Tulsa offers more than ever to do

by kimberly marsh macleod

Thousands of guests from across the country and the planet will converge on our little slice of flyover heaven in May for the 2022 PGA Championship at spectacular Southern Hills Country Club.

And after hours of shadowing the world’s best golfers, where to repair for food, fun and frivolity?

Those here for the 2001 U.S. Open or the 2007 PGA Championship may have trudged back to their hotels and ordered room service. Well, we have a bit more to show off these days.

“Professionally, I can’t wait to see the best in the world here at Southern Hills. I’m excited for the club but equally or more so for the city,” said Southern Hills Director of Golf Cary Cozby. “You think about how cool the town is now, how much hipper it was than in 2007. What has happened downtown, on Cherry Street, Brookside, the corridor around Peoria and Route 66. You’ve got the River Spirit, the Hard Rock, the Osage Casino. There will be great concerts in town that week, including The Eagles. It’s going to be off the charts electric and the vitality of Tulsa will really show through for all of our visitors.”

Whether you’re a foodie, music lover, art aficionado, gambler or just want to chill out in the world’s most stunning urban park, you’re in the right place.

BUT WHERE TO START?

Let’s all gather at the River

The first place to mention is one of America’s best attractions and Tulsa’s riverfront park: The Gathering Place. This 66-acre public park near the Arkansas River with access to the RiverParks and Midland Valley Trails, is a popular destination for all ages. Explore gardens, kayak, ride an electric-assisted bicycle, grab a scooter, play basketball, or hit the skate park if you happen to have your board on you. You may want to grab a coffee or a sandwich at an indoor or outdoor patio cafe or take a seat to enjoy the view at the ONEOK boathouse, or linger for a spell in The Williams Lodge, a spot described as an “extroverted” multi-level building and the park’s anchor, offering many activities and rooms to explore. be found at RiverParks’ Turkey Mountain trails and the City of Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center trails. The Keystone Ancient Forest is just 20 miles west of Tulsa, near Sand Springs, and worth the drive for a 15-minute-to-1-hour trek among the 300-year-old cedars and 500-year-old post oaks.

The Gathering Place

It might get loud

After a day of walking and whispering on the course, it’s time to get a little loud at one of Tulsa’s music venues.

You are welcomed to Tulsa’s BOK Center on May 16 for The Eagles’ 2022 Hotel California tour. It’s such a lovely place, there is plenty of room any time of year, and you may never leave. The tour features some Eagle band veterans Don Henley, Timothy Schmit, and Joe Walsh (what a nice surprise) with Deacon Frey (Glen’s son) and Oklahoma’s own Vince Gill. If you’re more into boot-scootin’ boogie, dosey doe over to the BOK Center yet again for another country music great and honorary Oklahomans, Brooks & Dunn, on May 21. For a bit cozier music venue and bit of gambling as well, escape to the Cove at RiverSpirit Casino, just two miles southwest of Southern Hills, for the legendary Bonnie Raitt on May 20. Alternatively, the Home of Bob Wills attracts more than the historic

western swing bands who made the Cain’s Ballroom legendary. On May 18, alternative rockers They Might Be Giants make their mark on the Ballroom stage, where musical history has been made since the 1930s. Golf announcer and comedian David Feherty is no longer on the CBS crew, but he will be appearing at The Joint at the Hard Rock Casino in Catoosa May 19. As far as legends go, folk singer Woody Guthrie’s legacy lives here in Tulsa as well. His archive of work, housed at the Woody Guthrie Center, consists of more than 100 notebooks, correspondence, and many other documents that show his mission to speak for the disenfranchised. As we watch in The Eagles on May 16 horror as families are forced out of their homelands around the world, Woody reminds us that “This land is my land, this land is your land.” The PGA Championship does not coincide with Bob Dylan’s Tulsa stop on his 2022 tour, but the Bob Dylan Center opens May 10 in the Tulsa Arts District on Reconciliation Way to offer unprecedented access to the creative life of one of America’s most important and influential artists. If fine art is your taste, visit the Philbrook Museum of Art, in the historic home of oil pioneer Waite Phillips. If your senses run more modern and abstract, visit ahha Tulsa

and 108 Contemporary in the Tulsa Arts District.

While you’re there, take a break to contemplate the mysteries of the universe at the Center of the Universe. Yes, we in Tulsa are at the center of the universe. The area looks unremarkable, marked by a concrete circle in the center of a larger circle of bricks near a strange looking rusty sculpture known as The Artificial Cloud. But the real mystery is in the sound. TravelOK.com gives an okay description of the acoustic anomaly. “Any noise made inside the brick circle is loudly echoed, but only those inside the circle can hear it.”

But I came here for the golf

Tulsa is an evolving city, from its oil capital days that created much wealth and abundance, to the bustling Black Wall Street entrepreneurs who generated a prosperous circular economy out of necessity. That economy was destroyed in 1921, hundreds died, homes were destroyed and fortunes were lost. In 2021, 100 years later, Tulsa remembered the Black Wall Street Race Massacre with the creation of art, music, poetry, books, healing with talks, candlelight vigils, prayer and more.

Today, when you visit the Greenwood District on the northeast edge of downtown Tulsa, you will find growth and community anchored by Greenwood Rising. This Black Wall Street history and cultural center is free to the public at the corner of Greenwood Avenue and Archer Street, the center of the 1921 massacre and the district’s current rebirth. Check the Oklahoma Eagle newspaper at shops in Greenwood for weekly art, culture, music, poetry and forum listings prior to the 101st anniversary of the Race Massacre at the end of May.

The entrepreneurial spirit is seen in Greenwood. Among those are The Greenwood Gallery, Wanda J’s Restaurant, Silhouette Sneakers & Art, Black Street Liquid Lounge for coffee and conversation; Lefty’s on Greenwood for late night food and drink; DW Speakeasy for nightlife; Cobbler Mom, souvenir shops, barber shops, burgers, landmarks and murals that pay tribute to the past, and more small businesses that make up the fabric and the foundation. While in the area, also take a stroll through the John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, named for a survivor and champion who successfully fought legislation that would have stymied the rebuilding of Greenwood.

Gathering at the Guthrie Green downtown.

Shop ‘til you drop

If you’re looking for more shopping opportunities, be sure to make your way to midtown for the upscale Utica Square shopping center, unique boutiques, art galleries and eateries in the Cherry Street and Brookside districts, and go south for the familiar national chain stores at Tulsa Hills Shopping Center and Woodland Hills Mall.

Just drive, she said

You can learn a lot about Tulsa just by driving around and let the city’s.murals tell a story. Grab a map at tulsa.tours/murals-tour and take a drive.

Take a selfie at the foot of the Golden Driller at Tulsa’s Expo Square, with the Praying Hands at Oral Roberts University, with Buck Atom at Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios on Route 66 (11th Street). And if that lure of the open road, namely Route 66, gets you excited, there is a whole lot more here in Tulsa to see. Check Facebook.com/tulsa66comission for more.

To be Deco or not to be Deco

Tulsa also is known for its architecture: Art Deco churches and downtown office buildings, mid-century modern homes, as well as the classic mansions and historic renovations for modern life. On May 19, The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture offers two opportunities for touring “Deco vs. Not Deco” at noon and 6 p.m., starting at Chapman Green.

For daily stuff

Here are a few websites for daily schedules: RootTulsa.org; tulsa arts district.org; downtowntulsaok.com; facebook.com/TulsaEvents; instagram.com/thisweekintulsa; facebook.com/thisweekintulsa.