY RUSSELL COBB

Tragedy and farce at the Perryman Ranch

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

HIDDEN CITY

AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf

P22

CONTRIBUTORS September Dawn Bottoms, Justin Tyler Bryant, Matt Carney, Eliseo Casiano, Russell Cobb, Naomi Curtis, Charles Elmore, Barry Friedman, Jeff Huston, Gary Mason, Mary Noble, Christopher Piercy, Mason Whitehorn Powell, Joseph Rushmore, Rowan Waller, Valerie Wei-Haas

BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

Life without shelter on the Arkansas River

RADICAL ROUTES

The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

P26

Member of

BY MATT CARNEY

Testing out Tulsa’s new Aero rapid transit The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM P28

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

BY MARY NOBLE

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

Meet the artists shaking up Tulsa’s hip-hop scene

Sarah Short (aka Ayilla) | GARY MASON

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 BRAIN FOOD

B Y NAOMI CURTIS Oklahoma college students are hungry, and there’s more we can do to help

8 RUNNING THROUGH THE ROPE

B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN

My conversation with Mayor Bynum, pt. 5

10 ‘WE CAN DO IT’

BY KYRA BRUCE Intersectional strategies for women in the workplace

ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 38 THEHAPS 42 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 46 ASTROLOGY + SUDOKU 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD 4 // CONTENTS

FOOD & DRINK 12 FLIGHT CLUB

BY TTV STAFF Mother Road Market combats decision fatigue with weekly discounts

MUSIC 40 END OF THE LOUD WARS

B Y CHRISTOPHER PIERCY Talking noise with sound artist and meme king Johnny Olson of Wolf Eyes

TV & FILM 44 EVERYDAY PAPAL

B Y JEFF HUSTON

The Two Popes is an actors’ showcase with little to say

44 BLACK LOVE MATTERS

B Y CHARLES ELMORE Big ideas fall short in a modern-day spin on Bonnie and Clyde

ARTS & CULTURE 30 GET LIT

B Y TTV STAFF

Your bookworm holiday gift guide

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

31 SIGNAL AND NOISE

B Y BLAYKLEE FREED Scoring Tulsa’s history of forced migration

32 STROKE OF GENIUS

B Y JEZY J. GRAY

Ralph Ellison’s life in letters

THE SAGA

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TULSA DEC. 4 – 17, 2019

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VOL. 6 NO. 24

P26

34 ‘EVERY HOME I MAKE’

BY ROWAN WALLER Poetry

36 LEAVE A MARK

B Y MASON WHITEHORN POWELL

HIDDEN CITY LIFE WITHOUT SHELTER ON THE ARKANSAS RIVER P22

How Bruce Goff modernized Tulsa

ON THE COVER People experiencing homelessness in Tulsa PHOTOS BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

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

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

I

n 2015, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a sting operation to lure foreign students to a fake college in Michigan.

Enrolling at the bogus university put the unwitting immigrants in violation of their F-1 visas, which require full-time enrollment in a federally accredited educational institution. About 250 people were arrested.

This scheme was initiated during the Obama administration—which deported more people than any other administration in American history—but was accelerated by the Trump administration, which paid recruiters to pitch the fraudulent school to students in danger of deportation.

Last year, Mayor G.T. Bynum announced a plan to support new immigrants in Tulsa. “With the exception of the Native Ameri-

cans, everybody [who] lives here in the Tulsa community, either themselves or their ancestors, came to the United States and were immigrants,” he told The Tulsa World. “What I am asking [Tulsans] to think about is, how would you have wanted your ancestors to be treated in whatever city they landed in?”

This is a great sentiment, and the New Tulsans Initiative is a fine program. But what of our neighbors without papers? Do they feel welcome in a city where the local Sheriff’s Department partners with the same mass deportation strike force that ran a fake school bait-and-switch? Are they truly at home in a place where they could be ripped from their families, jailed and deported for the crime of seeking a better life?

The gulf between rhetoric and reality in civic life is hard to overstate—for some, it’s a matter

of life and death. That’s the case for our undocumented friends, and other overpoliced communities of color in North Tulsa and beyond. I appreciate our resident columnist Barry Friedman, who presses Mayor Bynum on Tulsa’s policing problem during the fifth installment of their yearly interview (pg. 8).

We keep our eye on the gulf with a jaw-dropping photo essay

by Joseph Rushmore, who has been documenting the lives of young people experiencing homelessness along the Arkansas River (pg. 22). Then Russell Cobb takes us to the Perryman Ranch, where suburbia’s encroachment on what was the richest cattle land in the Creek Nation has put one of Tulsa’s most significant sites in jeopardy (pg. 20).

But it’s not all bad news in these pages. Matt Carney and photographer September Dawn

RECYCLE THIS Aluminum and Steel Cans

Bottoms test out the new rapid transit line on Peoria Avenue (pg. 26); Mary Noble introduces you to some fresh faces in Tulsa’s booming hip-hop scene (pg. 28); a Navajo sound artist turns Indian Country’s history of forced migration into a community-building musical experience (pg. 31); local women share strategies for building solidarity in the workplace (pg. 10); and our selection of adoptable pets from the Tulsa SPCA get their pictures taken with Santa (pg. 47).

Until next time, some advice from Kurt Vonnegut: “Damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” a

JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR

NOT THAT Holiday Decorations

Aluminum and steel cans are perfect for recycling, but holiday decorations are not suitable for the blue recycling cart.

LEARN MORE AT 6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

tulsarecycles.com December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

okpolicy

BRAIN FOOD

Oklahoma college students are hungry, and there’s more we can do to help

by NAOMI CURTIS for OKPOLICY.ORG

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

T

oo many of Oklahoma’s children are hungry.

Sixty percent of the state’s K-12 students rely on free or reduced lunch and other child nutrition programs to get enough to eat. Once these children transition to college, these programs no longer apply to them—but the hunger remains.

About a third of university students and nearly two out of three community college students nationwide are food insecure, meaning they are uncertain where their next meal will come from.

When students are distracted by hunger, they’re less likely to complete their degree on time and are at higher risk for unemployment when they leave school.

Some colleges and universities are implementing programs like food pantries and meal swipe programs. These are good first steps, but the next step is to make sure college students know they might be able to get help putting food on the table through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Most importantly, we need to better understand why so many college students are hungry.

What the “typical” college student looks like has changed, and we need to better address their needs.

Being food insecure means having limited access to nutritionally adequate and safe food. There are generally two causes of food insecurity: not enough money for fresh food, and not enough places to buy it. Non-traditional students and those from low-income families are the most likely to be food insecure. These students are more likely to live away from campus and work while attending school.

This distance and additional schedule commitment can make it difficult to access campus food options, such as cafeterias, when they are open.

Many campuses recognize food insecurity as a problem and are working to combat it. One type of resource offered at some colleges is a campus food pantry that provides a variety of non-perishable food. Some campuses also have adopted meal swipe programs that allow students to donate unused meals from their campus meal plan (or “swipes” on their meal card) to provide vouchers for other students who need food. The vouchers are then

distributed by a trusted administrator on campus, either directly to other students or through a campus food pantry.

During breaks, food-insecure students may find it especially difficult to get enough to eat.

Campus food pantries and meal swipe programs are certainly helpful during the semester. During breaks, these programs often aren’t available. Most campus buildings are deserted and dining halls are closed. Making sure students are aware of SNAP and helping them determine if they’re eligible will make sure more students get enough to eat throughout the year.

Many college students who could be accessing this resource are not doing so. In 2016, less than half of the 3 million college students who were potentially SNAP-eligible applied to the program. That could be because these students simply do not know that they are eligible for the program.

While most college students are not eligible, there are certain groups of students who could enroll in SNAP. This includes students who are enrolled at least half-time and meet any of the following criteria: • participate in a federal or state work-study program, • work at least 20 hours per week, or • are a parent of a dependent child younger than 6, or a child between 5 and 12 without adequate childcare.

This means many low-income and non-traditional students may be eligible to participate in SNAP. Colleges and universities can reduce hunger on campus by making eligible students aware of the program. They could also help students fi ll out an application and gather any needed documents.

We must do more to help college students struggling with hunger. Every Oklahoma college student deserves the opportunity to do their best and thrive.

However, for too many of our students, hunger is holding them back. Colleges and universities are making strides in using school resources to better help food insecure students on their campuses.

Connecting eligible students with SNAP is the next step to making sure students are not being held back by hunger. a NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

Running through the rope My conversation with Mayor Bynum, pt. 5

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

“T

wo things,” I tell the mayor as I walk into his office on the 15th floor of One Technology Center.

“I want to remind you of something and compliment you on something else.”

He smiles, as our conversations—and this is the fifth one— usually start in the middle.

“Go ahead.”

“Before I do that, I promise to not bring up Donald Trump this time, nor the GOP, or even, now that I see it again, the Reagan sofa, which is looking a little raggedy—like your party. But if you bring up any of those topics, it’s game on.”

“You’re not going to goad me on this.”

“Wouldn’t think of it. Anyway, here’s the reminder: You owe me lunch.”

“For what?”

“We made a bet that Amazon would not build its HG2 headquarters in Tulsa, remember?

You lost.”

“I remember,” he concedes.

“And here’s the compliment: You told me almost two years ago that if REI didn’t get the location at 71st and Riverside, it wasn’t going anywhere else in town. It was going to Oklahoma City. It didn’t, and that’s exactly where it went.”

“That’s the most back-handed compliment ever,” he says.

“By design. So what did you learn?”

“If I could go back and hop in the DeLorean, would I have chosen Helmerich Park to market to REI? Of course not. But that was the hand I inherited. Having said that, I still believe that proj-

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Mayor G.T. Bynum | JOSEPH RUSHMORE

ect was legal. Now, are we marketing any part of RiverParks going forward? No.” “With that in mind, tell me why BMX is not going to be another REI?” (It’s already costing more money than planned and won’t be ready for another two years at the earliest.)

“That’s easy. It’s not going to be another REI because we have involved the community in every step of the process. When the deal fell through with the County, we thought, ‘Where is the most impactful place?’ And for us, that was at Evans-Fintube site. But we

first pitched the idea to Counselor Vanessa Hall-Harper and community leaders and got their buy-in.

This is not the mayor’s office and the developer making a deal and telling everybody else what it’s going to be.”

“I have no segue here, but I want to talk about guns,” I tell him.

This, I can tell, doesn’t surprise him.

“There was a petition for a state question which would have allowed Oklahomans to weigh in on HB 2597, allowing residents to carry a gun without a permit.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt signed the petition, but you refused. Why?” “It’s not a city issue, it’s a state issue, and I had spent zero time studying it,” he says. “It’s out of my purview. I have an ability to see both sides of an issue, which most of the time is a useful asset, but on that one it was challenging to come to a conclusion on complex different viewpoints you respect … in a day.

David tweeted out he had signed the petition. And as soon as he had, people said, ‘Well, David signed it. How about you, G.T.?’ I went back and forth all day, and I couldn’t reach the right conclusion in the time frame.

I am working on a number of issues—racial disparity, gay rights—that are controversial, that I’m trying to pull people together on, and jumping into a petition on an issue I have no influence on, didn’t seem like the right thing to do.”

“You pissed off both sides— the left by not issuing a statement supporting the amendment, the right by not trumpeting the original bill—which worked to your advantage.”

“You think that was good politically?”

“I do. It kept you in the middle of the debate. But let’s talk about something more serious: The Human Rights Watch Report, which focused on policing, poverty and racial inequity in Tulsa, was released earlier this year: ‘Being poor or Black makes you much more likely to be a target of aggressive policing in Tulsa … Throughout Tulsa, Black residents are 2.3 times December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

more likely to be arrested than white residents.’

That’s pretty damning. You then—and I criticized you for this in a recent column—reached out … to the police. Now, is there a point where the morale of TPD is less important than the morale of those in, say, North Tulsa, who feel, in some measure, targeted

by TPD?” “I would say we spent three years implementing change to make the department better.”

Which is what I expected him to say.

“But—” “No, wait,” he says. “A frustration for me is we rollout 77 different reforms and the reaction is, ‘Yeah, it’s yesterday’s news.’ I am mindful of morale in the department. I see a lot of people go to work in our department, and they don’t go because we pay the best, because we don’t—they don’t go into this line of work because it’s secure, now being a decade away from laying off 130 police officers. These are extraordinary people. And I hear a lot of broad statements about ‘The Police’ which paints those extraordinary people in with the behavior one or two individuals that are in no way excusable.”

“You have to say that about cops, but when do you go to people in North Tulsa and say, after a shooting of an unarmed black male, ‘This is going to stop,’ and not couch the discussion in the one-or-two bad seeds trope?

When do you say, ‘I love the police, but if any more incidents like this happen, someone will get fired.’”

“I don’t think we spend enough time talking about the broad array of determinants that leads to those disparities,” he says. “The police are not the cause and repercussions of those social determinants. I don’t know anyone at the TPD who’s OK with inequitable treatment. So, your scenario, where I go and say, ‘If this happens again, someone at TPD is in trouble,’ well, that’s placing the blame on the police department when the real issues we see revolve around mental health, drug issues, economic THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

disparity. The police department didn’t cause that.”

“So, even after becoming mayor and being privy to the inner workings of the police, you didn’t see a need for institutional changes in the department?”

“Improvements in the department—implicit bias training, body cameras—are now in place,” he says. “But was there a thing the department was doing that I found out about that was outrageous that I went to the chief and said this had to change?

No. I know people want to make it about policing, but there are so many other factors.”

I remind him neither one of us is going to be pulled over for driving a sports car in a posh part of town—a reality for African American males—but I am also reminded this is the same mayor who said this after Betty Shelby was found not guilty of fi rst-degree manslaughter in the death of Terence Crutcher: I would remind Tulsans that our history shows us African Americans in Tulsa have not been the instigators of lawlessness and riots; they have been the victims of them.

So, I would ask that we not keep assuming the worst from a part of our community that has been exposed to the worst in this city’s history. We recognize that this issue, the issue of racial disparity in Tulsa, is the great moral issue of our time in this community, and there is a desire in all parts of our city to play a role in addressing it.

(Tulsa World)

This mayor is not going to storm into TPD headquarters and start upending furniture, but he is the guy who finally listened to the North Tulsa community advocates demanding answers about this history of violence.

Nearly 100 years after a deadly race massacre, Tulsa began searching for evidence that victims of one of the country’s worst episodes of racial violence were buried in mass graves. (Washington Post)

An aide just came in and told the mayor he’s got five minutes until his next meeting.

“It’s OK. We’ve got time,” he says, waving her off.

I thank him for the extension.

“Let’s talk politics. You run for re-election in 2020. You win again.

You leave office in 2024. Inhofe, who will be 147 in 2026, doesn’t run for another term, and that’s also the year Stitt will be finishing his second term and can’t run again because of term limits. Tell me you’re not thinking about it.”

“Of course I would think about it. But I want to run through the rope here,” he says.

“I love this job and I would do it forever, but I committed when I ran I was only going to do two terms. There are so many politicians who say they’re going to do things and go back when it’s convenient for them not to.”

“That sounds like you could theoretically be talking about a United States congressman from the second district who said he wouldn’t run for a third term, now a fourth, but did anyway.”

“Just as a theoretical,” he says, smiling.

“If the left leaves you alone, which it will, and the right leaves you alone, which it might, you win reelection easily.”

“Good luck with that. I’m not holding my breath.”

“Oh, the left will, guaranteed.

The right—well, the hard right, anyway—didn’t want you looking for mass graves.”

“Or even passing a package to improve our streets.”

It really is time to go, but first he reaches across the table and shows me a photo of an old city council meeting—he always does stuff like this—and then walks me out and shows me a picture on a wall given to him by former Mayor Dewey Bartlett.

Bynum loves the history and continuity of the place.

“Thanks for the time. We’ll do it again.”

“Absolutely,” he says.

“Always a pleasure,” I say.

We shake hands.

“You still owe me lunch.”

“I know.” a

TULSA’S ONLY MODERN JAZZ CLUB DuetJazz.com

UPCOMING SHOWS

downstairs

Ryan Scott Long & Friends Wednesday, Dec. 11

Snobug Thursday, Dec. 12

Jeremy Thomas Group featuring Ronald Bruner Jr. Friday, Dec. 13

Eldredge Jackson Holiday Special Saturday, Dec. 14

Rebecca Ungerman *Ladies Night* Wednesday, Dec. 18

Blue Whale Comedy ISMO Comedy Thursday, Dec. 19

SOLD OUT - Annie Ellicott Trio Holiday Concert Friday, Dec. 20

SOLD OUT - Charlie Brown Christmas (Live Band), 3pm and 7pm Saturday, Dec. 21

CLOSED CHRISTMAS EVE AND DAY Cynthia Simmons Quintet Live!

Friday, Dec. 27

The Zuits Saturday, Dec. 28

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

community

‘We can do it’

Intersectional strategies for women in the workplace

by KYRA BRUCE

T

he important conversations are often the toughest to initiate. That’s why the folks behind Tri-City Collective’s Real Talk series have spent the back half of 2019 organizing free public panels with local leaders to help break the ice around some of the deepest and most complex challenges facing marginalized communities in Tulsa.

Since the series’ June 15 debut, “Blacknificent!: Black, Queer & Okie,” the freewheeling social justice salons have helped spur community conversation around immigration, education, human rights and more. The latest installment, “Women in Leadership: Deconstructed Glass,” takes place at The Woody Guthrie Center on Dec. 14. The panel will focus on the barriers that often keep women from positions of leadership, and the difficulties they face once they get there.

Host Anissia West says she looks forward to getting to the bottom of these challenges and offering tools and strategies to help women overcome them. But when it comes to shattering the “glass ceiling,” West says the first step is bringing more people into the conversation.

“It’s one of those things that women tend to talk about among women, so oftentimes when we’re having these discussions, we’re not talking about those things with men,” she said. “Oftentimes, women are having those conversations in very homogeneous spaces, so women of color may not always have those conversations with women who are white.”

Outside of widening the scope of who women talk to about these issues, West sees immeasurable value in having a team of people who decide to overcome the 10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Anissia West will host “Women in Leadership: Deconstructed Glass,” a panel discussion on Dec. 14 at The Woody Guthrie Center. | GREG BOLLINGER

barriers together and watch each other’s backs.

“Sometimes in organizations that are male dominated, women may make this decision to work together to help elevate each other’s voices and also help elevate each other’s bodies of work,” she said. “For example, if I were working in a male-dominant organization … and I hear one man sharing another woman’s idea as if it is his, I will take it upon myself to speak up and let it be known that I’m aware that this is this other woman’s body of work or her idea.”

No stranger to workplace barriers, West has developed these strategies through her own experience. “For me, because I’m a woman of color—specifically an African American woman—my challenges are a little bit different than my white female counterparts,” she said. “I oftentimes find myself in situations where not only my gender, but also my

race, is a factor in the barriers presented.”

Panelist Rabbi Lillian Kowalski agrees about the importance of including women of color, and all women, in an intersectional form of feminism. “It’s about making a space equally accessible and available to all kinds of people,” she said. “I think the more that we talk about some of these issues here, the more we realize: If I, as a white cisgender woman, am facing some of these issues, how much more are other people who are not white or not cisgender … facing on a daily basis?”

Kowalski says they key to intersectional feminism is understanding that equality isn’t a fi nite resource. “It’s not about taking away something from somebody else. It’s about creating and maintaining equality,” she said. “You know, it’s not pie.

When you give it away, you don’t you don’t lose something about

it. It’s about making a space equal access.”

West is hopeful the Dec. 14 Real Talk panel will help generate productive conversations around how to build those equal-access spaces, but she harbors no illusions about the road ahead.

“Those challenges never go away.

You can break down some of those barriers, but all of those stereotypes never go away,” she said. “And I don’t expect for them to completely go away in my lifetime, but you just have to be mindful that there will be some people who think that you don’t belong in that [leadership] role. You know, and there may be some people who will try to work against you.

When I speak the exact same words that a male counterpart would say, or a white female counterpart would say … because I’m both female and black, the perception of me is much different,” West continued. “So I’ve struggled a bit with navigating how to show up as my true authentic self … and not just maintain the job but work my way up the ladder.”

Rabbi Kowalski—who was ordained in May before landing her new job at Temple Israel in July—is also learning how to show up as herself, for others, in a new community. “One of those, shall we say classic things that I’m known for saying is, ‘I don’t know’ is always an appropriate answer—as long as it’s followed by, ‘But I will find out.’” a

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THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

foodfile

FLIGHT CLUB

IT’S TIME TO DRAW THE LINE. Big Tobacco puts profits over people — and it’s hurting Oklahoma. In our state: - $2 billion is spent on tobacco-related health care costs every year - 1,800 kids become new daily smokers each year - 1 in 6 kids use e-cigarettes

Past $3 Food Flight Night offerings have included popcorn shrimp tostadas, featuring loads of fried shrimp, cilantro, black beans, red onion and signature salsa on a perfectly puffy tortilla. | GREG BOLLINGER

THAT’S

Mother Road Market combats decision fatigue with weekly discounts

By implementing common-sense tobacco policies, we can save Oklahoma from the clutches of Big Tobacco.

SINCE BURSTING ONTO THE SCENE last fall, Mother Road Market has become Tulsa’s favorite spot for locals and visitors alike to sample the flavors of our fine city. Bursting with more than 20 different restaurant and retail concepts under one roof, the food hall at 1124 S. Lewis Ave. offers an unbeatably diverse selection of cuisine that’s sure to satisfy the most discerning local palates.

Of course, all that choice can lead to decision fatigue. With so many options, it’s easy to fall into the routine of the familiar and stick with what you know. Lucky for you, the folks at MRM have found a solution for your indecisiveness with a regular Foodie Flight Night on Wednesdays. From 5-9 p.m., visitors can load up their plates with $3 deals or marked discounts across a number of restaurant and retail concepts.

MRM Foodie Flight Night is the perfect way to break out of your comfort zone without breaking the bank. The offerings change week-to-week, but we’ve got the low-down on the kinds of deals you can expect. So bring the whole crew—along with your appetites—to discover your new favorite dining destination at Tulsa’s first food hall.

Learn how to fight back at

LISTEN UP! TULSA TALKS Podcast guests for December include: DECEMBER 4 Matt Pinnell Oklahoma Lt. Governor

DECEMBER 18 Maggie Hoey

TYPros Executive Director Subscribe for FREE on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or Spotify!

Presented by:

YOUR PARTNER IN PROSPERITY

tulsachamber.com

MR. NICE GUYS SHRIMP SHACK From its origins as a late-night food truck staple, the folks at Mr. Nice Guys have settled into their new MRM location with style—and lots of flavor. Sporting a new Costa Rican-inspired seafood concept, the past year has brought plenty of delicious changes to the brick and mortar location of this foodie favorite. Past $3 Food Flight Night offerings have included spicy pork sweet potato tacos and popcorn shrimp tostadas, featuring loads of fried shrimp, cilantro, black beans, red onion and signature salsa on a perfectly puffy tortilla.

Be sure to grab a roll of addictive festival bread, available sweet or savory.

12 // FOOD & DRINK Tulsa Talks Pod Cast Tulsa Voice- 4.375 x 1.5.indd 1

HOWDY BURGER Tulsa’s newest burger concept is generating plenty of buzz, and Flight Night is the perfect time to stop by and see what all the fuss is about. Discounted offerings like their strawberry habanero lemonade or cheesy bacon-loaded Rodeo Fries make for the perfect addition to the original Howdy Burger—featuring double meat, double cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and Howdy’s famous “rodeo sauce.” Feel like going meatless? Check out the All Hat burger, featuring those classic flavors on top of an Impossible veggie patty. Howdy Burger also makes a mean corn dog, but only on Saturday and Sunday. & TACOS Kendall-Whittier regulars know Pollos Asados al Carbon as one of the most formidable taco trucks in Tulsa. Located at the northeast corner of Admiral Boulevard and Lewis Avenue, the original Carbon is known for its famous green sauce and $5-forfive-tacos deal. Now brothers Mario and Daniel Ruiz have set up shop at MRM with their spinoff, & Tacos, featuring all the flavors of their beloved food truck along with expanded offerings including fried dishes like chimichangas. If you’re lucky, you might get the chance to snag one of the brothers’ chicken or pork tamales for $3 during Flight Night. But whatever they’re offering, you’re sure to taste the love the Ruiz family puts into each dish. “We are thankful for the people that have given us the chance to feed them,” Daniel Ruiz said. — TTV STAFF

These are just a few local flavors you can discover during MRM Foodie Flight Night. Follow Mother Road Market on Facebook to stay up-to-date on each Wednesday’s offerings.

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

3/4/19 1:21 PM

2019 NONPROFIT GIVING GUIDE Please visit

• • • • •

Children’s art supplies (markers, glue, paper, etc.)

Adult art supplies (paint, brushes, canvases, etc.)

Gift cards (Home Depot, Michael’s, Dick Blick) Artist wishlist items for THE EXPERIENCE: IMAGINE Monetary donations

• • • • •

To donate, contact Hillary Sutton at 918-584-3333 ahhatulsa.org

for additional nonprofit needs. Thank you for giving!

Youth (10-17) plain t-shirts - all sizes Youth (10-17) plain sweatpants & shorts-all sizes Youth (10-17) socks, undergarments & sports bras Full-size bed sheets and towels Art supplies and books (Youth 10-17) To donate, contact Matthew Crum at 918-392-5849 crsok.org/donate

• • • • •

Hygiene wipes 13 gallon trash bags Paper towels Laundry soap Individually packaged snacks

• • • • •

Frozen turkeys Frozen hams New, unwrapped children’s toys or games Grocery/toy store gift cards Monetary donations

To donate, contact Melanie Craddock at 918.893.6150 clarehouse.org

To donate, contact Lindsey DeWeese at 918-492-2554 crsok.org

• • • • •

• • • • •

Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope

Community FOOD BANK of Eastern Oklahoma

www.okfoodbank.org

• • • • •

Tabletop light table (needs 3) Wagons (needs 8) Freestanding metal basketball hoop (3) Sensory tube sets (8) Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head (5 under 2 years, 3 for 3+ years)

• High protein foods: peanut butter, canned tuna, chicken, turkey • Shelf-stable food items • Volunteers • In-kind donations: cars, trucks, restaurant equipment • Monetary donations $1=4 meals

• • • • •

Peanut butter and jelly (plastic jars only) Macaroni and cheese Canned meat (tuna, chicken or ham) Pasta or rice Pancake or biscuit mix

• • • • •

To donate, contact Ashli Sims at 918-879-1702 irongatetulsa.org

• • • • •

Children’s books Baby basics (diapers, formula) Pack’n Plays New mother needs Art supplies (crayons, gel pens, washable markers) To donate, contact Carrie Little at 918-599-7999 parentchildcenter.org

• • • • •

Gift cards (Walmart, Sam’s, Reasor’s) Clay litter Fancy Feast cat food with gravy, sauce, etc.

Kitchen trash bags (Hefty , Glad, Sam’s) Laundry detergent pod or liquid To donate, contact Linda Holland at 918-298-0104 streetcatstulsa.org

• Classroom Supplies (dry erase markers, batteries, sharpies) • STEM activity supplies (masking tape, popsicle sticks, rubber bands) • Math Games (addition bingo, Inching Along, Sum Swamp, deck of cards, dominoes) • New iPads (6th generation or newer) • Lego and K’NEX kits To donate, contact Lynn Staggs at 918-779-4910 tulsastem.org

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

Variety canned and boxed food items Working condition vehicles Working appliances & furniture Gently used clothing, hats, gloves New undergarments and socks

• • • • •

To donate, contact Scott Wigton at 918-587-1186 john316mission.org

• • • • •

Paper plates Plastic cutlery Disinfectant wipes Boxes of tissues Reams of plain white printer/copy paper

• • • • •

To donate, contact Katie Groke at 918-859-0060 pathwaysok.org

• Volunteers (garden, photography, educational programs) • Gas or Home Depot gift cards • Hand warmers ($25) • Folding picnic table ($200) • Monetary donations To donate, contact Nancy Moore at 918-289-0330 tulsabotanic.org

• Grocery gift cards • Transportation gift cards (gas, LYFT/UBER, mechanics) • Home repair gift certs (handymen, HVAC, roofing, plumbing) • Personal care gift cards (for clothes & haircuts) • Office supply gift card To donate, contact Alisa Andrews at 918-518-1719 upliftedschools.com

Computers (contact agency for specifics) Therapy equipment (contact agency for specifics) Walmart gift cards for hosting guests Amazon gift cards for office supplies Paper towels

• • • • •

To donate, contact Molly Smith at 918-664-6746 littlelighthouse.org

To donate, contact Jessica Thurman at 918-585-1213 mhaok.org

Towels and washcloths Twin sheet sets $10 QuikTrip gift cards Toilet paper Feminine hygiene products To donate, contact Debbie Gordon at 918-587-3888 resonancetulsa.org

• • • • •

White t-shirts (men’s sizes S-XL) Pillows, sheets and comforters (twin size) Black belts (men’s sizes 30-42) Black ankle socks Hygiene products (shampoo, deoderant & toothpaste)

• • • • •

Non-perishable food Household items: kitchen, towels, full-size sheets Paper towels and toilet paper Cleaning supplies Monetary donations, gift cards, bus passes To donate, contact Holly Yeagle at 918-307-1500 voaok.org

Men’s and women’s undergarments Comforters Travel size hygiene products Men’s and women’s clothing (summer and winter) Feminine hygiene products

Peanut butter, cereal, pineapple Feminine hygiene products Diapers New backpacks and school supplies Basic hygiene items (soap, toothbrushes, toilet paper, etc.)

To donate, contact Michelle Reagor at 918-582-5766 restorehope.org

• • • • •

To donate, contact Kaycee Aragon at 918-245-0231 tulsaboyshome.org

• • • • •

Feminine hygiene products Socks (children and adult) Non-perishable food (canned/boxed) Unwrapped small-size children’s toys Cloth carrybags (not plastic sacks) To donate, contact Suzann Stewart at 918-742-7480 www.fsctulsa.org

To donate, contact Jessica Jayes at 918-560-1115 fcsok.org

To donate, contact DeAnna Pence at 918-936-4556 okfoodbank.org

To donate, contact Debbi Guilfoyle at 918-482-1457 crosstowntulsa.org

Winter coats HUGS (hats, underwear, gloves, socks/scarves) New, unwrapped children’s toys Toiletries Monetary donations

Gently used furniture, household items and clothing Used cars Sponsor a home construction Real estate A monthly sustained gift of as little as $5 per month To donate, contact Danielle Leffler at 918-592-4224 tulsahabitat.com/ways-to-donate

• • • • •

Socks for men and women Underwear for men and women Athletic shoes for men and women (all sizes) Coats for men and women (all sizes) Blankets To donate, contact Brian Young at 918-582-0061 yst.org

FOOD & DRINK // 13

Not just an ordinary bar

woodyguthriecenter.org

Join us for the tastiest Chicken & Waffles in Tulsa!

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

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

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

217 E. Archer Historic tulsa Arts District (918) 619-6353

Arrive Early. Stay Late.

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

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

MARY GAUTHIER SUNDAY, MAR. 29 & MONDAY, MAR. 30 • 7pm

address 102 EAST BRADY STREET, TULSA, OK

74103

phone 918.574.2710

email INFO@WOODYGUTHRIECENTER.ORG

FIRST

TULSA ARTIST FELLOWSHIP

FRIDAY

11AM - 7PM Mon. - Fri. 11AM - 6PM Sat.

FIRST FRIDAY HOURS /// 6-9PM

Featuring First Friday Art Crawl

ARCHER STUDIOS

109 N. MLK, JR. BLVD. E.

facebook.com/TulsaArtsDistrict @TulArtsDist

#TulArtsDist

TheTulsaArtsDistrict.org

14 // TULSA ARTS DISTRICT

CAMERON STUDIOS 303 N. MAIN ST.

Join us at both our Archer and Cameron Studio locations for open studios, group exhibitions, pop up performances and more.

Free and open to all.

@TulsaArtistFellowship #TulsaArtistFellowship

December 4 – 17, 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!

FREE

SANTA PHOTOS! Mark your calendar for Sunday, Dec. 8 for pet photos with Santa!

• 11A M -1P M •

1778 UTICA SQUARE 918-624-2600 OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY, 10-6 SUNDAYS IN DECEMBER, 12-5

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

FOOD & DRINK // 15

TULSA

PR E S E N T E D BY:

BREW MAP A handy guide to Tulsa’s brewing scene

NINE BANDS

PE

ARL

B R E W E RY T O U R S . C O

M

325 E. MATHEW B. BRADY ST. ELGINPARKBREWERY.COM

HEIRLOOM

DEAD ARMADILLO PEARL BEACH

223 N. MAIN ST. PRAIRIEPUB.COM

WELLTOWN

MARSHALL

1502 E. 6TH ST. NOTHINGSLEFTBREW.CO

CABIN BOYS

RENNAISSANCE

BROKEN ARROW EXPRESSWAY

BROKEN ARROW AMERICAN SOLERA

FEATURED BREW SECOND DEATH AT HEIRLOOM RUSTIC ALES

A stainless ale fermented with carbonic Norton grapes and blended with malt piquette of Norton grapes. With an 8.8% ABV, this ale should be sipped slowly!

16 // FOOD & DRINK

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Each of Tulsa’s breweries has a story...

Best Wine List

come drink them in!

P e r f e c t f o r c o r p o r at e e v e n t s , w e d d in g s , pa r t ie s a n d m o r e !

YO U R HAPPI ES T H O U R AWAITS AT VI NTAG E . $ 6 SA N G R IA

✦

$ 6 H O U S E R ED ✦ $ 6 H O U S E W H I T E 3 - 6 PM E V ERY DAY

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

(918) 403-9483 • pearlbrewerytours.com 324 E. 1ST ST. | 918.764.9255 | WINEBARTULSA.COM

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

FOOD & DRINK // 17

Oklahoma Tribes Deliver

STATEWIDE GROWTH ALL OVER OKLAHOMA, TRIBAL INVESTMENTS ARE CREATING JOBS, IMPROVING LIVES AND STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES.

Oklahoma City “Here in Oklahoma City, we’ve grown to depend on the philanthropic generosity of the tribal nations.

And time and again, they have answered that call.”

DAVID HOLT Mayor

Anadarko “It makes a huge difference working with tribal governments because we’re talking millions of dollars in infrastructure investment. We’re not talking about $10,000 that helped us do one small project in one neighborhood, we’re talking about community-wide infrastructure improvements.”

KYLE EASTWOOD Mayor

Ada “I think what people don’t realize is that the tribes invest.

If you don’t live in rural Oklahoma, you don’t really understand. They invest in roads. They invest in our schools.

They invest in health care. They invest in water planning.

They invest in philanthropic endeavors.”

SUSAN PADDACK Executive Director, The Oka' Institute

UnitedForOklahoma.com

Wyandotte Canton “50 jobs isn’t that many jobs in a big metro area, but in our community when you have 600 people, it’s very significant. It’s a boost that you

“They provide legitimate jobs for a ton of people. The casino I work at has 700 employees.”

BRAD ABELL

can’t replace.”

TROY EVERETT Vice President, Canton Chamber of Commerce

Pryor “We’re able to attract a better teaching force than we would be able to without some of those resources.

So it’s all interwoven, and people don’t understand how big of a component that the tribe plays in our successes.”

DON RALEIGH Superintendent, Pryor Public Schools

Tulsa

Durant “I’ve had many acquaintances that have grown up in Durant, moved away to go to college, never had the intention of moving back, and have. They are finding these fulfilling jobs that they didn’t think would be in Durant, and a lot of those jobs have been provided by the tribe.”

“I see the tribes investing in Oklahoma, in health care, in roads, in education, in mental health, in every way to build a better place for all our children to live.”

ALISON ANTHONY President and CEO, Tulsa Area United Way

STEPHANIE GARNER Director, Durant Main Street

Committed to mutual respect, shared strength and productive partnerships that benefit every Oklahoman.

WHERE THE BUFFALO ABIDES TRAGEDY AND FARCE AT THE PERRYMAN RANCH

BY RUSSELL COBB • PHOTO BY GREG BOLLINGER

20 // FEATURED

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

On a mound of Ok lahoma moss rock, his black eyes fixed on a gravel road, stands a statue of a mythical beast known as Yvnvssv Hetke (pronounced Yuh-nuh-suh Hect-ee), Mvskoke for “white buffalo.” The white buffalo of the Perryman Ranch has been gracing southern Elwood Avenue for decades, a silent observer to the encroachment of suburbia on what was once the richest cattle land in the Creek Nation.

From Yvnvssv Hetke’s perch, the tops of new houses look like giant mushrooms popping up in a landscape of tall grasses, blackjack and pear trees, the latter planted

by Mose Perryman in the 19th century. The houses are an invasive species for the American buffalo, an animal brought to the brink of extinction in the recent past, and now, in a twist of irony, reborn as the symbol of all things Okie.

Yvnvssv Hetke resides within the jurisdiction of Jenks, USA, where Native American history sells at a deep discount to subdivisions and big box stores. Only about a month ago, this white buffalo witnessed history being carried away by the truckload during an auction of Perryman Ranch artifacts. Among those artifacts was a massive wooden mortar and pestle known as a keco kecvpe in Creek. During the ranch’s heyday—when cattle, not oil, was king in Tulsa— this keco kecvpe was a sort of proto-blender for sofke, a staple of the Mvskoke diet.

On a rainy spring day in 2016, Robert Trepp told me to pick up this particular keco kecvpe. Imagine a wood baseball bat designed for the half-giant Hagrid. I was barely able to lift it, but then I dropped it on the mortar of dense bois d’arc wood. It made a dull thud. “Put hominy in that and pound it till it cracks,” Trepp said. “Then do it all day long. That was how women made sofke back then.”

Trepp was a descendant of the founder of the Perryman Ranch, and did what he could to maintain its character in the face of the deterioration of the early 20th century house and its ever-shrinking number of livestock. A number of structures date back to pre-statehood days. The original ranch house, built by Mose Perryman in 1898, had welcomed visitors from “the States” (as the U.S. was referred to in the Creek Nation) to Indian Territory, functioning as a sort of guest house in the area. The house burned to the ground, but was rebuilt in a grander fashion in 1910, when several families lived on the property.

One of the oldest buildings—called the bunkhouse— was home to a freedman family who had most likely been descendants of Mose Perryman’s Creek slaves. And here we come to a difficult subject in the story of Tulsa’s “first family.” Before Emancipation, Perryman had many slaves, and there are stories about Creeks of African ancestry intermixed into even the most prominent members of the family.

Slavery practiced here, on this relatively far-flung outpost along the Arkansas River, was unrecognizable to white slave owners from the Deep South. One visitor described the Perryman slaves as having houses with clapboard roofs, wood plank floors, glass windows and stone fireplaces, their cabins in better condition than those of many white sharecroppers back east. The slaves also had no overseer, and one white visitor from Arkansas was perplexed to find Perryman’s slaves planting vegetables for their own consumption. “The Chief treats his Negroes like hired hands,” the Arkansan mused.

If you own a house anywhere in southern Tulsa County, the name Perryman might be familiar to you. On the first page of my abstract to a midtown property there are two Perrymans, along with a notation that, in 1852, President Millard Fillmore issued title to this land to the Creek Nation “for as long as they shall exist as a nation.” Perrymans served as Principal Chiefs, lawyers, landowners and postmasters before the discovery of oil changed everything in Tulsa.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

The Perryman Ranch was handed down in an unbroken line of succession for at least five generations, surviving the exploitation of the early 20th century and the rebirth of tribal sovereignty in the past half century.

All of that is on the verge of changing now.

The Perryman family is often said to be Tulsa’s founding family. But the family’s history, and the ranch itself, are an anomaly. After the Civil War, the federal government began pushing a scheme known as allotment, forcing the Five Tribes to exchange their sovereignty for a title to 160 acres.

The discovery of oil turned allotments into sites for plunder and crime. Kidnappings, killings and swindles happened all around Tulsa as 90 percent of Creek land made its way into white hands in the first decade after allotment. Only a tiny fraction of allotments today remain in the hands of the allotees’ descendants. The Perryman Ranch, meanwhile, was handed down in an unbroken line of succession for at least five generations, surviving “the orgy of exploitation” (Angie Debo’s words) of the early 20th century and the rebirth of tribal sovereignty in the past half century. All of that is on the verge of changing now.

When Trepp’s grandmother died, the ranch’s heirship was contested, bringing about a bitter legal battle.

Decades later, the fight over what was once eastern Oklahoma’s wealthiest ranch still stung. In 2016, I asked Trepp about the fallout. The normally voluble man went quiet. He took in a deep breath. “It got sold,” he said finally. “It was all about the money.”

In the 1980s, a caretaker brought a white bison calf to the ranch. The American Bison Association estimates one in 10 million American buffalo are born white. In some Native American traditions, this calf was a sacred symbol of either an impending age of harmony or—depending on the tradition—an omen of tragedy. Among the Lakota it is the most sacred of animals. The birth of a white bison on a farm in New England in 2012 occasioned a voyage by a delegation of Lakota to see this rare calf. The event was national news.

So what to make of the low profile of Jenks’ own white bison? There may have been more to Yvnvssv Hetke than one might first suppose. Looking closely at old photos of Yvnvssv, one sees a few striking features. His horns look more like those of a steer, and he’s missing the telltale beard of a bison. He has a hump, yes, but it’s more like an Oklahoma hill than a Montana peak. It is entirely possible that Yvnvssv Hetke was actually a mixed-breed ‘Beefalo.’ We will never know—all his owners and caretakers have died.

Before the mushrooms of subdivisions, this Yvnvssv Hetke roamed the 80 acres that remained of the land, becoming a sort of local eccentricity among suburbanites.

The caretaker wanted to sell off Yvnvssv Hetke. Robert Trepp would not allow it. He bought the bovine and showed him off to Native Americans from around the country who came to visit. Then, one day in the late 1990s, the white buffalo escaped the grounds and wandered down Elwood Avenue, a mythical lone bison lost in exurban America.

Yvnvssv Hetke was recaptured and put back in his proper place, where he would live another dozen or so years feasting on pears from Mose’s trees.

Last spring it was announced that the entire Perryman Ranch would go up for auction. A piece of Tulsa’s history would be sold to the highest bidder. Then, Shaw Homes announced designs for a subdivision of new houses and wetlands. In preparation for destruction of the ranch, an auction was held in early November. A description by Mr. Ed’s Auctions listed, among other things, a “primitive mortar and pestle,” for sale. That was the keco kecvpe I once held.

As news of the Perryman Ranch auction spread, social media rang out with an outcry among Creek people and local preservationists. It seemed impossible that such a pivotal place could be so quickly plowed under. As recently as 2010, Sen. Jim Inhofe, along with city and state officials, had proclaimed a Perryman Ranch Day to celebrate the house’s centennial. But the spirit of fatalism that hangs over so much life in Oklahoma started to settle in. The inevitable march of progress, some sighed.

On Nov. 7, however, Jenks Planning Commission announced that plans were on hold. Planning director Jim Beach said in an email that city staff was waiting on answers from the owner. “When staff is satisfied that anticipated questions from citizens [have been answered], we’ll set it for hearing and give public notice as required by Jenks ordinances,” Beach said.

The Perryman Ranch is not on any sort of historical registry—incredible, considering its significance in Tulsa’s origin story. To qualify for inclusion on the National Registry of Historic Places, a place needs to be assessed by State Historic Preservation Office. Oklahoma has hundreds of sites listed, but only one related to the Perrymans: an oil pumping station behind a chainlink fence down the road on Elwood from the ranch. Tulsans might be selectively amnesic about their history, but they never leave out the oil.

Before Monetta and Robert Trepp died, they dreamed of starting a cultural center in Tulsa that would form as a common meeting point for the members of the 70-odd tribes whose citizens live in the city. They started to fundraise, but things started to fall apart after Monetta died in 2013. Although they have passed on, their property remains in limbo, a piece of Tulsa’s history unrecognized by the state, national or tribal institutions that could save it.

Although many of its artifacts have been sold off, Yvnvssv Hetke still stands on his mound of moss rock, a look of curiosity filling his black eyes. As buyers carted off the remains of this once wealthy ranch, this white buffalo might have contemplated the old dictum that history repeats itself: first time as tragedy, and second time as farce. a FEATURED // 21

Diablo sits in a park along the banks of the Arkansas River.

22 // FEATURED

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

P H O T O

E S S A Y

HIDDEN CIT Y Life without shelter on the Arkansas River PHOTOGR APHS AND WORDS

BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

Experiences run deep for those living on the streets along the Arkansas River. This life on the margins gives you the ability to—not turn invisible—but slide out of view in the eyes of your fellow city dwellers, many of whom don’t realize you’re gone, or that you were ever with them at all. You won’t be as much as a memory in their consciousness, but you’ll be given a secret vantage to see and hear everything around you.

The Arkansas River is a new name. The River Jordan is older, and more accurate for some in the city who know the water intimately. These people say there’s a war going on between heaven and hell, and the river is often the frontline.

“There is a battle coming to Tulsa,” one woman says. “I don’t know why the Devil chose this place to come to. I suppose it’s because God chose it first.”

There is a spot, a known drop-off point along the river banks for transport boats that carry angels to the city for fighting. But territory is lost and gained in this war, and sometimes the drop point is taken by the enemy—the Devil himself—and he brings demons to bear along the river.

The boats are neutral carriers. They are as unmoved as the River or the Land itself, and they bring forces of good and bad in the spiritual realm just as the streets—the neutral carrier of human bodies—bring the same. All roads lead to this hidden city. All streets are inhabited here.

The lives lived here score the land. They keep eyes on the river and watch over each other, neighbors in a forgotten community.

“It’s hard out here.”

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

FEATURED // 23

Sara and Devon examine graffiti in an alley near downtown Tulsa. • Devon and Sara make their way back towards downtown Tulsa from the Gathering Place to get beds at the Salvation Army. • Devon swims in the Arkansas River near 23rd Street in Tulsa. • A group of teens prepare to sleep on the streets of Tulsa. • Frank considers his next move after he was jumped and all his belongings stolen. • Rose, 17, and Diablo, 18, both homeless for about a year. They plan to marry next year. a

24 24////FEATURED FEATURED

4 – 17, THE TULSA VOICE December 4December – 17, 2019 // 2019 THE//TULSA VOICE

THE VOICEVOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019 4 – 17, 2019 THETULSA TULSA // December

FEATURED//// 25 25 FEATURED

RADICAL ROUTES TESTING OUT TULSA’S NEW AERO RAPID TRANSIT

BY MATT CARNEY • PHOTOS BY SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS

CITY OFFICIALS TALKED BIG TALK BACK in January when they unveiled the new Bus Rapid Transit system that began operation Nov. 18 along Peoria Avenue.

The word “game-changer” appeared in the Tulsa World’s coverage of the city’s announcement, just a paragraph before Tulsa Transit general manager Ted Rieck was quoted saying the new system, branded Aero, marked the “first step in a transformation for Tulsa Transit.”

Mayor G.T. Bynum got in on the action as well. “Imagine what Tulsans might step up and want to do around public transit if all of a sudden they could see what it was like to have public transit as a vehicle of choice in our city,” he said, after acknowledging that historically the bus served as Tulsans’ transportation option of last resort.

Mayor Bynum’s proposal was nothing if not provocative. The bus, a “vehicle of choice” in Tulsa? I decided to put that claim to the test.

BRAND NAME

First, some facts about the new Aero rapid transit system are in order. For starters, it’s not independent of the Tulsa Transit system. Aero’s official name is Route 700.

It’s just branded distinctly from the regular Tulsa Transit system with Aero-wrapped buses and two sleek, new bus stop designs.

If you check the system map on the Tulsa Transit website, it’s marked as the 700.

In the time I spent riding it, drivers used 26 // FEATURED

the terms Aero and 700 interchangeably.

(They also answered about a zillion other questions from me and my fellow riders, bless them.)

I should also point out that the new bus stop design is just as functional as it is aesthetically pleasing. The stations are raised to help passengers using wheelchairs or walkers board the bus without hassle. And the wide aisles allow them to get to a secure spot at the front of the bus without having to fold up a walker. Drivers also get up to help fasten passengers’ wheelchairs to their secure holds.

The Aero runs north-south along an 18-mile stretch of Peoria Avenue, with a short loop into downtown and turnarounds at 54th Street North and the intersection of 81st Street and Lewis Avenue South.

(Astute Tulsans might note that Peoria Avenue merges with Riverside Drive just before 71st Street.) On weekdays during peak travel times, Aero bus stops are serviced every 15 minutes. Outside peak hours, they’re serviced every 20.

For those unfamiliar with Tulsa Transit, that quick turnaround is a big deal. In fact, it’s a really big deal. I talked to many seasoned bus riders for this article who characterized the regular bus transit system as spotty, slow and unreliable, particularly on nights and weekends.

In order to run faster, the Aero makes fewer stops along its route. While a traditional Tulsa bus route might have as many as four stops in a single mile-long city block, the Aero averages about two.

This is a significant change, with a meaningful trade-off that I would characterize as “quicker service, if you can get to it.”

This brings us back to Peoria Avenue.

In the big Aero rollout, the city keeps citing two particular statistics about the street: One in five Tulsans work within a mile of the route, and one in seven Tulsans live within a mile of it.

Like a baby transfixed by a mirror, I recognized myself in the numbers. “So why,” I wondered, “is the city trying to get me to ride the bus to work?” There was only one way to find out.

RUBBER, MEET ROAD

I rode the Aero about a dozen times over a nine-day period, committing to the full-on work commute on three occasions. The fastest one-way commute—for which I rode my bike to the bus station—took 32 minutes. The slowest—for which I walked—took a full hour.

I live in Heller Park, about nine-tenths of a mile from the 56th Street bus station, so my refurbished Raleigh Technium 460 turns a 16-minute walk into a 4-minute ride. With the time it saves me getting off the bus and into my office, doubled by the return trip, that bike translates into about 30 minutes saved each day, minimum.

It’s critical.

After hopping on at the 56th Street stop on my first morning ride northbound, I see a familiar face. My neighbor, Jarrel

Wade, boards at 45th Place South. His wife dropped him off at the station so he could ride downtown to work at the Tulsa Regional Chamber. He says he likes having the time to check his email on the way in, even if it’s less convenient than driving himself.

On a subsequent Saturday morning ride, I notice a passenger carrying her lunch box board a few stops after me. Her name is Amanda Coleman and she’s also on her way downtown to work a day shift at Central Library. She tells me that she went to grad school in Oregon, where she often rode the bus to get around, but she only started riding Tulsa Transit because of the new Aero route.

“I don’t have to deal with the hassle of parking and driving,” Coleman said.

She too lives off of Peoria, near the route.

Another one of those one-in-seven-slashone-in-fivers.

“It’s been great so far,” Coleman said.

“The buses are nice and they’re always on time. And it’s quick. It doesn’t take me longer to get to work than if I drove, so I really appreciate that.”

YOU CAN ALWAYS GO DOWNTOWN

Coleman and I both depart at the Denver Street station, downtown’s central bus hub, around 8:15 a.m. There I hang around for a while looking for passengers to talk to. It’s overcast and cold, about 35 degrees, but the wind is down. One man waiting on the Aero looks at me skeptiDecember 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

cally when I tell him I’m working on a news story and declines to be interviewed.

Next I meet Alyssa Whisner who’s waiting for the 140 route to take her home to east Tulsa after working a late-night shift in concessions at the BOK Center.

She overnighted at a friend’s place downtown, which she often has to do because bus service gets spotty late at night.

“A lot of the time I can walk from my house down here faster than the bus comes,” Whisner said. “It’s about three or four miles.”

Whisner grew up in Tulsa but recently moved back home after spending 15 years in Denver where she rode the bus regularly. It was a reliable system. The Aero route makes sense to her, but she wishes she could enjoy that same expedience and reliability getting to work from her home near 11th and Yale.

She cites Uber as her other transportation option, though it’s a luxury. “There are people who work on Sunday and there are people who work at night,” Whisner said. I ask if she’d benefit from expanded Aero service that ran east-west and she says yes.

Later I link up with this story’s photographer, September Dawn Bottoms, and we ride north. We meet two veteran passengers, Alfred Wright and his friend Carlos Urosa. They first met riding the bus. Wright says he catches rides with friends when he can and uses Uber sparingly. Too expensive. They’re both new to the Aero route, but they like it. “The seats are comfortable,” Urosa said.

Wright works downtown at the DoubleTree and confirms that the Aero helped him get to work more quickly. Urosa points out that the fewer stops along the Aero route create accessibility issues for some passengers.

Later I meet Dorshell Fletcher, who’s riding the Aero south with her daughter and granddaughters. She rides Tulsa Transit every day to visit family and run errands. She loves the new bus, noting the faster service. “I stay mostly along Peoria so it’s perfect,” Fletcher said. She wants to see more Aero routes and buses.

END OF THE ROAD

WHEN DOES AERO BUS SERVICE START AND WHAT TIME DOES IT STOP? Weekday service starts at 5:20 a.m. and runs until 10:30 p.m. Saturday service is every 20 minutes from 5:20 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday service is every 30 minutes from 7:30 a.m. to 8:25 p.m.

HOW OFTEN DO AERO BUSES RUN? Every 15 minutes during peak hours (6 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7:40 p.m.), and every 20 minutes outside of peak hours.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RIDE AERO? It’s currently free. But after Dec. 19, it will cost $1.75 per 2-hour trip.

You can buy bus passes at QuikTrip and see all the options for payment at tulsatransit.org/fares-passes.

DOES THE NEW AERO ROUTE AFFECT SOME OF THE OLD TRANSIT ROUTES? Yes. You can read about those at tulsatransit.org.

For me, however, the Aero remains something of a curio. I like that riding is inexpensive and reduces my carbon footprint, and checking my email to and from work makes me more productive. But once I’m downtown I’m pretty much stranded there. The thought of planning work trips across town using the transit map is a dealbreaker.

But I can definitely see myself using Aero infrequently. Given Tulsa’s history with public transit, I’d say that’s a gamechanger. a

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

FEATURED // 27

ST. DOMONICK

AYILLA

BAMBI

HAKEEM ELIJUWON

28 28////FEATURED FEATURED

4 – 17, THE TULSA VOICE December 4December – 17, 2019 // 2019 THE//TULSA VOICE

STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM MEET THE ARTISTS SHAKING UP TULSA’S HIP-HOP SCENE

BY MARY NOBLE • PHOTOS BY GARY MASON TULSA RAP HAS DEVELOPED SO PROLIFICALLY OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS that boiling it down to a few highlights seems like a disservice. Over the last decade, the local hip-hop scene has transformed from artists struggling to book shows in local venues to a scene saturated with weekly performances and events across the state.

Tulsa rap pioneer and Oilhouse member, Mike Dee, recalls when artists had to scratch and claw their way to local stages. “We would have a hard time getting responses from venues,” he said. “You’d either get trapped into a payto-play situation … or maybe get lucky and play a Sunday night somewhere.”

Plenty of hard work has led local rap artists to feel more at home within the scene as they continue to break down barriers in historically white spaces such as Cain’s Ballroom. For evidence of how far Tulsa rap has come, look no further than World Culture Music Festival (WCMF), the largest hip-hop festival in the state, which will celebrate its five-year anniversary in 2020.

Meanwhile, local trailblazers continue to make waves with their music.

Veteran artist Derek Clark (aka 1st Verse) continues to release high-caliber content unmatched in lyricism and production. Verse’s latest album VSXO came with a $30 price tag, inspiring other artists to ask for album prices that better reflect the exhaustive effort and passion invested in their art.

The Tulsa hip-hop community has continued to gain regional and national attention, attracting visionaries like producer, DJ and scholar Stevie Johnson, (aka Dr. View). Johnson and his family moved to Tulsa in August after accepting a position as manager of education and diversity outreach for the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan Centers.

Johnson will be overseeing the creation of an album commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which is set to release in early 2021. While the album is still in the beginning stages, Johnson says the project—tentatively titled Fire in Little Africa—will include approximately 40 artists, primarily from Tulsa.

“I just truly believe that something is brewing in Tulsa and we have the right people to make it work,” Johnson said.

While the scene’s heavy hitters like Verse and Mike Dee are known quantities, here’s the rundown on a few of the fresh faces making waves in Tulsa rap.

THE VOICEVOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019 4 – 17, 2019 THETULSA TULSA // December

AYILLA

BAMBI

Sarah Short (aka Ayilla) has quickly made a name for herself in the Tulsa music scene.

While the 24-year-old primarily sings over her tracks, Ayilla’s hip-hop skills are interwoven throughout. Her contemplative and catchy tunes are steeped in raw creativity, with an alluring voice floating over drowsy beats created by T-Mase, the go-to producer for many Tulsa artists.

Ayilla’s music exudes a level of wisdom and spirituality more seasoned artists can only strive for. Her debut album Crazy As We Are, released last month, features popular singles like “POV” and “Ms. Mary.” Her singular point-of-view and unmistakable vocal stylings make Ayilla one of the most exciting artists working in Tulsa today.

“The concept [of] Crazy as We Are is, I’m crazy,” Short said. “People think it’s a bad thing, and I’m like ‘No! We all go crazy.’ Everybody goes through shit. Everybody deals with shit differently—and how somebody else deals with it might be considered ‘crazy’ and non-relatable. It’s just a combination of all of that.”

Rapper Shakera Simmons (aka Bambi) has been rhyming since age 10. “My friend would beatbox for me and … I would record on old tapes,” she said.

The 26-year-old has stayed busy writing songs and poetry since she bought her first composition book in high school. “[When I was] 14, I started thinking, ‘Let me write this down. Let me see what I can do with this.’ By the time I was 16 I was already on my second composition book,” Simmons said.

Nicknamed Bambi Barz by her peers, Simmons’ witty rhymes pack a shrewd punch, placing her in the upper echelon of Tulsa talent. Bambi’s latest album E.A.T. was released in February and showcases her masterful flow and storytelling abilities.

The album touches primarily on romance and loss of love, but she plans to take her next project in a different direction.

In 2018, Bambi lost both her parents in the span of seven months, a devastating experience she’s been processing through her art. “I’m coming up on a year from momma’s loss and I wanted to document the feelings, the ups and downs that I’ve had over the last year,” Simmons said. Her next project is set to release in 2020.

ST. DOMONICK When St. Domonick’s name comes up in Tulsa hip-hop circles, it’s usually in reverent tones. But last year the 24-yearold artist quit making music during an extended bout of depression. “I didn’t leave the house for like 9 months,” he said. “I missed shows … I was going through a lot, my pops passed, my uncle passed away. It was just a lot.”

In December of 2018, the clouds began to lift, and St. Domonick began creating music again. “I might still be sad, but I got shit to do. I’ve got people that depend on me,” he said. In February, he released his seven-track project Nimbus, which represented a departure in the way he approached his craft.

“I’ve toned down my vices and am just trying to get out of my own way,” he said.

In October, St. Domonick attended AC3 HipHop Musical Festival and Conference where attendees can go to workshops and panel discussions during the day, while still getting the festival experience at night.

“We gotta catch up to everyone else … for one project nowadays, you neat at least $5-10K budget if you want it to be executed the right way, otherwise you’re just doing this as a hobby,” he said.

Armed with a ferocious lyrical spirit and the life experience to back it up, it’s clear that the craft of hip-hop is more than a hobby for this rising star in the Tulsa rap game.

HAKEEM ELIJUWON Rapper Hakeem Elijuwon has been part of the hip-hop scene since 2011. Over the past decade, the 26-year-old has had his hand in a lot of local projects as well as releasing his own content. Hakeem’s subject matter often alternates between playful and sobering, touching on issues such as racism and the prison system.

Incarceration is a topic close to home for Hakeem. In January of 2019, he was arrested and faced a 10-year sentence.

Rather than serving time, Hakeem was accepted into a male prison diversion program called 1st Step.

“I’m blessed to be in it,” he said. “I’m trying to turn over a new leaf and get money in a better … way.” Since Hakeem was released in July, he has been doing the necessary work for his program, working nights and spending the rest of his free time in the gym or the studio.

“I’m just trying to get back on my toes fully. I just got a whip [and am] getting back in the studio,” he said. Hakeem’s creativity has reached new heights as he continues to put out music videos, work on two solo albums and collaborate with artists such as Verse, St. Domonick and Dr. View. a

FEATURED//// 29 29 FEATURED

retail

Get lit

Your bookworm holiday gift guide

by TTV STAFF

H

oliday shopping has officially kicked into gear.

With the winter break ahead, now’s the time to find that perfect page-turner for the discerning word nerd in your life.

Lucky for you, our fine city has no shortage of places where you can browse literary offerings, enjoy a thoughtfully made espresso drink or even catch a punk show or zine fest. Whether you’re shopping for an egghead English major, teen lit enthusiast or aging history buff, there’s a bookseller in Tulsa with the right title for your favorite bookworm.

Whitty Books (2407 E. Admiral Blvd.) is one of the city’s most eclectic and locally minded book shops in town. In little more than a year, this literary destination in the heart of the Kendall-Whittier District has become the go-to for oddball and mainstream releases alike.

“When we opened the store we knew we wanted to carry local authors and artwork,” Whitty Books co-founder Victoria Moore told us last year. Now Moore and her team have built their humble shop into a creative space whose flavor and function is fiercely homegrown. You’ll find zines, graphic novels and poetry collections from all across Oklahoma, alongside literary giants and the day’s hottest titles.

Drop in and grab a copy of Destroyer by Victor LaValle (Boom! Studios, 2018), a graphic novel exploring the story of Frankenstein’s monster through the lens of contemporary social problems surrounding police brutality. LaValle’s inventive reimag-

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

Selection from Whitty Books (2407 E. Admiral Blvd.) | COURTESY

ining of a classic horror staple will pair nicely with the handsome new edition of Alan Moore’s Hugo Award-winning Watchmen (Random House/DC Comics, 2019)—which this year was given the series treatment at HBO, including an explosive debut depicting the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Be sure to circle back early next year for a discussion of Moore’s seminal graphic novel during Whitty Books’ scifi/fantasy book club on Jan. 13.

Magic City Books (221 E. Archer St.) changed Tulsa’s literary landscape forever when it burst onto the scene in 2017.

The retail arm of the nonprofit Tulsa Literary Coalition (TLC)

umbrella—regularly hosting talks from literary giants like Salman Rushdie, Susan Orlean and Rachel Kushner—this cozy urban bookstore is now the epicenter of reading life in T-Town.

It was the vision of Jeff Martin and the late Cindy Hulsey that Magic City become a “third place” for locals looking for a space to connect with the written word. “Next to home and the workplace, the store functions as a safe haven that contains the entire world of ideas and experiences between the pages of books,” Hulsey said upon launching the store.

Now Hulsey and Martin’s vision is a reality. Whether through author talks, book club

meetings in the shop’s Algonquin Room or workshops and readings associated with the nonprofit’s Tulsa LitFest, Magic City Books is a lot more than a book shop. It’s a place where the hustle and bustle of everyday life makes way for thoughtful contemplation and the exchange of ideas.

Pick up a copy of Essays One

by Lydia Davis (FSG, 2019), for indispensable insight into the mind of one of the most masterful short story writers of our time through the author’s first collection of essays, commentaries and lectures.

If you’re looking for something with a little more everyday utility, be sure and pick up the new anniversary edition of Mark Bittman’s seminal How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) to delight your favorite foodie this holiday season.

Gardner’s Books (4421 S. Mingo Rd.) is Tulsa’s largest bookstore, home to approximately 23,000 square feet of curated books, audio books, comics, music, visual media and more.

The friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff at this T-town institution will help you find just what you’re looking for—and they buy, sell and trade nearly every form of media imaginable.

The booksellers above are sure to have that perfect gift for the holidays, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Bound for Glory Books (4264 E. 11th St.), Peace of Mind (1401 E. 15th St.) and Decopolis (502 S. Boston Ave.) are a few other can’t-miss stops during your holiday shopping adventures. Happy reading! a December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

artspot

Signal and noise Scoring Tulsa’s history of forced migration

by BLAYKLEE FREED

G

unshots, foghorns in a harbor, coins thrown against concrete—Raven Chacon hears music everywhere.

The Albuquerque-based artist, composer and performer does many things, among them writing scores to tell stories of places and the people who make them. On Dec. 6, an ensemble of local musicians will play Chacon’s American Ledger No. 2, a site-specific score he composed with Indian Country’s painful history of forced migration in mind.

For centuries, black and brown people have been shuffled from place to place by the violent hand of white supremacy. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced Cherokee, Creek and other indigenous tribes across the continent to the Great Plains. Not a century later, white Tulsans invaded the prosperous black community of Greenwood and burned it to the ground, displacing families and destroying the businesses that were their livelihood. Today, undocumented immigrants are being detained and deported from David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center, continuing the region’s dark legacy of forced removal.

Chacon had just finished American Ledger No. 1 at the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College in Ohio, when the duo behind Tulsa Artist Fellowship curatorial platform Atomic Culture approached him to do a piece specific for Tulsa.

“I started thinking about Tulsa as a place of migration, most of it forced migration,” he said. “[It’s a] microcosm of what I was working with the first piece: What brings in your industry to these places?

What was the commerce? What

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

The graphic notation of American Ledger No. 2 will be on display on the billboard at Archer Street and I-244 in downtown Tulsa. | RAVEN CHACON

was the confl ict that happened in this place?”

This was right around the time the first episode of HBO’s Watchmen aired, educating millions of viewers about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. “That was something that I had already been thinking about as well in making this piece,” Chacon said. “So that went along with the continuation of thinking about migration, forced migration, Native people being forced to move to the area to relocate. And then, the black community being there and then forced out—so [there was] a circular motion I wanted to work with.”

That circular motion is evident in the graphic version of the score. Chacon uses his own notation when composing, resulting in a visual work of art that is both aesthetic and utilitarian.

“There’s still nods to Western notation,” Chacon said. “There’s still opportunities to morph these symbols into symbols that that might interest me—especially as a Navajo artist and indigenous artist—or some iconography is

in these, you know, arrows and different kinds of symbols that can be both sonic ideas and also other kinds of ideas of movement or time.”

The graphic score for American Ledger No. 2 is currently on display at I-244 and Archer Street.

Atomic Culture, the curatorial team made up of Mateo and Malinda Galindo, chose the area for its history and because it’s the intersection of Greenwood and the emerging arts district.

The pair have known Chacon for years and have enjoyed watching the development of the artist’s idiosyncratic notation. “It really became interesting when he started to use things you could visually recognize—like American ledger No. 1 had this interesting aspect of a cityscape involved, but the outline of what would look like a cityscape,” Mateo Galindo said.

Chacon explained how using a modified notation to tell a story makes the music more accessible to people from various musical backgrounds. “Early on when I was working with notation and

experimenting, trying to understand the symbology of all of these symbols that have been developed throughout Western notation, [I found] some of them are very interesting,” Chacon said. “Some of them relate the sonic idea in their aesthetics or in their design … something like a trill, or maybe a crescendo line, just very literally saying this gets louder or this tone vibrates. And also drawing my own kinds of notations to relay to musicians who maybe weren’t versed in this notation.”

Atomic Culture and Chacon are still working out who will play in the ensemble for the Dec. 6 performance, but they plan on having people of all ages, from high schoolers to experienced improvisors. Chacon will be here Dec. 5 to teach and rehearse the score with the ensemble. The sunset performance will be at 5:30 p.m. at the site of the graphic score.

While Chacon emphasizes sound and composition in his practice, happenings like the upcoming Tulsa performance—with its roots in the pain of our shared history— are as much about social connection and possibility.

“Sometimes the music is just the excuse … to get people together for a shared experience,” Chacon said. “People [might assume] it’s a protest, or they get worried when they see a lot of people on the street with, let’s say, a drum. A bunch of trumpets even. And they’re going to assume that people are up to no good or people are angry … when that’s not always the case for gathering.

There’s a lot of reasons people gather, and I’m interested in testing that.” a ARTS & CULTURE // 31

bookworm

Stroke of genius Ralph Ellison’s life in letters

by JEZY J. GRAY

F

ew figures tower over America’s literary landscape like Ralph Waldo Ellison.

The Oklahoma City-born author lit up the world with his 1952 novel, Invisible Man, but he was also a prolific essayist and a searing cultural critic. Essay collections like Shadow and Act (1964) and Going to the Territory (1986) remain valuable insights into one of the greatest American minds to ever grapple with questions of race, art and identity in the 20th century.

He also wrote letters—thousands of them, to friends and rivals alike, over the course of six decades. Now Ellison’s literary executor, John F. Callahan, presents a monumental collection of the literary giant’s lifetime of correspondence in The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison, published Dec. 3 through Penguin Random House.

The collection represents the most complete account of Ellison’s correspondence, offering deep insight into his emotional life and professional development.

John F. Callahan is the Morgan S. Odell Professor of Humanities at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. In addition to editing the Modern Library edition of The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison (2011), he also edited Ellison’s posthumous novel Juneteenth (1999)—which he later re-worked as Three Days Before the Shooting (2010)—along with Ellison’s lone short story collection Flying Home (1996) and Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray (2001).

JEZY J. GRAY: Thanks for chatting with me, Dr. Callahan.

JOHN F. CALLAHAN: Oh, you bet!

GRAY: Can you start by telling readers about your relationship 32 // ARTS & CULTURE

Portrait of Oklahoma City-born author Ralph Ellison by Tracey Harris at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

COURTESY

to Ralph Ellison, and how you came to take on the role as literary executor of his estate?

CALLAHAN: I read Invisible Man in college, and it really stopped me in my tracks. So it was a wonderful book still in my mind when I was in graduate school in the late ‘60s, trying to write my dissertation on Scott Fitzgerald. And there was a really puzzling passage in Tender Is the Night. It seemed to me to have something to do with the Civil War. Fitzgerald was almost using the trivial events in Paris to parody the Civil War. And I had a lot of trouble figuring out what the hell he was up to. And so as a good friend of mine, who was the black poet named Michael

Harper, you might know his stuff.

Anyway, he said … you gotta read these essays of Ellison.

And curiously, the essays he gave me—God, I think they were mimeographed, Jezy. I mean, they both were pieces that had come out and not not been reprinted or anything. Very few people knew about them. One was ‘Society, Morality and the Novel,’ and the other one was ‘Tell It Like It Is, Baby.’ And I read these things and they were—they were astonishing. And I thought, ‘God, when I get done with Fitzgerald I gotta see what I see what I can do with Ellison.’

So anyway, I wrote a fairly long essay on him. And it was published by, you know, a pretty

obscure journal … and I was really delighted with the piece. So I got my Irish up, I guess, and I got Ellison’s address and I sent him a copy of it. A ‘Dear Mr. Ellison, enclosed …’ kind of thing.

About five weeks later, I got back a two-page, single-spaced letter from Ellison. He really liked the piece very much. It was called ‘The Historical Frequencies of Ralph Waldo Ellison,’ and he picked right up on historical frequencies, and it was as if we’d been in conversation for a long time. And I realized recently, of course we had [been in conversation] as writers. Because there was a wonderful quality about Ellison on the page, whether it was a letter or an essay or the fiction, that was intimate. It was as if he was writing it to the person who was reading it.

Anyway, at the end of the letter he said, ‘If you’re ever in New York and have the time, Mrs. Ellison and I would be glad to meet you.’ This letter was in late January. Around May, I managed to figure out how to get to the New York Public Library to do a little research and I told the Ellisons I would be in New York … so that’s when I met them. They invited me to come over and meet with Ralph and stay for dinner.

And we became immediate, fast friends right away.

This was in 1978. And we grew closer and closer all the time until his death in 1994. After he passed away, Mrs. Ellison asked me if I would help her try to, you know, assess the shape of the papers he left behind. And mainly she was keyed into the second novel.

Although initially, shortly after he died, Random House decided they wanted to bring out a collected essays. And I really thought that was wonderful, because a lot of the essays were not and are not in Shadow and Act and Going to the December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Territory. So, the first thing I did was the collection of essays.

GRAY: How is building a collection like Collected Essays different from what I imagine is the more intimate process of poring through his personal letters?

CALLAHAN: It’s interesting because the two tasks were very different.

But there was one damn thing that was really similar, as I think about it—your question focuses me very well—and that’s the critical matter of sequence. How do you sequence these things? On what basis do you put one after another after another?

With the essays, it was roughly chronological … [although] I didn’t necessarily start there, doing it that way. But the more I read Ellison’s work as being in conversation with itself, the more I thought, ‘Hey, these things are telling a story.’ And the story is, to some extent, chronological.

And the conventional way that I think letters or letter collections are organized, even some of the very best ones, are by correspondence—you know, all the letters that he wrote to you, Jezy, in one place; and the letters you wrote to me in another place. Letters he wrote to his wife all together, letters he wrote to Al Murray all together, and I decided that just wasn’t right.

I had become fairly familiar— not really, truly and intimately familiar yet with the letters—but I had a sense of the letters and the great sweep of them. I mean, the first letter was written in March of 1933 … It was written from Boley, an all-black town in Oklahoma.

There was the Boley School for Boys, which was a fancy word for reform school. There was some kind of job, supposedly, in terms of teaching music to the boys. He goes there for an interview and he stays overnight and he writes a letter to his mother. And that’s the first letter in the collection.

That’s the beginning … and the last letter is written in 1992, to Willie Morris. So here we have this story, the marvelous sweep of so many things: Ellison’s own life, his travels and his life in Oklahoma, in New York, trips to Europe—especially Rome—and so on. It’s clearly a story of AmerTHE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

ica for over 60 years, basically the 20th century. And that just seemed to me the way, so I never looked back on that.

GRAY: Oklahoma loomed large in Ellison’s life. Can you talk about what “the territory” meant to him, and how this part of the world colored his experience?

CALLAHAN: Oh yeah. I remember the first day I met him. That evening, we sat around—Fanny and Ralph and I—and we each talked about where we’d grown up and what life was like. And he loved to tell stories about Oklahoma and his life there. And he loved to tell the story of Oklahoma. I mean, I had no idea what ‘Sooner’ meant … these bastards [who] hustled in too soon, to get the best land. All kinds of stuff like that, [which] he knew and loved about Oklahoma.

One of the things that was very important to Ralph, and he talked about it the fi rst night I met him, was how diverse and eclectic … his range of acquaintances [was] in Oklahoma. He knew red people and black people and white people and some Asian people. I mean, it was just a part of his world.

Obviously the main confl ict was still, you know, white and black, although Ellison always was very much fascinated by and part of the various Indian tribes in Oklahoma. That was something he felt was part of his heritage.

Oklahoma itself is a wild and roistering place. I mean: the Deep Deuce [neighborhood] … was very rich, the black community— through Ellison’s eyes, anyway— when he was growing up. It was a very warm and nurturing place. I mean, not completely. No place is.

GRAY: You say Oklahoma was a “frontier dream world” for him.

CALLAHAN: Yeah. I think it’s a place where a lot of people dreamed their dreams. Ralph Ellison was certainly one of them. a

THE SELECTED LETTERS OF RALPH ELLISON Edited by John F. Callahan and Marc C. Conner Random House, 1004 pp, $50

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ARTS & CULTURE // 33

poetry

‘EVERY HOME I MAKE’ poetry by ROWAN WALLER illustrations by ELISEO CASIANO and JUSTIN TYLER BRYANT

SE NDING HOME SOUVE NIRS there’s a mountain named for you nestled in the Arkansas river valley only 10 miles past the origins of the great river where it breaks from some underground secret place of dark waters you lay in the shadow of the tallest peak in the nation still I know you by name Oklahoma how is it that in every home I make for myself you still find some way to follow? thousands of miles from my first home you’re there melting into the same river I swam in as a child if I sent rafts of twigs through your veins maybe they would make it to you pulled forth on sails made from scraps of paper I ripped from my notes I wonder if the children on Florence would marvel at their mysterious appearance

34 // ARTS & CULTURE

JUSTIN TYLER BRYANT

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

ARCHAEOLOGY OF R ACE just last month they decided to look for the bodies buried in unmarked mass graves as if the families hadn’t cried for justice before now for the hundreds lost a century ago the moment our country first turned its back and dropped bombs on its citizens we embarked on a morbid treasure hunt not to find the Spanish gold buried at the edge of the Arkansas but to scour the greying grasses in corners of cemeteries and school yards for bones hidden away by local dogs and businessmen on the north side of the city the sidewalk steps lead up from the street into nothing the houses burned to their foundations long ago still the land remains: she knows all bones are the same color after the skin burns off

JUSTIN TYLER BRYANT

PET ROCK maybe I picked it up from the back yard or one of my grandparents might have given it to me after visiting the rose rock farms in the country but one day it was there the small bundle of minerals went everywhere with me receiving small plates of dinner and bedsheets made of soft tissue paper the crystalline skin of the barite rose glittered faintly under my nightlight a rose-red lump of soil still with some secret, powerful life at work inside I almost saw it growing forming folding like a newborn in rolls of raw skin or feathery plumes of dirt the faint shine glowed even brighter when I washed it gently dabbing the pencil-smudged face on the front without realizing I would cause the plumbing clogs of pebbles Mom found weeks later after all our silty bath times in the sink a

ELISEO CASIANO

The Tulsa Voice partners with Nimrod International Journal to publish poetry and flash fiction from Tulsa-area or Tulsa-connected writers.

Submit your work for consideration using Nimrod’s online submission form at nimrodjournal.submittable.com/submit.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

architecture

Architect Bruce Goff designed Boston Avenue Methodist Church at 22 years old, sharing design credit with his former high school art teacher Adah Robinson. | VALERIE WEI-HAAS

Leave a mark How Bruce Goff modernized Tulsa

by MASON WHITEHORN POWELL

I

n her debut feature documentary GOFF, Oklahoma fi lmmaker Britni Harris sets out across the country to answer a vital question about the work of architect Bruce Goff: How does a city “live with the past and present in one continuous stream”?

The answer to the architect’s animating question can be found right here in Tulsa, where Goff represents the connective tissue between the city’s early and modern periods. The crown jewel of Green Country, Tulsa became a sort of playground for the artist in the early 20th century, where the dramatic sweep of history and modernity lives in some of the architect’s most iconic buildings.

Goff’s family moved around Indian Territory during the turnof-the-century, his father often unable to provide food for the family. In the pre-oil boom days of Tulsa, Henrietta, Hominy and Skiatook, Goff’s only exposure to architecture was the crude prairie structures erected in haste by white settlers and the more permanent but still recent dwellings of relocated Indians.

But as he grew older, Goff helped carve out another side to 36 // ARTS & CULTURE

the same coin. The influx of oil money and a growing Tulsa population meant new structures were needed, and not simple things, but buildings that could put the city’s new money on display.

Goff began an apprenticeship at the architectural firm Rush, Endacott and Rush at the age of 12 in 1916, where he would make partner by 1929. Between these two points Goff designed his first house at 13 and would see his last Tulsa home built in 1930. Some of these have been destroyed to make way for luxury homes, others have seen major alterations, but many still stand in Goff’s unassuming residential Deco style.

The first major work that would shape his career and his most well-known achievement is Boston Avenue Methodist Church. At 22 years old, sharing design credit with his former high school art teacher Adah Robinson, Goff’s virtuosic vision was expressed in what the National Register of Historic Places calls “the most current stylistic thinking of that time period of American architecture [with] few peers among its contemporaries.” The church rises south of downtown,

as if setting itself apart from other Deco structures in a holy manner.

Goff then designed the Tulsa Club building one year later in 1927. Another downtown structure, this was a decadent boys club up top and housed the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce on the fi rst five floors. Abandoned in 1994, the Tulsa Club fell into major disrepair. This might represent the tension between Tulsa’s rising history of wealth, fall, and an ongoing revival. Rather than bulldoze it for a parking lot, the Hilton Curio Collection took control of the property and converted it into an opulent 96-room hotel that opened its doors earlier this year.

One can worship in a Goff, stay the night in a Goff, or see The Drunkard and the Olio at the Tulsa Spotlight Theater on Riverside, designed by Goff in 1929— but fi lling in the gaps requires some internet sleuthing, prowling midtown neighborhoods for other commercial and residential works, or venturing beyond the borders of Tulsa County.

To help fi ll these gaps, GOFF fi lmmaker Harris spoke with homeowners and those who

knew the architect on a road trip through his most productive regions. Setting off with a six-person crew from Kansas City to California, Harris and her team of Oklahoma fi lmmakers followed the architect’s footprint to answer his eternal question of fluidity in time and space.

“Honestly, that road trip gave me my voice as a filmmaker,” Harris told The Tulsa Voice upon returning in 2015. “Before that, I was very nervous to power through the story and really take a hold of it. But once we took the road trip, it was on my shoulders to keep us going and keep driving.”

The fi lm made its premier in October at the Architecture & Design Film Festival in New York City, but its Tulsa premier is still forthcoming.

While Goff left a lasting mark on the city of Tulsa, he never designed another structure here after leaving town in 1930. It’s as if, responsible for Art Deco’s apex, Goff had left his mark and decided to move on. He saw Tulsa in its squalor and its riches. The skyline is better for it, and so are we, walking among the remnants of his dreams. a December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

Tulsa Spotlight Theater | COURTESY

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

Boston Avenue Methodist Church | VALERIE WEI-HAAS

BROWN BAG IT: TULSA FESTIVAL RINGERS

Tulsa PAC Trust December 4

CHRISTMAS WITH THE PETERSENS

The Petersens December 7

THE NUTCRACKER

Tulsa Ballet December 7-22

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

American Theatre Company December 12-23 MISS SAIGON

Celebrity Attractions December 31 - January 5 THE MUSIC MAN

Theatre Tulsa January 10-26

TULSAPAC.COM

/

918.596.7111 ALL EVENTS/DATES SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

GNOME IN THE BLUE DOME SCAVENGER HUNT Blue Dome District, Dec. 4–24 bluedomedistrict.com The Blue Dome District’s favorite elf, Miss Bouncing DancyPants, has snuck out and they need the communities help to find her! Grab a Blue Dome “Gnome-In-The-Dome” Passport from Dec 1–24 to find Miss Bouncing DancyPants in a different hiding spot throughout the Blue Dome District. Each time you find her, you will receive a stamp in your passport. The person with the most stamps on Dec. 24 will win a special prize, so be sure to collect as many stamps as you can throughout the month!

MUSIC

MUSIC

Barkingham Palace presents their Holiday Show with performances by The Big News, Bigger the Mountains, Humminbird, and Grass Giant. The venue will take a six week break after this show, so you won’t want to miss it! Dec. 14, 9 p.m. facebook.com

Raven Chacon will present American Ledger No.2, a site-specific score for the city of Tulsa and surrounding areas at the TAF Archer Studios. Read more on pg. 31. Dec. 6, 5:30 p.m. facebook.com

CHEERY LUNCH

BOOK LAUNCH

Brown Bag It: Tulsa Festival Ringers is a free performance by Tulsa’s only auditioned community handbell ensemble at the Tulsa PAC’s John H. Williams Theatre. Dec. 4, 11:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. tulsapac.com

Our very own Barry Friedman will launch his book “Four Days and a Year Later” at Magic City Books on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. The book tackles Friedman’s struggles after he faced every parent’s worst nightmare: finding your child dead. magiccitybooks.com

MUSIC

MUSIC AND MORE

Tulsa Noise brings legendary noise act Wolf Eyes to TAF Cameron Studios on Dec. 6 at 8 p.m. along with Raven Chacon, Gospel, Spirit Plate, Beach Master, and Nathan Pape. Read an interview with Wolf Eyes’ front man on pg. 40. facebook.com

Lessons in Fresh presented by Clean Hands showcases hip-hop and art in Tulsa with Ali Shaw, ECOG, The Vampire Youth, and Zork. With rap and live painting, this event is a can’t miss! Fassler Hall, Dec. 6, 10 p.m. facebook.com

INSPIRATION

CRAFTING

Real Talk Women in Leadership: Deconstructed Glass is the latest talk from the Woody Guthrie Center’s Real Talk series. Read more about the event on pg. 10. Dec. 14, 2 p.m. woodyguthriecenter.org

The craft competition T.V. show Making It will be screened at ahha Dec. 6–7 and 13–14 at 5 p.m. so crafters can watch the show and make their own creations along with the competitors. Light refreshments will be provided. ahhatulsa.org

38 // ARTS & CULTURE

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

1-Year Anniversary Party // 12/7, 6 p.m.,

NEFF Brewing Succulent Centerpiece Workshop // 12/7-

12/15, 2 p.m., Philbrook Happy Hour Holiday Market // Get your

Christmas shopping done and get tipsy!, 12/7, 4 p.m., Whittier Bar Holiday Bath Bomb Workshop // 12/8,

Creativity Scifi/Fantasy Book Club: The Left Hand Of Darkness // 12/9, 7:30 p.m., Whitty Books Building Tulsa book signing and panel discussion // Come hear from local experts

about Tulsa’s most prominent buildings and pick up a signed copy of the new book “Building Tulsa.”, 12/10, 7 p.m., Magic City Books Suds and Streams with Jim Burroughs // Learn about Oklahoma’s waterways and aquatic diversity. 12/11, 7 p.m., Heirloom Rustic Ales Work In Process: Artist Series Prints from Flash Flood // 12/12, 6 p.m., TAF Lewis

Project Space Holiday Clay Class // Create tiny holiday

figurines with Tiny Things by Bowen., 12/12, 4:30 p.m., Whitty Books White Christmas Sing-Along // 12/13-

12/14, 7:30 p.m., Circle Cinema The Starlite Game Show // All of your

favorite game show games but with lackluster prizes., 12/13, 9 p.m., Starlite Santa’s Brew-Hop in The Pearl //

Participating breweries: Pearl Beach, Cabin Boys, American Solera, Nothing’s Left., 12/13, 7 p.m., The Pearl District Holiday Market // 12/14, noon, Cabin Boys

Brewery

EVENTS Game of Thrones Trivia // 12/4, 7 p.m.,

NEFF Brewing Opening Doors: An Undergraduate Creative Writing Showcase // TAF writers

have been working with TU undergrad students throughout the fall semester, come enjoy the fruits of their efforts., 12/5, 7 p.m., Oklahoma Center for the Humanities An Evening with Allison Moorer // 12/5,

7 p.m., Woody Guthrie Center BOTANICA: Patrick (p.s.) Gordon and Steve Liggett, a Collaboration // Enjoy the

new exhibit., 12/5-12/21, 5:30 p.m., Liggett Studio State of Craft Curator Talk with Dr. Kirsten Olds // Learn about the new exhibit.,

12/6, 5 p.m., 108 Contemporary Holiday Maker Market // Get you holiday

shopping done and support local artists!, 12/6, 6 p.m., Mother Road Market TAF First Friday Art Sale // 12/6, 6 p.m.,

TAF Archer Studios THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

Stop by the colorful trailers to answer one question for the national arts research program, “How does collaboration expand the creative process?”, 12/6-12/7, 5 p.m., Ahha

Lucy Furr: Tits the Season // Naughty and

Nice alike are invited to this naughty burlesque show., 12/14, 8 p.m., Fur Shop Special Edition: MUSED. Poetry Night //

12/7, 10 a.m., Gilcrease

Following Poetry Karaoke, a conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gregory Pardlo and Rowan Ricardo Phillips., 12/14, 7 p.m., Magic City Books

Philbrook Festival Night // Train rides, lego

Gingerbread House Competition // 12/14,

Oklahoma and the Great Depression //

villages, garden games, live music, shopping, lights and more!, 12/6-12/31, 6 p.m., Philbrook Public Performance of American Ledger No.2 conducted by Raven Chacon //

American Ledger No.2 is a site-specific score for the city of Tulsa Oklahoma and surrounding areas., 12/6, 5:30 p.m., TAF Archer Studios Ahha Holiday Party // Come enjoy

holiday art activities, shopping, celebrity pig appearances and more!, 12/7, noon, Ahha All Black Out // A night filled with comedy

and poetry., 12/7, 6 p.m., Juicemaker Lounge Tulsa Master Gardeners Workshop: Spring Garden Preparation // 12/7, 10:30

p.m., Mother Road Market

12/4, 11:30 p.m., Tulsa PAC - Westby Pavilion Miracle in Bedford Falls // 12/6-12/15,

6 p.m., Broken Arrow Community Playhouse drag show., 12/6, 10:30 p.m., The ReVue

Frank Lloyd Wright and The Tulsa Race Massacre // 12/9, 7 p.m., TCC Center for

Culture Hustlers Mobile Incubator //

Brown Bag It: Tulsa Festival Ringers //

3rd Annual Pinball Wizard Tournament

1 p.m., Mother Road Market

Get your holiday shopping done, support local businesses, enjoy some beers, live music, food and more at Cabin Boys Holiday Market from 12–6 p.m. Expect to see local businesses like Foxy Pots, Soaplahoma, Slack Glass, Emily Webb Design, Mr. B’s Bow Ties, Red Dirt Pie Designs / Mollycoddled Hash Slinger, Tiny Things by Bowen, Daymaker & Co., Yju The Healing Space, Mythic, Mudd Pony, The Makerage, BeerIsOK and more! After you’re done shopping enjoy food from 1907 Barbecue and live music from the David Horne Trio from 6–8 p.m.

7 p.m., All Souls Unitarian Church

Backroads and Barbies // A country themed

Kid’s Holiday Chocolate Class // 12/8,

Cabin Boys Brewery, Dec. 14, noon cabinboysbrewery.com

Yale University Whiffenpoofs // 12/4,

6 p.m., Fassler Hall // 12/8, 4 p.m., Max Retro Pub

HOLIDAY MARKET

PERFORMING ARTS

2 p.m., Mother Road Market Sip, Pour, & Roll Ugly Christmas Sweater Edition // One ticket includes: a candle making

class, cigar rolling class, a 1907 Barbecue dinner and one beer. 12/15, 6 p.m., Cabin Boys Brewery

ReVue Girls Drag Show // Join Sara De La Hoya, Londenn D Raine, Gabrielle DeShane and special guest Anjelika Rose for an amazing night of drag., 12/7, 10:30 p.m., The ReVue The Nutcracker // This classic production

will soon be retired, so make sure you see it this season., 12/7-12/22, 7 p.m., Tulsa PAC Chapman Music Hall Christmas with the Petersens // 12/7,

7:30 p.m., Tulsa PAC - Liddy Doenges Theatre Criss Angel // 12/8, 7 p.m., Skyline Event

Center A Christmas Carol // 12/12-12/23, 7:30 p.m., Tulsa PAC - John H. Williams Theatre ReVue Boys // 12/13, 10:30 p.m., The ReVue Pops - Christmas in Tulsa // Holiday

favorites performed by the Signature Chorale and the 2019 winner of the Tulsa Sings! competition., 12/13-12/14, 7:30 p.m., Van Trease PACE Burlesque Showcase: The Naughty List

// Enjoy Tulsa’s Bad Girls Burlesque Moonlight Minx Parade., 12/14, 10:30 p.m., The ReVue

COMEDY Jason Russell // 12/4-12/7, 7 p.m., Loony Bin Insult Attack // 12/5, 8 p.m., Renaissance

Brewing Company Talk Show Incorporated // 12/5, 8 p.m.,

Starlite 1st Friday’s Comedy Show hosted by Hynni B with Mr Larry Tibbs, DJ BJ, Comeduan CC, Jonathan Nickson // 12/6,

9 p.m., Juicemaker Lounge Lady Imporv // 12/6, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole

Improv Tulsa Night Live // 12/7, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole

Improv Mike Speenberg // 12/11-12/14, 7 p.m.,

Loony Bin Ok, So Story Slam - Theme: Kid // 12/12,

8 p.m., IDL Ballroom Improv Comedy with Blue Dome Social Club // 12/12, 8 p.m., Mainline Talk Show Incorporated // 12/12, 8 p.m.,

Starlite

The Wrong Girl - Donis Casey introduces her new series // 12/15, 2 p.m., Magic City

The Elve’s Rebellion // 12/13, 8 p.m., Rabbit

Books

Busted! // 12/14, 8 p.m., Rabbit Hole Improv

True Crime Book Club: Unbelievable //

Come discuss this book by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong., 12/16, 7:30 p.m., Whitty Books Bath Bomb Workshop with Soaplahoma

// Ticket price includes six bath bombs and a beer!, 12/17, 5:30 p.m., Heirloom Rustic Ales

Hole Improv

SPORTS Tulsa Oilers vs Fort Wayne // 12/6, 7:05

p.m., BOK Center Tulsa Oilers vs Wichita // 12/13-12/15,

7:05 p.m., BOK Center ARTS & CULTURE // 39

musicnotes

Wolf Eyes will perform on Dec. 6 in Tulsa at Cameron Studios. | ALIVIA ZIVICH

End of the loud wars

Talking noise with sound artist and meme king Johnny Olson of Wolf Eyes

by CHRISTOPHER PIERCY

W

olf Eyes have spent more than two decades exploding minds worldwide through an ever-evolving exploration of sound. The experimental group from Detroit began as the solo enterprise of Nate Young in 1996, but their ranks have expanded and contracted over time to include the mind-flaying contributions of sometime members and fellow noise vets Aaron Dilloway, James Baljo and Mike Connelly.

Johnny Olson, who joined the band in 2000, has become a cult celebrity within the oft-perplexing, circular in-joke world of Instagram meme culture, through his popular inzane_johnny account.

This is yet another chapter in the strange, exciting history of an underground noise band who had a brief fling with legendary indie label Sub Pop during the “noise wave” of the mid-2000s.

Olson and Young, the current iteration of Wolf Eyes, will be 40 // MUSIC

performing on Dec. 6 in Tulsa at Cameron Studios. The show is presented by Tulsa Noise, a project by Oklahoma native Nathan Young (no relation), a Tulsa Artist Fellow and 2019 Arts Integration grantee. I talked to Olson in anticipation of the upcoming show.

CHRISTOPHER PIERCY: The output of Wolf Eyes is so sonically diverse. It’s not just loudness for loudness’ sake. I know you’re a fan of jazz. How does that inform what you do?

OLSON: Well, you can have a sound, but you have to have a certain amount of body and depth to it. It’s like drawing something.

There has to be, you know, shape and form to it and stuff like that.

It’s always been very much in-tune with classical electronics … That stuff is all about range and sub-

tleties. I mean, you know, it’s fun to be a rock ‘n’ roll band, but it’s more fun to be an abstract, mysterious, dynamic, creeper band. You know? [Laughs.]

You know, the ‘loud war’ is—there’s always going to be someone louder. And to be loud just for loud’s sake is, you know, it’s kind of a losing battle. So, it’s always good to have a range, have something you can play at zero and something you can play at 10, you know?

PIERCY: I know collaboration has been really important for you guys. You’ve worked with everyone from Sonic Youth to Anthony Braxton. What’s your collaborative process like?

OLSON: For Braxton, Nate just asked him in a bar in Victoriaville the night before. We met him in Sweden. We just asked him and he rolled up—and that, you know, it turned out really good.

We’ve been trying to do it since, but it’s kind of hard to pinpoint him down. But a lot of it is just friends within the community, or just reaching out to other people with a certain amount of vibe or something that would be interesting. It keeps the playing fresh and it’s good for meeting people and moving forward and expanding the sound. It’s a fun, inspiring thing to do.

PIERCY: I know a subset of harsh noise took the macho energy of early groups like Whitehouse …

OLSON: [Laughs.] Yeah.

PIERCY: … and pushed things heavily in that direction. I know you have talked about how you got kind of fed up with that, I think in Wire. But it feels like abstract music and experimental music has kind of moved away from that a bit and become more inclusive. Do you have any December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

thoughts on this, or is this just my perception of how things have gone?

OLSON: It’s the whole idea of ‘noise is power’ and all that stuff. It’s personally not too enticing for me, and the certain amount of campiness involved is not such a wellspring of aesthetics, you know? You talk about purity and all this stuff and it just doesn’t really work. When you talk about ‘pure this’ and ‘pure that’ it doesn’t really come up with a lot of progressive things. People are drawn to that, and I guess in some instances it has its place. But for me, I’ve seen so many people come and go that [it] just is not one of the things that has stuck with me … rotting bodies and fascism and stuff like that. I got a daughter and a family, you know?

It’s just not where I’m at.

people to gigs. If it turns somebody on to a new way of thinking, or it turns them on to a new band, or it opens their mind to something that they’re not used to—then by all means, it has succeeded. You know?

But it’s difficult, abstract, electronic music. Not everybody’s going to come to that and be warm to it, and thus the grinding against the normies is a nice

fulcrum to use for counterculture.

It’s always good to, not necessarily convince someone who doesn’t want to hear it, but to have the challenge of being against someone who’s almost forced to look at it. It’s why those early gigs with Sonic Youth were so good. I think you play better when you’re not playing, and when you’re forced to play into people that don’t necessarily want to hear it. I think

it’s good for aesthetics. And as a musician it’s a great challenge. It makes you more yourself. Which is the point. a

TULSA NOISE PRESENTS: WOLF EYES W/ RAVEN CHACON, GOSPEL, SPIRIT PLATE, ETC. Cameron Studios, 303 N. Main St. Dec. 6–8 p.m., Free

PIERCY: Do you mind if I ask you about your Inzane Johnny Instagram profi le?

OLSON: [Laughs.]

PIERCY: Are you sick of that question?

OLSON: No. I mean, it’s just a tool. It’s just a fun thing. When I started doing music and stuff in the ‘80s, you had to make a flyer and promote to get people to the gig, you know? I’m an artist and a painter. It’s just images, you know, and it’s just fun … by no means is it a looming thing that controls anything. I use it a couple hours a day at the most.

[Instagram] is not even installed on my phone right now.

I just check what people send me in my inbox and I post what’s funny, and I just move on, you know? But it’s under the guise of flyering from the ‘80s and stuff like that. It’s the same kind of mentality … with a kind of a Sunday comics kind of vibe. I guess it’s political satire, whatever, satire of the ridiculous world of being an underground musician.

PIERCY: Do you think it’s altered the Wolf Eyes audience at all, or brought anybody in who might not have been exposed to your music?

OLSON: I can’t really tell because, just in general, it’s difficult to get THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

MUSIC // 41

musiclistings Wed // Dec 4 Cellar Dweller – Wink Burchman – 8:30 p.m.

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

Duet Jazz – Modd Oddities – 8 p.m. – ($3) Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson – 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesday ft Johnny Mullenax, David Horn – 7 p.m.

Paradise Cove – Locash – 8 p.m.

Soundpony – Slackwave, Aluna Crypt, Joe Myside, Celebrity Sex Tape, Dark Matter – 10 p.m.

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

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

Track 5. – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Brujo Roots, Alex Alco – 9 p.m.

Thurs // Dec 5 Amp Bar – DJ Ayngel – 7 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Edwin Canito Garcia Quartet – 8 p.m. – ($10) Mass Movement Community Arts – Birth Order, End Timers, Daniels, imgonnadie, Tom Boil – 7 p.m. – ($7) Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman – 10 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Radkey – 9 p.m.

Riffs – Travis Kidd – 4 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Kelevra – 5 p.m.

Riffs – Downtime – 8 p.m.

Soundpony – Bodeen – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – Michele Warren – 5 p.m.

The Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Maverican Goose – 7 p.m.

The Joint – Travis Tritt – 8 p.m.

Thunder Bar & Grill – Rose Leach – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Track 5. – Tyler Reese Tritt – 10 p.m.

Venue Shrine – Cryptic Wisdom – 7 p.m. – ($10) Vintage Wine Bar – Grammy Nominated ft.

Mason Remel & Malachi Burgess – 8 p.m.

Fri // Dec 6 473 – DJ Afistaface – 9 p.m.

American Legion Post 308 – Round Up Boys – 7 p.m.

Amp Bar – DJ Keri – 7 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – Hoodstock – 9 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – The Kayfabe’s Toy Drive with Fiawna Forte, Chloe Johns, Jankins – 9 p.m.

Cabin Boys Brewery – Dane Arnold Duo – 7 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Hayes Carll, Jacob Tovar – 8 p.m. – ($23 - $35) Crystal Skull – Glam R Us – 9 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Dean DeMerritt’s Jazz Tribe – 8 p.m. – ($10) Fassler Hall – *Lessons in Fresh – 10 p.m.

IDL Ballroom – G-Rex, Zeke Beats – 9 p.m. – ($18) Juicemaker Lounge – DJ BIGGRICH – 10 p.m.

Margaritaville – Ayngel & John – 10 p.m.

Max Retro Pub – DJ Jeffee Fresh – 7 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Cara Louise – 8 p.m.

Paradise Cove – Chase Rice – 8 p.m.

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

Riffs – Blake Turner – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ 2 Legit – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Accidental Moguls – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – Eclectic Sounds with DJ $ir Mike – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – Andrew Harmon – 7 p.m.

TAF Cameron Studios – *Wolf Eyes, Raven Chacon, Gospel, Spirit Plate, Beach Master, Nathan Pape – 8 p.m.

The Colony – Vinyl Happy Hour – 4 p.m.

42 // MUSIC

The Colony – And Then There Were Two, The Whispering Willows, Cassie Latshaw – 10 p.m.

– ($5) The Hunt Club – Deacon – 7 p.m.

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

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Rose Leach Band – 8 p.m.

Vanguard – Wax, Ubi, Lance Skiiwalker, Cix Fiv, Ashfree, S. Reidy, Joey Cool – 8 p.m. – ($20 - $50) Venue Shrine – Wayne “The Train” Hancock – 8 p.m.

– ($10 - $15)

Starlite – Karaoke – 9 p.m.

Swamp House – The Marriotts – 5:30 p.m.

The Chalkboard – Mark Burner – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Chris Lee Becker – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Chris Combs Trio and Special Guests – 9 p.m.

Venue Shrine – Small Town Titans with All About a Buble – 7 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Bodeen – 8 p.m.

Sat // Dec 7

Cellar Dweller – *Wink Burchman – 8:30 p.m.

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

Duet Jazz – They Might Be Humans – 8 p.m. – ($5) Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson – 9 p.m.

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

Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

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

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

Amp Bar – DJ Queen Jesseen – 7 p.m.

Blackbird on Pearl – Mzclave – 8 p.m. – ($10) BOK Center – Cody Johnson, Joe Diffie, The Steel Woods, Jesse Raub Jr. – 6 p.m. – ($35) Cain’s Ballroom – The Wood Brothers, Katie Pruitt – 8 p.m. – ($25 - $28) Duet Jazz – Chris Combsy and Friends – 8 p.m. – ($12) Fur Shop – Chucky Waggs & Co. – 9 p.m.

Juicemaker Lounge – DJ Wallie Mayne – 11 p.m. – ($10) Margaritaville – Chris Hyde Trio – 10 p.m.

Marshall Brewing – Zack Baker – 6 p.m.

Mass Movement Community Arts – And I’m Sorry Album Release Show with The Others Like Us, Anchorway, The Noise Estate, Mastaba – 7:30 p.m.

– ($7) Max Retro Pub – Ali Shaw – 7 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – The South Austin Moonlighters – 10 p.m.

Riffs – Kalo – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Mib – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Stars – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – Soul Night – 10 p.m.

Starlite – Dead Disco Dance Party with DJ Robbo, DJ Xylo Sesame – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – Electric Rag Band – 7 p.m.

The Colony – Papa Foster’s Holiday Band with Scam Likely – 10 p.m. – ($5) The Hunt Club – RPM – 7 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – Ugly Christmas Sweater Party with DJ Skibbles – 10 p.m.

Thunder Bar & Grill – Jesse Joice – 8 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Drew Fish – 8 p.m.

Vanguard – *Rainbows Are Free Record Release Show with Bummer, Grass Giant – 8 p.m. – ($10) Venue Shrine – Victor Waineright – 6 p.m. – ($10 - $15)

Sun // Dec 8 Mercury Lounge – *Jeremy Pinnell, Isaac Hoskins – 9 p.m.

The Chalckboard – Steve Liddell – 11 a.m.

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

The Hunt Club – Preslar Monthly Music Showcase – 7 p.m.

Mon // Dec 9 IDL Ballroom – *Vampires – 7 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins – 9 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster – 7 p.m.

Soundpony – Karaoke Monday – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Jared Tyler Presents: Saugeye – 9 p.m.

Tues // Dec 10 Brady Theater – Il Divo: A Holiday Song Celebration – 8 p.m. – ($47) Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic – 7 p.m.

Marshall Brewing – TuesJay Night: Jeff Marinson, Andrea Kyle – 6 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Jacob Tovar – 9 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – *Rotten Stitches, Gutter Villain, Shoog Night, A New Life – 7 p.m.

Wed // Dec 11

Thurs // Dec 12 Amp Bar – DJ Whit – 7 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Matisyahu, Bedouin Soundclash – 8 p.m. – ($25 - $40) Duet Jazz – Snobug – 8 p.m. – ($10) Fur Shop – Eddie Pepitone – 9 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman – 10 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Mib – 5 p.m.

Riffs – Barrett Lewis – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – Hypnotik – 7 p.m.

Soundpony – Brujoroots – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – *Cory Lee – 5 p.m.

The Colony – Seth Lee Jones – 9 p.m.

Thunder Bar & Grill – Maverican Goose – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Track 5. – George Ducas – 8 p.m.

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

Fri // Dec 13 American Legion Post 308 – Joe Harris – 7 p.m.

Amp Bar – DJ Queen Jesseen – 7 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – *Light the Skies Electric CD Release – 8 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – Mudd Flux CD Release Party – 9 p.m.

Cabin Boys Brewery – Velvet Music – 7 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Jerry Thomas Group ft. Ronald Bruner Jr. – 8 p.m. – ($10) Juicemaker Lounge – Majeste Pearson – 9 p.m.

Margaritaville – Jesse Alan – 10 p.m.

Mass Movement Community Arts – *Tennis Club, Graveyard Party, Ramona and the Phantoms – 7 p.m. – ($5) Max Retro Pub – DJ Kylie – 7 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – The Fighting Side, Vagittarius – 10 p.m.

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

Riffs – Taria Lee and Friends – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ 2 Legit – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Another Alibi – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – DJ Burak – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – The Marriotts – 7 p.m.

The Colony – Vinyl Happy Hour – 4 p.m.

The Colony – Carter Sampson – 10 p.m. – ($5) The Hunt Club – Straight Shot – 7 p.m.

The Joint – Gary Allan – 8 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – DJ Oreo – 10 p.m.

Thunder Bar & Grill – Dueling Pianos – 8 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Asphalt Cowboys – 8 p.m.

Vanguard – *Nightmare Before Christmas with Hoarseman and the Heard – 8 p.m. – ($10) Venue Shrine – Arkansauce – 8 p.m. – ($8 - $10) Whittier Bar – Something of the Somethings, Acid Queen – 9 p.m.

Sat // Dec 14 473 – *Vacation from the Holidays with Casii Stephan – 8 p.m.

Amp Bar – DJ Keri – 7 p.m.

Bad Ass Renee’s – Creatures of the Earth, The Salesman, Serafem & Arya – 9 p.m.

Barkingham Palace – *Barkingham Annual Holiday Show: The Big News, Shoog Night, Bigger the Mountains, Humminbird – 9 p.m.

Cain’s Ballroom – Josh Abbott Band, Carlton Anderson – 8:30 p.m. – ($20 - $35) Coffee House on Cherry Street – Tyler Parry – 7 p.m.

Duet Jazz – Eldredge Jackson Holiday Special – 8:30 p.m. – ($20) Juicemaker Lounge – De-Wisper, DJ Mike Mike & Gibson Owilli – 8 p.m.

Margaritaville – Brent Giddens Duo – 10 p.m.

Max Retro Pub – DJ Ab – 7 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – JP Harris and the Tough Choices – 10 p.m.

Riffs – Andrew Harmon – 5:30 p.m.

Riffs – DJ Kelevra – 6:30 p.m.

Riffs – Push The Limit – 9 p.m.

Soundpony – Pony Disco Club – 10 p.m.

Starlite – *Dead Disco Dance Party with DJ Robbo, DJ Xylo Sesame – 10 p.m.

Swamp House – Robert Strummer – 7 p.m.

The Hunt Club – Doc Fell – 7 p.m.

The Tulsan Bar – Alan Doyle – 10 p.m.

Thunder Bar & Grill – Jake & Jacob – 8 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – Aaron Copeland – 9 p.m.

Venue Shrine – Death Angel Invades Tulsa – 6 p.m. – ($17 - $20)

Sun // Dec 15 Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark – 4 p.m.

Mercury Lounge – Les Gruff Makin’ Friends – 8 p.m.

Soundpony – *Happy Hour with Jam Econo – 6 p.m.

The Chalkboard – Steve Liddell – 11 a.m.

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

The Joint – Diamond Rio – 6 p.m.

Track 5. – DJ Demko – 5 p.m.

Vanguard – Christmas with Brother Rabbit & We Make Shapes – 8 p.m. – ($10)

Mon // Dec 16 Mercury Lounge – *Chris Blevins – 9 p.m.

Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster – 7 p.m.

Soundpony – Karaoke Monday – 10 p.m.

The Colony – Jared Tyler Presents: Saugeye – 9 p.m.

Tues // Dec 17 Gilcrease – *Jazz Night – 5:30 p.m.

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

Mercury Lounge – Jacob Tovar – 9 p.m.

Starlite – Karaoke – 9 p.m.

Swamp House – The Marriotts – 5:30 p.m.

The Chalckboard – Mark Burner – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Chris Lee Becker – 6 p.m.

The Colony – Chris Combs Trio and Special Guests – 9 p.m.

Whittier Bar – Bodeen – 8 p.m.

December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

MUSIC // 43

onscreen

Two many popes in The Two Popes | COURTESY

EVERYDAY PAPAL The Two Popes is an actors’ showcase with little to say

IF MOVIES WERE SACR AMENTS, this would be a pretty weak confessional.

As if made by Catholic apologists for authorized Vatican propaganda, The Two Popes skirts a whole lot of issues as it imagines an ongoing conversation between Pontiff-turned-Emeritus Benedict XVI (a.k.a. Joseph Ratzenberger) and his successor Pope Francis (the former Argentinian Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) over the course of Benedict’s papacy.

Pitting the conservative Benedict against the progressive Francis (Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, respectively), director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener, City of God) sets their doctrinal differences into an ideological tête-à-tête, with a strong bias towards the latter.

Indeed, Benedict is decidedly doctrinaire, a hardline traditionalist who seeks to course-correct from Pope John Paul II’s legacy of modernization. Francis is the opposite, keen to liberalize even further.

Their opposing philosophies have defined each of them, but Meirelles—along with screenwriter Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything, Bohemian Rhapsody)— reduce both nearly to caricature.

Benedict is strict, Francis gracious.

Benedict is cold, Francis compassionate.

Oppressive and liberating. Stodgy and open. Each is pitched in predictable but never provocative fashion. Adherents of Benedict will feel disdained, fans of Francis will never be challenged, as audiences are denied a vibrant exchange of ideas that test existing assumptions about both sides. This is especially true in the ways that Benedict (through his advocacy for the poor, refugees, and the environment) and Francis (upholding Church catechism on homosexuality, divorce, female ordination) defy their mediadriven profiles.

44 // FILM & TV

Playing the title roles with compelling intimacy, Hopkins and Pryce infuse this Sistine two-hander with a sense of transparency that the material lacks. Meirelles postures it as a rigorous theological dialogue but then pulls punches all along the way. The Two Popes essentially makes a feature-length case for Francis so tilted in his favor that even Benedict himself eventually comes around.

Repressed regrets and dark nights of the soul are broached in the second hour, but even these attempts at humanizing the Holy Sees feel soft and calculated, and degrees of existential doubt by these Vicars of Christ come off as incredulous examples of secular transference.

Worst of all, there’s an elephant in the cathedral that’s completely ignored: the pervasive sexual abuse of children perpetrated by priests, and the systemic cover up by the whole episcopal structure. If this movie were your only reference, you’d never even know that this global decades-long scandal ever existed. It’s as if a Synod of Bishops had final cut.

It’s not that Meirelles should’ve used this occasion to grind axes either. That would’ve been equally didactic, just in another obnoxious direction. But this, as is, is such a softball. A complex study is what’s needed, brave yet considered; an examination of these two men and the most relevant issues facing the church they lead.

Instead what we’re left with is a missed opportunity—Oscar bait that plays it safe rather than with courage, repentant humility, or moral (even hopeful) resolve. The Two Popes is a nice-enough portrait, but it’s far from consequential.

The Two Popes opens exclusively at Circle Cinema on Dec. 13. It begins streaming on Netflix on Dec. 20. — JEFF HUSTON

Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith in Queen & Slim | COURTESY

BLACK LOVE MATTERS

Big ideas fall short in a modern-day spin on Bonnie and Clyde CAN A FILM BE DEEPLY MOVING WHILE ultimately leaving you unfulfilled? Can it be both painfully earnest while feeling inauthentic? In the case of Queen & Slim, the new film starring Daniel Kaluuya and newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith, the answer is a disappointing and unfortunate yes.

Queen & Slim opens in a diner, where Angela (Turner-Smith) is having second thoughts on her awkward Tinder date with Ernest (Kaluuya). She’s a haughty attorney; he’s seemingly beneath her, in a disarming way. While taking Angela home, the pair are pulled over by police officer. Things escalate quickly and violently, as Angela is wounded by the police officer before Ernest kills him in an act that could be proven as self-defense.

With that, this couple on a blind date find themselves fleeing from the law that would sooner see them dead than face due process. They become reluctant folk icons, dubbed Queen and Slim.

The film is loaded with the pain and anguish of the many lives lost to police brutality while making its own attempt at tearing down stereotypes within the black community. Yet Queen & Slim never seems to find a proper balance in tone or viewpoint. The film frequently swings between the poetic musings of its titular characters, finding love on the run in a world at war with their very existence. This is matched by broad, on-the-nose social commentary about tensions between law enforcement and black communities.

Written by Lena Waithe from an original idea by James Frey—yes, that James

Frey—the script often feels undercooked, never quite escaping its theatricality and staginess. Director Melina Matsoukas, her first turn at the helm of a feature film, luxuriates in the visual beauty of black culture and the poetry of black love, yet Queen & Slim never finds its footing between authenticity and overwrought messaging.

No scene greater illustrates this than an interlude featuring Queen and Slim, the consummation of the love that has been growing between them, crosscut with a young black teenager attending a protest on their behalf. The protest quickly devolves into riot police violence, and just as Queen and Slim collapse into a beautiful, orgasmic heap of passion, the black teenager levels a gun at a police officer and fires.

Love and death, for people like Queen and Slim, are forever intertwined. But here the film moves right along, unconcerned with the ripple effects the actions of the titular characters have on the world around them as they barrel down the back roads of the Deep South, oblivious to the doomed fate awaiting them on the tarmac of Florida airstrip.

There is a vital message at the heart of Queen & Slim: the men and women who inspired such a folk hero tale, those who have been killed at the hands of police officers, should be remembered and memorialized, regardless of the circumstances that lead to their untimely ends. That message comes through loud and clear in Queen & Slim, landing sincerely in a film that ultimately underwhelms. — CHARLES ELMORE December 4 – 17, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE

TELL US WHAT YOU’RE DOING A BRIEF RUNDOWN OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE CIRCLE CINEMA

So we can tell everyone else Send all your event and music listings to

OPENING DEC. 6 DARK WATERS Mark Ruffalo stars in this true story about a corporate defense lawyer who sues a chemical company for its history of pollution. From director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Carol).

Rated PG-13.

HONEY BOY Shia LaBeouf wrote this fictionalized version of his life growing up as a child star in Hollywood. Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play LaBeouf surrogate Otis at different ages, and Shia co-stars as Otis’s controlling dad. Rated R. WAVES Sterling K. Brown and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in this critically-acclaimed melodrama about a suburban African American family in crisis. From writer/director Trey Edward Shults (It Comes at Night, Krisha). Rated PG-13.

OPENING DEC. 13 THE TWO POPES Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce star as Popes Benedict and Francis in this dramatized portrait of their relationship during Benedict XVI’s papacy.

Rated PG-13.

HELL ON THE BORDER The true story of Bass Reeves, the first black U.S. Marshal in the Wild West of the mid-19th Century. Ron Perlman co-stars. Rated R. CUNNINGHAM The legacy of dance icon Merce Cunningham and his company is explored in this documentary, through archival footage and new recreations of landmark works. Rated PG. WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954) The Bing Crosby / Danny Kaye Christmas musical classic returns for regular daily showings, including special sing-along screenings (check Circle events schedule for showtimes). Rated G.

THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

SPECIAL EVENTS VARDA BY AGNES In this new documentary, the late Agnes Varda —matriarch of French cinema— uses photos and film clips to bring insight to her pioneering cinematic style. (Dec. 10, 7 p.m.)

voices@langdonpublishing.com

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

A HIDDEN LIFE: ADVANCED SCREENING From director Terrence Malick, the true story of a Christian conscientious objector in Austria during World War II. Event is preceded by “Walk of Fame” medallion ceremony for Malick, who will be represented by family members. (Dec. 12, 7 p.m.)

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922) Ramon Novarro stars in this silent era epic about the overthrow of a king and his look-alike relative who fights to restore order. Bill Rowland accompanies on Circle’s 1928 pipe organ. Tickets $5 adults; $2 for 16 and under.

(Dec. 14, 11 a.m.)

BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974) This holiday edition of Graveyard Shift presents the original horror film from director Bob Clark (A Christmas Story, Porky’s) about sorority girls stalked by a stranger.

(Dec. 13 & 14, 10 p.m.)

BATTLE OF THE BULGE Two free screenings of this documentary from PBS’s American Experience, on the 75th Anniversary of the deadliest battle of World War II. War memorabilia courtesy of Keith Myers Traveling Military Museum.

(Dec. 16, 2 p.m. & 6 p.m.)

GORILLAZ IN THE NOW NOW A new documentary that examines two landmark albums and world tours by the revolutionary group Gorillaz. Interviews with band members plus Mos Def, Noel Gallagher, De La Soul, George Benson, and more. Tickets $12.50, Members $10. (Dec. 16, 7 p.m)

FILM & TV // 45

free will astrology

by ROB BREZSNY

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “ My greatest asset is that I am constantly changing,” says Sagittarian actress and activist Jane Fonda. This description may not always be applicable to you, but I think it should be during the coming weeks. You’re primed to thrive on a robust commitment to self-transformation. As you proceed in your holy task, keep in mind this other advice from Fonda. 1. “One part of wisdom is knowing what you don’t need anymore and letting it go.” 2. “ It is never too late to master your weaknesses.”

3. “ If you allow yourself, you can become stronger in the very places that you’ve been broken.” 4. “ The challenge is not to be perfect. It’s to be whole.” P.S. And what does it mean to be whole? Be respectful toward all your multiple facets, and welcome them into the conversation you have about how to live.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You can’t escape your past completely. You can’t loosen its hold on you so thoroughly that it will forever allow you to move with limitless freedom into the future. But you definitely have the power to release yourself from at least a part of your past’s grip. And the coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that: to pay off a portion of your karmic debt and shed worn-out emotional baggage.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Aquarian playwright August Strindberg didn’t have much interest in people who “regurgitate what they have learned from books.” He was bored by stories that have been told over and over again; was impatient with propaganda disguised as information and by sentimental platitudes masquerading as sage insights. He craved to hear about the unprecedented secrets of each person’s life: the things they know and feel that no one else knows and feels. He was a student of “the natural history of the human heart.” I bring Strindberg’s perspective to your attention, my dear one-of-a-kind Aquarius, because now is a perfect time for you to fully embody it.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “It’s no fun being in love with a shadow,” wrote Piscean poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. And yet she indulged profusely in that no-fun activity, and even capitalized on it to create a number of decent, if morose, poems.

But in alignment with your astrological omens, Pisces, I’m going to encourage you to fall out of love with shadows. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to channel your passions into solid realities: to focus your ardor and adoration on earthly pleasures and practical concerns and imperfect but interesting people.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In composing this oracle, I have called on the unruly wisdom of Vivienne Westwood. She’s the fashion designer who incorporated the punk esthetic into mainstream styles. Here are four quotes by her that will be especially suitable for your use in the coming weeks. 1. “I disagree with everything I used to say.” 2. “The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.” 3. “Intelligence is composed mostly of imagination, insight, and things that have nothing to do with reason.” 4. “I’m attracted to people who are really true to themselves and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “I’m drowning in the things I never told you.” Famous make-up artist Alexandra Joseph wrote that message to a companion with whom she had a complicated relationship. Are you experiencing a similar sensation, Taurus? If so, I invite you to do something about it! The coming weeks will be a good time to stop drowning. One option is to blurt out to your ally all the feelings and thoughts you’ve been withholding and hiding. A second option is to divulge just some of the feelings and thoughts you’ve been withholding and hiding—and then monitor the results of your partial revelation. A third option is to analyze why you’ve been withholding and hiding. Is it because your ally hasn’t been receptive, or because you’re afraid of being honest? Here’s what I suggest: Start with the third option, then move on to the second.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I’ve got some borderline sentimental poetry to offer you in this horoscope. It may be too mushy for a mentally crisp person like you. You may worry that I’ve fallen under the sway of sappy versions of love rather than the snappy versions I usually favor.

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

But there is a method in my madness: I suspect you need an emotionally suggestive nudge to fully activate your urge to merge; you require a jolt of sweetness to inspire you to go in quest of the love mojo that’s potentially available to you in abundance. So please allow your heart to be moved by the following passage from poet Rabindranath Tagore: “My soul is alight with your infinitude of stars. Your world has broken upon me like a flood. The flowers of your garden blossom in my body.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Try saying this, and notice how it feels: “For the next 17 days, I will make ingenious efforts to interpret my problems as interesting opportunities that offer me the chance to liberate myself from my suffering and transform myself into the person I aspire to become.” Now speak the following words and see what thoughts and sensations get triggered: “For the next 17 days, I will have fun imagining that my so-called flaws are signs of potential strengths and talents that I have not yet developed.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): An interviewer asked singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen if he needed to feel bothered and agitated in order to stimulate his creativity. Cohen said no. “When I get up in the morning,” he testified, “my real concern is to discover whether I’m in a state of grace.”

Surprised, the interviewer asked, “What do you mean by a state of grace?” Cohen described it as a knack for balance that he called on to ride the chaos around him. He knew he couldn’t fix or banish the chaos—and it would be arrogant to try. His state of grace was more like skiing skillfully down a hill, gliding along the contours of unpredictable terrain. I’m telling you about Cohen’s definition, Leo, because I think that’s the state of grace you should cultivate right now. I bet it will stimulate your creativity in ways that surprise and delight you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Poet Juan Felipe Herrera praises the value of making regular efforts to detox our cluttered minds. He says that one of the best methods for accomplishing this cleansing is to daydream. You give yourself permission to indulge in uncensored, unabashed fantasies. You feel no inhibition about envisioning scenes that you may or may not ever carry out in real life. You understand that this free-form play of images is a healing joy, a gift you give yourself. It’s a crafty strategy to make sure you’re not hiding any secrets from yourself. Now is a favorable time to practice this art, Virgo.

MASTER

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In accordance with current astrological omens, here’s your meditation, as articulated by the blogger named Riverselkie: “Let your life be guided by the things that produce the purest secret happiness, with no thought to what that may look like from the outside. Feed the absurd whims of your soul and create with no audience in mind but yourself.

What is poignant to you is what others will be moved by, too. Embrace what you love about yourself and the right people will come.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I swear I became a saint from waiting,” wrote Scorpio poet Odysseus Elytis in his poem “Three Times the Truth.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, you may be in a similar situation.

And you’ll be wise to welcome the break in the action and abide calmly in the motionless lull.

You’ll experiment with the hypothesis that temporary postponement is best not just for you, but for all concerned.

Evil is boring. Rousing fear is a hackneyed shtick. 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.

December 4 – 17, 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

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

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

Santa says, “Adopt don’t shop this holiday!”

SAM is a discerning older gentleman with soft white fur that looks festive next to Santa’s coat. Sam is about 9 years old and 12 lbs.

He is in foster care, so please call ahead to make an appointment to meet him.

ACROSS 1 Like a frappe 5 Grace of “Will & Grace” 10 Provide for free 14 WWW connection letters 17 Notability 18 Nephew’s sister 19 “Brave New World” writer Huxley 21 “Respect for Acting” author Hagen 22 Divinity in charge of kielbasa and chorizo?

24 Fortysomething, say 26 At the scene 27 Brings in 29 Dyeing businesses 30 ___ Baba 32 “@#$%,” e.g.

33 Circa 34 New York financial center’s smooth progress?

42 Attention-getting rapper?

43 Amiss 44 Beethoven’s “Fur ___” 45 Metered vehicle 48 “Bearded” flower 49 City east of Santa Barbara 50 “Encore!”

52 Oral health org.

53 Experienced 54 A hair clip may hold one 56 Experts, to a Brit 60 Store convenience, for short 61 Earnings 63 Dorothy of old films 64 Gets a whiff of someone at sea?

69 Group that keeps a North African region pristine?

71 Most healthy 72 Said “Aye aye, Cap’n,” say 74 Get ___ of (throw out)

NEO was nearly skin and bones when he was rescued but was so inspired by upcoming Hanukkah menus that he’s finally up to a healthy weight. He’s 2 years old, 28 lbs. and ready to find his forever home.

75 Upper canine 77 Former Spanish currency 79 What many do before the holidays 83 “Arabian Nights” bird 84 Salesperson’s success 86 Collapsed 87 Performer in white gloves 88 Mobiles and mosaics 89 Band of brothers surname 91 Vitamin bottle stat 92 Prepare to surf, perhaps 93 Marsh plant illuminated by high beams?

99 Mile-a-minute speed 100 “Got it” 101 Bit of granola 102 An ID badge may provide it 103 Large blood carrier 105 “Gracias” response 110 Ashlee Simpson’s debut single 112 Dracula’s bar bill?

116 “Annabel Lee” poet 117 Homes on the range 118 “Eighth Grade” star Fisher 119 Roomy bag 120 NBC show since ’75 121 Sign of boredom 122 Bumper blemishes 123 Petty quarrel DOWN 1 Assuming that’s true 2 James of “Misery” 3 Flightless Australian birds

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 19 20 23 25 28 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 46 47 49 50 51 55 57 58

TEXAS has a personality as big as the state itself. He loves to sing and serenade you with the song of his people. He’s 10 months old, 49 lbs. and will do best in a family with children over the age of 12.

’50s actor Arnaz San ___, Texas Conk out Chair part Prefix for “friendly” Make a better sketch Cut short Bookie’s quote Fashionable, in the ’60s Radio wave emitters in space Boat made from a tree trunk Surgical tube Young fellows “___ and the Night Visitors” Navy builder Ever Soothing succulent Guess made en route, briefly Island where the U.S. raised its standard Referee, e.g.

Cry after a long week Aesop’s also-ran Bad to the bone Celebration name suffix End ___ era Perrins’ Worcestershire sauce partner Small burger Singer Turner Make sense Arab port that anagrams to ARABS Decides one will Parenthesis, essentially Spheres Like a green banana Mathematician Pascal Kind of candy that takes longer to eat

59 Senator Klobuchar 60 “Not to mention ...”

62 Postgrad conferral 64 He-Man’s twin sister 65 Municipal title 66 Shocking Amazon critter 67 Allow 68 World capital east of Baghdad 70 Swagger 73 Article in Berlin 76 “Song of Solomon” author Morrison 78 “Aren’t I amazing?!”

79 L.A. air concern 80 ___ and mighty 81 Leave out 82 Hotel room freebies 85 It ends in the fall (Abbr.)

89 Frequent flyers 90 Amazing adventure 92 Common carafe size 94 Board member, for short 95 Brings on board 96 “Errare humanum ___” (Seneca) 97 Lifted with effort 98 The “L” of LPGA 99 Offshoot 102 Buggy ones may crash 103 Not many 104 Stepping on a crack, maybe 106 Butterfly catchers 107 Resting on 108 What unethical scientists fudge 109 Help, as a burglar 111 Greek wedding shout 113 Blonde or brown brew 114 AOL alternative 115 Barbecue site

SCOOBY was very serious when he told Santa that all he wants for Christmas is a forever home. He’s 4 months old, 25 lbs. and likely to get much bigger.

KODAK never met a stranger and just loved hanging out with Santa. He loves to be the center of attention and would do best with an active family with older children (12+).

He’s picture perfect and ready to be in your holiday family portraits.

UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD THE BEAST AROUND

By Paul Coulter, edited by David Steinberg

© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication THE TULSA VOICE // December 4 – 17, 2019

FRIDAY is a playful, fun loving girl who is always ready for a holiday party. She is 22 lbs., 7 months old and loves to run, jump and play the day away. #TGIF!

12/1 ETC. // 47

LONG LIVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL OPEN DAILY LIVE DJ THURSDAY–SATURDAY

Schedule subject to change.

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Pleas e re cycle this issue.

11/22/19 3:29 PM