The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 5 No. 11

M AY 1 6 – J U N E 5 , 2 0 1 8

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VOL. 5 NO. 11

OKLAHOMA RANKS FIFTH IN THE U.S. FOR GUN VIOLENCE P22

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THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

CONTENTS // 3

4 // CONTENTS

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY P22

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // Vol. 5, No. 11 ©2018. All rights reserved.

BY MITCH RYALS, DANIEL WALTERS, SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL, WILSON CRISCIONE, QUINN WELSCH

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon EDITOR Liz Blood ASSISTANT EDITOR Cassidy McCants DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon

46 ideas to reduce gun violence and save lives

ART DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf CONTRIBUTORS David Blatt, Matt Carney, Alicia Chesser, Wilson Criscione, Jenny Eagleton, Barry Friedman, Jeff Huston, Clay Jones, Fraser Kastner, Mary Noble, Michelle Pollard, Mitch Reals, Zack Reeves, Andrew Saliga, Damion Shade, John Tranchina, Daniel Walters, Walt Warner, Quinn Welsch, Samantha Wohlfeil The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

Member of

The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by

The memorial scene outside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where a shooter killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in 2016. | COURTESY

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

FOOD & DRINK

8 THE BUDGET’S IN FOR FY 2019

B Y DAVID BLATT

16 DINING LISTINGS

B Y TTV STAFF

We’ve been down so long, this looks like up

The master list of eateries returns!

18 NO HORSE IN THE RACE 10 LIFE AND LOVE AFTER A RADICAL

B Y ANDREW SALIGA PROSTATECTOMY

Still, the julep wins May over

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN

The whatchamacallit is a bitch, though

MUSIC

12 COMMON CAUSE

BY DAMION SHADE 38 IT’S A MIDWEST THING Criminal justice reform finally begins

BY MATT CARNEY in Oklahoma

Paul Jason Klein of LANY talks Tulsa roots

14 A BUDDING QUESTION

BY FRASER KASTNER 40 24-HOUR JOB Part one in a series of three ahead of the

B Y MARY NOBLE June 26 medical marijuana referendum

ETC. M AY 1 6 – J U N E 5 , 2 0 1 8

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VOL. 5 NO. 11

OKLAHOMA RANKS FIFTH IN THE U.S. FOR GUN VIOLENCE P22

6 EDITOR’SLETTER 11 CARTOONS 36 THEHAPS 42 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

Jabee returns to Tulsa to raise money for homeless youth

ARTS & CULTURE 28 INTERACTING WITH IMAGINATION

B Y ZACK REEVES Award-winning actor and producer LeVar Burton will read in Tulsa May 19

30 BOUNDARY CROSSING

B Y DAMION SHADE Black Moon Collective unites local black artists

31 MONSTER IN THE SKY

B Y ALICIA CHESSER Tulsa musicians chase twisters with ‘An Oklahoma Tornado Story’

32 CONTACT SHEET

B Y WALT WARNER

As it happens

34 LUCK PERSONIFIED

B Y JOHN TRANCHINA Fortuna Tulsa showcases area women’s soccer talent

TV & FILM 44 SUGAR AND SPICE

B Y JENNY EAGLETON Season four of ‘Chef’s Table’ is meant for your sweet tooth

44 COWBOY INDIAN

B Y JEFF HUSTON

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

‘ The Rider’ is a modern American portrait of a Native American life CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

G

un control. What a topic! And one that triggers various responses among many people. I recently came across this quote from Buddhist teacher and scholar Chogyam Trungpa: “You don’t have to abandon things because there is something destructive in them …

We don’t have to reject or abandon anything. We could work on the creative aspect of situations.”

To me, having room for creativity to work on the situation is heartening. For this issue, we are pleased to run a lengthy feature (pg. 22) examining myriad ideas for saving lives in our state and country.

6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

As Oklahoma ranks fifth in the nation for gun violence, this category is one of the rare instances in which we make the top ten. (Other categories include obesity, teen pregnancy, and uninsured individuals—but we’ll save those for other TTV issues.)

Oklahoma ranks high in incarceration, too, with the second-highest rate in the country (which also makes us second-highest in the world).

On pg. 12, writer Damion Shade examines the seven criminal justice reform bills recently signed into law by Governor Mary Fallin and how they might help us fix our broken prison system.

Gov. Fallin signed another important document just last week—she vetoed Senate Bill 1212 (also known as the “Constitutional carry” or “permitless carry” bill), which would have allowed anyone to openly carry a gun without a permit. Fallin has done some pretty wonky things in office, like moving the vote on medical marijuana—SQ 788—to June 26 (pg. 14), but The Tulsa Voice commends her choice to veto a bill that would have put the lives of Oklahomans at greater risk.

There are lighter topics in these pages, too—Andrew Saliga gives the low-down on making a perfect mint julep (pg.

18); Zack Reeves pries the mind

of the beloved LeVar Burton, who will visit for the Arts Alliance Tulsa Brunch on May 19 (pg. 28); OKC rapper Jabee prepares to return to Tulsa’s Habit Mural Festival to perform and raise money for Youth Services of Tulsa (pg. 40); and John Tranchina introduces Fortuna Tulsa, Tulsa’s newest soccer team (pg. 34). a

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

okpolicy

I

THE BUDGET’S IN FOR FY 2019 We’ve been down so long, this looks like up

by DAVID BLATT

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

n the 1960s, the New York City poet and folksinger Richard Fariña published a novel titled “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me.” This title applies to Oklahoma’s FY 2019 state budget, approved by the House and Senate last month. After several years of large shortfalls and repeated rounds of budget cuts, including mid-year cuts the past three years, lawmakers were finally able to pass a budget that kept funding for all agencies at least flat, provided modest increases for some critical programs and services, and included over $350 million for teacher pay raises.

State agencies were appropriated a total of $7.6 billion for FY 2019, an increase of 8.6 percent compared to the final FY 2018 budget. These appropriations will be the largest in state history, surpassing the $7.2 billion budget in FY 2015; however, when adjusted for inflation, next year’s budget remains 9.4 percent below the budget of FY 2009.

The largest increase went to the Department of Education, which will receive $2.9 billion in FY 2019, a 15 percent increase from its final FY 2018 funding.

The Department received $353.5 million for teacher pay raises, $52 million for raises for support staff, $24.7 million for increased benefit costs, and $50 million in increased state aid funding (of which $33 million is dedicated to textbooks and instructional materials).

These increases will boost total common education funding to its highest level ever in Oklahoma. But even with a $50 million increase, state aid funding will remain some $145 million less than it was in FY 2009, even as K–12 enrollment has grown by over 50,000 students. As important

as the pay raises are for moving Oklahoma teachers towards a fair and competitive salary, schools remain in desperate need of additional operating support to reverse cuts that have led to fewer teachers and support professionals, larger class sizes, fewer courses and programs, and outdated textbooks and supplies.

Most other agencies will receive funding increases to cover state employee pay raises that were approved in special session.

As with teachers, pay raises will help close some of the pay gap for state workers, whose average salary has fallen 24 percent below their private sector counterparts on average; however, the state employs 3,000 fewer workers than it did in 2009, and most agencies are receiving no new money to fill vacancies and address critical staffing needs.

As Senate Appropriations Chair Kim David stated, “this budget in no way makes everyone as complete and whole as we were in 2009.” Overall, 39 of the state’s 65 appropriated agencies will remain 20 percent or more below their FY 2009 appropriations, without adjusting for nearly a decade of inflation.

Most lawmakers accept that the growth in the FY 2019 budget is only a first step towards restoring funding to levels that will allow state agencies to properly fulfill their missions, and they have committed to building on this progress next year and beyond. It will be the job of all Oklahomans to hold them accountable to this promise. a

David Blatt is Executive Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute (www.okpolicy.org).

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

viewsfrom theplains

“I want to show you something.”

My surgeon, in a windbreaker with the Urologic Specialists logo, walked in to my hospital room on Saturday morning, April 10, looking at his phone.

“Wake up!”

It was 6:30.

“I’m up, I’m up,” I lied.

“How are you?”

He shook my left hand. I held his for a moment.

“Me? I have a catheter in me.

How’s your day going? And how did everything go yesterday?”

“Good. No problems. It was big. Let me see if I can find it,” he said, returning to his phone.

He found it.

My prostate was on his phone.

The day before, he performed on me a radical robotic prostatectomy. (Translation: He removed my prostate). My marginally cancerous 169-gram prostate—a normal size is about 25 grams—was dislodged from my body through 5 tiny stiletto-style holes around my abdomen. His hands weren’t even inside of me; he worked the machine with the equivalent of joysticks.

I remember being wheeled out of recovery, seeing him, and waving. He smiled, waved back.

I remember thinking, “This is good. I’m alive.”

“You took a picture of it?” I asked.

“Take a look,” he said, showing it to me.

“It looks like a big, bruised, mean orange. Christ!”

“Largest one I’ve ever taken out.”

“Really?”

“Yep.” “Wow! Do I get a trophy or something?”

Let me not bury the lede.

The cancer hadn’t spread, I’d find out after the pathology report came back, so there was no need for any kind of follow-up, no post-op radiation to kill rogue cancer cells, no removal of the bladder, and no trips to MD Anderson or the Mayo Clinic. I had beaten cancer, which is a horrid 10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

*not Barry Friedman's actual prostate

LIFE AND LOVE AFTER A RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY The whatchamacallit is a bitch, though

by BARRY FRIEDMAN expression, as if I had done something or had some skill or resolve others hadn’t—as if, even if I had, it would be a good idea to gloat and mock the disease in some kind of post-op end-zone dance. The cancer, in fact, wasn’t as bad as he had first thought. It was a Grade 2 instead of Grade 4, which apparently is a big deal.

“So, we probably could have left it in, huh, since the cancer wasn’t so bad?” I asked.

“Don’t think like that,” he said.

“It needed to come out. It was doing you no good. Besides, I’m not putting it back in.”

On January 2, 2017, my first urologist called to tell me that one of the 16 cores he had biopsied had come back 10 percent cancerous.

“That doesn’t seem so bad,” I remember telling him, just as I remember hearing, “Well, I’m not

saying you need to start getting your affairs in order, though I always think that’s a good idea.”

“I already hate 2017,” said my girlfriend as I hung up the phone.

My old internist, before throwing himself off a balcony, did an ultrasound of my prostate four times a year for about four years before that. Sixteen ultrasounds and I still came down with cancer?

Early detection my ass.

This past January, another biopsy inexplicably revealed a smaller amount of cancer, but a more serious kind—it was now Grade 4 (Grade 5 is the worst).

“How is that even possible?”

I asked my second urologist—this one, my surgeon.

“It’s probably just a slicing error.”

Good god.

About 165,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer ev-

ery year in America; about 30,000 will die—or, to put it another way, 135,000 won’t.

When you find out you have cancer, you have to keep finding out you have cancer. After I was diagnosed, I read testimonials online, talked to friends and old classmates who have or had prostate cancer. My reactions ranged from, “Oh, good, I’m going to be fine,” to, “Christ, I’m dead.”

Here were my options.

I could do nothing, which is what I did that first year, under a protocol called “active surveillance,” which primarily consisted of getting a blood test every few months to check my PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, the protein produced by normal, as well as malignant, cells of the prostate gland.

Once cancer is discovered, urologists check for spiking in the PSA, which may indicate the cancer is getting hinky. May. Problem is, the PSA is a crude marker, for there is no agreed-upon “good” level, though 4.0 ng/ml is usually considered the outer limits of normal.

Many things, in fact, can cause the PSA to rise, including urinary tract infections, orgasms, and biopsies themselves. Mine was 4.5 before the initial biopsy, which probably wouldn’t have been enough to necessitate a biopsy, but the size of my prostate, as mentioned, was a conversation starter. The bigger the prostate, the greater room for cancer to run amok or hide. Large prostates also push down on the bladder, so urinating becomes difficult and unsatisfying, as the bladder, being constantly pestered by the weight and size of the prostate, never fully empties. Listen to an 11-year-old pee. It sounds like a race horse is in the bathroom. Listen to a man with a large prostate pee, and it sounds like someone is sending Morse code.

Having an elevated PSA doesn’t mean you have cancer; having a low PSA doesn’t mean you don’t. And even when cancer is detected in the prostate, there’s no guarantee it will grow, no indication of how long it’s been there, and no guarantee that by May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

removing it you will live longer.

Prostate cancer is slow-moving, so most men die with it rather than from it. My fear, during active surveillance, was we’d miss the actual day my cancer decided to take a stroll out of my prostate and into my lymph nodes.

I could have chosen, instead, over a nine-week period and five days a week, to have my prostate bombarded by external radiation, but I’d run the risk of cramping, diarrhea, bleeding, having skin the consistency of grilled salmon, and still have my hulking prostate inside of me. There was also something called brachytherapy, internal radiation, where 100 radioactive pellets would have been inserted into my prostate between my scrotum and anus—but then I’d need a new wardrobe.

RadGuard Lead-Lined Underwear Prostate cancer p atients who have had the brachytherapy radioactive seed impl ant procedure use this product to protect famil y and coworkers from radiation.

It is especiall y recommended for brachytherapy p atients who are surrounded by children and pregnant women.1 Please be aware that because this is underwear, there are NO RETURNS. 1

So noted.

The more I thought about the leaner, meaner cancer in my XXXL prostate, the more I was

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

convinced I didn’t want to keep watching and waiting for it to detonate, didn’t want to be disarmed by radiation, and didn’t want a prostate glowing inside my magic underwear, setting off alarms at airport security and clearing children from playgrounds—I wanted it out, separated from me, preferably sitting in a Petri dish in a lab somewhere.

The surgery was performed at Oklahoma Surgical Hospital, the old City of Faith. Hospital personnel still say “Have a blessed day” with alarming regularity. A nurse, immediately after the surgery, held a cold compress on my head for an inordinate amount of time.

“Sorry that took so long, “ she said, removing it. “I was praying for you.”

I didn’t feel like arguing.

I was nauseated. She was sweet.

Sweet won.

A hospitalist, which is a physician with no real knowledge of any patient (and maybe the worst idea in medicine since HMOs), came by after the surgery and asked how I was doing.

“Feel like I have to pee all the time,” I said, “but then I realize I am.”

“That’s because,” he said, “because of the, uh, the … uh … the whatchamacallit.”

“The whatchamacallit? You mean the catheter?”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s it.”

My surgeon said, “I’m not going to tell you I’m going to improve your sex life, but you’ll be okay.”

Even still, once your prostate is out, you get a series of exercises

to control your bladder, which means you need pads for the accidents you’ll inevitably have. Someone has to buy you these pads, meaning someone who loves you has to buy them for you, meaning someone you don’t want seeing you like that sees you like that.

That morning, after the surgeon showed me my prostate on his phone, he also found and played for me Yes’s Rick Wakeman’s acceptance speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wakeman was describing his prostate exam.

“You hear the rubber glove, you feel his fingers, which feel like a hamster inside you on holiday, and then doctor said, ‘Mr. Wakeman, there’s no need to be embarrassed. It’s not unusual to get an erection during this kind of procedure.’ I said, ‘I haven’t got an erection.’ Doctor said, ‘Yes, I know. But I have.’”

You want prostate jokes? I got prostate jokes.

I spent the following week in bed, mixing MiraLAX and Diet Dr. Pepper, eating Oreos and Utz Pretzels, watching the NBA playoffs, trying not to roll over onto my catheter, and thinking about aging, virility, and smaller penises.

Change in penis length.

A small percentage of surgeries will resul t in a decrease in penis length. 2

I missed my prostate. I grew a beard.

Weeks later, I’m waiting for a narrative to develop. Right now, just moments. These three in particular.

1) A waitress, probably in her mid20s, smiled at me at a bar on my 61st birthday at the precise moment I was doing Kegel exercises to strengthen my pelvic floor muscles.

2) My father, who’s 91, visiting my sister in New York City, called to check on me a few days after surgery.

“How did it go?”

“Was okay. I’m going to live.”

“You know this is going to kill your sex life.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Hey, did you get a chance to check my mail?”

“No. Been busy.”

“When you get a chance, okay?”

“Sure.”

3) Had lunch with a friend of mine who had had his cancerous prostate removed 20 years ago. But before he did, he asked his wife what she thought about the effect it would have on them, especially sexually, for there was no guarantee he’d ever have an erection again.

“It’s just f---ing,” she said, “and you’re my best friend, and I don’t want to lose my best friend.”

Let’s go with that. a

1)

drct.com: Radguard LeadLined Underwear 2) hopkinsmedicine.org: Radical Prostatectomy

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

statewide

Common cause

Criminal justice reform finally begins in Oklahoma

by DAMION SHADE

O

ur nation imprisons more people than any other place on Earth— and many of those incarcerated individuals are drug addicts who committed nonviolent offenses like possessing drugs. Incarceration costs more than substance abuse treatment and many state budgets are strained. This has led to an oddly bipartisan consensus.

Chris Christie, Colin Kaepernick, and Bernie Sanders all agree on the necessity of criminal justice reform. Less than a month ago in our ruby-red state, Governor Mary Fallin signed seven major criminal justice reform bills into law. The rising opioid crisis and present budget realities have made lowering Oklahoma’s prison population a bipartisan priority.

As Fallin signed the bills at a press conference on April 26, she was surrounded by women from the Tulsa-based Women in Recovery program, an intensive outpatient alternative for women facing long prison sentences for drug-related crimes.

“Oklahoma’s had a long history of incarcerating nonviolent offenders who have addiction issues, sometimes for long periods of time,” Fallin said. “Today we’re changing that.”

Each bill Fallin signed makes it harder to end up in prison just for being a drug addict: SB 649: Stops prosecutors from seeking tougher sentences for felons with previous drug crimes.

SB 650: Eases requirements for drug felons who have served their time to have their felony records cleared.

SB 689: Makes it harder for people to go back to prison for technical parole violations like failing a drug test, encouraging non-incarceration alternatives first.

12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Mary Fallin signing criminal justice reform bills on April 26 | COURTESY

SB 786: Eliminates the mandatory minimum for second degree burglary and other crimes often associated with substance abuse.

SB 793: Creates a distinction between manufacturing and distribution of drugs and lowers the criminal penalty for certain drug crimes.

HB 2281: Decreases the fines and penalties for property crime statistically related to substance abuse.

HB 2286: Overhauls the state’s parole system; guarantees parole to any inmate with good behavior who has met (automatic) administrative parole requirements.

These measures aim to keep people with substance abuse issues in their communities, seeking treatment, working jobs, and paying taxes rather than wasting away in a jail cell. They also will, hopefully, steer those fighting addiction towards a healthier life and away from prison.

When she was seven months pregnant, Alexis Stephens was arrested for breaking into her ex-boyfriend’s house in Tulsa.

She was struggling with an opioid addiction and headed for what could have been a lengthy prison sentence. Her youngest daughter, Addison, was born while she was in jail that June.

“I’d lost Carson, my nineyear-old [to DHS], and I was still grappling with a pretty terrible addiction,” Stephens said. “When I was offered the chance to enter [Women in Recovery] with the potential of seeing my son again, of course I jumped at it.”

This was possible because courts in Oklahoma are now encouraged to seek alternatives to prison for those struggling with substance abuse. Stephens now works full time and has her children back. The most recent reforms make it more likely her criminal record will eventually be

cleared and less likely she’ll return to prison for a parole violation.

But criminal justice reform isn’t just altruism. Prior to the passage of these bills, the cost of Oklahoma prisons was projected to grow by $1.9 billion over the next decade.

Ryan Gentzler, criminal justice policy specialist with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, paints a sobering picture of the data.

“Oklahoma has overtaken Louisiana as the most incarcerated state in the country. These numbers come at a time when Oklahoma, along with many states (according to FBI statistics), has seen a decline in violent crime overall,” Gentzler said.

“The pattern that most states have followed in recent years is diverting people away from prisons and taking the savings from that and putting that money into programs for mental health and substance abuse on the front end. Most states have done that.

Oklahoma passed a law that would do that [in 2016] but didn’t fund it and didn’t implement it. That’s why our incarceration rates have continued to grow.”

It costs $500 million a year to incarcerate people in Oklahoma.

Perhaps the simplest solution for so many of our budget problems is just to send fewer Oklahomans to prison.

Officer Anthony First, a 15year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department and a drug training expert for the state, shared his perspective.

“We can’t incarcerate our way out of this problem,” First said.

“The opioid issue is too large, and it’s just breaking too many families and communities. I don’t think locking up nonviolent addicts is what the police and court system are for.” a May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

statewide

A

s most readers are probably aware, SQ 788 will come to a vote on June 26. It’s a hot-button issue, and despite meddling from Governor Mary Fallin and former Attorney General Scott Pruitt, early polls show that more than 60 percent of voters are in favor of its passage. But what exactly are we voting on, and how did it make its way to the ballot box?

In 2016, Oklahomans for Health, the group behind SQ 788, successfully gathered enough signatures to add the question to the ballot. As written now, the measure would legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Patients would have to be at least 18 years of age and have a board-certified doctor’s signature to obtain a medical marijuana license.

“In 788 we circulated three principal tenets,” said Chip Paul, chairman of Oklahomans for Health. “One is our reliance on the physician recommendation over a list of medical conditions.

Number two would be how we didn’t restrict grower licenses. The third is your ability to grow your own medicine.”

This medical marijuana license would allow a patient to possess up to three ounces of cannabis on their person and eight ounces in their home. Additionally, they would be allowed to cultivate up to six plants for personal consumption. Sales at dispensaries would be taxed at seven percent, with most revenue being used for administrative costs, while the rest would be used for education and drug and alcohol rehabilitation through the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Another license, which costs $2,500, would be required to operate a commercial grow-op, dispensary, or processing operation. Possession of less than one and a half ounces of marijuana with a medical condition but without a license would be a misdemeanor.

Landlords, employers, and schools would be forbidden to 14 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Stoney King, owner of CBD Pharm in Kendall-Whittier | GREG BOLLINGER

Part one, in a series of three, ahead of the June 26 medical marijuana referendum

by FRASER KASTNER penalize patients for having a marijuana license, unless not doing so would cause them to lose federal benefits. Employers could only penalize patients who use or possess cannabis at work. Parents could not lose visitation or custody rights as a result of possessing a medical marijuana license.

“There have been an overwhelming number of people that want it,” said Senator Kevin Matthews (D-Tulsa). “Some concern I’ve heard in the legislature is how it’s going to be regulated.”

This bill would make Oklahoma one of the most permissive medical marijuana states in the union. But the industry would still be regulated. HB 3468 passed the House this March; if it passes the Senate—either in a special session

or 2019’s regular session—it will create an Oklahoma Cannabis Commission to regulate the medical marijuana industry. Rep. John Paul Jordan (R-Yukon) authored the bill with the input of Oklahomans for Health.

“We fully expect further regulation to happen, and it will need to happen,” said Paul. “How do you run security in a dispensary? We didn’t put that in there because we didn’t really need to yet, but that needs to be defined.”

Oklahoma already allows the medical use of cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana. Cannabidiol, or CBD, has shown to be effective for treating epilepsy, pain, and a number of other conditions. The compound became legal in Oklahoma in 2015

when “Katie and Cayman’s Law,” which allows minors with severe epilepsy to take CBD, passed. Age restrictions were lifted in 2016, and a year later widespread sale and use of CBD was allowed.

Currently, products sold in Oklahoma must contain .03 percent or less of THC. Medical marijuana advocates say access to CBD products is not enough.

“Of course 788 is a huge deal,” said Stoney King, owner of CBD Pharm, a CBD shop in Kendall-Whittier (2324 E. Admiral Blvd.). “My sister, for example, has epilepsy. The CBD that comes from hemp is good, but it’s not what we need. We need THC.” 788 has faced some opposition among state government.

In August 2016, Scott Pruitt added the following line to the State Question: “This measure legalizes the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. There are no qualifying medical conditions identified.”

While this new language changed none of the substance in the state question, it made it sound as if the bill was much more permissive than it actually is, thus ensuring its unpopularity. In addition, because Pruitt added the language so late in the legislation process, it postponed the vote until after the 2016 election, which would have seen a greater turnout.

In March of 2017, the Oklahoma Supreme Court restored the original language on the ballot. In addition to Pruitt’s tinkering, Mary Fallin moved the measure to the June 26 ballot, which will likely get less attention than the November ballot (when we will elect a new governor, as well).

The legislature adjourned its session May 3 without legislating on medical marijuana. This means that the state will have no regulatory structure should SQ 788 pass. In a recent press release, New Health Solutions Oklahoma, a medical marijuana trade group, said they will request a special session if the measure passes. a May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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UTICA SQUARE

Antoinette Baking Co. Caz’s Chowhouse Chimera Cafe Coney Island Dos Bandidos Gypsy Coffee House Hey Mambo The Hunt Club Laffa Medi-Eastern Restaurant & Bar Lone Wolf Banh Mi Mexicali Border Cafe PRHYME: Downtown Steakhouse Sisserou’s Caribbean Restaurant The Tavern

GREENWOOD Fat Guy’s Burger Bar Lefty’s on Greenwood Wanda J’s Next Generation

BLUE DOME Albert G’s Bar-B-Q Andolini’s Sliced Dilly Diner El Guapo’s Cantina Fassler Hall Hurts Donut James E. McNellie’s Public House Jinya Ramen Bar Joebot’s Coffee Joe Momma’s Juniper Restaurant Rose Rock Microcreamery Sabores Mexican Cuisine Yokozuna

DECO DISTRICT Atlas Grill Billy’s on the Square Boston Avenue Grille & Catering Deco Deli Elote Cafe & Catering Poke Bowl Love Roppongi Tavolo: an Italian Bistro The Vault

DOWNTOWN Baxter’s Interurban Grill The Boiler Room The Boulder Grill Cafe 320 Daily Grill East Village Bohemian Pizzeria Foolish Things Coffee Co. The Greens on Boulder Lassalle’s New Orleans Deli Lou’s Deli Made Market (in the DoubleTree

by Hilton) Mazzio’s Italian Eatery Naples Flatbread & Wine Bar ONEOK Cafe Steakfinger House 16 // FOOD & DRINK

Bill & Ruth’s Blue Rose Cafe Burn Co. Barbeque The Chalkboard Dalesandro’s DoubleShot Coffee Company Elwood’s Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Kitchen 27

PEARL DISTRICT Cirque Coffee Corner Cafe Freeway Cafe Ike’s Chili JJ’s Gourmet Burgers Papa Ganouj El Rancho Grande Soul City Gastropub & Music House

CHERRY STREET Andolini’s Pizzeria Cafe Cubana Chimi’s Mexican Food Coffee House on Cherry Street Crushed Red Hideaway Pizza Jason’s Deli Kilkenny’s Irish Pub & Eatery Lucky’s Restaurant Main Street Tavern Mary’s Italian Trattoria Mi Cocina Nola’s Creole & Cocktails Palace Cafe Panera Bread Phat Philly’s Prairie Fire Pie Roka Roosevelt’s SMOKE. On Cherry Street Tucci’s Cafe Italia

BROOKSIDE Biga Billy Sims BBQ Bin 35 Bistro Blaze Pizza Blue Moon Bakery and Cafe The Brook Restaurant & Bar Brookside By Day Brookside Cookhouse by Reasor’s Brookside Diner Cafe Olé Charleston’s Restaurant Claud’s Hamburgers Cosmo Cafe & Bar Crow Creek Tavern Doc’s Wine and Food The Donut Hole Egg Roll Express Restaurant Elmer’s BBQ In the Raw Keo Asian Cuisine La Hacienda Lambrusco’Z To Go Mondo’s Ristorante Italiano Old School Bagel Cafe Pei Wei Asian Diner Pure Food and Juice R Bar & Grill Señor Tequila Shades of Brown Super Wok Sushi Hana Torchy’s Tacos The Warehouse Bar & Grill Weber’s Superior Root Beer Whole Foods Market Zoës Kitchen

MIDTOWN Albert G’s Bar-B-Q Bamboo Thai Bistro Bangkok Thai Super Buffet Bodean

Bill & Ruth’s Billy Sims BBQ Binh-Le Vietnamese Boston Deli Grill & Market The Brothers Houligan Chopsticks D’Oro Pizza Desi Wok Fiesta Cozumel Cantina & Grill Gogi Gui Korean Grill Hideaway Pizza Himalayas Aroma of India Jumbo Burgers La Roma Pizza Margaret’s German Restaurant Mazzio’s Italian Eatery Monterey’s Little Mexico Nelson’s Buffeteria Pho Da Cao Rice Bowl Cafe RibCrib BBQ & Grill Savoy Restaurant Sezchuan Express Shawkat’s Mediterranean Grill Speedy Gonzalez The Spudder Steak Stuffers USA Ti Amo Italian Ristorante Tokyo Garden The Tropical Restaurant & Bar Uncle Bently’s Pub & Grill Viet Huong Villa Ravenna Yutaka Grill & Sushi Buffet

SOUTH TULSA

WOODLAND HILLS

Arizona Mexican Restaurant BBD II The Deuce Baja Jack’s Burrito Shack The Brook Restaurant & Bar Cajun Ed’s Hebert’s Specialty Meats Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe Cardigan’s Restaurant & Bar Charleston’s Restaurant El Guapo’s Cantina El Samborsito Eritrean & Ethiopian Cafe First Watch Flavors of Louisiana The French Hen Bistro & Wine Bar Gyros by Ali Hideaway Pizza India Palace La Flama Los Mariachis Mexican Grill Leena’s Mediterranean Grill Mahogany Prime Steakhouse McNellie’s South City Goodcents Deli Fresh Subs Napa Flats Wood-Fired Kitchen Naples Flatbread & Wine Bar Nordaggio’s Coffee OK Country Donut Shoppe Pita Place Redrock Canyon Grill Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Siegi’s Sausage Factory Sura Korean Japanese Cuisine Sushi Hana Japanese Fusion Thai Village Cuisine Tres Amigos Mexican Grill & Cantina TWL Bistro White Lion Whole Foods Market Yokozuna Zio’s Italian Kitchen

Asahi Sushi Bar Billy Sims BBQ The Bistro at Seville Bluestone Steakhouse & Seafood Charlie’s Chicken Chuy’s Fat Daddy’s Pub & Grille Fat Guy’s Burger Bar Fish Daddy’s Grill House Fuji Sushi Bar Firehouse Subs Hungry Howie’s Pizza In the Raw on the Hill Jameson’s Pub Jason’s Deli Jay’s Original Hoagies Keo Asian Cuisine Kit’s Takee-Outee Lanna Thai Logan’s Roadhouse Louie’s Grill & Bar Mandarin Taste Manos Peruanas Marley’s Pizzeria Mekong River Restaurant Oliveto Italian Bistro Ri Le’s RibCrib BBQ & Grill Ridge Grill Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Sh�gun Steak House of Japan Siegi’s Sausage Factory Sobahn Korean Cuisine & Sushi Wranglers Bar-B-Q Zio’s Italian Kitchen

WEST TULSA Arnold’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers Charlie’s Chicken Hideaway Pizza Jumpin J’s Linda-Mar Drive In Lot A Burger Monterey’s Little Mexico Ollie’s Station Restaurant Pachac Peruvian Food Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Union Street Cafe

75

TU/KENDALL-WHITTIER 918 Coffee Big Al’s Healthy Foods Bill’s Jumbo Burgers Billy Ray’s Catfish & BBQ Brownie’s Hamburger Stand The Brothers Houligan Calaveras Mexican Grill Cancun International Restaurant Duffy’s Diner El Burrito El Rio Verde Freddie’s Hamburgers Fuel 66 Guang Zhou Dim Sum Jane’s Delicatessen Jim’s Coney Island & Never on Sunday Las Americas Lot A Burger Lone Wolf Banh Mi Mr. Taco Oklahoma Style Bar-B-Q Pie Hole Pizzeria Pollos Asados al Carbon RibCrib BBQ & Grill Rozay’s Wingz Tacos Don Francisco Tally’s Good Food Cafe Tortas Del Rey Ty’s Hamburgers Umberto’s Pizza

I-44/BA INTERCHANGE

244 11TH ST

EAST TULSA Casa San Marcos Charlie’s Chicken Cielito Lindo Mexican Grill Doña Gloria’s Restaurant El Gallo Loco El 7 Marez El Refugio Azteca Super Taqueria Fiesta Del Mar Fu-Thai Sushi Bar Garibaldi’s The Gnarley Dawg Hatfield’s Burgers & BBQ Jay’s Coneys Knotty Pig BBQ, Burger & Chili House Korean Garden Leon’s Smoke Shack BBQ Lot A Burger Maria’s Mexican Grill Mariscos El Centenario Ron’s Hamburgers & Chili Señor Fajitas Seoul Bistro Shiloh’s Restaurant Shish Kabobs Stone Mill BBQ & Steakhouse Tacos San Pedro Taqueria la Cabana Tikka Kabab Timmy’s Diner Tortilleria De Puebla

75 21ST ST 51 31ST ST

41ST ST 244

75

SHERIDAN AVE

TULSA ARTS DISTRICT

TERWILLEGER HEIGHTS

YALE AVE

Admiral Grill Bill & Ruth’s Christy’s Good Food Evelyn’s Freeway Cafe Golden Saddle BBQ Steakhouse Hank’s Hamburgers Harden’s Hamburgers Hero’s Subs & Burgers Las Tres Fronteras Leon’s Smoke Shack BBQ Los Primos Moonsky’s Cheesesteaks and Daylight Donuts The Restaurant at Gilcrease White River Fish Market

The Sushi Place Tabouli’s Ti Amo Ristorante Italiano Topeca Coffee Williams Center Cafe

PEORIA AVE

NORTH TULSA

Bravos Mexican Grill Bread & Butter Kitchen + Bakery Celebrity Restaurant El Tequila Felini’s Cookies & Deli Golden Gate Jamil’s JC’s Pizza Jimmy Hula’s Livi Lee’s Daylight Donuts Super Shop Mario’s NY Style Pizzeria My Thai Kitchen NYC Pizza P.J.’s Sandwich Shoppe Phill’s Diner The Run Trenchers Delicatessen

LEWIS AVE

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Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse Goldie’s Patio Grill McGill’s Olive Garden P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Pepper’s Grill Polo Grill Queenie’s Plus Cafe and Bakery Stonehorse Cafe Wild Fork

51

JENKS Andolini’s Pizzeria Burn Co. BBQ Bramble Flying Tee George’s Pub Los Cabos Melting Pot Marble Slab Maryn’s Taphouse and Raw Bar

ROSE DISTRICT 71ST ST 169

91ST ST

Andolini’s Pizzeria Daylight Donuts Fiesta Mambo!

Franklin’s Pork & Barrel In The Raw Broken Arrow Main Street Tavern McHuston Booksellers & Irish Bistro Nouveau - Atelier de Chocolat Romeo’s Espresso Cafe The Rooftop Toast May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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FOOD & DRINK // 17

downthehatch

NO HORSE IN THE RACE Still, the julep wins May over

Mint juleps | ANDREW SALIGA

IT’S AN ENGULFING SENSORY EXPERIENCE— everything from the mound of crushed ice nestled in the frosted cup to the straw peeking through the hefty plume of fresh mint and delivering the sweet, chilled bourbon. The mint julep’s claim to fame may be the Kentucky Derby, but this drink isn’t reserved for the bougie flaunting oversized hats and seersucker suits. In fact, the mint julep predates the Kentucky Derby (and its original recipe didn’t exclusively feature bourbon).

One of the earliest records of the mint julep dates back to Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book “Bar-tender’s Guide or How to Mix Drinks.” Thomas likely never knew his manual for bartenders would become a go-to reference for boozehounds over 150 years later, but it contains some of the most well-documented recipes from that era, including mint julep formulas that use whiskey, red wine, brandy, and gin.

Spirit choice aside, the julep, at minimum, requires crushed ice, loads of mint (preferably spearmint), and a tin cup. To make a mint julep, simply add around a dozen mint leaves to the bottom of the serving glass and muddle lightly. The goal is to release the oils, not pulverize the leaves.

Then add a teaspoon of rich simple syrup and stir in some crushed ice. (Rich simple syrup contains two times more 18 // FOOD & DRINK

sugar than water.) For the full experience of the frosted exterior, crushed ice must be used, and one should avoid touching the sides of the tin. To keep things simple, you can put ice cubes in a food processor or use the bagged ice that Sonic sells.

Next, add another portion of crushed ice to near the rim, pour 2 ounces of bourbon, and stir again. Insert a straw and place a large bouquet of mint beside it before packing one last heaping scoop of crushed ice on top.

For those looking for some variety, using two ounces of another spirit is more than acceptable. The prescription julep is a popular recipe, and it calls for 1 1/2 ounces of brandy and a half-ounce of rye whiskey.

Though the mint julep came some years before any elaborate Kentucky Derby festivities—the first Derby was in 1875— it is appropriately indulgent. Thomas gives the right idea in the “Bar-tender’s Guide” intro, where he writes, “Whether it is judicious that mankind should continue to indulge in such things, or whether it would be wiser to abstain from all enjoyments of that character, it is not our province to decide. We leave that question to the moral philosopher.”

Until you cross paths with a moral philosopher, make sure to don your julep with a sizable bouquet of mint. —ANDREW SALIGA

May is National Hamburger Month— as if we needed a reminder of the glory of the old standby. “Burgher” means citizen of a town or city, and though this homonym ostensibly has no connection to the naming of the hamburger, it seems fitting: Burgers bring Americans together at cookouts, ball games, and even nouveau hipster eateries (“You put what on that patty?”). Burgers are American, and in Tulsa we’re proud of ours. From classic to experimental, big and juicy to thin and cheesesmothered, garnished, plain, egged, baconed—there’s a burger out there for every carnivore. And veggie burgers for the rest.

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

R BAR & GRILL • R Bar & Grill features succulent dishes ranging from its famous chicken and waffles to a monstrous pork chop, specialty pizzas, and the best burgers in Tulsa. A local, mid-town favorite. You walk in as a stranger and leave as a regular — thus the R “Our” Bar moniker.

3421 S PEORIA AVE • (918) 392-4811 • RBARTULSA.COM

PRAIRIE BREW PUB • Is there anything better than Burgers & Beers?

We think Not. Come and enjoy our Prairie Burger and a Prairie Artisan Ale! The Prairie Brewpub is all about Food & locally brewed; Oklahoma made craft beer. Located in the heart of Tulsa’s Historic Tulsa Arts District in Downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma.

223 N MAIN STREET • (918) 936-4395 • PRAIRIEPUB.COM

ROOSEVELT’S • POLO GRILL • It’s life changing!” are words used by a patron to describe Polo Grill’s Half-Pound Tenderloin Burger, a popular menu choice topped with grilled onions, house-made pickles, a choice of cheddar, Swiss, smoked gouda or blue cheese, and served on a Kaiser roll. A fixture in Utica Square for 34 years, Robert Merrifield’s lauded restaurant also offers a flavor-filled Texas Burger featuring chipotle aioli, smoked cheddar, fried jalapenos and onion hay. Each of the robust club burgers offers fresh ground tenderloin off-the-grill and buns toasted to perfection.

2038 UTICA SQUARE • (918) 744-4280 • POLOGRILL.COM THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

Roosevelt’s is a gastropub focused on Craft Beer, with a full menu serving lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch on historic Cherry Street.

Come by and enjoy the Best Burger in town!

1551 E 15TH ST, #101 • (918) 591-2888 • ROOSEVELTSTULSA.COM FOOD & DRINK // 19

MCNELLIE’S • Sure, our beer selection is immense, but the food is pretty good, too! Try the original McNellie’s charburger - it’s a 1/2 pound patty served with bib lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle, on a brioche bun.

Enjoy it for only $3.99 every Wednesday 5PM-Close.

DOWNTOWN: 409 E 1ST ST • 918-382-7468 • MCNELLIES.COM SOUTH: 7031 S ZURICH AVE • 918-933-5258 • MCNELLIESSOUTHCITY.COM

DILLY DINER • Downtown Tulsa’s favorite diner serves up breakfast favorites and dinner classics all day.

The Dilly Burger will make you say ‘woah’ with double meat, double cheese, shaved red onion, house sweet pickles and fancy sauce on a potato bun.

402 E 2ND ST • 918-938-6382 • DILLYDINER.COM 20 // FOOD & DRINK

FASSLER HALL • This German gem, located in the heart of downtown Tulsa, is known for it’s German beer selection and housemade sausages. But, don’t pass on the burger! It’s topped with Gouda, house sauerkraut and mustard, and comes with a side of duck fat fries.

304 S ELGIN AVE • 918-576-7898 • FASSLERHALL.COM

THE TAVERN • The Tavern is a modern interpretation of the classic neighborhood pub, located in the Tulsa Arts District. Enjoy The Tavern burger with a crafted cocktail, artisanal beer, or a world class glass of wine. And, don’t forget it’s half price after 9pm!

201 N MAIN ST • 918-949-9801 • TAVERNTULSA.COM May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

ROKA • Our menu features made from scratch Asian inspired dishes, carefully crafted from Oklahoma bounty, local beer and wine selections, and drinks made with house made syrups and fresh squeezed juices. Come try the Roka Burger or Kim Chi BBQ Burger today!

1616 S UTICA AVE • (918) 382-7777 • ROKATULSA.COM

BLUE ROSE CAFE • In the heart of Riverparks, overlooking the Arkansas River, May is the perfect time to enjoy a mouthwatering Blue Rose Classic or Junior Walker Burger on TULSA’S BEST PATIO! Bring your bike, your running shoes, your kids and the dog. We have a great selection of craft beer, live music, and truly some of the best tasting burgers in town. Open 7 days per week at 11 am.

1924 RIVERSIDE DRIVE • (918) 582-4600 • BLUEROSECAFETULSA.COM

SMITTY’S GARAGE • Featuring the Spicy Sriracha Bleu Burger, made with Sriracha Ranch, Grilled Onions, Grilled Jalapeños, and Bleu Cheese Crumbles.

Smitty’s Garage offers everything from bison, turkey, Angus Beef burgers and vegan garlic quinoa patties to fork-andknife hotdogs, tacos, cheese-smothered fries, and an extensive craft beer list.

Join us daily from 3-6pm for our Radical Hour with $2.50 domestics.

7104 S SHERIDAN RD • (918) 584-8484 9718 RIVERSIDE PKWY • (918) 296-7239 EATATTHEGARAGE.COM THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

FOOD & DRINK // 21

THE GOOD PROPOSALS LIKELY TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE AND SAVE LIVES

1.

THEGOOD,THEBAD, &THEUGLY 46 ideas to reduce gun violence and save lives

By Mitch Ryals, Daniel Walters, Samantha Wohlfeil, Wilson Criscione, Quinn Welsch EDITOR’S NOTE: A version of this article first appeared April 3, 2018, in the Inlander, an alternative weekly based in Spokane, Washington. It has been updated by TTV editorial staff.

H

ere’s the good news: America, overall, is a much less violent place than it used to be. Our reported violent-crime rate is almost half what it was in 1991. But here’s the bad: Mass shootings haven’t decreased. In fact, they’ve become even deadlier.

In 2010, the World Health Organization found that the Unit-

22 // FEATURED

ed States’ gun-homicide rates were more than 25 times higher than in any other high-income country.

And that was before Las Vegas. And before Parkland, Florida. We’ve witnessed 19 of the 30 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history during the past decade.

It isn’t just about murders. The suicide rate has been skyrocketing as well, reaching a 30-year high in 2016. More than half of those suicides were with firearms.

Today, high school and middle school students have risen up in protests and marches after the Parkland shooting, demanding that something be done.

But what?

We looked at 47 ideas to reduce gun violence, weighing the results of academic research and the analysis of experts.

Some ideas are good. They have a decent shot at saving lives. Some are messy, with the potential benefits weighed down by potential costs. Some are ineffective, doing little to nothing to combat gun violence. And some are just plain ugly, more likely to result in more death and injury rather than less.

PLUG HOLES IN THE BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM Gaps in the federal background check system (the National Instant Criminal Background Check System) allow domestic abusers, convicted felons, and people with mental illness to purchase guns.

Roughly 20 percent of Americans purchase guns without a background check. A 2013 survey of prisoners locked up for gun violence found that more than 96 percent of offenders, who were legally prohibited from owning guns, purchased them without a background check.

Experts point to three major holes: 1. In most states (including Oklahoma), gun buyers are able to purchase guns from unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to run a background check at all. Some states, including Washington, have closed this gap.

After Missouri stopped requiring background checks for all firearm purchases, researchers found a 25 percent increase in firearm homicides.

2. If the FBI doesn’t complete a background check in three business days, licensed dealers are free to sell the gun anyway. This is how the man who killed nine parishioners inside a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, bought a gun.

FBI data indicates that authorities failed to meet the three-day deadline 1.1 million times between 2014 and 2017. However, it’s unclear how many firearms were actually sold because dealers have discretion to wait until the check is completed.

3. The federal definition of “domestic abuser” doesn’t include unmarried or childless couples. Many states, including Oregon this year, have closed the so-called “Boyfriend Loophole.”

Oklahoma has not.

Strengthening the federal background check system is one of the most feasible and most effective measures to reduce gun violence, surveys and research show. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that states that require universal background checks have lower gun-death rates. Surveys show overwhelming public support.

2.

LET AMERICANS SUE GUN MANUFACTURERS AGAIN It’s the American way: If a product is killing an unbelievable number of people, the proper remedy is to sue the hell out of them. This, after all, was the plot of the 2003 John Grisham movie adaptation “Runaway Jury.”

But since 2005, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act made gun manufacturers and dealers essentially legally bulletproof.

A victim can still sue if a gun, for example, malfunctions and explodes—but not if a teenager uses it to kill 14 of his classmates. Guns are meant to kill, the Republican argument said, so why should people be able to sue when the gun has done what it was built to do?

Remove the shield, a recent op-ed in The New York Times pointed out, and that means gun manufacturers suddenly would have a financial incentive, like every other industry, to make their May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

products safer—likely preventing more accidental shootings. While Democrats have repeatedly tried to push legislation to disarm the gun industry’s special shield, it doesn’t have a chance while Republicans are in control.

3.

LIFT THE BAN ON GUN-CONTROL RESEARCH From 2004 to 2014, gun violence killed about as many people as life-threatening infections known as sepsis, but funding for gun violence research was only about 0.7 percent of the amount spent to study sepsis, according to a 2017 research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In fact, the researchers found that gun violence was the least researched cause of death, in relation to mortality rate, and only research into deaths by falling are funded less.

The nonpartisan RAND Corporation looked at thousands of U.S. gun-control studies and found that, in many areas, there just wasn’t enough research to definitively show effects one way or another. The lack of research in certain areas muddles debates over policies, like some listed in this story.

Part of what has stymied gun research in the U.S. is the 1996 “Dickey Amendment,” which prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from spending money on activities that “advocate or promote gun control.” Former Arkansas Republican Rep. Jay Dickey, the amendment’s namesake, told NPR he never intended for the amendment to cut off federal gun research altogether, only gun-control advocacy, and regrets that the effect was to essentially halt research in the area.

This March, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill that left the Dickey Amendment in place but clarifies that the CDC can research the causes of gun violence. It’s not clear yet if federal research will increase, though, as no funding for gun-violence research was included.

4.

COPY THE AUSSIES It’s considered perhaps one of the most successful gun-control programs in history. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both pointed to Australia as a model of how dramatic gun control can make a nation safer. It’s also about as close to “taking your guns” as the mainstream gun-control movement gets.

After the Parkland, Florida shooting in February, Dick’s Sporting Goods ended sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines in its stores. Reportedly, the company will destroy those items rather than return them to manufacturers. Dick’s also said it would increase their firearm purchase age to 21.

ROMAN TIRASPOLSKY SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

Here are the simple facts: There were 13 mass shootings in 18 years before Australia’s sweeping National Firearms Agreement in 1997.

In the 20 years after, there’s been just one. While skeptics quibble with whether the law can be entirely credited, the country’s already-low firearm homicide rate fell further—and suicides absolutely plunged.

The flashiest piece of the program featured a mandatory buyback program that gathered around 650,000 firearms—a full fifth of the country’s arsenal. However, today Australia has about as many guns as before the buyback.

Instead, the key, as the Science Vs. podcast explains, seemed to be the thicket of other laws that came with it, including a ban on semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns. You have to show a good reason to own a gun—and self-defense doesn’t count. You can only sell through a licensed dealer. You have to register your gun and report it if it’s stolen.

Much of the Australia program would also almost certainly be struck down by the Supreme Court—and the cultural and physical geography of the United States would create serious regulatory challenges. But even some pieces of Australia’s gun-control program, when combined, could seriously reduce deaths.

5.

TRACK GUNS—AND MANDATE REPORTING IF THEY’RE STOLEN One of the most effective parts of Australia’s gun-control strategy was simply creating a gun registry—and then enforcing it. In the United States, gun-rights activists fear registries are only the first step to confiscation—and research on their effectiveness in the U.S. is limited.

Yet, the potential benefits are clear, particularly when combined with a requirement that lost or stolen guns are reported: It’s a way to close the loophole of “straw purchasers”—where a person illegally buys a gun for somebody else ineligible to purchase one. It hands law enforcement officers the ability to actually identify which guns are stolen—cracking down on both illicit arms traders and allowing cops to get convictions for thieves. And it encourages gun owners to do a better job of safely securing their weapons.

A 2002 report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms concluded that about 85 percent of criminal gun owners weren’t the orig-

inal purchaser of their gun. So if you’re worried about stopping a bad guy with a gun—make sure he doesn’t get that gun in the first place.

6.

INSTITUTE BACKGROUND CHECKS AND TRACKING FOR AMMUNITION Only a handful of states currently have laws regulating the purchase of ammunition. (Oklahoma does not require a license for the sale of ammunition, or require sellers to hold records of purchasers. Those ineligible to purchase firearms under state law are not prohibited from purchasing ammunition.)

Federal law does not currently require ammo purchasers to submit to a background check.

This year, congressional Democrats introduced a bill that would establish a federal background check system for ammo. U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida), one of the sponsors of the bill, has said it would plug an “absurd loophole” that allows people to “amass hundreds of rounds of ammunition without so much as sharing their first name with a gun store clerk.”

Starting in 2019, California will require ammo vendors to report bullet sales to the state’s Department of Justice and conduct background checks on ammunition sales. New York and New Jersey have similar laws.

While the NRA has opposed such proposals, a 2013 Fox News poll found 80 percent of respondents were in favor of ammunition background checks.

And a study in the journal Injury Prevention analyzing school shootings between 2013 and 2015 found that states with ammunition background checks (along with other factors) have lower rates of school shooting incidents.

7.

BAN HIGH-CAPACITY MAGAZINES To trained hands, reloading a weapon is second nature, like wiping your brow or cracking your knuckles. The rounds run out, the bolt slams forward, the magazine drops with a simple push of a finger, and a new magazine is inserted. It only takes a few seconds.

But in a mass shooting, those seconds can buy people time to get to safety—or disarm the shooter. At Seattle Pacific University in 2014, an unarmed student used pepper spray to subdue a shooter while he was reloading.

And as advocates of high-capacity magazine bans point out, you wouldn’t need more than 10 rounds before reloading to kill a deer.

High-capacity magazines and the weapons capable of bearing them, including handguns, were disproportionately recovered by police in connection with violent crimes in Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Richmond. These same types of magazines were used in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Ultimately, reducing the number of rounds that can be shot from any weapon will reduce its lethality.

8.

MAKE FIREARM OWNERS LOCK ’EM UP An eighth-grade school shooter in Townville, South Carolina, the Washington Post reported, thought he’d be able to kill at least 50 of his classmates—150 if he got lucky. But he couldn’t get into the gun safe where he thought his dad kept the powerful Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle. Instead, he settled for a pistol he found in his dad’s dresser—a pistol that jammed after he shot several elementary school students. He didn’t notice that the rifle hadn’t actually been locked up either.

More than two-thirds of school shooters got their guns from their own homes or homes of relatives.

Massachusetts legally requires guns to be either kept in locked containers or protected with a trigger lock that prevents them from being fired. Gun-rights advocates strenuously object-

ed, arguing that locking up their firearms made it nearly impossible to ward off a home invader.

But a 2015 Harvard University analysis found that victims using guns to ward off criminals were more likely to be injured than people who just tried to run away. By contrast, other studies have found that safe storage practices significantly reduce the risk of suicide and accidental gun deaths. Not only that, it makes it harder for thieves to steal them during a burglary.

If you don’t want the outlaws to get guns, in other words, outlaw leaving guns out where outlaws can get them.

9.

PUSH DOCTORS TO TALK TO PATIENTS ABOUT GUNS Before the Parkland shooting, Florida was such a pro-gun state that it actually passed a law restricting doctors’ abilities to ask their patients about gun ownership.

(The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck it down last year.)

That flies in the face of recommendations from the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which recommend doctors discuss guns with their patients to prevent accidental shootings and suicides. So far, the research on the effectiveness of doctors talking with patients about guns is limited and mixed, but it does seem to improve patients’ use of safe storage devices, especially when doctors actually give out the devices.

Not only that, but one 2000 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry study found that after counseling from a psychiatrist, a third of the parents of suicidal teens removed firearms from their homes. With suicide, by far, the leading cause of deaths from firearms— that’s a big deal.

10.

BAN BUMP STOCKS When a mass shooter fires into a crowd with a semi-automatic rifle, how fast he can pull the trigger becomes a life-or-death question. In the Las Vegas shooting last October, the gunman in the Mandalay Bay Hotel room was able to fire nine rounds per second. That’s all thanks to a rifle modification called a bump stock, which harnesses the recoil of a weapon to allow a shooter to fire at speeds comparable to already-illegal automatic weapons.

After Las Vegas, banning bump stocks has become a rare gun-control measure even Republicans in Congress say they support—though not, so far, enough to actually pass federal legislation to ban them.

But the impact would likely be small. While fewer people may have died in Las Vegas if bump stocks were banned, the devices have rarely, if ever, been used in prior shootings.

11.

RAISE THE FIREARM-PURCHASING AGE Check out this absurdity: You can’t buy a handgun from a licensed dealer if you’re under 21. But if you’re 18, you can still buy an AR-15.

While Republicans like Washington state’s Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers argue that those old enough to join the Army should be able to privately own semi-automatic rifles, after the Parkland shooting, even gun-rights-loving Florida passed a bill that hiked the age to 21.

The reform is unlikely to have a dramatic impact on mass shootings, however: Out of the 156 mass shootings since 2009, a Vox piece explained, only one was committed by a gunman under the age of 21 with a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle. So gun-control advocates suggest going further: Raise the legal age for unlicensed dealers as well, barring informal gun-sellers—dealers at gun shows, for instance—and online stores from selling handguns and rifles. Heck, raise it to 25. Treat guns FEATURED // 23

“ Gun control?

We need bullet control.

Ithink every bullet should cost $5,000.

Because ifa bullet cost $5,000,we wouldn’t have any innocent bystanders.”

—CHRIS ROCK

as seriously as rental cars. FBI data shows that more than half of firearm-homicide offenders from 2005 to 2015 were under 25.

12.

GIVE COPS—AND FAMILIES—THE POWER TO RESPOND TO RED FLAGS The horror of the Parkland shooting was compounded by the fact that so many people knew that the shooter was a danger. Why didn’t anyone take away his weapons? They legally couldn’t. All the red flags in the world can’t do much if the cops don’t have a legal right to act on them.

It’s caused a number of states to enact “red flag” laws, giving cops the power to ask a court for a warrant to temporarily remove a person’s access to firearms if they’re an imminent danger to themselves or others.

In the 14 years after Connecticut implemented such a law in 1999, police temporarily removed an average of seven firearms from each at-risk gun owner across 762 firearm-removal cases, one study found. Often, those gun owners were connected with mental health treatment they wouldn’t have received otherwise. Ultimately, more than 100 suicides may have been prevented, the study estimated.

Additionally, while the profile of mass shooters can vary radically, a few things keep popping up: They’re almost always men and they very often have a history of domestic violence. In fact, more than half of the shootings from 2009 to 2016 tallied by Everytown For Gun Safety involved domestic or family violence.

It’s scary as hell to be a woman trapped in a violent relationship—it’s even scarier if he can kill you with the click of a trigger. It’s why some states have adopted the use of Gun Violence Restraining Orders.

Red-flag laws in states like California and Washington let family members, friends, and employers—not just a police officer—ask a court to temporarily take away a person’s firearm access.

Oklahoma does not have any red flag laws.

However, under federal law, if you have a protective order issued by an Oklahoma civil court against an abuser (and meets federal requirements), the abuser cannot have a gun in his possession or buy a new gun. But it may not be clear to the law enforcement officials that the abuser has a gun or guns, or that they should be taken away when the order is issued.

13.

ALERT THE COPS WHEN SOMEONE FAILS A GUN BACKGROUND CHECK Here’s a policy both Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and his counterpart Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson support: It requires federal officials to notify local authorities within 24 hours whenever someone tries to buy a gun but fails the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Last year, Washington state passed a similar bill—requiring gun dealers to report a failed background check. A KING 5 report found that there were almost 4,000 instances of failed backgrounds checks per year in Washington state, but police were doing little to follow up to find out why ineligible buyers were trying to purchase weapons. It’s a minor fix, but since authorities often miss multiple red flags before mass shootings, this would at least make the red flags shine a little brighter.

14.

REQUIRE STATES TO SHARE MENTAL HEALTH RECORDS WITH THE FEDS Technically, federal law already prohibits people with a history of some mental health conditions from possessing guns. But the FBI’s federal background check system relies on states voluntarily reporting that information, and participation is spotty. A New York Times report in 2016 found that Pennsylvania had entered over 718,000 mental records into the federal back-

24 // FEATURED

ground check system, for example, while Montana had entered in a grand total of four. Oklahoma had entered only 26. Since the study, though, Oklahoma has entered 5,000 mental records—a change brought on by a 2015 state law.

There are legitimate debates about which mental health conditions should exclude a person from gun ownership; the vast majority of people with mental health conditions, after all, are not violent. But as it stands, some states failing to share their information or properly enforce the law has allowed dangerous individuals like the Virginia Tech shooter to gain access to guns. Recent bipartisan legislation has directed grant money to help states better share that information.

15.

LET GUN OWNERS IN CRISIS TEMPORARILY SURRENDER THEIR WEAPONS This legislative session, Washington state passed a first-of-its-kind law intended to prevent suicides. Citizens can now voluntarily waive their rights to own a gun by having their name added to a list of prohibited purchasers in the national background check database.

The new law outlines a process to make sure identities aren’t falsely added to the prohibited list and also includes a way for people to restore their gun rights later.

Making it harder to access guns can stop suicides: About half of people who survived suicide attempts and were interviewed for studies said just a few minutes to half an hour passed between when they felt suicidal and when they attempted. Guns are more lethal than other suicide methods, leading to death more than 80 percent of the time.

Other means of voluntary gun surrender vary.

Most law enforcement agencies and gun sellers are willing to temporarily store guns for people who are concerned their loved one is suicidal or worried about their gun being safely stored while they are away from home or have visitors over, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in October 2017. About 75 percent of the 448 law enforcement agencies in the eight states surveyed in the study already provided some form of temporary storage. Local Tulsa law enforcement does not offer this service.

16.

REQUIRE A POLICE INTERVIEW TO GET A GUN In 1911, New York passed the Sullivan Act. Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, calls the act “possibly the most effective gun control law in the history of the country” in an interview on Slate’s podcast, The Gist.

In New York, it generally takes about six months to get a gun after the applications, background check, safety training and an interview with a uniformed NYPD officer, Aborn says. New York also requires safe storage and reporting if a gun is lost or stolen and bans large-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons.

“The goal is not to prevent law-abiding citizens from getting guns,” Aborn says on the podcast. “But rather to make sure criminals didn’t get a gun. And guess what? It works!”

Firearm death rates in New York are consistently among the lowest in the entire country.

In 2016, CDC data shows a rate of 4.2 firearm deaths per 100,000 people, compared to, say, Oklahoma’s 19.6 or Texas’s 12.1.

17.

REQUIRE FIREARM OWNERS TO TAKE GUN SAFETY CLASSES In some countries, the checklist of what people need in order to buy a gun includes a requirement to take a gun-safety course and pass a test, demonstrate gun knowledge, or get a membership at a shooting club or range.

In the United States, about 61 percent of

gun owners have gotten some type of training, which typically included information about safe handling, storage, and preventing accidents, according to a 2015 University of Washington study. But the study identified gaps in training: Only 15 percent of owners said they were trained in suicide prevention, and only 14 percent of those who lived with gun owners had received any safety training.

In countries that require some type of safety course (often coupled with other strict rules around gun ownership) such as Japan, the U.K., and India, the rate of gun deaths are significantly lower than those in the U.S. And, according to a new Johns Hopkins study, those who said a gun-safety course influenced their storage practices were more than twice as likely to store all their weapons in a locked manner as the general population.

A bill allowing open carry for Oklahomans without any kind of permit or training passed the Oklahoma House and Senate but was vetoed by Governor Fallin on May 11.

18.

LET COPS DESTROY SEIZED GUNS More than a dozen weapons confiscated by Washington state law enforcement since 2010 later ended up as evidence in new crimes, according to an extensive Associated Press investigation.

Research shows that as gun ownership increases, so do gun homicides. With that in mind, the state law requiring the Washington State Patrol to sell or trade back to the public most of the guns it confiscates seems counterproductive. In fact, this legislative session WSP supported a bill that would have given them the option to destroy confiscated firearms. It didn’t pass.

19.

HELP GUNSHOT VICTIMS PREVENT BEING SHOT AGAIN Start with the premise that violence begets violence. Research shows that people who have been shot and survived have a much higher chance of being shot again, but also of committing more crime.

Hospital intervention, then, aims to meet victims of violent, often gun-related injuries before they’re released. Case workers offer services before victims walk out of the hospital (housing, education, transportation, treatment) and continue to follow up for months afterward.

These programs have been successful at reducing crime recidivism. Some peer-reviewed research indicates the effects could be long-lasting, though more data is needed.

Funds from the city’s gun sales tax could be used for a hospital intervention program that targets gunshot victims.

20.

CONNECT SHOOTERS WITH THE COMMUNITY Perhaps the most popular example of this is Boston’s “Operation Ceasefire” in the 1990s, which is credited with a 63 percent reduction in youth homicide. The program that brings together community members, social service workers, and police with victims and perpetrators of gun violence has shown success, particularly in cities with a small group of readily identifiable offenders.

The idea is for community members (clergy, victims, reformed offenders) to invite those responsible for gun violence to a face-to-face meeting. There, they offer services (education, housing support, substance abuse and mental health treatment, tattoo removal) and send a clear message that the violence must stop.

Several cities plagued by gun violence have shown reductions in gun-related homicides and gang-related violence.

21.

MANUFACTURE AND SELL SMART GUNS A 2-year-old shot and killed May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

his mother inside a Hayden, Idaho, Walmart in 2014. From the shopping cart, the toddler had reached inside the 29-year-old mother’s purse, where she kept a concealed pistol. When we talk about smart guns, advocates often point to this example for support.

Smart guns are designed to restrict who can fire them. Some require an authorized fingerprint, while others use a radio-controlled watch or other device that must be within a certain distance of the gun in order to fire. There are also trigger guards that require a fingerprint to unlock.

A small 2003 study of 117 unintentional and undetermined firearm-related deaths found that personalized firearms technology was among the most effective at reducing accidental deaths.

While the National Institute of Justice issued baseline requirements for smart guns at Obama’s direction, so far a relative lack of funding along with backlash from gun-rights proponents, including the NRA, has stifled smart guns’ popularity. An NRA-led boycott of Smith & Wesson almost put the gunmaker out of business after it pledged to research smart guns, among other reforms.

22.

REQUIRE GUNS WITH MAGAZINE SAFETIES OR CHAMBER INDICATORS It’s easy to forget there could be one in the chamber. The same 2003 study (see No. 22 above) found that two gun-safety features designed to address the forgotten round in the chamber are also effective at reducing accidental deaths.

The first is known as a loaded chamber indicator, which on some guns is a small pin that sticks up from the top. The second is a magazine safety, which disables the gun if the magazine is removed.

Still, accidental or unintentional firearm deaths only account for a fraction of the total gun-related deaths in the U.S and have declined to 489 in 2015 from 824 in 1999, according to CDC data.

23.

ALLOW LOCAL GOVERNMENTS THE POWER TO REGULATE GUNS Most states have laws broadly preventing local governments from regulating guns. Since the 1980s, prompted by the NRA and other gunrights groups, at least 43 states (including Oklahoma) have passed “preemption” laws, which advocates argue prevent a burdensome patchwork of local rules.

Associations that represent the rights of cities say preemption laws have prevented them from tailoring legislation to prevent gun violence in ways that are specific to large urban cities— say, by preventing guns from being allowed in certain parks or requiring permits to buy a gun.

In states without preemption, like California, cities have the flexibility to impose local gun-control policies: San Francisco requires safe storage in a locked container when the owner isn’t carrying his gun, which studies show can prevent accidental shootings, a leading cause of death for children.

Still, local rules come with inherent limitations: High-crime cities like Chicago show that even strict local laws can’t stop guns from crossing state and local borders.

24.

BAN “ASSAULT-STYLE” WEAPONS In 1994, the United States banned the manufacture and sale of certain semi-automatic weapons with military-style features and large-capacity magazines. The idea was to limit the number of crimes committed using weapons that could fire a large number of bullets rapidly.

In several of the highest-casualty mass shootings in modern U.S. history, the shooters used semi-automatic weapons.

The ban was lifted in 2004. A 2018 QuinTHE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

A mass shooting in Las Vegas last year left 58 people dead and 851 injured—the deadliest shooting of its kind in U.S. history. From his Mandalay Bay hotel room, the shooter used a small arsenal of semi-automatic weapons enhanced with bump stocks to fire on a music festival crowd below.

CAPTURE LIGHT | SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

nipiac poll found that 67 percent of Americans support the ban returning.

A federally funded study found the effect on overall violence to be minimal, in part because assault weapons are used in so few incidents (though high-capacity magazines were more common), and in part because the ban’s narrow definition of “assault weapon” hinges on military-style features such as a pistol grip or a folding stock.

“We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence,” the authors wrote in the federal study. “Should it be renewed, the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.”

Although semi-automatic rifles are rarely used to commit crimes, when they are, the potential devastation is terrifying. The purpose of the ban in 1994 was to reduce the lethality of mass shootings: Mass shootings have become much more lethal since the ban expired.

25.

REPEAL RIGHT-TO-CARRY LAWS In 1996, University of Chicago researchers studied the link between a citizen’s right to carry a concealed handgun and the violent crime rate. John Lott and David Mustard concluded that “allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths.” Further, they predicted that states without concealed carry laws could have avoided a total of 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes, and more than 60,000 assaults.

At the time, the research was used to support right-to-carry laws, which allow people to carry concealed firearms. All states now allow concealed carry in some form. The NRA has pushed for permitless concealed carry laws, which already exist in some states. Gov. Fallin vetoed one such bill on May 11.

In the two decades since Lott and Mustard’s study, academics have debunked their research, concluding that right-to-carry laws actually lead to higher rates of violent crime.

Efforts to eliminate or restrict concealed carry are sure to be (and have been) met with legal challenges. Appeals courts are mixed, and the U.S. Supreme Court has recently declined to weigh in on the issue.

26.

MAKE GUN BUYERS WAIT The idea is to require a gun buyer to wait some period of time between the purchase and when he or she actually takes possession of the gun. Waiting periods would give authorities more time to complete background checks, advocates say. Research strongly suggests waiting periods can create a “cooling off” period and reduce impulsive violence and suicides.

The American Medical Association has voiced support of waiting periods, and a Quinnipiac University poll found 79 percent of voters support such a mandate.

At least nine states and the District of Columbia have some sort of waiting period (typically between two and seven days), according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Oklahoma does not have a waiting period. There is no federally mandated waiting period to purchase firearms.

A 2017 study in the National Academy of Sciences journal using data on waiting period laws from 1970 to 2014 found that the laws are associated with a 17 percent reduction in gun homicides and a 7 to 11 percent reduction in gun-related suicides.

27.

ADD MORE MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING TO SCHOOLS Mental health counselors in schools can play a critical role in identifying at-risk students and referring them to appropriate treatment. That can prevent students, including would-be school shooters, from harming themselves or others.

Nearly 87 percent of shooters leave behind evidence that they were victims of severe bullying that resulted in thoughts of suicide or revenge, studies have shown. Though most bullied children do not decide to open fire on fellow students as revenge, providing resources

to these students could prevent harm. Schools typically lack the number of psychologists recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists, but the drawbacks to adding more mental health resources in schools are minimal. Even if an increase in mental health counselors doesn’t prevent any school shootings, they’re sure to provide easy access to much-needed support for troubled students.

NASP’s recommended ratio of students to school psychologists is 500–700:1. The recommended ratio of students to school counselors is 250:1, and the recommended ratio to social workers is 400:1. Tulsa Public Schools’ ratios in those categories are, respectively, 1,212:1, 305:1, and 2,423:1.

28.

NAME SCHOOL SHOOTERS LESS After each mass shooting, experts call for the media not to name the shooter, arguing that glorifying and obsessing over shooters only gives them infamy and creates copycats.

And after each shooting, while some members of the media comply, most news organizations publish the shooter’s name and details.

Many school shooters say they studied those before them to learn how to make their shooting more memorable. And research shows there is some contagion effect—a 2015 study by an Arizona State University researcher found that mass shootings are often inspired by other shootings weeks earlier.

The problem with never naming a shooter is the public will find out anyway. Plus, naming a shooter can prevent misinformation, like the wrong person being blamed for a shooting, says Kelly McBride, vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Details of a shooter— their motivation, access to weapons, clues that were missed—can give information that may help prevent future tragedies.

Journalists shouldn’t vow not to name a shooter, she says, but instead name shooters only when pertinent. And they should always tell victims’ stories completely.

FEATURED // 25

“Gun buyback programs appear to satisfy a local administrator’s need for instant solutions to a problem, despite a lack of evidence demonstrating effectiveness as a violence reduction strategy,” the researchers concluded.

36.

INSTALL GUNSHOT TRACKING TECHNOLOGY IN CITIES A series of microphones placed in more than 90 metropolitan cities (including Birmingham, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago) detect gunshots in real time and immediately alert police.

The technology, known as ShotSpotter, lets officers respond quickly and accurately to gunfire, which could lead to more cases of gun violence getting solved. Yet, some reports indicate the expensive technology plays only a minor role in reducing gun violence. The Center for Investigative Reporting found that over a two-year period in San Francisco, only two arrests were made out of the 3,000 ShotSpotter alerts.

President Trump argued that violent video games (like “Call of Duty”) create “monsters,” but research doesn’t bear that out. | COURTESY

29.

HARNESS THE MIGHTY POWER OF CORPORATIONS One sign the response to the Parkland shootings has been different? Corporations started speaking out: Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Kroger raised the minimum age required to buy firearms. CitiGroup banned their business partners from selling firearms to those under 21—and from selling high-capacity magazines or bump stocks at all.

Major investment firm BlackRock announced they’d offer customers the ability to invest in funds that did not include gun manufacturers.

Companies like Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, Symantec, Metlife, Delta, and United all announced they’d be ending their discount programs for NRA members.

Some pundits urge corporations to go even further: The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin argues Visa and Mastercard could follow the example of PayPal and Square by refusing to allow their products to be used to purchase guns.

It’s uncertain whether many companies will be willing to infuriate major chunks of their customers by championing regulation of their gun rights. But we’ve already seen what sort of massive power corporations wield when they get into politics. As an example, look at how they beat back trans-bathroom bills in Texas and North Carolina.

THE INEFFECTIVE PROPOSALS UNLIKELY TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE

30.

ELIMINATE GUN-FREE ZONES The argument against gun-free zones is that they are attractive targets for active shooters and leave their potential victims defenseless.

Donald Trump even told voters he would end gunfree zones during the 2016 campaign.

But the evidence, championed by gun-rights activists, is thin. Active shooters don’t necessarily target gun-free zones. Rather, shooters target places they know, many of which happen to have that designation. Additionally, research shows that armed citizens rarely are able to stop a mass shootings or reduce the number of casualties.

31.

HARDEN SCHOOLS Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, schools have worked to limit access points to buildings in order

26 // FEATURED

to prevent those who would do harm from entering.

There are no good studies on the effect these measures have had on preventing mass shootings.

Studies have suggested, however, it has little effect on preventing other violent or serious crimes in schools. And most school shooters are students or staff who would already have access to those schools—or else they find other ways in.

A few schools have used metal detectors to prevent guns from entering schools. This is costly, but they have been proven to keep guns out of schools in neighborhoods with high crime. Experts, however, say metal detectors are unlikely to stop a gunman who wants to commit a mass shooting. And metal detectors are likely to increase students’ perception of fear and disorder within a school.

Some of the low-cost measures, like limiting access points or locking classroom doors from the inside, may be worth it. And metal detectors may prove useful in some schools. But none of it is likely to be a major deterrent for a potential shooter, and it could increase student fear instead of easing it.

$200,000 for gun research. But that was less than anticipated—and a pittance compared with Seattle’s $6 billion operating budget.

And if a dealer that sells a large or majority percentage of guns decides to leave the city, the tax won’t raise much.

The trouble is that guns aren’t like cigarettes, the Los Angeles Times editorial board points out: “A criminal who needs a gun as a primary tool of his trade would hardly be put off by a slightly higher price.”

THE MESSY PROPOSALS WHERE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS COME COUPLED WITH DOWNSIDES AND RISKS

37.

TEACH GUN SAFETY IN SCHOOLS The Idaho Legislature recently passed a bill to allow gun-safety classes to be taught in schools, but it’s unclear whether or not that will do anything to prevent even accidental shootings.

Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report saying gun-safety programs like the NRA’s are ineffective in teaching children basic rules about what to do if they come across a gun. A 2004 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that gun-safety programs taught children to verbally repeat gun-safety messages, but did not make a difference in real-life situations. It’s possible that this is an issue with the content, not the concept, but so far there’s nothing to prove it prevents shootings.

REDUCE VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE President Donald Trump summoned video game developers to the White House in March for a meeting that opened with a video of grisly kill shots from games like “Fallout 4” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.” It was almost a throwback to the let’s-blame-Columbine-onMarilyn-Manson days—condemning games for, in the words of a 2012 Trump tweet, “creating monsters.”

Both the law and the science are stacked against Trump: In 2011, the Supreme Court struck down violent video game restrictions on First Amendment grounds, noting that there wasn’t any clear link between violent games and violent kids. Yes, some kids play more aggressively after playing violent games, a New York Times review of the research concluded, but actual violent offenders typically have consumed less media than average.

Juvenile violence overall has plummeted even as the number of kids playing video games has soared. And as the New York Times pointed out, Japan, a country by any measure more obsessed with games than the United States, had a grand total of six gun deaths in 2014. The United States? Over 33,000. Yes, something’s different between those two countries—and it isn’t violent video games.

TRY TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT So why not simply ban all guns? Or why not require all guns be kept at an armory instead of the home? Why not imitate Britain or Australia or Japan?

Because the Constitution, that’s why: An Antonin Scalia-penned Supreme Court decision in 2008 left plenty of room for gun regulation but invalidated sweeping gun-control measures like an outright ban on handguns.

That’s led an increasing number of commentators—including former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens—to note there’s a simple way to fix that: Repeal the Second Amendment.

The road to an amendment is ridiculously steep, requiring either the vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress or two-thirds of the state legislatures. But even if it can’t be done, it could at least shift the terms of the debate, supporters argue.

“Why can’t the NRA’s extremism be countered with equal extremism?” writes Vox’s German Lopez. “That seems like a potential way to get to the middle that the great majority of Americans agree with.”

Go for it, far-right conservatives say: Embed repealing one of the bedrock principles of the country into the Democratic Party platform.

Watch what happens to your swing states and rural elected representatives. Watch as the donations to the NRA skyrocket and gun purchases soar as the fear that the government’s coming for your guns seems more real than ever.

Ultimately, it may be far easier to put more liberal-leaning Stevens-style justices on the court, to sweep away Scalia’s precedent, than taking on the Constitution directly.

33.

35.

38.

32.

TAX GUNS AND AMMO Sin taxes have long been used as effective ways to discourage negative behavior. Want fewer people to smoke? Tax the hell out of cigarettes.

Local governments such as those in Seattle and Cook County, Illinois, have levied fees on the purchase of guns and ammunition, with the intent on using the money raised to combat gun violence.

But does it work as a method of gun control?

So far, it’s doubtful. Gun violence actually went up in Seattle the next year after the tax was implemented. The tax did generate about

34.

HOLD VOLUNTARY GUN BUYBACKS It’s a simple enough idea: If guns on the streets are dangerous, why not pay people to turn in their guns, no questions asked? It’s been tried by plenty of police departments across the country.

But most studies have suggested the impact on homicide rates has been insignificant.

In 2013, three researchers at State University of New York College at Buffalo looked at five years of gun buyback programs in Buffalo, New York. The conclusion was scathing.

PUT ARMED POLICE OFFICERS IN SCHOOLS In a vacuum, the idea of having more armed police officers in schools to prevent school shootings seems like a no-brainer. It avoids the complications of arming teachers—officers have more training for high-intensity situations—and there have been, in fact, several instances where armed guards stopped an active shooter from inflicting more damage.

However, there have also been instances like the Parkland, Florida, shooting, when the armed deputy failed to act.

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

But it’s more complicated than that. Mass school shootings remain relatively rare in the everyday life of students, and other than a few high-profile cases there is little research on whether the presence of armed officers prevents them. Meanwhile, on a day-to-day basis, the increase in recent years of resource officers in schools, according to a 2013 Congressional Research Service study, can also increase student arrests for nonviolent offenses—often on vague charges like “disorderly conduct”—and it disproportionately sends students of color into the criminal justice system. Student advocacy groups have pushed to instead focus on providing more counselors in schools instead of police.

The impact armed officers have on preventing school shootings isn’t clear, and the potential drawbacks of increasing their presence need to be considered.

39.

REQUIRE A DOCTOR’S NOTE TO PURCHASE A GUN A person who has been deemed mentally “defective” or who has been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital cannot own or purchase a gun. Background checks are supposed to alert sellers to those marks on people’s records, but they don’t always show up due to the unreliable nature of sharing those records with state and federal databases.

So rather than wait for proof of a potentially disqualifying mental health issue, some countries (such as India, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Russia) require some sort of doctor’s note before a person can own a gun.

But physicians may be reluctant to be the final arbiters of a person’s right to purchase, own, or carry a gun.

A 2013 article by a group of physicians lays out a few reasons why: A lack of standards and training, concern over divulging private medical information, and differing opinions over what should disqualify a person.

40.

GIVE COPS THE CHOICE TO REFUSE TO ISSUE A CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT The distinction between “may issue” states and “shall issue” states typically comes up in the debate about concealed carry permits. Some states, such as Washington, must issue permits to those who qualify. Others give law enforcement the discretion to issue a permit.

Appeals court judges have come to conflicting conclusions about states’ authority to issue permits on a discretionary basis, though the Supreme Court recently declined to review a case out of California. In doing so, it let stand a ruling that says law enforcement can refuse to issue concealed carry permits.

Some gun-safety advocates have taken the idea of discretionary licensure even further. They argue that law enforcement should have discretion over not only who can carry a gun in public, but who can purchase one.

Those advocates point out the fact that the Parkland shooter’s struggle with depression, violent tendencies, and prior contact with police did not disqualify him from buying a gun.

Given the Supreme Court’s previous Second Amendment ruling, and its reluctance to define the law further, it’s unclear whether “may issue” laws for gun purchases would pass constitutional muster.

41.

BAN THOSE ON THE TERRORIST WATCH-LIST FROM BUYING GUNS It’s a proposal that combines the GOP’s hatred of terrorists with Democrats’ hatred of guns.

After the 2016 Pulse shooting in Orlando, congressional leaders floated legislation to prevent suspected terrorists from buying guns.

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

Denying potential terrorists guns seems like a no-brainer—why would you ban a person from jumping on a plane but let them purchase a gun? But whether you’re using the broader terrorist watch-list or the smaller no-fly list, there are thousands of innocent people who would be impacted, raising serious constitutional and due-process concerns.

As the American Civil Liberties Union pointed out, the proposal would further entrench a watch-list system that was “error-prone and unreliable,” relying on “vague and overbroad criteria and secret evidence” to put people on the list without a path to clearing their names.

42.

CHALLENGE PRO-GUN DEMOCRATS IN PRIMARIES There’s a reason why gun-control legislation is so hard to pass, despite polling that says the majority of voters support many measures. Gun-rights voters care more. Cross the NRA as a Republican legislator, and the possibility of being a defeated by someone even more conservative in the next primary is very real. Oppose gun control as a Democrat— like 16 Democratic Senators did with a 2013 assault-weapons-ban bill, and, well, nothing happens.

If gun-control advocates want new laws, they could change that incentive structure by running candidates to defeat pro-gun Democrats in the primary.

The Tea Party example shows the benefits and the risks of such an approach: Tea Party conservatives were able to successfully push the GOP to the right by demanding purity from their legislators.

But at times they also elevated candidates who had no chance of winning in the general election, costing Republicans in crucial elections.

THE UGLY PROPOSALS LIKELY TO RESULT IN MORE INJURIES OR DEATHS

43.

ARM TEACHERS While this is an idea supported by 45 percent of adults, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s widely panned by experts, teachers, and school resource officers.

There is little research about the effect arming teachers would have on preventing mass school shootings, but study after study is clear on one thing: More guns leads to more gun violence. And in the context of a school, that could put children in danger.

Setting aside the question of what an armed teacher would do with a split-second decision in the face of a shooter carrying an AR-15, there are other questions to consider: Where would the teacher store a gun in a way that’s accessible in a tragic event but safe from students? Who would pay for the gun and the training? Would the presence of a gun escalate everyday interactions with students?

Right now, there’s simply no evidence that arming teachers would prevent mass school shootings. There’s little chance it will happen, since schools and teachers across the country have thus far strongly resisted the idea. And the potential for accidental gun violence further traumatizing kids is too high.

Some schools in Oklahoma have allowed teachers to carry guns since 2015. Oklahoma school districts are allowed by law to implement gun carrying policies. The Oklahoma Department of Education does not track the schools that choose to arm teachers.

44.

ENACT THE CONCEALED CARRY RECIPROCITY ACT The first major gun-related piece of legislation acted on by Congress following two of the most deadly shootings in U.S. history (in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas) would essentially allow any gun owner permitted to carry a concealed weapon in one state to do so in any other state. (Currently, Oklahoma recognizes any valid concealed carry weapons permit or license issued by another state.)

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 is one of the biggest priorities of the National Rifle Association, which proclaimed the vote a “watershed moment for Second Amendment rights,” and has long espoused the idea that the answer to gun violence is to arm more citizens.

Opponents argue that reciprocity undermines states’ rights to regulate who can and cannot carry a concealed gun and essentially makes the least restrictive concealed-carry laws the law of the land. Some states do not require a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Empirical evidence has shown that armed citizens rarely stop gun violence. An FBI study of 160 active shooters from 2000 to 2013 found only five incidents that were ended after an armed, non-police officer intervened.

Since 2007, people permitted to carry concealed guns have been responsible for nearly 1,200 deaths that did not qualify as self defense, according to the Violence Policy Center, a gun-safety group. Those deaths include 31 from mass shootings and 21 of law enforcement officers.

45.

PASS “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS A “Stand Your Ground Law” just recently passed in Idaho. Nearly half of the United States has enacted some form of this law, which provides some immunity from prosecution “in the use of deadly force” when that person has a right to be there. Oklahoma Stand Your Ground protections apply to homes, businesses, and vehicles. Oklahoma House Bill 2632, which was recently signed into law by Gov. Fallin, expands the right to use deadly force in self-defense at place of worship.

The debate over stand-your-ground laws intensified after the 2012 death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, whose killer was acquitted by a jury. Florida state Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley has attributed the overall decline in the state’s violent crime rate to its stand-your-ground law.

However, research suggests the opposite: Violent crime fell across the nation—and states with stand-your-ground laws generally have higher firearm homicide rates than those that do not.

While violent crime rates have steadily declined since the early ’90s, there is no research indicating the reduction is related to stand-yourground laws.

46.

ENCOURAGE MORE GUN OWNERSHIP An armed population is a more polite population. It’s the “good guy with a gun” argument, a favorite of Second Amendment supporters. Essentially, more guns, more safety.

But that argument has been widely debunked.

An October 2017 article in the Scientific American says that in about “30 careful studies,” more guns lead to more crimes, including murder and rape. Fewer studies show the opposite. For instance, a 2015 study based on information from the FBI and CDC found that “firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in the states with the most guns versus those with the least.”

“When all but a few studies point in the same direction,” Scientific American wrote, “we can feel confident that the arrow is aiming at the truth— which is, in this case, that guns do not inhibit crime and violence but instead make it worse.” a

“ I have avery strict gun control policy.

If there’s a gun around, Iwant to be in control of it.”

—CLINT EASTWOOD

FEATURED // 27

bookworm

Interacting with imagination Award-winning actor and producer LeVar Burton will read in Tulsa May 19

by ZACK REEVES

L

REEVES: What are you looking for when you’re choosing stories for the podcast?

eVar Burton is well-known for his roles as Kunta Kinte in “Roots” and Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” as well as for being the host of “Reading Rainbow.”

He now hosts “Skybrary,” an interactive library of digital children’s content, and “LeVar Burton Reads,” a podcast of contemporary short fiction for adults.

Burton is the keynote speaker for the Arts Alliance Tulsa brunch on May 19. Afterwards, he will read a children’s book on Guthrie Green.

BURTON: I just told you! [Laughs] I just gave it away. That’s the secret. You’ve got to hook a reader right away, you’ve got to get them invested in the characters and what’s happening, and you’ve got to deliver a satisfying conclusion, oftentimes that the reader didn’t see coming. That’s what a writer has to do.

REEVES: When you’re reading short stories aloud on the podcast, do you feel that you’re more interpreting the way the author means it to be read, or are you trying to pull your own individual meaning out of it?

ZACK REEVES: You grew up in a military family, trading comic books. What kind of comics were you into?

LEVAR BURTON: I grew up with pretty standard fare: both Marvel and DC Universes. I think my favorite as a kid was “Fantastic Four.” I loved Johnny Flame.

Green Lantern. A smattering of “Archie.” You know those? Archie, Veronica, Jughead? [Laughs] I was in the third grade.

REEVES: “Captains Courageous” by Rudyard Kipling too, right? What makes that stand out?

BURTON: It was the book I was reading when I really got what reading was about. The book itself is not great, but that was the book—the story—that turned a lightbulb on for me. Because when I finished that book I missed being in that world. I missed spending time with those characters.

And I was sad that the story was over; I mourned the end of the 28 // ARTS & CULTURE

LeVar Burton | COURTESY

experience. From then on, I was hooked.

REEVES: Do you still get that feeling when you read now?

BURTON: Absolutely. When I’m reading a particularly good piece of fiction, I consciously slow down during the last chapter, because I know that the feeling of depression is going to hit. I’m going to miss that world, those characters.

REEVES: What are you reading now?

BURTON: A lot—a whole lot—of short stories, for the podcast.

Nnedi Okorafor stands out; Lesley Nneka Arimah stands out. So many people are doing exemplary work in the short fiction field, which is, for me, a real demonstration of mastery. As a writer, to be able to tell a satisfying story—beginning, middle, and end—in 30, 35 pages? To hook a reader—boom!—right off the bat, to keep you engaged, and then provide some kind of a twist in the ending that you just didn’t see coming? Phew! That’s mastery.

BURTON: I’m reading the story the way I would want to hear it read to me. It is impossible for me to know for certain whether or not my interpretation lines up with that of the author’s. The author has left clues, and I try and take those clues—and cues—and incorporate them into my interpretation, but this is my version of the story. As is everyone’s!

When you read, you’re reading your version of the story. You’re making the movie in your head.

You’re doing the casting; you’re the production designer; you’re designing the costumes. That’s the power of the written word: how it interacts with your imagination.

REEVES: You brought “Reading Rainbow” [now “LeVar Burton Kids”] back with a Kickstarter.

Can you tell me what it felt like when you learned you had raised $1 million dollars in one day?

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

REEVES: When you’re creating this massive amount of new reading-based content, does it feel nostalgic, like old “Reading Rainbow” days? Or does it feel completely new?

BURTON: It’s kind of a combination of both, I have to say. It’s different because it’s digital. And it’s not just the video field trips—which are an important part of the “Skybrary” experience—but it’s about the books, it’s about the literature.

We’re able to do storytelling in the digital realm in a way we were never able to on television because the delivery system is different.

The child holds the device in his or her hands, and they have access to a library of over 1,000 books, over 250 video field trips, and they’re grouped in thematic islands. If you want to read about animals, go to the animal kingdom island. Go to the magical kingdom island for tales of fantasy.

The idea is to make the literature accessible to kids and help them connect the real world to the literature they’re reading through the video field trips.

So, it’s the same work but with a different spin. In the same way, THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

REEVES: Throughout your career, you’ve been vocal about policies that affect children and learning.

What are we doing right, and what are we doing wrong, for children in America right now?

BURTON: What we’re doing right is trying to serve the needs of children. What we’re doing wrong … the top of my list is Betsy DeVos. Allowing those who do not have the interests of our children at heart and are more focused on lining their own pockets and growing their own wealth to make decisions that impact how—and the degree to which—we educate our children. That makes me angry.

A PE RFOR MING ARTS CENT ER

it’s not “Reading Rainbow” anymore; it’s “LeVar Burton Kids.”

But it’s the same work. I’m doing the same thing I’ve been doing for almost 35 years. But it’s got a different name.

TULS

BURTON: It was very emotional.

We were hoping to raise a million dollars over the course of the campaign. Throughout the day, I was working on set, doing a series called “Perception” with Eric McCormack, and I wasn’t able to watch the progress. But I kept getting texts from my office saying, “This is blowing up!” And over at the office, they were watching it jump, moment by moment. Some of the guys from the office came to the set because they predicted that we would hit a million dollars right around 5:00. And sure enough, we did.

It was really overwhelming, not just to be the focus of that much love and attention, but to have the feedback and the proof that all those years “Reading Rainbow” had landed with the audience. And they wanted to share what they considered to be something that had had value in their lives—they wanted to share that with kids they would never meet. And so they were literally giving money to strangers. It was a powerful experience.

GET TICKETS

Now - May 30

J.V. Green PAC Art Gallery May 17

Las Arpias LJ Productions, LLC May 18-20

The Lion King Jr. Theatre Tulsa May 24

Alicia Hall Moran: Black Wall Street Choregus Productions June 1

Jerry Seinfeld Live JS Touring June 1-2

Tulsa Youth Cabaret SummerStage Tulsa TULSAPAC.COM MYTICKETOFFICE.COM June 8-9 WO- Poritco Dans Theatre 918.596.7111 SummerStage Tulsa

REEVES: Have you been to Tulsa before?

BURTON: I have! Nice city, interesting history. I’m looking forward to being back there again.

REEVES: What were your thoughts about Oklahoma’s teacher walkouts?

BURTON: I was very aware, very proud. Just the idea that teachers were taking their destiny into their own hands and had found a way to advance the conversation about the degree to which this society fails to honor that very important job. And they just took control of the narrative and said, “We’re not going to take it anymore! We can do better! We need to do better!

And unless we do better, I’m not coming back to work!” I thought it was awesome. a

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

ARTS ALLIANCE TULSA BRUNCH WITH LEVAR BURTON Saturday, May 19 | 11 a.m.

Hyatt Regency Tulsa, 100 E. 2nd St. $250+ | artstulsa.org LEVAR BURTON READS 2:00 p.m.

Guthrie Green, 111 E. M.B. Brady St. Free and open to public

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

www.guthriegreen.com

ARTS & CULTURE // 29

artspot

BOUNDARY CROSSING Black Moon Collective unites local black artists

by DAMION SHADE

Black Moon Collective members nosamyrag, Elizabeth Henley, MOLLYWATTA, Christina Henley, and Alexander Tamahn | GREG BOLLINGER

B

lack people aren’t expected to be nerdy. That’s one of those stupid stereotypefueled assumptions that somehow survived the ‘90s and still afflicts our culture today.

Identity is often trapped or repressed by the limits of culture.

For a person of color it’s sometimes hard to feel it’s fine to be whatever you like. Can you be a black hipster who loves Sufjan Stevens, a dork obsessed with BBC comedies and NPR, a pacifist, a line-dancing Toby Keith fan, or even something as universally human as an artist?

Elizabeth Henley is both a nerd and an artist, though, and she defies many stereotypes. She loves comics, corny food puns, sci-fi graphic novels, and campy B horror films—but mostly Henley loves visual art in all its forms. She displayed her own artwork in the Holy Mother Collective show at Living Arts of Tulsa in January.

For the show, Henley painted a towering blue alien goddess with an afro. She named her Nova.

Nova was meant to symbolize the “woman of all women.”

“She looks all space-y and sci-fi and regal, and she had this wiring around her lady parts,” Henley said.

“Over the summer [last year] I had some health issues. The doctors found some uterine fibers, and I had to have surgery. So, I had the choice of whether I 30 // ARTS & CULTURE

wanted the doctors to completely remove everything with a hysterectomy or keep some things with the potential of having kids. So, it was basically like, ‘Do you want kids in the future or do you not?’”

This difficult inflection point changed Henley’s life.

“After the surgery I knew that I really wanted to pursue art, pursue what I love. It kind of tied everything together, being a woman, being a black woman, being an artist—all of that just kind of came to a point where I was like, okay, this is what I want to do.”

In the months that followed, this introverted young woman founded Black Moon Collective, a group for Tulsa’s black artists.

Black Moon Collective consists of eight local artists, including Henley and her sister Christina.

Henley has been slowly curating the group and adding new members as she meets artists who inspire her. The members cross aesthetic and genre boundaries— they represent Henley’s desire to build an artistic community of color that collaborates regardless of background.

“The end goal is to be a working artist. No one was sharing that knowledge with us. So I was like, I need to pull us together for this one goal. Because I know these guys have talent, and I know this is something that Tulsa needs.

“I was in that [Holy Mother]

show, and I was trying to be that representation, but I know there’s more black women. There’s more black artists who have a voice, and they need to share that voice,” Henley said. “I needed to create a safe place for them to feel confident to share art. That’s what’s awesome about Holy Mother. All of these female artists out there collaborating and working together. That’s why North Tulsa artists haven’t been recognized. I feel like we haven’t really supported each other. That’s what I want to show.

We’re this group and we’re pushing together, and we’re supporting each other.”

There’s a wide array of talent on display within Black Moon.

Henley’s sister Christina graduated from OSU with a degree in fine arts, and she works in numerous forms, including bronze sculptures and linocuts, a form of printmaking in which a piece of linoleum is etched with a sharp knife.

Christina’s linocuts are elaborate bi-chromatic carvings with layers of dimensionality in the eyes and faces of the characters she creates.

Painter Devon Jones, aka Monarch Jones, is another member.

Jones, who moved to Tulsa from Boston nine months ago, paints radiant, figurative acrylics of luminaries like Prince and Samuel L. Jackson.

There are also artists within the group’s ranks who have con-

fronted local censorship issues.

Alexander Tamahn was asked to paint a Día de los Muertos mural behind Elgin Park, and his piece included the words “Black Lives Matter.” He was told it would have to be painted over. Living Arts has since invited him to display his mural in their gallery space, and Black Moon has served as another platform for Tamahn and others like him to share their work.

“I just couldn’t believe that people would think that was controversial,” Henley said. “It was beautiful. I’m so inspired by our Black Moon artists. Witnessing their talent—their projects and creative process—blows my mind.”

The collective’s next event will be at John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park on Friday, June 1, the final day of the Remembering Black Wall Street symposium.

Organized by the 1921 Race [Massacre] Centennial Commission, the event will feature live music

by Steph Simon and Tea Rush and live paintings by members of Black Moon Collective. a

BLACK MOON COLLECTIVE AT REMEMBERING BLACK WALL STREET Friday, June 1 | 6:00–9:00 p.m.

John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park 321 N. Detroit Ave. facebook.com/blackmoontulsa May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

multimedia

Brian Haas on the organ at Circle Cinema | GREG BOLLINGER

MONSTER IN THE SKY Tulsa musicians chase twisters with ‘An Oklahoma Tornado Story’

BRIAN HAAS IS NO STRANGER TO EPIC compositions. From re-interpreting Beethoven symphonies to telling the story of the Greenwood massacre in Race Riot Suite, for 24 years his Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has sourced material from challenging histories and no-easy-answer situations.

His newest project, “An Oklahoma Tornado Story: Beowulf on Radio Road,” hits close to home. When Chris Large, Haas’s best friend since he was 19, commissioned him to help create a multimedia production commemorating the fifth anniversary of the record-demolishing El Reno tornado, Haas jumped on it.

“I thought it was one of the best ideas that’s ever been offered up to me as a composer,” he said.

Large, one of Oklahoma’s foremost wine experts, is also a longtime devotee of extreme weather events and storm-chaser footage. Two days after the El Reno twister, which killed eight people and injured 151, he traveled to the site and collected pieces of the wreckage to create a memorial to the four storm chasers who died in their efforts to capture the unprecedented mesocyclone, which at its climax was twice the size of New York City’s Central Park.

When Large saw the animated film “Beowulf” starring Angelina Jolie shortly after the disaster, he knew the ancient monster saga was a metaphor that could capture the primal complexity of the event.

“In ‘Beowulf,’ this evil mother creates this monster, Grendel, that terrorizes this village year in and year out, until the village knows it’s just something they have to THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

deal with,” Large said. “In Oklahoma, every spring we know these storms are coming, but we can’t do much about it other than pray or get into our hidey holes.”

With Annie Ellicott (vocals) and Chris Combs (lap steel guitar) as the voices of the tornado, Ana Berry as Mother Nature, and some surprise international guest musicians, Haas’s 60-minute musical narrative will be performed live on grand piano and the house organ at the Circle Cinema.

Simultaneously, the storm footage Large and videographer Sacha Thomas have made into an evocative film will play on the big screen.

“It’s not easy material—to write to weather,” Haas said. “I’m sitting pencil to paper as I’m watching Chris’s film, and it is absolutely the strangest and most terrifying thing I’ve ever written about.”

“The storm chasers are our Beowulf, and the tornado is Grendel,” Large explained. “We were able to identify eight or nine moments during the 45 minutes of that storm that were almost like little vignettes, like plot points.”

At its heart, said Haas, it’s a requiem: the story of the birth, life, and death of the tornado—and of the lives that were lost to the wind. —ALICIA CHESSER

AN OKLAHOMA TORNADO STORY: BEOWULF ON RADIO ROAD Saturday, June 2 6:30 p.m. reception, 8:00 p.m. show Circle Cinema, 10 S. Lewis Ave. $10–$20 | circlecinema.org ARTS & CULTURE // 31

contactsheet

CONTACT SHEET: AS IT HAPPENS photos and words by WALT WARNER

When I’m not turning people into movie stars or femme fatales—or taking care of those head-shots and portraits—you can find me on the street. I love to watch life as it happens. All the small things that mostly go unnoticed. I like to try and find the treat hidden somewhere around me, like a toy in a box of Cracker Jacks. Mostly people, sometimes a place or a thing. I’m always keeping an eye out for what Jay Maisel calls “gesture.” I may not catch it often, but the excitement is in the search. I love to tango with or without my camera. a Contact Sheet is a place for local photographers to share their projects. If you’re interested in submitting, write to voices@langdonpublishing.com. You can follow Walt on Instagram at @warnergraphic or see more of his work at warnerphotographic.com.

32 // ARTS & CULTURE

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

sportsreport

LUCK PERSONIFIED Fortuna Tulsa showcases area women’s soccer talent

by JOHN TRANCHINA

Fortuna Tulsa’a Anna Beffer | MATTHEW CHRISTENSEN

T

ulsa has produced elite female soccer players for years. Now, the local girls who have starred at the club and high school levels can come back to their hometown and play at a higher level.

Fortuna Tulsa, a new franchise in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL), begins play on May 25 against Oklahoma City FC on their new home field, the Hurricane Soccer and Track Complex at The University of Tulsa.

Owned by Tulsans Dave Hibbard and Barry Williams, the team has local ties in the front office and on the field. General Manager Wayne Farmer and head coach Michael Wilson both played for the Tulsa Athletic of the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), and each was happy to add to the city’s rich soccer culture.

“The owners made a big impression on me—the investment they wanted to make in the women’s game, the fact that they wanted to make something that gave not just to females in sports but to the community as well,” said Wilson, who also coaches the Union High School boys’ squad.

“That’s a massive piece that was important.”

The WPSL, which includes

34 // ARTS & CULTURE

both professional and amateur players, is the second-best league in the U.S. for women’s soccer, behind the all-professional National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

The WPSL is also the largest women’s soccer league in the world, with over 100 teams overall.

Tulsa will compete in the Southwest Conference of the Central Region with five other squads.

Teams have the option of paying their players or, like Fortuna Tulsa, remaining fully amateur and utilizing college and recently-graduated players. They can’t pay some and not others, because then the amateurs would lose their NCAA eligibility; it must be one or the other.

“You can structure your team professionally, where you can pay players, or you can go with the model that we’re using, where you’ll use college players,” Farmer explained. “I think FC Dallas, who’s in our conference, they’ve gone the professional model and paid people, and their team has been fantastic. But we feel, with the players we have, there are so many great girls that have come through youth soccer in Tulsa, and now currently they’re playing college.”

The team’s roster is filled with recent local high school stars that

are now playing for top NCAA Division I programs, such as Taylor Malham and Parker Goins, who helped Union High School win three straight Class 6A state championships. Both now play for the University of Arkansas and have also competed internationally on various U.S. youth national teams. They will be joined by several other former Union teammates, such as Paige Hobart (University of Oklahoma), sisters Rachel (Oklahoma State) and Haley VanFossen (Arkansas), and Anna Beffer (Oklahoma State).

Other high-profile locals on the 30-player roster include Nayeli Perez (Jenks, Arkansas), Tatum Wagner (Bixby, Kansas State), Jordan Langebartels (Summit Christian, Oral Roberts) and Hannah Warner (Owasso, Oklahoma State).

While the team is free to sign players from anywhere, Farmer and Wilson placed an emphasis on ensuring Fortuna Tulsa retained a local flavor.

“It was important to us to make sure that we had local players,” Farmer said, “that we could connect with the city, but also that these girls could develop and have a chance to get better playing in their hometown. It’s really exciting

that we can bring all these girls back to Tulsa and put them on one field to represent the city.”

“We want to have local players and show Tulsa we don’t need to go out and try and bring in big names from elsewhere,” Wilson added. “We can do it because we’ve got the talent here. It’s important that we can showcase that talent.”

“We’re really excited about what we can do on game day,” Farmer said. “Obviously, they have the splash pad and play park next door, and we’re going to do some live music, a little gathering before the game.”

As for the team name, it derives from Roman mythology.

“Fortuna was known as the Goddess of Fortune and the personification of luck within the Roman religion,” said co-owner Hibbard, who is also the team president. “Essentially, Fortuna Tulsa means ‘Good Luck Tulsa.’” a

FORTUNA TULSA VS. OKLAHOMA CITY FC Friday, May 25 Tailgate 5 p.m., Doors 6 p.m., Kickoff 7 p.m.

The University of Tulsa stadium 512 S. Delaware Ave. $5 | fortunatulsa.com May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

SPONSORED EDITORIAL

THE WOODY GUTHRIE CENTER PRESENTS

40 YEARS OF PUNK IN LOS ANGELES

CURATED BY

IDA RED GENERAL STORE CELEBRATES 10 YEARS Ida Red General Store will celebrate its 10th anniversary with an event on Friday, May 25, from 6–9 p.m. at the Brookside location, 3336 S. Peoria Ave. “We’re going to have much fun celebrating our anniversary,” said Angelene Wright, the store’s owner. “We invite customers and friends to come enjoy free food from the Lone Wolf Banh Mi food truck, be one of 50 to receive a free swag bag, see live screen printing of a new limited-edition t-shirt design, and enjoy treats.”

Alice Rodgers opened Ida Red in May of 2008.

Wright was one of her original employees, hired to use Ida Red owner Angelene Wright her degree from TU as a part-time graphic designer.

“Alice opened the store to basically sell Cain’s merchandise, and it evolved from there.

She loved gifts and quirkier things, and I share that love,” said Wright, who purchased the store two years ago. “I didn’t know anything about retail at the beginning but truly fell in love with it.” She opened a second store, Ida Red Soda Fountain & General Store (208 N. Main St.), two years ago.

“When [I was] growing up, my dad [guitarist Steve Ripley of The Tractors] continually shared his love of Oklahoma, so I grew up very proud of our state,” Wright said. “And it seemed we needed more things or ways to express that love of place, which one will certainly find in our stores.”

Wright noted that the Ida Red product lines generally fall into two categories: Oklahoma and Tulsa souvenirs and “things that make people laugh.” The latter include sassy socks, funny mugs, and unique candies and sodas. The store features about 60 different mugs and over 100 t-shirt designs. According to Wright, the best-selling t-shirts are emblazoned with “I’ve Never Been to Heaven but I’ve Been to Oklahoma,” the iconic Tulsa Driller, and Steve Cluck’s “I [Heart] Tulsa” logo. Other popular Ida Red items are coasters with illustrations of many of Tulsa’s favorite places and historic businesses and the “Tulsa Snow Globe,” which was created by the store.

Ida Red General Store is open Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. More at idaredgeneralstore.com.

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

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ARTS & CULTURE // 35

ALICIA HALL MORAN: BLACK WALL STREET May 24, 7 p.m., $20–$30,

T

John H. Williams Theatre, Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com

here can never be enough retellings—not just in Tulsa, but also nationwide—of what happened to Black Wall Street in the 20th century. Silence perpetuates abuse. When history books make the evisceration of black affluence invisible, it’s more likely for similar deprivation to remain unseen when it happens today.

Singer and composer Alicia Hall Moran created this staged concert in collaboration with her husband, jazz pianist Jason Moran (artistic director of jazz at the Kennedy Center) and historian Gene Alexander Peters (co-director of the Slave Relic Museum in South Carolina). It’s a performance piece featuring Moran, a noted mezzo-soprano, and six musicians in a wide-ranging, many-layered exploration of the past, present, and future of money and blackness, drawing on sources including Black Enterprise Magazine from the 1980s, studies of 18th-century New York, and documents from the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921.

ART & MUSIC

HIP HOP

Works by more than 100 artists will fill the streets of downtown’s Deco District for Tulsa International Mayfest, which also features dozens of music, dance, and comedy performances on outdoor stages.

May 17–20, tulsamayfest.org

The largest hip-hop festival in the state, World Culture Music Festival showcases local and regional talent over five nights at Soundpony and Yeti. See our music listings on page 42 for more. May 31– June 4, wcmfestival.com

ART & MUSIC

ART

Celebrate local art at Blue Dome Arts Festival, where Oklahoma artists will display works and live local music will fill the air. New this year is the Paint | Sip | See area, where visitors can take a class while sipping wine. May 18–20, bluedomearts.org

Highlights of June’s First Friday Art Crawl in The Tulsa Arts District include Alphabet, an evening of performances, music, and art created by LGBT+ artists as part of Pride Month celebrations. June 1, 6–9 p.m., thetulsaartsdistrict.org

MUSIC FESTIVAL

HELLO, NEWMAN

The Hop Jam will feature the beer of 75 breweries from 14 states and 5 countries, as well as the music of Manchester Orchestra, Nada Surf, Ra Ra Riot, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, and others.

May 20, Tulsa Arts District, thehopjam.com

Jerry Seinfeld (perhaps you know him from “Bee Movie”?) and supporting comedian Mark Schiff will perform at the PAC’s Chapman Music Hall, June 1.

7 p.m., $48–$173, tulsapac.com

MURAL FESTIVAL

PARADE

20 artists will once again transform the Gateway Building with new larger-than-life works of art for Habit Mural Festival. May 26–27, habitfestival.com

Tulsa Pride is Oklahoma’s largest Pride celebration, featuring a two-day festival in the East Village, a parade, and the 5K Rainglow Run, concluding with Pride Picnic in the Park at Guthrie Green. June 1–3, okeq.org

EVENING CONCERT SERIES

Utica Square’s Summer’s Fifth Night concert series returns with free live music every Thursday night through September, starting May 31 with Weston Horn & the Hush. 7–9 p.m. uticasquare.com

36 // ARTS & CULTURE

FOR UP-TO-DATE LISTINGS: THETULSAVOICE.COM/CALENDAR May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

BEST OF THE REST COMEDY Scott White, Shawn Banks // 5/16-19, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Up To Speed // 5/18-19, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Battle of the New Bloods 5 // 5/20, The Venue Shrine, facebook.com/bazarentertainment Soundpony Comedy Hour w/ Derek Sheen // 5/21, Soundpony, thetulsavoice.com Mike Baldwin // 5/23-26, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Whose Line Rip-Off Show - Military Special! // 5/26, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Zandria Wyatt - Attempting 30 w/ Ryan Green, Hilton Price, Unckle Gary, Tony Beatty // 5/27, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/bazarentertainment Valarie Storm // 5/30-6/2, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Whose Line Rip-Off Show // 6/2, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Jackass Comedy Show starring Dave England and Preston Lacy w/ Tim Brennan, Mike Stricker, Terry McNeeley, Billy Bazar, Michael Zampino, Dave Short, Jankins // 6/2, The Venue Shrine, tulsashrine.com Six Pack of Punchlines w/ Jordan Lofland, Tony Beatty, Chris Cagle, Curt Fletcher, Mae Suggins, Garren McCurry, Meagan Carr // 6/3, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/bazarentertainment Improv Jammy Party // 6/3, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com

PERFORMING ARTS Las Arpias // Eight telenovela stars portray suspects in the murder of a millionaire in this Spanish-language mystery. // 5/17, 8:30 p.m., Tulsa PAC - Chapman Music Hall, tulsapac.com

Mental Health Association Oklahoma Cylcing Tour // Learn what MHAOK is doing to reduce homelessness for those who experience mentall illness on this bike tour. // 5/22, 11:45 p.m., Denver House, mhaok.org Movie in the Park - Wonder Woman // 5/24, 8:30 p.m., Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com Film on the Lawn: The Goonies // 5/25, 7 p.m., Philbrook Museum of Art, philbrook.org Route 66 Patriotfest // This fourth annual festival includes a cruise down The Mother Road and an outdoor festival with live music and entertainment, a patriotic pet show, military museum, pin-up contest, and more. // 5/26, Route 66 Historical Village, rt66patriotfest.com Quilt Tulsa // 6/1-2, Expo Square - River Spirit Expo, greencountryquiltersguild.com Gem Faire // 6/1-3, Expo Square Exchange Center, gemfaire.com Real Okie Craft Beer Festival // 6/1, Hangar 1, Hatbox Field Airport, friendsofhonorheightspark.org TulsaKids Birthday Bash & Kickoff to Summer // The magazine celebrates its 30th anniversary with fun activities and entertainment

by Spaghetti Eddie and Hot Toast Music Co. // 6/2, 2 p.m., Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com Pride Night Lip Sync Battle: Roughnecks vs The Threat // Roughneck Roller Derby and Tulsa Threat Women’s Tackle Football go head to head on stage. // 6/2, The Fur Shop, facebook.com/roughneckrollerderby

SPORTS Tulsa Drillers vs Springfield Cardinals // 5/16, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Springfield Cardinals // 5/17, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/18, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/19, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

The Lion King Jr. // 5/18-20, Tulsa PAC John H. Williams Theatre, tulsapac.com

Oklahoma Footy Club vs Houston Lonestars // 5/19, Veterans Park, tulsabuffaloes.com

Tulsa Youth Cabaret: One Perfect Moment // Young vocalists from around the region perform musical theatre pieces that reflect the unique journey through teen life. // 6/1-2, 7 p.m., Tulsa PAC - Liddy Doenges Theatre, tulsapac.com

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Tulsa Roughnecks FC vs OKC Energy FC // 5/26, ONEOK Field, roughnecksfc.com Tulsa Drillers vs San Antonio Missions // 5/29, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

Artist Forum: Inclusion In Art // 5/16, 5:30 p.m., TCC’s Thomas K. McKeon Center for Creativity, facebook.com/inclusioninartok

Tulsa Drillers vs San Antonio Missions // 5/31, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

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Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/21, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

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Tulsa Drillers vs San Antonio Missions // 5/30, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

Movie in the Park - Hanson: Anthem Live in New York // 5/17, 8:30 p.m., Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com

THREADS

Monster Jam // 5/19-20, BOK Center, bokcenter.com

Jolly Roger and the Pirate Queen. // 5/18-27, Spotlight Theatre, spotlighttheatre.org

Face to Face to Face // This new performance art piece by Michael Wright examines how we see each other and how we are seen through spoken word, movement, dance, and audience interaction. // 5/25-27, TAC Gallery, tacgallery.org

M E N S W E A R

Tulsa Drillers vs Corpus Christi Hooks // 6/1, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Corpus Christi Hooks // 6/2, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Corpus Christi Hooks // 6/3, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com

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musicnotes

It’s a Midwest thing Paul Jason Klein of LANY talks Tulsa roots

by MATT CARNEY

I

f you’re writing pop songs in the smartphone age, you will inevitably be compared to Drake. The guy mastered writing about the regenerative cycle of new romance, betrayal, breakup, and rebound—the ebbs and flows along the 5G network that crest with each new Tinder match and fall with each Instagram story.

This is also the songwriting stuff of Paul Jason Klein, model, musician, and native Tulsan.

Klein’s band LANY (Los Angeles New York) traffics in a sculpted and passionate—but sexless— white-boy R&B that’s yielded a deal with the major label imprint Polydor on its way to a worldwide tour and top-10 positions on two Billboard charts. LANY plays its second-ever Tulsa show Wednesday, May 30, at Brady Theater.

MATT CARNEY: Were you born here?

PAUL KLEIN: Born and raised, yes sir.

CARNEY: What was your childhood like?

KLEIN: I spent the first three years of my life in way-deep east Tulsa, in a little house. Then we moved to 91st and Yale.

CARNEY: No way—I grew up at 91st and Yale.

KLEIN: Yeah, I was in Southern Pointe. Where were you?

CARNEY: I was in Southern Pointe, too.

KLEIN: Holy shit. I probably shouldn’t give my address out— not that anyone would care—but I lived in Southern Pointe. My parents still live there.

38 // MUSIC

wide it is—it’s a different feeling. In LA, you’re never really going more than like 20 miles an hour because of traffic, and if you’re in New York you don’t drive. I think it’s a Midwest thing: You’ve got time and space to drive.

CARNEY: What’d you listen to in the car while growing up?

Jake Goss, Paul Jason Klein, and Charles Leslie Priest of LANY | COURTESY

My mom put me in piano at the age of five. It was classical piano and I didn’t very much enjoy classical piano, but I made a deal with my parents when I was nine that if I got a full-ride [college] scholarship somewhere, they’d buy me a car. And we made that deal, and I got a full-ride scholarship.

CARNEY: Did you write songs when you lived here?

KLEIN: I did, yeah. I think I wrote my first real song to this girl I wanted to take to prom. I asked her via song [laughs], which is so classic.

Once I hit about 16, I was writing.

CARNEY: Did you ever have a moment early on when you saw a pop musician perform and you thought, “Oh, I want to do that”?

CARNEY: How do you imagine your fans listening to LANY songs?

What’s the context in which they discover you, listen to you, talk about your music?

KLEIN: Yeah. I must have been in fifth or fourth grade. Alicia Keys did an “MTV Unplugged,” and I remember being home one summer, and it was the first time I saw somebody play piano and [thought], “They’re cool.”

Up until that point, being 10 or 11, I’d already spent like five years wearing ties and suits and spending my Saturdays and Sundays going to compete in piano competitions, which is like the nerdiest thing in the world. It was already ingrained in my mind that piano was not cool. When I saw that, it was eye-opening.

KLEIN: It’s all word of mouth.

We’re not on the radio yet. We haven’t had some breakout internet moment, anything like that.

They listen, probably on Spotify or YouTube, I’m assuming. And it finds its way into their cars, into their headphones.

My whole life, growing up, some of my best and warmest memories are just being in the car and listening to music. Either by myself or with friends. You know, I think that might actually be a thing in Oklahoma. I heard somebody talk about just the way the road feels, maybe how open and how

KLEIN: “Ocean Avenue” by Yellowcard. You’d play that just as loud as you can, that entire album. But then I was obsessed with Brian McKnight and Charlie Wilson, which was really bizarre. I had a friend named Luke, pretty much one of my only friends, who’d listen to R&B with me. We’d go through the trenches and try to find the most underground R&B songs, try to out-do each other, one-up each other. John Mayer was my everything and kind of still is.

He’s pretty much God to me.

CARNEY: Is there anything you’d like to tell fans in Tulsa before your show?

KLEIN: I’m so thrilled to come home and play. The last time [LANY] played Tulsa was our first time playing [there], and I was adamant about not playing Cain’s because I didn’t think anyone was going to come and I didn’t want to be embarrassed. I told my booking agent, “Let’s do the Vanguard and hope we sell it out,” and it sold out in a couple of hours, so we had to move the show to Cain’s. [The crowd] was rowdy to play for last time, so if they’re that rowdy again, I’ll be pleased. a

LANY WITH SPECIAL GUEST COLOURING Wednesday, May 30, 7 p.m.

Brady Theater, 105 W. M.B. Brady St. $25 | bradytheater.com May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

MUSIC // 39

musicnotes

24-hour job

Jabee returns to Tulsa to raise money for homeless youth

by MARY NOBLE

O

klahoma City rapper Jonathan Blake Williams Jr., better known by his stage name Jabee, boasts a laundry list of accomplishments. He won an Emmy and collaborated with producer El-P. He toured with Run the Jewels in 2013, was signed to Murs’ record label, MURS 3:16, and released Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt. In 2016, he put out Black Future, which features famed rapper Chuck D from Public Enemy and Killer Mike.

“Jabee’s music has the potential to change the world,” Chuck D said.

Tulsans will have a chance to see this talent live on Saturday, May 27, when Jabee returns to Tulsa to perform at the third annual Habit Mural Festival (May 26–27).

But Jabee doesn’t just make music—and it’s easy to wonder how this father of two daughters, ages six and three, fits everything he does into his schedule. Jabee teaches hip-hop studies at The Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is also on the board of the Oklahoma City Arts Commission, hosts a radio show every Saturday night at 11 p.m. on 107.3 FM, is part-owner of a poke (fish salad) restaurant concept called East Side Poke Project, expected to open early 2019 in Oklahoma City. He expects to begin work on a new album later this year.

Despite his flourishing career and many responsibilities, Jabee’s heart is with the homeless. When I first interviewed Jabee in 2016, I was working at the Youth Services of Tulsa (YST) drop-in center, which provides an array of resources to homeless youth. As we talked about his burgeoning music career, I discovered that Jabee was also passionate about racial inequality and homelessness. He 40 // MUSIC

Jabee, ouside the Gateway building, where Habit Mural Festival will take place May 26–27 | GREG BOLLINGER

shared that his family experienced a period of homelessness when he was a child that had a lasting impact on his social awareness and empathy for others.

At the end of the interview, I asked if he’d be willing to perform for the homeless youth at the YST Youth Activity Center. He graciously agreed—then put his heart and soul into the concert. Tim Peterson, coordinator of the dropin center, says the benefit concert is still clear in his mind.

“I was blown away by Jabee’s initiative and engagement,” Peter-

son said. “Jabee didn’t do just a couple of songs. Dude did a set.

Towards the end he challenged all the kids to pull belongings out of their pockets, and he freestyled about the objects they held in their hands. The youth we serve are on the fringes and margins, pushed to the side and the back of the crowd. For that moment, they were front-row for an intimate show. It was awesome to watch.”

Jabee’s passion for homeless advocacy continues today in his work with the OKC non-profit City Care, for which he hosts Gift

Raps, an annual Christmas canned food and clothing drive. He also conducted a social experiment in October last year, posing as a homeless man for 24 hours. Jabee told me he wanted to gain insight into the systems the homeless are forced to navigate.

“Being homeless is a 24-hour job,” said Jabee. “It’s hard to try and figure out the system. You got to have this document and that document, go to this place and that place. For me, I experienced [it] as a child growing up whenever our family didn’t have a place to stay; [now] I got a chance to experience it as an adult, being able to talk to people and help share their stories with people that can help.”

Part of Jabee’s experiment included not carrying a phone or any of the documents required to obtain identification to be admitted into a shelter for the night or to find a job. This is a barrier many homeless individuals face.

As hip-hop artist Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) once said, “Why do I need ID to get ID?” “People say, you know, ‘Oh, just go get a job,’ but it’s not that easy,” Jabee said. “You’re trying to do that and trying to find a place to sleep before all the beds are gone or before the cut-off time. I learned a lot and got to share that experience with people who don’t know.”

A portion of the proceeds from admission to Jabee’s Habit Mural Festival show and the cash bar will be donated to Youth Services of Tulsa. a

JABEE AT HABIT MURAL FESTIVAL Saturday, May 26 | 7 p.m.

Gateway Building, 860 E. Admiral Blvd. $5 at the door, or free to those who RSVP at lineupokc.com May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

MUSIC // 41

musiclistings Wed // May 16 BOK Center – *Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss – ($44-$254) Cain’s Ballroom – Jimmy Eat World, The Hotelier, Microwave – ($29.50-$44) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Travis Kidd Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Caleb Fellenstein Los Cabos - Jenks – Rockwell Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Nathan and Shelby Eicher – ($10) pH Community House – *Jason Steady & The Soft Ponies, Cucumber and the Suntans – ($5) River Spirit Casino – Brent Giddens Soul City – Don & Stephen White Soundpony – Lyrical Smoke The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project Wyld Hawgz – Open Mic Night

Thurs // May 17 Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean SlJibouri Cain’s Ballroom – *The Sword, The Shelter People – ($18-$33) Crow Creek Tavern – Tyler Brant Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Hi-Fidelics Los Cabos - Jenks – C-Plus Los Cabos - Owasso – Laron Simpson Mayfest – Count Tutu, Tulsa Latin Style, Multiphonic Funk, Casii Stephan and the Midnight Sun, and more Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ Johnnie Bananas River Spirit Casino – ZZ Top – ($75-$400) Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Sad Palomino The Colony – Chris Lee Becker - Happy Hour The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night Yeti – Ringdown, Dopamine Dreams

Fri // May 18 American Legion Post 308 – Double “00” Buck Blackbird On Pearl – Kashmir – ($5) Blue Dome Arts Festival – Out of Sink, Saint Monroe, Soul Surferos, and more Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Carlton Hesston Fassler Hall – Combsy, Culture Cinematic Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Scott Ellison, Pearl Nation Lefty’s On Greenwood – Little Brother Walker Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Usual Suspects Los Cabos - Jenks – House Party Los Cabos - Owasso – Lost On Utica Mayfest – Brandon Jenkins Tribute by Red Dirt Rangers, Cypher 120 Experience, The Stylees, Steve Liddell Mercury Lounge – John Calvin Abney, Christy Hays Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Stars Pit Stop – DJ MO River Spirit Casino – The Tiptons River Spirit Casino – DJ Bananas River Spirit Casino – Caleb Fellenstein Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soul City – Mark Gibson Band – ($10) Soundpony – Afistaface The Colony – Ryan Browning - Happy Hour The Colony – Chris Blevins Band, Tanner Miller Band – ($5) The Fur Shop – Tequila Kim The Venue Shrine – *Screaming Red Mutiny CD Release – ($10) 42 // MUSIC

Wyld Hawgz – Bottoms Up Yeti – The Grits, Achy Orb, Cucumber and the Suntans Yeti – Cucumber Mike’s Happy Hour

Sat // May 19 Blue Dome Arts Festival – Animal Names, Tony Romanello & The Black Jackets, Beacon Drive, and more Brady Theater – *David Crosby & Friends – ($49.50-$69.50) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – The Capital Ledge Band Fassler Hall – Afistaface Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Tandem, Squadlive Lefty’s On Greenwood – *We Make Shapes Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Midas 13 Los Cabos - Jenks – Empire Los Cabos - Owasso – Steve Liddell Mayfest – Weston Horn and the Hush, Eric Himan, Henna Roso, klondike5, and more Mercury Lounge – South Austin Moonlighters Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Charlie Redd & The Full Flava Kings River Spirit Casino – Stars River Spirit Casino – Tom Jones – ($85-$95) River Spirit Casino – Brent Giddens Soul City – Jimmy Markham and the Caretakers – ($10) Soundpony – Jon Mooneyham The Beehive Lounge – The Mules, Beaten Daylights feat. Rachel Bachman, Landry Miller – ($5) The Colony – Hosty! – ($5) The Vanguard – My So Called Band – ($10) The Venue Shrine – No Name Bones CD Release – ($10) Wyld Hawgz – The Sex Yeti – *Mr. Burns: The Bishop Tape release party w/ Feeray, #Baconomics

Sun // May 20 Blue Dome Arts Festival – Michael Fields Jr., Okra & the Universe, Alyssa Elaine, and more East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Daniel Jordan Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band Mayfest – Whiskey Misters, BC and the Big Rig, Brujo Roots, and more Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino – Jake Flint Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Dustin Pittsley & Friends Gospel Brunch Soundpony – Left Hand Shake The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Hop Jam – *Manchester Orchestra, Nada Surf, Ra Ra Riot, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, Paul McDonald, The Brothers Moore Wyld Hawgz – Exposure Rock Jam

Mon // May 21 Barkingham Palace – Bigger Than Mountains, Willi Carlisle Blackbird On Pearl – The Portal Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot & Friends Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective River Spirit Casino – The Marriotts The Colony – Seth Lee Jones Yeti – The Situation

Tues // May 22

Sat // May 26

Fassler Hall – Chris Combs Trio Lefty’s On Greenwood – Cheryl McGee and Dave Mooney Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino – Jacob Dement The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic The Vanguard – Contra., Growing, Gadgets Sons, Ambitions, Solid Ground – ($10) Yeti – Yeti Writers’ Night

Cain’s Ballroom – *The Melvins, All Souls – ($21-$24) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Barrett Lewis, Adairs Run Lefty’s On Greenwood – Faye Moffett Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Agenda Los Cabos - Jenks – Str8ght Shot Los Cabos - Owasso – Bria & Joey Mercury Lounge – Steamboat Bandits Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Jesse Joice River Spirit Casino – Zodiac River Spirit Casino – Greg Draggo River Spirit Casino – Jake Flint Soul City – Josh Yarbrough Band – ($10) Soundpony – Pleasuredome The Colony – Beau Roberson Band – ($5) Woody Guthrie Center – Women of WoodyFest w/ Chloe-Beth, Melissa Hembree, Susan Herndon, Chloe Johns, Peggy Johnson, Cassie Latshaw, Amy Carlin Lee, Lauren Lee – ($20)

Wed // May 23 Hard Rock Casino – Asphalt Cowboys Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Jacob Dement Los Cabos - Jenks – Scott Pendergrass Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Nathan and Shelby Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino – Rivers Edge Soul City – Don & Stephen White Soundpony – Rock Bottom String Band The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project The Vanguard – Artica, All For More, Host of Hosts, Sessions – ($10) Wyld Hawgz – Open Mic Night

Thurs // May 24 Cain’s Ballroom – American Aquarium, Cory Branan – ($15-$17) Hard Rock Casino – Double Barrel, Big Daddy Krystal Palace Event Center – Amanda Perez, DL Down3r, Lady Dice – ($25) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Branjae Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Local Spin Duo Los Cabos - Jenks – Willy Echo Duo Los Cabos - Owasso – Brent Giddens Mercury Lounge – Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy, Ford Theatre Reunion Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO River Spirit Casino – DJ Johnnie Bananas Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – My Brother and Me The Colony – Chris Lee Becker - Happy Hour The Colony – The Soup Kitchen w/ Dane Arnold The Vanguard – *Cherokee Maidens – ($15-$160)

Fri // May 25 American Legion Post 308 – american Strings Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Sl-Jibouri Blackbird On Pearl – Mike Hosty – ($5) Fuel 66 – Burn Tulsa w/ Robert hoefling, Konkoba Percussion, Dane Arnold & The Soup, YeshwaH – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Weston Horn, Zodiac Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Sneak Preview Los Cabos - Jenks – DJ and the Band Los Cabos - Owasso – Jacob Dement Duo Mercury Lounge – Black Irish Texas Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Ronnie Pyle & The Drivers Pit Stop – DJ MO River Spirit Casino – Travis Kidd River Spirit Casino – DJ Bananas River Spirit Casino – Mike Wilson & John Conrad Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soul City – Scott Musick & Friends Soundpony – *Soundpony Goes Latino 6.5 The Colony – Ryan Browning - Happy Hour The Colony – *Briana Wright – ($5) Wyld Hawgz – Red Sawyer Yeti – Cucumber Mike’s Happy Hour

Sun // May 27 East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Fassler Hall – Chris Combs Trio Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Barrett Lewis Trio Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino – Jake Flint River Spirit Casino – The Morgan Band Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Dustin Pittsley & Friends Gospel Brunch Soundpony – Better Now The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Vanguard – Froggy Fresh, When the Clock Strikes – ($15-$50) Wyld Hawgz – Exposure Rock Jam

Mon // May 28 Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot & Friends Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Los Cabos - Jenks – Daniel Jordan Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – *Memorial Day Tribute to Veterans w/ Joe Wilkinson – ($5-$20) River Spirit Casino – The Marriotts River Spirit Casino – DJ Ayngel The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Venue Shrine – Shawn James and The Shapeshifters – ($10) Yeti – The Situation

Tues // May 29 BOK Center – *Depeche Mode – ($39.50-$129.50) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Janet Rutland and Randy Wimer Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino – Jacob Dement The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Yeti – Yeti Writers’ Night

Wed // May 30 American Legion Post 308 – Butch & Frank Brady Theater – LANY, Colouring – ($25) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Pumpkin Hollow Band Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Ronnie Pyle Los Cabos - Jenks – Laron Simpson Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Nathan and Shelby Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino – The Tiptons Soul City – Don & Stephen White Soundpony – Crunk Witch, Danner Party, Layers of Pink May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

The Colony – Tom Skinner Science Project The Vanguard – Orthodox, Piece of Mind, Chamber, Cold Shoulder, Relapse, Give Way – ($10-$12) The Venue Shrine – Anybody Killa – ($15) Wyld Hawgz – Open Mic Night

Thurs // May 31 Blackbird On Pearl – Kalo – ($5) Hard Rock Casino – Daniel Jordan, Rosy Hips Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Hi-Fidelics Los Cabos - Jenks – The Aviators Los Cabos - Owasso – Steve Liddell Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO River Spirit Casino – DJ Johnnie Bananas Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – *WCMF: The Neighbors, TheGrae, Creo, Lee Littles You.th, Kode Ransom, GxThree The Colony – Chris Lee Becker - Happy Hour The Colony – Tovar’s Honky Tonk Woody Guthrie Center – Todd Albright – ($20) Wyld Hawgz – Exposure Rock Jam

Sun // Jun 3

Mon // Jun 4

Tues // Jun 5

Cain’s Ballroom – MISSIO, Blackillac – ($16-$18) East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Laron Simpson Los Cabos - Jenks – The Fabulous Two Man Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Dustin Pittsley & Friends Gospel Brunch Soundpony – *WCMF: No Parking After Party The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing

Cain’s Ballroom – Minus The Bear, The New Trust – ($25-$40) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot & Friends Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Barrett Lewis Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriotts The Colony – Seth Lee Jones Yeti – *WCMF: The Situation – ($5)

Fassler Hall – Chris Combs Trio Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic The Vanguard – Misery Loves Company, Morning In May, Keeping Secrets, The Backward Few – ($10) Yeti – Yeti Writers’ Night

Fri // Jun 1 American Legion Post 308 – Round Up Boys Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Sl-Jibouri BOK Center – George Strait – (Starting at $79.95) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Chris Hyde, Hook Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – Zodiac Los Cabos - Jenks – Rockfisch Mercury Lounge – Prophets and Outlaws Outside BOK Center – George Strait Pre-Party w/ Jerrod Niemann Pit Stop – DJ MO River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – REO Speedwagon – ($50-$165) Soul City – Susan Herndon Soul City – Scott Musick & Friends Soundpony – WCMF: Manifess & Jbarre, Jarry Manna, Mars Deli, The Fury MCs, Tony Del Freshco, Saze, Young DV The Beehive Lounge – Ryan McLaughlin The Colony – Ryan Browning - Happy Hour The Colony – *Carlton Hesston, Echoes & Copycats, Hey Judy – ($5) The Gypsy Coffee House – Isaac McClung The Vanguard – Belmont, Young Culture, Steelyface, Anchorway, ¯ver Cast - Early Show – ($10) The Vanguard – Through Being Cool – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Taddy Porter – ($8) Yeti – WCMF: Mr. Burns, Jabee, Steph Simon, Written Quincey, Surron the 7th & Mike Dee, & more Yeti – Cucumber Mike’s Happy Hour

Sat // Jun 2 BOK Center – George Strait – (Starting at $79.95) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Daniel Jordan, Hybrid Los Cabos - Broken Arrow – The Aviators Los Cabos - Jenks – Brandi Reloaded Mercury Lounge – Charley Crockett MixCo – Dean DeMerritt, Sean Sl-Jibouri, and Sarah Maud Mulligan’s Sports & Spirits – DJ MO Outside BOK Center – George Strait Pre-Party w/ Joe Diffie Soul City – *Dwight Twilley Birthday Bash – ($10) Soundpony – *WCMF: David Puffin, Fresh, Quis Christ, King Nip, Micki Ronnae, Druce Wayne, Irai Ouree, L.T.Z. The Colony – Snobug – ($5) The Vanguard – Amy Lavere, Will Sexton – ($10) Woody Guthrie Center – Ray Bonneville – ($20) Yeti – *WCMF: Verse & The Vapors, Keeng Cut, Pade & Thrill, Dial Tone, We Make Shapes, & more

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

MUSIC // 43

onscreen

Sugar and spice SEASON FOUR OF ‘CHEF’S TABLE’ IS MEANT FOR YOUR SWEET TOOTH Christina Tosi, chef/co-founder of Milk Bar | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

THE NEW SEASON OF “CHEF’S TABLE,” which landed on Netflix in early May, is an exciting continuation of the previous seasons, but with a new focus: this time it’s just desserts. You may be wondering why we’re covering a show over a month after its release. Well, to be honest, it just fell to the bottom of my queue; you know the feeling.

Season four brings four episodes that address the theme in very different ways but that are bound together by joyful experimentation in each of the chef’s establishments.

The first episode, featuring Christina Tosi and her bakery, Milk Bar, sets the lighthearted tone for the show. Tosi uses baking as a way of exploring memory, childhood, and fun. Simultaneously silly and intellectual, she exemplifies the balance between flexibility and discipline.

The second episode features Corrado Assenza, a Sicilian pasticciere who uses local flavors to make classic and quirky dishes. He’s world-famous for his densely flavored and perfectly textured gelato, but in this episode he talks about another dish.

An unlikely dessert, his raw oysters served on sorbet-like almond granita express the flavors of the sea. The risks he takes, like

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

44 // FILM & TV

the oyster dish, have been a double-edged sword: They sprang him to the international stage of culinary experimentation but simultaneously alienated his local customers.

In recent years, this extreme contrast has balanced out, and the menu at his legendary Caffè Sicilia features both the classic and the experimental, appealing to the full spectrum of sweets lovers.

“Chef’s Table” is most recognized for its incredible, beautiful cinematography: near-slow-motion pans and zooms across dishes, around markets, and through kitchens. The filmmaking communicates the deliciousness of the food without smell, touch, or taste. Beyond that, it gives viewers language to understand food as a way of seeing the complexities of the world we live in.

In the third episode, which features Jordi Roca, pastry chef of the three-Michelin-star Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, Roca describes the elements of his dishes as if they are lines in a poem, forming an elegant and thoughtful whole.

This may sound a little high-minded, but the creators of “Chef’s Table” make it feel relatable and useful beyond the kitchen.

Will Goldfarb, the disgraced former NYC-based pastry chef who launched the dessert bar concept, is the subject of the season’s finale. A few years ago, Goldfarb dropped out of the New York scene and quietly opened a new spot in Bali, allowing him to work and live close to the origin of many of the ingredients in his arsenal: vanilla, chocolate, nutmeg, and tropical fruits.

“Chef’s Table” is food porn at its best but also at its most serious. Sometimes I wish the show would allow a little more silliness rather than portraying the episodes’ subjects as god-like. But, in a way, that’s the show’s strength. The chefs featured built their worldviews and culinary philosophies on diligence and infinite curiosity; the show allows us a small peek into their imaginative worlds. –JENNY EAGLETON

Brady Jandreau in “The Rider” | SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

COWBOY INDIAN ‘The Rider’ is a modern American portrait of a Native American life

WHEN BARRY JENKINS EVANGELIZES A movie on Twitter, heed the gospel.

In the fall of 2017, the “Moonlight” director began to tweet gushing praise for “The Rider,” a film set in South Dakota’s Sioux country that was just beginning its tour on the festival circuit. It won the top prize in the Directors’ Fortnight program at Cannes Film Festival.

It’s easy to see why the award-winning filmmaker felt such an affinity toward it.

Despite telling a different story from a different world, “The Rider” fundamentally has so much in common with Jenkins’s landmark Best Picture Oscar winner. Both are explorations of a young man’s identity crisis, each is set in a niche minority community, and they’re both told with a poetic, lyrical lament.

Yet while Jenkins layered “Moonlight” with autobiographical undertones, “The Rider” is a modern portrait of a Native American male told by a native Chinese woman. Chloé Zhao equals Jenkins’s feat but within a foreign experience. That juxtaposition heralds Zhao (in only her second feature) as a writer/director of profound empathic acuity and one of the world’s premiere emerging cineastes.

Cowboy and Indian merge into one in “The Rider,” the story of Brady, a young Lakota rodeo horseman who’s sidelined with a brutal head injury. The stitched incision across his scalp is his most obvious scar, but more concerning are occasional seizures and locked muscle control that could threaten his burgeoning career.

Grieving the possible loss of a life not lived, Brady wrestles with questions that

hover and haunt with existential dread.

How long do you live in limbo? Should you hold on or move on? Who are you when your identity is taken away, especially when you come from nothing and your gifts are all you have? And what’s the bigger risk: tempting fate or walking away from it?

Eschewing sentiment but deeply sensitive, Zhao sets this within Brady’s rural reservation life. His mother passed away years ago. He butts heads with his dad but shares a special bond with his sister, who is mentally handicapped. He also visits a rodeo friend who’s now quadriplegic.

This cast of amateurs delivers raw, heartfelt performances, primarily because “The Rider” is loosely based on their lives.

Brady is played by Brady Jandreau, and his fictional father and sister are played by his real-life family, as is his friend Lane Scott.

Zhao nurtures their experiences–Brady’s especially–with tender veracity.

Zhao then marries that intimate eye to an epic scope, painting this tale of longing against a sweeping backdrop of Americana in the very Badlands of Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves.”

As a man of simple religious beliefs, Brady must not only contend with a potential loss of identity but, more acutely, his God-given purpose. As he struggles through this valley, he gets a tattoo that becomes the film’s most plaintive metaphor: a cross covering his back, with a horse intertwined. In one image, that’s the journey of the soul “The Rider” takes us on: a poignant spiritual odyssey where the love in your heart becomes the cross that you carry. –JEFF HUSTON May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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

OPENING MAY 18 RBG A documentary portrait of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Rated PG. POPE FRANCIS: A MAN OF HIS WORD An intimate look at the work and mission of Pope Francis, from reforms to the social justice efforts that drive his papacy. Rated PG.

OPENING MAY 25 BORG VS. MCENROE A dramatic sports biopic of the 1980s rivalry between tennis greats Björn Borg and John McEnroe.

Shia LaBeouf stars as the volatile McEnroe. Rated R. OH LUCY! A Japanese woman falls for her English instructor in this heartwarming, Independent Spirit Award-nominated romantic dramedy from executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. THE RIDER A Native American rodeo rider faces the loss of his livelihood after a severe head injury. Winner of the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. See review on pg. 44.

Rated R.

OPENING JUNE 1 HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES From director John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig and the Angry Inch”). Elle Fanning stars as an alien in London’s 1970s exotic punk rock scene who, along with two locals, finds herself in an intergalactic battle. Co-starring Nicole Kidman. Rated R.

SPECIAL EVENTS LU OVER THE WALL Anime Club presents this modern fable of a student and his bandmates, whose music lures an unexpected guest: a mermaid. Rated PG. (Fri. & Sat. May 18 & 19, 10:00 p.m.)

ROYAL WEDDING EXPERIENCE On the big screen at 5 a.m., England’s royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle.

Mini-breakfast of Brit fare and tea from White Lion Pub. Tickets $12; Circle members $10. (Sat. May 19, 5:00 a.m.)

DO NO HARM: THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC Narrated by Oscar nominee Ed Harris, this documentary examines the growing crisis of opioid addiction in America.

(Mon. May 21, 7:30 p.m.)

RAMEN HEADS A fun, fascinating documentary about Japan’s top ramen chefs and their diehard fans. (Thu. May 24, 7:30 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. May 25 & 26, 9:30 p.m.)

AN OKLAHOMA TORNADO STORY: BEOWULF ON RADIO ROAD See story on pg. 31. Pre-show reception at 6:30 p.m. (Sat. June 2, 8:00 p.m.)

Learn more at

ModusTulsa.org

D-DAY FILM EVENT The annual showing of “D-Day Remembered,” an award-winning documentary about the WWII Normandy invasion. Memorabilia will also be on display. This event is free.

(Wed. June 6, 2:00 & 6:00 p.m.)

THE BIG TRAIL A second screening by popular demand. This 1930 Western epic starring John Wayne will be projected reel-to-reel from an archival 35MM film print. Sponsored by Gilcrease Museum. Tickets $15; Circle members $10. (Sun. May 27, 2:00 p.m.)

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Come find out what ’s happening.

Michael Fairchild • Attorney at Large • 918-58-GRASS (584-7277) THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

FILM & TV // 45

City Year, an educationfocused nonprofit organization in 28 cities across the US, is currently hiring AmeriCorps members for the 20182019 school year. City Year AmeriCorps members serve full-time in high-need schools for 11 months to help students build socialemotional and academic skills.

some days are

hard,

all days

worth it.

If you know students, ages 17-25, who have the interest, passion and skills to help students reach their full potential, please share this opportunity.

apply today cityyear.org

REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s eclectic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM 46 // ETC.

May 16 – June 5, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

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

DAMIAN is only three months old and already walks well on his leash. If you are looking for a companion that is dog- and kid-friendly and social, Damian is your man! Damian loves playing with toys, going on walks, and meeting new dog buddies.

ACROSS 1 Story ending morally 5 Super lightweight boxer?

8 Curative spring 11 Superman’s logo 14 Gridiron infraction signaler 18 Persia, now 19 Not be mistake-free 20 Couple million pounds 22 Frilly material 23 Treatment for babies 26 Pinto or Mustang 27 Prepare to let wine flow 28 Three lines that rhyme 29 Like many professors 31 Dictation expert 32 Type of inserted pin 33 Song to a lover 34 Downhill assister 36 ___ Lanka 37 Take care of, as a wound 38 Travel caller 41 Hindu noble 44 Stuff with food 46 Timber decay 50 Like bulldogs 52 Chapeau 54 Substantive rock 55 Smells of London 56 Not a whit 58 Easternmost of the Lesser Sundas 60 Shepard of Mercury 61 Deputized group 62 Wood finisher 64 Grad’s cap attachment 66 Heston epic (with “The”) 69 Drunken state 71 Temporary period 72 Rears

76 Shakespeare’s “sadly” 77 Billboards, e.g.

79 Scot’s 52-Across 80 Place for folded clothes 81 One juiced at the bar?

82 One paid to score 83 Apartments in need of repair 85 Hoped-for hereafter 89 Bowed in a symphony?

92 Better text 93 Scheduled to arrive 94 Caftan donners 96 “Gross, dude!”

98 Kindergarten timeout 100 Does some doctoring 103 Words that cause relaxing 106 Extreme passion 111 Fitted to join a mortise 112 Detach, in a way 113 Old name for the flu 114 “Render ___ Caesar ...”

115 Causes of much temple rubbing 118 Fizzles out, as a battery 119 Imitate a songbird 120 Tax season expert, briefly 121 Belfast’s locale 122 Lack of pressure 123 Record-setting suffix 124 Sea delicacy 125 U.S. anthem writer 126 Barbecue side DOWN 1 New Testament book 2 “___ you the shy one?”

When you meet CONRAD, he is sure to make you smile from ear to ear. This silly guy is about ten months old and is full of energy and fun. Conrad is very smart, knows his basic commands, and loves toys!

3 Tilting weapon 4 Words before a happy note?

5 Brew coffee, maybe 6 Online address letters 7 Prefix with plasm 8 Some women’s wear 9 Lobster weapons 10 Algiers locale 11 Airport listing, for short 12 Classifier 13 Appeared villainous?

14 Pretentious 15 Dern on film 16 Emulated 15-Down 17 Crystal-lined stone 21 Halloween mo.

24 Winged god of love 25 Doc for the four-legged 30 Get “warm” 32 “Bye bye” somewhere 33 Boiling byproduct 35 Mr. Kristofferson 38 Change decorations 39 “The Dukes of Hazzard” spinoff 40 Marlowe title doctor 42 Cabal 43 Turkey part 45 Cheap 47 Thing awarded to a thespian 48 From the mouth 49 This puzzle’s theme 50 Go one better than 51 Move stealthily 53 Carved tribal pole 57 Sketches 58 Belief system component 59 Galloped

60 Made guarantees 62 It’s convertible into currency 63 D.C. pro 65 Play a banjo 67 Math figs.

68 Faked being trapped in a box 69 Tart blackthorn fruit 70 English farewell 73 Where dishes are listed 74 Canape spread 75 Pending attachment?

76 Burn stuff?

78 Weed of the ’60s 80 Test version 84 Whole yards amount?

86 “Beat it” 87 121-Across, by another name 88 Name after a double negative 90 Poison of spy films 91 Sneaker part with treads 95 Moistens via nature 97 Canine container 99 Start to “chutist” 100 Chopin composition 101 Ohio city 102 Preliminary poker payments 104 “How soothing!”

105 Insignificant jot 107 Chops potatoes finely 108 Oxford doctorate, briefly 109 Formal music production 110 Alter again 112 “___ as directed” 113 Aussie greeting 116 6-Down ender, sometimes 117 Huge primate

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

THE TULSA VOICE // May 16 – June 5, 2018

The Tulsa SPCA has been helping animals in our area since 1913. The shelter never euthanizes for space and happily rescues animals from high-kill shelters. They also accept owner surrenders, rescues from cruelty investigations, hoarding, and puppy mill situations. Animals live on-site or with foster parents until they’re adopted. All SPCA animals are micro-chipped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives.

Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoptions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org.

BOOMER the ten-month-old hound has a heart of gold! He is very affectionate and kindhearted but also has an adventurous spirit that would fit perfectly within an active family.

Boomer’s favorite activity is playing in water.

Whether it is in a puddle on the sidewalk or his kiddie pool, Boomer is ready to make a splash!

Little MARILYN is a beautiful two-year-old who would love to find a laidback forever family.

Marilyn enjoys affection and belly scratches, but she also values her alone time. Her ideal home would be a calm, quiet environment with plenty of cozy napping spots.

Universal sUnday Crossword FoUr sCore

By Timothy e. Parker

© 2018 Andrews McMeel Syndication

5/20 ETC. // 47

THURSDAY

06.07

SATURDAY

06.16

SATURDAY

06.23

THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND AND THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND

GEORGE LOPEZ

YANNI

FRIDAY

JOHN FOGERTY

8PM

FRIDAY

HOWIE MANDEL

8PM

8PM

06.08

7PM & 10PM

06.22

FRIDAY HANK 07.20 WILLIAMS JR. 8PM

8PM

LIGHTING IT UP SCAN TO PURCHASE TICKETS

Schedule subject to change.

CNENT_55621_HR_Joint_Entertainment_5-16_TulsaVoice_1820074.indd 1

Pleas e re cycle this issue.

5/9/18 10:17 AM