The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 4 No. 5

HOW TO MARDI GRAS IN TULSA | P16 THE ART OF ‘CHUNKISM’ | P30 A Q&A WITH JUICY J | P38

FEB. 15 – 28, 2017

// V O L . 4 N O . 5

FACT ONE Oklahoma ranks 49th in the nation for teacher salary.

FACT TWO A first-year teacher in Oklahoma can leave the state to teach in Texas and immediately make $20,000 more a year.

FACT THREE Since 2011, Tulsa has lost an average of 20 percent of its teachers each year.

Tulsa teachers struggle amid low pay, decreased resources, and pressure to pass students P25

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V I S I T M C N E L L I E S G R O U P. C O M F O R A F U L L L I S T O F L O C AT I O N S THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

CONTENTS // 3

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4 // CONTENTS

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

Feb. 15 – 28, 2017 // Vol. 4, No. 5 ©2017. All rights reserved.

FEATURED

25

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Joshua Kline MANAGING EDITOR Liz Blood DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon ART DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

INTERNS Laura Dennis, Jennifer Ratliff-Towner CONTRIBUTORS Ziva Branstetter, Alicia Chesser, Jenny Eagleton, Angela Evans, Barry Friedman, Ryan Gentzler, Mitch Gilliam, Valerie Grant, Deborah J. Hunter, Jeff Huston, Markham Johnson, Jennie Lloyd, Denver Nicks, Mary Noble, Joe O’Shansky, Amanda Ruyle, Megan Shepherd, Michael Wright The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

BY MITCH G ILLIAM

Tulsa teachers face an uphill battle

Member of

The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences | VALERIE GRANT

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

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

NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 SQUEEZED B Y RYAN GENTZLER

14 LEGACY OF COMFORT Y ANGELA EVANS B

28 CATHARTIC JOURNEYS Y ALICIA CHESSER B

Time to reform excessive fines and fees in Oklahoma’s justice system

Six sisters bring their grandmother’s culinary traditions to Greenwood

Two classical music offerings meet us in the present day

8 FAULTLINE B Y ZIVA BRANSTETTER

16 HEADS OR TAILS? Y MEGAN SHEPHERD B

30 IN THE FLESH Y AMANDA RUYLE B

EPA says Oklahoma isn’t doing enough to protect citizens from earthquakes

Whether with shrimp or crawfish, here’s how to celebrate Mardi Gras

Confrontational ‘Chunkism’ show provokes a range of opinions

18 CIDER INVASION Y JENNY EAGLETON B

31 FULL IMMERSION THEATRE Y MICHAEL WRIGHT B

10 BATTLES WITH BLAKE Y BARRY FRIEDMAN B Councilor Ewing and the politics of communication

12 DISPATCH FROM MOROCCO Y DENVER NICKS B

THE ART OF ‘CHUNKISM’ | P30 A Q&A WITH JUICY J | P38

FEB. 15 – 28, 2017

38 FREE WEED

B Y MARY NOBLE Juicy J talks touring, Barry White, and the enduring popularity of “Bandz A Make Her Dance”

// V O L . 4 N O . 5

FACT ONE Oklahoma ranks 49th in the nation for teacher salary.

FACT TWO A first-year teacher in Oklahoma can leave the state to teach in Texas and immediately make $20,000 more a year.

40 COMING HOME Y AMANDA RUYLE B

Cider is the latest apple of the drinker’s eye

20 TELL YOU WHAT Y JENNIE LLOYD B

A tale of cocktails and hungry tigers

Meme-thinking is, in a word, stupid

MUSIC HOW TO MARDI GRAS IN TULSA | P16

ARTS & CULTURE

FOOD & DRINK

Annie Ellicott’s return to Tulsa

TV & FILM 43 UNFINISHED WORK Y JEFF HUSTON B James Baldwin’s vision of America is brought to life in ‘I am Not Your Negro’

44 MUNDANE BEAUTY Y JOE O’SHANSKY B In everyday routine, ‘Paterson’ finds poetry

Going ‘Wild’ at the IDL

32 GRANDMOTHER RUTH – LAST DAY OF SCHOOL B Y MARKHAM JOHNSON

A poem

33 WE CANNOT FORGET Y DEBORAH J. HUNTER B Jennifer Latham’s ‘Dreamland Burning’ takes on Tulsa’s past and present racism

ETC. 34 THEHAPS 41 MUSICLISTINGS 46 ASTROLOGY + SUDOKU 47 CROSSWORD

FACT THREE Since 2011, Tulsa has lost an average of 20 percent of its teachers each year.

Tulsa teachers struggle amid low pay, decreased resources, and pressure to pass students P25

ON THE COVER PHOTO BY GREG BOLLINGER THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

You get what you pay for

O

n Tuesday, Feb. 7, the U.S. Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as education secretary despite outcry from the public and from Democratic senators. After a dismal performance at her confirmation hearing in January, the tide turned against the pro-school choice DeVos, who seemed to lack even a cursory knowledge of the job for which she’d been tapped by President Trump. Two Republican senators—Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins—defected to the left side of the aisle as opponents of DeVos. The defections resulted in a historic tie-

vote of 50-50, which was ultimately broken by Vice President Mike Pence, who confirmed DeVos. Here in Oklahoma, we’ve been experiencing our own education crisis for a while now. After public education funding was further gutted last year amid a billion dollar budget shortfall, many Oklahoma schools and teachers found themselves contending with ever-dwindling resources and shortened school days—some schools even went down to four-day weeks.

Additionally, our teachers are some of the worst-paid in the nation (teacher salaries have been stagnant since 2008) and many of

them are fleeing Oklahoma for other states that offer higher pay and more stability. At the same time, the number of emergency teaching certificates issued to candidates who normally wouldn’t qualify for the job has increased dramatically.

In November, voters rejected State Question 779, which would have given teachers a raise through a penny sales tax increase. Now, with the new legislative session, teacher raises—and how to pay for them—are once again on the table, and several possible solutions have been presented, including broader implementation of sales

taxes on businesses historically exempt from them.

On page 25, Mitch Gilliam explores how the education crisis has affected teachers here in Tulsa.

It’s a sprawling, complex problem with no easy solution, but there’s a clear and obvious starting point to fixing it: give the teachers raises.

You get what you pay for, and, as Gilliam points out, an entry-level QuikTrip clerk makes more than a new teacher. For the future health of our state, we must do better. a

JOSHUA KLINE EDITOR

Thank you, Voice Readers!

THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF TULSA READERS’ CHOICE 2016

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Two locations, one world-class art museum.

Stay connected. philbrook.org 6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

okpolicy

A

SQUEEZED Time to reform excessive fines and fees in Oklahoma’s justice system

by RYAN GENTZLER

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

ll Oklahomans should be treated equally in the justice system, no matter what’s in their bank account.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works today. Tens of thousands of Oklahomans enter the justice system each year and come out with thousands of dollars in debt.

For poor Oklahomans, this debt can swallow up most of their family’s income, and it often leads to a cycle of incarceration and poverty.

The system does nothing to improve public safety but does bring high costs to law enforcement, jails, and the courts. A new report from Oklahoma Policy Institute, titled “The Cost Trap: How Excessive Fees Lock Oklahomans into the Criminal Justice System without Boosting Revenue,” shows why lawmakers need to reduce the financial burdens of the criminal justice system for poor defendants, and how they can do that without jeopardizing critical sources of revenue for state agencies.

The report finds that lawmakers have added fees to criminal cases to pay for so many different functions of government that the costs for a single case have more than doubled in the past two decades. For example, a speeding ticket for driving 20 mph over the speed limit has increased almost 150 percent since 1992, from $107 to $250. Felony and misdemeanor costs multiply with each charge, often totaling in the thousands of dollars for a single case.

When defendants can’t afford to pay these fees, they’re often arrested and taken to jail. Spending time in jail away from their jobs and family only makes it harder to pay off their debt, and counties often spend more to incarcerate people for failure to pay than they end up collecting from them.

For example, a woman in Tulsa County was arrested and charged with a series of minor theft and drug crimes over the course of

about 20 years. She’s spent nearly 18 months in jail, still owes more than $11,000 to the court, and can’t hold a job because she’s repeatedly picked up for failure to pay. So the county has spent over $20,000 to incarcerate her in the attempt to collect about half of that. This is a terrible waste of taxpayer money.

Because most defendants are poor, very little criminal court debt is ever collected. About 80 percent of criminal defendants are indigent and eligible for a public defender, and jail inmates typically make less than half the income of their peers even before their arrest. A judge in Oklahoma County estimates that only 5 to 11 percent of criminal court debt is collected.

Despite this fact, those who can’t pay are repeatedly arrested, jailed, and brought before a judge, at great expense to the state.

Courts have long ago squeezed as much as they could out of people involved in the justice system.

The revenue from criminal fees haven’t increased in over a decade, even though we’ve dramatically increased fees and the number of people being charged over that time. The lesson is that when people can’t pay, they can’t pay, no matter how much we punish them.

It also means that we can reduce these financial burdens without reducing the amount we collect for critical government functions.

There are strong, bipartisan proposals in the Legislature this year to reform these practices, including House Bill 1476, Senate Bill 689, and Senate Bill 342. As lawmakers want to fulfill their pledges to save taxpayer money and take a smarter approach to criminal justice, these reforms should be a top priority. a

Ryan Gentzler is a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute (www.okpolicy.org).

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

thefrontier

T

he Environmental Protection Agency has told Oklahoma officials they aren’t doing enough to protect the state’s drinking water and citizens from strong earthquakes caused by wastewater injection, a letter obtained by The Frontier shows.

State officials responded, saying Gov. Mary Fallin had appointed a task force to study other ways to dispose of wastewater generated by oil and gas drilling and other responses were under consideration.

The letter from Ron Curry, administrator for the EPA’s Region 6, notes that Oklahoma has taken some measures to reduce injection of wastewater produced by oil and gas drilling but states additional measures should be taken.

“We believe further actions to address disposal well-related pressure buildup in the Arbuckle Formation are imperative to protect human health and to prevent contamination of underground sources of drinking water from induced earthquakes,” states Curry’s letter, dated Nov. 22.

The letter was sent to Oklahoma’s three corporation commissioners: Bob Anthony, Dana Murphy and Todd Hiett. A copy of the letter was also sent to Mike Teague, state secretary of energy and environment.

The letter takes on additional significance due to the pending appointment of Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA. Pruitt’s nomination was confirmed 11-0 by the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works on Thursday, despite a boycott by Democrats on the panel.

Pruitt would be in a position to alter the EPA’s request and position on induced seismicity in Oklahoma. Such an action would impact energy companies here that have partnered with Pruitt in lawsuits against the federal agency to roll back or halt environmental regulations.

Curry’s letter notes that although the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma may have

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

FAULTLINE EPA says Oklahoma isn’t doing enough to protect citizens from earthquakes

by ZIVA BRANSTETTER

dropped in 2016, the intensity has increased.

“Two significant earthquakes in November, one near Pawnee and another near Cushing, and two additional earthquakes just today, suggest that more needs to be done to address this issue.

We recognize that the Oklahoma Geological Survey reports the total number of 2016 earthquakes appears to be dropping from last year’s activity, but we also see a continued and disturbing upward trend in event magnitudes.”

The letter urges the state to investigate other ways to dispose of millions of barrels of toxic wastewater if additional measures including additional reductions of wastewater disposal are needed.

“Further actions to address disposal well-related pressure buildup in the Arbuckle Formation are imperative to protect human health and to prevent contamination of underground sources of drinking water from induced earthquakes,” Curry’s letter states.

“These further actions should include looking at reasonable strategies to treat such discharges so that, in the event additional moratoria are needed, treatment options would be available.”

The letter also notes research showing a potential risk to the Cushing oil storage facility. A 5.0 quake struck downtown Cushing on Nov. 6, despite previous actions by the state and EPA to reduce wastewater injection into an earthquake-prone geologic zone known as the Arbuckle Formation.

“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) projects that a quake of magnitude 5.7 could significantly damage the oil storage tanks in Cushing. Furthermore, a study led by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) seismologist Dr. Daniel McNamara concluded that in 2014, earthquakes increased stresses along two stretches of a fault beneath Cushing and could lead to higher magnitude events,” his letter states.

“As you fully recognize, a breach in the integrity of the Cushing pipelines and storage facilities could be catastrophic for both the environment and the national energy system given the more than 80 million barrels of crude oil storage capacity.”

In a response to the EPA sent Nov. 29, the OCC’s director of administration said the agency was committed to working with federal officials to address induced earthquakes.

“Governor Fallin has appointed a task force to look into alternative methods of handling produced water from oil and gas wells, and this agency awaits the task force findings with great anticipation,” states the letter from Tim Rhodes.

“While the Oklahoma Corporation Commission has limited permitting authority over such recycling facilities, it fully supports the effort to reduce the amount of wastewater that is being disposed into the Arbuckle formation. Thus far the Commissioners have received only one application for a recycling operation that involves OCC jurisdiction, and that has been approved on a provisional basis.”

Scott Poynter, an Arkansas-based attorney who has filed several lawsuits against energy companies over the earthquakes, said he was surprised to hear about the letter.

“We think it’s really significant.

It’s right in line with what we have been saying, that we think they are reactive, they are not doing enough. We think they are doing what they can to appease industry.”

Poynter said if Pruitt is confirmed by the full Senate, “I think it probably gets kind of swept under the rug.”

Fallin’s task force on produced water is expected to finish a preliminary report on alternatives to wastewater injection later this month. a This story was originally published by The Frontier.

For more, visit readfrontier.org.

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

viewsfrom theplains

Battles with Blake

Councilor Ewing and the politics of communication

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

B

ut your comments are dumb as can be. And you know it. And so will everyone else. Please print this conversation. That way you can tattle tale on yourself for a change

That was not a text message from some pouty teenager to her frenemy, nor was it this morning’s pouty tweet from the president of the United States because SNL mocked his press secretary, but rather a text from Tulsa City Councilor Blake Ewing to The Frontier’s Editor in Chief Ziva Branstetter this past New Year’s Eve about a story he found infuriating.

That he thought New Year’s Eve and her home was the time and place to send it is just part of the story.

Maybe more than a part.

Let’s begin.

“We were at our family’s lake house,” Branstetter told me, “and everyone was upstairs watching football and celebrating New Year’s Eve. I was downstairs engaged in these exchanges with Councilor Ewing that sort of spilled over to social media.”

As faithful readers around these parts know, Branstetter is a friend of this column, but with that disclosure out of the way—and she did screw up some (more on that in a moment)—Ewing was a relentless gasbag over this exchange.

The incident began when The Frontier reported1 on an amended petition filed in the lawsuit brought by investors in The Max RetroPub against Ewing, alleging fraud and misappropriation of company funds. When the story went live, Ewing texted Branstetter, requesting that she take it down on the grounds that the lawsuit had been settled and the story was therefore obsolete. However, according to 10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

City councilman Blake Ewing was accused in October 2016 of using funds from The Max Retropub in Blue Dome District to benefit himself and other businesses. The lawsuit has not been settled, though he recently claimed otherwise on social media. | GREG BOLLINGER

court records, the lawsuit had not been dismissed. When Branstetter contacted Mark Perkins, one of the plaintiffs, for comment about Ewing’s claim that the suit had in fact been settled, Perkins responded as follows: “We signed a settlement agreement that contained several conditions which, when fulfilled, the plaintiffs will dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice and the parties can issue a statement at that time.” Consequently, Branstetter declined to take the story down.

Ewing was apoplectic.

Here’s some of their exchange.2 Ziva: You can disagree about newsworthiness if you want but you are a public official and that certainly makes this lawsuit’s pleadings newsworthy. The docket does NOT reflect a settlement.

Only that your lawyer is withdrawing, and saying she has heard there is a settlement. If your attorney wants to attest that a settlement has occurred, please provide documentation of that and we will update our story.

Blake: An answer wasn’t filed because it was settled.

Ziva: Yes but there was no filing indicating a settlement

a man can be trusted with millions of dollars in city outlays— calls for the press to act like a doberman tearing into a pound of ground chuck on a daily basis.

In Ewing’s defense, The Frontier did run the story without getting an update from him—Branstetter admits to that and, apparently, apologized for it. But in her defense, she’s also right that lawsuits are discharged by the courts—not the participants—so Ewing’s contention that “An answer wasn’t filed because it was settled” is parenthetical and legally inaccurate.

Raising about nine more eyebrows, the investors who filed the initial lawsuit in October, alleging Ewing fraudulently transferred and/or borrowed money without their approval, amended the suit in December, claimed they hadn’t yet seen the financial books that he says he so assiduously tried to provide.

Blake: You literally just ran the same story you’ve already run two weeks after an amended petition...and without calling me. Nice Ziva: Nope. You said in your FB post that they wouldn’t look at the books. Their second petition said you hadn’t provided the books.

Blake: I get it. Slow news day.

Blake: I’ll make sure everyone knows you know nothing

Ziva: I’ve looked at enough dockets to know. Nope.

Ziva: Look we tried to contact your attorney.

Blake: Might as well trash the city councilor again

Blake: You’ve built your company by trashing people....gotta make some news... Hahaha

Oh, please.

A city council member being sued for misappropriating investors’ money—and, by extension, and the larger issue, whether such

Towards the end of the exchange Ewing claims Branstetter is “driving clicks at my expense,” calls her “shameful, sloppy, and February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

careless,” mocks The Frontier’s viability, and then dares her to print the above exchange.

Well, you come between a reporter and her Ciroc on New Year’s Eve, it’s game on.

She published3 the texts.

The question, irrespective of the peculiarities of the lawsuit—and not even to get into Ewing’s tax warrants,4 closed restaurants, and all the rest—is what prompts government officials to personally go after reporters or news organizations other than a robust blow-hardiness or their sense that media personnel and outlets are easy prey? Further, in this case, it’s not like The Frontier—or any other news outlet in town—wouldn’t have taken Ewing’s call during normal business hours and/or not given him a chance to respond.

In an email, I asked Ewing about the dynamic of that and he admitted that part of his approach on social media, when it comes to the press, is strategic.

“Responding at least reminds them that you’re not just a name in the paper, but an actual person,” Ewing said. “If they think they’re just throwing that stuff out there unseen by the accused, it at least reminds them that the person they’re going after is real and is seeing what they write.”

A little whiney, but okay; meanwhile, I can promise you that Ziva Branstetter has never published anything controversial about anyone because she thought it wasn’t going to be read.

A few years back, Joshua Kline, now editor here at The Tulsa Voice (at the time he was a contributing writer), went to White Flag, one of Ewing’s restaurants, late one night for a hamburger.

He wasn’t pleased with the experience. When back home, on his personal Facebook page, he wrote, “Dear White Flag: Please, either fix your shit or go away.”

Not exactly Tina Nguyen of Vanity Fair reviewing Trump Grill5 but point made. Now, it seems a normal restaurant owner would have written Kline and said, “Hey, sorry, dude. Come by anytime, let me buy you another burger. Let me make this right.”

What did Ewing do? He answered Josh’s 11-word post with THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

an 1100-word tome6 that was part defensive, part hurt feelings, part shocked his efforts to Make Tulsa Great Again weren’t met with Hosannahs.

“We’ll continue to allow for the fact that about 15% of the people won’t like what we do no matter what,” Ewing wrote on his blog, referring to White Flag. “That number may be closer to 20% now that I’m in elected office. It seems like since that happened, I can’t do anything right with some folks.”

Oh, for the love of a bacon mushroom cheeseburger medium rare, really councilor, five percent more Tulsans are out to get you just because you’re the District 4 representative?

Even at that point, this could (should) have ended, but Ewing then contacted Kline’s bosses at both The Tulsa Voice and This Land to express his displeasure about Kline’s comments—comments made on his personal Facebook page.

Was he trying to get him fired?

(I sat at ONEOK Field one summer night a short time later with one of the editors involved. My take: Yeah.)

And, remember, this is over a hamburger.

We continue.

I ask Ewing about Trump. “[Trump] doesn’t use social media to advance a conversation. He uses it to distract from the real issues, and to self-promote or attack his detractors, most often with lies and exaggerations,” adding the president’s use of social media hasn’t affected his use of social media. I’m not Donald Trump, thank God.” On both incidents—with Branstetter and Kline—Ewing explains the special/not-so-special role he’s in at the moment.

“I just can’t stand it that people treat people in elected office like we’re somehow not just regular people who happen to be elected to represent a larger body in the political arena. We’re not special.

We’re not unique human beings.

It’s a lose-lose situation. If I remain quiet, I must be hiding from the accusations. If I respond, I’m petty.”

Only if you chase reporters around Facebook and send them

texts on New Year’s Eve. Right now, Ewing is just annoying, a bit of a blowhard; so was youknow-who at one point. But it gets dangerous—when all criticism is fake, all reporters are the enemy, self-evident facts are up for debate, every media outlet is “failing” or covering up important events. As it stands now, Americans have a slightly higher opinion of the press than of politicians.

As long as that pecking order remains, the 1st Amendment survives, along with our Democracy.

“In Ziva’s case, I apologized for the way I handled things,” Ewing said. “Also, to be clear and fair to her, Ziva also apologized to me and communicated about the steps they’ve taken to ensure these same things don’t happen again.

She handled the meeting with class and humility and I’m grateful that she was willing to sit down and work things out.”

I asked Branstetter about the above.

“Our NY Eve story was correct and none of our reporting on his business issues has been inaccurate,” she said.

As for Kline, Ewing responded: “I felt like his comments were out of line, but didn’t disagree with him about how together our shit was. I regret nothing about the exchange.”

Two more things: as of this writing, the lawsuit has still not been dismissed (and this is now almost two months after Ewing lambasted Branstetter about how it had been) and White Flag is no longer owned by Ewing. a

1) readfrontier.org: Investors allege councilor acted negligently in managing business 2) cloud.org: Ewing/Branstetter text exchange 3) readfrontier.org: Blake Ewing wants you to read these angry New Year’s Eve texts about his lawsuit …

4) kjrh.com: Around $80,000 in state taxes owed by 3 iconic bars in Blue Dome District, as per OK Tax Commission 5) vanityfair.com: TRUMP GRILL COULD BE THE WORST RESTAURANT IN AMERICA 6) blakeewing.tumblr.com: Fixing our Shit vs. Going Away NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

tulsaexpat

DISPATCH FROM MOROCCO

by DENVER NICKS

A woman holds a child’s hand in the medina, or old town, in Essaouira, Morroco. | DENVER NICKS

ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO— In the days after the Trump administration issued its ill-advised and disastrously executed freeze on the refugee program and ban on humans entering the United States with passports from seven majority-Muslim countries, a friend of a friend posted a meme on Facebook that gave me a hearty and much-needed laugh.

The meme offered a list of things one could supposedly expect if living in a Muslim country, to wit: no alcohol, no music, no dancing, no movies, cruelty to animals and, bizarrely, no vegetarianism—or possibly only vegetarianism. I can’t recall exactly and the post has since been deleted.

I had to laugh because I was in Morocco, a 95 percent Muslim country, and just hours earlier I had literally been singing and dancing with some friends before heading to a small outdoor cafe where I almost got the beef tajine but decided on vegetarian instead, which was delicious. While I was eating, I watched a Moroccan man save a kitten from being beaten to death by a grown-up cat and gently carry it to safety. Then I went home, where my housemate offered me a beer, which I de12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

clined before tucking into bed to watch a movie.

One of the most destructive things about moments when extreme actions provoke extreme responses is that people tend to indulge a primordial impulse to start radically oversimplifying the world and dividing it up into enemies and friends. If you believe, as I do, that turning away refugees in deference to hysteria is immoral and cowardly, to part of the country you’re a naive bleeding-heart-slash-millennial-snowflake. If you believe, as I do, that banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries is terrible policy counterproductive to U.S. national security interests that needlessly upends the lives of thousands of perfectly decent people, you are seen by some as sympathetic to radical Islam, or at best dangerously ignorant to the threat it poses. If you believe, as I do, that Islam, like the other Abrahamic monotheisms, is a bad idea and the world would be better off if people stopped believing in it, you are a racist, or an Islamophobe, or a white nationalist, or, increasingly in my case, a straight white dude, which has become a kind of epithet of its own in some circles.

One of the wonderful things about Morocco is that in every moment its mere existence reveals the lie upon which that kind of tribalism is based. The crooked, frenetic streets of the medina in Essaouira are a diverse labyrinth of not only colors, patterns and smells—the fog of redolent spices, piss, clean air unpolluted by combustion engines, roasting meat, that indeterminate smell of either food or body odor—but of people, too.

Most Moroccan women wear headscarves, though some do not and others wear niqab (the fullbody garment with slits for the eyes fashionable in Saudi Arabia). They walk in mixed groups, sometimes arm in arm, apparently unbothered by the different clothing decisions each has made for herself (or, perhaps, allowed her husband to make for her). During the call to prayer that echoes tinnily from mosques five times a day, some Moroccan Muslims stop to pray in the formal way, some take a moment to reflect on God, and some just carry on with whatever they were doing. Alcohol is forbidden is Islam, but some Moroccans do drink—there’s even a traditional kind of Moroccan moonshine

made from dates with legendary powers of intoxication.

While I was buying soap the other day a pathetic wretch shuffled up next to me, vacantly, with a bag of glue held to his face, dribbling thick globs of saliva from his mouth, stoned completely out of whatever was left of his mind. The moment was sad and unsettling, but it also spoke to the same truth I’ve been hammering away at here.

So diverse is humanity that even in Morocco—a conservative country where homosexuality is illegal, gender roles are clearly and rigidly defined, and sobriety is enforced through peer pressure (rather like an evangelical Christian paradise, come to think of it)—there’s still room for a man to be a failure, to stumble and stumble again, to be, in other words, human.

Morocco is living, bustling proof that the simplemindedness of meme-thinking is, in a word, stupid. The world does not look like that. There is no corner of the earth in which humanity, in all its weird variety, exists as a monolith that might be accurately understood or described by something so simpleminded as a meme. a Denver Nicks is a Tulsa native currently traveling abroad.

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

Something big is brewing March 4, 2017 Plan now to attend Splash: Lagers & Loggerheads, a very special evening of beer tasting, dining on local cuisine and getting up close and personal with two of Oklahoma’s newest, biggest celebrities.

For more information and to make a reservation, please visit okaquarium.org/splash.

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www.guthriegreen.com | #guthriegreen | THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

foodfile

LEGACY OF COMFORT With Wanda J’s Next Generation, six sisters bring their grandmother’s culinary traditions to Greenwood

by ANGELA EVANS Fried catfish and fried chicken meals at Wanda J’s Next Generation | VALERIE GRANT

I

stepped into the diminutive dining room of Wanda J’s Next Generation in the Greenwood District, the intoxicating smell of fried chicken and peach cobbler welcoming me.

Tyreiha Walker, one of the six sisters who own and operate Wanda J’s, greeted me with a warm grin.

Though Wanda J’s Next Generation Café has only been in this location a few months (Abears occupied the space previously), the food has a family history that goes back decades. Wanda J. Armstrong, family matriarch and longtime restaurant owner, has been churning out her brand of comfort food since the ‘70s and still operates the legendary Evelyn’s Soul Food restaurant in north Tulsa. Now, six of her granddaughters, inspired by their granny, are carrying on the tradition.

“I feel like I learned how to cook before I learned how to read,” Tyreiha said. “I don’t even think we ate Happy Meals growing up because we always cooked. Birthdays, holidays, any day—we cook.”

Whether the family was cooking in their homes or helping out in their granny’s restaurant, the experience made an impression on the six sisters, who range in age from 14 to 30. Two sisters are still 14 // FOOD & DRINK

in high school, so they help in the evenings while the other sisters attend college. Though it’s tedious to plan around the demands of their classes while also running a restaurant, they make it work.

“I think my dad is starting to realize why he has six girls who are all so different,” Tyreiha said.

“Where one of us may be weak, the other is strong. We all add our own talents to the operation and I can see that my dad is proud.”

Her grandmother helped in the beginning, she said, making sure the new operation was up to the “Wanda J standard,” but she has since stayed mostly hands-off, letting the young women take the helm.

“We come here and cook all day. We laugh and play and live like no other,” Tyreiha said. “The first month was a struggle, figuring out the inventory and taxes but we continue to overcome and learn something new every day.”

For fans of Wanda J’s style of cooking, the dishes coming out of Next Generation will not disappoint.

My two-piece fried chicken meal came out piping hot. Plump and not over-battered, the first bite melted on my tongue like a salty, deep-fried snowflake.

The crisp, airy coating offered a

satisfying crunch that gave way to succulent, expertly-seasoned fried chicken ambrosia.

The catfish was another showstopper. It may be a bold assertion that fried chicken could possibly be topped by catfish, but the preparation of these hunky filets won my heart, bite after crunchy bite. The cornbread coating kept the interior flaky yet firm and the simple seasoning didn’t overpower the fresh, understated sweetness of the fish.

Each meal comes with a choice of two sides, but choosing among so many worthy accompaniments produced an existential agony: mashed potatoes and gravy (white or brown!) or sweet potatoes, collard greens or green beans, fried okra or fried corn on the cob.

Comforted that I can always come back, I zigged away from standard favorites like mashed potatoes and green beans and zagged towards sweet potatoes and collard greens.

The sweet potatoes aren’t inundated with sugar or butter, but instead are a naturally sweet foil to the greens, spiked with thick pieces of salty bacon that mellows the collard’s characteristic bitter notes.

Now, some folks may assume that fried chicken and collard greens would be categorized as soul food. But Tyreiha explains the

nuances between soul food and what they do at Next Generation.

“We do more comfort food, like chicken fried steak and pork chops. When someone says ‘soul food,’ they tend to think of things like pig feet, oxtails or chitterlings,” said Walker. “Which, chitterlings? Not my fave.”

Despite her ambivalence toward chitterlings, Next Generation offers them for its weekly Soul Food Fridays, during which the small dining restaurant bursts at the seams.

“Grandparents and people who know how to cook these things are not teaching others like they used to,” Tyreiha said. “And these foods are not easy to cook or easily accessible. So when we make them on Friday, they are gone in two or three hours.”

As I finished my last bite of catfish, the gleeful bell on the front door rang and a toddler with a familiar smile scuttled towards Tyreiha. She scooped up her twoyear-old son and in his big brown eyes, I saw the next generation. a WANDA J’S NEXT GENERATION RESTAURANT 111 N. Greenwood Ave. Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Closed Sunday 918.861.4142

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

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citybites

Mardi Gras supplies at Ca jun Ed’s | VALERIE GRANT

Heads or tails?

Whether with shrimp or crawfish, here’s how to celebrate Mardi Gras in Tulsa

by MEGAN SHEPHERD ecades of literature and lore have painted me a mental scene that always comes to mind around this time of year, in which some hungry eater with a crackle-shelled creature stuck in the back of its mouth sucks the veiny brains out of the top in the name of tradition.

It’s not as barbaric as it sounds, but it seems there is certainly a very right and very wrong way to participate in a crawfish boil—especially around Mardi Gras.

I am in an enduring love affair with New Orleans. I think it started when I first saw “The Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood.”

With its big band jazz parades, zydeco culture, and anything-goes mentality, the cinematic portrayal of Louisiana (and the New Orleans Mardi Gras, by extension) made it seem like a place of unparalleled festivity. My first visit to New Orleans confirmed as much. Upon landing, we headed for Casamento’s on Magazine Street—a small, ten table-type place with a long, wrap-around line, and an even longer reputation for being a choice place for po’boys—oyster, shrimp, and of course, crawfish.

D

16 // FOOD & DRINK

The wait paid off. We gorged ourselves on chargrilled oysters and crisped pillows of New Orleans baguettes stuffed full of fried shrimp, with pickles and good mayonnaise lobbed over the top, and crunched Zapp’s Voodoo chips with gulps of pre-mixed hurricanes in between bites. I had found a new home in Cajun food, and with crawfish, specifically.

Crawfish were a staple of Native American and European diets, but gained their notoriety as a favored Cajun food in late 1800s Louisiana.

The freshwater crustaceans are the poor man’s lobster, perfect for when you just can’t stomach market price, or shell out $40 a tail. Crawfish, or ‘mudbugs,’ boast a slightly murkier taste than finer shellfish. But they soak up the flavors that they’re simmered in nicely, and are incredible in a rich roux or stew.

When it comes to the classic crawfish boil, there’s a decent amount of work involved in eating them.

You’ll want to grasp it at either end like a Chinese finger trap, a thumb and finger on the head, three fingers on the tail. Give it a firm twist, pull the head and tail

apart, then suck the juice out of the head. Expect innards simmered in a frothy mix of whatever you boiled the crawfish in—Cajun spices, cayenne, butter and garlic, and a subtle note of spice.

While there’s no substitute for cracking and sucking shells down at the New Orleans Mardi Gras, several places in Tulsa get pretty damn close. For gumbo and a real New Orleans Po’boy, visit Chris and Amanda West at Lassalle’s Deli downtown. With a new, larger location, they’ve managed to shave off some wait time for the line of salivating patrons patiently waiting for po’boys. If time is money, it’s a small price to pay for authentic, premium po’boy sandwiches served on real, flown-in, bayou water-baked bread.

Cajun Ed’s/ Hebert’s Meats is Tulsa’s unofficial headquarters for crawfish hauls, with heaps of the squirming critters starting at $4.95/lb. Grab a sack and throw a crawfish boil at home, or indulge with a steamed basket in the restaurant. And to commemorate the conclusion of the Mardi Gras season, pick up one of Cajun Ed’s King Cakes.

Sam’s Southern Eatery has all the southern bayou staples, like

nuclear power plant-sized fried shrimp and hush puppies with homemade tartar sauce. The facade belies the quality inside, as their baskets are full of fried goodness perfect for Mardi Gras, or any old Tuesday.

Doc’s Wine & Food offers a high-society take on mudbugs. Theirs usually show up in Étouffée that boasts a flavor just this side of spicy, with dollops of crawfish and bell pepper scattered throughout the smothered stew.

It’s a staple on the menu, but Doc’s shines an even brighter light on crawfish come springtime, when the annual Mardi Gras celebration draws patrons in for small plates specials like creole nachos, and $3 Abitas or $6 Hurricanes to wash it down. If the fuss and frills of a white tablecloth establishment serving crawfish doesn’t compute, pop in on May 20 for the annual crawfish festival and indulge in all you can eat cray— bibs and all.

If a boil with less labor sounds better, there’s the Fassler Hall Mardi Gras shrimp boil, happening February 28th from 4pm to close. $15 will get you a pound of shrimp with all the fixins—corn, new potatoes, and Andouille sausage. a February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

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downthehatch

CIDER INVASION Cider is the latest apple of the drinker’s eye

by JENNY EAGLETON

Shacksbury Dry and Semi-Dry Cider from Vermont | COURTESY

A

t the word “cider,” most people think of that sticky-sweet, headache-inducing stuff for the fashionably gluten-free person in your life. But quality ciders that drink more like wine than boozy apple juice are making a name for themselves. A recent influx of products into Oklahoma means you, too, can get on the apple wagon.

The ciders below are standouts because they’re made from good quality fruit—not concentrate— and have far fewer or zero chemical and preservative additives than ciders like Angry Orchard, Strongbow, and Woodchuck. Most of these ciders benefit by being poured a few ounces at a time into a wine glass or something smaller than a pint glass.

Cider, like beer or wine, comes in many styles and is mostly designated by location of origin and apple variety.

EAST COAST The U.S. East Coast is the epicenter of the cider boom. Dozens of cideries have opened in the last decade and in the last two years, a couple of dedicated cider bars, like Wassail in NYC and ANXO in D.C. have opened. East Coast cider marks a return to heirloom apples with funny-sounding names like Ashmead’s Kernel, Belle de Boskoop, and Northern 18 // FOOD & DRINK

Spy. These ciders are more winelike complexity because they’re made from apples that have more tannin and acidity than those you find in the grocery store.

Oregon, and Washington grow sweet apples, which don’t make very good cider but sell well in supermarkets. A few producers, however, have set themselves apart.

BUY: SHACKSBURY LOST APPLE Lost Apple is the jewel of Shacksbury’s cider line and a perfect example of old-school East Coast cider. It’s made from foraged apples and fermented by yeast that occurs naturally on apple skins.

Complex, earthy, and dry with a whisper of herbs.

BUY: BONNY DOON, QUERRY? This mixed-fruit cider from Bonny Doon includes tannic quince fruit, floral pears, and then apples to fill out the blend. The addition of quince is a clever way to add texture and complexity to the cider, plus a hint of licorice.

Querry? is a bit sweeter than other ciders.

BUY: SHACKSBURY DRY AND SEMI-DRY These fun cans of dry and slightly sweet cider are made from a blend of tannic, tart, and sweet heirloom apples purchased from sustainably farmed orchards and fermented using a mixed house-cultured yeast (as opposed to a lab-synthesized yeast you can purchase from a catalog). These are a perfect introduction to the world of wellmade cider, good for cocktails or sipping. Both are crisp and juicy and besides a very tiny amount of sulfites (all alcohol has naturally occurring sulfites!), nothing is added besides apples.

WEST COAST The cider boom is not as strong on the west coast, but that’s tied up in the history of industrial farming.

Most apple farms in California,

BUY: SCAR OF THE SEA, CALIFORNIA HARD CIDER Like Bonny Doon, Scar of the Sea is both a winery and cidery in California. They use almost exclusively cider apples (high in texture-giving tannin and acidity) and ferment in oak barrels with naturally occurring yeasts. It’s clean, crisp, smooth, and super food-friendly. Pair this cider with a cheese plate or make like the French and drink it with crepes for breakfast.

SPAIN Spanish cider sits squarely in the funk camp. It tastes more like kombucha or sour beer than it does other ciders. The cause for the refreshing, almost vinegary funk is twofold: first, native

Spanish apples have less sugar and are more bitter and acidic than most other apples. Second, wild fermentation means no yeasts are added. Spanish cider is still, too, but it’s usually served in 3-4 ounce servings and poured from several feet above the glass. While this practice can be messy if you’re not a seasoned pro, it gives the cider a little shake and sparkle. If you’re curious about Spanish ciders go try a glass at Torero and maybe they’ll even do a traditional high pour if you ask nicely.

BUY: SHACKSBURY BASQUE CIDER OR ISASTEGI SAGARDO NATURALA CIDER

CRAFT CIDER There’s a non-traditional style of cider that toes the line between cider and beer. Some are fermented using saison yeasts, some are hopped, and some are can-conditioned. These ciders are almost exclusively made in climates that aren’t hospitable to high-quality cider apples, so techniques like adding hops or using different yeasts can add complexity where it might not have been otherwise.

BUY: TIN CITY HOPPED CIDER, SCAR OF THE SEA HOPPED CIDER, OR AUSTIN EASTCIDERS TEXAS HONEY CIDER a February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

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FOOD & DRINK // 19

tellyouwhat

I

ntroducing “Tell You What,” a new column in which Jennie Lloyd asks people at restaurants and bars to tell her a good story. No last names are used.

Larry is two cups of coffee deep when I meet him in the back booth at Maxxwell’s. He’s a regular there. For hours, he sips from a white mug in the high-ceilinged diner attached to the historic Campbell Hotel off 11th Street.

“I have seen you somewhere, I swear to god,” Larry says as I take off my coat. “No, I have.

I’m not just saying that. But I have.” (Later in our conversation, he admits he’s used the question as a come-on. “Not in this case though,” he says.)

We both live in the neighborhood, like the rest of the families and couples filling the booths as they come in from the cold and church on this bright Sunday afternoon. Everyone is dressed in crisp khakis and knit dresses.

Larry wears soft colors and well-fitting layers—a warm mustard sweater, soft brown leather jacket, jeans, wire-rimmed glasses—and a nice head of hair, likely in his late 60s. Next to him, stacked in size order, smallest on top, is a tidy leather planner, the Sunday Tulsa World, newest issue of TTV, and a copy of his self-published book of short stories.

He is styled like a man who came up in TV and radio news in the 1960s. Which, he is. He presents like a man who learned showmanship in an embalming room, prepping bodies for the funeral parlor. Which, he also is.

Fresh out of college, he worked the field as a reporter at KOTV-Channel 6. He tried his luck in LA, moving to southern California in 1973. He has a TVready tidiness and a voice with a congenial timbre that eases a lis20 // FOOD & DRINK

MORGAN WELCH

TELL YOU WHAT A tale of cocktails and hungry tigers

by JENNIE LLOYD

tener into commercial break. His luck panned out. Back in those looser, booze-in-the-filing-cabinet days, Larry was a field reporter and, later, lead assignment editor for stations around LA until 1990.

He tells me about The Hungry Tiger, a chain of swanky seafood houses, where, in 1970s southern California, you might run into a 30something TV newsman fresh off life shots with updates on the Hillside Strangler.

“It was quite the restaurant,” Larry says. “Big people came in there and everything else.”

The logo for the upscale restaurant was a cartoon tiger, tongue out, a polka-dotted napkin tied rakishly around his neck; concrete mid-century modern cool with

convenient locations in places like Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Palos Verdes, and on Hollywood Boulevard.

Thirty years ago, Larry was at that restaurant with some new LA friends—“real Adonises,” he calls them. Larry, on the other hand, was the kid from Tulsa who grew up at 11th & Yale, who learned how to do makeup on corpses at Moore Funeral Home while working his way through college.

One night, his handsome buddies pushed him to approach some ladies at The Hungry Tiger’s bar; they thought it’d be funny.

“They set me up,” he says.

“They said, ‘See those two ladies over there, go and tell them you’ll buy ‘em a drink.’”

Larry took his coiffed hair and region-free dialect over to their table and said, “Hi, I was just wondering if I could buy you girls a drink.”

“And one of them looked over at me and said, ‘What the fuck’s wrong with you? Can’t you see we’re eating?’”

He said, “Oh god, I am so sorry.” The ladies noticed Larry’s “Adonis” friends down the bar, snickering at their reaction to the blundering buddy they’d sent over to make a fool of himself.

So, Larry says, “One of them just grabbed me and said, ‘Sit down here,’ and that was even worse.

I didn’t know what would happen next. They said they’d play along.

So they doted on me and played it up big and poo-poo’d my friends.

“Well, it gets worse. We all get to drinking, Dorothy and oh, the other one had a house in Hollywood Hills. And they said, ‘Let’s go up and have a few drinks and …”

He trails off and glances around the dining room. “I don’t tell too many people this story but we’re writers, so. It turned into [long pause] … a threesome. The one and only time in my life. Well, I’ll tell you what. Don’t ever get into one. I’ll tell you what, but they were so sweet.

“My friends never believed me,” he says and raises one crooked finger.

The church crowd in Maxxwell’s begins to disperse. The Disney movie on the TV above us switches to a 30-minute ad for a power AirFryer.

We pay our coffee and champagne tabs. He waves and says again, “I’ve seen you somewhere before, I swear to god.”

Larry stays awhile next to his stack of periodicals, to drink more coffee and talk to the waitresses, whom he knows by name. They keep his mug filled. a February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE’S BEST OF TULSA 2017 Despite what President Trump says on Twitter, we do not sell nominations for the Best of Tulsa Awards, nor do we tamper with your nominations—this is all determined by you, our faithful readers. We don’t agree with every choice—not by a long shot. (No love for Pollos Asados Al Carbon in any category? Pssh.) but that’s the beauty of democracy, right?

Now, go back to THETULSAVOICE.COM/BOT one more time and cast your ballot for the bestest of the best.

Voting ends March 5. Winners will be announced on March 29 in a special edition of The Tulsa Voice.

AND THE NOMINEES ARE ...

FOOD AND DRINK BEST BREAKFAST Brookside By Day Dilly Diner Chimera Cafe Savoy Restaurant Tally’s Good Food Cafe BEST BRUNCH The Bramble Breakfast and Bar Brookside By Day Dilly Diner R Bar & Grill SMOKE. on Cherry Street BEST BLOODY MARY Cosmo Cafe Fassler Hall James E. McNellie’s Public House Kilkenny’s Irish Pub SMOKE. on Cherry Street BEST COFFEEHOUSE Chimera Cafe Coffee House on Cherry Street DoubleShot Coffee Company The Gypsy Coffee House Shades of Brown BEST BARISTA Lauren Burrows, 918 Coffee Matthew Craddock, Hodges Bend Andrew Jolly, DoubleShot Coffee Company James Markiewicz, Danger Cats Coffee Co. & Foolish Things Coffee Co. Taylor Mitchell, Fair Fellow Coffee Devin Parham, Topeca Coffee Morgan Wolff, Scooter’s Coffee BEST BAKERY Ann’s Bakery Antoinette Baking Co. Ludger’s Bavarian Cakery Merritt’s Bakery Pancho Anaya Bakery BEST FARMERS MARKET Brookside Farmers Market Cherry Street Farmers Market Rose District Farmers Market BEST GROCERY STORE Aldi Reasor’s Foods Sprouts Farmers Market Trader Joe’s Whole Foods Market BEST FOOD TRUCK Alpha Grill Andolini’s Pizzeria Lone Wolf Masa Mr. Nice Guys BEST DELI Bill And Ruth’s Jason’s Deli Lambrusco’z Lassalle’s New Orleans Deli Trenchers Delicatessen BEST DINER Dilly Diner Flo’s Burger Diner Freeway Cafe Phill’s Diner Tally’s Good Food Cafe BEST SANDWICH Banh Mi, Lone Wolf Dutch Crunch, Trenchers Delicatessen Phat Philly, Phat Philly’s Po’ Boy, Lassalle’s New Orleans Deli Reuben, Trenchers Delicatessen

BEST BURGER Brownie’s Hamburgers Claud’s Hamburgers Fat Guy’s Burger Bar Flo’s Burger Diner Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili The Tavern

BEST MEXICAN Los Cabos Calaveras Mexican Grill El Guapo’s Cantina El Rio Verde El Tequila

BEST PLACE TO WATCH THE BIG GAME Bricktown Brewery Buffalo Wild Wings Elgin Park Fassler Hall R Bar & Grill

BEST THAI Bamboo Thai Bistro Bangkok Thai Super Buffet Lanna Thai My Thai Kitchen The Tropical

BEST BAR FOOD The Brook Restaurant & Bar Fassler Hall James E. McNellie’s Public House MixCo R Bar & Grill

BEST BBQ Albert G’s Bar-B-Q Burn Co Barbecue Elmer’s BBQ Oklahoma Joe’s Bar-B-Cue Rib Crib

BEST VIETNAMESE Binh-Le Vietnamese Restaurant Lone Wolf Pho Da Cao Pho Nhi Vietnamese Noodle House Ri Le’s Viet Huong

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ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT BEST GALLERY 108 Contemporary Hardesty Arts Center (AHHA) Living Arts M.A. Doran Gallery Mainline Art & Cocktails BEST MUSEUM Gilcrease Museum Philbrook Museum of Art Tulsa Children’s Museum Tulsa Historical Society & Museum Woody Guthrie Center BEST PUBLIC ART “Artificial Cloud” at The Center of the Universe Back Gallery Clean Hands Murals Día de los Muertos Murals at Living Arts Woody Guthrie Center Mural BEST VISUAL ARTIST Kevin Ray Bennett John Hammer Chris Mantle Tyler Thrasher Aaron Whisner BEST PHOTOGRAPHER Jeremy Charles Phil Clarkin Western Doughty Valerie Grant David Lackey John McCormack Shila Pratt Marco Simonelli BEST PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY American Theatre Company Talk of Tulsa Show Chorus Theatre Tulsa Tulsa Ballet Tulsa Symphony BEST PERFORMING ARTS SPACE American Theatre Company Studios Guthrie Green Hardesty Arts Center (AHHA) Living Arts Nightingale Theater Tulsa Performing Arts Center BEST PLACE TO HAVE A LAUGH Comedy Parlor Loony Bin Comedy Club Soundpony Comedy Hour Ok, So…Tulsa Story Slam Guthrie Green BEST FREE ENTERTAINMENT The Brady Arts District’s First Friday Art Crawl Guthrie Green River Parks Soundpony Walmart Yeti BEST ALL-AGES MUSIC VENUE BOK Center Brady Theater Cain’s Ballroom Guthrie Green Vanguard Music Hall BEST SMALL MUSIC VENUE Mercury Lounge Soundpony Vanguard Music Hall The Venue Shrine Yeti BEST LARGE MUSIC VENUE BOK Center Cain’s Ballroom Brady Theater The Joint at Hard Rock Casino Tulsa Performing Arts Center

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Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST

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

924 S. Boulder Church & Sunday School • 10:30am Wednesday Meeting • 6:00pm

OKLAHOMA STUDY OF NATIVE AMERICAN PAIN RISK RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS NEEDED

$200 compensation ($100/day)

INVESTIGATORS: Drs. Jamie Rhudy & Joanna Shadlow CONTACT: The University of Tulsa Psychophysiology Research Laboratory 918-631-2175 or 918-631-3565

A novel research study is being conducted at The University of Tulsa to identify potential markers of risk for chronic pain in healthy (currently painfree) Non-Hispanic White and Native American individuals.

This study is safe, non-invasive, and does not involve medication. Participants must be able to attend 2 laboratory sessions (4-5.5 hours/day) in which physiological and behavioral reactions to different stimuli are recorded. This is a University of Tulsa, Cherokee Nation, and Indian Health Service Oklahoma Area Office IRB approved research study.

4 of 5 youth smokers

become adult smokers.

Young people are more sensitive to nicotine and more likely to become addicted, making it harder and harder to quit as they get older.

There are more ways than ever for kids to get addicted…

• • • •

Cigarettes E-cigarettes Smokeless tobacco Hookah

Each has harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems and even death. Talk to your kids about the dangers of tobacco.

For tips on how to get the conversation started, visit StopsWithMe.com.

24 // FEATURED

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick for education secretary, underwent her senate confirmation hearing last month and the sounds of scratching heads reverberated from both sides of the party aisle.

Tulsa teachers face an uphill battle

BY MITCH GILLIAM

In the hearing, Devos defended the presence of guns in schools to protect against “grizzlies,” seemed oblivious to the debate over standardized testing, and showed conviction only toward the idea of school vouchers. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley described DeVos’ appointment as handing over public education to a person “who wants to destroy [it].”

Scratched heads gave way to nervous sweat in Oklahoma, where we’re already experiencing an education crisis.

Oklahoma faces an $870 million budget shortfall in 2017. Teachers’ salaries have been stagnant since 2008, meaning they often leave for higher pay in surrounding states. Classroom sizes are well over the recommended limits, bus rides for students have been slashed, and although Tulsa Public Schools maintain a five-day school week, at least 100 Oklahoma districts have cut to four.

Those are just the issues we openly talk about.

A VELVET NOOSE

VALERIE GRANT

“I really enjoy my job, which is why I feel it’s my civic duty to talk about it. But I don’t want to lose my car for buying gas,” said a current TPS teacher who agreed to speak with me on condition of anonymity.

“I’ve been told my grades weren’t good enough ... with the implication that I should change Ds to Cs,” he said. He said higher graduation rates often lead to bonuses for superintendents—although TPS Superintendent Deborah Gist famously donated her 2016 bonus back to TPS. Apart from what he described as winking and nudging towards grade falsification by some principals, this teacher told me there is an over-reliance on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) in an effort to boost graduation rates.

IEPs are a list of modified expectations given to students with special needs.

Teachers may change their evaluation methods with regards to the students’ abilities and needs, and may become ever lenient on criteria like due dates for assignments.

IEPs might seem like a compassionate counterweight to the draconian one-sizefits-all application of standardized testing, FEATURED // 25

“Our state leaders have to identify a viable permanent revenue stream to fund salary increases for our teachers,” Nelson said. “We cannot continue on like this and keep great educators here in our state.”

VALERIE GRANT

but the anonymous teacher said there is an incentive to put students on IEPs using the narrowest criteria. IEPs can be assigned for students with emotional stress. Emotional disturbance is a true impediment to learning, but its broad definition leads to easy tweaking by teachers eager to place their “problem students” on the path from Ds to Cs. TPS district spokesperson Emma Garrett Nelson defended IEPs and explained the process of determining if a student is a suitable candidate for one.

“In order for a student to qualify for an Individualized Education Program, he or she is evaluated by a school psychologist, and the IEP team determines whether the student meets eligibility requirements,” Nelson said. “IEPs are developed to meet the unique needs of each student and give them the supports they need to learn and grow. Students with IEPs have a wide range of needs from very mild disabilities to significant disabilities that impact every facet of their day-to-day experiences. The IEP teams make the decisions about how best to help each child be successful.”

“There’s a whole lot of paperwork to get on an IEP, and there’s a whole lot of paperwork to get off one,” the anonymous teacher said. What he described is a velvet noose of sorts in which students have to study harder and jump through more hoops in order to overcome the handicap of lowered expectations.

26 // FEATURED

“Our priority as educators is to serve the best interests of our children and families, and some students need the highly specialized supports of an IEP,” Nelson said. “An IEP team includes a school administrator, a special education teacher, a general education teacher, a school psychologist, and related service providers such as occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech/language pathologists). At times, the parent is also part of this team. The team works to align services and supports for each student that match his or her ability with academic rigor. We are also under monitored by the state and have yearly data goals that guide our percentages of students served at various levels. We also have seven special education coordinators who oversee a network of schools and regularly review IEPs to ensure that services are consistent and appropriate for the student.”

Former Rogers and Union teacher Jon Paul Pope believes IEPs are a disservice to students, at least in how they’re currently implemented.

“They’re lowering the bar of rigor in the classroom to ensure student success,” Pope said. When asked for examples, Pope said teachers will routinely give IEP students multiple extensions on deadlines while ignoring spelling, grammar and other mechanical errors during the grading process, focusing on “content” instead.

Sometimes teachers will lower the evaluation methods of their entire class to

meet those of their population placed on IEPs, according to Pope. He said students pick up on this and will anticipate passing grades in spite of their decreasing effort.

The added paperwork of IEPs and mandatory meetings with IEP students’ parents is also a strain on underpaid teachers who grapple with bursting class sizes and fill roles outside of their job description—DHS’s budget has been gutted in Oklahoma, and our teachers are picking up the slack where school counselors once helped. “I’ve seen teachers keep bread, peanut butter, and jelly in their rooms for kids that look malnourished,” the anonymous teacher told me.

Then there are Teacher-and-Leader Effectiveness tests (TLEs), which add an extra level of stress to teachers. TLEs grade teachers according to their students’ performances, and these grades are hung like a hammer over their professional heads.

“I have been to professional development meetings with teachers and administrators, and they’ll show teacher ratings and people will see someone’s score and go ‘ooooooh,’” the teacher said. According to him, this dystopian rating system “primes the thinking of that colleague, and you’ll speak to and think of them through the lens of that rating.”

According to Pope, “data is poisoning everything in education.” The most debated use of data is standardized testing.

The great debate over standardized testing began when George W. Bush signed

the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. The law asserted national student success requirements and compelled states to issue standardized tests in order to receive federal funding. In 2015, a bipartisan Congress replaced most of the law with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which shifted focus on education from the federal to the state, but retained the required annual tests.

Many TPS schools employ benchmark tests (sometimes weekly) to assess students’ preparedness for the annual standardized tests. With so many tests, many argue that the time spent “teaching to the test”—as in narrowly focusing on teaching the content that will guarantee a passing grade—leaves no time for any learning beyond the scope of the test.

THE CHARTER OPTION

I spoke with Tyler Kinshella, a former teacher at Union who currently teaches at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences (TSAS).

Kinshella told me he knew he wanted to leave Union when he went to a professional development meeting.

“They showed us this new curriculum and it was something they were very excited for, and one other teacher and I asked for it, and everyone else said, ‘no, it’ll take away my time to plan for the test.’”

TSAS is a charter school, and it secures a degree of freedom for its teachers in exchange for greater scrutiny and account-

ability through TPS. Privately funded charter schools are encouraged to experiment with curriculum and overall approach, but their charters are reviewed by TPS. Kinshella is currently teaching a weeklong class on the Syrian Civil War at TSAS, something he claims he’d never be able to do at Union, as none of it will be on the annual state test.

“I like taking a week to spend on this, as it’s something more valuable than the ancient Middle Eastern questions that will be on the test,” Kinshella said. “You can practice life skills with this, and help understand the refugee crisis.”

Eric Doss, the school’s executive director, says TSAS has shirked the allure of benchmark tests and instead employ their own metrics for assessing students’ overall education in addition to state test preparedness.

“There is a theory that if they’re taking a test that looks like the one at the end of the year, they’ll be prepared for that test,” Doss said. “We are more under the theory that if you over prepare by having them read a whole lot and spend their time in deep substantial thought, when they get to the end they’ll be prepared for that test as well. We’ve seen that to be the case.”

Doss says TSAS takes this approach not only to free up class time, but also to prepare their students for more than graduation.

“Ultimately our kids are going to step out of this building, and a lot of them will go to college, and a lot of them will go to trade school, and to the military, and some of our art students will go directly into the arts ... if all they know how to do is bubble in answers on a test, they’re not going to be the best college student, Marine, painter, or musician.”

TSAS also maintains a teacher-to-student ratio average of 18:1 and utilizes a “restorative justice” over a “zero tolerance” discipline policy. While the charter school takes a different tack to education and discipline than its public counterparts, middle school principal Dan Hahn said they “don’t stare down their nose” at other Tulsa Public Schools.

“TSAS does not operate on a system of superiority to traditional public schools or other charter schools,” Hahn said. “One of the driving ideas behind the charter school experiment is that they will try innovative things, they’ll work, and we can communicate them to larger contexts. So our success can benefit other schools in the same way other schools’ success can benefit ours.”

Although TSAS seems like one oasis in Oklahoma’s education desert, even their waters are subject to evaporation.

“Budget cuts at TSAS in many ways have affected us more than traditional public schools, as five percent of our state funding goes to TPS,” Hahn said. “And you hear about a lot of nationwide budget cuts resulting in closed charter schools.”

years, and Tulsa has lost an average of 20 percent of its teachers over each of the last five years. With these declines, requests for and issuance of emergency teaching certificates in Oklahoma has skyrocketed.

I asked my anonymous teacher contact what could fix our state’s education problems and he instantly said “payroll.”

“When you drive competition for teachers, you get flat-out better teachers, and you are going to find that better teachers get you better test scores than anything else,” he said. “And when teachers don’t have to spend their time going from school to school looking for the perfect one that doesn’t exist, they can afford to stay put and work on the classroom culture where they are at.”

On this point, TPS spokesperson Emma Garrett Nelson agreed.

“We have a number of significant challenges, but the biggest one that all of our schools face is teacher recruitment and retention,” Nelson said. “We have a serious teacher shortage in our state due to the low salaries that make it incredibly difficult for our educators to put down roots and thrive here in Oklahoma.”

According to Nelson, the average budget of a first year teacher with a bachelor’s degree and one child breaks down as follows:

Monthly Income:

$1,437.96

(after taxes, insurance, vision, dental) Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences employees Tyler Kinshella, seventh grade science and geology teacher; Dan Hahn, middle school principal; and Liesa Smith, lead principal GREG BOLLINGER

TSAS high school principal Liesa Smith told me charter schools run on skeleton crews of staff. Where TSAS will have one math teacher, a larger school may have seven, and any unavoidable changes to personnel can deeply affect the entire school.

While TSAS is an appealing option for many students, it’s one of only six charter schools in the TPS system and competition is stiff. Around 500 students annually apply for TSAS, but enrollment currently caps at 375, and student applications are selected through a strict lottery process, where grades and discipline records are ignored.

In addition to enrollment often being a literal gamble, deregulation of and an over-reliance on charter schools can prove disastrous for a city.

Charter schools have flooded Detroit, Mich., and there are some 30,000 unfilled classroom seats. It’s bad enough that there are more charters than students, but test scores for Detroit’s charters are far below their nationwide counterparts.

Only four percent of Detroit’s 8th graders perform at their grade level in reading and

math. Schools open and close, seemingly randomly, and students are often cut off from decent schools by Detroit’s inadequate public transit. In spite of this, failing charters are allowed to expand, thanks to the work of the Great Lakes Education Project, a pro-charter lobby funded largely by Betsy DeVos and her husband, along with her in-laws, Amway founder Richard DeVos and his wife Helen.

THE PAYROLL SOLUTION

The subject of teacher pay looms heavily over the Oklahoma education discussion. A recent comparison between veteran Oklahoma teachers’ salaries and entry-level QuikTrip employees’ pay went viral on Facebook. It can take a teacher with a bachelor’s degree 11 years to reach the pay of a new hire at QuikTrip.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that over the past four years there has been a 16 percent decrease in Oklahoma high school graduates who choose to go into the education field, Nelson said. Additionally, the number of Oklahoma teacher candidates declined by 24 percent over the last eight

Balance after rent and utilities:

$297.96

Monthly child-raising cost:

$552

(based on USDA Cost of Raising a Child Calculator) Funds remaining:

-$4.23

per person per day

“Our state leaders have to identify a viable permanent revenue stream to fund salary increases for our teachers,” Nelson said.

“We cannot continue on like this and keep great educators here in our state.”

In the wake of Oklahomans rejection last November of a penny sales tax proposal to pay for teacher raises, a solution to the problem is more urgent than ever.

In her recent 2017 State of the State address, Gov. Mary Fallin acknowledged the crisis, saying, “the pay raise may need to be phased in and it may be targeted, but it must be done.”

But where our state will find the money remains a vexing question mark. a

FEATURED // 27

onstage

L

iving through these times asks a lot of us. How do we stay clear-headed and awake? How do we not burn out and lose our hearts (or our minds)? Art, now more than ever, is one of the better answers to both those questions.

Upcoming concerts by two of Tulsa’s most innovative music organizations bring opportunities to clarify our perceptions and reconnect to our humanity. They feature some of the most iconic works in the classical canon, but it’s what those works do, not what they are, that’s most compelling.

On February 18, for one night only, the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus brings Georg Freidrich Handel’s rarely-heard “Solomon” to the Art Deco splendor of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church.

The three-act oratorio requires a full baroque orchestra, organ and harpsichord, and a double chorus totaling 100 voices. Despite how challenging it is to present, TOC director Tim Sharp said he knew what he was doing when he chose to program it for this season.

“In this piece Handel was paying homage to George II, the king he worked for,” Sharp said. “He was saying Solomon was a wise leader, powerful, loved the arts, protected the people. The person who went to this concert in 1748 knew exactly what Handel was up to. It was propaganda. He was sucking up.

“But Solomon had another side,” Sharp explained. “He ended up going off the deep end, worshipped a whole bunch of gods, had 700 wives. I’d planned this concert not knowing how the election would go, but wow, did it become timely. We’ve got this president now and we’re all going bat crazy.”

For John Largess of the Miro Quartet, the Beethoven string quartets are the epitome of that definition of art. Chamber Music

28 // ARTS & CULTURE

CATHARTIC JOURNEYS Two classical music offerings meet us in the present day

by ALICIA CHESSER

Chamber Music Tulsa’s Miro Quartet | COURTESY

Tulsa culminates its monthslong Beethoven Festival with the Miro Quartet performing all 16 Beethoven string quartets during six concerts over ten days (Feb. 17-26)—an extraordinary feat of emotional, physical, and technical range and stamina.

“Part of why these works are so great,” Largess said, “is that Beethoven was one of the first composers to say, ‘art can be universal but I can also tell my story.

I’m going to tell it to you because I know you’ll understand. It can still be great art, but this is what the music sounds like when, for

instance, I don’t feel so great.’ He says, ‘I don’t have to be only noble, or only beautiful, or only tragic in a pleasant acceptable way.’”

The Miro Quartet will play the quartets in compositional order, unfolding in a single flow the story of Beethoven’s life, with all its successes and mistakes and setbacks, beginning when he was 30 years old and concluding when he was two months away from death, at age 56.

It’s a cathartic journey.

“Sometimes he’s more than happy,” Largess said. “He’s silly, he’s crazy, he’s manic. Sometimes

he’s more than sad: he’s depressed, he’s hopeless, he’s tragic. In the music he deals with these real emotions and processes them— sometimes coming to resolution, sometimes not—kind of like our real lives actually are. And he says it in a way that anyone can understand if they listen to it with the perspective of their own life.”

Attending all six performances to hear the entire cycle means an investment from audience and performers alike.

“You’ll be changed,” Largess emphasized. “If you go despite the resistance you will have this totality of experience that you probably won’t have the chance to have again, without a huge investment of time money and energy on your part, and it won’t be your community’s version of it either.”

Largess recalled the words of a woman who attended a performance of the quartets last summer. She spoke about a personal struggle and said she’d spent most of the performance in tears.

“Thank you for giving me that gift to just really feel what I’m feeling and to know that Beethoven says it’s okay,” she told the Miro Quartet, “that I’m not alone in going through this, that I’m alive. I’m alive and I’m feeling.”

“That’s what this music is for,” Largess said. “It’s for you. We’re doing it for you. For who you are, now.” a

“SOLOMON” Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m., Boston Avenue United Methodist Church.

Tickets at tulsachorus.com

BEETHOVEN WINTER FESTIVAL MIRÓ QUARTET PERFORMANCES Feb. 17-26, times vary, Tulsa PAC. Tickets at chambermusictulsa.org February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED DEAD.

MARCH 3-12, 2017

JOHN H. WILLIAMS THEATRE AT THE TULSA PAC To Order Tickets MyTicketOffice.com (918) 596-7111

EXHIBITION LECTURE

TEXTURED PORTRAITS The Ken Blackbird Collection

February 26 • 3 p.m. • Free with paid museum admission.

Engage directly with photographer Ken Blackbird as he takes you on an exploration of his photography exhibition, Textured Portraits: The Ken Blackbird Collection. Blackbird (Assiniboine) has been a documentary photographer of Native American life for 30 years.

This exhibition will feature a sampling of his collection of photos of contemporary Native American life in the West.

TU is an EEO/AA Institution.

GILCREASE.ORG THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 29

artspot

Adam Carnes’ “Chunkism” show is on view at Living Arts through Feb. 23 | COURTESY

In the flesh

Confrontational ‘Chunkism’ show provokes a range of opinions

by AMANDA RUYLE dam Carnes wants to shake things up with his larger than life depictions of very naked, very fleshy women. But he won’t tell you how to feel about his work, that’s entirely up to you.

A recipient of the 2017 Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Carnes’ first gallery show, “Chunkism,” is hanging at Living Arts now through Feb. 23 and is already inviting controversy.

Standing in the gallery on opening night in a black “Security” t-shirt, holding a sign reading “Chunkism,” Carnes avoided questions and stood stock-still, seeing this role as performer is a “bit of a token” to what he is asking of his audience, which is to be a bit uncomfortable.

Conceived as a combination of performance art and visual art, this is the first time all the “Chunkism” pieces have been shown together. Originally intended to be shown one or two at a time, Carnes wanted to “sideswipe the regular bystander going about their life,” and challenge people to “look at things differently” and to react.

A vital aspect of “Chunkism” is the reaction of the viewer to the work. A videographer is always

A

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

present at the street shows, usually recording on Carnes’ iPhone so it “feels less intimidating…it’s more guerilla style and closer to the way people stare at their phones all day.” A mounted iPad serves this purpose at Living Arts. Carnes takes the videos and edits them into entertaining segments of a range of reactions and adds them to his website, Chunkism.com.

“I want to encourage people to look at things differently, and encourage honest, impulsive feedback too,” Carnes said. “I want their unadulterated opinions.

I welcome negative or positive. I encourage it.”

Reactions to the work in Tulsa have been mixed.

Noor Kahbi was at the opening with a group of friends and found the absence or blurring of the subjects faces to be intriguing.

“Someone who might be uncomfortable viewing this won’t have distractions to the eye,” she said. “They have to look at what is presented to them and accept it, really focus on it.”

Her friend, Portlyn Houghton-Harjo, agreed.

“It’s breaking barriers that we are used to, especially since it’s kind of like classical art, but turned on its head.”

Others were initially taken aback. Leon Powell got booted out of his house on a Friday night so his wife could have a girls’ night. Goaded into attending the opening, he was initially turned off by the size, scope and aggressive portrayal of flesh in the paintings.

“It almost looks like it started as a photograph,” he said, motioning to a particularly detailed painting in which a non-idealized vulva is clearly present.

“The subject matter, at first I was like ‘hmmm?’ Then the longer I looked the more I appreciated it.

It’s so real. And I can’t say enough about the subject matter. I wonder why he’s drawn to it?”

If Mr. Powell had hoped for an answer to that question, he is out of luck because Carnes does not, as he said, “feel it’s necessary to append an in-depth point of view” to his paintings, an attitude which has drawn some criticism from other members of the Tulsa arts community.

Local artist Taryn Singleton saw the show and found several aspects of Carnes’ work to be problematic, so she tagged Carnes in an Instagram post and started a somewhat heated conversation across several social media plat-

forms that included Carnes and other members of the Tulsa arts community.

“I think that artists definitely have a responsibility to be mindful of the kinds of images and ideas that they put into the world, especially when claiming to deal with large concepts or questions such as ‘where are humanity and society going?’ (from Adam’s artist statement in the gallery),” Singleton said.

“By starting this dialogue with Carnes and the community, I hope to raise awareness about the problems Carnes represents with this body of work and to show that artistic accountability is important.”

Carnes has chosen to create works of art that, by their very size and subject matter will invite controversy, but then doubled-down by denying viewers the gratification that a cohesive artist’s statement can provide. He has challenged them to confront their own feelings about the work, and then asked for their opinions.

Because, as he sees it, he is “putting on a pedestal the way people perceive and interrupt art and what they expect to get from art,” as opposed to his singular artistic interpretation. a February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

T H E AT R E NORT H present s

by Jeffery Sweet “Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party” cast members | COURTESY

FULL IMMERSION THEATRE Going ‘Wild’ at the IDL

by MICHAEL WRIGHT

“I

’m always looking for new ways to make theatre interesting for our audiences,” says Theatre Pops artistic director Meghan Hurley. She calls her approach to Andrew Lippa’s musical, “immersive dinner theatre.”

Those attending the Theatre Pops production of “Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party,” running February 17-26 at the IDL Ballroom, will find actors interspersed with the audience rather than on a stage. Attendees will feel immersed in the rowdy world of the play—the underbelly of 1920s New York City—and its shady characters—like Eddie the Thug and Dolores the Hooker. To enhance the atmosphere, audience members are welcome to come dressed in styles of the era.

The musical is based on the 1928 book-length poem by Joseph Moncure March, which was presumed lost until published as a graphic novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and illustrator, Art Spiegelman (“Maus,” “The Shadow of Two Towers”).

The poem is a hardboiled Jazz Age tale told in syncopated rhyming couplets. It is the story of Queenie (Tabitha Littlefield), a flapper of easy virtue, and her lover, Burrs (Rick Harrelson), at a point when their relationship has become increasingly unstable.

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

March’s simple style provides a solid foundation for the show’s songs, such as the opening line of the poem: “Queenie was a blonde and her age stood still,/And she danced twice a day in vaudeville.”

The 1928 book received mixed reviews but achieved widespread success. One of the most positive responses was from fellow author and editor Louis Untermeyer, who said, “It is repulsive and fascinating . . . and unremittingly powerful. It is an amazing tour de force.”

The story has remained popular to the degree that two separate versions were produced in 2000.

The Lippa musical won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. A different version, by Michael John LaChiusa, ran on Broadway at the same time, garnering seven Tony nominations but winning none.

“The story has always been fascinating to me,” Hurley said. “The characters were almost speaking to the audience.”

Her choice was to close the gap between viewer and performer.

The production style will create a feeling that the audience is actually at a very wild party.

Attendees may reserve seats for the show but also for a special preshow four-course meal, created

by Ludger’s Catering, along with specially crafted drinks by IDL bartenders. a

Directed by Dr. Rodney L. Clark

February 19th at 3:00pm February 24th and 25th at 8:00 pm Liddy Doenges Theatre • Tulsa Performing Arts Center 110 E. 2nd Street, Tulsa, OK Purchase tickets at the box office, (918) 596-7111 or www.myticketoffice.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

@ the PAC

February

17- 26- Miro Quartet, Beethoven Winter Festival Chamber Music Tulsa 19, 24-25- Court-Martial at Fort Devens- Theatre North 25- Puccini To Pop - Tulsa Opera 2/28, 3/1- Shen Yun

March

1- Brown Bag It: Lise Glaser- Tulsa PAC Trust 3-4- Bridgman-Packer Dance Company Living Arts of Tulsa 3-5, 9-12- Sweeney Todd- Theatre Tulsa 3/4- 4/1- 40th Anniversary Art Show PAC Gallery 4- Rockin’ Road To Dublin 10-12, 16-18- The Caine Mutiny CourtMartial- American Theatre Company 11- TSO Pops: Route 66- A Trip Down Memory Road 12- Jane Monheit, Nicholas Payton and Tulsa Symphony Orchestra Tulsa PAC Trust

ARTS & CULTURE // 31

The worst race riot in the history of the United States occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 when Greenwood, the prosperous black district of the city, was burned to the ground by a white mob.

I

t’s still an hour before first bell on the final day of school, and the ceiling fan is stirring a little breeze

so papers on Mr. O’Malley’s desk rise and walk down the aisle, as if they, too, had someplace better to be.

I’m daydreaming of dancing with Jimmy Dolan when I hear something rolling down Cincinnati Avenue—the tearing sound of old metal wheels and an axle that needs grease, and even in 1921, when the trolley carries me home each evening along downtown streets

MARKHAM JOHNSON from Greenwood Burning: Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921

paved for fleets of Ford Roadsters, the sound of horses’ hooves is not unfamiliar, though part of a world we’ve all outgrown.

Now, I can just make them out, Percherons, pounding steel shoes into asphalt that by midday will be slicked with tar, and pulling an old buckboard wagon bearing too much weight on its springs.

So I’m wondering what’s in back? What’s stacked under the heavy tarpaulin?

Maybe cordwood for the big boiler in the school basement.

On the first of June, there’s still a chill in the air when the sun is still waiting, and I’ve got the school to myself. and because I’m surrounded by old poets stuck to the walls, I glance back at Wordsworth and Shelley peering over my shoulder, and Byron who dance the Texas Tommy all night long.

And now the wagon’s almost underneath the window, and a little light is just creeping over the Edison Auto Motel, when I notice something sticking out from under the canvas— feet, shoeless, lots of feet, some turned up and others down.

Manikins for the windows at Vandevers? But these are black.

And oh lord, now I smell smoke and wonder if the school is burning, and from this second-floor window, I can see a dark cloud rising from the far side of the railroad tracks—Little Africa, in the first fingers of gathering light. And later in class, I smell ash and kerosene on Mr. O’Malley’s hands as he smooths the semester final on my desk. Now, all the students are turning to stare out the window as sunlight reveals the death of the Dreamland Ballroom and a thousand homes rendered in flame. And I remember the feet in the wagon passing Central High and turning at McNulty Field, where Babe Ruth clubbed a baseball so far over the right-field wall it rolled an extra hundred yards to settle by a gravestone in Oaklawn Cemetery. And now I know where that wagon was bound, and by tomorrow no one’s ever going to speak of Greenwood again.

“Grandmother Ruth—Last Day of School” originally appeared in Nimrod International Journal’s Fall/Winter 2016 issue, Awards 38. Nimrod is The University of Tulsa’s literary magazine. For more information and to purchase issues, visit www.utulsa.edu/nimrod.

Markham Johnson won Nimrod’s Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry in 2016. His poems have appeared widely in such magazines as Nimrod, This Land, and Nine Mile, and his book "Collecting the Light" was published by the University Press of Florida. He teaches at Holland Hall School.

32 // ARTS & CULTURE

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

bookworm

J

ennifer Latham’s first book, “Scarlett Undercover,” (2015) is a young adult novel about a Muslim teen detective. Her second novel, “Dreamland Burning,” published this month and also for young adults, is about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.

Jennifer acknowledges in her author’s note the controversy over whether or not the use of the term “riot,” is correct.

“I’ve gone with race riot not because I disagree with the accuracy of the other labels,” wrote Latham, “but because it’s the most commonly used historical term. And honestly, I believe riot is a fair description of what white Tulsans did.”

Latham’s novel is told from the points of view of Rowan Chase, a seventeen-year-old girl living in present day Tulsa, and William Tillman, a seventeen-year-old boy living in 1921 Tulsa. Rowan’s father, a white man, is the heir to a successful Oklahoma oil company and her mother is a well-respected, black attorney. William’s father is white and owns a music shop in downtown Tulsa and his mother is Osage.

Rowan is awakened one morning by the hubbub of workers in the early stages of remodeling the servants’ quarters behind her family’s home. The property has been in her father’s family for generations. The workers have just removed the floor when she hears a commotion and the workers leaving in a rush. When she investigates she sees what frightened them off—a skeleton.

The skeleton’s clothing is still partially intact and Rowan takes the wallet out of its suit pocket where she finds a receipt with names, an accounting of payments made on a Victrola and a 1921 date. Rowan can’t resist a mystery and calls her best friend, James, whose assistance she enlists to uncover the identity of the person buried under the floor and the story behind the receipt.

In 1921, Will Tillman is jealous when he sees the girl of his dreams, Addie, sitting at a table in a local speakeasy with Clarence, THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

WE CANNOT FORGET Jennifer Latham’s ‘Dreamland Burning’ takes on Tulsa’s past and present racism

by DEBORAH J. HUNTER who is black. He allows himself to be goaded into making a scene when Clarence touches Addie’s hand. He strikes at Clarence who dodges the blow and pushes him away. Will falls against a table injuring his arm. As a result of the altercation, Clarence is eventually hunted down, beaten and killed. Will feels responsible for Clarence’s death, but he is pressured by his father and others to uphold the rules of white domination.

The antagonist in this novel is white supremacy and is fully embodied in the character of Vernon Fish. Fish takes every opportunity he can to belittle and threaten Will, calling him a “halfbreed” and bragging about being accepted into the Ku Klux Klan.

He tells Will he has killed before and shows him the notches on his gun. Every scene in which Fish is present is intense and dangerous.

In Rowan we see levels of privilege that go beyond skin color.

James lets Rowan know that she doesn’t face the same obstacles as other brown people because of her father’s wealth and influence.

Rowan has never been north of the Brady District and when she doesn’t get the summer internship she expected she is referred instead to a clinic in North Tulsa.

As she drives, she makes observations. “There were no gang fights, no tweakers lurking in doorways or carjackers waiting on corners. It didn’t feel dangerous so much as forgotten.”

I love mysteries and Jennifer Latham has presented a good mystery. Who is the man buried under the floor and how did he die?

What happens to Will in 1921? Joseph? Ruby? Does Will defy white Tulsa or does he give in to the pressure to conform? And what does it all have to do with Rowan’s family? There is also a twist near the end. As a native Tulsan and descendant of Race Riot survivors, I was impressed with the story’s ability to carry me along on Rowan’s search for answers.

The characters were well developed and believable. The layout of today’s Tulsa as described is authentic and Jennifer has written an accurate account of Tulsa’s past and present racism. The 1921 invasion of Greenwood is an important historical event that was buried for decades and not addressed in history books. Oklahoma history has also been quiet about the Osage murders, which are mentioned in Latham’s book.

On her webpage, Jennifer Latham states: “I wrote DREAMLAND because it’s important to learn about forgotten parts of our country’s past, and because we need to pay attention to the racial violence going on around us now.

We need to acknowledge it. Talk about it. Fix it. Together. And we cannot, cannot forget.”

I wholeheartedly agree. a

“Dreamland Burning” book launch Wednesday, Feb. 22, 7 p.m.

Greenwood Cultural Center 322 N Greenwood Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

thehaps BOOKSMART

Tulsa Artist Fellow Arigon Starr will discuss her comic book Super Indian, in which the titular hero protects his reservation after gaining superpowers from a secret government food additive. Feb. 16, 7 p.m., OSU-Tulsa, booksmarttulsa.com COMEDY

Trumplandia or The Bynum Brigade Invades City Hall // For nearly 80 years, local performers have skewered newsmakers through musical parody and sharp wit at the annual Tulsa Gridiron. Feb. 17-18, 8 p.m., $30-$80, tulsagridiron.org THEATRE

CHALLENGING THE CULTURE OF CRUELTY Fri., Feb. 17

In this speech drawn from his book “Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Jeopardizing the Future of America,” antiracism activist Tim Wise examines the ways in which American politics and culture serve to rationalize inequalities on the basis of class and race. TU’s Lorton Performance Center, utulsa.edu

Broken Arrow Community Playhouse presents Neil Simon’s longest-running Broadway hit, the newlywed comedy, “Barefoot in the Park.” Feb. 17-19, 24-26, $10-$15, bacptheatre.com

THEATRE

Court-Martial at Fort Devens // When a colonel demotes a group of black women in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II from medical technicians to cleaning duty, a battle of wills ensues. Presented

by Theatre North. Feb. 19, 24-25, PAC, tulsapac.com FOOD

Celebrate a year of Kitchen 66, incubator of delicious ideas, with South American fusion cuisine from Que Gusto and a store filled with products from other Kitchen 66 members. Feb. 21, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., kitchen66tulsa.com COMEDY

Over a dozen women will perform in the first of two preliminary rounds of the 2017 Funniest Female Comedian in the Region competition. Feb. 21, 8 p.m., $5, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/BazarEntertainment

MIRÓ QUARTET: BEETHOVEN WINTER FESTIVAL Feb. 17-26

The Austin-based group returns to Tulsa, offering the rare opportunity to hear the complete Beethoven quartet cycle performed live over six nights. 7 p.m., $35, Kathleen Westby Pavilion, PAC, tulsapac.com

BOOKSMART

Acclaimed local YA author Jennifer Latham launches her new novel, “Dreamland Burning,” which takes place during the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

Feb. 22, 7 p.m., Greenwood Cultural Center, booksmarttulsa.com DOCUMENTARY

For the most up-to-date listings

thetulsavoice.com/calendar 34 // ARTS & CULTURE

Circle Cinema will present a screening of the Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, “I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO,” followed by a discussion with special guests Robert Jackson and Hannibal Johnson. Feb. 24, 7 p.m., circlecinema.com February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF TULSA

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THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 35

BEST OF THE REST LSD & Me: Ayelet Waldman // Ayelat Waldman is the author of “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life,” a fascinating account of her experiment with microdoses of LSD in an effort to treat a debilitating mood disorder. // 2/15, Congregation B’nai Emunah, booksmarttulsa.com HOTTEA Yarn Installation: Opening Day // See Philbrook as never before, thanks to acclaimed artist HOTTEA’s largescale yarn installation. // 2/24, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULER! A

sk New Orleans’ Rebirth Brass Band how best to spend Mardi Gras, and they’ll tell you to “Do Whatcha Wanna.” It’s great advice for a day dedicated to enjoyment in the fullest. Read on for some of the best Mardi Gras options in town, and in the meantime, pay a visit to Cajun Ed’s Herbert’s Specialty Meats or Lassalle’s New Orleans Deli (or both if you know what’s good for you) to get your taste buds into the spirit.

In New Orleans, Fat Tuesday is the culmination of weeks of preparations and parties leading up to the big day. The Venue Shrine is following suit and starting the party early by offering up their Mardi Gras Masquerade on Saturday, Feb 25. The Masquerade features performers of all walks, including burlesque and fire performers, magicians, stilt walkers, Mike Cameron Collective playing Dixieland jazz, as well as a Cajun feast, costume contest, and more. Benefitting the local nonprofit, The Coffee Bunker. Visit tulsamardigrasmasquerade.com for more.

You can start celebrating at happy hour at Soul City, where music begins at 4 p.m., with a lineup that includes Poppa Foster, Travis Fite, and Dustin Pittsley.

The biggest Fat Tuesday celebration is in the Blue Dome District, where streets will be closed for the annual Mardi Gras Parade and District Crawl, from 6-10 p.m. Grand Marshalls Erin Christy of KTUL and Tulsa World music and entertainment writer Jerry Wofford will lead the parade, which kicks off at 7 p.m.

The party will cover the entire district, with events, specials, giveaways, and plenty of beads at Blue Dome businesses, including a shrimp boil and music by Chris Combs and Friends at Fassler Hall, funk band Smoochie Wallus (and free masks) at Enso, and DJ Robbo spinning 80s and 90s jams at The Max. Nearby at The Fur Shop, Live In Tulsa will throw a party featuring over a dozen DJs and bands on three stages, fire performers, and giveaways, starting at 9 p.m.

Friday Night Lit! // 2/17, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com The Mic Drop // 2/18, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com Sunday Night Stand Up // 2/19, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com Open Mic Comedy hosted by Andrew Deacon // 2/22, VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge

Oklahoma Expressions: Opening Day // From 1940 to 1976, Philbrook hosted The Oklahoma Artists’ Annual Exhibition, a juried competition featuring work by dozens of Oklahoma artists.

This exhibition highlights the best of the best. // 2/25, Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org

T-Town Famous // 2/24, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

Syria: Facts & Fictions // Elliot Ackerman will be in Tulsa to discuss his acclaimed new novel, “Dark at the Crossing.” // 2/26, The Venue Shrine, booksmarttulsa.com

Sunday Night Stand Up // 2/26, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

Pathways to Sustainability: Creating TCC’s Sustainable Future Today // TCC’s third sustainability conference will feature speeches from Dr. Marty Matlock, lead Sustainability Officer at the University of Arkansas, and community food activist Taylor Hanson. // 2/22

Battle of the New Bloods Vol. 3 // 2/27, The Venue Shrine, tulsashrine.com

Women’s Entrepreneurship: Innovating Tulsa’s Economic Development // Explore the importance of women’s entrepreneurship, With guest speaker Greta Schettler, Vice President of WEConnect International. // 2/23, 36 Degrees North, 36degreesnorth.co

Army of Stand Ups // 2/25, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com Whitney Cummings // 2/25, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com

Roast of Scotty Chapman // 2/26, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com/Tulsa

Soundpony Comedy Hour // 2/27, Soundpony, thesoundpony.com No-Mic Showcase w/ Ryan Green, Jay Kincade, Griffin Schulz, Josie Peacock, Thomas King, Chris Cagle, Alphonso Caldwell, T.J. Clark, Dave Short // 2/28, Lot No. 6 - Centennial Lounge, facebook.com Beardos w/ Cian Baker, T.J. Clark, Cam Porter, C.R. Parsons, Ethan Sandoval, and more // 2/17-2/18, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

Darryl Starbird’s National Rod & Custom Car Show // See over 1000 beautifully restored and customized hot rods from around the country. // 2/17-2/19, Expo Square - River Spirit Expo, starbirdcarshows.com

Andy Woodhull, Mike Cronin, C.R. Parsons // 2/22-2/25, Loony Bin, loonybincomedy.com/Tulsa

Vintage Tulsa Show // Browse over 250 booths of vintage merchandise and antiques from dealers from twenty states. // 2/17-2/19, Expo Square - Exchange Center, vintagetulsashow.com

SPORTS

Just Between Friends // One of the country’s leading children’s and maternity consignment events. // 2/25-3/4, Expo Square - Exchange Center, tulsa.jbfsale.com

PERFORMING ARTS Tulsa Opera: Puccini to Pop // Six internationally acclaimed artists come together for this concert of opera and pop favorites. // 2/25, Tulsa Performing Arts Center - Chapman Music Hall, tulsapac.com/index.asp Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party // Two jazz-age lovers throw a party in their Manhattan apartment and tragedy ensues in this immersive dinner-theater experience. // 2/17-2/26, IDL Ballroom, Performing Arts, $25-$60, idlballroom.com Signature Symphony: Night at the Oscars // 2/24-2/25, VanTrease Performing Arts Center for Education, signaturesymphony.org Shen Yun // Celebrating 5,000 years of Chinese music and culture through awe-inspiring dance. // 2/28-3/1, Tulsa Performing Arts Center - Chapman Music Hall, tulsapac.com/index.asp

COMEDY Open Mic Comedy hosted by Chris Cagle // 2/15, VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

Open Mic Comedy hosted by Chris Cagle // 2/15, VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge

News Junkie // 2/24-2/25, Comedy Parlor, comedyparlor.com

TU Women’s Basketball vs Houston // 2/15, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 2/17, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Xtreme Fight Night 340 // 2/17, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com Sweetheart Run // 2/18, Blue Dome District, fleetfeettulsa.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 2/18, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 2/19, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs North Dakota State // 2/22, Mabee Center, mabeecenter.com TU Men’s Basketball vs USF // 2/23, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 2/24, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Women’s Basketball vs USF // 2/25, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs North Dakota State // 2/25, Mabee Center, mabeecenter.com TU Men’s Basketball vs East Carolina // 2/26, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs Allen Americans // 2/26, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Arctic Cat Nitro Arenacross Tour Championship Weekend // 2/24-2/25, Expo Square - Ford Truck Arena, nitroaxtour.com February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

ARTS & CULTURE // 37

musicnotes

J

uicy J stays grinding. Born Jordan Michael Houston, J’s unbridled talent combined with his relentless work ethic places him in the upper echelon of truly great rappers.

His interest in the rap business began at the age of 13 when he started checking out books from the library on the music industry.

He got his official start as the cofounder of Memphis group Three 6 Mafia, known for churning out party tracks laced with grisly, gothic-style beats and winning an Academy Award in 2006 for Best Original Song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from the film “Hustle and Flow.”

While winning an Oscar opened new doors for Three 6 Mafia, many would argue it led them down the wrong path of exposure. After starring in the failed reality show “Adventures in Hollywood,” the group experienced a lull, motivating Juicy J to focus on his solo career. It wasn’t until 2012 when the release of the chart-topping single “Bandz A Make Her Dance” propelled him back into the spotlight. The song was dropped on Juicy J’s Twitter account and unexpectedly blew up, eventually going Platinum.

Juicy J had been resurrected. He is currently on a 36-city tour with Canadian rapper Belly in support of upcoming album Rubba Band Business: The Album, a follow-up to his 2013 album Stay Trippy.

JUICY J: Umm, I got a lot of surprises, you know what I’m sayin? I kind of like to keep things a secret. I might be playing a few songs on my livestream on Instagram, but I don’t really like to talk about what I got goin’ on or who I got on the album, I like to surprise people.

TTV: Will you be playing some of the classics with Project Pat on tour?

JUICY J: Oh always. I gotta do that.

I cannot get on stage and not do a Three 6 Mafia set. I do that every time I perform.

TTV: So I gotta ask, are you sick of journalists constantly referencing back to “Bandz A Make Her Dance”?

Juicy J | COURTESY

FREE WEED Juicy J talks touring, Barry White, and the enduring popularity of “Bandz A Make Her Dance”

by MARY NOBLE

THE TULSA VOICE: Your tour starts in less than 10 days?

Rubba Band Business: The Album still set to release early this year?

JUICY J: Yep, can’t wait to get on this road.

JUICY J: Yeah, we are going to try and release it in February or March, somethin’ like that.

TTV: How are you feeling about it?

JUICY J: I’m great. I’m feeling really great.

TTV: You’ve been staying busy with your mix tape releases in 2016. Is 38 // MUSIC

TTV: How’s releasing a full-length album after so many singles?

JUICY J: It’s great. I’ve put a lot of hard work into this—well, I put a lot of hard work into all

my projects. Albums are more intricate. On a mixtape you just do what you do, you can put like 20 songs on there. But this album I have to narrow it down to almost 14 songs. There’s something for everyone, ya know? Songs for my old Three 6 Mafia fans, some stuff for my new fans—there’s definitely a mixture.

TTV: Any interesting features on the new album you can talk about?

JUICY J: Nah, it’s all good. I made that song, you know what I’m sayin’? It encompasses me and my career. I love talking about it, it’s great, I have no problem discussing that record. It’s encompassing.

TTV: Can you describe what it felt like seeing your song blow up when you weren’t expecting it?

JUICY J: It’s amazing. Especially, like you said, when you don’t be thinking it will—it hits you by surprise. I think it’s really great just to be able to still be in the game and come up with a record like that on some solo shit. I mean it was amazing. I can still perform that song, I can’t complain at all.

TTV: When I was researching I thought, “holy shit, that came out in 2012 and it’s still so relevant.” I mean, it’s still played all the time.

JUICY J: You could play it right now and they’d still turn up, they go crazy.

TTV: I know you pride yourself on being business and money-savvy.

Do you have any advice for up February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

and coming artists who might struggle with that side of things?

JUICY J: Save your money, pay your taxes, ya know what I’m sayin’?

I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, you’ve got to manage your money, you never know when this stuff is going to (end). Music is weird—one minute you’re poppin’, the next you’re back at your house doin’ nothin’. Save some money for a rainy day, there’s definitely goin’ to be some rainy days. You come up, you go down, you come up, you go down. If you manage your money right you’ll always be successful, you’ll always have good investments, and something to fall back on, and you won’t have to bust your ass to try to rap and get a bill paid, you know what I mean?

of people don’t know that Barry White was like a conductor, he had a whole orchestra. He put out albums he wasn’t even singing on, he would just let music play. I thought that was the dopest shit.

TTV: Is there anything else you’d like the public to know?

JUICY J: For every state that I go to on the tour where weed is legal I’m giving out free weed. But weed gotta be legal in the state or I’m not givin’ it out. I want my fans to cry, ya know? So I’m givin’ it out for free. Free weed. a

Juicy J will perform at Cain’s Ballroom on Sat., Feb. 18 with support from Belly and Project Pat. Alas, there will be no free weed.

For tickets and more details visit cainsballroom.com.

TTV: Many would argue that you and Gucci Mane have some of the best work ethics in the rap game, would you agree with that?

JUICY J: Yeah yeah, Gucci Mane and I, we work the same, definitely. We both stay in the studio and we got a lot in common. We’re both from the south. Gucci is a good friend of mine, ya know.

He’s killin’ it right now so, yeah, that’s the truth. We southern guys, man, we believe in ourselves and we believe in our dream and we stay at it and we get it, ya know?

TTV: Do you have anything to say about the Trump presidency?

JUICY J: Nah, I really don’t deal in politics, I’m just the Juicy guy. I let them politics stick with those politicians, ya know?

TTV: What is your favorite Barry White song?

JUICY J: Oh my god, I got so many. Barry White is one of my favorite musicians of all time. I mean you got “I’ve Got So Much to Give”—there’s just so many.

I could go for days. I wanted to meet that guy before he passed away. I used to listen to this stuff like clockwork growin’ up—break out the Barry White, ya know? He had a lot of great records. A lot THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

MUSIC // 39

musicnotes

Coming home Annie Ellicott’s return to Tulsa

by AMANDA RUYLE

I

f you’ve spent any time in the last decade paying attention to the Tulsa music scene, you’ve surely run across the ethereal and seemingly not-of-this-world jazz singer, Annie Ellicott. Having been a staple of the jazz scene for many years, she left town for a bit, but found her way back home and finished making Lonesome Goldmine, an ambient, ethereal departure from her traditional jazz projects, which she released last September.

Inspired by Danny Elfman’s soundtracks to Tim Burton movies, Bjork and Norwegian singer-songwriter Hanne Hukkelberg, Ellicott and her production partner, Mark Kuykendall, made the record over a number of years, and in a truly non-linear fashion.

In 2014 Ellicott packed her bags and headed to Northern California, in the spirit of that great Okie tradition of westward travel, settling in Marin County just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. “[The album] had been in the works for a couple of years by then, and I was taking regular trips back home to work on it while living in San Francisco,” Ellicott said.

But when her mother was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer, Ellicott moved home to care for her and focus on completing Lonesome Goldmine.

“My whole life through that period of time was basically caring for my mom and working on the album. Which was, as you can imagine, extremely intense … it was like being in a thick wilderness or something.”

40 // MUSIC

Annie Ellicott | JEREMY CHARLES

Being back in Oklahoma gave her and Kuykendall the time and space to work together in the way that made the most sense for the vision they had, which was multi-layered and cinematic—“So that if you’re listening with headphones, you close your eyes and you’re transported.”

“Our process is very in the moment and loose…it needed breathing room because it was so experimental. It was a new thing for me and Mark, so we needed

to be able to spread out and not worry too much about time and try things that failed like the first five times. My favorite song on the album right now is ‘Daddy Longlegs,’ and that was by far the hardest to make. We put the most hours into it.”

It’s hard to imagine artists having that kind of freedom anywhere else in the world, or even the drive to push forward on a multi-year project, especially when faced with caring for a loved one.

“The timing was really beautiful, actually,” she said.

She had a clear deadline for finishing the album, which was when her mom’s health was rapidly declining.

Pieces of her mother are heard throughout the album.

“Her father was her favorite person and a hero,” Ellicott said.

“I actually used his typewriter on the album as sort of a way of honoring her and him, in ‘Father Bones.’ So the typewriter at the intro and outro of ‘Father Bones’ in my grandfather’s actual typewriter.”

This intimacy and vulnerability come through in the music, and Ellicott meant it to be that way.

“One of the great potentials of music is that it has a power beyond other art forms to really affect you viscerally, to give you an actual bodily experience … and when I hear something that really hits me, like it’s actually new, it’s just a powerful thing, and I thought, you know, maybe I could do that for people.”

The reviews of Lonesome Goldmine have been positive, leaving Ellicott feeling grateful.

“It’s always a delightful surprise to get positive feedback, it’s so nourishing,” She said. “I really did pour an incredible amount of time and resource and heart and soul into it. So to have it validated as good enough, and better yet wonderful, is not only pleasurable, but it’s also relieving … it brings me unspeakable joy when somebody tells me that they’ve listened to my album and they love it.” a February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

musiclistings Wed // Feb 15

Sat // Feb 18

Wed // Feb 22

Keel’s Lounge – The Hitmen Mercury Lounge – Travis Linville Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesday – ($10) On the Rocks – Don White River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Wink Burcham Soundpony – Live band punk/metal karaoke w/ Satanico and the Demon Seeds* The Beehive Lounge – Sloppy Joe Fiasco The Blackbird on Pearl – Sloppy Joe Fiasco Acoustic Happy Hour The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Fur Shop – Kick Tree The Venue Shrine – Bezz Believe – ($15)

727 Club – Scott Ellison Cain’s Ballroom – Juicy J, Belly, Project Pat* – ($33-$115) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Bobby D Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Replay, Todd East Hunt Club – Animal Library, Benny Bassett Mercury Lounge – Steelwind River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Zodiac River Spirit Casino - Margaritaville Stage – The Hi-Fidelics Soul City – Doc Fell & Co Soundpony – Pony Disco Club The Beehive Lounge – The Danner Party, Roots of Thought, DOT The Colony – Chris Combs The Fur Shop – The Runaway Vanguard – Red Wood Rising, Sam Westhoff – ($7) Yeti – Rock N’ Roll Circus w/ The Greasy Mac, The Girls Room, The Shelter People, Drugs and Attics, The Golden Ones, Lochness Mobsters, Cucumber and the Suntans, circus acts*

Billy and Renee’s – Redneck Nosferatu, Not A Part Of It, When The Clock Strikes, Pawn Shop Heroes Crow Creek Tavern – Dan Martin Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Almost Famous Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – KISS – ($139.50) Keel’s Lounge – The Hitmen Mercury Lounge – Travis Linville Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesday – ($10) On the Rocks – Don White River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Wink Burcham Soundpony – TV Heads, Animal Names, Saganomics* The Blackbird on Pearl – Sloppy Joe Fiasco Acoustic Happy Hour The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Fur Shop – Sloppy Joe Fiasco

Thurs // Feb 16 American Theatre Company – The Band of Heathens* – ($19-$22) Cain’s Ballroom – DATSIK, Crizzly, Virtual Riot – ($24-$27) Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – The Hi-Fidelics Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Another Alibi, Jesse Joice Hunt Club – Weston Horn Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Band River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Darrel Cole, Ali Harter Soundpony – Brooke and Dawn The Blackbird on Pearl – Jacob Flint, Blake Lanford The Colony – Honky Tonk Happy Hour w/ Jacob Tovar The Fur Shop – Cash O’Riley, Chloe Johns Vanguard – Wilderado, The Wright Brothers – ($5-$7) VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Hamilton Loomis

Fri // Feb 17 American Legion Post 308 – Double “00” Buck Cain’s Ballroom – OklaHomegrown w/ Taddy Porter, Nicnos, Skytown, Good Villains – ($15) Dusty Dog Pub – Barry Seal Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Redland Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – 80’z Enuf, Donte Schmitz Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – Sugar Ray – ($25-$35) Hunt Club – The Dang Djangos, Eric Himan Band Mercury Lounge – Troy Cartwright pH Community House – Sloppy Joe Fiasco River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - Margaritaville Stage – Grooveyard Smitty’s 118 Tavern – The Blue Dawgs Soul City – Talia Keys Soundpony – My Brother and Me IV w/ Pade, Thrill, PaYroll, Villan, Kromatik The Blackbird on Pearl – Dance, Monkey, Dance!

The Colony – Dane Arnold & the Soup, Damion Shade – ($5) The Fur Shop – Randy Brumley Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO Vanguard – The Unlikely Candidates, If Then, Manta Rays – ($10) VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Dirt Box Wailers Whiskey Dog – The Hi-Fi Hillbillies Yeti – Cadillac Jackson, T.F.M. THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

Sun // Feb 19 Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Jack Wolfe w/ Jennifer & Pete Marriott – ($5-$20) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Chris Blevins Soundpony – Mariner The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Venue Shrine – FLAW, Righteous Vendetta – ($12-$15) Tulsa Spotlight Theatre – Havana 405 – 2 p.m. – ($20) Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO Woody Guthrie Center – Bryan McPherson – ($15-$18)

Mon // Feb 20 Hunt Club – Joe Kaplow River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Tovar The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Dave Les Smith and Jimmy Peterson Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Feb 21 BOK Center – Twenty One Pilots, Jon Bellion, Judah & the Lion – ($41.50-$51.50) Gypsy Coffee House – Tuesday Night Open Mic Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – The Hi-Fidelics Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar and the Saddle Tramps Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Levi Parham Soundpony – The Sueves, Planet What* The Beehive Lounge – Sloppy Joe Fiasco The Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam The Colony – Seth Lee Jones VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Lauren Barth Yeti – Writers Night

Thurs // Feb 23 Bound for Glory Books – David Dondero, Evan Hughes, Jimmy Lee Peterson, Grasscrack Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Lucas Gates Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Paul Bogart, Travis Marvin Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - The Joint – Tanya Tucker – ($25-$35) Hunt Club – Ego Culture Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Band River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens, Ali Harter Soundpony – Null The Colony – An Evening with Jared Tyler Vanguard – Wilderado, Slow Dreamer – ($5-$7)

Fri // Feb 24

American Legion Post 308 – Wiskey Bent Cain’s Ballroom – Black Tiger Sex Machine – ($18$20) Dusty Dog Pub – James Groves Blues Machine Fassler Hall – Johnny Polygon performs The Nothing Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – James Muns Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Members Only, Scott Ellison Hunt Club – BC and the Big Rig Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – An Evening of Wine and Jazz w/ Michael Fields, Jr. – ($15-$20) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – FuZed River Spirit Casino - Margaritaville Stage – The Sellouts Soul City – Lauren Barth & Jesse Aycock Soundpony – Bacon, Beats and Buttcheeks II The Colony – Dustin Pittsley Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO Vanguard – Dad. The Band, New Vision, Seasonal – ($10) VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Dark Horse Revival Yeti – Stinky Gringos, TFM, The Mules

Sat // Feb 25

BOK Center – The Rock & Worship Roadshow – ($10) Gypsy Coffee House – Hector Ultreras Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Cabin Creek – Wilbur Lee Tucker

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – FM Live, Miracle Max Magoo’s – Julie & The Retrospex River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Hook River Spirit Casino - Margaritaville Stage – The Duo Soul City – Dan Martin Soundpony – Sweet Baby Jaysus The Blackbird on Pearl – Mike Hosty* – ($5) The Colony – Wink Burcham The Fur Shop – Finches in the Attic, Sprnrml, Along Came Pauly, La Moustache Uncle Bently’s Pub & Grill – Retro Vanguard – My So Called Band – ($10)

Sun // Feb 26 Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Donald Ryan, The NSU Jazz Ensemble* – ($5-$20) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Chris Blevins Soundpony – Freeicecream, Juugjesus Soundpony – La Panther Happens Happy Hour Show* The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing Utopia Bar & Lounge – DJ MO

Mon // Feb 27 River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Tovar The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Fur Shop – Sloppy Joe Fiasco VFW Post 577 - Centennial Lounge – Dave Les Smith and Jimmy Peterson Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Feb 28 Gypsy Coffee House – Tuesday Night Open Mic Hard Rock Hotel and Casino - Riffs – Chubby Carrier Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham, Jacob Tovar and the Saddle Tramps Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Levi Parham The Blackbird on Pearl – The Pearl Jam The Colony – Seth Lee Jones Yeti – Writers Night

Your VOICE For

Live Music Send dates, venue and listings to John@LangdonPublishing.com MUSIC // 41

THE LOOP

loop

Don’t miss the bus!

Use the real time Bus Tracker App available at Scan the QR code and keep track of the Loop with the Tulsa Transit Bus Tracker App. tulsatransit.org facebook.com/TulsaDowntownTrolley

42 // FILM & TV

ORAL ROBERTS UNIVERSITY TULSA, OK • APRIL 23, 1- 4 PM

LIVE MUSIC FOOD FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT FUN RUN/WALK SANCTIONED 5K

NO REGISTRATION FEE DONATIONS & FUNDRAISING ENCOURAGED

TO REGISTER AND LEARN MORE, VISIT: PARKINSONOKLAHOMA.COM/RALLY

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

filmphiles

Unfinished work

James Baldwin’s vision of America is brought to life in ‘I am Not Your Negro’

by JEFF HUSTON

T

hree documentaries from 2016, separately produced, worked as a powerful trilogy about race in America. It’s no surprise they were all nominated for the Best Documentary Academy Award. What’s particularly intriguing, though, is that each takes a look at race from very distinct angles.

Director Ezra Edelman’s sprawling achievement “O.J.: Made in America” looks at race from a cultural perspective, examining the societal fallout of racial injustice.

The view of Ava DuVernay’s “13th” is historic, drawing a legal and systemic through-line from the 13th Amendment to the present.

But the third film, Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” has perhaps the most unexpected filter: the iconic.

Peck crafts his film through two iconic voices: the writings of James Baldwin and the voice of Samuel L. Jackson. Regrettably unknown to many born after his time, James Baldwin was a gay African-American intellectual firebrand of the Civil Rights movement. A writer of novels, plays, poems, and essays, Baldwin was also an outspoken speaker and social critic. While Dr. King and Malcolm X took to the streets, Baldwin’s righteous, impatient eloquence sparked the attention of academic, elite, and media circles.

“I Am Not Your Negro” takes Baldwin’s great, unfinished work—a 30-page treatment for “Remember This House,” a book billed as telling the story of America through the lives of Baldwin’s three murdered friends: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers—and publishes it in cinematic form.

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

James Baldwin in “I Am Not Your Negro” | DAN BUDNIK

“I want these three lives,” Baldwin wrote, “to bang against and reveal each other, as in truth they did.”

Baldwin passed with the book never having evolved past the treatment stage.

Now, nearly 40 years later, Raoul Peck has taken that treatment, a personal screed filled with passion, lament, prophecy, and doubt, and has given it life through Samuel L. Jackson’s nearly unrecognizable world-weary voice.

It’s set against archival footage, all intercut with some of Baldwin’s most notable speeches and television appearances of the time.

The result is both contemplative and confrontational, resurrecting Baldwin from the grave (along with seminal moments of the era, both gruesome and forgotten) in arresting, timely fashion.

Peck’s brilliant visual stroke is his emphasis on 20th Century

racial iconography. Certainly his inspirations of King, X, and Evers represent that, but those martyrs are merely a springboard for Baldwin to let loose his broiling thoughts. His articulate orations are contextualized through a whole history of racial icons, from old advertisements (e.g. Aunt Jemima) to movies (Sidney Poitier) to music stars (Sammy Davis, Jr.), not just Civil Rights marches.

In stark contrast, we also see the depiction of whites in earlyto-mid century pop culture. These representations not only reflected divisions and stereotypes, but codified them as normal. And yet, seeing archconservative Charlton Heston with archliberal Harry Belafonte uniting side-by-side in the fight for justice, we’re also given a vision of solidarity to which our own times must rise.

Blatant hate-filled speech or violence was not required for some-

one like Baldwin to feel marginalized. Watching Westerns in which white heroes took vengeance upon non-white villains induced anxiety in Baldwin as a boy, about what his place in a white culture might be.

Even media with innocent intentions could strike fear because of its representations.

Consequently, when Baldwin has cruel words for the likes of Gary Cooper and Doris Day, his harsh ire may seem disproportionate, but it came from a formative place that Peck’s iconic focus helps us to understand. Peck takes Baldwin’s writings and speeches from being academic, or merely personal, to universal. His story is the African-American story, and it’s the story of America itself.

There is no additional commentary here from current thinkers; every thought expressed is directly Baldwin’s, verbatim. His thoughts from nearly a half-century ago, unchanged nor added to, still resonate with profound relevance.

Baldwin was asking questions we still have to answer. a

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

FILM & TV // 43

filmphiles

AND THE OSCAR POOL GOES TO…

Outguess film critic Joe O’Shansky, win cool stuff

Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani in “Paterson” | COURTESY

MUNDANE BEAUTY In everyday routine, ‘Paterson’ finds poetry

“LA LA LAND” OR “MOONLIGHT” ? AFFLECK OR DENZEL? Jenkins or Chazelle? The 89th Academy Awards ceremony airs live Sunday, Feb. 26 on ABC. As has become tradition, we present to you film critic Joe O’Shansky’s predictions for what films will take home the big gold guy. One-up Joe with your powers of prognostication by going to thetulsavoice.com/Oscars and filling out your own ballot. Whoever beats him the worst will win a prize package, which includes a dining gift card, the “La La Land” soundtrack, and the “Jackie” screenplay.

Lastly, we hope you’ll join us on the big night at the Circle Cinema for their annual Oscar watch party, which we’re co-sponsoring this year. See you on the red carpet! (The Circle will have an actual red carpet.)

JOE’S OSCAR POOL PICKS BEST PICTURE: “Moonlight” BEST ACTOR: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea” BEST ACTRESS: Natalie Portman, “Jackie” BEST ACTOR, SUPPORTING: Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight” BEST ACTRESS, SUPPORTING: Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea” BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: “Kubo and the Two Strings” BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: “Arrival” BEST COSTUME DESIGN: “Jackie” BEST DIRECTOR: Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea” BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY: “OJ: Made in America” BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY: “Watani: My Homeland” BEST EDITING: “La La Land” 44 // FILM & TV

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: “Toni Erdmann” BEST MAKE UP AND HAIR: “Star Trek Beyond” BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land” BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Audition (The Fools Who Dream), “La La Land” BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: “La La Land” BEST SHORT FILM, ANIMATED: “Borrowed Time” BEST SHORT FILM, LIVE ACTION: “Timecode” BEST SOUND EDITING: “Arrival” BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED: Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, “Moonlight” BEST SCREENPLAY, ORIGINAL: Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”

Director Jim Jarmusch helped define the ‘80s American independent film movement with iconic works like “Stranger than Paradise,” “Down By Law,” and “Mystery Train”—cinema possessed of literary, Euro-arthouse influences while being distinctly, excitingly ours.

Alongside famous contemporaries like Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, and the Coen brothers, Jarmusch became a formidable answer to the dominance of genre-obsessed Hollywood blockbusters as the ostentatious ‘80s turned into the tacky ‘90s.

He’s a filmmaker for punk cineastes, a poet writing with light on celluloid instead of pen on paper.

The rhythms, rhymes and dualities of film and poetry gracefully intersect in Jarmusch’s latest, “Paterson.”

Taking place over seven chapter-like days, we meet Paterson (Adam Driver) a poet and municipal bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey, home to the grandfather of modern American poetry, William Carlos Williams.

Paterson’s seemingly mundane days are suffused with hidden observation. He wakes up every morning with his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani). He puts on coffee, walks to work in city blues, lunchbox in hand. He imbibes the same industrial streets and the people, writing on his lunch break by the urban oasis of the Passaic Falls—finding lyricism in the seeming banality of a box of Blue Tip matches, or the eavesdropped conversations of his bus passengers.

At night, after dutifully returning home to hear about Laura’s day, he walks their grumbling English bulldog to a dive bar where he enjoys the quirks of unpretentious society before starting all over again.

Every day he fills his notebook further, fueled by the minute variations in his ubiquitous routine. Those moments define the individuality of his perception, which he turns into art.

“Paterson” suggests that, of his ‘80s counterparts, Jarmusch is the one who has changed the least as an artist. Which isn’t to say he hasn’t grown as a filmmaker—he has, and his cinematic and narrative sensibilities remain masterful—but he’s been chasing the same muse since “Stranger Than Paradise”: the poetry hidden beneath the banality of everyday life.

There’s a playful tenor to “Paterson” that leavens the inherent pretensions that come with making a film about poetry. That playfulness extends to the repetitive beats that form the film’s pleasing rhythms—the twins; weird little hat tips to the city and other films; a running joke about his bus exploding.

The poetry itself, penned by Tulsa native and White Dove Review founder Ron Padgett, is simple and quirky, containing lovestruck observations that appear on screen, narrated in Driver’s halting delivery as each thought is born to paper. The intoxicating verses blend with Paterson himself, a kind of stoic space case, with one foot in the real world and the other in his whimsical thoughts. Driver is a natural here, giving a highly internalized performance that speaks volumes about his character with a mere look or simple line delivery.

“Paterson” finds a place in your memory at the least, and takes up permanent residence in your psyche at best. And just like when the credits roll on any Jarmusch movie, I can’t wait to see what he does next.

—JOE O’SHANSKY February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

February is nationally recognized as “Spay/Neuter Awareness Month.”

The purpose is to encourage people to have their pets sterilized before the spring and summer months when there is rampant overproduction of puppies and kittens.

Sterilizing your pet(s) helps by preventing thousands of unwanted puppies and kittens from being born to only end up in Tulsa area shelters. To help address this problem we have opened a spay/neuter clinic to the public. Costs are priced lower than a typical veterinary office allowing more pet owners to take advantage of the service.

Appointments are required and spay/neuter services are performed at the Tulsa SPCA by our staff veterinarian. To schedule an appointment please call 918-428-7722.

Your pet wants you to visit our store!

I want something tasty.

Bring me something fun.

I’d like a new bowtie.

I need a new leash

I’ve been a good boy.

Don’t forget about me!

THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

1778 Utica Square • 918-624-2600 Open Monday-Saturday, 10-6 ETC. // 45

free will astrology

by ROB BREZSNY

AQUARIUS

(JAN. 20-FEB. 18):

The time is now, Brave Aquarius. Be audacious about improving the big little things in your life. (That’s not a typo. I did indeed use the term “big little things.”) For example: Seek out or demand more engaging responsibilities. Bring your penetrating questions to sphinx-like authorities. Go in search of more useful riddles. Redesign the daily rhythm to better meet your unique needs. Refuse “necessary” boredom that’s not truly necessary. Trust what actually works, not what’s merely attractive. Does all that seem too bold and brazen for you to pull off? I assure you that it’s not. You have more clout than you imagine. You also have a growing faith in your own power to make subtle fundamental shifts. (That’s not a typo. I did indeed use the term “subtle fundamental shifts.”)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Love does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person,” wrote the poet Rilke, “for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent?” That’s an excellent meditation for you to entertain during the Valentine season, Pisces. You’re in the right frame of mind to think about how you could change and educate yourself so as to get the most out of your intimate alliances. Love “is a high inducement for the individual to ripen,” Rilke said, “to become something, to become a world for the sake of another person.”

(Thanks to Stephen Mitchell for much of this translation.)

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your reputation is in a state of fermentation. Will this process ultimately produce the metaphorical equivalent of fine wine or else something more like pungent cheese? The answer to that question will depend on how much integrity you express as you wield your clout. Be as charismatic as you dare, yes, but always in service to the greater good rather than to self-aggrandizement. You can accomplish wonders if you are saucy and classy, but you’ll spawn blunders if you’re saucy and bossy.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Using a blend of warfare and diplomacy, Napoleon extended French control over much of Western Europe.

In 1804, he decided to formalize his growing sovereignty with a coronation ceremony. He departed from tradition, however. For many centuries, French kings had been crowned by the Pope. But on this occasion, Napoleon took the imperial crown from Pope Pius VII and placed it on his own head. Historian David J. Markham writes that he “was simply symbolizing that he was becoming emperor based on his own merits and the will of the people, not because of some religious consecration.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, Taurus, you have the right to perform a comparable gesture.

Don’t wait for some authority to crown you.

Crown yourself.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Have you heard the fable about the four blind men who come upon an elephant for the first time? The first man feels the tail and declares that the thing they’ve encountered must be a rope. The second touches one of the elephant’s legs and says that they are in the presence of a tree. The third strokes the trunk and assumes it’s a snake. Putting his hand on a tusk, the fourth man asserts that it’s a spear. I predict that this fable will NOT apply to you in the coming weeks, Gemini. You won’t focus on just one aspect of the whole and think it’s the whole. Other people in your sphere may get fooled by shortsightedness, but you will see the big picture.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): For now, at least, your brain is your primary erogenous zone.

I suspect it will be generating some of your sexiest thoughts ever. To be clear, not all of these erupting streams of bliss will directly involve the sweet, snaky mysteries of wrapping your physical body around another’s.

Some of the erotic pleasure will come in the form of epiphanies that awaken sleeping parts of your soul. Others might arrive as revelations that chase away months’ worth of confusion. Still others could be creative breakthroughs that liberate you from a form of bondage you’ve wrongly accepted as necessary.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Human beings upload 300 hours of videos to Youtube every minute of every day. Among that swirling flow is a hefty amount of footage devoted exclusively

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

to the amusing behavior of cats. Researchers estimate there are now more than two million clips of feline shenanigans. Despite the stiff competition, I suspect there’s a much better chance than usual that your cat video will go viral if you upload it in the coming weeks. Why? In general, you Leos now have a sixth sense about how to get noticed. You know what you need to do to express yourself confidently and attract attention -- not just in regards to your cats, but anything that’s important to you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I know you haven’t literally been wrestling and wrangling with a sweaty angel. But if I were going to tell a fairy tale about your life lately, I’d be tempted to say this: Your rumble with the sweaty angel is not finished. In fact, the best and holiest part is still to come. But right now you have cosmic permission to take a short break and rest a while. During the lull, ratchet up your determination to learn all you can from your friendly “struggle.” Try to figure out what you’ve been missing about the true nature of the sweaty angel. Vow to become a stronger advocate for yourself and a more rigorous revealer of the wild truth.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Even if you’re not an occult wizard or pagan priestess, I suspect you now have the power to conjure benevolent love spells. There’s a caveat, however: They will only work if you cast them on yourself. Flinging them at other people would backfire. But if you do accept that limitation, you’ll be able to invoke a big dose of romantic mojo from both your lower depths and your higher self. Inspiration will be abundantly available as you work to reinvigorate your approach to intimacy and togetherness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Here’s some advice from Scorpio writer Norman Rush: “The main effort of arranging your life should be to progressively reduce the amount of time required to decently maintain yourself so that you can have all the time you want for reading.” It’s understandable that a language specialist like Rush would make the final word of the previous sentence “reading.” But you might choose a different word.

And I invite you to do just that. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to devotedly carve out more time to do The Most Important Thing in Your Life.

MASTER

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sixteenthcentury Italian painter Titian was renowned for his brilliant use of color. He was also prolific, versatile, and influential. In 2011, one of his paintings sold for $16.9 million. But one of his contemporaries, the incomparable Michelangelo, said that Titian could have been an even greater artist if he had ever mastered the art of drawing. It seems that Titian skipped a step in his early development. Is there any way that your path resembles Titian’s, Sagittarius? Did you neglect to cultivate a basic skill that has subtly (or not so subtly) handicapped your growth ever since? If so, the coming weeks and months will be an excellent time to fix the glitch.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Our obsessive use of digital devices has diminished our power to focus. According to a study by Microsoft, the average human attention span has shrunk to eight seconds -- one second less than that of a typical goldfish. I’m guessing, though, that you Capricorns will buck this trend in the coming weeks. Your ability to concentrate may be exceptional even by pre-Internet standards. I hope you’ll take opportunity of this fortunate anomaly to get a lot of important work and play done.

Don’t get back to where you once belonged.

Go forward to where you’ve got to belong in the future. 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.

February 15 - 28, 2017 // THE TULSA VOICE

ACROSS 1 Embargo 4 Some farm young ’uns 9 Immersed in 13 Apple variety or fancy party 17 ___-Wan Kenobi 18 Culinary aficionado 19 Citadel student 21 Soon, to a bard 22 “OK class, ‘on’ words, go!”

26 Things derived from construction paper 27 Antique auto or English county 28 Little “I think I can, I think I can” utterer 29 Old anesthetic 30 Caesar’s worst day 31 Box office take 33 Some Greek consonants 36 Mythical one who flew too near the sun 39 Expensive cracker spread 43 Hopi Indian doll 46 “OK class, ‘ar’ words, go!”

48 Aria, e.g.

49 Bring up the rear 51 Arm bone 52 Parts of sentences 53 It gets belted 55 Almond-colored 56 Clinker of a firecracker 57 93-Across winner’s option 58 Republic that gained autonomy in 1962 60 Frequently, in old poetry 62 ___ moss 64 “OK class, ‘an’ words, go!”

72 Musical composition concerning rural life 73 Bygone flightless bird of New Zealand

74 Change or alter 75 “... and make it ___” (“Hurry up!”)

79 Nest egg acct.

82 “___ known then what ...”

84 Goatlike Asian mammal 85 Itty-bitty bits 86 Visa alternative, briefly 87 Tributary of the Rhone 89 Penny 90 “OK class, ‘et’ words, go!”

93 Numbers game for gamblers 95 ___ gin fizz 96 “Messiah” composer 97 Two words before many words?

98 Place in alphabetical order 99 Defibrillator operators, for short 102 Huge wall picture 107 More like custard, in a way 111 “Be that as ___ ...”

113 Not just anger 115 “OK class, ‘in’ words, go!”

119 Verbal exam 120 Domingo start 121 Tabby’s counterpart 122 Inventor Whitney 123 Quick letter 124 Sgt. and cpl., e.g.

125 Colorado ski resort 126 Fractional monetary unit of Japan DOWN 1 Ball game played on lawns 2 Circa 3 Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony 4 Helvetica, for one 5 ___ and aahs 6 Fuss, in a Shakespeare title 7 Like composition paper

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 20 23 24 25 30 31 32 34 35 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 50 54 57 59 61 63 65

Sight, for example Facial outbreak Chico or Karl Common altar phrase Comfy room in the house China’s ___ of Four Prefix with bacterial or freeze “Crazy” bird “Green Gables” girl July holiday (with “the”) Dangerous African fly Female that romps in the woods Alternative version of the music “___ moment” Bartender on “The Love Boat” Older relative Surrounding, invisible sensation Islet Far from prepared Gunky, icky stuff Org. cofounded

by Jane Addams Snakes, to mongooses Roundish hairstyle Forbidden perfume?

At one time, at one time Aussie “bear” Adjust, as a car’s wheels Trig function Poker player’s strategem Online game characters Q-Tip, e.g.

A way to dewrinkle Walk pointlessly or tediously Mama’s mate “500” race Scottish cap Surround or encircle Sustenance or nourishment

66 Like a pitcher’s perfect game 67 “Serpico” author Peter 68 Female member of the family 69 Harder to find 70 Lack of muscle tone 71 Colorful salamander 75 They’re all in the family 76 The Christmas season 77 Prefix meaning “quintillionth” 78 Book part 80 Abbr. after many an elderly general’s name 81 Bridge toll unit 83 Salami joints 86 Not completely shut, as a door 88 Aliens, for short 91 Rose stem projections 92 Resin used in varnish 94 Small bird with blue wings 98 Whale smaller than the finback 100 Ray under water 101 Proofers’ catches 103 Tall coffee holder 104 Evaluates 105 Quick, sure-footed and catlike 106 Man interred in Red Square 107 Black, in poetry 108 Copter’s forerunner 109 Buzzing pest 110 Doing nothing 111 Disappear ___ thin air 112 Some boxing match enders 113 “___ bitten, twice shy” 114 “Give ___ example” (group request) 116 Summer cooler 117 Letters after some business names 118 Mischievous one

Universal sUnday Crossword sPellinG Bee

By Timothy e. Parker

© 2017 Andrews McMeel Syndication

2/19

REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s ecletic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM THE TULSA VOICE // February 15 - 28, 2017

ETC. // 47

Pleas e re cycle this issue.