TulsaPeople June 2024

READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS 2024

131 CATEGORIES AND 530+ WINNERS

WINNER

succe YOUR MATTERS

AT MABREY

YOU MATTER AT MABREY

At Mabrey Bank, we value the work you’ve put into your plans and success. Mabrey is here to deliver financial support, allowing you to accomplish your goals. Because if it matters to you, it matters to us.

Thank you for trusting us with your healthcare.

Thank you to the readers of TulsaPeople for recognizing Saint Francis Health System’s service and commitment to the communities we serve. We extend our deepest gratitude to all Saint Francis employees for their dedication to serving our patients and for fulfilling our Christ-centered mission.

We are proud to be named among TulsaPeople’s 2024 A-List:

HOSPITAL:

Saint Francis Hospital

The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis

HOME HEALTH: Saint Francis Home Health

HOSPICE CARE: Saint Francis Hospice

URGENT CARE:

Warren Clinic Urgent Care

DERMATOLOGY:

Warren Clinic Dermatology and Mohs Surgery

PAIN MANAGEMENT: Warren Clinic Pain Management

PHYSICAL THERAPY: Saint Francis Physical Therapy

HEALTH CLUB/GYM: Health Zone at Saint Francis

Leaders with

Over the years, Don and Megan Zetik’s philanthropic efforts have taken them down many different paths. Their core values, however, always lead them to focus on providing for others’ most basic needs, including food, clothing, health, and education.

“Few things can improve mood and perspective as quickly as being helpful to others. We are now fortunate enough to witness our children taking joy in assisting others and gaining pride when they lend a voice to those who are marginalized,” the Zetiks say.

Megan has worked as a school counselor for 17 years. Dr. Don Zetik Jr. is a pediatrics specialist in Tulsa, who enjoys all aspects of pediatric practice from newborn development to teens and sports medicine. He is actively involved in various committees for Ascension St. John Hospital, Vaccinate Oklahoma, University of Tulsa College of Engineering and Applied Health Sciences, and the Alumni Board of Cascia Hall (2000-2020).

The Zetiks are the proud parents of a son and daughter. They enjoy tennis, skiing and hanging with their dog, Miss Honey, supporting FC Tulsa Soccer and attending University of Tulsa athletic events, and more.

Their desire to serve was prominently influenced by their grandparents and

parents, who served in myriad ways through church, schools, libraries, Meals on Wheels, among others. “They simply wove service into the fabric of their lives and thus ours,” the couple says.

Their volunteerism as a couple began when Megan was an active member of the Junior League of Tulsa. On two separate occasions, the Zetiks have chaired fundraising balls for Emergency Infant Services - Shake, Rattle and Roll in 2006 and the Kaleidoscope Ball in 2014. Don also organizes diaper and formula drives at his office, while Megan continues to volunteer at EIS with her daughter through the National Charity League.

In 2014, the Zetiks began focusing on the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, helping initiate and chair the Giving Spirits program. Megan was also a founding member of the food bank’s Women’s Council. They are enthusiastic about the food bank’s new facility and work shifts in its product recovery room.

They also support Tulsa’s vibrant arts and culture scene. Megan’s family has had a

long-standing connection with Philbrook Museum of Art, providing gifts since the 1960s. Megan served on the Board of Trustees for many years and was involved in the inaugural committee for the fundraiser The Mix from 2012 to 2017.

“The Zetiks have become dear friends of ours. We’ve entrusted our kids to Don for their health needs from day one. They are engaged in the community for all the right reasons, and their philanthropic endeavors are well known in Tulsa,” says Tom Bennett III, President and CEO of First Oklahoma Bank.

“First Oklahoma Bank has had the greatest rate of return on CDs and extremely competitive loan rates. Paramount to these, every staff member we encountered has been highly attentive to our personal needs, no matter the circumstance,” the Zetiks say.

THIS IS ORANGE COUNTRY

Some call it Green Country, but we know northeastern Oklahoma is really Orange Country.

Oklahoma State University impacts the lives of residents here in countless ways. With more than 52,000 proud and loyal alumni, partnerships with hundreds of companies and nonprofits, and more than 2,500 employees, OSU is a changemaker for Tulsa, Okmulgee, Tahlequah and beyond. We’re training future health care leaders for Oklahoma, helping working professionals advance their careers, educating tomorrow’s advanced technology workforce and building a world-class medical district downtown — all in our own backyard.

Discover why Orange is the Answer and partner with us to make a difference at orangecountry.okstate.edu.

ENJOY

7

CITY DESK

An unusual duo. Tulsa Tough with Malcolm McCollam. Snaps for local poetry. Gridiron gals.

93

LIFESTYLE

Tulsa’s conservatory.

Scientific shopping made easy. A summer trip to OKC. Connie Cronley’s dinner guests.

TABLE TALK

Red

Salsa

Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar topped

public voted Isla’s

EDITOR’S LETTER

There are many places I love in Tulsa. However, Woodward Park and the grounds of Tulsa Garden Center hold a special place in my heart and memory as a lifelong Tulsan.

As a young girl I remember walking through the mazes of azaleas in full bloom as my mom would snap a photo on her Polaroid of me and my sister, both dressed to the nines in our Easter hats and new dresses.

ere were many picnics enjoyed under the shade of the towering trees scattered throughout the park.

As I grew older, I was one of the rambunctious teenagers who would race to the Woodward Park parking lot for a postschool day hangout to catch up on all the gossip of the day. We would linger there into the evening before our looming homework and hunger pains got the best of us.

Today it’s a place I go when I need a break from my computer screen or just want to walk among the tulips, roses, irises and pollinator plants. I know spring has truly sprung once I see the park’s western entrance hill brought to life with its bright yellow da odils.

But for me, no place on the property really tops the Conservatory. Its white steelframe glass enclosure encapsulates all that I strive to have in my own garden and home yet fail to nurture into a reality. Stepping inside its doors is like walking into my own little paradise.

ere are many reasons I love my job, but one particular morning in April stands out when I was able to spend quality time in my favorite oral place to speak with Tulsa Garden Center’s Director of Horticulture Andy Fusco and Communications Manager Briana He ey-Shepard. As the three of us chatted about this ower or that park feature, photographer Michelle Pollard captured the beauty of it all through her lens. It was so hard to narrow down her beautiful images into the small collection we could put in print, starting on p. 96. Look for a full gallery at TulsaPeople.com.

e Conservatory, installed in 1924, was the personal greenhouse for the estate’s second owners, George and Lina Hull. She was a passionate gardener who installed numerous gardens across her multiple acres, much of which would later become the grounds of Tulsa Garden Center and Woodward Park.

Next time you’re in the area, I hope you can spend a few minutes enjoying this little bit of horticultural heaven smack dab in the middle of the city. e best thing? It’s free to visit.

You’ll notice the heft of this month’s magazine — our A-LIST issue. Each year we ask our readers to nominate and vote on their favorites in ve categories: Dine Local, Fun, Head to Toe, Services and Shop Local. Voter turnout was exceptional this year, recognizing more than 530 winners in 131 categories. Don’t miss our Editors’ Picks! e team was eager to get in on the fun and name some of our favorites across town. Turn to p. 41 for the best of Tulsa. e A-LIST is a summer tradition of ours here at TulsaPeople. I hope this summer you can start or reignite some traditions of your own — whether that’s catching a game at ONEOK Field, listening to music at your favorite outdoor venue, spending a night under the stars at a nearby park or watching the latest summer blockbuster at a nearby movie theater (like the charming and iconic Circle Cinema, our cover star, voted favorite movie theater).

Whatever it may be, thanks for taking TulsaPeople along with you. tp

Anne Brockman EDITOR

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the Spring TulsaPeople Home issue, Future Focus Photography should have been included in the Designer Showcase supplier listing. We regret the error.

Volume XXXVIII, Number 8 ©2024.

TulsaPeople Magazine is published monthly by 1603 South Boulder Avenue Tulsa, Oklahoma 74119-4407 P: 918-585-9924 F: 918-585-9926

PUBLISHER Jim Langdon

PRESIDENT Juley Roffers VP COMMUNITY RELATIONS Susie Miller

EDITOR Anne Brockman

FEATURES

City Desk

NEWS CAUSES PASSIONS

FRIENDS OF A FEATHER

One of Mother Nature’s most unlikely pairs lives on a small farm in Oklahoma. Sven, a Newfoundland dog (who also goes by Biss), and Olaf (who also goes by Olee), a Rouen duck, spend their days going on adventures to pet-friendly restaurants and stores, visiting schools and have even taken a trip to Utica Square to meet Santa. Inspired by their sweet bond, their owner Jessie Vallier has written several children’s books about them: “The Adventures of Biss and Olee: Play on the Farm” (available now) and “The Adventures of Biss and Olee: Work on the Farm,” tentatively releasing at the end of summer. tp

SEE P. 16 FOR MORE ON THIS DOG/DUCK DUO.

Decades of dignity

A mural at Lacy Park Community Center that has adorned the walls for 50 years needed some TLC after years of water damage and loss of vibrancy.

“We’re delighted we were able to help restore this beautiful piece of art that really tells an important story and is such an important piece of Tulsa’s history,” says Anna America, director of Tulsa Parks, Culture and Recreation Department. “I hope anyone who hasn’t ever seen ‘The Black Experience’ comes out and spends some time here appreciating it, and if you have seen it in the past, come back — you are going to be amazed at the transformation.”

The City of Tulsa commissioned Felix Cole, a 21-year-old University of Tulsa commercial art student, to create “The Black Experience,” which he completed in 1974. The mural spans 750 square feet and features 114 individuals, showcasing over a century of African American history.

In 2023, Tulsa Parks hired conservationist Rick Parker — a professional with 45 years of experience working for institutions like the White House, Mount Vernon and NASA — to restore the mural. The completed restoration debuted Feb. 29 and is now on display at the community center, 2134 N. Madison Place, during its operating hours. — ANNE BROCKMAN

SEEING BEYOND STATISTICS

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Tulsa has risen year over year according to the 2024 Point-In-Time Count, an annual assessment required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted by Tulsa’s Housing Solutions.

In Tulsa, 1,427 individuals are experiencing homelessness — an increase of 294 since 2023. “Of those 1,427 people, 37% of them are unsheltered,” says Josh Sanders, Tulsa Day Center’s director of outreach. “So roughly 500 people sleep outside here in Tulsa every night.” Fifty-seven percent of those experiencing homelessness are 25-54 years old, and 23% were employed at the time of the survey, conducted at the end of January.

At a recent lunch-and-learn hosted by Tulsa Day Center, Sanders presented “How to Positively Engage with the Unhoused,” a series of tips and recommendations he uses every day in his job. He presents this information routinely at the request of organizations and groups.

“We’re going to talk about boundaries, being informed, offering advice, listening to your instincts — and then my last and favorite one is reflecting on your experience,” he says.

Here are some of his suggestions:

1. Respect people’s boundaries — both yours

and theirs. Sanders suggests avoiding physical contact until you’ve confirmed it’s OK.

2. It’s OK to say no to requests or to disengage if you start to feel uncomfortable or threatened. “It’s more uncomfortable for us to tell someone no,” Sanders says.

3. Don’t give away too much personal information about yourself.

4. Don’t take photos of people without their permission. “It’s like somebody taking a photograph of the inside of your home,” Sanders says.

5. Homelessness is different for everyone. “An individual’s experience of homelessness is as unique to them as their fingerprints,” he says. “Stereotypes about homelessness are just that — they’re stereotypes.”

6. Avoid telling people about who’s hiring or offering advice. Don’t lead with preaching about your faith. Learn about the long-term resources that are available in the community.

7. Reflect on your interaction. Sanders suggests thinking about your expectations versus the reality of the first-hand experience. — ANNE BROCKMAN

Tulsan Wayman Tisdale, center, is one of 114 individuals depicted in “The Black Experience,” a mural that was recently restored and is on display at Lacy Park Community Center.

Tulsa Day Center Director of Outreach Josh Sanders

It’s the soft sound of a Native flute. The focus of a potter shaping clay. Traditions shared by living masters.

A NATION OF CULTURE

It’s an electric arc of talent that keeps us on our toes. Our legends on silver screens, in galleries, at stickball fields and podiums. It’s here.

ONE NATION. ENDLESS ADVENTURE.

JUNE HIGHLIGHTS

June 6, 13, 20 and 27

SUMMER’S FIFTH NIGHT

Music lovers look forward to the annual tradition of Summer’s Fifth Night, which showcases the best of the local music scene, featuring artists like Weston Horn and the Hush, Zodiac and many more. UTICASQUARE.COM

June 7-9

SAINT FRANCIS TULSA TOUGH AND BIG RIDE

The three-day cycling event Tulsa Tough is a spectacle you won’t want to miss. Bonus: Big Ride will welcome Girl Talk to its one-day music festival on June 8. TULSATOUGH.COM, FLYWHEELTULSA.COM/BIG-RIDE

June 21

“FANCY DANCE”

Made in Oklahoma and starring Oscar-nominee Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), “Fancy Dance” returns for a full run of showings after a sold-out premiere at last year’s Circle Cinema Film Festival. CIRCLECINEMA.ORG

June 1

TULSA OILERS FOOTBALL VS. SAN DIEGO STRIKE FORCE   tulsaoilersfootball.com

HASTY BAKE GRILL FEST AT CHAPMAN COMMONS facebook.com/hastybakegrills

June 4, 11, 18 and 25

STARLIGHT CONCERT BAND AND JAZZ ORCHESTRA starlightconcerts.org

June 7

LIONEL RICHIE AND EARTH, WIND AND FIRE bokcenter.com

UP ALL NIGHT: A ONE DIRECTION PARTY thevanguardtulsa.com

June 8-9

LANDSCAPES OF LOVE GARDEN TOUR tulsamastergardeners.org

June 13-15

TULSA JUNETEENTH FESTIVAL tulsajuneteenth.org

June 14

FILMS ON THE LAWN: “10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU” SCREENING AT PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART philbrook.org

“OK, SO” STORY SLAM oksotulsa.com

June 21

COREY KENT cainsballroom.com

June 22-23

ROUTE 66 ROAD FEST route66roadfest.com

June 25

EVAN HUGHES COMEDY SHOWCASE thewhittierbar.com

June 28

THELMA AND THE SLEAZE mercuryloungetulsa.com/shows

June 29

FAMILY FOLK FEST bobdylancenter.com

Malcolm McCollam

Tulsa Tough founder on legacy of annual event

STORY

AND PHOTO BY TIM LANDES

It’s just over a month to go before this year’s Saint Francis Tulsa Tough gets underway downtown for its 18th year, and Executive Director Malcolm McCollam, 70, is ready to take part in racing for only the second time.

We met at Tulsa Tough World Headquarters, 850 E. Admiral Blvd., to discuss the legacy of the annual summer event that launched in 2006, plus what excites him about this year’s three-day event on June 7-9.

THE ORIGINAL DISCUSSION 20 YEARS AGO WAS TO ESTABLISH AN EVENT THAT WOULD CREATE A POSITIVE IMAGE FOR TULSA ... Tulsa just wasn’t

on anybody’s radar. Everybody kept referring to us as yover country, which was fair. It wasn’t really a weekend destination, and it wasn’t really an out-of-town destination. You can’t say that now if you go down to either the Blue Dome or Arts District on a Friday or Saturday night. We believe we played a role in that along with a massive investment in private capital.

TULSA TOUGH HAS DEALT WITH DOWNTOWN’S GROWTH EVERY YEAR ... roughout the entirety of our existence we’ve had development projects going on. It’s not only that we have been able to work around the development,

but the developers have bent over backwards to work around our e orts. e City’s public works department, those guys get it. ey know how important it is to put on a good show for people from out of town, and they have gone out of their way to help us. ey understand when you’re inviting people into your home, which is essentially what we’re doing in those districts, that you clean the place up and make it look nice so they’ll come back.

JOHN-KELLY C. WARREN OF SAINT FRANCIS HEALTH SYSTEM WANTED TO FIND SOMETHING “THEY COULD PUT A STAKE IN THE GROUND AS A CLAIM TO FAME” ... We’re happy we’re in this place now that we’re such a successful event nationwide — our criterium races last year had participants from 45 states and six countries. I’ve been told every time our Tulsa Sports Commission has gone somewhere, that at the end of the conversation somebody says, “Tell us about Tulsa Tough. We want to know about Crybaby Hill and the rest of the event.”

FONDOS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A MAJOR COMPONENT TO GROWING THE ANNUAL EVENT ... Fondos are kind of like in the running world where you have a 5K, half marathon or marathon. Recreational athletes can show up on a bicycle and participate in (the fondos), which really addressed the second part of our mission, which is to promote active lifestyles. Last year we had 25 states and three countries represented in our fondos, so the word is getting out about how much fun it is.

A NEW ADDITION TO THIS YEAR’S RACES IS THE CLASSICO, AN EROICA-INSPIRED GRAN FONDO RIDE AND CELEBRATION OF CLASSIC BICYCLES. MCCOLLAM WILL JOIN OVER 30 RIDERS IN THE INAUGURAL EVENT ... It will be only the second time in 18 years that I’ve ever turned a pedal stroke in the event. I have one of my old bikes that was built by a local frame builder in 1987, and I fully restored it many years ago and ride it on occasion. As soon as we created e Classico, I went online and signed up. I’m going to be one of the vintage riders. Not only am I vintage physically, but my bike is vintage.

We de ne that category as (riding) something that was made before 1995 because that’s the last year the Tour de France was won on a steel frame by Miguel Induráin We’re going to award blue, red and yellow ribbons to the top three nishers.

I’m super excited to ride. tp

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PASSIONS

So much to celebrate

Pathways marks its 15th year instilling confidence and changing lives for adults with intellectual disabilities.

BY LAURA DENNIS

Pathways Adult Learning Center, a Christian program dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for adults with intellectual disabilities, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year.

“We started with seven students and operated about 12 hours a week,” Executive Director Monique Scraper says. “Over time, we have built it into a full-time program with more than 100 students enrolled.”

e organization operates out of Kirk of the Hills Church, 4102 E. 61st St., and serves students who are 18 years and older. Pathways provides both in-person and virtual classes on academics, life skills, independent living, job skills, health and tness, safety and hygiene. ey o er one-on-one mentorship and volunteer opportunities in the community each week and prioritize Bible study, worship and prayer time activities every day.

“When people think about intellectual and developmental disabilities, most think about children,” Scraper says. She adds that while there are many services and support groups for kids, the opposite is true for adults with learning disabilities.

“It’s an interesting phenomenon when a person with (learning) challenges graduates high school,” says Mark Gri n, father of

Pathways student John Gri n. Students are eligible to stay in high school until the school year they turn 22.

After graduating high school in 2007, John got a job working at Goodwill assembling Whirlpool kits. Over time his mother, Lisa Gri n, began to notice some out-of-character changes in her son. “He didn’t want to go to work,” she says. “(His employers) said he was sitting o by himself to eat lunch, and that wasn’t like John. We realized that maybe he needed a change.”

John, 38, was among the rst group of Pathways students in 2009, and the Gri ns have never looked back. e curriculum challenged John to grow both academically and socially and has given him a new con dence and independence for which his parents had only hoped. “ e light bulbs lit up,” Mark says. “It was revolutionary.”

Scraper says among the biggest opportunities and challenges faced by the organization is the ability to continue meeting the demands of its steady growth. “We’ve got a waitlist for new enrollment each year,” she says. “To be able to serve our students better in a space that’s designed speci cally for their needs would be ideal; it would be a game changer. at’s de nitely on the horizon in the next 15 years.” tp

NEWSWORTHY NUGGETS

» Angelene Ripley Wright, owner of Tulsa’s Ida Red General Stores, was named Oklahoma Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration at an April 29 reception in Washington D.C. Wright helped develop the concept for Ida Red in 2008 and bought the business in 2016. There are now three locations and 16 employees who help customers find unique gifts, nostalgic treats and Oklahoma goods.

» At LaFortune Park, Tulsans can see the first installment of the Tulsa Herd, which will ultimately be comprised of 40 bison and be the largest monument project to date for NatureWorks, in collaboration with Tulsa County Parks. The organizations held a dedication ceremony on May 2. NatureWorks announced a $3.5 million fundraising goal that will enable the installation of additional bison and realize the project’s full vision.

» On April 30, nominations for the 77th annual Tony Awards were announced with “The Outsiders” earning 12 nods, including Best New Musical. Adapted from S.E. Hinton’s book and Francis Ford Coppola’s film, the musical started previews on March 16 ahead of opening night on April 11 at the Jacobs Theatre in New York City. “The Outsiders” also has garnered three nominations from the Outer Critics Circle, three nominations from the Drama League and nine Drama Desk Award nominations. The Tony Awards will air live beginning at 7 p.m., June 16 on CBS. — ANNE BROCKMAN

Ashliann Payton, Taylor Driskill, Executive Director Monique Scraper and John Griffin at Pathways, an organization marking 15 years of helping those with intellectual disabilities lead successful adult lives.

The Tulsa Herd at LaFortune Park

Angelene Ripley Wright

Proud to be BlueSM and proud to support TAUW

Thank you, Tulsa Area United Way, for your impact on the Tulsa community over the past 100 years! Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma is proud to support TAUW and its 160 life-saving partner agencies across the Tulsa region.

TGI Enterprises — which has two divisions, TGI Promo and TGI

is based at 1219

Promo prowess

Longtime promotional company thrives thanks to creative thinking and strong leadership.

BY JULIE WENGER WATSON

Armed with a ne arts degree from the University of Oklahoma and a few years of experience in T-shirt design and screen printing, Tracy Copeland (Cherokee) opened TGI Enterprises Inc. in 1990, building her business on a foundation of customer service and quality art.

“I put those two things together, and (being) kind of fearless at 25, threw it out there and just started,” Copeland recalls. irty-four years later, Copeland’s business — with its two divisions TGI Promo and TGI Greek — employs 58 full-time sta , with sales across the nation. TGI Promo works with numerous Native American tribes, and TGI Greek is one of the top ve vendors for the fraternity and sorority market in the U.S.

“One of our main priorities is the quality of designs we o er to all niches of our clients,” she says. “We take working on tribal designs seriously due to the importance of upholding their cultural integrity. From day one the Greek life designs have been a large part of our creative identity. We have a team of 14 designers and illustrators who work with our art and creative directors to continue leading the industry.”

Creating an environment for success is key to Copeland. An example of that is the on-site day care she provided for several years when juggling the growth of her family and her business. At that time, few, if any,

companies were addressing the particular challenges working parents of young children face when trying to nd adequate child care. Without an industry model, Copeland led by example, nding a creative solution for TGI, herself and her employees.

“A really good asset for an entrepreneur is to be able to creatively problem solve — just dive in and solve the problems — because there are a million of them every day,” she says.

Copeland has always strived to create a good environment for her employees, which includes three of her own children. During the pandemic, Copeland came up with creative ways for her employees to work remotely, developing content for social media and crafting new art for the business’ design library. Copeland’s investment paid o .

“In 2022, we grew our business by 85%, in part because of what we did during COVID and our marketing e orts,” she says.

In order to survive as a small business, Copeland knows it’s important to continue to grow and o er new services. Recently, TGI partnered with Tulsa’s Marshall Brewing Co. and Cain’s Ballroom to create a beer label and a line of merchandise celebrating the Cain’s centennial. Copeland’s plans include more collaborations and local events after years of expanding national sales.

“For 2024, we’re really diving into the Tulsa community,” she says.

Visit tgipromo.com to learn more. tp

FOWL FEATHER FRIENDS

Looking to add a little light into her family’s lives during the pandemic, Jessie Vallier adopted a Newfoundland puppy named Sven and a flock of ducks around the same time. Tragedy struck the small Broken Arrow farm one morning when it was discovered a coyote had attacked the flock, leaving a single survivor. A few days after the event, Vallier noticed the duck, fittingly named Olaf, had begun shadowing the puppy. It wasn’t long after that she found the two lounging in a kiddie pool together, and the pair has been inseparable since.

Vallier and her family were surprised by the odd pairing’s unlikely friendship. “It’s so funny to see this little duck do everything with this huge dog,” she says, adding “it would make (us) forget for a second what was happening in the world.”

Not thinking anything would come from it, Vallier began posting videos of the pair on Instagram and was blown away by the response. “We had the sweetest messages from people all over the world, saying their friendship was helping them get through the dark days,” she says.

Fans began to leave comments saying the dog and duck’s friendship would make for a great book, and finally after a year of seeing these comments, Vallier decided to try her hand at writing a children’s book about the friends (with Sven going by “Biss” and Olaf by “Olee”). She enlisted illustrator Krystal Kramer, who lives in Mississippi, to create art for the project. The result was a book series titled “The Adventures of Biss and Olee,” of which the sequel will tentatively release at the end of the summer. The books can be purchased on Amazon and via publisher Bookbaby Bookshop at store.bookbaby.com.

You can keep up with the duo on Instagram @adventuresofbissandolee. — MADISON WALTERS

Greek —

S. Hudson Ave. The company designs a range of custom apparel and promotional products. Pictured are CEO Tracy Copeland, President Susie Cross, Director of Operations Ashton Vann, COO Carly Bautista, President of Sales Casey Argo, Marketing Director Logan Helm, Art Department Director Katie Jones and Production Manager Emily Blasdel.

Jessie Vallier with Sven and Olaf

Prepped

and ready

Local company stocks industrial supplies to keep work moving.

BY ROBERT EVATT

Tulsa-based BlackHawk Industrial works in vending machines, but don’t expect them to be stocked with Coca-Cola or Doritos.

Instead, as a distributor of industrial products, BlackHawk uses vending machines to place and control inventory as close to the point of consumption as possible, such as near workstations within manufacturing facilities, where workers can instantly receive anything from gloves and safety goggles to cutting tools and grinding disks.

Stocking manufacturing work supplies within vending machines can save companies signi cant money and make work more convenient and safe for employees, says BlackHawk COO Tonya Pivarnik.

“Having to walk to another building for supplies is not time-e cient,” she says. “But if you have a vending machine within ve steps of where they work, that saves time and they can be more productive.”

BlackHawk has already become a significant player in industrial supply. With 1,277 associates — 91 of them in Tulsa — the company has more than $700 million in annual sales, and its stock- lled machines can be found in manufacturing shops and facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Mexico.

CEO John Mark says BlackHawk’s strategy is to provide a distribution option that

leverages the strengths of both the smaller distributors, who have limited scale and capital, and the global broad-line distributors, who prioritize digital over human interaction.

“If we go out and acquire these smaller distributors and create a scale that can compete with the larger companies while still preserving local touch, then there’s nobody in the market in front of us,” he says.

BlackHawk has built its range by buying out 33 smaller distributors and counting, with a focus on acquisitions that will expand its reach into markets that aren’t yet covered.

All of BlackHawk’s vending machines are on the company’s network, and can automatically reorder any supply if the machine runs low, Mark says. Manufacturing facilities control which workers can get what materials, making their stock more e cient while quickly distributing items when needed. As a result, companies can lower the cost of production, not just the cost of supplies.

Mark says BlackHawk’s four core behaviors — compete hard, be the best, live and breathe teamwork, and act with integrity — have created a corporate culture that has attracted a talented workforce and inspired them to help the company succeed.

“I’ve worked in many di erent businesses, and outside of the military, I haven’t seen any that foster teamwork like we do here,” he says. tp

Believe it or not, it wasn’t too long ago tattooing was illegal in the state of Oklahoma. Myk Karasek appeared on the cover of TulsaPeople in September 2016, reflecting on the first decade of working as a tattoo artist in Tulsa since the decriminalization of tattooing. When we last saw him, Karasek was an artist at Cherry Street Tattoo with the dream of one day opening his own shop. That dream became a reality in 2021 with August Studio — Art Collective, a studio at 1216 S. Peoria Ave. exploring different types of mediums such as painting, drawing and, of course, tattooing.

From a very young age, Karasek displayed a keen talent for art — a hobby his parents helped to foster. He’s always had a love for oil painting and recently decided to take it more seriously, building his portfolio with modern baroque style paintings he describes as an “old master feel with a modern twist.” Dabbling in different styles over the years, he’s found his niche in black and gray realism and illustrative designs.

Eighteen years since the legalization of tattooing in Oklahoma, Karasek believes the stigma of being tattooed is constantly improving. “I’ve only witnessed it getting better and better and tattoo conventions like the Homeward Bound Tattoo Expo bring people and artists together to celebrate the craft,” he says.

Learn more about his work and studio on Instagram @myktattoo and @auguststudio.ac. — MADISON WALTERS

CEO John Mark and COO Tonya Pivarnik of BlackHawk Industries, a 12-year-old company that sells industrial consumables and makes vending machines available to customers who want and need the distribution point.

All the rage

Female football team competes in Division III of Women’s Football Alliance.

BY JOHN TRANCHINA

The Oklahoma Rage is providing an opportunity for area women ages 18 and up to get on the gridiron and demonstrate their athleticism, toughness and camaraderie — just like any men’s team.

e Rage is based at Charles Page High School’s Memorial Stadium in Sand Springs and is now in its second season in Division III of the Women’s Football Alliance. e top level, WFA Pro, is a semi-pro league of 14 teams. Among all three divisions, the WFA consists of over 60 teams nationwide.

Women’s football has existed in Tulsa for about a decade, with some of the veteran players on the Rage having previously played for a team called Tulsa reat, which also played in the WFA for several years. e Rage, which went 2-4 last year in Division III, hope to move up to Division II the way the Oklahoma City Lady Force did after winning the DIII title in 2022.

“We disbanded, reorganized and rebranded,” says Rage safety/wide receiver Rachel Stinson. “ is is our second full year as the Oklahoma Rage, same league.”

e game looks just like men’s football and the team is coached by former Oklahoma State o ensive lineman Brandon Webb and defensive coordinator Bruce Munden, who coached at Locust Grove High School. Stinson says Munden’s fundamental coaching style resonates with the players, as some have never played and need to learn the game.

Rage players, with about 20 being full time, are always looking for more recruits. e women are mostly in their 20s and 30s (the youngest player is 22 and the oldest is 40) and have a wide range of di erent jobs and backgrounds from all over Oklahoma. A couple even travel up to three hours round trip just to practice.

“We’ve got a PE teacher, HR director, nurse, surgery tech, physical therapist, accountant, a lot of single moms out there grinding,” says Stinson, who works as the regional director at FYZICAL erapy and Balance Center. “Single, married, straight, gay, Black, white, big, little, poor, rich — it doesn’t matter.”

Perhaps the biggest attraction to playing a physical sport that can cause injuries for no pay and a lot of time commitment is the players get an outlet to compete while forming a close bond, growing close like one big family.

“I was in the military and there’s not a lot of things that replace that sense of camaraderie, that someone’s always got your back, as well as the adrenaline rush that comes with it,” says fourth-year quarterback Courtney Eldridge, who is an avionics technician. “I’ve found it right here. It lls that for other people, too.”

And while most of the players didn’t have any formal football background, a few of them, such as Eldridge, actually did play the sport with boys while growing up before nally having to switch to other sports as teenagers. Eldridge’s goal now is to serve as an example for younger girls, showing them there will be a place for them to play in the future.

“We’re always looking for women who want to play ball and be a role model,” Eldridge says. “We’re providing a place for younger players to go to. We’ll be around, we’re going to grow this. We’re excited.”

e Rage’s nal contest of the 2024 regular season is in Sand Springs on June 15 against the Iowa Phoenix. If they win their division, they go to the playo s. For more information, follow Oklahoma Rage on Facebook. tp

The Oklahoma Rage is a women’s football team that will have its final regular season game on June 15 in Sand Springs.

OKLAHOMA'S FUTURE PHYSICIANS START HERE

Congratulations Class of 2024

This year we celebrate the graduation of the inaugural class of physicians from the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cherokee Nation.

What began in 1972 with an inaugural class of 36 in Tulsa is now one of the top osteopathic colleges in the nation. With two campuses and nearly 4,000 graduates, our physicians have gone on to practice across the state of Oklahoma and beyond.

Our mission to educate Oklahoma’s future physicians is stronger than ever. Here’s to the next 50 years.

To learn more about our mission and impact, visit medicine.okstate.edu

MUSIC NOTES

Status.”

Musical voyage

New music coming from singer-songwriter Casii Stephan this summer.

STORIES BY JULIE WENGER WATSON

From the powerful R&B anthem “Can’t Handle Me” to the gorgeous, stripped-down ballad “Without a Box,” Tulsa-based singer-songwriter Casii Stephan’s upcoming EP “Relationship Status” is a musical voyage of self-discovery in four beautifully rendered songs.

e EP, which will be released later this summer, was recorded near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at Sun Drop Studio with producer Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes, St. Paul and the Broken Bones). Traveling to Muscle Shoals, an area known in the music industry for its Southern rhythm and blues sound often associated with iconic recordings from acts like Etta James, Aretha Franklin and Duane Allman, was an intentional choice for Stephan, who was seeking a particular tone for this project, as well as the opportunity to work beyond Oklahoma’s border.

“I started the process with picking the producer. I knew I wanted a certain sound. It started with ‘Can’t Handle Me’ and expanded into the EP,” the South St. Paul-raised singer says. “I wanted to start going out of Tulsa, thinking about expanding my network and working with di erent people.”

Stephan’s recent career growth includes signing with a publishing company that’s adding new talent to its roster of songwriters. While Stephan isn’t ready to identify the company by name, she’s excited about the possibilities this partnership brings.

“ ey have an incredible catalog. To join it is kind of a surreal experience,” she says. is summer, in addition to some Tulsa plays, Stephan’s travels will take her to New York City, where she’ll perform at the Rockwood Music Hall on June 7. She has already traveled to Nashville for some co-writing with other songwriters.

While Stephan hopes to venture from her Tulsa base, she remains happy with her decision to anchor here a decade ago.

“I still love the people. ere’s de nitely an entrepreneurial spirit here. I still love the town,” she says. “I love that I was able to cut my teeth and work on my performance and art form here. I think this is such a great town. It’s so encouraging, and there’s a great community here, but I’m also excited and looking forward to expanding beyond Tulsa.”

For more, visit casiistephan.com. tp

BEHIND THE MUSIC

If you’ve been to a concert at Cain’s Ballroom, you’ve probably heard Jeremy Grodhaus at work, even if you’ve never seen him. Grodhaus is the venue’s lead audio engineer, or “A1” in tech talk. It’s a position he’s held since 2016. Grodhaus developed an interest in sound in high school, where he learned some basics from his English teacher’s son, Clint Ingram. His professional career began at the Cherokee Casino in Catoosa (before it was Hard Rock) for Cherokee Nation Entertainment where, over the next decade, he polished his skills on the job by learning from in-house and touring engineers, along with “lots and lots of books and manuals and later Internet forums,” he says.

WHAT ARE THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT MAKE YOU GOOD AT THIS JOB? The biggest one is being chill to work with. No one wants to work with someone who sucks to be around. I think that can go for any field, but especially industries where people spend long amounts of time with each other, and (where) a stressful environment is the default.

WHAT ARE THE FAVORITE PARTS OF YOUR WORK? I really like mixing a good band that I’ve never heard before. It’s like finding a cool new record, but then you get to mix it as well; it’s awesome.

ANY THOUGHTS ON CAIN’S CENTENNIAL?

Simply that I get to be a part of that amazing history. When I look at my job, I often consider that my tenure here is only a portion of a much larger timeline. I get to shepherd this one aspect of this amazing venue for only a limited time, and just as I came after those before me, others will follow my time here. My hope is that I do my best to contribute and maintain something that means so much to so many. I can’t think of anything else in my life that has this property, and it’s an honor to be included in this short list of names. tp

Casii Stephan will be playing in Tulsa and beyond showcasing her newest work, “Relationship

Jeremy Grodhaus

MUSIC NOTES

‘Reverence is key’

New venue is a shared vision to create an alternative to loud bars and crowded clubs.

BY JULIE WENGER WATSON

In the heart of e Heights neighborhood, tucked behind e Parish Church of St. Jerome, is a room for music lovers, a space where people can really listen and songwriters can really be heard.

St. Cecilia’s Listening Room, 205 W. King St., is the shared vision of musicians Carl Carbonell and Michael and Taylor Williams. From the rst show in February, which featured an impressive lineup of Oklahoma songwriters such as Justin Bloss, Ken Pomeroy and John Moreland, the venue has provided a popular alternative to loud bars and crowded clubs.

“It’s frustrating when you’re really trying to zone in and hear the song because it’s a eeting thing that’s happening in a nite amount of time. If someone’s talking to you, then you just missed it,” Carbonell says.

Carbonell, who performs his own brand of country music with his band the Salty Dogs, brings his skills in marketing and graphic design to the table, while Taylor handles the business side. According to Michael, who’s known for his work in the metal band Agony Scene, all three partners help with the booking.

“Carl and I are relatively busy gigging musicians, so a lot of this came out of what we do,” Michael says. “We wanted a space that’s less of a bar and more of a place to pay attention to the songwriting because we’re all big fans of songwriting and songwriters and that kind of music.”

St. Cecilia’s is only open for performances, and the team plans to host shows three to four weekends each month. According to Williams, some audience members have never experienced music in this type of environment, and the response has been very positive.

“If your only experience with live music is to see bands at bars, and everybody is having a shouting contest while it’s going on, that’s your experience,” he notes. “ ere’s not an expectation of reverence for what’s happening.”

Carbonell believes that reverence is key to a truly magical experience.

“When that rst show happened, I sat in a chair and just listened. It was awesome,” he says. “It was that magic when everything else just fades away.”

Learn more at saintceciliastulsa.com. tp

COMMEMORATIVE CONCERT

Barron Ryan, a native Tulsan, will celebrate the release of his new album, “There Arises Light in the Darkness,” with a June 27 concert at Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.

Five years ago, Chamber Music Tulsa commissioned a piece from Ryan to commemorate the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In search of inspiration, Ryan turned to first-hand witness encounters, which led to the discovery of the book “Events of the Tulsa Disaster.”

The book recounts how, during the massacre, author Mary E. Jones Parrish read Psalms to her daughter, praying for courage and safety for themselves and those affected. After learning about Parrish, Ryan began reading through Psalms hoping to find one to spark his creativity.

“I found a particularly sorrowful psalm, Psalm 88,” Ryan says. “It reads, ‘My soul is full of troubles: And my life draweth nigh unto the grave.’ So, I wrote a piece called ‘My Soul is Full of Troubles.’”

“My Soul is Full of Troubles” was released in 2021, but Ryan felt the song did not fully convey the story of that dreadful event and what came after for Tulsa.

“Tulsa didn’t end in 1921 and the Psalms don’t end at that verse of chapter 88,” Ryan says.

“My Soul is Full of Troubles” became the first out of three movements in “There Arises Light in the Darkness.” The second movement is one of prayer and meditation, and the final movement is one of triumph, Ryan says.

Ryan will be joined in concert by violinist Christopher Whitley and cellist Alex Cox. Visit cainsballroom.com for tickets.

PAYTON IRICK

ST. CECILIA’S: TIM LANDES; RYAN: HENRY NINDE

Michael Williams, Taylor Williams and Carl Carbonell are all musicians and the owners of St. Cecilia’s Listening Room, a new music venue named after the patron saint of musicians. St. Cecilia’s will host Bandelier on June 1, and Minor Gold with Taylor Smith on June 13.

Barron Ryan

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CHANGEMAKERS

From scoops to stacks

Kimberly Johnson went from serving ice cream to serving the community through library work.

BY CONNIE CRONLEY

If life had gone according to her plan as a Bronx high school student working part time at a Baskin-Robbins, Kimberly Johnson would own a string of ice cream stores.

Or, Plan B, with her degree in English literature from the University of Tulsa, she would be a teacher of the subject.

Neither plan happened. Instead, she answered a newspaper ad for a job that changed her life — coordinator of the African American Resource Center at Rudisill

Regional Library, the rst resource center of its kind in the state. She liked the job so much she stayed, acquiring growing responsibilities within Tulsa City-County Library while earning a master’s in library science from the University of Oklahoma.

Now, 26 years later, she is CEO of the immense TCCL system, a position akin to admiral of the eet, managing 24 library branches, two non-public sites, the Bookmobile, 430 employees, an annual budget of $38.3 million and a current capital campaign

to rebuild four branches (Brookside, Rudisill Regional, Owasso and South Broken Arrow).

She sails through these duties with serenity and grace, while keeping a steady eye on the cultural climate of controversial books, although that is more of a national issue than a local one. “TCCL is an independent library district,” she says, explaining that the system is locally funded by ad valorem property taxes. TCCL has a total circulation of 7,539,963 items and has an established process for anyone to suggest or reconsider a title in the collection.

Annually some 1.8 million people visit the libraries throughout Tulsa County; that’s more than the entire state population of West Virginia. Virtual visits total 3.3 million.

Books may capture headlines, but “we are more than books,” Johnson says. “We make a huge impact on the quality of life of those in our community.” Free computer services can assist people in acquiring a high school diploma, apply for a job, conduct educational research, start a business and more. Every second-grader in Tulsa County receives a free book to keep through the Books to Treasure program, which celebrates a di erent illustrator each year. Movies, TV and music can be downloaded or streamed. After-school homework help and access to online tutoring resources are available. “Connecting the public to the thing they need, that’s what librarians love about the profession,” Johnson says.

June is always a particularly busy month for TCCL. e annual summer reading program begins June 1 for some 60,000 Tulsans of all ages, with one out of ve youth in the county usually participating. e annual Historic All-Black Towns Tour has sold out again, drawing tourists from across the country.

In this churning sea of activity, how does she balance work and a personal life? “My family is my balance and my focus,” she says. She is married and is the proud grandmother of two.

“Libraries have always been part of my life,” Johnson says. She was just out of high school and managing two Baskin-Robbins stores in the Bronx and Harlem when she realized how much she also liked business and organization. As the top executive at TCCL, she blends all three interests. “It’s a real honor to lead this organization,” she says. “I just love it.”

And, just asking, how does she organize her own books? “Not as organized as they should be for a librarian,” she says. “I organize by favorites because I like to reread.” tp

Kimberly Johnson, CEO of Tulsa City-County Library since 2017, has worked for the system for 26 years, starting as the coordinator for the African American Resource Center at Rudisill Regional Library. In 2023 she was recognized by the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice with its Humanitarian of the Year award.

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TULSA

Celebrating 30 years of Camp Anytown

Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice’s youth program o ers hope and healing.

BY MARNIE FERNANDEZ

Moises Echeverria just wanted to go home. Echeverria, then a high school sophomore, had just immigrated with his family from Mexico to Tulsa.

“ is was right after 9/11 and antiimmigrant sentiment was very high,” Echeverria says. “I began to internalize those messages. I felt like I didn’t belong — I just wanted to go back to Mexico.”

en Carol Axely, a high school counselor at East Central High School, reached out.

“She saw something in me and recommended that I apply for Camp Anytown,” Echeverria says. “I didn’t know much about it other than it was a leadership program. I

attended that summer and that was the rst time I ever felt celebrated for who I was. I left camp feeling empowered and transformed.”

Camp Anytown is the agship program for Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice. Over a one-week period, delegates from throughout the state gather to learn skills to confront and challenge prejudice, bias and stereotypes.

“Camp Anytown is designed to get students out of their comfort zones,” says Cara Golden, programs director for OCCJ. “ e curriculum, coupled with our trained volunteers, has a magical way of drawing them out of their shell.”

Retired OCCJ president and CEO Nancy Day was the organization’s president when Camp Anytown was established in 1994. e curriculum, informed by Anytown Arkansas 1992 and nalized by a former board member, has been adapted throughout the years to make sure it stays timely and relevant.

“OCCJ has always pushed the envelope,” Echeverria says of the organization today led by President and CEO Phil Armstrong. “ ey are always ahead of our state regarding social justice issues.”

Camp Anytown didn’t just change Echeverria’s life; it also became his entire life’s trajectory as he went from camper, to counselor, to OCCJ sta member to eventually becoming OCCJ’s president.

“Camp Anytown’s mission became my life’s work,” says Echeverria, who in 2022 stepped down as OCCJ’s CEO and into his new position as CEO of Foundation for Tulsa Schools. “After camp, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of self-worth, and I wanted to help others have the same experience.”

Youth between the ages of 14-18 are eligible to apply, with a maximum of 45 delegates selected each summer.

“ e camp’s delegation should be re ective of the demographics of our state in terms of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation and faith tradition,” Golden says. “Our goal is to inspire youth leaders and provide opportunities so delegates leave the camp with a toolkit to continue the work in their schools and communities.”

Camp Anytown is celebrating its 30th anniversary this summer. More than 1,000 kids statewide have been served since the camp’s inception. Ron Lanoue led the rst camp in 1994 and will be recognized at the OCCJ gala this fall.

“We are grateful for Ron and his leadership,” Golden says. “We are celebrating this milestone at the gala with a reunion of past delegates and counselors to honor Ron and Camp Anytown.”

In today’s increasingly polarized climate, Camp Anytown’s mission is more important than ever.

“We are so divided now,” Echeverria says. “ e more youth we can get involved in programs like Camp Anytown, the more we can remove labels and break the cycle of hate and intolerance.” tp

Camp Anytown 2024 is July 21-27 at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. Visit occj.org for more information.

Moises Echeverria, Nancy Day, Cara Golden and Phil Armstrong gather to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Camp Anytown, the flagship program of Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice that brings together students from across the state to learn skills to confront and challenge prejudice, bias and stereotypes. Echeverria is a former Camp Anytown delegate and counselor who formerly led OCCJ as president and CEO. Day led the organization in 1994 when Camp Anytown was founded. Golden is the organization’s programs director, and Armstrong is president and CEO.

Patients first

Health care nonprofit welcomes new leadership.

BY LAURA DENNIS

Community Health Connection, a fast-growing, federally quali ed health center that provides quality and accessible health care to Tulsans regardless of one’s ability to pay, welcomed in February new CEO Kate Neary. She is a longtime health care advocate and has both professional and volunteer experience with HIV treatment and prevention, women’s reproductive health care, LGBTQIA+ advocacy and support, and more. She says CHC o ers a wraparound approach to health that is invaluable to Tulsans.

“Community health is just where my heart has always been,” Neary says. “( is position) is an extension of what I’ve done and an opportunity and challenge to lead a larger organization.”

CHC provides primary care, comprehensive dental, behavioral health, OB-GYN, pediatric services and an on-site pharmacy at its Kendall Whittier and Ellen Ochoa locations. Family medicine and Title X, which provides con dential reproductive health services including birth control access, pap smears, pregnancy tests and STI testing and treatment, are o ered at the Youth Services facility. Pediatrics and family care are provided at the Rosa Parks site.

CHC is unique in that over 80% of its patients are Spanishspeaking, and the nonpro t works to mirror that. Eighty percent of sta — and 100% of its front desk and call center representatives — are bilingual. Neary adds the all-encompassing approach CHC applies to health care sets it apart from other medical facilities.

“I love that we touch on education, case management, behavioral health, dental health and more,” she says. “We provide care in a place where patients feel valued; it’s clean and beautiful and safe, and you’re talking to somebody who speaks your native language. Health care is a very intimate experience, so having that in place is really important to us.” tp

In February, Kate Neary was named CEO of Community Health Connection, a health care provider that serves a large Spanish-speaking patient base.

ART SPOT

For the people

Recurring poetry event brings spoken word art to the Tulsa masses.

BY JULIE WENGER WATSON

If your last experience with poetry was of the “roses are red, violets are blue” variety, Quinn Carver Johnson, guest services manager at the Bob Dylan Center, encourages you to revisit the genre at one of the People’s Poetry events Johnson hosts periodically through the Woody Guthrie Center.

“I de nitely understand that ‘poetry reading’ might sound really boring to someone who’s never been, but I’ve always been drawn to poetry and poetry readings because of how powerful and energetic the art form is,” Johnson says.

A poet since high school, Johnson developed a love for readings and performances through slam poetry and spoken word, which is a form of poetry often used to address issues of social justice, race, community and politics.

“An important element of art from the beginning has been giving voice and expression to the most marginalized and vulnerable members of society. I think a big part of that is that art creates empathy, makes us see the world through someone else’s eyes and experiences,” they say. “If you can’t nd representation in politics, you might nd it in poetry. If you can’t learn about Black Wall Street in your history textbooks, you can read about it in a poetry book. If you can’t

see people who look and love and live like you in the White House, in the courthouse, in the schoolhouse or on the television, you can nd them in poems.”

Johnson chose the name People’s Poetry for the series as a nod to “People’s Songs,” an organization founded by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and others to disseminate labor movement songs and promote the artists singing them. Johnson, who sees the series as a way to connect people with both Guthrie’s message and contemporary protest poetry, begins each poetry event by reading a work by Guthrie.

“We talk often about how relevant Woody’s message remains today, but it’s also important to promote and support the living artists in our community who are sharing that same timeless message,” Johnson emphasizes.

Claire Collins, Crystal Stone and Jes McCutchen are the featured poets at the next People’s Poetry event June 21 at the Woody Guthrie Center, 102 E. Reconciliation Way. Each People’s Poetry event is generally themed around the idea of protest art, but June’s event speci cally features a lineup of only queer artists.

Visit woodyguthriecenter.org for more information. tp

CALLING ALL DADS

Resources for fathers aren’t always easily accessible. However, the Parent Child Center of Tulsa is aiming to change that with its newest program, Fatherhood Today. Over a 12-week period, fathers meet virtually or in-person as a group to learn fathering skills through an evidence-based national curriculum called 24:7 Dad.

“Evidence shows when a father is involved in a child’s life, the child does better in school, has less disciplinary problems and behavioral issues, and overall has higher self-esteem,” says Sekou Clincy, Fatherhood Program manager for the Parent Child Center.

“Our goal is to equip dads with the tools they need to guide and discipline their kids.”

The program is free and open to any father in the Tulsa area. A virtual option is also available for those who live out of town.

In addition to the Fatherhood Today program, the Parent Child Center is also spearheading a Fatherhood Coalition, a group of stakeholders and other organizations focused on supporting fathers.

“We had our first meeting last fall and plan to meet on a quarterly basis,” Clincy says. “Our purpose is to leverage each other’s resources and focus on how we can collaborate to more effectively serve this population.”

— MARNIE FERNANDEZ

For Father’s Day, consider a donation to Fatherhood Today in honor or memory of a father or father figure at parentchildcenter.org

Cheyenne C. Fletcher performs at the March People’s Poetry event, a poetry reading that happens three to four times a year at Woody Guthrie Center.

Sekou Clincy

Shrug it off

Tulsa-raised sculptor returns for Philbrook exhibition.

BY MADISON WALTERS

If you’ve been to Philbrook Museum of Art recently, you might’ve seen Tulsa native Timo Fahler’s exhibition “Shrug Atlas,” which combines Earth, stained glass, metal, rebar, plaster and other materials to speak to the history of land and labor through material and form. Fahler has had quite the journey to get to this point.

Ever the rebellious teenager, Fahler wanted to get away from Tulsa, spending his free time gra tiing and completing “burners,” or pieces, on billboards and buildings. So, when he had the opportunity, Fahler moved to San Diego in 1999 and continued making street art. However, gra ti in San Diego wasn’t what he expected due to the highly territorial nature of artists, recalling the time when a few “writers” were attacked with baseball bats for encroaching on another group’s area. Striking up a conversation with an older gra ti writer, he discovered it wasn’t the life he wanted to live, he says.

Switching to visual media, Fahler began dumpster diving and going to thrift shops in search of wood and metal materials to repurpose. He experimented with hard drugs, returning to Tulsa whenever he needed a break from it. “Being at my parents’ house where I could put it down for a minute and try to kind of get clean, that’s what Tulsa was for me,” Fahler says.

During one of these trips, teacher Judy McIntosh — a friend’s mother — reached out to him and asked if he would be interested in mentoring her art students. He accepted and began telling them about DIY art like making T-shirts, yers and screen printing. “She changed the entire trajectory of my life, and she was the rst person that was just like, ‘What do you want to do?’’’ he continues. “I came from this working-class family. We visited Philbrook two or three times, but there was never a conversation that was about the meaning of the art; my family never said, ‘You can do that one day.’ Never.” From there, he attended City College of San Fransisco and then transferred to an arts program at Kansas City Art Institute, where he received his bachelor’s at the age of 31.

Now, nearly 20 years after starting his art education, Fahler’s art is on exhibit at Philbrook. “Shrug Atlas” takes inspiration from a passage of Ayn Rand’s seminal novel “Atlas Shrugged,” when a woman is asked what she would say to the giant who’s holding the world on his shoulders and she tells him to shrug. “For me, in some ways, Tulsa was that shrug,” Fahler says. “It was the place I would escape to when I needed a break from it all.”

e centerpiece of his four-piece exhibition features the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli who was revered by many Indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.

“Shrug Atlas” continues into next year, but those aren’t Fahler’s only plans for Tulsa. In the fall, he hopes to host a DIY symposium at the museum for young artists and DIY entities in and around Tulsa to come together and share their art and creative programs. tp

“Shrug Atlas,” above, is the centerpiece of a four-piece exhibition of the same name by Tulsa native and sculptor Timo Fahler, below. The exhibition is now on display at Philbrook Museum of Art through June 1, 2025.

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING

Estate of affairs

How an early Tulsa man’s good humor and property lines impacted decisions of the day — including downtown’s location.

BY MICHAEL OVERALL

Apalace by Indian Territory standards, Tulsa’s once-famous “White House” had six rooms, multiple chimneys and a wraparound porch near what is today 41st Street and Utica Avenue on the outskirts of the Brookside District.

George Perryman built the house in 1876 to replace a log cabin near the same location, where an old trail led down to a natural ford in the Arkansas River. Low water and large sandbars provided the safest place to cross for miles in both directions, which brought a steady trickle of travelers by Perryman’s place.

He gained a reputation as a generous and gregarious host, freely dispensing both wine and wisdom to anyone who stopped by. His advice is said to have prevented many gunghts and turned enemies into friends.

He also helped decide, in a roundabout way, where downtown Tulsa would eventually be located.

Perryman’s family came to Indian Territory in the 1820s as part of a Muscogee Nation group who came voluntarily several years before the rest of the tribe was forced out of its ancestral homeland in the East.

By the late 1840s, Perryman’s father, Lewis, had built a trading post near what

is today Zink Park, east of 31st Street and Peoria Avenue. A story-and-a-half tall, the log structure seemed enormous at the time, and it sat in the middle of a cluster of smaller buildings that housed George’s many brothers and sisters. When George Perryman married, he built his own house south of the family’s trading post, closer to the ford in the river. e Postal Service didn’t allow mail carriers to swim their horses across the Arkansas, which could be dangerous. So, after arriving from Coffeyville, Kansas, carriers would spend the night at Perryman’s house before using the ford to continue southeast toward the Sac and Fox Nation, near what is now Stroud.

Perryman’s house — or rather, one back room in the house — o cially became a post o ce on March 25, 1879, with his brother Josiah serving as postmaster. Mail was simply addressed to Tulsey Tulova, Indian Territory, with “Tulova” meaning “town” in the Muscogee language.

It’s easy to imagine how the city of Tulsa could have grown up around the original post o ce and the Perryman trading post. Downtown would have been more or less where Brookside is.

Perryman, however, pushed the city north, whether he meant to or not.

His ranch sprawled across more than 60,000 acres, stretching roughly from 21st Street south to 71st Street and from the river east to Lynn Lane in Broken Arrow. Perryman himself owned 3,000 head of cattle. But the ranch supported many thousands of head on acres that Perryman leased to other cattlemen, some driving their herds from as far away as Texas. e cattle would fatten up on Perryman grass before continuing north to Co eyville to meet the railroad.

Perryman built several fences across the ranch to keep the di erent herds separate and to force cattle drives to stop and pay fees for crossing Muscogee land. After the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad reached Tulsa in August 1882, cattle drives no longer had to continue to Co eyville. But the new railroad stayed north of Perryman’s ranch to avoid cutting through his fences, and downtown Tulsa sprang up next to the tracks instead of next to the post o ce.

Eventually, even the Perryman family “moved into town.”

Perryman died in 1899 at age 52 while on a trip to Kansas. His old “White House” in Brookside remained standing until 1939, when the Tulsa Historical Society gave up plans to move it to Mohawk Park and turn it into a museum when crews found the structure too dilapidated to save. tp

Above, George Perryman (seen seated third from left) was an early Tulsan whose impact can still be seen today. Inset, George Perryman’s “White House” near 38th Street and Troost Avenue was the site of the first post office in Tulsa.

Media sponsor:

JUNE CHARITABLE EVENTS

BY MADISON WALTERS

1

Every Moment Counts Walk and Run

Benefits Clarehouse. clarehouse.org

Inspire: A Night of Entertainment

Benefits The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges. nighttoinspire.org

2-8

National Garden Week

Benefits Tulsa Garden Club. tulsagardenclub.org

3 MDA Golf Tournament

Benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association. tinyurl.com/ypp43f5h

Montereau Golf Invitational

Benefits Montereau’s Benevolent Care Fund. montereau.net

6 Through the Looking Glass: Re ecting a Decade of Student Literacy

Benefits Reading Partners. readingpartners.org

7-9

OKM Music Festival

Benefits OKM Music. okmmusic.org

8 Butter y Conference

Benefits Women Helping Other Women. whownetwork.org

Tulsa Parkinson’s Walk

Benefits Oklahoma Parkinson’s Alliance. oklahomapa.org

14

Celebrate LIFE and All That Jazz

Benefits LIFE Senior Services. lifeseniorservices.org

Zoo Nights

Benefits Tulsa Zoo. tulsazoo.org

17

Tom Boyd Memorial Golf Classic

Benefits Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. cff.org

21

Links to Independence

Benefits Ability Resources. abilityresources.org

22

I Am Equality

Gala and Bene t

Benefits Oklahomans for Equality. okeq.org

23

St. Jude Dream House Winner

Announcement

Benefits St. Jude Children’s Hospital. stjude.org

29

Glasshouse Gold Gatsby

Benefits Woodward Park. tulsagardencenter.org

EDITOR’S NOTE: HIGHLIGHTED EVENTS SPONSORED BY TULSAPEOPLE

CARNIVALE NEON SYMPHONY AND PATRON PARTY Carnivale, Mental Health Association

Oklahoma’s biggest fundraiser known as “the best party in town,” was held on April 6 at Cox Business Convention Center. Attendees at Carnivale helped raise $1.3 million, benefiting more than 1,500 individuals and families living in MHAOK’s 26 apartment complexes in Tulsa. On March 28, the Reaves family hosted a patron party for the event’s sponsors at Davenport Lofts. 1: Izetta Gibson, Tulsa director of programs and services at MHAOK; Emily Brandenburg, board member; and Julie Ward, CFO at MHAOK, have fun at the patron party. 2: Event Chair John Reaves, Mary McDonald and Chief Program Officer Mark Davis at the patron party. 3: Representatives from Love’s Travel Store from Oklahoma City pose for a photo. 4: Stephanie and Jack Allen 5: Mayor G.T. Bynum and Susan Bynum; Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt and Rachel Holt, Oklahoma City United Way CEO 6: Event Chairs John and Leigh Reaves of Asphalt and Fuel Supply with daughter Claire Reaves 7: Board President Sam Clancy and Hannah Clancy 8: Cox Communications Vice President Roger Ramseyer, Terri Ramseyer, board member Emily Brandenburg and Derrick Brandenburg 9: Deneisha Johnson, director of development for MHAOK, and Judy Kishner, president of the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation

DANCE OF THE TWO MOONS: MARDI GRAS Hosted by Indian Health Care Resource Center of Tulsa, the Dance of the Two Moons: Mardi Gras, was held on March 9 to raise funds for crucial health care services for American Indians in the Tulsa area. With Honorary Chair Chief David W. Hill of Muscogee (Creek) Nation leading the way, attendees were treated to the energizing sounds of the King Cabbage Brass Band, with featured art from artist Carly Treece. Held at River Spirit Casino and Resort, the event raised more than $175,000 thanks to the generosity of the 500 people in attendance.

1: King Cabbage Brass Band treated attendees to a performance of their New Orleans-inspired music. 2: Michael Loman performs a traditional dance. 3: Bob and Gloria Bitting proudly wearing their Mardi Gras beads. 4: News on 6’s Jonathan Cooper and Tatum Guinn give a few words at the event. 5: Tracy Anquoe and Janice Edmiston 6: Robert Anquoe and Second Chief Del Beaver of Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 7: Roy Tannehil, Daniel Guzman, Heather Moore and Jeremy Moore

NEWSMAKERS For nearly 50 years, the Tulsa Association for Women in Communications has recognized Oklahoma’s newsworthy women at its annual Newsmakers Awards Luncheon. Winners of this prestigious honor have made significant accomplishments and contributions to the advancement of women. This year’s honorees at the May 1 event included Shella Bowlin, Cherokee Nation Secretary of State; Kathy LaFortune, attorney and mental health advocate; and Ellen Stackable, founder of Poetic Justice, an organization helping incarcerated women through artistic expression. AWC Tulsa also awarded the Saidie Lifetime Achievement Award to Susan Neal, former executive director of Gilcrease

and

and

makers honorees County Commissioner Karen Keith, Mayor

Susan Neal, Mayor Susan Savage 3: Scholarship recipients Diem Lam, Luisa Clausen and Karen Molina Canizalez 4: Emcee LeAnne Taylor from News on 6 snaps a selfie with luncheon attendees. 5: Cecily Cosgrove and Katherine Eller Murray 6: David Blatt and Carol Bush 7: Attendees sit down to lunch at Southern Hills Country Club.

Museum, for her 40 years in government

public service. 1: Honorees Kathy LaFortune, Susan Neal, Shella Bowlin

Ellen Stackable 2: Past News-

Kathy Taylor,

Behind The SCeneS AT BAronS on 1ST

Behind The SCeneS AT BAronS on 1ST

Q&A with Chef Justin Donaldson

Q&A with Chef Justin Donaldson

Behind The SCeneS AT BAronS on 1ST Q&A with Chef Justin Donaldson

W

When you first meet Chef Justin Donaldson, you are struck by how approachable he is. Busy in the kitchen of the new Barons on 1st restaurant, he was smiling and instructing a staff already busy preparing food, even though the restaurant would not serve its first guest for more than 7 hours.

hen you first meet Chef Justin Donaldson, you are struck by how approachable he is. Busy in the kitchen of the new Barons on 1st restaurant, he was smiling and instructing a staff already busy preparing food, even though the restaurant would not serve its first guest for more than 7 hours.

W hen you first meet Chef Justin Donaldson, you are struck by how approachable he is. Busy in the kitchen of the new Barons on 1st restaurant, he was smiling and instructing a staff already busy preparing food, even though the restaurant would not serve its first guest for more than 7 hours.

That’s one of the first things of note about Barons’ menu, it is made from scratch.

That’s one of the first things of note about Barons’ menu, it is made from scratch.

That’s one of the first things of note about Barons’ menu, it is made from scratch.

“Almost everything we serve is made in house,” Donaldson pointed out, “I’d really like to churn our own butter. My family were farmers,

“Almost everything we serve is made in house,” Donaldson pointed out, “I’d really like to churn our own butter. My family were farmers,

and I’d like to get my grandmother’s churn in here.”

and I’d like to get my grandmother’s churn in here.”

We sat down with him to discuss his culinary journey around the world and what led him back to Tulsa.

“Almost everything we serve is made in house,” Donaldson pointed out, “I’d really like to churn our own butter. My family were farmers, and I’d like to get my grandmother’s churn in here.”

From the first moment, it is clear that this dining experience is different from others in the Tulsa fine dining scene. With a nod to the oil barons who built Tulsa with their vision, grit, and rugged determination, the space feels elegant and comfortable. As you step through the front door, the stylish interior and vibe welcomes you in from the bustle of the street outside.

We sat down with him to discuss his culinary journey around the world and what led him back to Tulsa. From the first moment, it is clear that this dining experience is different from others in the Tulsa fine dining scene. With a nod to the oil barons who built Tulsa with their vision, grit, and rugged determination, the space feels elegant and comfortable. As you step through the front door, the stylish interior and vibe welcomes you in from the bustle of the street outside.

We sat down with him to discuss his culinary journey around the world and what led him back to Tulsa. From the first moment, it is clear that this dining experience is different from others in the Tulsa fine dining scene. With a nod to the oil barons who built Tulsa with their vision, grit, and rugged determination, the space feels elegant and comfortable. As you step through the front door, the stylish interior and vibe welcomes you in from the bustle of the street outside.

What did you first think when you saw the space at Barons on 1st?

What did you first think when you saw the space at Barons on 1st?

What did you first think when you saw the space at Barons on 1st?

I loved the feel of the space. It was clear they wanted to do something special here. The attention to detail was something I noticed right away. There is always something to see. It was different from other restaurants in town. I knew it needed a special menu.

I loved the feel of the space. It was clear they wanted to do something special here. The attention to detail was something I noticed right away. There is always something to see. It was different from other restaurants in town. I knew it needed a special menu.

I loved the feel of the space. It was clear they wanted to do something special here. The attention to detail was something I noticed right away. There is always something to see. It was different from other restaurants in town. I knew it needed a special menu.

How did you approach creating a menu?

How did you approach creating a menu?

How did you approach creating a menu?

It’s an expression of my personal thoughts and feelings of a dish. I want to try to convey a feeling of emotion. I’ve worked in Michelinranked kitchens, but I’ve also worked

It’s an expression of my personal thoughts and feelings of a dish. I want to try to convey a feeling of emotion. I’ve worked in Michelinranked kitchens, but I’ve also worked

It’s an expression of my personal thoughts and feelings of a dish. I want to try to convey a feeling of emotion. I’ve worked in Michelinranked kitchens, but I’ve also worked

and dined at other places like Tokyo, Bangkok, and Paris. There are so many flavors and ingredients out there and they all mean something to someone. Here at Barons, the dishes are flavors I’ve enjoyed from other cultures, and I want to share that with people.

and dined at other places like Tokyo, Bangkok, and Paris. There are so many flavors and ingredients out there and they all mean something to someone. Here at Barons, the dishes are flavors I’ve enjoyed from other cultures, and I want to share that with people.

and dined at other places like Tokyo, Bangkok, and Paris. There are so many flavors and ingredients out there and they all mean something to someone. Here at Barons, the dishes are flavors I’ve enjoyed from other cultures, and I want to share that with people.

What do you hope diners will take away from their experience here?

What do you hope diners will take away from their experience here?

I want this to be a transformative experience. I have a collection of framed menus in my home. The menus are from different restaurants I have eaten in around the world, and I reminisce about those meals when I look at the menus. I want

What do you hope diners will take away from their experience here?

I want this to be a transformative experience. I have a collection of framed menus in my home. The menus are from different restaurants I have eaten in around the world, and I reminisce about those meals when I look at the menus. I want

I want this to be a transformative experience. I have a collection of framed menus in my home. The menus are from different restaurants I have eaten in around the world, and I reminisce about those meals when I look at the menus. I want

people to remember the food and the way the meal made them feel when they think about Barons on 1st.

people to remember the food and the way the meal made them feel when they think about Barons on 1st.

people to remember the food and the way the meal made them feel when they think about Barons on 1st.

What is your approach to developing bold flavors?

What is your approach to developing bold flavors?

What is your approach to developing bold flavors?

I love using flavors and ingredients in a traditional way. The way they are used in the native regions. I like to build the flavors like a pyramid. You have to layer them together to create that perfect blend at the tip of the pyramid. If you layer in too much sweet or salty, your pyramid will fall and become flat. It’s a delicate balance.

I love using flavors and ingredients in a traditional way. The way they are used in the native regions. I like to build the flavors like a pyramid. You have to layer them together to create that perfect blend at the tip of the pyramid. If you layer in too much sweet or salty, your pyramid will fall and become flat. It’s a delicate balance.

I love using flavors and ingredients in a traditional way. The way they are used in the native regions. I like to build the flavors like a pyramid. You have to layer them together to create that perfect blend at the tip of the pyramid. If you layer in too much sweet or salty, your pyramid will fall and become flat. It’s a delicate balance.

You’ve been open a little more than month; so as we look forward, what can we expect from Barons on 1st and Chef Donaldson over the next year? The menu will be different with seasons. With a high attention to seasonality and quality ingredients, this menu will be a living menu that changes and introduces new flavors I haven’t had a chance to share. I want to be the best restaurant in Tulsa, so I can’t get comfortable, I have always been looking for inspiration and to inspire others.

You’ve been open a little more than month; so as we look forward, what can we expect from Barons on 1st and Chef Donaldson over the next year?

The menu will be different with seasons. With a high attention to seasonality and quality ingredients, this menu will be a living menu that changes and introduces new flavors I haven’t had a chance to share. I want to be the best restaurant in Tulsa, so I can’t get comfortable, I have always been looking for inspiration and to inspire others.

You’ve been open a little more than month; so as we look forward, what can we expect from Barons on 1st and Chef Donaldson over the next year? The menu will be different with seasons. With a high attention to seasonality and quality ingredients, this menu will be a living menu that changes and introduces new flavors I haven’t had a chance to share. I want to be the best restaurant in Tulsa, so I can’t get comfortable, I have always been looking for inspiration and to inspire others.

See the menu and make reservations at baronson1st.com and follow @baronson1st on Instagram.

See the menu and make reservations at baronson1st.com and follow @baronson1st on Instagram.

See the menu and make reservations at baronson1st.com and follow @baronson1st on Instagram.

LEGENDS

Keith Bailey

Retired president, chairman and CEO of Williams Cos.

BY MICHAEL OVERALL

Rodney and the Blazers used to play at the Brook eater on Saturday nights in the mid-1970s, except they weren’t really the Blazers anymore.

Rodney Lay ’s band, a throwback to classic bebop rock ‘n’ roll, was called e Wild West by then. But most fans stubbornly continued to call them the Blazers, the name that had gained some national recognition in the 1960s with radio hits like “Teenage Cinderella” and “It’s All Over But the Cryin’.”

Keith Bailey, 82, remembers going to see them quite often with his wife, Pat. If it was a special occasion, they would eat at Pennington’s Drive-In, a bygone Tulsa icon near 41st Street and Peoria Avenue, less than a mile south of the Brook eater.

Bailey didn’t know much about Tulsa when he came here in 1973 to take a job at Williams Pipe Line Co. e “Restless Ribbon,” a 2-mile stretch of Peoria famous for cruising and hot-rodding, was among his favorite parts of town as he embraced Tulsa as his new home.

Over the years Bailey would advance from assistant to the vice president of operations at Williams to president, chief executive o cer and chairman of the board of the Williams Cos., increasing corporate assets from $5 billion to $38 billion before retiring in 2002.

e Brook eater, however, closed in 1978. High gas prices put a damper on cruising. And Pennington’s went out of business in 1987. Today, the Brookside District remains a popular area for shopping, eating and going out, but it’s no longer the Restless Ribbon that generations of Tulsans knew.

Bailey considers it one of his fondest memories.

“It was just a lot of fun,” he says.

WHY DID YOU ATTEND MISSOURI SCHOOL OF MINES AND METALLURGY? “It was a ordable,” Bailey says. “Tuition in 1960 was around $125 a semester for an in-state student and I never spent more than $900 for a year of school, and that included room and board, books and fees. I also went because it o ered me a chance to play collegiate athletics. It was at a Division II-level school, and I played football and basketball.”

Bailey graduated in 1964 with a mechanical engineering degree from the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.

WHAT WAS THE MOST DEFINING MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? “Without question,” Bailey says, “it was when I met Pat.”

His future wife was dating one of Bailey’s coworkers in Spokane, Washington, in 1964.

“We went on a couples date and later — not much later — we ended up dating each other,” Bailey says. e relationship was less than a week old when Bailey was transferred to Artesia, New Mexico.

“We decided to get married,” he says, “but I didn’t have any vacation (time).”

Luckily Christmas fell on a Friday that year, giving him a three-day weekend to get to Spokane for the wedding and back to Artesia in time for work with a one-day job review in Ponca City as part of the return trip.

“She was with me the entire span of my career and a lot of years of my retirement,” Bailey says. “We have four kids. I also have two great daughters-in-law and a great sonin-law as well as an ex-son in law. We’ve got 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. And they’re great people because of her. She had the biggest burden of raising our family because I would be traveling on business, in some cases ve days a week.”

Pat died in May 2023.

HOW OLD DO YOU FEEL?

“It depends on what part of me is feeling it,” Bailey laughs. “I’ve played competitive full-court basketball for 50 years. I played football in college and have played in several alumni games. My body has reminded me of that because I have a new shoulder and a new knee.

“I still get to the gym routinely to do a good thorough workout, but it’s on a whole lot di erent level than what I could do at one time, he says. “When working out I like to move quickly from machine to machine and not visit. My observation is that most of the older crowd does the opposite.”

WHAT WOULD SURPRISE PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT YOU? “My favorite TV shows are ‘Swamp People’ and ‘Swamp People: Serpent Invasion.’”

A reality TV series on the History Channel, “Swamp People” followed alligator hunters in the swamps of Louisiana, while it’s more recent spino series, “Serpent Invasion,” focuses on e orts to eradicate pythons from the Florida Everglades. e shows remind Bailey of the old “Wild Kingdom” TV series that aired from 1963 to 1988 and featured a zoologist named Jim Fowler

“I want Jim’s job,” Bailey says. “He would jump on the anacondas and the crocodiles and kind of wrestle them. at was my dream job. Obviously, I didn’t get my dream job.”

IF YOU COULD WITNESS ANY EVENT IN THE PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE? “It would really make me feel better to see our political system become more balanced,” Bailey says. “Social media has pushed people to the extremes. It’s like the laws of physics, action and reaction. It just keeps pulling the country further and further apart.

“I’d like to see in my lifetime that the country is moving in a di erent direction because it will make it a better place for my children and grandchildren to live.”

HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS? “Being happy. at’s the only measure,” Bailey says. “I get asked to talk to students, and to others, and they ask me about career planning. ‘How did you plan to get to where you were when you retired?’

“You don’t. You can’t plan your life. Life happens to you.

“ e best advice I could give anybody is ‘do things that make you happy.’ If you’re happy, you’re by de nition successful, and life will take care of you.”

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE THAT YOU’VE SEEN IN TULSA? “I can’t park downtown,” Bailey says.

He came to Tulsa at the height of the “urban renewal” movement, when many of our historic buildings gave way to new construction or to parking lots.

“I attended the groundbreaking for the Williams Towers, which was moved to the basement of the NBT building due to inclement weather,” he says, “and then spent the latter part of my business career in those towers. I was also involved in selling the building during a restructuring when I was CFO and buying it back in the ’90s when I was CEO.”

Bailey watched the decline of downtown in the ’80s and ’90s, which left the streets mostly empty after business hours. And now he has seen the revitalization of downtown in the 21st century, which has made it a hotbed for entertainment, dining and nightlife.

ere’s no cruising scene and no drive-in restaurant, but downtown’s energy feels similar to the old Restless Ribbon. It was hard sometimes to nd a parking spot at Pennington’s back then. And now it’s hard sometimes to nd one downtown. But it’s not just because of the crowds, Bailey says.

“ ere is not a parking place downtown that you can pay real cash money to park in,” he says. “I don’t use credit cards. I’m happy to pay cash. e good thing about cash is when you don’t have any in your pocket you can’t spend any, and I’m not a credit card fan.” tp

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In this year’s Editors’ Picks, the TulsaPeople team named some of their “FAVORITE THINGS” about the city we call home. Be inspired to experience and explore Tulsa with some tips and recommendations from your city magazine professionals. TulsaPeople is proud to present the

As voted on by readers via TulsaPeople.com, more than 500 businesses are recognized in 131 categories. These are the best in Tulsa when it comes to restaurants, shops, service providers, attractions and more — all chosen by the readers of TulsaPeople. Five winners were named in each category, except when ties occurred.

Top row, Circle Cinema, Tulsa Zoo, Saturn Room; Middle row, Gas Petal Flower Co., Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar, Philbrook Museum of Art; Bottom row, Oklahoma Aquarium, Cain’s Ballroom, Gambill’s Pastaria and Grocery

ASIAN

Yokozuna

Lanna Thai Restaurant

Roka

Mandarin Taste

KEO

BAKERY

Merritt’s Bakery

Antoinette Baking Co.

Saint Amon Baking Co.

Country Bird Bakery

Coffee House on Cherry Street

BAR Valkyrie

The Starlite Bar

Bird and Bottle

Society Burger

Stone Mill BBQ and Steakhouse

BARBECUE

Burn Co. Barbeque

Albert G’s Barbecue

Oakhart Barbecue

RibCrib

Stone Mill BBQ and Steakhouse

BREAKFAST

The Big Biscuit

Neighborhood JAM

Savoy Restaurant

Brookside by Day

Bramble Breakfast and Bar

BREWERY

Cabin Boys Brewery

Marshall Brewing Co.

Nothing’s Left Brewing Co.

DINE LOCAL

American Solera Brewery

Heirloom Rustic Ales

BURGER

Society Burger

Arnold’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers

Howdy Burger

The Tavern

Smitty’s Garage Burgers and Beer

CATERING

McNellie’s Group

Ludger’s Catering

Elote Cafe and Catering

Stone Mill BBQ and Steakhouse

Justin Thompson Catering

CHEAP EATS

Coney I-Lander

Tacos Don Francisco

The Brook Restaurant and Bar

McNellie’s Burger Night

The Bros. Houligan

COCKTAIL/ MOCKTAIL LIST

Nola’s Creole and Cocktails

Saturn Room

Valkyrie Bar Serra

Bird and Bottle

COFFEE SHOP

Coffee House on Cherry Street

Shades of Brown Coffee and Art

DoubleShot Coffee Co.

Cirque Coffee Roasters

Foolish Things Coffee Co.

DELI/SANDWICHES

Trenchers Delicatessen

Lambrusco’z Deli

Doctor Kustom

Bill and Ruth’s Cherry Street

Dilly Diner

DOUGHNUT SHOP

Daylight Donuts

Big Baby Rolls and Donuts

Sugar Llamas

Livi Lee’s

Merritt’s Bakery

FINE DINING

Bull in the Alley

Mahogany Prime Steakhouse

Amelia’s Wood Fired Cuisine

Bodean

The Hemingway

GLUTEN-FREE

MENU

Chimera Cafe

NEFF Brewing

Coffee House on Cherry Street

Que Gusto

Holé Molé

ITALIAN

Mondo’s Ristorante Italiano

Gambill’s Pastaria and Grocery

Ti Amo Ristorante Italiano

Villa Ravenna Fine Dining

Dalesandro’s Italian Cuisine

JUICE BAR

Inheritance Kitchen and Juicery

Pure Food and Juice

Ediblend Superfood Cafe

3Natives Acai and Juicery

Bo’s Boba

LONGTIME FAVORITE

Kilkenny’s Irish Pub

The Bros. Houligan

Polo Grill

The Brook Restaurant and Bar

Bird and Bottle

LUNCH

Queenies

Doctor Kustom

The Bros. Houligan

Society Burger

Red Light Chicken

MEDITERRANEAN/ MIDDLE EASTERN/ INDIAN

India Palace

Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe

Desi Wok

Shawkat Mediterranean Grill

Pita Place Mediterranean Grill

MEXICAN

Los Cabos Mexican Grill and Cantina

El Rio Verde Mexican Restaurant

El Rancho Grande Mexican Food

Chimi’s Mexican Food

Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar

A-LIST

DINE LOCAL

CONTINUED FROM P. 42

NEW RESTAURANT

Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar

Red Door Grille

Isla’s Kitchen

Jimmy’s Chophouse

Maple Ridge Grocer

SEAFOOD

White River Fish Market

Nola’s Creole and Cocktails

Bodean

Fish Daddy’s Grill House

Peacemaker Lobster and Crab

STEAK

Tina’s

PATIO

Wild Fork

McNellie’s In the Raw Vu

Cafe Olé

Society Burger

PIZZA — GOURMET

Andolini’s Pizzeria

Bohemian Woodfire Pizza and Homemade Pasta

Hideaway Pizza

Empire Slice House

Savastano’s

PIZZA — TAKEOUT/ DELIVERY

Hideaway Pizza

Andolini’s Pizzeria

Empire Slice House

Pie Hole Pizzeria

Mazzio’s

RESTAURANT CURBSIDE/ CARRYOUT

Mother Road Market

Charleston’s Restaurant

Hideaway Pizza

The Bros. Houligan

Stone Mill BBQ and Steakhouse

Mahogany Prime Steakhouse

Bull in the Alley

The Spudder Restaurant

PRHYME: Downtown Steakhouse

Stone Mill BBQ and Steakhouse

SUSHI

Yokozuna

In the Raw Sushi

Sushi Hana

Sushi Train

Sake2Me Sushi

TACO

Tacos Don Francisco

Elote Cafe and Catering

Tacos x Mezcal (TXMZ)

Calaveras Mexican Grill

Catrina Fresh Mex

WEEKEND BRUNCH

Neighborhood JAM

Bramble Breakfast and Bar

Wild Fork

BBD2 Diner

Nola’s Creole and Cocktails

WINE LIST

Vintage Wine Bar

Polo Grill

Waters Edge Winery and Bistro

Boston Title and Abstract

The Hemingway

A NIGHT OUT EDITORS’ PICKS

MOVIE AT ADMIRAL TWIN DRIVE-IN

Catch a double feature at the iconic drive-in that was featured in “The Outsiders.” This year marks the 73rd season for Admiral Twin, which will host summer blockbusters, retro movies in September and its annual Scary Movie Sundays in October.

7355 E. EASTON ST. • ADMIRALTWINDRIVEIN.COM

Tulsa’s 28-mile stretch of the Mother Road now features more than 50 neon signs. Take a sunset drive to see the variety of signs as they light up along Route 66 across the city. See if you can find them all!

Whether it’s in celebration of Taylor Swift or Beyonce’s new albums or a wine dinner featuring a special menu, Duet is the place for themed dinners. Keep an eye on the Duet Instagram page (@duetjazz) for updated event menus and announcements.

108 N. DETROIT AVE. • DUETJAZZ.COM

One of the hottest tables in town to snag on date night is at Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar. Beyond its impressive and flavorful menu of nouveau Mexico City fare, the bar menu touts some truly tasty tipples. Try an agave flight or pick your favorite tequila, mezcal, sotol or raicilla.

110 N. ELGIN AVE., SUITE 140 • EATDRINKNOCHE.COM

FUN with FURRY FRIENDS EDITORS’ PICKS

DOG DAYS AT KEYSTONE ANCIENT FOREST

What’s better than being in the great outdoors? Being in the great outdoors with your best furry friend. Keystone Ancient Forest, a 1,380acre nature preserve with five different hiking trails of varying length and abilities, hosts pet-friendly days on the first and third weekends of each month. Be sure to bring a leash and some doggie bags as this preserve is focused on protecting the 500-year-old cedars and 300-yearold oak trees that call this Cross Timbers ecosystem home.

LOCATED JUST WEST OF SAND SPRINGS • FACEBOOK.COM/KEYSTONEANCIENTFOREST

We hate it when our dogs, cats and other four-legged pets aren’t feeling their best. The professionals at 15th Street Veterinary Group provide a loving touch with expert care. Pet well-being is their top priority.

6231 E. 15TH ST. • 15THSTVET.COM

Shopping local means getting to see the numerous shop dogs serving as greeters to our local businesses.

Max, the loveable chocolate Lab at Davidson’s on Boston, welcomes guests shopping for fine menswear at this local favorite.

1709 S. BOSTON AVE. • DAVIDSONS-ON-BOSTON.COM

Tails and Ales, Tulsa’s newest canine social hub, recently opened in the SoBo District. It’s an offleash dog park. It’s a neighborhood coffee shop and bar. It’s a pet supply retailer. Tails and Ales is a first-ofits-kind for Tulsa. Count on plenty of fun this summer at this new attraction.

1903 S. BOSTON AVE. • TAILSANDALESTULSA.COM

Mark your calendar to step-up to the plate and fight hunger by joining Tulsa’s best restaurants for this 10-day celebration of Tulsa’s culinary scene! Restaurant Week is an annual benefit for the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma’s Food for Kids programs. SAVE THE DATE FOR THE BEST TASTING WEEK OF THE

PRESENTING SPONSORS:

BENEFITTING:

ADULT EDUCATION

Tulsa City-County Library

Tulsa Community College

The University of Tulsa

Tulsa Tech

Agitsi Stained Glass

BOWLING

Dust Bowl Lanes and Lounge

Andy B’s

AMF Sheridan Lanes

Broken Arrow Lanes

Main Event Tulsa

CASINO

River Spirit Casino Resort

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

Osage Casino Hotel

EVENT —

NONPROFIT

WALTZ on the Wild Side

— Tulsa Zoo

GLOW Gala — Global Gardens

The Party: Just Wear White — Family and Children’s Services

Western Days — Saint Simeon’s Senior Community

The Lemon-Aid Project

EVENT — RUN/ WALK/CYCLE

Saint Francis Tulsa Tough

Tulsa Zoo Run

Tulsa Run

McNellie’s Pub Run

Route 66 Marathon

FUN FUN FUN

FAMILY FUN

Gathering Place

Tulsa Zoo

Adventure Avenue

Guthrie Green

Oklahoma Aquarium

FESTIVAL

Tulsa Oktoberfest

Mayfest

Bixby BBQ and Blues

Blue Whale Comedy Festival

Scotfest

HANDS-ON ART STUDIO

Purple Glaze Studio

Pinot’s Palette

Tulsa Glassblowing School

Board and Brush Creative Studio

Agitsi Stained Glass

HOTEL

The Mayo Hotel

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

River Spirit Casino Resort

Brut Hotel

Ambassador Hotel Tulsa

LIVE MUSIC VENUE

— OVER 1,000

Cain’s Ballroom

BOK Center

Hard Rock Live in Hard Rock

Hotel and Casino

Guthrie Green

Tulsa Performing Arts Center

LIVE MUSIC VENUE

— UNDER 1,000

Mercury Lounge

The Vanguard LowDown

The Church Studio

Maggie’s Music Box

LOCAL SPORTS TEAM

Tulsa Drillers

FC Tulsa

Oklahoma City Thunder

Oklahoma State University

Cowboys

Tulsa Oilers Hockey

MOVIE THEATER

Circle Cinema

Regal Warren Broken Arrow

Cinemark Tulsa and IMAX

AMC Southroads 20

Admiral Twin Drive-In

MUSEUM

Philbrook Museum of Art

Discovery Lab

Greenwood Rising

Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium

Bob Dylan Center

PARK

Gathering Place

Guthrie Green

Woodward Park and Gardens

Tulsa Zoo

Chandler Park

Whiteside Park

PROFESSIONAL ARTS ORGANIZATION

Celebrity Attractions

Tulsa Ballet

Tulsa Symphony

Living Arts of Tulsa

Tulsa Opera

VENUE — EVENT

Cain’s Ballroom

BOK Center

Guthrie Green

Tulsa Zoo

Station 13

VENUE — PERFORMING ARTS

Tulsa Performing Arts Center

Guthrie Green

BOK Center

Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center

Studio 308

VENUE — WEDDING

Harwelden Mansion

Philbrook Museum of Art

Spain Ranch

The Mayo Hotel

Tulsa Zoo

HIGHLIGHT DENOTES ADVERTISER IN THIS ISSUE

TREAT YOURSELF TO A TREASURE AT DIAMOND CELLAR

Whether you’re celebrating a special life moment or just celebrating life itself, the experts at Diamond Cellar are there to help you find that perfect piece. Diamond Cellar is known for its luxury fashion brands, including Marco Bicego, a storied jewelry maker based in Italy that uses only 18-karat gold. Diamond Cellar is the only Tulsa retailer to carry Armenta, a woman-owned company whose antique-inspired jewelry is made by women in Houston. Diamond Cellar, formerly Bruce G. Weber, has called Cherry Street home for five years.

1523 E. 15TH ST. • DIAMONDCELLAR.COM

You had me at massage. Yume Spa focuses on mind, body and skin as a whole, believing the health of someone’s skin is a reflection of the health of the body and mind. Offerings range from facials and scalp detoxes to lymphatic drainage and deep tissue massages.

1836 E. 15TH ST. • YUMESPA.COM

We all need a little help sometimes. Hiring a personal assistant like Tracy Tate can be the boost a busy Tulsan needs to get things done. Whether it is organizing, shopping, gift wrapping or project research, a personal assistant comes in handy. 918-640-4362 • TMTATE@COX.NET

Grab your mat and head to the river for a yoga session where the fresh air mingles with the tunes of specially selected opera arias chosen to enhance the experience while witnessing Tulsa’s vocal talent in the wild. Aria Yoga classes are from 6-6:45 p.m. every Tuesday through Oct. 15. 17TH STREET AND RIVERSIDE DRIVE • TULSAOPERA.COM

FIND A NEW FAVORITE PIECE FOR YOUR HOME AT LINDA JAMES ANTIQUES

For nearly three decades, Linda James has specialized in handprocuring 18th and 19th century European furniture, arts, mirrors, clocks, lighting and decorative items that are directly imported from Europe. With her skilled eye and taste for French-country style, she picks the best during her biannual buying trips to Paris.

INSIDE WINDSOR MARKET, 6530 E. 51ST ST. • LINDAJAMESANTIQUES.COM

Whether it be a large pruning job or a fall fertilization service, certified arborist Tim Nall and his We B Trees crews bring decades of knowledge and experience to provide unmatched quality for a full-service urban forestry company.

WEBTREES.COM

No job is too messy for Carner Plumbing. The three-generation company addresses and solves water issues like leaks, clogs and more, helping Tulsans with their household plumbing issues.

CARNERPLUMBING.COM

There’s nothing quite like a new coat of paint. For over 75 years, Elder Paint and Wallpaper has been Tulsa’s go-to for everything paint and wallpaper. They’ll help you with color matching, paint selection and ensuring you have everything needed to get the job done correctly.

3633 S. HARVARD AVE. • ELDERPAINT.COM

CHIROPRACTIC CENTER

F5 Chiropractic

Tulsa Spine and Rehab

Free Spirit Chiropractic

Resilient Sports Therapy

Snyder Chiropractic and Acupuncture

COSMETIC DENTAL CENTER

Tulsa Premier Dentistry

Lewis Park Family Dentistry

Perfect Smile Tulsa

Henry Orthodontics

Littlefield Dentistry

COSMETIC SURGERY CENTER

Green Country Surgical Arts

Plastic Surgery Center of Tulsa

Plastic Surgery Associates of Tulsa

Domian Family Dentistry

DENTAL CLINIC

Lewis Park Family Dentistry

Tulsa Premier Dentistry

Perfect Smile Tulsa

Littlefield Dentistry

Mint Dental

DERMATOLOGY

Tulsa Dermatology Clinic Inc.

Midtown Dermatology

Center for Dermatology

Warren Clinic Dermatology

DISPENSARY

Seed Cannabis Co.

Lady Jane’s Naturals

Nature’s Kiss

Fighting Flower

Lemon Cannabis

HEAD TO TOE

EYE CARE

The Eye Institute

LOOK Eyecare and Eyewear

Downtown Tulsa Eyecare

Tulsa Vision Clinic

Twenty Twenty Eyecare

FITNESS STUDIO — BARRE/PILATES/ OTHER

Club Pilates

League Indoor Cycling

PLNK

Orangetheory Fitness CYCLEBAR

FITNESS STUDIO — YOGA

SALT Yoga

Balance.Yoga.Barre.

PLNK

Be Love Yoga Studio

Updog Yoga

HAIR SALON

The Salon on Harvard

Wildflower Blu Salon

Siren Curl Studio

Hello.Salon

Jara Herron Salon and Med Spa

HEALTH CLUB/GYM

YMCA of Greater Tulsa

Orangetheory Fitness

Tulsa Fitness Systems

Health Zone at Saint Francis

Carson Fight and Fitness

HEARING AIDS

Hearts for Hearing

Audiology of Tulsa

Clear-tone

Gilbert’s Audiology and Hearing Aid Center

Armstrong Hearing Aid Center

HOSPITAL

Saint Francis Hospital

Oklahoma Surgical Hospital

Ascension St. John Medical Center

The Children’s Hospital at Saint Francis

Oklahoma State University Medical Center

MASSAGE

Coastal Relaxation

Quiet Mind Therapeutic Massage

Poppi’s Spa and Lounge

Spa Lux

Ihloff Salon and Day Spa

MEDICAL SPA

Jara Herron Salon and Med Spa

BA Med Spa and Weight Loss Center

Inject Aesthetics and Wellness

Kimiko Medical Aesthetics

Fig Medical Spa

MEN’S GROOMING

Roosters Men’s Grooming Center

The Salon on Harvard

Hello.Salon

Jara Herron Salon and Med Spa

Wildflower Blu Salon

NUTRITION/ PREPARED MEALS

Stonehorse Market

Chefs For Seniors

Chef JV — Jason Kendrick Vaughan

Ediblend Superfood Cafe

Pure Food and Juice

ORTHODONTIST

Henry Orthodontics

Cooper and Misner Orthodontics

Kirkpatrick and Lai Orthodontics

Emerson Orthodontics

Carter and Higgins Orthodontics

PAIN MANAGEMENT

Tulsa Bone and Joint

Pain Management of Tulsa

Warren Clinic Pain Management

Oklahoma State University

Medicine Pain Management

PHYSICAL THERAPY/ SPORTS MEDICINE

LifeMotion Physical Therapy and Balance Center

FYZICAL Therapy and Balance Centers — Tulsa

Saint Francis Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy of Tulsa

Resilient Sports Therapy

SKIN CARE

Jara Herron Salon and Med Spa

Emerge Medical and Well Spa

BA Med Spa and Weight Loss Center

Kimiko Medical Aesthetics

Inject Aesthetics and Wellness

URGENT CARE

PediStat Pediatric Urgent Care

Saint Francis Warren Clinic

Ascension St. John Urgent Care Utica

MedWise Urgent Care

WELLNESS CLINIC

Oklahoma State University Tulsa Wellness Center

Kimiko Medical Aesthetics

Emerge Medical and Well Spa

Fig Medical Spa

Emerge Integrative Medicine

EXPERIENCE TULSA EDITORS’ PICKS

POSE LIKE TWO-BIT AT THE OUTSIDERS HOUSE MUSEUM TOUR

Turn back the clock to 1982 and visit the spot where Francis Ford Coppola assembled a cast of future superstars to adapt Tulsan S.E. Hinton’s 1967 coming-of-age novel. Film props and costumes are on display in the restored home, which also includes an on-site shop — the perfect end to a private tour.

731 N. ST. LOUIS AVE. • THEOUTSIDERSHOUSE.COM

T-Town offers plenty of bike paths that take you off the city streets. Experiencing the city via two wheels lets even the most seasoned Tulsans gain a new perspective. There is the Osage Prairie Trail, Creek Turnpike Trail, Mohawk Park Trail, River Parks and more.

RIVERPARKS.ORG/ ABOUT/ MAPS

Ike’s Chili is one of the oldest restaurants in the state and is known to be one of Will Rogers favorite chili spots. Located on Route 66, Ike’s continues to welcome new customers from across the globe. Grab a seat at the counter for a bowl of award-winning chili.

1503 E. 11TH ST. • IKESCHILIUS.COM

Shine your boots and get ready to put them to use at Tulsey Town Two-Step, which is an evening of classic country music and dance, recurring monthly at VFW Post # 577. Live musicians and dance lessons included.

1109 E. SIXTH ST. • INSTAGRAM. COM/TULSEYTOWN2STEP

Danny Boy O’Connor, Outsiders House Museum Executive Director

CONGRATULATIONS

Chefs For Seniors Tulsa, winner of the Nutrition/Prepared Meals category!

Chefs For Seniors Tulsa provides meal planning, grocery shopping, and in-home meal preparation with your own personal chef. We provide services for people of all ages in Tulsa County.

918-215-2433 • www.chefsforseniors.com

ANTIQUES

Love Me Two Times

River City Trading Post

JADE on MAIN

Mustard Seed Consignment

Windsor Market

APPLIANCES

Hahn Appliance Warehouse

Metro Appliances and More

The Home Depot

J and J Appliances

Appliance Solutions

ART GALLERY

Ziegler Art and Frame

Living Arts of Tulsa

108 Contemporary

The Hulett Collection

Joseph Gierek Fine Art

ARTS — CRAFTS — HOBBY STORE

Hobby Lobby

Ziegler Art and Frame

Tatermash Embroidery, Gifts and Oilcloth

The Bead Merchant

Made

AUTO DEALER — DOMESTIC

Mark Allen Buick GMC

Bill Knight Ford

Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge

Ram Fiat

Jim Glover Chevrolet

Jim Norton Chevrolet

SHOP LOCAL

AUTO DEALER — IMPORT

Jackie Cooper Imports

Jim Norton Toyota

Ferguson Subaru

Don Carlton Honda

Fowler Toyota of Tulsa

AUTO DEALER — LUXURY

Lexus of Tulsa

Jackie Cooper Imports

Don Thornton Cadillac

Jackie Cooper INFINITI

BMW of Tulsa

BICYCLES

T-Town Bicycles

Tom’s Bicycles

Phat Tire Bike Shop

Spoke House Bicycles

Bicycles of Tulsa

BOOKSTORE

Magic City Books

Gardner’s Used Books

Fulton Street Books and Coffee

Peace of Mind Bookstore

Whitty Books

CLOTHING — CHILDREN’S

SweetPea Couture

Kathleen’s Kids

Ida Red

The Lolly Garden

Once Upon A Child

CLOTHING — MEN’S

Dillard’s

The Racks Tulsa

Travers Mahan Apparel

Ascent

The Sobo

CLOTHING — WOMEN’S

Amber Marie and Co.

Slade Apparel and Home

J. Spencer

Pink Creek

The Sobo

EYEWEAR

Black Optical

Empire Optical

Dr. Robert H. Zoellner and Associates

Hicks Brunson Eyewear

LOOK Eyecare and Eyewear

FINE JEWELRY

Dillon Rose

Vincent Anthony Jewelers

Moody’s Jewelry

J. David Jewelry

Spexton Fine Jewelry and Diamonds

FLOORING — FLOOR COVERING

Mill Creek Carpet and Tile

Grigsby’s Carpet, Tile and Hardwood

Renaissance Hardwood Floors

FLOWER SHOP

Toni’s Flowers and Gifts

Gas Petal Flower Station

Mary Murray’s Flowers

Paloma’s Plants

Messages Floral Design Studio

FURNITURE CONSIGNMENT/ESTATE SALES

Mustard Seed Consignment

Round the House Consignment

Estate Sales by Allen

Forty Year Vintage

Silvey Estate Sales

FURNITURE STORE

Amber Marie and Co.

Hawley Design

Mathis Home

Luxe Furniture and Design

North Carolina Furniture Mart

GARDEN CENTER

Southwood Landscape and Garden Center

Sanders Nursery

Riddle Plant Farm

Paloma’s Plants

Ted and Debbie’s Flower Garden

GIFT SHOP

Amber Marie and Co.

Ida Red

Tatermash Embroidery, Gifts and Oilcloth

DECOPOLIS

Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios

Whether your project is Commercial or Residential, Grigsby’s has you covered no matter what type of floor you’re looking for!

Whether your project is Commercial or Residential, Grigsby’s has you covered no matter what type of floor you’re looking for!

CONTINUED FROM P. 68

GROCERY STORE

Trader Joe’s

Reasor’s

ALDI

Stonehorse Market

Oasis Fresh Market

HOME INTERIORS

Amber Marie and Co.

Summer’s Market Floral and Home Decor

Luxe Furniture and Design

TA Lorton

Kirkendall Design

LIQUOR STORE

Ranch Acres Wine and Spirits

Parkhill’s Warehouse Liquors and Wine

Parkhill’s South Liquors and Wine

Bird’s Liquor and Wines

Aspen Liquor

NEW STORE/ LOCATION

Low Road Merch Co.

PET SHOP

Dog Dish

Southern Agriculture

Fetch

Fins For Grins

PetSmart

SHOE STORE

Amber Marie and Co.

Fleet Feet Tulsa

J. Cole Shoes

Fleming’s Comfort Footwear

MetroShoe Warehouse

SHOPPING CENTER/DISTRICT

Utica Square

The Rose District

Tulsa Hills Shopping Center

Cherry Street

Tulsa Arts District

SPORTS AND OUTDOORS STORE

Bass Pro Shops

TRY SOMETHING NEW EDITORS’ PICKS

SECOND SATURDAY COFFEE CUPPING WITH TOPECA

Coffee aficionados unite! Topeca, one of Tulsa’s longest-serving coffee roasters, hosts a monthly, hour-long education session called cupping. It’s an opportunity for those who just like coffee as well as those who nerd out on the subject to gather to taste and develop your palate. Topeca’s expert team begins with a short lecture, followed by brewing, tasting and discussion. Perhaps you’ll find your new favorite blend, as varieties change each month.

TOPECA AT VAST BANK, 110 N. ELGIN AVE. • TOPECACOFFEE.COM

Get out of your comfort zone and try a new creative outlet through one of the many WaterWorks Art Center classes. Whether it is a one-day session on making an origami mobile or an eightsession beginning pottery wheel class, this public arts center is there for your creative outlets.

1710 CHARLES PAGE BLVD. • WATERWORKSARTCENTER.COM

“It’s never too late to dance” is the motto adopted by Temple of Dance, a local dance studio for adults. Class levels vary from beginner to advanced in hip-hop, contemporary, jazz, tap, Latin and many others. All are welcome at this modern facility.

8224 E. 41ST ST. • TEMPLEOFDANCE.COM

Want to learn the trendiest sport in town? Beginner pickleball lessons are available at several places across town, including our favorites, LaFortune Tennis Center, Whiteside Recreation Center or Jenks Community Education. LAFORTUNETENNIS.COM, TULSAPARKS.ORG, JENKSPS.CE.ELEYO.COM

ARCHITECT/ DESIGN FIRM

Lilly Architects

GH2 Architects

Inventure

KKT Architects

Dewberry Architects

AUTO BODY SHOP

Hourglass Collision Repair

Bill Knight Collision Repair

Buddy’s Paint and Body

Jim Blankenship Quality Collision

The Collision Connection at Brookside

AUTO REPAIR

Robertson Tire

Hourglass Collision Repair

Same Day Auto Repair

Encinas Automotive

Creitz Automotive

COWORKING SPACE

36 Degrees North

The Root Coworking

Laurannae

SheWorksBA

WOMPA

CREDIT UNION

TTCU Federal Credit Union

WeStreet Credit Union

Oklahoma Central Credit Union

Tinker Federal Credit Union

Red Crown Credit Union

SERVICES

DRY CLEANING

Yale Cleaners

Phoenix Cleaners

Fox Cleaners

Brookside Cleaners and Laundry

WaterStone Dry Cleaning

ELECTRICAL SERVICES

Airco Service

Colburn Electric

Houchin Electric Co.

Viking Electric LLC

FireFly Electricians

FULL-SERVICE LAW FIRM

Conner and Winters

Winters and King

Greg Denney Law

Hall Estill

HARDWOOD FLOOR SERVICE

Renaissance Hardwood Floors

Superior Wood Floors and Tile

Floor Coverings International

Brucke Flooring

Roper Hardwood Floors

HOME BUILDER

Simmons Homes

Cobblestone Homes

Renovations By Helms

Thomason Design

Brian D. Wiggs Homes

HOME HEALTH CARE

LIFE Senior Services

Saint Francis Home Health

Joy Healthcare Services

Enhanced Wound Care

HOME HEAT AND AIR

Air Assurance

Airco Service

Hendrick Heat and Air

Riverside Heat Air

Mark Hill Heating and Air

HOME IMPROVEMENT SERVICES

Burnett Home Improvement

Drywall Repair Specialists

Renaissance Hardwood Floors

Reset Restoration Services

Fixed Construction and Remodeling

HOME PEST CONTROL

Mother Nature’s Pest and Lawn

Arrow Exterminators

Pest Medic

Superior Termite and Pest Control

Guardian Angel Exterminating

HOME REMODELER

Renovations By Helms

Boomtown Construction and Roofing

Thomason Design

Burnett Home Improvement

Renaissance Hardwood Floors

HOSPICE

Clarehouse

Grace Hospice

Porta Caeli House

Saint Francis Hospice

Miller Hospice

INTERIOR DESIGN

Inventure

Dewberry Architects

Huntington Interior Design

Kirkendall Design

L. Gray Interiors

KITCHEN DESIGN

Renovations By Helms

Mel Bean Interiors

Kitchen Concepts

Kirkendall Design

The Galley

LAWN AND GARDEN CARE

Mother Nature’s Pest and Lawn

Premium Lawns

Roark Landscape

Lawns of Tulsa

Ryan Lawn and Tree

LOCAL

BANK

Bank of Oklahoma

First Oklahoma Bank

Vast Bank

Arvest Bank

Mabrey Bank

PET BOARDING/ SITTING

Pooches

Woodland West Pet Resort

Noah’s Bed and Biscuit

The Woof Pack Tulsa

Camp Bow Wow

PET GROOMING

Professional Pet Grooming by Emily

Muddy Paws

Pooches

Noah’s Bed and Biscuit

Toe Beans Cat Grooming

PLUMBING

Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Water Cleanup

Airco Service

Mullin Plumbing

JMH Plumbing Services

Williams Plumbing and Drain

POOLS

Alchemy Exteriors

Vista Pools and Outdoor Living

Fiesta Pools and Spas

Crystal Pools

Beyond the Backdoor

Dolphin Pools and Spas

PROFESSIONAL HOME CLEANING

Level Up Cleaning

A New View Homekeeping

Blue Jay Cleaning Services

DomesticAide of Tulsa

PROFESSIONAL TREE CARE

We B Trees

Rickert Landscaping and Tree Service

Ryan Lawn and Tree

Atkins Tree Care

SavATree

RETIREMENT COMMUNITY

Saint Simeon’s Senior Community

Montereau

Zarrow Pointe

Covenant Living at Inverness

Trinity Woods

ROOFING

Duralast Roofing Specialists

Boomtown Construction and Roofing

Native Roofing and Construction

ROKE Roofing and Construction

RainTech Roofing, Sheet Metal and Gutters

VETERINARY CARE

Woodland West Animal Hospital

Hammond Animal Hospital

VCA Woodland East Animal Hospital

Ranch Acres Veterinary Hospital

Good Shepherd Veterinary Hospital

al·che·my ‘alkəmē/ "a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination."

“At Alchemy Exteriors, we believe in a creative process that is engaging, intriguing, and design-forward. At Alchemy, we are more than a landscape or pool company, and we want to give you more than just a design.

Specializing in the design and construction of Luxury Pools and outdoor living, Alchemy Exteriors focuses on projects where a client desires a creative design solution and a quality-built product. We look forward to the journey together.

Thank you, Tulsa, for recognizing Alchemy Exteriors in Pools!

- Alex Tyler, Principal Designer/Owner

HEART SCAN WITH SAINT FRANCIS

The Saint Francis Heart and Vascular Institute offers two quick screening options for better heart health. There is the CT calcium screening for $99 that helps calculate your risk of a heart attack. There is also a set of three cardiovascular screenings for $99 that can help identify potential risks for heart disease and other vascular conditions.

Know you need to be doing more to plan for the future but at a loss of where to start? Arvest and its team of banking professionals offer retirement, education, investment, insurance and estate planning services to help meet retirement goals. After all, who wants to work forever?

ARVEST.COM/PERSONAL/ INVEST

If you own property, have savings and/or have a family, it’s good to have an estate plan in place. The professionals at Little Legal PLLC are experts when it comes to helping Tulsans get their lives in order.

2604 W. KENOSHA ST., SUITE 202, BROKEN ARROW • LITTLETONLEGAL.COM

Advocacy for the Next Level

For over 90 years, Conner & Winters has served the Tulsa community and beyond as a premier, full-service business and litigation law firm . By consistently providing exceptional legal counsel to our clients throughout the region, the firm has built and sustained a distinguished reputation defined by integrity, quality, and professionalism. With top legal talent across six offices, Conner & Winters delivers legal services that are a step above the rest.

We are excited and honored to be your top choice for Full-Service Law Firms for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW!

COMING

NEW GILCREASE MUSEUM OPENS IN 2026

Just five minutes from downtown construction is more than 70% completed on a new Gilcrease Museum that will reside on 460 acres when it opens in 2026. Once finished it will house the museum’s $2 billion art collection and provide museumgoers with a 21st century experience. GILCREASE.ORG

The first Scheels in Oklahoma will open Oct. 19 at Woodland Hills Mall. The 240,000-square-foot retail space will have products ranging from hunting gear to home decor. Tulsa Scheels will have a 45-foot Ferris wheel, a 16,000gallon saltwater aquarium, a candy shop, arcade games, sports simulators and more.

6929 S. MEMORIAL DRIVE • SCHEELS.COM/TULSA

Get shopping! When Simon Malls Tulsa Premium Outlets opens this summer, it will feature up to 80 retail stores, restaurants, a playground and more. Among the retailers are Columbia, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch and Vera Bradley.

801 E. OUTLET DRIVE • JENKS, SIMON.COM

Last fall, Tulsa River Parks Authority opened a 1-mile family friendly pedestrianonly trail at Turkey Mountain that is more accessible for people with mobility issues. In 2025 the Turkey Mountain Master Plan will be complete with up to 30 miles of new trails.

RIVERPARKS.ORG

When you bank locally, you help support Tulsa organizations, entrepreneurs, and individuals. We take pride in our commitment to

Quality

Auto Parts & Service Since 1955…

…Our company was founded by Bob Creitz, an engine builder and tuner who fielded some of the most successful Top Fuel dragsters in the 1960s and 1970s. Bob was a legendary innovator in the field which earned him the nickname “Engine Wizard”. For many years, he also worked in the mechanics’ pits of big name race tracks located around the US.

Today, Creitz Automotive is owned and operated by Steve Moore. The business is built on providing quality service and parts…and committed to getting the job done right for customers.

Thank you for every opportunity to provide our award-winning service!

40+ years a trusted nancial institution in Tulsa.

As we mark our 35th anniversary, we have gratitude for your support and excitement for the years ahead!

Best Local Bank

Vista Pools proudly serves the greater Tulsa area as a builder of inground gunite and fiberglass pools. By taking an educational approach without sales pressure, Vista Pools makes a place for relaxation and memories. If something isn’t just perfect, the Vista team will make it right — guaranteed.

THERE WHEN LIFE HAPPENS

Tulsa

Area United Way marks a century of stepping up and stepping in, allowing for individuals to thrive on the other side of tragedy.

STORIES BY JULIE WENGER WATSON

The nonpro t Tulsa Area United Way turns 100 this year. For over a century, the organization has grown to support more than 160 programs in six counties in northeast Oklahoma through partnerships with other nonpro ts, collaborations and grants, with a goal of advancing the health, education and nancial stability of every person in every community it serves.

“I like the phrase, ‘community stewardship,’” says Hannibal Johnson , co-chair of TAUW’s centennial History and Education Committee. “We have this community called Tulsa that’s been entrusted to our care. We nurture that community by being strategic about making sure that the least among us are supported and cared for through necessary services.”

TAUW raises more than $25 million each year to accomplish this, with the money supporting nonpro ts like Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma (youth development and mentoring), Creek County Literacy (academic achievement), Goodwill Industries (workforce development), Morton Comprehensive Health Services (physical health and transportation) and Palmer Addiction Recovery Services, among many others.

Emeka Nnaka is a tri-chair of the 2024 TAUW annual fundraising drive, which begins this fall. With fellow chairs Stephania Grober (president, Oklahoma Plan and Western Markets for Blue Cross and Blue Shield) and Pierce Norton (president and CEO of ONEOK), Nnaka is tasked with helping to raise the millions of dollars that will, quite literally, change lives. For Nnaka, a keynote speaker, therapist and community advocate for hope, the mission hits close to home.

In 2009, Nnaka’s life instantly changed when a football injury left him paralyzed from the chest down. He credits e Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges — one of TAUW’s 70 partner agencies — as well as TAUW itself for helping him nd a path forward after the accident.

“ e Center was my gateway to the United Way,” Nnaka says.

When Nnaka rst came to e Center in 2010, not only did he nd a fully equipped adaptive gym, he also found community.

DRILLER: TIM LANDES; NNAKA,FRALICK: MICHELLE POLLARD

Tulsa Area United Way celebrated its 100th anniversary with a week of events, including an April 1 celebration at Expo Square that included fi tting the Golden Driller with his own anniversary shirt.

“What helped me get the most comfortable was hearing other people’s stories,” he says. “I often tell people that it was the equipment that got me to e Center, but it was the relationships that kept me there.”

Although Nnaka wasn’t aware of the relationship between TAUW and e Center at rst, he eventually became a United Way Ambassador, learning all about TAUW’s partner agencies and the crucial nancial support TAUW provides, in addition to representing TAUW in the public space.

“It was a match made in United Way heaven for both parties,” says Nnaka, who frequently spoke in public on behalf of the agency during his time as an ambassador. “ at was super meaningful to me. Here I was talking about one partner agency, e Center, and we’ve got 60 to 70 other agencies that serve people from the beginning of life to the end of life, and everything in

between. ey’re agencies that are there for when life happens. e Center was a place that was there for me when life happened. Breaking my neck on the football eld was not a part of my life plan, and I’m thankful there are agencies that exist for when the unthinkable happens, and that was what e Center was for me.”

Nnaka calls the agencies, “beacons of hope.”

“ ey’re all these di erent agencies that hold their hands to keep our community that we love together,” he says.

Wendi Fralick , e Center’s executive director, agrees.

“I think it’s really important for folks to know Tulsa Area United Way has such a signi cant impact on nonpro ts that are serving people who can’t be served elsewhere, in any other way, than the way we serve them,” she says. “ eir commitment to the nonpro t community is a commitment to the community at large. It’s

important people realize that connection.”

For his part, Nnaka is eager to begin fundraising.

“It’s like a legacy for me. I’ve been a part of this Tulsa community for so long, and I’ve done a lot in it, but this community has done a lot for me. Chairing the campaign this year is going to be a chance for me to bridge a lot of di erent spaces that I’m in together,” he says. “When I got the text about being an ambassador for the United Way 10 years ago, I was putting the pieces of my life back together. It’s crazy to think 10 years later, I’m now the tri-chair of the centennial campaign. I live in my own house. I’ve got my career. I’ve got my degree. e full circle aspect of it to me was just too sweet to not be a part of.” tp

For more information visit tulsacenter.org, tauw.org and emekannaka.com.

Emeka Nnaka in The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges’ gym along with The Center Executive Director Wendi Fralick. Nnaka first used the facility’s fully adaptive gym in 2010, and he says it was the people he met there that kept him coming back.

Sideline SUPPORT

As Tulsa Area United Way celebrates 100 years of service, it’s impossible to calculate the number of individual lives impacted by the organization and its community partners. While statistics are important for any organization, they can never tell the full story. TAUW’s centennial theme is “One Hundred Starts with One,” and a good way to understand the organization’s mission is to focus on one person, one life. Twenty-year-old Maddy Edwards ’ life is a story of resilience and grace that beautifully illustrates the way TAUW and its 70 partner agencies — in this particular case The Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges — change lives.

Born and raised in Tulsa, Edwards was just 5 months old when she contracted bacterial meningitis, a potentially life-threatening infection of the “meninges,” the protective covering for the brain and spinal cord. She was given less than a 20% chance of surviving the night. As a result of the meningitis, Edwards underwent multiple surgeries, including the amputation of her left leg and left thumb. Ten years later Edwards broke her right ankle playing soccer. Because of previous damage from meningitis, her ankle was unable to heal properly, leading to the amputation of her right leg.

Edwards is a junior at the University of Texas-Arlington where she is studying special education with hopes to get a master’s in psychology. She plays on the Lady Movin’ Mavs, UTA’s women’s wheelchair basketball team. Last October, Edwards competed on the U.S.A. Women’s Under 25 Team, traveling to Thailand where the team won gold at the Under 25 World Championships. According to Edwards, that experience would never have happened without the support she received from The Center as a young athlete.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST DECIDE YOU WANTED TO PLAY BASKETBALL AND WHY? When I was around 12 years old in 2015, my mom found The Center and wanted me to attend a practice to see if I liked it. I immediately fell in love with the sport. I loved the camaraderie of the team and the physical aspect of the game. I wanted nothing more than to get better and be able to play. I attended two basketball camps, both a co-ed and a women’s, at the University of Texas at Arlington that summer and fell in love with basketball even more. Seeing all the women at camp who played hard, and worked even harder, to get better was incredibly inspiring to see as a 12- or 13- year-old who was new to the game.

WHAT WAS THE CENTER’S ROLE IN YOUR DECISION TO PLAY WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL AND YOUR ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT? The Center provided a safe place for me to learn and grow both as an individual and in basketball. My coach, Ray Bradford , helped me in ways that nobody else could. He was always so supportive in all my endeavors and never gave up on me, even when I had spurts of time with no progress. Seeing the way the team and The Center supported each other was amazing and I wanted to be a part of it.

HOW DID YOUR EXPERIENCE AT THE CENTER HELP YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR COLLEGE CAREER ON AND OFF THE COURT? Without The Center, I never would have been introduced to wheelchair basketball. I would never have had the opportunities I have had if it wasn’t for the everlasting support from The Center. Playing with the Tulsa team at The Center allowed me to grow as a basketball player and exceed my expectations as to what I could do.

WHAT ARE YOUR POST-GRADUATION PLANS? WILL BASKETBALL CONTINUE TO BE A PART OF YOUR LIFE? After graduation I want to be an elementary special education teacher. With my master’s, I want to be able to provide testing in schools for students who need IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and 504s, which allows schools to provide support for students with a disability so they can learn in a general education classroom. I plan to continue playing basketball after graduation. There are adult teams all over the United States, and I plan to be a part of one wherever I may end up living after graduation.

HOW IS THE CENTER IMPORTANT TO YOU AND TO THE TULSA COMMUNITY? I think The Center is an incredible place for resources for the community. The Center has such a safe feeling to it. For me, The Center provided a place to make new friends, learn the importance of teamwork and grow as a person. tp

Tulsan Maddy Edwards competed on the international stage with the U.S.A. Women’s Under 25 team in the fall of 2023. She attends the University of Texas-Arlington and plays on the Lady Movin’ Mavs women’s wheelchair basketball team.

MAnswering the call of fatherhood enhances your child’s life more than you may even realize.

en, it’s important for you to know the value and merit you provide as father, whether you are a father to biological children or serve as a father figure to those who are not your biological children. Whether you live in or out of the home, the health, well-being, and harmony that takes place in a family when a father is emotionally present is truly unmatched.

At Birthright Living Legacy, we believe that mothers bring and teach values but fathers, you give value. Moms provide morals, ethics, and manners, among a host of other things, but dads, you provide a child with their worth, merit, and importance. If a child grows up without receiving the value that you provide, it has been shown that they are statistically at a higher risk for promiscuity, pornography addictions, mental and/or physical abuse, or addiction to drugs/alcohol.

So, fathers, no matter how you feel about your role as a dad, no matter how bleak or present your relationship may be with your child or their mother right now, understand that it is crucial for you to show up emotionally. It is crucial for you to be present and have a positive influence in their life. Your presence matters.

It’s not enough to coach the little league team and think you’re going to be a #1 Dad. It takes more than just showing

up when it’s convenient or required. Spending intentional one-on-one time where you’re invested and engaged in the moment is what your child needs, craves, and values from you. Your influence makes a difference in their emotional regulation, behavior, and overall development. The big and small moments of caring, loving, encouraging your child is what it means to answer the call of fatherhood.

Whether you have not been as present as you would like; or you are deep in diaper changes and bottle feedings, driving kids to and from school, preparing them to leave for college, or watching your child become a dad themselves; your role in your child’s life, throughout their life, is necessary, needed and valued.

Both moms and dads are intrinsically important in the shaping of a child, and fathers, you bring a unique merit to that shaping. If you are not as involved as you would like in your child’s life, push to become more emotionally involved and present. And if you are engaged in your child’s life, continue to show up, do the work, and answer the call of fatherhood. You are adding value to your child and in doing so, you too are being enriched.

Happy Father’s Day.

Marquess Dennis

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GREEN & GORGEOUS

Maiden Hair Fern and Purple Heart Tradescantia grow in Tulsa Garden Center’s Conservatory, which has been on the grounds since 1924 when the estate’s second owners, the Hulls, installed the Lord and Burnham Co. steel-framed greenhouse — one of only two remaining in the state.

Perfect pairing

Stemcell Science Shop relocates to Discovery Lab.

BY KIM BROWN

What started in 2016 as a way for Terry Mudge to share his love for science stores, Stemcell Science Shop outgrew itself multiple times before nally nding a natural t at its new home at Discovery Lab.

“I’ve always loved science museums and wanted to create a science store,” Mudge says. “My approach was that I’d always been disappointed in what was out there. Our specialty is that we o er real science stu instead of disposable, single-use science kits made of plastic.”

After the store outgrew its previous locations — rst at Boxyard in Tulsa’s Blue Dome District, then in Kendall Whittier — Mudge approached Discovery Lab about a collaboration to improve the museum’s retail space.

“ e Discovery Lab does exhibits like nobody’s business, but they didn’t really know retail. We saw the potential of building on each other’s strengths,” Mudge says.

Already a fan of the store at previous locations, Discovery Lab’s Executive Director Ray Vandiver knew Stemcell would be the perfect t. “Our visitors have the chance to extend their learning beyond the walls of the museum,” Vandiver says of the new addition.

Mudge immediately renovated the space, located o the museum’s main lobby, to “brighten it up to make it inviting and energetic” for museum patrons and locals looking for unique gifts and items, including Stemcell’s popular subscription boxes. And a portion of every purchase supports Discovery Lab.

“We get a lot of regulars who enjoyed the storefront from previous locations,” Mudge says. “We joke to them, ‘Come for the gift shop, stay for the museum.’ at’s the unique thing about our situation compared to other science museums.” tp

SHOP FAVORITES

Terry Mudge

Stemcell’s monthly subscription box, $49 per month.

Range of motion

Trainers at Life Time Fitness use Dynamic Stretch to help clients move better.

BY GEORGIA BROOKS

Dynamic Stretch is a new one-onone assisted stretching program at Life Time Fitness, a national gym with a Tulsa location at 10642 S. Memorial Drive. Stretching sessions are individualized and stretch specialists can take several directions depending on each client’s unique body and goals.

e program started in late 2023 under its current title, but it’s basically a formalization of what trainers were organically doing with their clients, says Luke Vujnovic, personal training leader at Life Time Tulsa.

“Our trainers have always incorporated assisted stretching for their clients as needed, but now it’s more visible under the Dynamic Stretch title with a speci c certi cation that’s unique to Life Time,” he says. “Most of our personal trainers are certi ed in Dynamic Stretch.”

For those who struggle with tight muscles and limited ranges of motion, stretching can be a useful tool for having a more comfortable, safe workout, or increasing exibility and mobility for everyday activities.

“Fitness is not just about lifting heavier and heavier, getting bulked up ... it’s about moving correctly, increasing your longevity and being able to exercise into old age,” says Jonathan Bolding, lead stretch specialist at Life Time Tulsa who specializes in joint mobility. “ is means working on ranges of motion. Dynamic Stretch is a great starting point for that.”

Dynamic Stretch is available only to Life Time members. You can incorporate assisted stretch programming with your personal trainer or sign up for a stretch session after or before one of your own workouts. Dynamic Stretch sessions are typically scheduled in half-hour blocks.

Another trainer, Lucas Ingham, does Dynamic Stretch with his clients, but also teaches them how to access deep stretches on their own using resistance bands. “I take pride in creating some independence for people,” he says. “I teach ways we can put leverage on joints at certain angles with resistance bands. is helps get a deeper stretch and incorporates stability to the position. is gains the ability to appropriately strength train the respective systems.”

Who can bene t from Dynamic Stretch? Everyone from young to old, from athletes to desk workers, Vujnovic says. “Young athletes bene t because stretching and mobility work helps prevent injuries ... or can help address a past injury. Desk workers tend to have tight hip exors from sitting and sort of hunching forward all day, so assisted stretching can be great relief from that as well.” tp

Lead Stretch Specialist Jonathan Bolding, Personal Training Leader Luke Vujnovic and Trainer Lucas Ingham

Lead Stretch Specialist Jonathan Bolding works with clients on stretching and joint mobility. Bolding is not only certified in Dynamic Stretch but has over 20 years of experience helping clients with mobility and injury recovery. He is also a certified Functional Range and Conditioning Master Specialist.

Through the looking glass

When George and Lina Jane Hull installed a steel-framed conservatory by the Lord and Burnham Co. in 1924, the Victorian-style structure was for Lina’s ower collection. It was there she tended to her selections — including lilies, her favorite — that provided owers for the home during the winter months.

e Conservatory was but one of the many gardens that lled the 10-acre estate, which today we know as part of Tulsa Garden Center and Woodward Park.

It was at the Hulls’ home and conservatory that famed aviator Amelia Earhart visited on June 29, 1928, upon the invitation of Lina, who was the president of the Tulsa Aviation Association at the time.

Over the course of the century, the structure came to need help. In the past two years, crews removed wood rot, restored porticos and eur-de-lis nials, repaired steps to the sunken garden in front of the entrance, and restored the interior and exterior fountains. Finally Tulsa Parks Department installed a new shade cloth. is project was privately funded by the Hardesty Family Foundation, Marcy and Bernard Robinowitz , Let’s Talk Gardening and Tulsa Garden Center public plant sales just in time for an anniversary celebration this month.

STORY BY ANNE BROCKMAN

PHOTOS BY MICHELLE POLLARD

e Conservatory, located at 2435 S. Peoria Ave., is open to the public this summer 7:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Monday-Friday; and 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Saturday-Sunday.

It is home to a varied collection of houseplants, cacti, orchids and other specimens that visitors can experience.

Three rooms make up Tulsa Garden Center's Conservatory one for orchids, one for cacti and succulents, and one with a centerpiece fountain.

Molokini Portulaca Bottle Euphorbia Flower

Mammillaria Cactus

Construction of the Conservatory

The cactus wing of the Conservatory features barrel cactus in the center. Director of Horticulture Andy Fusco says some of the larger specimens have likely been on-site 40-50 years.

Bird’s Nest Anthurium

Propeller Plant

A potted Madagascar Palm sits in front of a fountain depicting Narcissus of Greek mythology.

A fountain in the sunken garden sits at the entrance of the Conservatory.

Asparagus Fern

Left, Snap Dragon flower; Right, avid gardener Lina Hull had the Conservatory constructed on her family’s property in 1924.

Oyster Plant

BEYOND CITY LIMITS

Summer in OK-See

DBY RHYS MARTIN

epending on how often you take the trip from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, you may write o the state’s capital city as “been there, done that.” But like Tulsa, its vibrant arts and entertainment community is constantly evolving and providing new experiences for visitors.

From June 22-Sept. 29, the OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART is exhibiting the work of Edith Head , the world-famous Hollywood costume designer. For decades, she created the visual spectacle that enrobed the biggest names from the silver screen’s golden era. is exhibition will command an entire oor of the museum with 70 costumes on display, along with Head’s sketches and screening areas depicting both her life and work.

e NATIONAL COWBOY AND WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM (lovingly known as simply “ e Cowboy”) has been a long-time staple of the city’s cultural o erings, but that doesn’t mean a visit today is the same as a visit a few years ago. e expansive collection is still growing with the newest addition of the Professional Bull Riders Hall of Fame. Be sure to check out the Sam Noble Special Event Center in the east wing if there isn’t an event scheduled — the massive triptychs on display are breathtaking.

e OKLAHOMA HISTORY CENTER is a multi-story facility dedicated to telling the story of Oklahoma and its people. ere are some surprising exhibits here, too, that make it worth a signi cant amount of time to explore. ere’s a section dedicated to Oklahomans that took part in the U.S. Space Program, including Stuart Roosa of Claremore. Another gallery features a replica lunch counter from the Katz Drugstore, where Clara Luper and others protested segregation with sit-in demonstrations. ere are exhibits that speak to the nearly 40 tribal nations within Oklahoma and exhibits that chart the state’s energy industry. It’s also pretty cool to see pilot Wiley Post ’s rst-of-its-kind pressure suit up close! And since you’ll be so close to the Capitol, head over there to check out its small museum that tells the story of the Capitol Dome and its restoration. It’s worth the detour.

For something a little di erent, head to Bricktown and check out the AMERICAN BANJO MUSEUM . is building houses the largest collection of banjos on display in the world and charts the instrument’s history from its development by African slaves to its modern use in folk music. Particularly stunning are the banjos created during the 1920s — the meticulous Jazz Age craftsmanship is remarkable. ere are jam sessions scheduled throughout the year with a big celebration Oct. 10-12 called Banjo Fest that also includes an induction of Kristin Scott Benson, Ken Aoki, Ralph Stanley (posthumous), Ned Luberecki and Bill Evans into its Hall of Fame. tp

Edith Head

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

American Banjo Museum

Oklahoma History Center

You are cordially invited …

BY CONNIE CRONLEY

There was no public library in my small town when I was growing up. I didn’t know such a thing existed. We were trailing slightly behind the national library movement.

Before statehood, local women’s clubs founded reading rooms in Twin Territory towns and collected books and magazines for them. In Nowata, my hometown, a garden club established in 1903 did just that. e club named itself La-Kee-Kon, which means “good reading” in Lenape, the Delaware language. According to the club’s history, the reading room “was especially for farm wives who came to town to shop and had no place to rest.”

By 1916, grants from Andrew Carnegie, steel magnate-turned philanthropist, had funded 24 public libraries in Oklahoma

communities, but not where I would one day live. Years later, the garden club went on to sponsor a library for the public school. My elementary school library was one wall in one classroom. What pride when I could select books from the second shelf, an advanced reading level. I chose biographies of Lou Gehrig and Sacajawea . When I went to college in Co eyville, Kansas, I lived across the street from the public library, a big, solemn Carnegie library built in 1912. I ventured inside only a couple of times and I was too intimidated to ask a librarian how to use it. at shyness cost me years of library experience. Librarians are eager to help. Questions don’t annoy them; questions invigorate them. I’d never make it as a librarian. People asking me questions all day?

I grew to love libraries so much I dedicated one of my books to the librarians of Oklahoma. I once did a book-signing tour to public libraries in central Oklahoma and believed the setting enhanced the experience for all of us. When we talked about what we were reading, we talked about our deepest interests, hopes and fears. e libraries sheltered us.

In Paris I visited the American Library, in its quiet way an experience as moving as Notre Dame, the Louvre or the Musée Rodin. I have written elsewhere about this library’s heroic history and its importance to expats during the 1920s and to Jewish library patrons during the German occupation. e rst book I saw when I walked through the door was a copy of N. Scott Momaday ’s “House Made of Dawn.” Incredible. A book by a Native author, by an Oklahoma writer, prominently displayed in France. at’s the wide reach of books.

Canadian author Louise Penny said, “Few things are better in the world than a room full of librarians. I consider them literary heroes. e keepers and defenders of the written word.”

Interviews with writers often include the question: Whom would you invite to a literary dinner party? I’m making my own literary dinner party invitation list. is is a pleasant thing to do while drifting o on a nap. I’ve decided to have several literary parties.

Some of my best-loved authors, I fear, would be disappointing to meet. I wouldn’t invite James urber, my favorite humor writer, because he would likely be irascible or drunk. I’d love to meet cranky Emily Brontë, and maybe she would come if it were only for tea in the kitchen with her sisters Charlotte and Anne. Would Emily Dickinson join me if just the two of us sat in the garden?

For gossip about lm and lovers, what fun to sit beside Gloria Vanderbilt and David Niven. For tales of adventure, I’d urge Mark Twain and Beryl Markham to tell stories of the Mississippi River and colonial East Africa.

How many of the Algonquin Round Table could I gather? Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woollcott and Robert Benchley? For drinks, Ring Lardner and Damon Runyon to talk in American slang about baseball and Broadway.

My list goes on and on, and I could ask questions of these writers all day and all night, unless I reverted to being a shy girl in a big library. tp

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Table Talk

DINING FOOD DRINKS

GLOBAL GOODIES

One of the most popular dishes on the menu at Inkanto Peruvian Cuisine is Lomo Saltado, a traditional dish of sauteed beef tenderloin strips, onions, bell peppers and tomatoes served with crispy fries and rice. A flavorful, robust sauce marries everything together for a filling and satisfying lunch or dinner.

Inkanto, owned by Jonathan Perez , opened its first permanent location in December at 2118 E. Third St. A graduate of Cocina 66,

an incubator program for Spanish-speaking food entrepreneurs, Perez creates traditional recipes he learned from his grandmother that take diners on a gastronomic journey. There are five ceviches to choose from, as well as rice and protein dishes, pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken), steak and more. Desserts round out the menu.

Inkanto’s location is inside a bustling food hall with neighboring purveyors serving Venezuelan arepas, Mexican cuisine and drinks, as well as baked goods. — ANNE BROCKMAN

Inkanto’s Lomo Saltado

OUT

Open door

Longtime Tulsa restaurant family revives Louisiane favorites with modern Cajun-Southern recipes.

BY NATALIE MIKLES

Diners dreaming of blackened redsh a la the long-gone Louisiane restaurant no longer have to fret, as many of the specialties at the new Red Door Grille give more than just a nostalgic nod to the former establishment. ere’s a few reasons for this. First, Red Door Grille is owned by Patrick McMurchy, longtime owner of e Bros. Houligan, son Conor McMurchy and Corwin Moore. None are strangers to the industry. And second, many of the Cajunstyle dishes served come from the muchloved Louisiane restaurant. e Louisiane de ned old school Tulsa elegance, and from 1935-1993 was a place for special occasions and wonderful food.

It was in 1984 when Patrick moved to Tulsa to become the Louisiane’s general manager. He hung on to some of those great recipes, and they’re now on the menu at Red Door Grille.

But you don’t have to be familiar with the Louisiane to appreciate how good this food is. Take the blackened red sh, one of the best sellers at the Louisiane that’s now a favorite at Red Door Grille. e red sh has a great smoky, spiced avor and is covered in a rich seafood cream sauce. It’s served with Cajun rice and grilled asparagus.

Red Door Grille is a Cajun-Southern restaurant, but not everything on the menu is Cajun, making plenty of space for diners who might not love the genre.

A good example is the brisket, slow cooked and super avorful, served with au jus and horseradish sauce. Or the beef short ribs, tender and delicious, served with a red wine demi-glace. Both are accompanied with mashed red potatoes and green beans.

You’ll nd many “date night” or special entrees like these, but there’s also plenty of more casual or lighter dishes. e gumbo, another recipe tweaked from the original at the Louisiane, is one of the most popular dishes. Made with chicken and andouille

Cajun shrimp and grits

sausage, it’s a nice, classic gumbo that’s not too heavy.

Red Door Grille has a big menu. Po’ boys range from fried shrimp and fried cat sh to brisket. e Cajun remoulade on the po’ boys makes these sandwiches extra good. Other sandwiches include blackened chicken and hot ham and cheese. ere are also hamburgers, including the Delta Bleus Burger with sliced andouille sausage, blue cheese, pepperoncini, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion. And then a great menu of big, nice entrée salads includes a marinated chicken, chicken caesar, and the popular strawberry and herbed goat cheese. e salmon salad is one of the best, with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, fried capers, artichoke hearts and hard-boiled egg.

And what would a Cajun restaurant be without fried seafood baskets? e shrimp, cat sh and oysters are all deep-fried deliciousness.

e McMurchy restaurant expertise shows at Red Door Grille. Conor gives much credit to Chris Parks, head chef, who brought his style and some of his own recipes to the restaurant, as well as Moore, who had a hand in modernizing some of the recipes.

Two of Parks’ desserts have been especially popular. His blackberry bread pudding with rum sauce and whipped cream has been a top-seller. His bananas foster crème brulee is also a hit.

e team takes pride in the fact everything is made in-house. ey mash the potatoes, whip the cream, cut the steaks and make all the sauces.

Conor’s love for running the restaurant shows in his attention to every detail. He literally grew up in the restaurant business, spending a lot of his childhood at the old Bros. Houligan restaurant on 15th Street. ( e restaurant closed in 2023, but the location on South Yale remains open.)

Conor’s dad would stop at e Bros. Houligan most mornings to cut steaks before taking his son to school.

“I would sit at the bar watching cartoons, drinking orange juice and eating pancakes,” he says. “ ere would be some mornings when I was really tired, and I would go to sleep in one of the booths.”

Growing up in the restaurant was completely comfortable for Conor. It’s the same feeling he wants guests to feel when they walk into Red Door Grille. tp

11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Friday; noon-10 p.m., Saturday. 5964 S. Yale Ave. 918-551-7652 • reddoorgrille.com

RED DOOR GRILLE

Sweet bourbon salmon

Red Door Grille is located in KingsPointe Village and features a funky, cozy aesthetic.

Blackberry bread pudding

Pork chop with apricot chutney

WHAT’S COOKING?

Salsa trio

For many of us, chips and salsa season is year-round. But there’s something so right about making fresh salsa in the summer, when tomatoes, cilantro and peppers are in season.

e only thing that could be better than one delicious homemade salsa is three! ese salsas are great with chips. But we also like them drizzled over grilled ank steak, poured over enchiladas or used as a taco Tuesday accompaniment. With this trio, there’s something for every taste. If you like it hot, double the peppers. If you like it chunky, thin it out by straining some liquid. ink of these recipes as jumping o points to make them your own! — NATALIE MIKLES

MANGO SALSA

1 ripe medium mango, seed removed, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 jalapeno, seeded, nely chopped

Juice of 1 lime

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together all ingredients. Let stand 30 minutes before serving.

AVOCADO SALSA

3 avocados, chopped

3 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped

1 cup minced red onion

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1 garlic clove, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

Place chopped avocados, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and cilantro in a bowl. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, lime juice, garlic, and salt and pepper. Toss with avocado mixture. Serve immediately. You can store in the refrigerator for 24 hours, but this salsa won’t pack quite the same fresh bite and zing after that.

QUICK AND FRESH TOMATO SALSA

1/4 yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 pound roma tomatoes (about 6-8), cut into large chunks

1 jalapeno, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon cumin

Pinch of sugar

In a food processor, combine the onion and garlic. Pulse until well chopped. Add the tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, salt, cumin and sugar. Pulse several times until mixture is combined. Process until the salsa is the consistency you like. If you like a chunky salsa, you’ll want to strain some of the liquid. tp

Culinary storyteller

Over the course of her culinary career and travels, chef Shannon Smith has gathered around many tables — dining tables, butcher blocks, hay bales — to hone her craft and learn from others about the intricacies of food and life.

is month she releases “ e Hidden Table,” Smith’s rst cookbook that was six years in the making. It takes readers to 12 di erent countries in 12 chapters, with 10 recipes and accompanying photographs for each recipe. For example, the chapter on Greece is about her appreciation of salt. In that chapter, “all the recipes go back to the theme of salt,” says Smith, who has traveled to 53 countries. “ e chapter on India is about an Indian phrase that translates to ‘the guest is god,’” referencing hospitality.

Smith says her creation is as much a story book as it is a recipe book. “I mention 80 people who have in uenced me or taught me around the world,” she says.

Take the chapter on e Caribbean. “I talk a lot about my work with micro nance and going to developing nations where I work with women to teach them cooking and sewing skills,” says Smith, who was previously a professional seamstress.

Self-published, “ e Hidden Table” is for sale at chefshannon.com and will be in local bookstores soon. Magic City Books will host an event July 18 with Smith. Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. — ANNE BROCKMAN

Elite simplicity at lunch

Ayear ago when Country Bird Bakery opened, we told you about the down-the-block lines you’ll spy in the Pearl District on Saturday mornings.

Those lines for sourdough, croissants and butterscotch brownies remain, telling us Country Bird Bakery, 1644 E. Third St., is no flash in the pan. Because they’re still mostly open just one day a week, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays, there’s something covetous about snagging those precious loaves of bread.

One change at Country Bird Bakery is lunch is being served every other Thursday. Owner Cat Cox decided to open one extra day for those who couldn’t make it to Country Bird on Saturdays.

Lunch is seemingly simple, but like everything at Country Bird, it is elite simplicity. Apple and brie focaccia sandwiches, mortadella pocket sandwiches, egg salad, ham and cheese croissants, curry soup. It’s something a little different every other week but always good.

Country Bird Bakery’s sourdough is something special, fermented in a three-day process and naturally leavened. Cox locally sources the stone-milled wheat used for her bread-making.

And yes, it’s worth standing in line for. — NATALIE MIKLES

“The Hidden Table” is the first cookbook from chef Shannon Smith who worked with photographer Valerie Wei-Haas over the past four years to photograph all 120 recipes found in the publication.

A pocket sandwich — stuffed with mortadella, kale pesto, stracciatella cheese and pistachios — and a frittata focaccia sandwich are two recent menu choices on Country Bird Bakery’s lunch menu.

A LA CARTE

Sweet summertime

3 favorites for fun summer drinks.

BY NATALIE MIKLES

The over-the-top candy-coated shakes at MAD EATS scream “summertime!” This is the kind of shake you get when school’s out and you have weeks of pool time, lake days and sunshine ahead. You can’t beat the Goonies Never Say Die, a chocolate and peanut butter shake with peanut butter cups, an M&M coated rim, whipped cream and chocolate pretzel rod. Grownups may want to try a boozy shake. Our favorite is the Stay Gold with Irish cream, lime vodka, coconut rum and graham crackers. 201 S. Main St., Suite 130, Owasso • 918-401-4353 • madeatsok.com

Whether you like a creamy milk tea or a fresh fruit boba tea, you’ll find it at BO’S BOBA . The Tiger Milk Boba will satisfy your sweet tooth. The brown sugar flavor is especially good if you add Oreo crumbles and yogurt boba. For summertime, we love the strawberry tea with real strawberries and strawberry popping boba. 8027 S. Mingo Road • 918-254-9382 • bosboba.com

It’s hard to beat a root beer in an ice-cold frosty mug. WEBER’S has been making it the same way since 1933. Take a seat at the bar for prime people watching on Peoria. The root beer will be even better when matched with a cheeseburger and hand-cut fries. 3817 S. Peoria Ave. • 918-742-1082 • webersoftulsa.com tp

Hop the Griffin, a microbrewery that opened at 7143 S. Yale Ave. in 2021, will soon be expanding its brewing capacity thanks to new equipment and relocating production to a warehouse near 51st Street and Highway 169.

Steve Griffi n, who owns the business with father Mike Griffi n and brother Nick Griffi n, has planned to expand for years, but all the pieces finally fi t together. With the recent closing of High Gravity, a brewery supply store and taproom, Griffin took on some of their equipment, as well as their master brewer, Tim Schley

“High Gravity was my favorite place to go in Tulsa. It was where I learned to brew,” Griffin says. “Tim and I make a really good team because I know a lot about hops and grains, but he also knows the water chemistry and yeast side much better than I do.”

Griffin says he believes in putting people around you who are better and more knowledgeable in certain aspects than you are, adding it’s his personal belief to always be growing in all things in life.

Hop the Griffin’s expansion will allow them to brew small batches of many different styles of beers. They plan to distribute to bars and restaurants in the Tulsa area, making house beers for those that want one.

“I love the idea of small batch and will always brew small batch because of the versatility and all the different options and styles that we can create and brew,” he says.

The brewhouse is being assembled now and should begin production later this summer. — TOM GILBERT

Goonies Never Say Die milkshake at MAD Eats

Steve Griffin

From the future

STORY AND COMPOSITE IMAGE BY

PATRICK MCNICHOLAS

The International Petroleum Exposition was a trade fair started in 1923 that showcased the latest equipment and technology of the oil industry. e event was moved to the fairgrounds in 1930 for more exhibit space.

At the 1953 IPE, e National Supply Co. debuted a “permanent” building on the fairgrounds called the Rotorama. It was designed by world-famous industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, who enthusiastically visited the building upon its opening. Accessible by ramps and stairs, the glass encased and air-conditioned structure was utilized as an observation deck allowing

visitors a unique perspective of oil eld equipment in action. It had chairs and lounges and became a popular place to relax and people watch.

e 66-foot diameter circular structure was elevated 12 feet o the ground and when completed featured a 140-foot oil drilling mast in its center. It was considered the largest exhibit of that year’s exposition with bigger plans for the future.

At the 1959 IPE, e National Supply Co. added a 30-foot rotating globe to the top of the building. e globe represented the scope of the company’s operations across the world. At the center of the building was

a large fountain with cascading jets of water.

However, this exposition would be the Rotorama’s last. e building was purchased and saved by a local radio station in 1965. Many of the IPE’s 50 permanent buildings that were on the grounds were demolished to make way for the large expo center, today’s SageNet Center, nished in 1966.

Despite a few format changes, KELI radio continued to broadcast from this location until 1985. Within a few months after the station’s relocation, the Rotorama was demolished and removed from the fairground’s property. tp

“The Day Expo Square Stood Still” created by Mike Hardeman circa the 1970s. KELI radio station called the building on the fairgrounds midway home until 1985. Originally called the Rotorama, the building was constructed by The National Supply Co. for the 1953 International Petroleum Exposition.

CHEVRON COLLECTION