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VOL. 6 NO. 11
L I M I T S
FROM PORTLAND TO NYC—CROSSING THE COUNTRY THROUGH FIVE TULSA PATIOS P24
paradise never sounded So Good.
Tickets On Sale Now EARTH WIND & FIRE may 18 ROCKTOPIA may 23 SOUTHERN MOMMA may 25 CLEDUS T JUDD COMEDY EXPERIENCE
MISS OKLAHOMA June 4-8 PAGEANT Steve Miller Band June 15 Marty Stuart Classic Rock Meets Country
Live Music
Friday & Saturday Nights Starting at 9 pm in 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar and at 10 pm in Margaritaville! Visit margaritavilletulsa.com for a complete schedule.
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
CONTENTS // 3
CITY LIMITS
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // Vol. 6, No. 11 ©2019. All rights reserved.
P24
PUBLISHER Jim Langdon
BY TERRIE SHIPLEY
Crossing the country on five Tulsa patios
EDITOR Jezy J. Gray ASSISTANT EDITOR Blayklee Freed DIGITAL EDITOR John Langdon
GET THE GLITTER
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger
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CONTRIBUTORS Kyra Bruce, Becky Carman, Matt Carney, Courtney Cullison, Kristi Eaton, Barry Friedman, Destiny Jade Green, Andi Harman, Jeff Huston, Fraser Kastner, Kyle Kisling, Nicole McAfee, Mary Noble, Matthew Phipps, Mason Whitehorn Powell, Zack Reeves, Joseph Rushmore, Terrie Shipley, Valerie Wei-Haas, Jordan Williams
AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf
BY BLAYKLEE FREED
Your Tulsa Pride Guide
EVERYDAY IS BABYLON
The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by
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The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by
Travel photography by Matthew Phipps
Duet Restaurant + Jazz Club’s charcuterie spread | VALERIE WEI-HAAS
FOOD & DRINK
NEWS & COMMENTARY 7 UNFAIR SHARE B Y COURTNEY CULLISON Women still earn less than men, and it’s putting them at risk of living in poverty
8 FEAR AND LOAFING IN EUROPE B Y BARRY FRIEDMAN
The view from Paris and Reykjavík
10 CASHED OUT B Y NICOLE MCAFEE Oklahoma needs bail reform—and SB 252 can help
12 ‘ HIGH-TOUCH,’ OR OUT OF TOUCH? Y MASON WHITEHORN POWELL B
A critical analysis of TU’s ‘reimagining’
14 THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT B Y KRISTI EATON Youth focus marks new shift for John Hope Franklin National Symposium
16 IN THE WEEDS B Y FRASER KASTNER
Unpacking the baggage of cannabis
20 MAPPING MICHELADAS B Y MASON WHITEHORN POWELL
Discovering ‘hangover-cure land’
MUSIC 36 STRINGS ATTACHED B Y BECKY CARMAN Hanson tells its story with an orchestral assist
38 ‘LET’S GROOVE’ BY JORDAN WILLIAMS Laying it down with Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire
40 STREET LEVEL B Y MARY NOBLE Oklahoma’s largest hip-hop fest returns to Tulsa
41 RADIO FREE TULSA B Y BLAYKLEE FREED
Live from Cain’s launches May 29
ARTS & CULTURE 30 ‘THAT’S A GOOD PICTURE’ BY ZACK REEVES Gilcrease Pulitzer photo show is an emotional ride
31 MEET THE FELLOWS B Y TTV STAFF
In the studio with Shane Darwent
32 CONTACT SHEET B Y KYLE KISLING Symmetry
1603 S. Boulder Ave. Tulsa, OK 74119 P: 918.585.9924 F: 918.585.9926 PUBLISHER Jim Langdon PRESIDENT Juley Roffers VP COMMUNICATIONS Susie Miller CONTROLLER Mary McKisick DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Amanda Hall RECEPTION Gloria Brooks
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD Send all letters, complaints, compliments & haikus to: voices@langdonpublishing.com FOLLOW US @THETULSAVOICE ON:
TV & FILM 44 DESPICABLE ME B Y MATT CARNEY Uncanny Netflix sketch show explores the humor of humiliation
END CASH BAIL P10
45 THE BIG CHILLED B Y JEFF HUSTON Amy Poehler’s wine-soaked comedy doesn’t have legs
TULSA PRIDE GUIDE M AY 1 5 – J U N E 4 , 2 0 1 9
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ETC. 6 EDITOR’SLETTER 34 THEHAPS 42 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 46 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD 4 // CONTENTS
FROM PORTLAND TO NYC—CROSSING THE COUNTRY THROUGH FIVE TULSA PATIOS P24
ON THE COVER Patio dining and drinking at Duet Restaurant + Jazz Club PHOTO BY VALERIE WEI-HAAS May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
CONTENTS // 5
editor’sletter
S
unday was Mother’s Day. For those of us whose moms aren’t here, the holiday—like all of them, I guess—is painful. This year, I pedaled through the pain alongside my wife on a 35-mile bike ride to Skiatook and back. Despite riding to work when I can, and recreationally on weekends, I’m not a bike guy. By this I mean don’t wear special clothes or know anything at all about bikes. (I started riding after my mom died, which I’ll leave to my therapist to unpack.) I don’t go fast. I do not, under any circumstance, push myself to the point of purposeful exercise. I’m more, to borrow from Bill Callahan, “riding for the feeling.” This was a big ride for me— longer than I’ve ever gone by a lot. It gave me room to think, or not, as miles of Green Country
pasture slid out of view. I had room, for example, to consider my throbbing left knee, a new pain of these fast-moving 30s and a grim reminder of death’s unsubtle creep. We stopped at a Tex-Mex joint in Skiatook, which was better than it had any right to be. The servers handed out long-stem roses to moms slurping frozen margs and eating sour cream enchiladas. I had almost forgotten about the holiday until seeing these happy smalltown matriarchs decked out with flowers, the bedazzled crosses on their t-shirts catching the light of early afternoon. There, like a new pain, that dumb slash of grief. But it didn’t last long. We were soon back on our bikes, moving. We were on our way somewhere else.
You’ll find stories about travel in this issue, with destinations more exciting than Osage County. First, Matthew Phipps takes you to a street corner in Bogotá, where you can see incredible things if you stop and look (pg. 28); then Terrie Shipley takes you across the country, from SoCal to NYC, without stepping foot off a Tulsa patio (pg. 24). We’ve also got a European dispatch from our resident columnist Barry Friedman, with the lowdown on where to find the best free porn in Paris and the best country music in Reykjavík (pg. 8). We’ve got other stuff, too. Like an interview with the cutest Hanson brother (pg. 36); the case for ending cash bail in Oklahoma (pg. 12); funk history lessons with Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire (pg. 38); a look at the Gilcrease Museum’s tearjerker pho-
tography show (pg. 30); and your guide to Tulsa Pride 2019 (pg. 26). Lastly, with Mother’s Day still fresh in our minds, we’ve got ideas from OK Policy about creating a better world for mothers and women right here in Oklahoma. Let’s start by raising the minimum wage, providing affordable childcare, and closing the gender wage gap (pg. 7). That’s all for now. This issue is on stands an extra week, so read it slow. a
JEZY J. GRAY EDITOR
MAKING MODERN
AMERICA Progress, energy, and power ruled America’s modern age between World War I and World War II. Artists responded. Join Philbrook as we examine the relationship between industry and art from 1910–1960.
CLOSING SOON! SEE IT BEFORE IT’S GONE.
Lily Furedi (American, b. Hungary, 1896–1969). Subway, 1934. Oil on canvas, 44 5/8 × 53 7/8 × 1 7/8”. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.43.
6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
okpolicy
P
UNFAIR SHARE Women still earn less than men, and it’s putting them at risk of living in poverty by COURTNEY CULLISON for OKPOLICY.ORG
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
overty in Oklahoma is consistently above the national average, and women are even more likely to experience poverty than men. Throughout the country, this trend is present across all races and family types—women of color have higher poverty rates than men of color; single mothers are more likely to live in poverty than single fathers; and poverty is higher among single women without kids than it is among single men without kids. Why are women more likely to experience poverty? Because on average, they make less money. A typical woman working from age 17 to 70 will earn over half-amillion dollars less than a typical man. In a time when families depend more than ever on women’s wages, this is a troubling trend. We can identify three main causes. First, caregiving responsibilities often cost women wages. Affordable child care is becoming less available in Oklahoma. When families decide it makes more financial sense for one parent to leave work to care for children, it is much more likely that the stayat-home parent will be a woman. Oklahoma has made some strides in reducing wage disparities for caregivers with policies like paid family leave for state workers (adopted last year). But paid leave would be more helpful if it were available to all workers. We all get sick, and we all need time to care for our loved ones. Second, a low minimum wage is especially harmful to women. The current wage of $7.25 an hour has not been raised in almost 10 years, and the minimum wage has been losing value for decades. Given that seven in 10 minimum wage workers in Oklahoma are women, our low minimum wage is particularly problematic for women—even more so if they are supporting a family.
Unfortunately, despite a national trend toward a higher minimum wage, the Oklahoma Legislature has not recognized our low minimum wage as a real problem. Several bills have been introduced in recent sessions to raise our minimum wage and none have received consideration. In 2014, the Legislature made it impossible for local governments to address this problem by prohibiting them from raising their minimum wage. But sometimes when policymakers refuse to act, citizens can—several other states have raised their wages with a vote of the people. Third, some women earn less because their employers pay them less than they pay men doing the same job. Research shows that women and men are often treated unequally in hiring, performance evaluations, and promotion decisions. One reason pay discrimination persists is because it’s so difficult to discover. For the past five years, advocates for pay transparency have introduced legislation to clearly prohibit employers from retaliating against workers who share their wage information with others. Unfortunately, those efforts have, so far, been unsuccessful. This secrecy is exactly the culture that fosters wage discrimination. Ending pay secrecy is a crucial part of closing the gender wage gap. If equal pay were a reality in Oklahoma, the poverty rate for working women in the state would be reduced almost by half, and their earnings would increase by about $5.4 billion a year. When women are paid fairly, their families are more economically secure, and our economy is healthier. Closing the gender wage gap should be a priority for all of us. a
Courtney Cullison is a policy analyst with Oklahoma Policy Institute (okpolicy.org). NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7
Fear and loafing in Europe The view from Paris and Reykjavík by BARRY FRIEDMAN
W
e are at the CitizenM Hotel in Paris, near the Latin Quarter, and my girlfriend, Melissa, jetlagged, desperately needs a cup of coffee. There is no coffeemaker in the room. “Baby, look,” she says, suddenly, pointing at the TV and fumbling with the iPad, which acts as the room’s thermostat, light switches, and remote, “We get free porn here.” “Another reason to love the French,” I say, making my way to the bed to scroll through the x-rated genres. “We can always get coffee downstairs.” “True.” “Hey, would you believe four people on Facebook have already recommended we go to the Rodin Museum?” “Jesus!” “What’s your problem with Rodin?” “Why is it none of my friends tell us what to do in Paris?” “Maybe your friends don’t like French sculptors who drive their muses to insane asylums. How should I know? But don’t you think it’s a sign?” “No.” We’re here celebrating Melissa’s birthday, even though it was in December, figuring May would be a better time to come—and if not for the rain and wind and the fact that it feels like December, it would be. We’re here for five days, before heading to Iceland, where they most assuredly don’t have free hotel porn, for three. Melissa ultimately agreed to go to the Musée Rodin, but mostly because I pouted. The museum is in a large house with a garden where Melissa stood in the rain for about 12 seconds, the grandeur of 8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
IN MAY IN ICELAND, IT’S LIGHT FOR ABOUT 18 HOURS, SO THE DAY, NO MATTER HOW DISAPPOINTING, CAN ALWAYS BE SALVAGED. OUR LAST YEAR NEARLY WASN’T—BUT I DON’T HAVE PROSTATE CANCER, MELISSA AND I ARE STILL TOGETHER, AND SOMETIMES YOU DECIDE TO CELEBRATE IF ONLY (AND MOSTLY) BECAUSE YOU’RE STILL HERE.
The blue lagoon near Reykjavík, Iceland | S.R.LEE PHOTO TRAVELLER / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Le Penseur notwithstanding. Fortunately, at the museum, there were some works by Van Gogh, with whom she connects, and Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin’s aforementioned tortured muse, with whom she sympathizes. It continued raining on our walk to the Louvre. Melissa’s blisters were acting up, and I kept screaming “Rodin … Rodin!” as Isabelle Adjani did in the movie Camille Claudel, so I’m pretty sure there was a point at which Melissa wanted to push me in The Seine. There’s a guy illegally selling shoddy umbrellas for 15 EUR
(about $17), outside the Louvre’s glass and steel pyramid entrance, but we decided to stand in the rain and bitch about our shoes. Once inside, photos of the Mona Lisa—the museum knows it’s she who we art clods are coming to see—direct you to the Denon Wing where they put her. A good friend of mine says going to see the Mona Lisa is like “going to a press conference,” and he’s on to something. La Gioconda gets her own room and is placed behind bullet-proof glass because various douchebags throughout the centuries have
stolen her and thrown rocks, paint and terraced mugs at her. About 200 people, jockeying for position, all with cellphones raised, stood in front of me, so I took pictures of them taking pictures. Nobody knows why the arms of Alexandros of Antioch’s Venus de Milo are gone, or why there’s a small hole beneath her right breast (or if even Antioch created it), but to focus on those matters is to miss the grandeur and the point. “Your boy Rodin didn’t do this,” Melissa said. “Let it go, would ya?” We saw Winged Victory of Samothrace, as well as an inordinate number of statues of men with unimpressive genitalia. I took a picture of Melissa pointing at one of the penises because we’re Americans and won the war. On the first Saturday of every month, from 6 to 9 p.m., admission to the Louvre is free. You can’t do the Louvre in three hours on a Saturday night—or, for that matter, in a month of Saturdays— but if you’re going to the Louvre just to say you’ve been, it’s more than enough time. We arrived in Paris about a week after the fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, so much of it was sheathed in scaffolding, but it still looks better than any recenttorched 856-year-old Cathedral has a right to look. It survived the SS but not, apparently, electrified bells and cigarette butts. Just for the record, we didn’t leave the CitizenM because it doesn’t show porn during the day—what kind of people do you think we are?—but it doesn’t, in fact, show porn during the day, so it seemed like an opportune time to leave. We walked along Rue de la Bûcherie, where Melissa bought a photo from a street May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
vendor of Maud Stevens Wagner, a circus performer, contortionist, and America’s fi rst-known woman tattoo artist, who died in Lawton, Oklahoma. Wagner, in case you’re wondering, has nothing to do with Paris. We headed to Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore founded by an American (mon Dieu!), where you can sleep for free upstairs on cots if you promise to work in the shop for a few hours the next day—it’s called tumbleweeding. “Do I want Oz’s Judas or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest?” I asked someone who looked like he knows how to tumbleweed. “Judas is good, but Oz is bestknown for non-fiction. It’s why I like him. The Wallace, though,” and here he laughed a little. “For some, that’s the Bible. It drove me crazy at first, but I now get it.” I bought the Wallace. There’s a Five Guys hamburger place and a Disney Store on the Champs-Élysées, so it’s steeped in as much grandeur and kitsch as Times Square in New York City. Surrounding the Arc de Triomphe is the world’s most famous roundabout which consists of 12 circles of hell that radiate from the Arc so dangerous it is now a no-fault insurance zone. Melissa overpaid for a teal beret from a small boutique, and I had spaghetti and lox and a Caesar salad with an egg for dinner in an American-style bar that was showing a New York Mets-Cincinnati Reds game. And then there was the matter of the yellow jackets. We were in Paris on May 1, which meant we were there for European Labour Day—which meant we were there for the riots. The French riot as often as they strike, as often as they celebrate. There’s Whit Sunday, a national holiday, which is the day the Holy Spirit descended onto Jesus’ followers on the Pentecost, and Whit Monday, also a national holiday, which is … the day after that. We were thrown off the Metro returning from the Eiffel Tower because French authorities decided not to dump a bunch of tourists in the midst of a tear THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
gas fight between the police and masked Black Bloc anarchists. The wails of European ambulances and police vehicles— instead of one long siren, as we have in America, there is an alternating high-low pitch—always remind me of Germany in the 1930s. On the Metro platform to which we were deposited after the train went out of service, we met a girl who, looking at Melissa’s blouse and its feeble attempt to keep Melissa’s breasts from misbehaving, asked, “Where you from?” “America,” said Melissa. “Today, maybe better to button,” she said, perhaps thinking of the riots or, who knows, men in general. “Me, too,” she said, sadly, indicating her own breasts in her own buttoned-upto-her-neck shirt. Later, back at the room, I read where the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its concern for press freedoms after a Russian correspondent was reported to have been roughed-up a little. “We consider the use of violence against journalists in the exercise of their professional duties to be unacceptable,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Leave it to Vladimir Putin to give us our best laugh in Paris.
REYKJAVÍK There’s no strawberry yogurt on the buffet table on our fi rst morning here at the Skuggi Hotel. The breakfast manager—a thin, unshaven, wide-eyed Spaniard— said it was on account of the strike. “The yogurt people are on strike?” I asked. “They could not bring in the flavored yogurt, so, we just have the plain.” A nationwide strike that affects fruit yogurt imports—and America thinks it has problems? Two years ago Melissa and I were here and loved the place enough to come back, even though we hate sightseeing, don’t like the cold, and can only ooh and ahh at a geyser before we want to head back into town to get an Icelandic hotdog—which is made
with lamb, a sweet brown mustard called pylsusinnep and remoulade (mayo, capers, mustard and herbs). I drank castor oil here, too, for the first time in my life, on advice from former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor. (I still haven’t completely forgiven her.) Melissa and I went to the famous Blue Lagoon, a large geothermal seawater bath, which allowed us to sit in lukewarm water with large, hairy Europeans all lathered up in Silica, Lava, or Algae, which they shed as they stroll around the bath, leaving, literally, an epidermal fi lm of their journeys. Melissa also got a tattoo on her forearm of the word andaðu, meaning breathe. It’s an order. Sometimes she forgets. Today, though, after breakfast, Melissa got sick—I blame the plain yogurt—so I went shopping alone. I bought English jeans with Japanese tags from a Polish girl and then went to a cafe across from a hardware store and bought a sandwich of salmon and cream cheese on a pretzel. In May in Iceland, it’s light for about 18 hours, so the day, no matter how disappointing, can always be salvaged. Our last year nearly wasn’t, but I don’t have prostate cancer, Melissa and I are still together, and sometimes you decide to celebrate if only (and mostly) because you’re still here. On our last night, we walked along Laugavegur, the Main Street in Reykjavík, to a place called The Drunk Rabbit, an Irish Pub, which was across the street from an English Pub, and watched Liverpool beat Barcelona in some European football game that seemed vitally important to those at both bars. We then met Ingvar, an Icelander, a friend from Facebook, who bought us shots of Brennivín, a clear, unsweetened schnapps, also called “Black Death.” He then walked to the stage, bordered on one side by a stuffed hare who was holding a sawed-off shotgun, started playing the guitar like no one we’ve ever heard, and began singing Johnny Cash’s “I Walk The Line.” America felt very far away and very close at that moment. The way it does most days. a
TULSA’S ONLY TRADITIONAL JAZZ CLUB
UPCOMING SHOWS
downstairs Spunk Adams MAY 15
Taron Pounds MAY 16 BLUE WHALE COMEDY FEST AND STORY CLUB OF TULSA PRESENT
Offbeat: Crazy and Hilarious Stories from the Comedians that Lived Them COMEDY SHOW MAY 17 + MAY 18
Madeline Kassen MAY 22
Tim Shadley Piano Trio MAY 23
NATIONAL TOURING ARTIST
Dara Tucker MAY 25
Scott McQuade Birthday Duets MAY 29
BRD Trio MAY 30
Peter Tomshany MAY 31
NATIONAL TOURING ARTIST
Russell Malone JUNE 1
NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9
statewide
Advocates petition their legislators to take action on bail reform at the Oklahoma State Capitol. | COURTESY
Cashed out
Oklahoma needs bail reform—and SB 252 can help by NICOLE MCAFEE
T
he first time I bailed someone out of jail in Oklahoma it was late at night in the fall. My friend got pulled over for speeding outside of Enid. The officer ran her license, and she soon found herself in handcuffs. She discovered that an expired tag and an outstanding ticket led to a warrant for her arrest and a suspended license. She’d meant to get her tag updated, but she’d been busy and a little tight on cash. It never occurred to her that anything to do with her car tag would land her in jail. The officer who pulled her over was kind, and did not take her phone away from her as he inventoried her car. My friend (a young, white woman) was able to text me and explain the situation—a lucky break, since at the jail they mis-transcribed my number from her phone, and a promised call never came through. In another stroke of luck, I was able to get the full amount to buy her release, assigned by a bail schedule, from an ATM: almost $800 in total. I got in my car and drove an hour and 40 minutes to the jail where she was being detained. It took me awhile to figure out how to get the attention
10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
of a guard to let me into the jail waiting area. Inside it was cold and uncomfortable and no one was eager to help me. As I tried to pay the amount of money tied to my friend’s charge, I was told they couldn’t accept the cash I had brought with me because it was $5 more than the exact amount. They would not give change, and they would not just take extra. They would not take a credit card or check. I had to go down to a gas station to break a larger bill, drive back, and go through the process of being let in again. After making the payment and waiting for her to be released, we made the drive home humbled and tired, but knowing she was so lucky for the situation to have turned out as it did. For so many people, that first night in jail does not end in release. The person they call cannot pay. Most folks jailed in Oklahoma wait days or weeks before a bail amount is set by a judge, or any considerations are made for release. While the law says you’re presumed innocent, every part of the system is set up to make
you feel condemned. Oftentimes, during that initial appearance in front of a judge, you are alone, unless you can afford private counsel. On one of the hardest days of your life, you are not granted an advocate. Many jurisdictions in Oklahoma still use unconstitutional bail schedules—a document that lists bail amounts to be used for each charge—and for most people in the justice system, that amount is so high that you either need a bondsman, where you pay 10 percent and a non-refundable fee, or you sit in jail because of your inability to pay. Money bail is supposed to be used as a mechanism to secure reappearance in court, but in Oklahoma it is instead assessed in almost every case, and it becomes a de facto detention order. As a result, our pre-trial system assumes guilt, and is centered on wealth, not public safety. This year, Oklahoma has an opportunity to take a step forward in reimagining its pre-trial system, and bring our statute closer to the constitutional floor, with SB 252. It is a bill that moves us closer to individualized assessments of ability to pay; requires counsel at initial appearance; requires an
initial appearance happen within 48 hours of arrest; and presumes release for many non-violent felonies and misdemeanors. It is not the dream bill, but it’s a profound step toward progress for folks who find themselves in Oklahoma’s criminal legal system. I’ve spent a lot of my time out in the world and in the Capitol talking to people about bail reform and the very real problems with our current system. Oklahomans are ready for change, but sometimes our legislators feel more timid in their work on criminal justice reform. They need to hear from us and be reminded of who they represent. As this session winds to a close, I encourage people to call, email, and, when possible, meet at the Capitol or in your districts with your elected officials to talk about the need for meaningful pre-trial reform, with SB 252 and beyond. a
Nicole McAfee is the Smart Justice Campaign Manager for ACLU of Oklahoma. For more information, visit bit.ly/SmartJusticeOK. To contact your legislator, visit bit.ly/FindMyRepOK. May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11
community
A
s anyone not living under a rock knows, The University of Tulsa—formerly recognized as the premier liberal arts college in the Midwest—has seen better days. Administrators have been met with a steady outcry from the community in response to the university’s decision to uproot 40% of the degree programs and offerings in the name of progress and student success. To better understand where administration is coming from, I sat down with the Provost Program Review Commitee (PPRC) report to put my TU humanities degree to good use. I pored over the report, like a work of literature, trying to understand the authors’ intent. As Barry Friedman pointed out in the last issue of The Tulsa Voice, the language behind the University’s new initiative is “part Orwellian, part Tony Robbins.” As such, the text is a perfect grappling partner for someone with a well-rounded liberal arts education. Critics say the university’s “reimagining” is based on a narrow view of the future, putting job placement ahead of a comprehensive education and turning students away from fields that are not STEM-based. There was no impact assessment of how this academic strategy, ironically named “True Commitment,” would affect “applications, enrollment, faculty hiring and retention, or institutional prestige.” In their own words, this was a “skate to where the puck will be” decision. Evident in sustained faculty and student opposition, TU leadership has misinterpreted the players, the arena, and altogether, the game they’re playing. “True Commitment” is just one goal of TU President Gerard Clancy’s five-year “Strategic Plan.” His five objectives all seem to skate towards an imaginary puck without showing how such a path is achievable or why his vision of TU is positive. For example, objective two is to increase enrollment at TU by “a minimum” of 22%—from 4,400
12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
‘HIGH-TOUCH,’ OR OUT OF TOUCH? A critical analysis of TU’s ‘reimagining’ by MASON WHITEHORN POWELL
Students protest program cuts at the University of Tulsa | JOSEPH RUSHMORE
to 5,400 students. How this will be achievable following significant cuts to degree options for prospective students, consolidating and closing entire departments, and ostracizing professors in those areas remains unclear from the text of the report. One goal within objective two is to “[r]educe the cost and perceived cost of a TU education for all.” I don’t know the difference between an actual cost and “perceived” tuition price—I’m a lowly humanities grad, after all— but I don’t see this being reduced anytime soon. The basis for this plan, which admittedly “radically alters the landscape of our university,” stems from recommendations made by the Higher Learning Commission. However, as Professor of English Holly Laird writes in an open letter: the HLC did not require this radical a shift in our university design. Though it required the development of a PPRC, the current budget issues and inflated numbers of programs had already been addressed last fall; thus the PPRC was positioned to take as much
time as needed to study the university’s history and organization rather than devise a complete transformation of T.U. into something quite different from its historic shape in less than one academic year
Further, the HLC required that TU implement a model of “shared governance” to make assessments; an order that TU leadership apparently saw as more of a suggestion. Laird continues: nominees for the PPRC were filtered, first, through the deans, then, through an administratively shaped interview process and, then, were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements. Earlier this spring, the plan that resulted was presented directly to you without prior consultation of any of the university’s faculty or student constituencies. This means that not only the concept of ‘shared governance,’ but the claim of ‘transparency’ both were abrogated.
At least seven student and faculty organizations have drafted
and signed no faith letters that formally reject “True Commitment.” Xandra Kaste, a recent graduate in French and English Literature, helped draft a letter by students in the French Department. Kaste and her peers went over the recommendations and discussed how they would practically affect students. They compiled enrollment data and compared it to data that the PPRC published. “We have no idea where [the PPRC data] came from,” she said. “They were drastically less—our actual numbers almost doubled the reported numbers on almost every count.” No faculty members in the language department were involved in the PPRC process. “I see it becoming a lot less of a global university,” Kaste said. “I see it as becoming an insular, non-diversified place where there’s only a couple of focuses and students aren’t given the broad academic education they receive now … I think that a lot of the changes have this idea that you need a very specialized and specific knowledge to go into the workforce.” Identity is not something that can be changed overnight. Provost Janet Levit writes: “Today, we stake our identity. We are saying it out loud and acknowledging to ourselves what the data—and our students’ choices—have pointed to for so long: “The University of Tulsa is a high-touch undergraduate institution that provides all students with a firm grounding in critical and creative thinking, and that is STEM-heavy with a professional, practical focus.” As students like Kaste and professors like Laird demonstrate, TU administrators are out of touch with their student body and teachers. What’s more, a 2017-18 audit reveal that 60% of the annual budget is spent on administration, while only 40% went toward education. The university is topheavy, and its future is at stake, but based on one man’s gamble it blindly skates towards where the puck might be. a May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13
community
The kids are alright
Youth focus marks new shift for John Hope Franklin National Symposium by KRISTI EATON
A
fter helping his aunt and cousin distribute food to people experiencing homelessness in Chicago, 8-yearold Jahkil Naeem Jackson started a new initiative to build awareness around the struggle for housing and job security. His Project I Am offers “Blessing Bags,” which are fi lled with toiletries, snacks, bottled water and other necessities. “I saw how they lived on the streets and I didn’t understand why they were out there,” he said of that first experience. Jahkil went home and talked to his mom about what he saw, and together they developed the idea to provide relief to those in crisis by offering these basic provisions. Now 11, Jahkil is a soughtafter speaker who divides his time between helping his community and staying busy with school and after-school activities. His work has drawn the attention of powerful advocates like President Barack Obama, who acknowledged Jahkil as a difference-maker in 2017—first in a tweet, then in-person at a special reception hosted by Obama Foundation. While the experience helping and advocating for vulnerable communities has taught Jahkil valuable skills like public speaking, its biggest value is much more basic. “I’ve learned that homeless people are people too,” he said. Jahkil will be a speaker at the annual John Hope Franklin National Symposium this year. The event will be held May 29–31 at various sites across Tulsa. This is the first year the symposium has offered sessions geared toward young people. Symposium Chairman Dewayne Dickens said the new focus is in response to a growing awareness within society of the change-making power of young people and
14 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
11-year-old advocate Jahkil will speak at the John Hope Franklin National Symposium. | ANDI HARMAN
their work in civic engagement. “What we are wanting to do with this symposium is make our effort intentional in passing along the baton, and not just saying, ‘They’re the next generation, so they need to listen,’” he said. “It’s not quite that simple—we need to listen.” This is the 10th year for the symposium, whose focus will be on civic engagement and its importance in our democracy. The concept of reconciliation, a key idea for the symposium and the center bearing its name, is also an integral part of the equation. “Reconciliation is not just one item that we reconcile. It’s more of an evolving understanding of where things have gone wrong in society as we interact with one another,” Dickens said. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is usually what draws people into the conversation, according to Dickens. “That tends to be where the conversation starts. There’s always deep conversation about what are we doing for reconcilia-
tion on that one effort. That’s the story that brings us together, but it’s not where the story ends.” The goal, he said, is to create a sense of harmony. “Everyone in Tulsa has been affected by the problems related to the Greenwood story and the symposium puts that on the table, but says, ‘Let’s do more than talk. Let’s act and be those change agents.’” There will be a community walk on May 30, starting at John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park and ending at OSU-Tulsa. Dickens said the free event will celebrate young people making change across Tulsa and Oklahoma. The keynote speech for the symposium, also free to the public, will take place on May 29 at the Greenwood Cultural Center. The speaker will be Kenneth Morris, co-founder and president of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative and author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Morris is the great-great-great grandson of Frederick Douglass and the
great-great grandson of Booker T. Washington. “I’ll be talking about their legacies and their contributions to education and our country and to freedom,” Morris said. “Then I’ll transition into talking about human trafficking, contemporary human rights, work that we do in schools … From there I will talk about service learning and civic engagement and what we do to inspire young people to want to become civically engaged in their communities.” He will also speak about John Hope Franklin, who he said has been an inspiration to him. “Of course, reconciliation is the topic of the conference, and so I’m going to talk about history and the importance of understanding where we come from in order to know where we’re headed,” he said. Symposium panels will cover a variety of topics: culturally competent mental health services, restorative justice, and the Freedmen of Indian Country, among others. Panelists and moderators will include Mayor G.T. Bynum and Tulsa Public Schools Superintendent Deborah Gist. Jahkil, for one, hopes his participation at the event will help inspire more youth to get involved in their communities. “[If] you see something and you don’t like it … you should do something about it, instead of just whining or crying about a situation,” he said. “You don’t have to wait until you’re an adult … you can do it right now.” a
The John Hope Franklin National Symposium will run May 29–31. Registration is available at jhfcenter.org. Students and educators can attend for free. May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 15
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16 // NEWS & COMMENTARY
CANNABIS, TO PUT IT LIGHTLY, HAS A LOT of baggage. Archaeological evidence shows that prehistoric humans used it for its psychoactive properties, and the earliest written evidence of its use comes from 1:21 PM the 5th century BCE in Herodotus’ Histories. It has been used all around the world as an intoxicant, a medicinal plant, or raw industrial material. I began covering cannabis for The Tulsa Voice last year, in the run-up to the vote on SQ 788. During my reportage I talked to cannabis advocates, CBD purveyors, medical refugees, drug dealers and state senators. Along the way I got to know the plant that’s becoming all but ubiquitous, and about all the baggage it’s picked up over the centuries. My hope for this new monthly column is to help explore and unpack some of that baggage. One of the most exciting aspects of cannabis is its potential as medicine. Among its myriad uses is treatment for muscle spasms and chronic pain. With the passage of SQ 788 last June, Oklahomans embraced this potential. Amy Bourlon-Hilterbran and her family have seen this potential up-close. Amy’s son Austin was born with Dravet syndrome, an extreme form of epilepsy that causes frequent debilitating seizures as well as mental and physical deterioration. Ten years on opioids and benzos left him on life support while barely affecting his seizures. Knowing that his life was at stake, Austin’s family turned to cannabis. The effect was dramatic. In a video that went viral, Amy uses a cannabis nasal spray to end one of his seizures within seconds. They moved to Colorado in 2014 to legally
obtain the lifesaving medicine and began advocating for its use in other states. I talked to Amy last June for TTV, right before Oklahoma joined 29 other states in legalizing medical cannabis. “It’s heartbreaking to leave your home, your family, your friends, your job, everything you knew,” she told me. The Bourlon-Hilterbran family were over the moon when SQ 788 passed. “Obviously our family is thrilled that the citizens of Oklahoma agree with us that medical marijuana should be legal and fully accessible to patients,” Amy says now. After the question passed, Amy and her family feared that opponents would legislate the law away or drag their feet granting licenses. They are pleasantly surprised to see that access to medical marijuana has remained wide open. “[Oklahomans] didn’t let red tape stop what they feel should be a viable option for patients,” she said. Amy’s family won’t be moving back to Oklahoma any time soon. Her kids are enrolled in school, and they’re in the process of converting their 35-acre property in Colorado into a hemp farm. However, they’ll be able to see their family and friends in Oklahoma a lot more now, as the program allows the family to obtain an out-of-state medical card for their son. Amy is careful to note that cannabis is not a cure-all. For every success story there are those for whom cannabis did not work. Because cannabis has been illegal and highly regulated there is still a dearth of research into cannabis’ potentials and limits. But for the Bourlon-Hilterbran family, however, it will always be the thing that gave them their son back. — FRASER KASTNER May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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NEWS & COMMENTARY // 17
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May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
FOOD & DRINK // 19
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downthehatch
A
s spring soldiers on and summer kicks into gear, patio-seekers all over Tulsa begin the hunt for the perfect warm-weather cocktail. If this describes you, look no further than the humble Michelada. A cerveza preparade—you might call it a shandy—Micheladas date back to mid-century Mexico. Made with beer, Clamato, lime juice and a variety of chili-based sauces, these concoctions are refreshing, fi lling, and unlike Bloody Marys, they don’t taste like Spicy V8s mixed with booze. The most common recipe contains: • Clamato or a similar tomato-based drink • A few dashes of hot sauce like Valentina or Cholula • Lime juice • Spices (black pepper or Tajin) • Worcestershire sauce (optional and worth it) • Ice (optional) • Your favorite Mexican lager
Use a salt-rimmed mug or chabela glass, add half a lime, sauces to preference, some red juice, and top it off with beer. Eyeball everything and mix to taste. The beer-to-Clamato ratio is key and the biggest difference you’ll find from restaurant to restaurant. (Heirloom Rustic Ales offers a craft version, but we’ll get to that later.) The name of the drink is a portmanteau of mi chela helada— translating to “my cold beer”— but the name has taken on a life of its own. If you’re a Pacificoand-lime type of person who likes spicy food, this drink is for you. With my trusted designated driver by my side, I set out to map the Micheladas of Tulsa. CALAVERAS MEXICAN GRILL & CANCUN INTERNATIONAL RESTAURANT My journey began at Calaveras Mexican Grill in Kendall Whittier. Their Michelada is of the on-ice variety, spicier than most, and very beer-forward. If 20 // FOOD & DRINK
Crudoolandia’s $15 Michelada includes coconut, carne seca (dried meat), and loads of shrimp in a 44-ounce cup. | GREG BOLLINGER
MAPPING MICHELADAS Discovering ‘hangover-cure land’
I beheld a glorious sight: a large Styrofoam cup with a spicy salt rim, a stick of celery protruding, two shrimps on a skewer, several slices of cucumber, jicama (Mexican turnips, described to me as “fruit,” with the texture of pear), ice, Clamato, lime, sauces—the works. There were only three fingers of room for beer on top. After paying I was handed my beer (sealed) and we drove off towards a semi-legal consumption site. Crudoolandia, a clandestine institution with three more locations in OKC, has turned this drink into unrivaled art. If spicy tomato-beer isn’t your thing, their Chuvi Duvi features frozen fruit and Smirnoff Ice. The $15 Michelada includes coconut, carne seca (dried meat), and loads of shrimp in a 44-ounce cup. Others feature candy, pop rocks, Red Bull, and Topo Chico; or a classic chelada with just salt and lime. I’ve yet to try the botanas, but I know who’s catering my next party.
by MASON WHITEHORN POWELL you’ve never had a Michelada, this description probably means nothing—so just go try one. For your sake and mine, an employee at Calaveras made some watering hole recommendations that pointed me in the right direction. Just down the street I stopped at Cancun International Restaurant. Here, the owners were welcoming (as always) and offered us chips and salsa while we waited. They took the ingredients back into the kitchen and remerged with a mug of thick red liquid and a bottle of Modelo still 1/4 full. No ice this time. A remainder of beer on the side is common, and better in my opinion; the closer the beer to Clamato ratio, the more the flavors combine into something magical as the remaining beer is added. CRUDOOLANDIA We headed east, guided by the name “Crudoolandia” scrawled on a piece of paper—thanks to a Calaveras employee—and a rough location of 21st Street and Garnett Road.
We found Crudoolandia tucked between a McDonald’s and used car dealership at 1901 S. Garnett Rd. Not knowing what to expect, we pulled into a car washstyle garage bay where a woman was loading beers into a fridge. I couldn’t believe my eyes: a drive-thru Micheladeria. A menu on the wall displayed many twists on the adult beverage and botanas (appetizers). Ingredients were translated for me. Though tempted, I passed on two $15 versions, and ordered the cheaper 32-ounce La Goolosa (“the appetizing thing”). I selected my beer, going for a large can of Modelo— just $1—while admiring rarer beer offerings, such as Bohemia and Carta Blanca. Crudoolandia is a play on words. The folks at Calaveras said it means “hangover cure.” Crudo/a means “raw” in Spanish and is slang for hungover, so crudoolandia is literally “hangover land.” My order was transmitted through a sliding-glass window and moments later materialized in a dumbwaiter style hole in a door.
HEIRLOOM RUSTIC ALES Some time ago, I saw a curious beer offering on Heirloom’s Instagram page: Dressed Cavern Hymn. When I arrived to check it out, part-owner Jake Miller gave me the rundown and sneakily got me day-drunk. Cavern Hymn is their traditional style Kölsch. You wouldn’t think the German-style beer would work in a Michelada, but that’s the trick: Miller based his beer-cocktail on a “Dressed Hamms”—basically a Michelada made with Hamms. Miller eyeballs his measurements and only offers this drink special sporadically. Featuring craft hot sauces and a sugar and salt rim with two kinds of paprika, they’re the only Tulsa brewery on the Michelada train. Take an Heirloom can home and experiment. Visit Heirloom for the most unique, Crudoolandia for the finest, and support your local Mexican restaurants like Calveras and Cancun International by treating yourself to this classic set to become your official summer drink. a May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
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FOOD & DRINK // 21
PATIO GUIDE Fresh ideas for dining outdoors this spring and summer CHECK OUT OUR FULL LIST AT THETULSAVOICE.COM/PATIOS2019
ANDOLINI ’S PIZZERIA 1525 E 15th St | 918.728.6111 andopizza.com
Full service dining al fresco. Full bar service outside so enjoy any of our beers, wines or cocktails. We do patios like we do pizza: all in. Come experience it for yourself! Outdoor dining is also available at the BA Rose District Andolini’s, in Jenks at our Riverwalk location, in downtown Tulsa at Andolini’s Sliced, and at our STG locations in Tulsa and BA.
BLUE ROSE CAFÉ 1924 Riverside Drive 918.582.4600 bluerosecafetulsa.com
Surrounded by windows, roll-up garage doors, indoor/outdoor service, live music and a large patio area constructed on piers overlooking the Arkansas River, it’s the best place in town to kick back and relax. Voted Best Patio by the readers of The Tulsa Voice for 5 years!
COSMO CAFE & BAR
DILLY DINER
Located at 33rd & Peoria in Tulsa, Cosmo offers a wide array of sophisticated sandwiches, salads, hot food and gourmet coffees, as well as a full bar. Come hang with us on the patio and enjoy an award wining cocktail!
Downtown Tulsa’s favorite diner. Serving up breakfast all day, housemade bread, pastries, pies & cakes, homemade soft serve, house cured meats, local produce and so much more! Come soak up the sun on our patio with a fat stack of pancakes and mimosa service.
3334 S. Peoria Ave. | 918.933.4848 cosmo-cafe.com
402 E 2nd St | 918.938.6382 dillydiner.com
Cosmo
Cafe & Bar
DUET JAZZ
108 N Detroit Ave | 918.398.7201 duetjazz.com
Duet Jazz is a full jazz emersion experience! Enjoy a uniquely-crafted cocktail and dish on our outdoor patio or open-air concept restaurant to entice the senses. At night, head downstairs to our sultry underground jazz club for local and nationally-recognized jazz shows Wednesday-Saturday.
22 // FOOD & DRINK
EL GUAPO ’S CANTINA SOUTHSIDE
8161 S Harvard Ave | 918.728.7482 elguaposcantina.com
Located in the Walnut Creek shopping center at 81st and Harvard. Here you’ll find the largest selection of tequila and mezcal in Tulsa, a beautiful garden patio, and the same great food and service as the original.
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
ELGIN PARK
FASSLER HALL
Welcome to Elgin Park! A sports inspired brewery and pizza joint in downtown Tulsa. Enjoy our pizza, wings, burgers and brews on the patio. Conveniently located across from Drillers Stadium.
Welcome to Fassler Hall Tulsa. This German gem in the heart of downtown Tulsa is known for its German beer and live entertainment. Join us for Happy hour in the biergarten! Also, don’t miss the expansive whiskey and cocktail menu.
THE HUNT CLUB
LAFFA MEDI-EASTERN RESTAURANT & BAR
325 East M.B. Brady | 918.986.9910 elginparkbrewery.com
224 N. Main | 918.599.9200 thehuntclubtulsa.com
Located in the Historic Tulsa Arts District. Join us on the patio for great food, drinks, and live music!
MCNELLIE ’S SOUTH CITY
409 E 1st St | 918.382.7468 mcnelliessouthcity.com
Sure our beer selection is immense, but the food’s pretty good too! McNellie’s menu is filled with fresh, reasonably priced food. Every day, our dedicated kitchen staff works hard to make a variety of items from scratch, using the best ingredients available. Enjoy brunch on the patio every Saturday and Sunday, which features a great bloody mary bar.
PRAIRIE BREWPUB
223 N. Main St. | 918.936.4395 prairiepub.com
Patio? Beer? We have both! The Prairie Brewpub is all about food & locally brewed; Oklahoma made craft beer. Prairie Artisanal Ales also brews many of their unique beers right here at the Brewpub. Full Lunch and Dinner Menus are served daily. Our patio is huge and families are always welcome. Located downtown in the heart of the Historic Tulsa Arts District. See you soon!
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
304 S Elgin Ave | 918.576.7898 fasslerhall.com
111 N. Main St. | 918.728.3147 laffatulsa.com
Located in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District in Tulsa, Laffa is Tulsa’s premier venue for fabulous Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean food, spectacular bar drinks and chill atmosphere. Voted Best Middle Eastern/Mediterranean Restaurant!
OPEN CONTAINER
502 E 3rd St Unit 39 | 918.895.5016 opencontainertulsa.com
Located in the Boxyard in the East End Village district downtown. They have a gorgeous view of downtown, top-notch bar food, hand made cocktails, tons of local beer, and are dog friendly! Serving food until midnight, 7 days a week.
QUEENIE ’S
1834 Utica Square | 918.749.3481 queeniesoftulsa.com
Proudly serving Tulsa since 1983. We make the freshest, tastiest food using local meat and veggies. Enjoy our Famous Chicken Salad or Grilled Cheese Sandwiches or come in and check our chalkboard for daily specials. We hope to see you soon!
FOOD & DRINK // 23
NYC
DUET RESTAURANT + JAZZ CLUB
BY TERRIE SHIPLEY Looking for a way to maximize your vacation days this summer without the heartburn of air travel? Don’t let flight delays, lost luggage or traffic jams leave you wishing you’d never left. If the objective is getting outdoors and changing the scenery, try leaving your bags at home. To help you get away without getting away, here are five Tulsa patios for a lighthearted escape that won’t leave you frazzled.
24 // FEATURED
You’ll definitely want to stay longer than a New York minute on Duet’s patio—especially when the garage door is up and a live band is bringing the heat. Located in the bustling Tulsa Arts District, the place is dripping with culture. You’d be forgiven for thinking MoMA and Blue Note were just around the corner. Though Executive Chef Nico Albert is “usually passing through with armloads of groceries,” the patio is one of her favorite things about the space. “The music kinds of wafts in, even to the kitchen,” Albert said. “It’s just a really nice environment to be in.” David Horne and guests play every weekend during brunch, and special patio wine dinners are in the works. The playful Sullystring barn door mural complements Albert’s artful cuisine, such as the new poke tostadas— raw tuna marinated with soy sauce, ginger, lime juice and rice wine vinegar. She suggests that you pair it with Duet’s most popular drink, the Love for Sale. It’s a play on the French 75, made with their house draught prosecco (snaps to that) and crème de rose, a rose-scented liquor. If that cocktail has you humming “La Vie en Rose,” catch a jazz set at the lower-level club, where local and national touring musicians do their thing in one of the best listening rooms in Tulsa. The chill yet focused ambiance of Duet’s intimate jazz club takes me back to the summer I lived in NYC, which had an indelible effect on my love for the genre. Suffice to say, Duet always has me “In a Sentimental Mood.”
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
DUET: VALERIE WEI-HAAS; FUEL 66, PEARL BEACH, DOUBLESHOT: GREG BOLLINGER; MOTHER ROAD: FORSYTHE CREATIVE
CROSSING THE COUNTRY ON FIVE TULSA PATIOS
108 N. DETROIT AVE. RESTAURANT: DAILY, 11 A.M.–11 P.M. JAZZ CLUB: THURS.–SAT., 8 P.M.–11 P.M.
Austin
SoCal
2439 E. 11TH ST. MON.–FRI., 3 P.M.–2 A.M.; SAT.–SUN., 11 A.M.–2 A.M.
418 S. PEORIA AVE. TUES.–THUS., 4 P.M.–10 P.M.; FRI., 4 P.M.–11 P.M.; SAT., 11 A.M.–11 P.M.; SUN., 12 P.M.–10 P.M.
FUEL 66
PEARL BEACH BREW PUB
The Texas hill country is calling at Fuel 66. The vibe of this roadhouse-style beer garden is low-key and distinctly unbuttoned—perfect for those looking for a little taste of Austin on the Mother Road. The outdoor space is an oasis of food trucks, yard games and craft beer that will have you singing: “The stars at night are big and bright—deep in the heart of [Tulsa].” Libations abound at the indoor bar. You’ll find plenty of beers from local breweries like Cabin Boys and Heirloom Rustic Ales, served in un-fussy plastic cups, along with a handful of refreshing cocktails scrawled on the chalkboard menu, and even blue and orange Jell-O “shots” (in actual syringes) in the fridge. Throwing caution to the wind, I chose the slushy frosé—yes, frozen rosé—which was undulating in the see-through beverage machine behind the counter. Drink in hand, and with Willie Nelson on the digital jukebox, I sauntered outside, feeling distinctly Texan. The generous patio and beer garden are surrounded by five food trucks and trailers, including no fewer than two Airstreams. After making my selections at the MASA food truck, it just felt good to sit down and stay a while. In fact, as it’s complete with a small dog park, fire pits, and a nightly closing time of 2 a.m., Fuel 66 might just become your new home away from home. It’s Austin without the superiority complex, an unpretentious watering hole and food truck park inviting you to kick up your boots in an authentically “weird” city—where you can still afford rent.
While Tulsa sunworshippers rejoice in American Airlines joining Allegiant in providing a nonstop to LAX, it still takes more than six hours roundtrip to soak up those rays on the Best Coast. Why waste precious travel time when you can hit the beach right here in the Pearl District? My top choice for a Santa Monica-esque getaway, the new Pearl Beach Brew Pub—the former site of Willows Family Ales—is virtually smog-, traffic- and vanity-free. (I wouldn’t be from NorCal if I didn’t play up the rivalry.) Pearl Beach features a picturesque back patio, complete with sand volleyball courts filled with recreational players bumping, setting and spiking against a backdrop of the downtown skyline. Co-owner Julian Morgan encourages all levels to play; some folks are “just trying to not get hit in the face” while others “can really put the ball away.” Whatever your level of coordination, consider joining in a round of Spikeball, which you can almost play with a Pearl Beach pale ale in hand. Morgan’s husband, fellow co-owner, and self-professed AVP geek, Josh Ritchey, taught my family and me when we visited and it was some of the best impromptu fun we’d had in a long while. If you’re more of a spectator, there’s plenty of shaded space for you. The most beautiful seating is under the twisting arms of a resilient old hackberry which has thrived despite sitting atop an old pipe. Morgan had the patio built around the tree: “We hope to make that bad boy’s life better from now on and have hired an arborist to help.” (The Sierra Club would be proud.) Morgan recommends that you pull up a chair under its graceful shade, sip on their brewer Larry’s Mexican Lager with Lime, and order the mango salsa-topped fish tacos from Mr. Nice Guys—it’s, like, so SoCal.
Tulsa
MOTHER ROAD MARKET 1124 S. LEWIS AVE. CLOSED MONDAYS; 10 A.M.–10 P.M. FRI. AND SAT.; OTHER DAYS 10 A.M.–9 P.M. However blissful the vacation, coming home is always a relief. Be a tourist in your own town at Mother Road Market, a distinctly Tulsa spot with one of the largest and most innovative covered patios you’ll find anywhere. The word “covered” THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
Portland, OR
DOUBLESHOT AT THE ROOKERY 1633 S. BOULDER AVE. MON.–FRI., 7 A.M.–6 P.M.; SAT., 8 A.M.–3 P.M.; SUN., 8 A.M.–NOON DoubleShot’s striking new location on Boulder Avenue is one way to escape from the grind, if you will. With its soaring wall of steel-framed windows and upcycled barn wood facade, the building—while actually transported from the Hoosier State—will transport you to the trendy and eco-conscious Pacific Northwest faster than they’ll kick you out for ordering decaf. It’s peak Portland, where passionate people take recycling classes, protest oil dependency by riding bikes naked and care an awful lot about coffee culture. In fact, DoubleShot’s tongue-in-cheek “Rules While Ordering” list, which was once affixed to the espresso machine at their old Boston Avenue location, served as inspiration for a “Coffee Shop Manifesto” sketch on Portlandia. (Brooding baristas arrange an underground meeting in which frustrations are channeled into a list of rules, such as “No chatting at counter” and “No questions.”) Of course, regulars know DoubleShot’s friendly staff has Oklahoma hospitality in spades, and you won’t find any “rules” on the wall of the new elegant modern interior. What you’ll find is a coffee program that would impress even the most discerning Portlander, and a bustling patio where you can enjoy a cappuccino and a cranberry English muffin breakfast sandwich in true PNW style.
cannot be overemphasized, considering Oklahoma’s unpredictable weather, which will be no match for this thoughtful space. Developed by the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation with everyone in mind, Mother Road Market’s patio throbs with energy. Elizabeth Frame Ellison, president and CEO of the foundation, enjoys observing the variety of activity: “Kids rolling on the turf, yoga classes, families playing Route 66-themed mini golf, different bands playing live music, friends gathered on the couches laughing and coworkers eating together in the dining area.” It really is magical, people.
Showcasing around 20 local restaurant and retail shops under one roof, the food hall is packed with local flavor. Stop by the WEL Bar and grab Ellison’s favorite cocktail, the Son of a Booch (made with Cult Kombucha, a graduate of the Launch Program at Kitchen 66, another Lobeck Taylor development) and a scoop of Yuzu ice cream from Big Dipper Creamery—whose fresh-made waffle cones are irresistable. Outside, settle into a bright yellow patio chair below the web of string lights and soak in some of the best in cuisine and ambiance that your own stomping ground has to offer. After all that “travel,” it’s good to be home. a FEATURED // 25
Tulsa Pride Interfaith Service
Tues., May 28, 6:30–8:30 p.m. Forest Park Christian Church, 9102 S. Mingo Rd. In 1969, undercover police officers stormed the Stonewall Inn in New York City—one of the few seemingly safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people in 1960s New York—and violently arrested dozens of people on ambiguous charges. An uprising ensued, with hundreds taking to the streets to protest the way gay people were treated. On the first anniversary of what is now known as the Stonewall Riots, the first gay pride parade marched through Manhattan, setting a precedent for thousands of celebrations now held all over the world. Join an array of inclusive faith communities and faith leaders ahead the Tulsa Pride festival to celebrate the bravery of the Stonewallers through spoken word, performance art, and iconic readings. There will be an “In Memoriam” portion of the service dedicated to members of the LGBTQ+ family who died this past year.
Movie in the Park: The Birdcage
2018 Tulsa Pride Parade | BHADRI VERDUZCO
Your Tulsa Pride Guide BY BLAYKLEE FREED
T
wenty years ago, Tulsans proud of who they were and who they loved marched from Brookside to downtown’s Veteran’s Park in the city’s first officially-recognized Pride Parade. For years, the city wouldn’t grant a parade permit for a gay pride march. Before the city’s acknowledgment, resilient and resourceful gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Tulsans had picnics and held festivals—and even took to the sidewalks of Cherry Street to march in protest. “Other people could have parades, but not the [LGBTQ+] community. We could have a festival and rent a park, but no parade until June of 1999,” Tulsa Pride Director José Vega said. The increased visibility resulting from the community’s perseverance and fortitude has led to an increasing acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, paving the way for a better 26 // FEATURED
Thurs., May 30, 7:30–9:30 p.m. Guthrie Green, 111 E. M.B. Brady St. Assemble your crew and head to Guthrie Green for a free screening of a gay culture comedy classic. Armand Goldman (Robin Williams) owns a popular nightclub in Miami’s South Beach where his partner Albert (Nathan Lane) stars as a drag queen in this 1996 film. When their son Val (Dan Futterman) announces his engagement to Barbara Keely (Calista Flockhart), daughter of a conservative Sen. Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman), Armand and Albert agree to put on a hilarious front so their son’s future in-laws see the Goldmans as a tame family with respectable values. (Rated R)
Tulsa Pride Rainbow Run life for queer people today. The movers and shakers behind Oklahomans for Equality have been boldly fighting for LGBTQ+ rights since 1980 through support programs, safe spaces, and, of course, Pride festivals. We would not be where we are today if not for the tens of thousands of people that came before us, putting their lives on the line and dedicating ample time to acts of service for the community at large. Vega is the youngest Tulsa Pride director in history, and he’s in the seat because he wasn’t afraid to get involved early on. “I started volunteering at the age of 21 or 22, and then I became the Pride director at age 23,” he said. “What I want is to inspire other young individuals to become active and participate. Don’t be afraid to take leadership roles, and if a big festival like Pride lands on your lap, you just take the reigns of it and try and give the community the best Pride you can.”
But it definitely takes a village, and Vega credits others for helping him find his path. “I’ve met great individuals, great friends and family, who have helped me along the way, like Toby Jenkins the executive director, so it’s really a team effort here at the Center,” he said. “Doing the promotion, logistics, all of it, it was a learning curve for me.” Today Tulsa Pride, the longest-running LGBTQ+ Pride festival in Oklahoma, is celebrating 37 years of courage, love and pride with a parade, a picnic and plenty of music. Live music and festival celebrations kick off at 5 p.m. Friday and continue through Sunday for a weekend of vibrant fun with events for all ages; however, there are also events in the week leading up to the big jubilee that you won’t want to miss. Visit the Oklahomans for Equality website at okeq.org to sign up to volunteer during Tulsa Pride Festival.
Fri., May 31, 8–9 p.m. Music and street festivities open up at 5 p.m. in time for attendees to cheer on runners in the sixth annual Rainbow Run, which invites Tulsa’s LGBTQ+ family and allies to hit the pavement and break a sweat before the Pride Night Party begins at 9 p.m. Participants will light up the streets of Tulsa with the glowsticks included in their runner’s packet (in addition to the race T-shirt and finisher medal). Runners can choose between the 1-mile fun run at 8 p.m. ($20 per person) and the 5K ($30 per person) at 8:30 p.m. Sign up at itsyourrace.com or on the day of the race at 6 p.m. for $5 more. Stick around to hear local musicians play, with headliner Icona Pop taking the stage at 10 p.m.
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
Pride Parade and Festival
Sat., June 1, noon–midnight The party continues Saturday afternoon and into the night, and the Parade steps off at 6 p.m. with LGBTQ+ veterans leading the way. (Tulsa Pride estimated last year’s crowd to be more than 45,000!) The route runs from 13th Street and Boston Avenue to the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in East Village. Dozens of vendors will be along Fourth Street and Kenosha Avenue near the Equality Center, including food trucks, beer, lemonade, and various Tulsa organizations with information on their products and services. Music starts with a performance from Leonardo Martinez at 4 p.m. Laith Ashley plays at 5 p.m., and local band Carmela Hill and Double Treble coming on at 8 p.m. after the parade is over.
Picnic in the Park
Sun., June 2, noon–6 p.m. Guthrie Green, 111 E. M.B. Brady St. On Sunday everyone is headed back to the Green for a family-friendly picnic in the park. Bring your own basket of treats— plus extra if you want to share with your picnic neighbors! Attendees are free to bring canopies, ice chests, games, and dogs (so long as they’re on a leash). The splash pad will be on, and there will be a DJ as well as youth drag performers. “It’s going to be really cute,” Tulsa Pride Director José Vega said. “Some of them, it’s their first time doing drag.”
Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt hit the stage at Tulsa Pride as Icona Pop at 10 p.m. on May 31. | FREDRIK ETOALL
Etc.
Outside of official festivities, there are countless opportunities to celebrate Pride around town. On May 30, The ReVue is hosting opening night for the Remembering Stonewall photography exhibit presented by local photographer Woofie Hoover. Photos of one of the most historic events in queer history will be on display at the bar through June 2. The opening night reception kicks off at 8:30 p.m., and afterward the stage opens up to anyone willing to take the mic to express their pride. Drag performers will take the stage at 10:15 p.m. On June 1, the Woody Guthrie Center is bringing singer-songwriter, author and activist Ani DiFranco to the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The 8 p.m. show is set to start after the Pride parade. DiFranco, an outspoken feminist and unapologetic bisexual woman, released her first album in 1990 on her own record label and just published a new memoir, No Walls and the Recurring Dream. The Grammy-award winning musician plays a fusion of folk, punk, jazz and soul. Tickets are available for $45 on the Woody Guthrie Center website. Also opening during Pride on June 1, Liggett Studio is presenting the second annual Tulsa Erotica art show. The exhibition opening night is from 5–9 p.m., and the artwork will be on display through July 6. Artists were invited to submit both visual and performance art, so long as it is intended to stimulate sexual feelings. THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
Swedish dance-pop duo Icona Pop talks Pride BY KYRA BRUCE
T
his year’s Tulsa Pride Street Festival will get a healthy dose of Euro-glam when headliner Icona Pop takes the stage. The Swedish electro-pop duo, comprised of Anio Jawo and Caroline Hjelt, has been thrilling audiences with their high-energy dance music since bursting onto the international club scene in 2009. Jawo said the duo is happy to headline the festival because it represents their values. “We feel so honored and we’re so proud because everything about me and Caroline is about equality and expressing yourself,” she said. “That’s the thing we’ve been doing all of our lives.” The LGBTQ+ community had much to do with Icona Pop’s rise to pop-stardom, which took off in earnest with their 2012 hit, “I Love It,” featuring Charli XCX. “I think we wouldn’t be here without the [LGBTQ+] community,” Jawo said. It was here that the duo’s music began to percolate and spread shortly after their formation in 2009. Icona Pop’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community makes sense when you consider the message behind the music. “I mean, if you listen to the lyrics of our songs, it is a lot about—you know—‘Don’t take any shit. Stand up for what you believe in,’ and that’s also very liberating,” Jawo said. “It feels like celebrating.”
The two feed off of festival energy, striving to give a performance that unites the whole crowd in that feeling of celebration. “It’s such a beautiful vibe at a festival, it’s just pure love and people are happy. It’s all about celebrating music—and Pride is all about that,” Jawo said. Caroline Hjelt, the other half of Icona Pop, said they are looking forward to checking out what Tulsa has to offer. “We’ve been to Oklahoma before, but it was so long ago, at the beginning of our career,” she said. “So we’re very excited to go back. Sometimes when we’re on tour we don’t have time to explore and see a place, so this time we are hoping to see more.” “We want to go to some restaurants and check out some cool bars. We definitely want to experience it,” Jawo added. The duo has been laying low for a while, but Hjelt said they are excited to be back and expect to release new music soon. “We are so happy and proud of the music and the songs we’ve been making. It’s been taking longer than we thought … and now we’re ready to show the world what we’ve been up to.” Hjelt hinted that they might play some of their new material at Tulsa Pride, so gear up with your glitter and get to the show. Music performances will kick off when the Pride parade arrives at the Street Festival, with Icona Pop taking the stage at 10 p.m. a FEATURED // 27
EVERYDAY IS BABYLON Travel photography by Matthew Phipps WORDS AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW PHIPPS
I have been continuously traveling for the last 15 years, playing with cameras. I walk everyday: sometimes two hours, sometimes six or eight hours, taking pictures of people and waiting for moments. I’ve lived in roughly 15 cities worldwide and have a vast collection of photos—more than I have even been able to see yet. The more time you spend on the street, the more interesting and out there things you will see. It is physically impossible for me to leave my camera at home. These photos represent a snapshot of the last few years for me. From Greece, Italy and Morocco to Argentina and Colombia and more. This work is a part of my larger series, Everyday Is Babylon, which is about the extremities of the everyday world, all around the globe. The last two photos are from a series called La Playa. This series is about a corner in the heart of Bogotá.
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - 2018
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - 2015
The realities of the streets don’t lie. There is no partisanship when you're looking someone in the face, surrounded by their reality. The camera only tells what it sees, or what it chooses to see, but nothing more. Photography has shown me so many things in life that I would have never seen otherwise. It is, to me, a means of gathering consciousness. a
You can see Matthew Phipps’ work alongside MOLLYWATTA in the current installment of the Conciliation Series at Black Wall Street Gallery, 101 N. Greenwood Ave.
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ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO - 2018
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
NAPOLI, ITALY - 2017
ATHENS, GREECE - 2016
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - 2018 - FROM LA PLAYA
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - 2018 - FROM LA PLAYA
FEATURED // 29
artspot
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he Gilcrease Museum’s newest exhibit takes an emotional toll. Pulitzer Prize Photographs showcases humanity’s most iconic moments from across the globe over the last 77 years. It is a living, breathing document of life as we know it. To hear Gilcrease curator of history Mark Dolph tell it, it’s the most important exhibition they’ve ever brought to the Museum. “It’s a different kind of exhibit,” he said. “These images run the gamut of human emotions. There are some that will make you feel good down to your toes, and there are some that will make you angry, or send you into despair.” Entering through the main central hallway, a historical contextualization of Joseph Pulitzer and the Prize itself sets the pace for the exhibit. In the second room, introductory photographs and video interviews with the photojournalists speaking about the power of the still image provide more valuable context. As prominent American photographer Eddie Adams—who took the famous photo of a Viet Cong execution—said: “If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips out your heart: That’s a good picture.” This show will do everything Adams described and more. Decidedly unstuffy, the powerful exhibit isn’t marked by the exclusivity of “fine art,” but by the dirty, noble, brutal, sad, enlightened moments of our recent history reduced into milliseconds and captured in still frames. (Be warned: This exhibition will probably reduce you to a blubbering mess at least once. For this reporter, it was four or five times.) One of the most difficult photos might at first appear to be the most innocuous. The 1952 Pulitzer winner, “Racial Attack on the Football Field” (Donald T. Ultang), is powerful not for the quality or emotion of the photograph—at first glance, it’s a typical image of football play— but rather what it signifies. “Racial
30 // ARTS & CULTURE
Burst of Joy (1974) is one of many iconic images on display at the Gilcrease Museum’s new Pulizter photo exhibit. | SLAVA VEDER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
‘That’s a good picture’ Gilcrease Pulitzer photo show is an emotional ride by ZACK REEVES Attack” depicts a brutal blow to black Drake University running back Johnny Bright, a Heisman candidate who had at that point gained more yardage than any player in college football history. He was the first black player to play football on Lewis Field, at Oklahoma A&M College, now Oklahoma State University. Bright was hit three times in the fi rst seven minutes by A&M defensive tackle Wilbanks Smith. The third blow broke Bright’s jaw, and he was carried—according to the Des Moines Register, “protestingly”—off the field. This might have been a non-story, had the Des Moines Register not reported that the A&M coach yelled “get that n*****”
when A&M ran offensive drills preparing for the Drake game. While A&M had been integrated since 1949, Bright could not stay on campus with the Drake team, instead staying off-campus with a local black family. The incident was published nationwide, and OSU did not apologize for the incident until 2005—22 years after Bright’s death. Most Americans will be profoundly affected by photographs surrounding traumatic events like 9/11 and Columbine. These moments sit alongside the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, the Vietnam War, and the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. Come with at least an hour
to spare, if not more. And if you bring anyone with you, make sure it’s someone you don’t need to impress. Unless this person is impressed by your tears. “We have Kleenexes throughout the exhibit for a reason,” Dolph said. The word “Pulitzer” evokes an image of grandeur. After all, the prize is the pinnacle of awards for creatives; but the real grandeur of the show is its human core—the way it deftly contextualizes these massive historical moments into emotionally legible information. Read the captions slowly and step back, taking time to take in the whole picture in. Feel Oklahoma history, American history, world history, your history, wash over you. a May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
inthestudio
Tulsa Artist Fellow Shane Darwent | DESTINY JADE GREEN
Meet the Fellows: Shane Darwent MEET THE FELLOWS TAKES YOU INSIDE the studios of the 2019 Tulsa Artist Fellowship recipients for a look at their life and work. Since 2015, Tulsa Artist Fellowship has recruited artists and arts workers to Tulsa, where they “have the freedom to pursue their craft while contributing to a thriving arts community.” For more information, visit tulsaartistfellowship.org. THE TULSA VOICE: Can you tell us a little about your background and work? SHANE DARWENT: I grew up in a suburb of Charleston, SC, called Mount Pleasant. Our family moved there at the beginning of a construction boom and it was a fascinating place to witness the growth of a region in terms of building and sprawl. I studied printmaking and photography at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and have since lived all over the East Coast and now Midwest. Baltimore, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Chattanooga, and Detroit are all cities I have lived in and witnessed similar trends. These experiences continue to provide fodder for my work, which essentially is an exploration of the built American landscape—the aspirations and pitfalls alike. TTV: You’ve been a big force behind the work that’s been happening at Cameron Studios. Can you tell us a little about your involvement there, and how the culture of community collaboration intersects with your practice? DARWENT: Getting to work out of Cameron Studios has been amazing. We are an outpost of four studios that are separated from the main Fellowship building in a space that is more raw and therefore a bit more flexible to programming. Nathan Young has been organizing experimental music shows at Cameron for a while now, and in recent months we’ve gotten together and turned one of the studios into a gallery/project space and also built out a reading room to house artist books, zines and journals. All of us involved, THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
Nathan, Yatika Fields, Eric Sall and myself are eager to provide a space for the both the Fellowship and the greater Tulsa art scene to test out new and strange ideas. TTV: Awnings of Tulsa is a local company that has helped produce some of your sculptures. Can you talk about that relationship? DARWENT: I had my first solo exhibition in New York last fall, and the work was anchored by two large scale sculptures based on the forms and fabrication techniques used in storefront awning production. I built previous sculptures like this myself, but remained eager to work with a shop that fabricates awnings regularly. I set up a meeting with Awnings of Tulsa before my New York show … They not only offered technical expertise, but they had all sorts of aesthetic and conceptual considerations as well. We have since worked together on another series of sculptures as well as some speculative proposals. … [It’s] been more like an artist working with a printmaking studio than simply contracting out a service. There seems to be no shortage of amazing fabricators here in Tulsa and I really like that we have access to these industries in a different way than we might in New York or L.A. TTV: Any future shows or projects on the horizon you’re excited to share? DARWENT: For sure! In June I will actually be showing one of the recent awning sculptures for the Fellowship turnaround festival in the old True Turn building in the Tulsa Arts District. I have a solo exhibition at Boise State University this fall which will coincide with the grand opening of their new Center for Visual Arts. This summer I will be working with Flash Flood Print Studios in Kendall Whittier on a silkscreen edition as a part of their new Artist Print Series. Lastly, I’ll be helping facilitate Back Gallery’s 6th Annual Portrait Show which will be in our Cameron Project Space during First Friday in June. — TTV STAFF ARTS & CULTURE // 31
contactsheet
SYMMETRY by KYLE KISLING
This ongoing series of photographs arose subconsciously and consists of images I’ve captured over a decade in a multitude of locations. I’ve always been attracted to the simplicity, balance, and technicality. It’s calming and soothing to me, photographing a variety of subjects united by a core theme. I believe the significant Art Deco history in Tulsa has always had an influence in creating this series. This particular work is highly architectural. Recently I’ve decided to compile these photographs into a photo book which I hope to complete and print this summer. I really enjoy the layout process and pairing images for spreads. The images consist mostly of film photography, which is the majority of my work, and pretty much an even split of color and black and white. a
Contact Sheet is a place for local photographers to share their projects. If you’re interested in submitting, write to voices@langdonpublishing.com. You can follow Kyle at @_fokis_ on Instagram. 32 // ARTS & CULTURE
May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
ARTS & CULTURE // 33
COURTESY
GREG BOLLINGER
HANSON WEEKEND
WORLD CULTURE MUSIC FESTIVAL & HIP-HOP 918
Friday, May 17 and Sunday, May 19 Tulsa PAC and Tulsa Arts District, thehopjam.com
Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25 Tulsa Arts District, wcmtulsa.com
It’s been 22 years since “MMMBop” and 27 since Hanson’s first-ever performance at Tulsa Mayfest, when its eldest member (Isaac) was 12 years old. Now, Tulsa’s favorite trio has a big weekend planned, beginning at the PAC with “String Theory,” the band’s collaboration with Tulsa Symphony, on May 17 and continuing with The Hop Jam on May 19, which will feature 100 breweries, music from Phantom Planet, The Weeks, Wilderado, and more. Read more on pg. 36.
The biggest hip-hop festival in the state continues to grow. The festival will feature more than 65 performances (including headliners Larry June and Dex Kwasi) across six stages and five venues, including The Vanguard, Soundpony, Inner Circle Vodka Bar, Chimera, and Spinster Records. Saturday, WCMF will coincide with the second-annual oldschool rap fest, Hip Hop 918, which will feature performances by MC Lyte, Slick Rick The Ruler, Roxanne Shante, and Big Daddy Kane. It could be the freshest weekend Tulsa’s ever seen. Read more on pg. 40.
BOOK RELEASE
MURALS
Magic City Books will host a book release for Tulsa Artist Fellow Quraysh Ali Lansana’s The Skin of Dreams: New and Collected Poems 1995-2018. May 15, 7 p.m., magiccitybooks.com
For Habit Mural Festival, artists from around the country will transform the Gateway Building and create new murals at several other locations downtown and in the Pearl District. May 18–19, habitfestival.com
HOCKEY
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
For the first time in franchise history, the Tulsa Oilers have advanced to the ECHL Western Conference Playoffs, where they’ll take on the Toledo Walleye. BOK Center games are scheduled for May 15, 17, 18, & 22. tulsaoilers.com
Rocklahoma will feature performances by Shinedown, Gwar, Korn, and Bush. May 24–26, Pryor, rocklahoma.com
MUSIC + ART
RADIO PERFORMANCE
In its 46th year, Tulsa International Mayfest is moving to the Tulsa Arts District. The festival’s three stages will host dozens of local and regional acts, and with a new local-artists area, Mayfest will have more local art than ever. May 17–19, tulsamayfest.org
“Live from Cain’s” is a new public radio concept that will showcase live shows from Cain’s Ballroom. Read more on pg. 41. May 29, $25, cainsballroom. com
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May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
EVENTS Modern Masters: Rachel Kushner // 5/16, Congregation B’nai Emunah, magiccitybooks.com Sea of Grass: A Talk with Walter and Bunky EchoHawk // 5/16, Gilcrease Museum, gilcrease.org
Laughing Matter Improv - Mommie Dearest // 5/25, pH Community House, facebook.com/ events/268788517409131
Inkslingers // 5/17, Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill, facebook.com
Busted! // 5/25, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com
DIG: Day in the Garden // 5/18, Tulsa Botanic Garden, tulsabotanic.org
The Southern Mama, Cledus T Judd // 5/25, River Spirit Casino, riverspirittulsa.com
Cobbler Fest // 5/21, Heirloom Rustic Ales, antoinettebakingco.com
Open Mic w/ Andrew Deacon // 5/28, Reds Bar
Taste of Bixby // 5/23, Charley Young Event Park, bixbychamber.com Juneteenth Carnival // 5/23-27, OSU-Tulsa, tulsajuneteenth.org Route 66 Patriotfest // 5/25, Route 66 Historical Village, rt66patriotfest.com Movie in the Park: The Birdcage // 5/30, Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com Melanie Benjamin // 5/30, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com Chillin’ & Grillin’ BBQ Festival // 5/30-6/1, Sand Springs, sandspringschamber.com Real Okie Craft Beer Fest // 5/31, Honor Heights Park, friendsofhonorheightspark.org
TULSA PRIDE Friday, May 31 through Sunday, June 2 East Village District & Guthrie Green, tulsapride.org Oklahoma’s longest-running LGBTQ+ celebration spans a full weekend of events, performances, and more. Festivities begin on Friday with the street festival—which features a wide variety of exhibitors and performers, including Icona Pop—and the 5K Rainglow Run. The festival continues on Saturday, and the Pride Parade sets off through the district at 6 p.m. Tulsa Pride concludes with Picnic in the Park, a family gathering at Guthrie Green. Find the full schedule and more on pg. 26.
Broken Arrow Rose Festival & Chalk It Up // 5/31-6/1, Rose District, keepbabeautiful.org National Trails Day at Turkey Mountain // 6/1, Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, riverparks.org
PERFORMING ARTS Speaking of Which: Spoken Word Open Mic // 5/15, Gypsy Coffee House, gypsycoffee.com One Man Star Wars Trilogy & One Man Pride and Prejudice // 5/18, Tulsa PAC - John H. Williams Theatre, tulsaprojecttheatre.com
The Bob Dylan Archive will host World of Bob Dylan, a symposium featuring panels, exhibitions, performances, and special guests—including Byrds founder Roger McGuinn. May 30–June 2, dylan. utulsa.edu
ON STAGE
Dr. Rodney L. Clark’s new play “The Griffins” was inspired by his family members’ recollections of the 1921 Race Massacre. May 31–June 2, Tulsa PAC – Liddy Doenges Theatre, tulsapac.com
“Larry Clark: Tulsa,” Philbrook Downtown’s newest acquisition features 50 prints from the renowned photographer and filmmaker’s 1963–71 “Tulsa” series. Opens to the public on June 1. philbrook.com THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
Sam Norton // 5/29-6/1, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Silly Humans // 5/31, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Gary Owen and Friends // 6/4-6/5, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Open Mic w/ Andrew Deacon // 6/4, Reds Bar
SPORTS Tulsa Oilers vs Toledo Walleye Western Conference Finals // 5/15, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/16, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Oilers vs Toledo Walleye Western Conference Finals // 5/17, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/17, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Oilers vs Toledo Walleye Western Conference Finals // 5/18, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/18, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Athletic vs Ozark FC // 5/18, Veterans Park, tulsaathletic.com Tulsa Buffaloes vs OKC Flyers // 5/18, Veterans Park, tulsabuffaloes.com
Four Madrigals and a Wedding // 6/2, Trinity Episcopal Church, facebook.com/ events/2796803693791935
Tulsa Drillers vs Arkansas Travelers // 5/19, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com
Open Mic w/ Zach Amon & Shawn Singleton // 5/15, Centennial Lounge at VFW 577 Charlie Wiener // 5/15-5/18, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Hump Day Improv // 5/15, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Off Beat: Hilarious True Stories // 5/17-18, Duet, duetjazz.com Silly Humans // 5/17, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Young Guns // 5/18, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Open Mic w/ Andrew Deacon // 5/21, Reds Bar Open Mic w/ Zach Amon & Shawn Singleton // 5/22, Centennial Lounge at VFW 577 Cody Woods // 5/22-25, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com
PHOTOGRAPHY
Open Mic w/ Zach Amon & Shawn Singleton // 5/29, Centennial Lounge at VFW 577
Speaking of Which: Spoken Word Open Mic // 5/22, Gypsy Coffee House, gypsycoffee.com
COMEDY ALL ABOUT BOB
Nitro Comedy Tour w/ Catfish Cooley, Ginger Billy, Andrew Conn // 5/25, Hard Rock Casino The Joint, hardrockcasinotulsa.com
Movie in the Park: A Star Is Born // 5/16, Guthrie Green, guthriegreen.com
Portnoy’s Complaint @50 // 5/22, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com
BHADRI VERDUZCO
Georgia Adjaye, Will Davis, Mack O // 5/24, Retro Grill & Bar
Hump Day Movie // 5/22, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com Sondra Slade, T.J. Clark, Laura Cook, Ashlynn Nicole Johnson, Ryan Green // 5/24, Burn Co. @ Cain’s Ballroom
Mud Factor 5K Obstacle Run // 5/19, Tulsa Raceway Park, mudfactor.com Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 5/23, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 5/24, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Day-OhnDay 5K & 10K Run // 5/25, Mohawk Park, facebook.com/dayohndayrun Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 5/25, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Northwest Arkansas Naturals // 5/26, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Maple Ridge Memorial Day 5K Run & Block Party // 5/27, Maple Ridge, mapleridgememorial.itsyourrace.com WWE SmackDown Live // 5/28, BOK Center, bokcenter.com Roughnecks FC vs Austin Bold FC // 6/1, ONEOK Field, roughnecksfc.com Tulsa Athletic vs Club Atletico St. Louis // 6/2, Veterans Park, tulsaathletic.com Tulsa Drillers vs Springfield Cardinals // 6/3, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com Tulsa Drillers vs Springfield Cardinals // 6/4, ONEOK Field, tulsadrillers.com
Funny Makes Laugh // 5/24, Rabbit Hole Improv, rabbitholeimprov.com ARTS & CULTURE // 35
musicnotes
Strings attached
Hanson tells its story with an orchestral assist by BECKY CARMAN
P
ressed about the ardent devotion of Hanson’s fan base—many of whom celebrate and follow the band with the same fervor as they did when “MMMBop” dominated airwaves in 1997—Taylor Hanson offers an explanation as simple as it is true: “It’s hard-fought,” he said. “We just keep putting in the time.” It’s been 22 years since “MMMBop” and 27 since the brotherly trio’s first-ever performance at Tulsa Mayfest, when its eldest member (Isaac) was 12 years old. The true believers who have followed the band since those early days will have much to celebrate this month, starting May 16 with the start of the annual “Hanson Day” gathering celebrating the band’s formation. Thousands of Hanson fans from around the world will descend on Tulsa for the three-day event, with a stacked itinerary including a dance party, a painting class, karaoke, and a Saturday night concert at Cain’s Ballroom available only to Hanson fan club members. Following Hanson Day, The Hop Jam—the band’s annual beer and music festival—takes place May 19 in the Tulsa Arts District. The fest includes another Hanson concert performance, as well as sets from the newly reunited Phantom Planet and Joshua & the Holy Rollers, fronted by the youngest Hanson brother, Mac (not a member of Hanson, the band, proper). The weekend also marks the band’s first Oklahoma show on their String Theory tour, an international slew of dates pairing Hanson with orchestras across the globe for a two-act performance. Hanson partnered with renowned composer David Campbell (Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift) for the orchestral arrangements, and Campbell also led the 36 // MUSIC
but also we had a long runway to figure it out. We needed to find the right arranger and get plugged in with some of the symphony programs, and that was going to take more time. While we were working on the groundwork, it really started to become clear what the creative project would be. We recognized that it needed to be new work, a new message. We decided to use the show to tell a story instead of saying, “Let’s pick the most famous songs,” or, “Let’s pick the songs that are most likely to have strings on them in the original recordings.” We said, “Well no, can we tell a story? Can we take people on kind of a journey with this show?” And that kind of liberated us to think about every song as a possibility, and it also inspired us to write more. We saw the gaps in the narrative we wanted to tell and wrote those new songs. CARMAN: How did the partnership with David Campbell happen? This year’s Mayfest marks 27 years since Hanson first took the stage. | JONATHAN WEINER
symphony that performed on the companion album. The sold-out Friday concert with the Tulsa Symphony will feature old and new material from the Hanson catalog to tell the story of the band’s nearly three-decade arc in a way fans have never heard before. String Theory, a couple of years in the making, launched in the fall of 2018, following the band’s two 2017 releases, a Christmas album and greatest hits compilation Middle of Everywhere, commemorating Hanson’s 25th anniversary. The landmark afforded Hanson a reason not only to embark on an ambitious project like String Theory but also to contemplate the career that led to it.
I spoke with Taylor Hanson about String Theory, the dedication of Hanson fans, and looking back on 27 years as a band.
BECKY CARMAN: When did the idea for String Theory start to take shape, and then how long did it take to actually bring it to life? TAYLOR HANSON: We had it on the bucket list of possible ideas, and it actually became a project when we headed toward our 25th anniversary. The original idea was to do 25 cities for 25 years with an orchestra. There was a lot of interest, and it was great to see that,
HANSON: He’s an icon, kind of known for working in contemporary rock, pop, R&B, and working with classical. We met him on our first record when he did some arrangements. We kind of did a Hail Mary [when we] reached out to him … He’s working with Paul McCartney and Muse and Pharrell—all kinds of incredible people—but he was excited about it. He understood what we wanted to do, that we didn’t want to just do string pads behind a song, that we wanted to really create something that was exciting to an orchestra. And he signed on. There were at least 12 months of really active work on the creative but much longer than that working on the vision, the logistics, and the process, underMay 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
standing how to actually go about implementing it. We wanted the project to be something that, after we’d done the show, we wanted people to say, “This is rewarding and engaging and musically exciting.” That’s what we were hoping, and we could not have done that without David. CARMAN: From a songwriting and arranging perspective, what was the most surprising part of turning your older material into something essentially different? HANSON: The most surprising thing I think is that all of the DNA is in there. You learn that from producing records over time, that a good, core melody is something you can grow from and something you can shrink down to. We definitely had questions about some of the songs that were not especially, immediately identified as poised for classical treatment ... Some of the songs that have ended up being really great in the show, like “Where’s the Love?” or even “MMMBop,” which people know as a very straight-up pop song, work really well with the symphony. CARMAN: This project is interesting because it’s a challenge to yourselves as artists, but it’s a little bit of a challenge to your fans to ask them to come along with you. How have these audiences been compared to what you guys are used to seeing? HANSON: One of the things that’s cool … is it sort of gives everybody permission to just be mellow and quiet. We’ve certainly seen some online posts where people came to the show not knowing what they were in store for, and expecting to be jumping up and down and being raucous from the beginning, and this is a show that starts with a ballad. Seventy percent of the show is new songs or deep cuts—with an orchestra. We’ve heard some great feedback, which I think says that it’s resonated. There is a deeper message through this sort of project that really speaks to who we are and what we’re about, why we do what we do. It’s really a show about perseverance, about surviving through challenges and seeing the bigger picture. Most concerts, you do that in maybe one or two songs, but in this particular show, it’s one building arc. That’s someTHE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
thing I’m really proud of, and I feel like a lot of the audience has joined us in that. CARMAN: What imprint has String Theory left on you as a songwriter or a live performer? HANSON: It has forced us to take on the new. Even though we’ve done many tours, and every tour is different, this is different on a whole other level. When we walked into those first few shows, we had genuine nerves about it because you’re working with the best players in a completely different discipline, performing to a chart that’s not going to change. If you step left, they’re not going to step left with you; you have to hit your mark. It made us really have to pay attention and not give ourselves any passes. As a result, I feel like we’re tighter and hopefully sharper than we’ve been. CARMAN: The past few years, you’ve taken some time to look back. Are there any reflections about your career so far that maybe felt like new information to you? HANSON: We try to not spend too much time looking back. You’re always struggling to add new things to the story, a new song, a new tour. Partly, it’s been enjoyable just to have permission to reflect … because you’re consciously saying hey, we’ve reached a benchmark, and this is a great time to recognize that history. We’ve gotten past a bunch of things that might have killed us, but we’re still here. I think that gives a little boost of confidence, and for the fanbase that has stuck with us, I hope for them it’s an affirmation that they backed a group that has been in it for the long haul, and it has been worth it. a
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Hanson – String Theory Fri., May 17, 7:30 p.m. Tulsa Performing Arts Center 110 E. 2nd St. MUSIC // 37
musicnotes
‘Let’s groove’
Laying it down with Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire by JORDAN WILLIAMS
V
erdine White has had the kind of career most musicians can only dream of. While he was still a teenager, his older brother Maurice called him out to L.A. to play bass in a group that would eventually be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as Earth, Wind & Fire. But before all of the Grammy Awards and gold records, Verdine was a Chicago kid being mentored by seasoned musicians and cutting his teeth in the Windy City’s many recording studios. When he’s not electrifying crowds across the globe, White looks out for the next generation by providing free meals and musical inspiration through the performing arts center he founded in Los Angeles. I spoke with White about all of this in advance of EWF’s May 18 performance at RiverSpirit’s Paradise Cove.
JORDAN WILLIAMS: I know that you grew up in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s. That’s actually where my parents are from too. They grew up there around the same time. I’m curious what your memories are of the musical atmosphere in Chicago at that time. VERDINE WHITE: There was a lot of different kind of music. Chicago’s known for the blues. You had R&B. You had gospel. You had WVON, which was a great radio station. It was actually called “The Voice of the Negro.” Not only did they have music but they did Public Service Announcements. Our late father, who was a doctor, he loved music. And mom was a schoolteacher. It was a good atmosphere for music. 38 // MUSIC
WHITE: Yeah, I was in the All American Youth Orchestra. Actually, they’re having my high school reunion this year and I think a lot of the students are going to march all the way from my old high school to Orchestra Hall as part of the graduation ceremonies. WILLIAMS: At that time, were there a lot of other black kids who were getting into classical music or were you kind of a pioneer at that time?
Verdine White, bass player extraordinaire, is the driving force behind ‘70s funk icons Earth, Wind & Fire. COURTESY
WILLIAMS: Are there any concerts that you remember going to? Maybe the first concert you were able to go to? WHITE: We went to see James Brown. It was at a theater called the Regal Theater. You had the Apollo Theater in New York, of course. That’s famous. But in Chicago you have the same kind of theaters. You had the Regal Theater in Chicago. You had Uptown Theater in Philly. You had the Fox Theatre in Detroit. But Chicago had the Regal Theater and that’s where we saw James Brown over the Christmas holidays.
field’s house, who was actually one of the Phenix Horns, and he taught me everything I know on bass guitar. I started with him when I got to be a teenager, 13 or 14 years old. WILLIAMS: So were those two— the classical side and the R&B side that you studied on the bass guitar with Louis Satterfield— were they like totally different worlds to you? Or did they fit together pretty well?
WILLIAMS: I know that your brother Maurice is the one who got you your first bass.
WHITE: Yeah, different. The classical thing is more formal and of course R&B is much more raw— you know, on the ground, straight to the ground, man. It was great. It was a great upbringing. I had the best of both worlds.
WHITE: Absolutely, my first upright bass. I started training classically and then on weekends I would go over to his buddy Louis Satter-
WILLIAMS: You actually played with an orchestra that was affi liated with the Chicago Symphony for a while.
WHITE: I don’t think I was a pioneer. You had African American kids in there. Because of the nature of the kind of music, you probably didn’t have as many as you probably would have liked, but it was enough. And of course, on the R&B side, it was all us over there. WILLIAMS: You talked about getting lessons from Louis Satterfield and your brother, obviously, giving you some inspiration. How important was it for you to get guidance from all the older musicians you were able to be around at that time? WHITE: Well, now we call them mentors. We didn’t call them mentors then. We called them “the cats.” It was important because they let me hang out with them. They were the coolest guys in town, and I wanted to be like them. They were hip, musical, worldly, and that was where I wanted to go and what I wanted to be. WILLIAMS: I think that you’re really paying it forward because I’ve read a little bit about what you’re doing with the Verdine White Performing Arts Center. Can you talk a little bit about that too? May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
WHITE: We’re doing really good over there. We’re on 4700 Avalon Blvd. [in Los Angeles]. We also have a church in there and it’s run by Pastor Walter Davis. Every Wednesday morning during the school year, we feed 100 kids. So we have about 100 kids coming in today, although I’m on the road, we give them free breakfast— orange juice, granola, fruit—[so] they can be healthy. It’s free, because a lot of our urban kids do not have the opportunity to have good breakfasts in the morning. And we give the parents free coffee. It’s not Starbucks coffee but it’s our version of coffee. That’s what we do and we fed 4,000 kids last year. WILLIAMS: That’s incredible. I did upright bass growing up as well as played the bass guitar. As a kid, you kind of accept the world as it comes to you, but looking back on it you know how important it is for kids to have that outlet to express themselves creatively and even just to have a place to go after school. WHITE: Absolutely, burn that energy off. They’re so curious as young people, you know. WILLIAMS: You’ve talked before about the fact that you actually got to play on records locally in Chicago before you went out to join Earth, Wind & Fire. WHITE: Oh yeah, absolutely. I did a lot of local records around town. It was good training. It was a lot of fun. It was chaotic. It was all of that, all in one time. WILLIAMS: My dad’s actually been looking at some old maps of Chicago and realizing that there were studios near where he grew up that he didn’t know were there at the time. Can you tell me a little about what studios were there and who you were recording with?
WHITE: There were tons of studios in Chicago. You had a lot on Michigan Avenue. You had Paul Serrano’s studio. You had Chess Studios. You had Brunswick Studios. You had Universal Studios, where a lot of strings were done in the mornings and a lot of commercials. Don’t forget, Chicago at the time was big for commercials. They did a lot of hair product commercials. It was a big commercial city. WILLIAMS: I’ve always loved music from the 1970s, even though I was born after then. I think one of the assumptions that I’ve always had is that the musical transition that happened at that time—it seemed sort of inevitable to me, looking back on it. But after listening to you talk about your brother Maurice’s vision, I’ve had to start to appreciate that it wasn’t really inevitable. There were people like your brother who had the vision and were willing to do the hard work and take the risks to make that possible. Can you talk about what it was like being in the middle of that, before it was set that Earth, Wind & Fire would be a success?
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WHITE: Well, don’t forget I was a teenager, so for me it was a lot of fun. It was a great journey. I would say that I didn’t really realize what Maurice was doing and what he had to do. But for a teenager, it was the best place you could be to start your career—and for it to be successful, too! Of course, you’re talking to me now as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire. But when you look back at it, that’s not a given. A lot of people tried to do what I did. I was one of the ones that had a chance to be successful.
WHITE: What studio did your dad see?
WILLIAMS: What were some of the memories that stand out about being in that process and having to grow up as you’re having this success? Are there any moments that stand out that really matured you or [provided] some great life lessons?
WILLIAMS: I know he grew up around 74th and Racine. I think he was talking about a studio that was maybe two or three blocks away.
WHITE: That happens over time. That’s not like one lesson you get. It’s fast. Success is fast. It’s like a bullet train in Japan and you’ve just got to hang on. a
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
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MUSIC // 39
musicnotes
Street level
Oklahoma’s largest hip-hop fest returns to Tulsa by MARY NOBLE
L
ollapalooza and Coachella have become household names as two of the largest commercially successful American music festivals, attracting flower-laden concert goers since the 1990s. With music festivals sprouting in nearly every major city across the globe, many argue that the countercultural essence of festivals in the ‘60s and ‘70s has been overshadowed by a commercial rat race for ticket sales and allstar lineups. One aspect of festival culture that has remained constant is its tendency to attract primarily white audiences. During Coachella’s formative years, it was rare to fi nd a hip-hop act in its laundry list of performers. While efforts have been made to diversify lineups to include more hip-hop and R&B acts, people of color are still forced to perform in predominantly white spaces organized by and to the benefit of white men. This issue has caught the attention of notable artists such as Chance the Rapper, The Roots, and Tyler the Creator who have curated their own festivals with a more community-minded approach. Local hip-hop artist and Tulsa icon Steph Simon had a similar idea when he decided to create a hip-hop festival for the community by the community. Simon’s goal for what would become World Culture Music Festival was simple: showcase artists who regularly contribute to Tulsa’s burgeoning hip-hop scene as well as a few outside acts. While the festival boasted humble beginnings, it was a success from the start. I spoke with the festival’s top organizers Steph Simon, Kennan Lane (Keeng Cut) and Antonio Andrews (Dialtone) about its 40 // MUSIC
World Culture Music Festival is for the community, by the community. | GREG BOLLINGER
roots and continued growth. “It’s the spirit. It’s just in us,” Lane said. “Some of the stuff we’re doing, we don’t even know why we doing it—something got us. World Culture Music alone has lead us to so many other opportunities to make Black Wall Street better, to advance it,” he continued. “It’s all about showcasing artists who are putting in work in the city,” Andrews added. “We know the city; we’re from here. We know the people and the energy of the city. It’s a ground level type thing.” While most marquee festivals begin with a meeting of wealthy
investors, the roots of WCMF are firmly DIY. “We put our money together. We were sponsoring it ourselves [in the beginning]. There’s eight of us now; it’s got a little easier to do,” Simon said. “It’s progressed and got the whole city’s attention—if you ask me, it’s up there with Mayfest, Oktoberfest. People look forward to this. It’s like a holiday.” Since those early days of pooling resources among organizers, WCMF has gained sponsorship from organizations such as Williams, George Kaiser Foundation, 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, as well as several private donors.
Now entering its fourth year, the festival has grown into the largest hip-hop event in Oklahoma, attracting acts from across the U.S. like headliner Larry June, an emcee from the Bay Area who has toured with artists like Cousin Stizz and Post Malone. For Simon, WCMF is more than a festival. It’s a movement propelled by likeminded artists and entrepreneurs who want to see the continued revitalization of Black Wall Street. “It was put together by descendants with their own money … and funded by and catered toward people who come from that same environment—and I think that’s a big reason why it’s grown too,” Simon said. “We’re pretty much all descendants of Black Wall Street,” Lane said. “We’re from North Tulsa. We all are black entrepreneurs outside of this. We also have support from a lot of the other people bringing back Black Wall Street—the fi rst two years, most of them sponsored us. These are all of our brands.” Organizers welcome the festival’s growth year after year but acknowledge the importance of maintaining its independent vibe. “I just want it to always have that grassroots feel to it, that local feel to it,” Andrews said. “That’s the perfect balance having the sponsors but still having the local tie to it—because it’s from the city.” WCMF 2019 Will take place May 24–26 and will include performances from more than 50 artists across five different stages and venues in the Tulsa Arts District. Entry is free for performances in Chimera, Soundpony and Spinster Records. Inner Circle will be charging $10 at the door, and tickets to see Larry June at Vanguard are on sale at wcmtulsa.com. a May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
“There’s an added amount of excitement because when I do a normal show, I got my same guys,” Bishop said. “When you have great players like this event, you’re creating something live with people. You haven’t done it a million times. For me as a songwriter it brings the music to life in a whole new way. “There’s always a bit of nervousness for everybody,” she said. “Because it’s like, ‘Oh shit, are we gonna pull this off?”
The show will also feature guest appearances from guitarist Kevin Odegard, who played guitar on Bob Dylan’s iconic 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. “We’re actually going to do a shared version of ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ with each of the vocalists on stage taking one of the verses, which should be cool because Kevin played the guitar that is actually on the song that is on the original Dylan album,” Watson said.
After the show is recorded, Watson noted there will be additional content for the live audience, including an interview with musician and music journalist Jeff Slate. Tickets for the live show run from $25–40 and can be purchased on the Live from Cain’s website, livefromcains. com. The $40 ticket includes a VIP reception catered by Head Country following the event. a
Bonnie Bishop | PHIL CLARKIN
RADIO FREE TULSA Live from Cain’s launches May 29 by BLAYKLEE FREED
C
ain’s Ballroom is known for many things—its storied history, impeccable sound, and, of course, stellar live performances. But this month will mark a first for the legendary home of Bob Wills. Singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks will host the pilot episode of Tulsa’s newest radio show, Live from Cain’s, at the historic venue on May 29. Paul Benjaman and the Oklahoma Specials will join Fulks as the house band for the show. Live from Cain’s will be recorded in front of a live audience and shared with the Public Radio Exchange (PRX), where any public radio station can download it for free to fi ll in their sandlot, or unprogrammed, spot. “The hope is that they will air it and then give us feedback, which we will consider when developing a mini seven-season series next,” co-producer Julie Watson said. Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter Bonnie Bishop will join Paul Benjaman, John Fullbright (keys), Aaron Boehler (bass), Paddy Ryan (drums), Jeremy Watkins (fiddle) and Roger Ray (steel guitar) for a rendezvous of musicians unique to this show only. THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
MUSIC // 41
musiclistings Wed // May 15 Duet – Spunk Adams – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Scott Southworth Juicemaker Lounge – Stanley Fonka and the New Chocolate Factory Los Cabos - Jenks – Dave Kay Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson and Friends Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd Soul City – The Marriotts Soundpony – Campdogzz The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Fur Shop – Open Mic with Andrew Live
Thurs // May 16 Duet – Taron Pounds – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Another Alibi, Jesse Joice Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Clay Aery, DJ Demko Jenks Riverwalk – Brent Giddens Juicemaker Lounge – Cypher 120 Experience Los Cabos - Jenks – Jacob Dement Duo Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Band Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Kudos Renaissance Brewing – Open Mic w/ Benji River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – Don & Steve White Soundpony – And Then Came Humans The Colony – Jacob Tovar The Colony – David Hernandez - Happy Hour The Fur Shop – Kelevra The Hunt Club – Slow Drag, Dustin Storm The Run – Thomas Gabrial, Miles Williams The Venue Shrine – Con Brio, Brujoroots – ($12-$15)
Fri // May 17 Ahha – Scott Aycock, Emelle Performing Arts Blackbird on Pearl – The Brothers Moore, The Slow Drag, CZR – ($5) Cabin Boys Brewery – And Then Came Humans Cameron Studios – Stag: Promcore Pre-show Racetraitor, One Step Closer, Lift, Upright, When The Clock Strikes, Head Over Hills, Society Society, A Sounding Sea, OTM & More – ($5-$10) Dead Armadillo Brewery – Cody Woody Dusty Dog Pub – James Groves Band Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Zodiac, Empire, DJ 2Legit Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Bobby Ray, DJ Demo Lefty’s On Greenwood – Brujoroots Los Cabos - Jenks – Local Spin Maryn’s Taphouse – Rearview Mirror Mayfest - Living Arts Stage – Eric Himan, Nightingale, Swan Lake Gentleman’s Society, Whisky Misters, Denise Hoey & The Boulevard, Ebony Ase, Klondike 5, Smoochie Wallus, Randy Brumley, Steve Liddell Mayfest - OilFire Stage – Jesse Joice, Seven Feathers, Tripsitters, VanRiss, Robert Hoefling, Jamey Hooper, McKailey Holt, Dave Daniel, Hannah Main, Jamie Highfill, LT Mason, Teresa Hofferber, Mikayla Lane Max Retro Pub – DJ Jeffee Fresh Mercury Lounge – Jacob Tovar Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Inkslingers w/ Søaker, SPRNRML River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Chris Hyde Soul City – Randy Brumley Band – ($10) Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soundpony – DJ A Dre The Colony – And then Came Humans, Dane Arnold & The Soup – ($5) The Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks The Run – Stars The Vanguard – Bobaflex, Dark Sky Choir, Firstryke, Ironglide, Rival Empire – ($15) The Venue Shrine – DJ Hurricane of The Beastie Boys, DJ Moody, Danny Boy O’Connor – ($17-$20)
Baby Ruth’s Sports Bar – Alan Doyle, Mr. Burns, DJ Drop Dead Bad Ass Renee’s – Lights of Alora, Enslaved By Fear, AlterBlood, Harnish – ($5) Blackbird on Pearl – Electric Okie Test – ($7-$10) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Cade Roth and the Black Sheep – ($5) Gypsy Coffee House – Bethany Grace & Gypsy Soul Gypsy Coffee House – The Slow Drag Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Station 9D, Continuum, DJ Mib Hard Rock Casino - The Joint – Good Charlotte – ($30-$50) Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – John Anderson, DJ Demko Lefty’s On Greenwood – School of Rock Los Cabos - Jenks – Zodiac Marshall Brewing – Crow Maryn’s Taphouse – Chris Hyde Mayfest - Living Arts Stage – Cypher 120 Experience, The Lonelys, Dante & The Hawks, Mark Gibson, 68th Street Singers, Preslar Music, Foyil Music, Cheyenne Gagner, Anna Massey, Addison Reeves, Winnie Cooper, Charis Music Mayfest - OilFire Stage – Brian Nhira, Branjae, Faye Moffett, Group Therapy, Amanda Foyil, Staccato Studios Max Retro Pub – DJ AB Mercury Lounge – Count Tutu Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Acid Queen, The Holy Knives, The Dull Drums Red River Saloon – The 29th Street Band River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Sugarpill River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Earth, Wind & Fire – ($75-$85) River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Blake Turner Soul City – The Stylees, Tribe of Souls – ($10) Soundpony – High and Tight Studio 308 – Gavin Tucker and the .45 District The Colony – Whirligig’s 25th Anniversary – ($5) The Fur Shop – NTZ The Hunt Club – Jesse Joice The Run – Stars The Vanguard – Promcore w/ Bent Life, BraceWar, I AM, Hollow Breath, Valleys, Enlow, Rose Gold, Piece of Mind, Faim, & more – ($15) The Venue Shrine – Psymionic, Thelem, Of Faces, Noizmekka – ($12-$15)
Sun // May 19 East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Dewayne Bowman Los Cabos - Jenks – The Infamous Two Man Band Mayfest - Living Arts Stage – George Layman, Theater Arts, Grace Ann Productions, The Playoff, Haven Alexandria, Wendy Nichol, Vintage 5 Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark pH Community House – Friendship Commander, When Particles Collide, Tom Boil, Plastic Psalms River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Blues Brunch w/ Dustin Pittsley Soundpony – Beta Betamax, Daniels, Sun Vow The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ Cody Clinton Tulsa Arts District – The Hop Jam w/ Hanson, Phantom Planet, The Weeks, Wilderado, Joshua & The Holy Rollers, Duncan Fellows & more
Mon // May 20 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Juicemaker Lounge – Open Mic w/ DJ Stylez, DJ MikeMike Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster – River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jesse Weaver Soundpony – Taiyamo Denk, Soultru The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Run – Jeremy & Friends
Sat // May 18
Tues // May 21
473 – Lorena Leigh Ahha – Talk of Tulsa Show Chorus, Founders Chorus, Orbit Initiative
473 – Singer/Songwriter Night w/ Mike Gilliland BOK Center – Pentatonix – ($26.50-$132.50) Cain’s Ballroom – Todd Snider, Elizabeth Cook – ($24-$27)
42 // MUSIC
Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Lefty’s On Greenwood – Cynthis Simmons Marshall Brewing – Clay Norvell Mercury Lounge – Brujoroots River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed Soul City – Wink Burcham The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Hunt Club – Mikayla Lane
Wed // May 22 Cain’s Ballroom – Colter Wall, Kacy & Clayton – ($20-$35) Duet – Madeline Kassen – ($10) Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Bill and Bonnie, DJ Mib Juicemaker Lounge – Stanley Fonka and the New Chocolate Factory Los Cabos - Jenks – Laron Simson Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson and Friends Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd Soundpony – We Are the Asteroid, Cani Sciorri, DJ Burak The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Fur Shop – Open Mic with Andrew Live The Vanguard – Backseat Vinyl, Cliffdiver, Manta Rays, Florence Rose – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Thomas Ian Nicholas – ($10-$25)
Thurs // May 23 Crow Creek Tavern – Cody Woody Duet – Tim Shadley Piano Trio – ($8) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Blake Turner, DJ and the Band Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Jake Dodds Jenks Riverwalk – Bad Decisions Juicemaker Lounge – Cypher 120 Experience Los Cabos - Jenks – The Rays Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Band Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Kudos River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Rocktopia – ($20-$30) Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – DJ Burak The Colony – Jacob Tovar The Colony – David Hernandez - Happy Hour The Fur Shop – Kelevra The Hunt Club – Songswappers w/ Jimmy Taylor and Bill Crane The Run – Zinners Jam The Vanguard – Nathan Perry, The Grinnin’ Gringos – ($10)
Fri // May 24 Barkingham Palace – Mississippi Jake, Streetlight Fight Blackbird on Pearl – Astyanax, Center of Disease, Hersker, Basses Loaded – ($5) Cabin Boys Brewery – Lily B Moonflower Central Library – Alan Doyle, Algebra, Doc Freeman, Forbes Entertainment Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Stars, Barrett Lewis, DJ 2Legit Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – DJ Silver, DJ Demko Inner Circle Vodka Bar – WCMF - Verse & The Vapors, Branjae, Written Quincey & Gud People, Flock of Pigs – ($10) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Chris Hyde Los Cabos - Jenks – Southern Shine Max Retro Pub – DJ Jeffee Fresh Mercury Lounge – Golden Ones, Fiawna Forte, Ramona and the Phantoms Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Tony Exum Jr., Michael Fields Jr. – ($20-425) Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Afistaface River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed River Spirit Casino - LandShark Pool Bar – Travis Fite River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – The Nightly Dues Scotty’s Lounge – Kevin Jameson Soul City – The Hydramatics – ($10) Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soundpony – WCMF - Original Flow & The Fervent Route, Dismond J, #Baconomics, WeRdoZe, Mdot Benjamin, Yung Trunkz, TheNoreaga, J.Rob, Allias, DJ Harvey
The Boxyard – Dancers Rooftop Party The Fur Shop – Chris Blevins The Hunt Club – Dachshund, Oceanaut, Mercury Tree The Run – Rose Leach The Vanguard – WCMF - Larry June, World Culture Music, Ayilla, Grand National Parris Chariz, Bash the Rappa, Advm The Gvd, Savvy Kray, Micky Ronnae, DJ Wallie Mayne – ($20-$30)
Sat // May 25 473 – Potluck – ($5) Bad Ass Renee’s – Jason Ford, Ridiculas Trixx, Justin Howl – ($5) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – A Mixtape Catastrophe, Andrew Live, Ethan Smith, Hector Ultreras – ($5) Chimera – WCMF - M.C., The Vets, NublvckCity, Jabee, Fury MC’s, Suarez Republic, M Shah, Kenny Barz, Lessons in Fresh Crew Duet – Dara Tucker – ($15) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Live 80, Scott Eastman, DJ Mib Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Wilbur Lee Tucker, DJ Demko Inner Circle Vodka Bar – WCMF - DeX Kwasi, David Puffin & Bam Beezy Bayb, Soufwess Des, Hakeem Eli’Juwon, St. Domonick, You.th, Irai Ouree & Saze (Almighty), Follie & Creo, 4Chianno – ($10) Lefty’s On Greenwood – Desi and Cody Max Retro Pub – DJ Robbo Mercury Lounge – South Austin Moonlighters River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Weekend All Stars River Spirit Casino - LandShark Pool Bar – Greg Draggo, DJ Ecog River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Mike Wilson Soul City – Stephen White Group – ($10) Soundpony – WCMF - Saganomics, Thrill Co2 Da Great, Matchbox Tony, Domo, The Grae, JC Seals, Alan Doyle, DJ Celly2tymes Spinster Records – WCMF - Mr. Burns, The Monastery, Paid In Amerikka, Truth Universal, Bambi, Suarez Republic, Jay-Von, Tizzi, DJ Sole Lab Br – ($20) The Colony – Wink Burcham – ($5) The Colony – Cowboy Jones w/ Special Guests Happy Hour – ($5) The Stumbling Monkey – Brandi Reloaded The Vanguard – My So-Called Band – ($10)
Sun // May 26 Bad Ass Renee’s – Murderhouse, The Implusive, Basses Loaded – ($5) East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Darrel Cole Los Cabos - Jenks – The Infamous Two Man Band Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark Retro Grill & Bar – Koolie High and the Wise Men River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Blues Brunch w/ Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ Cody Clinton The Vanguard – Kinda Collective, The Odyssey, Alexis Onyango, Little King – ($10)
Mon // May 27 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Juicemaker Lounge – Open Mic w/ DJ Stylez, DJ MikeMike Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jesse Weaver The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Run – Jeremy & Friends
Tues // May 28 473 – Singer/Songwriter Night w/ Mike Gilliland Cain’s Ballroom – Snow Tha Product, The Neighbor$, Alan Doyle – (SOLD OUT) Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Lefty’s On Greenwood – Pam & Bill Crosby Marshall Brewing – The Lost Keys May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
Mercury Lounge – Brujoroots River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed Soul City – Steve Pryor’s Tuesday Bluesday The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Venue Shrine – Jeff Hardy – ($15-$20)
Wed // May 29 Cain’s Ballroom – Live From Cain’s w/ Robbie Fulks, Bonnie Bishop, Paul Benjaman and the Oklahoma Specials, Kevin Odegard – ($25-$40) Duet – Scott McQuade – ($5) Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Bill and Bonnie, DJ Mib Juicemaker Lounge – Stanley Fonka and the New Chocolate Factory Los Cabos - Jenks – Barrett Lewis Mercury Lounge – Beau Roberson and Friends Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Shelby and Nathan Eicher – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Travis Kidd The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Fur Shop – Open Mic with Andrew Live The Vanguard – The Maine, Grayscale – ($25)
Thurs // May 30
E V E N T S @ T PA C
Blackbird on Pearl – Scruffy, Travis Bond and Keith Allen, New Time Zones, Dead Union Duet – BRD Trio – ($8) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Mayday by Midnight, Miracle Max Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Tyler Hammond, DJ Demko Heirloom Rustic Ales – Isaac McClung Jenks Riverwalk – The 29th Street Band Juicemaker Lounge – Cypher 120 Experience Lefty’s On Greenwood – Little Brother Walker
Los Cabos - Jenks – Brent Giddens Mass Movement Community Arts – Worlds Greatest Dad, Mess, Brother Rabbit, My Heart & Liver are the Best of Friends – ($5) Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman Band Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Kudos River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – DJ 2Legit Soul City – Don & Steve White The Colony – Jacob Tovar The Colony – David Hernandez - Happy Hour The Fur Shop – Kelevra The Hunt Club – Ego Culture The Run – Zinners Jam – The Vanguard – Kill Vargas, Unsung Alibi, The Backward Few, Brooding – ($10) Utica Square – Weston Horn & The Hush
Fri // May 31 Brady Theater – John Hiatt – ($39.50-$49.50) Cabin Boys Brewery – Isaac McClung Duet – Peter Tomshany and the Shoes – ($10) East Village District – Icona Pop @ Tulsa Pride Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Big Daddy, The Hawkes DJ 2Legit Hard Rock Casino - Track 5. – Travis Marvin, DJ Demko Lefty’s On Greenwood – Faye Moffett Los Cabos - Jenks – Aviators Max Retro Pub – DJ Afistaface Mercury Lounge – Chance Anderson, Wight Lighters Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – American Shadows, The Dull Drums River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - LandShark Pool Bar – Jake Flint Duo River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Ayngel & John Smitty’s 118 Tavern – Kevin Jameson Soul City – Wink Burcham Band – ($10)
Soul City – Susan Herndon - Happy Hour Soundpony – Eclectic Sounds w/ DJ $sir Mike The Colony – Fort Defiance – ($5) The Hunt Club – Rosy Hips The Run – Full Flava Kings The Vanguard – Through Being Cool, Lights of Alora, Out of Sink
Sat // Jun 1 Bad Ass Renee’s – Labadie House, Brass Knuckle Riot, Stellar Ascent, Pittersplatter, Spook Brady Theater – JoJo Siwa D.R.E.A.M. – (SOLD OUT) Cain’s Ballroom – Bridgefest w/ The Brothers Moore, Fifth Element, BC & The Big Rig, Tallgrass 66, November – ($10) Dead Armadillo Brewery – Randy Crouch, Carter Sampson, Meandering Orange, Joe Mack Duet – Russell Malone – ($30) Marshall Brewing – Darden Shea & Silas Nello Max Retro Pub – DJ Robbo Mercury Lounge – Bread and Butter Band Osage Casino Tulsa - Skyline Event Center – Old 97s – ($15-$25) Soundpony – Favord n Flavored The Colony – Combsy – ($5) The Run – Doctors of Replay The Vanguard – Smallpools, Royal Teeth, Keelan Donovan – ($15) Tulsa PAC - John H. Williams Theatre – Ani DiFranco, Diane Patterson – ($45-$75) Vox Pop Tulsa – Forest Sun, Nightingale
Sun // Jun 2 East Village Bohemian Pizza – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – James McMurtry, Bonnie Whitmore, Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens
Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soul City – Blues Brunch w/ Dustin Pittsley Soundpony – Black Taffy The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Colony – Singer Songwriter Open Mic Matinee w/ Cody Clinton The Vanguard – Tony MacAlpine, Arch Echo, Galaxia – ($20)
Mon // Jun 3 Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Juicemaker Lounge – Open Mic w/ DJ Stylez, DJ MikeMike Mass Movement Community Arts – Sworn Enemy, Low End, Typecaste, Piece of Mind, Give Way – ($8-$10) Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Chris Foster Rabbit Hole Bar & Grill – Action Boys, Madewell, Esc Ctrl River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jesse Weaver Soundpony – T-Town Boys The Colony – Seth Lee Jones
Tues // Jun 4 473 – Singer/Songwriter Night w/ Mike Gilliland BOK Center – Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band – ($33-$146) Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Marshall Brewing – Noah T Mercury Lounge – Brujoroots River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed Soul City – Wink Burcham The Colony – Dane Arnold & The Soup The Colony – Deerpaw - Happy Hour The Vanguard – gnash, Anna Clendening – ($19)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Theatre Tulsa May 17-26 One-Man Pride & Prejudice and One-Man Star Wars Trilogy Tulsa Project Theatre May 18
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The Discovery Awards Celebrity Attractions/ Tulsa PAC Trust May 24 The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical Celebrity Attractions May 31-June 1 The Griffins Theatre North May 31-June 2 Ani DiFranco Woody Guthrie Center June 1 Brown Bag It: Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road Tulsa PAC Trust June 5
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THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
MUSIC // 43
popradar
Despicable me
Uncanny Netflix sketch show explores the humor of humiliation by MATT CARNEY
W
atching Tim Robinson’s disarmingly funny new Netfl ix sketch comedy series, I Think You Should Leave I found myself thinking about Jack Handey. Jack Handey is my favorite American male humorist. This is in part because his jokes have made me laugh for a long time. (“To me, it’s a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, ‘Hey, can you give me a hand?’ you can say, ‘Sorry, got these sacks.’”) But also because most people don’t believe he is real. This misunderstanding by the public is forgivable. Handey’s childlike aphorisms, Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey, first came to us in the ‘90s via Saturday Night Live, where most viewers understood him as a fiction of the show due to his silly-sounding name. Regardless, more than a million copies of his books have sold to date. While Handey’s Deep Thoughts and Robinson’s new show differ wildly in style, the two share a dedication to humor that is absurd, out-of-line with mainstream taste and often terribly discomforting. The source of this discomfort in I Think You Should Leave is Robinson himself. The 37-yearold former Saturday Night Live writer and cast member is a manic performer who stammers, dissembles, stares, spits, grimaces and shouts through sketches that emasculate his characters right to their despicable cores. Like Handey, Robinson’s comic sensibilities are of the scoundrel variety. The butts of his jokes lack awareness and shame, explode with anger, harbor dark secrets and often find themselves caught in a moment when a lie has
44 // FILM & TV
Tim Robinson in I Think You Should Leave | COURTESY
reached critical mass. Robinson doesn’t do relatable comedy, easy punchlines or straightforward topical references. The last point in particular signifies how hard I Think You Should Leave chafes against our modern economy of consumer comedy. Think of a typically pleasant, banal late-night monologue from James Corden or Seth Meyers. Usually there are a few jokes in there about a topic as worn as Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, whose punchline hinges on whether or not you read that day’s Kanye West or Kim Kardashian story. This is comedy for the sake of rewarding your consumption. Here’s your gold star for getting the reference. Covfefe. “It feels so throwaway,” Handey told the New York Times Magazine about this sort of topical humor in a 2013 feature. “I’m sure there were great jokes that were very timely to 1878, but nobody wants to read ‘em now.” Instead of gently poking your brain’s poor, overstimulated dopamine receptors, Robinson’s show delights in the sort of drawn-out tensions that unnerve audiences looking for an obvious payoff,
pushing them well into the territory of humiliation. Dinner goes fine until a man is caught conspiring with the restaurant manager to stop his date from bogarting the loaded nachos. A backup organist tests new material at a funeral. An intervention is derailed when its host reveals that she bought her home from Garfield creator Jim Davis—or did she? In what might be the show’s funniest single bit, Robinson sanctimoniously rattles off porno titles to distract a manager as he shoplifts from a store he’d just driven a hot dog-shaped car into. He loves pulling the curtains back on dim miscreants and liars, to see the lengths they’ll go to keep up the illusion. In less-experienced hands, I Think You Should Leave could quickly descend into atonal, mishmash anarchy. But Robinson’s background in sketch keeps things familiar, drawing on many of the genre’s everyday set pieces for consistency: the board room meeting, the commercial parody, the quiz show. That he can do this without verging into edgelord territory—
joking about controversial subjects just to delight in the shock value—is impressive. Robinson deftly dodges rage comedy as well. His performance of masculine anger comes across consistently as pitiful rather than intimidating, thanks in part due to his schlubby appearance and arsenal of dopey expressions. Trying to pin down a theme or any other overarching rhyme or reason to the show’s humor seems like a futile exercise, but motifs emerge over its six short episodes. Grown-ups yell at babies. Badly designed products betray their consumers’ insecurities. (Brace yourself for Robinson’s line delivery in the TC Tuggers sketch.) Colleagues struggle to relate to one another. Humiliation abounds. There are tons of solid guest spots both from familiar faces (Will Forte, Vanessa Bayer, Steven Yeun, Fred Willard) and up-and-comers (Patti Harrison and Brandon Wardell) alike, but Conner O’Malley emerges as the show’s final boss, the only comic up to the task of rivaling Robinson’s deranged presence. Those familiar with O’Malley’s work will see the parallels to his insane and visceral Twitter videos where he works up a mania shouting into his selfie-sticked smartphone camera about his deranged fixation on Democratic presidential candidates Howard Schultz and Beto O’Rourke. I won’t spoil O’Malley’s sketch with Robinson here, but like O’Malley’s guerilla comedy, it gets at something really unsettling in our cultural moment, underscoring how our public figures can humiliate themselves left and right seemingly without repercussion. It seems like a good check on our ability to find the humor in public debasement. In this way, I Think You Should Leave feels like a relief. a May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
A BRIEF RUNDOWN OF WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE CIRCLE CINEMA
onscreen OPENING MAY 24 THE WHITE CROW Directed by and co-starring Ralph Fiennes, this biopic dramatizes the defection of the Soviet Union’s most famous dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, to the West in 1961. Rated R.
Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph in Wine Country | COURTESY
THE BIG CHILLED Amy Poehler’s wine-soaked comedy doesn’t have legs
LIKE A CHEAP TABLE WINE, WINE COUNTRY plays to the simplest, broadest of palates. It’s a surprising letdown given the comedic varietals of this all-star vintage. Amy Poehler, in her directorial debut, assembles her Saturday Night Live alum besties for an original Netflix comedy inspired by their recent, real-life, girls-only West Coast vineyard excursions. Yet even with such aromatic notes of hilarity from the likes of Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer and Tina Fey, plus writer-actors Paula Pell and Emily Spivey—the latter co-wrote the screenplay and deserves a sitcom of her own—this bawdy blend of modern comedians tries to spike a script that hasn’t fully fermented. For a something that should feel personal, Wine Country is clichéd and commodified. Some bits are pulled from their actual trips (a scene of vibrator gags, for one), but they’re shoehorned into a typical plot filled with stock character archetypes (including Poehler’s Leslie Nope-ish Type A organizer) who undergo predictable arcs. The women play a group of longtime friends who gather in California’s Sonoma Valley for the 50th birthday celebration of Dratch’s Rebecca. Inevitably, once they get past the first round of quasi-uninhibited partying, the vacation finds each woman at a defining crossroads where life didn’t turn out like they’d planned. Even Gasteyer’s workaholic TV celeb—there’s always one in these reunion movies, it seems— has compromised her passion for the demands of commerce. Rather than events unfolding with more meaningful intent, Wine Country is driven by various sketch-level ideas of intoxicated humor that never fully intoxicate. Some scenes land better than others— most involving Rudolph to some degree THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
(like her day-drunk public singing)—and each earn their share of laughs, but rarely do the antics audaciously blindside (like, say, they did in “Bridesmaids”). Oddly enough, the funniest characters are the supporting scene-stealers, from Jason Schwartzman’s in-house tour guide to Cherry Jones’ pissy psychic who foresees the worst rather than the best, and does so with a smug, impatient edge. There’s some witty elitist satire, too, but only hints of that compared to similar territory explored more deeply in writer/ director Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning “Sideways.” In addition, the most awkward featured role comes from Tina Fey who feels miscast as the gruff, surly widowed owner of the rental home. Woven throughout are more emotional moments that, increasingly, become the film’s most effective ones. Even so, they’re often rooted in the cathartic trope of women beating themselves up over perceived failures only to be reaffirmed about how strong they truly are. Yes, that can be a common pitfall worth depicting, but here each example just feels contrived. Poehler’s self-aware enough to have her Abby remark that their struggles reek of white privilege (these reckonings suffered during a wine country weekend, no less), but that acknowledgement doesn’t lead to any new perspective or bittersweet gratitude. Patching it all together is a 1980s retro-pop soundtrack, delivered via groupsyncs or montages, that serves as a default go-to when all else fails. Aside from a handful of gorgeous landscape shots, Wine Country doesn’t even work as an escapist travelogue, marking yet another missed opportunity in a straight-to-streaming effort filled with them. — JEFF HUSTON
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT A Chinese drama that has nothing to do with the Eugene O’Neill play of the same name, it’s a moody, stylized noir mystery about a man who returns to his hometown to search for the woman he’s never been able to forget. Not Rated. MEETING GORBACHEV Filmmaker Werner Herzog interviews the former and final president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as they discuss the Soviet fall and the world since. Opening night intro and Q&A with Robert H. Donaldson, Trustees Professor of Political Science at University of Tulsa. Not Rated.
OPENING MAY 31 ROCKETMAN A fantasy-fueled biopic of Elton John’s storied musical career and chaotic private life. Starring Taron Egerton as the iconic legend, with Jamie Bell and Bryce Dallas Howard. Rated R. RAMEN SHOP A young man goes on a food journey to Singapore where he seeks to learn more about the past of his deceased parents. In Japanese with subtitles. Not Rated. THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM An inspiring documentary for the whole family about one California couple’s 8-year journey to transform drought-depleted land into a
place of diverse habitats, where various crops, animals, and vegetation could thrive. Rated PG. HESBURGH Documentary about former University of Notre Dame president Theodore Hesburgh. A counselor to world leaders, he was one of the most influential Americans of the 20th Century, fighting for causes of peace and equal rights. Not Rated.
SPECIAL EVENTS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR (1993) Meet-and-greet the now-adult star Thomas Ian Nicholas who will be on-hand for this special 35mm film print screening of the 1993 sports family film classic. Nicholas plays a boy who gains a powerful pitching arm after an accident, making him a major league pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Tickets $15. (Wed. May 22, 7 p.m.) JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: ELECTRIC CHURCH Documentary about the legendary guitarist’s performance at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival on July 4, in front of the largest U.S. audience of his career, set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War. Tickets $10, Circle Members $8. (Tue. May 28, 7 p.m.) NT LIVE: THE AUDIENCE An encore presentation of Helen Mirren in her 2015 Tony Award winning role as Queen Elizabeth II. Set over 60 years, it dramatizes the Queen’s meetings with each of her Prime Ministers. From playwright Peter Morgan (“The Queen”, “The Crown”) and director Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliot”). Tickets $15. (Mon. June 3, 7 p.m.) FILM & TV // 45
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2910 Mohawk Blvd. | MON, TUES, THURS, FRI & SAT, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 918.428.7722
Sweet DAPHNE is a loving and loyal girl. She has been brought up-to-date on her vet care and is ready now for her forever family! Her gentle demeanor would make her a good fit for almost any home.
ACROSS 1 Way out 7 Units of resistance 11 Spread, as seeds 14 Crimson Tide, familiarly 18 Understands 19 Pirate’s treasure 20 Bush spokesman Fleischer 21 Gives the go-ahead 23 “I don’t like my dermatologist because he ...” 26 Decaf brand 27 New paragraph key 28 Reel’s partner 29 Of a secret society 31 “___ Poetica” 32 Roaster’s spot 33 Fills up an Uber? 35 Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya 36 Failures may bruise them 37 Laudatory lines 38 “My ophthalmologist ...” 41 Tell a story 43 Jazz great Anita 44 Online greetings 45 Bad-mouth 46 Tree in a fire? 48 Makes lively 51 “My cardiologist ...” 57 Parking place 61 “Wise” bird 62 Dirties 63 One may fry your fryer 64 Not throw away, say
MURPHY is a quiet boy who is used to an indoor life and did well with house training in his last home. His ideal home is one without small children, where he can get all the attention! Murphy is about 3 years old.
65 Some forensic evidence 66 Facebook and Twitter 67 An end to sex? 68 Frilly dress material 70 Emulate Eminem 71 Bold 73 Tranquility 75 Auto stick-on 76 Schuss, perhaps 77 Fencing variety 78 “My psychiatrist ...” 81 Lack 83 Morning hrs. 84 More, musically 85 Available 88 “No sweat!” 91 Some have three rings 95 “My orthopedist ...” 100 Chess queens, ironically 101 Type of floor 102 Roll of bills 103 Weak ground ball 104 Word after Miller but not Bud 105 Enzyme suffix 106 Cat carrier opening 108 Junior, to Senior 109 Pop, for Ariana Grande 110 “Wheel of Fortune” purchase 112 “My otolaryngologist ...” 115 Gives off 116 Anger 117 Sushi seaweed 118 Clearly display 119 Canadian gas company 120 ___ Lingus
121 Goes (for) 122 Like many circuses DOWN 1 Prodded 2 The Caribbean’s Island of Spice 3 More run-down 4 Twisty turns 5 Cowboy boot attachment 6 Common ID 7 Soccer stadium cheers 8 Large crowds 9 May VIP 10 Blocked 11 Nordstrom rival 12 Camden Yards player 13 ___-the-Pooh 14 Pear type 15 Blotter letters 16 One minding her own business? 17 “Driving Miss Daisy” actor Dan 22 Gives lip 24 Tee off, in golf 25 Dancer’s boss? 30 Buy stock, say 33 Racer’s quick break 34 Sticky camp treat 36 Go by 38 Deny 39 All worked up 40 Homophone of “I see you” 42 Aves. and sts. 46 Least legitimate 47 Med. lines 49 They may grow up to be bald 50 ___ to the choir 51 Challenger or Charger 52 Confess 53 Gladden
The Tulsa SPCA has been helping animals in our area since 1913. The shelter never euthanizes for space and happily rescues animals from high-kill shelters. They also accept owner surrenders, rescues from cruelty investigations, hoarding, and puppy mill situations. Animals live on-site or with foster parents until they’re adopted. All SPCA animals are micro-chipped, vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and treated with preventatives. Learn about volunteering, fostering, upcoming events, adoptions, and their low-cost vaccination clinic at tulsaspca.org.
RADAR is a 3-year-old mix breed that lived indoors in his last home where he got along well with dogs and children— but he would prefer a home without cats. This 68-pound pup enjoys being around people and loves his toys.
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More with it Stubborn animals Run smoothly Prize money 2018 U.S. Open winner Naomi Lukewarm Dependent (on) Frappuccino ingredient Comparably outlandish Calm down Son of Jacob Not brilliant Zambia neighbor Batman alter ego Bruce City policy dept. Golfer Ernie From C to shining C? Offensive to the senses Creator of 96-Down Stroll Italian seaport Make a smoothie, say Well-known Go over again Displayed contempt Aslan’s land Stick like a stamp Hot spot Beloved of Aphrodite Russian Revolution leader Plus Mind ___ matter Contributed Venusians, e.g. Cut, as a branch Band performance
A street cat for much of her life, ROSA is so grateful to now be an indoor cat. She enjoys attention from anyone she meets and especially loves to have her pretty coat brushed. This six-year-old cutie would do well in almost any home.
UNIVERSAL SUNDAY CROSSWORD MUSINGS OF AN ANGRY PATIENT By Mark Feldman, edited by David Steinberg
© 2019 Andrews McMeel Syndication 46 // ETC.
PUMA is a great girl with a beautiful brindle coat. She has been spayed, vaccinated, tested for FeLV/FIV (negative), microchipped, and is current on parasite prevention. Come meet this cutie in our Cat Colony Room at Tulsa SPCA.
5/19 May 15 – June 4, 2019 // THE TULSA VOICE
THE TULSA VOICE // May 15 – June 4, 2019
ETC. // 47
Pleas e re cycle this issue.