The Tulsa Voice | Vol. 5 No. 3

JAN. 17 – FEB. 6, 2018

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VOL. 5 NO. 3

A local mother tells her story about living undocumented and her husband’s removal P22

Leaders of faith at New Sanctuary Network protest Tulsa’s ‘deportation engine’ P25

CELEBRATING THE TEAM BEHIND THE GATHERING PLACE AS TULSANS OF THE YEAR P26

paradise never sounded So Good.

Tickets On Sale Now

bob newhart sat, jan 20 brothers osborne sat, jan 27 jim gaffigan sat, feb 10 EARTH, WIND & FIRE FRI, MAR 2 STEVE WINWOOD SAT, MAR 3 johnny mathis thur, MAR 8 chicago Wed, mar 14 tom jones sat, may 19

Live Music

7 Nights a Week

Starting at 5 PM every day in Margaritaville and at 9PM in 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar! Visit margaritavilletulsa.com for a complete schedule.

81ST & RIVERSIDE 888-748-3731 RIVERSPIRITTULSA.COM

2 // CONTENTS

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

ENJOY SOME OF THE BEST DINING TULSA HAS TO OFFER

MCNEL L IE’S w w w . m c n e l l i e s . c o m PROBA BLY T UL S A’S BES T PUB 1S T & ELGIN

YOKOZUN A w w w . y o k o z u n a s u s h i . c o m DOW N TOWN’S BES T SUSHI 2ND & DE T ROIT

FA S SL ER H A L L w w w . f a s s l e r h a l l . c o m HOUSEM A DE S AUS AGES A ND A GRE AT BEER G A RDEN 3RD & ELGIN

EL GUA P O’S w w w . e l g u a p o s c a n t i n a . c o m

EN JOY ME XICA N FOOD A ND M A RG A RITA S ON DOW N TOW N’S ONLY ROOF TOP PATIO 1S T & ELGIN

T HE TAV ERN w w w . t a v e r n t u l s a . c o m

FINE DINING IN T HE T UL S A A R T S DIS T RICT M AIN & M.B. BR A DY

DIL LY DINER w w w . d i l l y d i n e r. c o m BRE A K FA S T SERV ED A L L DAY LONG 2ND & ELGIN

EL GIN PA RK w w w . e l g i n p a r k b r e w e r y. c o m

PIZZ A, HOUSE-BRE WED BEER, WINGS, 60 + T VS ELGIN & M.B. BR A DY

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

CONTENTS // 3

o i n t i a d l n L o c ove n U s R t I e s w e a v r r e d s s e …

D

GINGERBREAD MAN

I ❤ CHEESE

CANDY HEART CAKE BITES

LOVE LETTER HEARTS

DIPPED STRAWBERRY

GRANDPA’S FAVORITE

A tiny feast for your beast!

Come see more selections in our bakery case.

1778 Utica Square 918-624-2600 HEALTHIER FOODS • GOURMET TREATS • UNIQUE TOYS • COMFY BEDS • TRENDY COLLARS 4 // CONTENTS

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

AT HOME HERE P22

BY LIZ BLOOD

A wife and mother speaks about living undocumented in Tulsa

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // Vol. 5, No. 3 ©2018. All rights reserved.

ONE HUMAN FAMILY P25

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

BY LIZ BLOOD

Leaders at New Sanctuary Network Tulsa aim to protect undocumented immigrants from wholesale deportation

ART DIRECTOR Madeline Crawford GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Georgia Brooks, Morgan Welch PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Bollinger AD SALES MANAGER Josh Kampf

MADE FOR YOU AND ME P26

EDITORIAL INTERN Trent Gibbons

BY CONNIE CRONLEY

CONTRIBUTORS Charlie Cantrell, Alicia Chesser, Connie Cronley, Barry Friedman, Ryan Gentzler, Mitch Gilliam, Valerie Grant, Jeff Huston, Mary Noble, Joe O’Shansky, Zack Reeves, Joseph Rushmore, Andrew Saliga, Damion Shade

The Tulsa Voice’s distribution is audited annually by

Honoring those behind the Gathering Place as Tulsans of the Year

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE P29

Member of

BY MARY NOBLE

Gathering Place Park Director Tony Moore hopes his team over-delivers The Tulsa Voice is published bi-monthly by Aerial rendering of Gathering Place | COURTESY MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH ASSOCIATES

NEWS & COMMENTARY 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

Law enforcement showed misplaced priorities in 2016

At Tortas Del Rey, the Torta Letourneau defeats all others

Women artists are making room for themselves—and you

10 OKLAHOMA POLITICS AND POT

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN

18 DOWN-TO-EARTH SPACE STUFF

B Y ANDREW SALIGA

32 HOOT, HOLLER, AND WOLF-WHISTLE

B Y MITCH GILLIAM

What a long but predictably strange trip it’s been

Cirque Coffee carves a niche in Tulsa’s coffee scene

12 NEVERTHELESS, SHE RAN

BY MARY NOBLE

20 COMMUNITY WITH A SIDE OF COLESLAW B Y ZACK REEVES

Sally’s List looks to close the gender gap in Oklahoma’s legislature

39 GOOD FOR THE SOUL

B Y CHARLIE CANTRELL A local mother tells her story about living

undocumented and her husband’s removal

Join a singalong in support of three North Tulsa public schools

P22

Leaders of faith at New Sanctuary Network protest Tulsa’s ‘deportation engine’

Seventeenth Street Deli serves up new food with old roots

MUSIC Rachel Bachman releases her new album at Soul City

VOL. 5 NO. 3

30 A SPACE OF ONE’S OWN

B Y ALICIA CHESSER

16 NIGHTMARISH NOURISHMENT

B Y MITCH GILLIAM

38 AN ODE TO ENTROPY

B Y DAMION SHADE

//

ARTS & CULTURE

8 THAT’S HARSH, BRO

B Y RYAN GENTZLER

FOLLOW US @THETULSAVOICE ON:

JAN. 17 – FEB. 6, 2018

FOOD & DRINK

39 ‘ LIVE AT SOUL CITY’ Y CASSIDY MCCANTS B

P25

Release party Feb. 3

TV & FILM

Ten years ago, ‘The Happening’ … happened

44 POLKA RACKET

BY JEFF HUSTON

The true story of a polka king’s Ponzi scheme

44 SMART IS SEXY

B Y JOE O’SHANSKY

CELEBRATING THE TEAM BEHIND THE GATHERING PLACE AS TULSANS OF THE YEAR P26

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

ETC. 34 THEHAPS 40 MUSICLISTINGS 45 FULLCIRCLE 46 FREE WILL ASTROLOGY + SUDOKU 47 THEFUZZ + CROSSWORD

42 DID IT SUCK THAT BAD?

B Y JOE O’SHANSKY

ON THE COVER Elena’s husband was deported from Tulsa last year.

In the photo, she is wearing both of their wedding bands. She shares her story on pg. 22.

PHOTO BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

Hullabaloo Revue is bawdy and irreverent

‘ Call Me by Your Name’ is a romantic, lucid dream

45 SPELL BOUNDLESS

BY JEFF HUSTON

NOMINATE THE BEST OF TULSA 2018 P14

‘ Mary and the Witch’s Flower’ brings a new day for anime CONTENTS // 5

editor’sletter

L

ast week I interviewed Elena, an undocumented woman from Mexico who has called the United States home for 18 years (pg. 22). Her husband of 20 years was deported last year, leaving her to care and provide for their two American daughters alone. We talked for nearly two hours about her husband, about the circumstances that brought them here, about the difficulties of living undocumented, before I asked how the experience has affected their daughters. It was only then that she cried.

As I sat there with Elena, it was impossible not to wonder about the many families across Tulsa—not to mention our country—who face similar situations—a loved one ripped from them, detained for an unspecified

period, shipped back to a country that isn’t their home.

It was a tense week for anyone who disagrees with or could be affected by the tough immigration stance taken by the Trump administration. ICE conducted its largest raid since the president took office—targeting 98 convenience stores across the country and arresting 21 people. After making his now-infamous “all these people from shithole countries” comment, Trump threw a wrench in the bipartisan immigration deal he had previously indicated he would approve. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Dreamers’ fates hang in the balance.

In an interview on NPR, Jason Johnson, politics editor at The Root, put Trump’s comment in perspective:

The problem is when your private and personal racism in your home manifests itself in policies, then you’re viol ating the Constitution … He said something racist in the context of a policy discussion. So, I think the news coverage has actuall y been focusing on, well, what does it mean to have a racist president who’s supposed to be negotiating about immigration and DACA with mostl y brown and bl ack people?

It means our neighbors here in Tulsa will be affected.

Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll find people working in different ways to unify our town. For New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, that means opposing the wholesale

deportation of undocumented immigrants (pg. 25). For others, it means investing in, building, and managing the Gathering Place so all Tulsans have a free, shared space (pg. 26). Cirque Coffee invites anyone needing a caffeine fix (pg. 18). Congregation B’Nai Emunah welcomes strangers at their Seventeenth Street Deli (pg.

20). And, speaking of sandwiches—don’t miss Mitch Gilliam’s tale of the Torta Letourneau (pg. 16). a

LIZ BLOOD EDITOR

MUSEUM CONFIDENTIAL UNSEEN. UNHEARD. UNTIL NOW.

ON VIEW

OCT. 14 – MAY 7 6 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

To Endure in Bronze This exhibition showcases works by important American sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Fredric Remington, Charles Russell, James Earle Fraser and Hermon Atkins MacNeil, who created works that endure as uniquely American.

Through Dec. 31, 2018

The Tulsa Artist Fellowship (TAF) awards unrestricted stipends of $20,000, living and workspace in the Tulsa Arts District to visual and literary artists.

2019 Fellowship applications are accepted through March 1, 2018.

TU is an EEO/AA Institution.

WWW.TULSAARTISTFELLOWSHIP.ORG/APPLY

Gilcrease Museum’s 2018 exhibition season is sponsored by an anonymous donor in fond memory of Sam Miller.

Generous support is also provided by the Maurice DeVinna Charitable Trust, Robin F. Ballenger and Merkel Family Foundation.

GILCREASE.ORG

FROM TTV MAIL BAG: “I read The Tulsa Voice when I visit family in Tulsa. I always wondered why Houston (where I live) did not have an alternative publication as good as Tulsa’s.

Now that the Houston Press has gone online only please consider expanding into Houston.

Thanks.”

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

Thanks,

Houston fan!

Maybe so me day!

Love, TTV

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 7

okpolicy

I

THAT’S HARSH, BRO Law enforcement showed misplaced priorities in 2016

by RYAN GENTZLER

8 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

n May, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) released official crime statistics for 2016. In their report, OSBI noted an eye-catching development: arrests for drug crimes increased by over 20 percent from 2015.

The surge happened as Oklahomans prepared to vote on whether to reclassify simple drug possession as a misdemeanor, which they ultimately did in November 2016. Trends in the report suggest that in the run-up to the November 2016 election, some law enforcement agencies were devoting more resources to low-level drug crimes—possibly at the expense of the investigation of more serious crimes.

OSBI includes statistics both for crimes that are reported to law enforcement and for arrests made by agencies. Reports of most “index crimes”—serious offenses like murder, aggravated assault, and burglary—increased in number from 2015, while the number of murders ticked down. Overall, the number of index crimes rose by 5.1 percent following three consecutive years of decreases.

Despite the rise in reported index crimes, the number of arrests for those offenses by county and city agencies fell by over 10 percent. Similarly, arrests for alcohol-related crimes fell by over 10 percent, continuing a long decline.

But the number of drug arrests by local agencies increased by about 16 percent, by far the largest single-year increase in recent years.

Possession accounted for about 9 in 10 drug arrests in 2016. While all categories of drugs saw increases in arrests, the increases were far higher for marijuana and “other” drugs; together, these categories accounted for 80 percent of the increase in the number of arrests.

The “other” category likely includes most arrests for illegal possession of prescription pills.

Because of this, it’s likely that the sharp increase in arrests can be at least partly explained by law

enforcement’s focus on opioids, a growing concern in Oklahoma.

Our state has struggled with opioid abuse for years, and Attorney General Mike Hunter has led an effort to bring together substance abuse services, law enforcement, and others to combat the problem.

The increase in marijuana arrests is more puzzling. Numbers had been following a clear downward trend, increasing in only one of the previous seven years. The increase of 20 percent in marijuana arrests from 2015 to 2016 is a drastic deviation from that trend. And as Oklahoma prepares to vote on legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in 2018, the trend seems to be far out of step with the current moment.

It’s no secret that many law enforcement leaders were among the loudest opponents of SQ 780, the ballot question passed by voters in 2016 that reclassified simple drug possession and minor property crimes as misdemeanors rather than felonies. It’s possible that some law enforcement agencies, believing SQ 780 would send a message that drugs “aren’t as bad,” would use their discretion to reinforce their own message that drugs are indeed dangerous by arresting more people.

The best research shows that the most effective ways to prevent crime are to address issues like substance abuse through treatment and to make people who would break the law feel that they’re likely to be caught. Last year’s crime statistics show that our law enforcement agencies moved in the opposite direction in 2016: focusing less on making arrests for serious crimes and spending more time arresting people for drug crimes. This is the wrong approach if we hope to make Oklahoma communities safer and stronger. a

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

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

DID YOU MISS WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN TULSA L AST WEEKEND?

DON’T MISS OUT THIS WEEKEND! Join 18,130 subscribers who receive the weekly Insider e-newsletter to find out what the editors of The Tulsa Voice recommend for their weekend!

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Saturday • Feb. 3

7:00 to 10:00 p.m.

All Souls Church • 2952 S. Peoria Ave.

It’s a rip-roaring, toe-tapping, fun-filled sing-along & fabulous silent dessert auction benefiting PIE partner schools.

Tickets $10 (or any donation to PIE) available at the door the night of the event.

Sign up for the FREE weekly Insider today at TheTulsaVoice.com/theinsider.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

Info: pie@allsoulschurch.org

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 9

viewsfrom theplains

OKLAHOMA POLITICS AND POT What a long but predictably strange trip it’s been

by BARRY FRIEDMAN

G

overnor, try to control your enthusiasm.

“Backers of this proposal to legalize medical marijuana followed procedures and gathered the more than 66,000 required signatures to submit the issue to a vote of the people,” said Fallin.

“I’m fulfilling my duty as governor to decide when that election will occur this year.”1 In announcing a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot (State Question 788) for June 26, Mary Fallin did everything but yawn.

This proposal has been around since 2016, so why did it take so long to actually make it to the voters?

Forget it, Jake, it’s Oklahoma.

Let’s first talk about what the bill is not: the legalization of marijuana in the state.

Unlike the law in, say, Colorado, Oregon, and now California, among other states, which legalizes recreational marijuana use, the Oklahoma statute will only allow doctors to prescribe cannabis to their patients—and not a lot of it, either—for medical purposes.

Cannabis will only be available at state-approved dispensaries—and not at Zeke’s Head Shop and Herb Emporium.

(You can read the specifics of the bill here.2 ) The point—and we’ll get to how obscuring the point was the point for the longest time—is to allow people for whom the use of marijuana relieves chronic pain— like cancer patients and those who suffer from migraines and anxiety—to acquire it legally and not have to rely on their old college roommate who knows a guy.

Pardon the expression, but to get in the weeds for a moment, this is how pot works on those in pain.

There are at least two active chemicals in marijuana that researchers think have medicinal applications. Those are cannabidiol (CBD)— which seems to impact the brain without a high—and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)— which has pain-relieving (and other) properties.3

The bill is not designed for the Ridgemont High Jeff Spicolis of the state.

Seems like a no-brainer, then.

So who would be against such a measure?

10 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

You mean other than current EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt?

Back in August 2016, Pruitt, then Oklahoma’s attorney general, took it upon himself to rewrite the initiative, which effectively put the kibosh on it, keeping the bill not only from passing but even from appearing before voters.

How did he do that?

By adding this to the first sentence of the State Question: “This measure legalizes the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma. There are no qualifying medical conditions identified.”4

Sleight of hand, line one.

The proposal legalized medical marijuana—not marijuana. Equally bad: By introducing this change as late in the process as he did, Pruitt set back the clock on the legislation, making it impossible for the measure to show up on the ballot in time for the 2016 election. And what state attorney general adds an editorial comment to a state question, anyway?

Maybe only a cynic would suggest Pruitt did that deliberately because he wanted the measure to fail.

Call me a cynic.

In March 2017, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court called Pruitt on his tinkering and ruled in favor of Oklahomans for Health, which was fighting to restore the original ballot language.

Pruitt is an honest broker on bills pertaining to marijuana in much the same way Jeff Sessions is, which is to say, not at all. (More on Sessions shortly.) Also in 2016, Pruitt joined the Nebraska attorney general in suing Colorado for passing its marijuana law, alleging some of the evil weed would make its way to Oklahoma.

In written arguments submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, the two attorneys general argued that Colorado now “authorizes, oversees, protects, and profits from a sprawling $100-million-per-month marijuana growing, processing, and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of marijuana to some 36 States in 2014.”

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

“If this entity were based south of our border, the federal government would prosecute it as a drug cartel,” the attorneys general wrote.5

Nice, huh? Comparing the people who brought legalized pot to Colorado to a drug cartel.

(The Supreme Court ultimately voted 6-2 against Pruitt and the Nebraska AG.) What Fallin did last month, then, was simply to allow a vote for the initial proposal. She could have placed this on the general election ballot in November, when just about every elected office statewide comes before the voters, or on the primary ballot in June, when it’s 4,000 degrees in Oklahoma and nobody but policy wonks and party activists vote.

She chose June.

Only a cynic would say she did so to depress turnout.

Call me a—ah, never mind.

Drew Edmondson, who’s running for the Democratic nomination for governor, offered some thoughts on the matter.

“It would seem that by placing State Question 788,” Edmondson’s office wrote me,” on the [June 2018] primary ballot instead of on the [November 2018] general election ballot, where turnout has historically been higher, Governor Fallin is hoping to minimize the number of voters who decide its fate. This is an important issue and certainly one where all Oklahomans should vote—despite Governor Fallin’s efforts to stifle their voices.”

Edmondson, who’s in favor of passage, thinks the issue is a test for his GOP opponents.

“Having medical marijuana on the June ballot will force the Republican candidates to choose a side.”

A side the GOP frontrunner almost took.

I contacted Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb’s office.

Here was their response: “I suspect this issue will be much debated and discussed among Oklahomans in the months ahead; however, my campaign will continue to focus on what Oklahomans believe are even more substantive issues. My five-point plan to RENEW Oklahoma will

"It would seem that by placing State Question 788 on the [June 2018] primary ballot instead of on the [November 2018] general election ballot, where turnout has historically been higher, Governor Fallin is hoping to minimize the number of voters who decide its fate. This is an important issue and certainly one where all Oklahomans should vote—despite Governor Fallin’s efforts to stifle their voices.”

— GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE DREW EDMONDSON

reform the budgeting process, direct 65 percent of the education budget to the classroom, and increase teacher pay under just two of the points. This approach will positivel y impact every Oklahoman’s life and will continue to be the cornerstone of my campaign, in addition to being the focus of most Republican primary voters in June.”

Talk about taking a pitch; Lamb didn’t even come out of the on-deck circle to answer the question.

Leadership!

On the very day Fallin was announcing this vote, ironically, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, another proponent of states’ rights (most of the time, anyway), rescinded an Obama-era policy that allow for legalized marijuana in states.

Instead of the previous policy of lenient federal enforcement begun under former attorney general Eric Holder in 2013, Sessions’s new stance will instead let federal prosecutors where marijuana is legal decide how aggressively to enforce longstanding federal law prohibiting it. Guidance issued on Thursday depicted the change as a “return to the rule of law.”

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

For the love of a bong and common sense, really? People like Pruitt and Sessions are all for keeping government out of our lives unless someone with Generalized Anxiety Disorder wants to sit on his or her front porch and smoke a little ganj to quiet the demons.

Here’s Republican Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, whose state now has a $1 billion industry thanks to the legalization of pot and Sessions’s duplicity: “Jeff Sessions told me this wouldn’t be a priority. Jeff Sessions told me the policy would not be reversed, and today Jeff Sessions went back on his word,” the senator said.

Well, la-di-da.

There’s also something else at stake. Friend of the column Jill Webb, former Tulsa County public defender, believes the decriminalization of medical marijuana is not only a “great” proposed law, but that the complete decriminalization of the drug—again, not in this state question—is ultimately a civil rights matter.

Why? Race.

“In truth,” Webb said, “marijuana is the best example we have of the racism inherent in the way criminal laws are applied. For white people, especially

upper-middle-class white people, marijuana is literally a joke. It’s laughed about that we do it in college. It’s taken for granted that the people who run for president have done it. All of us sort of expect our children to go through this phase. We have musical genres around it. But for African Americans, in particular, and African American males, especially, there’s no room for any use. It’s not a joke. They are put in jail. It is often their entry into the criminal justice system. And it’s used as an excuse to revoke probation.”

As of right now, 29 states and the District of Columbia have made legal some kind of medical marijuana usage, including such socialist enclaves as Arkansas and West Virginia.8 The rap against medical marijuana is that, if not controlled, it can affect short-term memory, increase abuse and addiction, and diminish overall quality of life.

Fair enough, but tell that to someone in constant pain from pancreatic cancer. Better yet, let those with pancreatic cancer decide about the quality of their own lives—and their children’s— and how much pain they’re prepared to live with. As for the rest of the risks associated with marijuana, the same was and is said about alcohol.

Seagram’s has always had better lobbyists than Zeke’s Head Shop and Herb Emporium. a

1) Kfor.com: Gov. Fallin announces medical marijuana election date 2) Ballotpedia.org: Oklahoma State Question 788, Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative (June 2018) 3) Businessinsider.com: 23 Health Benefits of Marijuana.

4) Reddirtreport.com: OK’s medical marijuana petitioners get stiffed by state: SQ 788 won’t be on November ballot 5) Newsok.com: Scott Pruitt wanted to sue Colorado over its pot policy. The Supreme Court said no.

6) theguardian.com: Jeff Sessions to crack down on legalized marijuana, ending Obama-era policy 7) bostonglobe.com: In Colo., a look at life after marijuana legalization 8) medicalmarijuana.procon.org: 29 Legal Medical Marijuana States and D.C. NEWS & COMMENTARY // 11

statewide

NEVERTHELESS, SHE RAN Sally’s List looks to close the gender gap in Oklahoma’s legislature

by MARY NOBLE

Shay White, candidate for House District 77 in Tulsa | GREG BOLLINGER

I

n Oklahoma, 51 percent of the population is female, yet a disproportionately low 14 percent of Oklahoma’s legislative body is comprised of women.

This disparity is also present nationally, with women making up only 20 percent of Congress.

Research from Brenda Major, a social psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, suggests that this isn’t because women run and lose, but because of the societal barriers women face that prevent them from running at all. Major’s research also suggests that women, no matter how successful, have a tendency to question their abilities and judge themselves more harshly than men do.

Oklahoma organization Sally’s List works to close this legislative gender gap by recruiting, empowering, and training women to run for office. Named after Oklahoma activist and trailblazer Sally Rae Merkle Mock, who passed away in 2009, Sally’s List is run by two women, Founder and Executive Director Sara Jane Rose and Programs Manager Alyssa Fisher.

12 // NEWS & COMMENTARY

Sally’s List finds eligible candidates through word of mouth, community organizations, and social media. Women interested in running are encouraged to contact the organization. Currently, nine women recruited and trained by Sally’s List are running for office in 2018—seven for the state legislature, one for county commissioner, and one for U.S. Congress.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunities right now for women and people in general to learn how to run for office, but when it actually comes to the process of getting ready to run it can all feel really overwhelming,” Fisher said. “So, what we are here to do is to help people realize exactly what it is they need, who they need to talk to, what they need to do, and basically help set them on a trajectory that’s going to ensure they have a successful campaign.”

During the beginning stages of the training process, Rose and Fisher work to pinpoint critical events in the candidate’s life that set them on the path to candidacy. Identifying these key moments helps the candidate solidify their purpose for running

and use real-life experiences to relate to their constituents on a personal level.

“We spend a couple of hours going through a timeline of their life to identify the moments, from as early as they can remember to present, that might have set their desire to be a candidate,” Rose said. “Sometimes they don’t think those moments are there, but they’re there, and we find them.”

Once the candidates complete all the preliminary tasks required to start a campaign and are ready to start raising money, Sally’s List steps back, offering only advice and moral support, unable to do anything that would be seen as working for the candidate.

“Once they are ready to get a consultant, which is usually when they start their campaign, we kinda kick them out of the nest, and they all seem to fly quite well,” said Rose.

Activist, social worker, and therapist Shay White is running for Oklahoma House District 77 in Tulsa in 2018 and if she wins will be the first person of color to fill the seat. White hopes to replace Democrat Eric Proctor, who

has held the seat since 2007 and will reach his term limit this year.

“Sally’s List helped me develop my story, to learn more about myself and how to paint a picture of the issues that could help get a voter to vote for you,” Shay said.

“They really helped me to think more on my feet when talking to voters, especially [when] dealing with irate or racist people.”

Sally’s List operates entirely on donations and does not charge the candidates for its services.

Organizations similar to Sally’s List exist in other states, but many of them charge, and the majority identify as Democratic and prochoice. Sally’s List is nonpartisan, centering on such issues as access to healthcare, quality education, diversification of the economy, and criminal justice reform.

“Choice is an important issue to us and our supporters—but it’s not the only issue, and it doesn’t stand alone,” Rose said.

“We have a lot of really incredible women we are working with who are stepping up and are really successful at what they’re doing.

We’re proud of them,” Fisher said. a

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

www.TraversMahanApparel.com South Lewis at 81st • The Plaza • 918-296-4100

FREE ADMISSION It’s back!

24 ARTISTS, 1 EXHIBITION PHILBROOK DOWNTOWN JANUARY 27 - MARCH 4, 2018

NEW/NOW: WORKS BY THE TULSA ARTIST FELLOWSHIP

Organized by the Tulsa Artist Fellowship in collaboration with Philbrook Museum of Art. Support for this exhibition is generously provided by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

NEWS & COMMENTARY // 13

THE TULSA VOICE

NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2018 BEST OF TULSA AWARDS ARE OPEN. Nominate your local favorites for a chance to win a $500 dining prize package including gift cards from several local restaurants.

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

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citybites

C

ome close, dear reader, for the tale of Letourneau.

Tortas Del Rey sits on the Mexican food highway that runs from downtown to Yale Avenue on Admiral Street and Place. The stretch is dotted by favorites like Pollos Asados Al Carbon, El Rio Verde, and El Burrito, the latter neighboring Del Rey between North Yale and Pittsburgh Avenues.

Del Rey, and the horror of its Torta Letourneau, rest within a small white and green building, the former home of Family Diner.

The table-service restaurant features a salsa bar and offers the usual suspects: tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. But true to its name, Tortas Del Rey specializes in Mexican sandwiches.

Their torta selection is above and beyond that of most joints in town, with choices like milanesa (breaded steak) and pineapple sharing menu space with asadas and pastors. All traditional Mexican meats are available, and most lurk in Letourneau’s lair.

Before we get to the carne-cosmic monstrosity of the sandwich, let it be known that Del Rey makes great food that won’t drive one to madness. On my first visit, I had a simple carne asada torta and enjoyed every bite of meat, mayo, and avocado. A friend let me try his barbacoa tacos, which were also delicious. It was on this trip that I heard the tale of the Torta Letourneau.

I was casually talking to my friend about eating challenges when the waiter told me Del Rey used to feature one.

“If you could eat the Letourneau in ten minutes,” he said, “you would get it for free.”

Thunder cracked outside.

Why it is called the Letourneau is unclear, though thanks to inventor R.G. Letourneau, the word is global shorthand for earthmoving machinery. This is applicable.

The menu description of the Letourneau grotesquely distorts the concept of sandwich-dom. Ingredients, appetizing on their own, are listed in a glossolalial screed of the insalubrious.

16 // FOOD & DRINK

NIGHTMARISH NOURISHMENT At Tortas Del Rey, the Torta Letourneau defeats all others

by MITCH GILLIAM Torta Letourneau from Tortas Del Rey, 3535 E. Admiral Pl. | GREG BOLLINGER

“SIX TYPES OF MEATS: SMOKED PORK CHOP, BIZTECK, PORK LEG, BREADED STEAK, HAMBURGER AND T-BONE BISTEK.” Each ingredient ricocheted inside my skull with exponential intensity.

“SIX TYPES OF CHEESE, BACON, CHORIZO HAM, LETTUCE, TOMATO, GRILLED JALAPEÑO, SAUSAGE, AVOCADO.” The listing of “SAUSAGE” after the disproportionate presence of vegetables on the sandwich informed of an arcane cruelty. It was a spookhouse aberration in the shadows of the exit line.

A reminder that hope, in itself, is a mistake. The “sandwich” was taunting me.

I had to face it.

Having once joined me in eating 15 tacos apiece, I asked Stuart Hetherwood to descend into sandwich madness with me. We both hit Del Rey’s salsa bar and nervously sampled the options. Filling up on chips was a rookie mistake we gladly made to calm our nerves.

How often do you order a sandwich and have the waiter ask, “Are you sure?”

I’ve ordered very spicy food and been posed this question with a smile before, but never had I received such a look of concern and dread. When the Letourneau arrived, I understood.

The menu description of the torta—that lunatic poetry from Hell’s sanitarium—did not, and could not prepare us for the consternation of initial confrontation.

Weighing over two pounds,

the Letourneau was a carnivorous grimoire of meat demons manifested.

The “SIX DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHEESES” checkered a ghoulish amount of ham and presented foreboding grease levels for the weak. There seemed to be far more than six meats on the sandwich, though details are foggy in the twilight of terror.

One half proved nearly too much for human hands.

There was a hot dog on it.

In the days of the Letourneau eating challenge, customers were expected to eat the entire sandwich, right down to the grilled habanero and jalapeño on the side.

Hetherwood and I were eating merely for the glory of honor, so we took it easy, though he accidentally ate most of it.

“The only reason to eat this thing,” Hetherwood said, “is if you were a vegan who got in a car wreck and had to slam as much protein as possible and go back to being vegan the next day.”

Though it was an insurmountable grotesquerie, the Torta Letourneau, like all monsters, lost some power in the light. To see Cthulhu’s tentacles may reduce one to gibberish but would nevertheless demystify one’s more salacious speculations. So it was in devouring the Letourneau.

Yet the horror didn’t quite fade upon consumption.

The sandwich was beyond time—a true manifestation of humanity’s worst desires. The sheer nihility of all universes lay between its two rolls.

You do not eat the Letourneau.

The Letourneau eats you.

Anyway, the sandwich is great, though I’d recommend removing the hot dog and eating that afterward. It’s also butterier than their standard tortas, being so loaded with cheese and all. I took half of mine home and ate it cold the next day. You could also use half of it as taco meat supply in your own kitchen throughout the week.

But for the average diner I’d recommend the Black Mamba, a three-meat torta with more pure intentions. a

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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FOOD & DRINK // 17

downthehatch

Down-to-earth space stuff

Cirque Coffee carves a niche in Tulsa’s coffee scene

by ANDREW SALIGA

W

hen Cirque Coffee opened in August 2016, many wondered how Tulsa could support another coffee shop—or if it needed one. Perhaps it was less about the number of coffee shops and more about the fear of the city being overrun by beard-donning baristas.

Much like the geographic term their name refers to—and despite the saturated coffee scene— Cirque has sculpted a place for itself. A cirque is a cleft in the side of a mountain formed by glacial erosion. (Le Cirque was also the name of one of the first coffee shops in Tulsa, which the depths of the interwebs claim was run by a one-armed folk musician.)

Cirque’s interior is a mashup of mountainside lodge and industrial aesthetics. Hand-poured cold concrete counters are offset by the warm glow of tungsten filaments and live edge wood tables and bar tops, both created by the owners. Upon entering, the first thing one will notice is an array of intricate brewing contraptions lining the counters and walls—the shop resembles a steampunk-style laboratory. Everything from the standard French press to the more esoteric Dragon (which uses both hot and cold water in a manual pour-over syphon method) present themselves, ready to brew the perfect cup. Cirque’s Slayer espresso machine looks as beautiful as it does intimidating with its matte black and copper frame, wooden handles, and transparent walls.

In addition to standard espresso drinks, Cirque offers 15 different coffee extraction methods for the three to five single-origin coffees on their rotating menu.

When discussing with Austin Fogt their many coffee contrap18 // FOOD & DRINK

Space Stuff, one of Cirque Coffee’s January specials | GREG BOLLINGER

tions, the conversation felt a little like a chemistry course. Fogt, who worked his way up from customer to barista to business partner, talked about the importance of the water’s mineral content and the proper ratio of total dissolved solids for the perfect cup of coffee. Measuring this data is something Cirque periodically does, and Fogt says they are aware that an overemphasis on quantifying can remove the romance and art from coffee.

“Data has to be a means to an end of a cup that tastes good,” he said.

In other words, brewing a coffee that tastes good is more important than brewing a coffee that meets a set of scientific standards.

As if their numerous extraction methods aren’t enough, the rotating seasonal menu carves the cleft

deeper. Fogt stresses that theirs isn’t the typical seasonal drink menu relying on flavored syrups. “[Cirque is] trying to push the industry forward in terms of creating interesting signature drinks that are coffee-forward.”

Locally, they are to coffee what Valkyrie is to cocktails and what Oren is to food. In fact, the flavor combinations and presentation at these Tulsa gems inspire the team at Cirque.

One of the highlights of Cirque’s January menu is Space Stuff, a drink created by head barista Ian Walla. This drink goes beyond the standard coffee paradigm by exploring contrasting textures and complementary flavors.

It’s an ounce of fresh espresso topped with a little bit of heavy cream and sprinkled with caramelized sugar and spices, provid-

ing a slightly crunchy surface like that of creme brûlée. The drink is garnished with a flamed orange peel and mint then served with a spoon.

For those not wanting to drift out into the cosmos, Cirque’s draft latte is consistently a crowd favorite. The iced latte is kegged and served on tap, with nitrogen from the keg imparting a thicker mouthfeel to the drink.

Cirque also takes pride in their espresso—a blend of coffees that they adjust throughout the course of the year. Because coffee is a seasonal fruit, the flavor of a bean varies depending on the season.

Cirque’s year-round target flavor profile for their espresso is berries, cream, and milk chocolate—with a clean finish.

With their myriad advanced brewing methods and atypical drinks, it’s easy to make assumptions about the shop and even the baristas.

“That’s always the struggle,” Fogt said. “How do we combat the misconception of the pretentious, arrogant, hipster, condescending coffee shop?”

For the owners and employees of Cirque, they do this by keeping in mind their core values: kindness and customer service.

“No one will get mad at you if you order a pour-over and add cream and sugar,” Fogt said.

“We’re grateful for the support and to be doing something so well-received and [that] hopefully has improved the quality of people’s day.” a

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January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

FOOD & DRINK // 19

foodfile

Community with a side of coleslaw

Seventeenth Street Deli serves up new food with old roots

by ZACK REEVES nce a month for the past two years, the Seventeenth Street Delicatessen at Congregation B’Nai Emunah (1719 S. Owasso Ave.) has been serving pickles and pastrami in the name of bringing people together. Cooked by volunteer chefs and served by high-schoolers, this communal-table event brings in a mix of about 30 percent congregation members and 70 percent interested Tulsans, according to Rabbi Dan Kaiman, who started the pop-up deli.

Think Katz’s in New York, where Harry met Sally. (“I’ll have what she’s having!”) Think fresh rye bread holding up a pile of pastrami. Think one day in January when you can sneak around that pesky, low-carb New Year’s resolution.

“Delis are the place Jews start their American journey,” Kaiman said in his office at the synagogue.

“Pastrami and deli food is really an American Jewish product. And it’s at the core of many people’s personal and family stories. For example, my grandparents met at a Jewish deli in Brooklyn. My grandfather was a waiter; my grandmother was a customer.”

They probably never imagined that their grandson would create a Jewish deli in the heart of Tulsa.

“People talk about the bagels in New York City. There’s nothing special in the water. Anything you can do there, you can do here.”

Raised in Pensacola and educated in New Brunswick and Los Angeles, Kaiman is a warm speaker with a big smile and a straight20 // FOOD & DRINK

MO R

GA

N

W EL CH

O

forward way of talking. While he presides over the corned beef and the twelve-day-cured pastrami, he hands plenty of responsibility to a crew of volunteers: an emergency room doctor, a pharmaceutical rep, and a computer programmer, among others.

“It’s a place for people who are part of the synagogue to connect with each other,” Kaiman said.

“We were really thinking about ways of building community … and we came up with the idea of doing deli food. If our grandparents could do it—there wasn’t some magic sauce they had—we could probably figure it out.”

But it’s not just for Jews.

Kaiman considers the deli experience akin to that of walking into an ethnic hole-in-the-wall

restaurant and broadening your horizons. While many Congregation B’Nai Emunah members have fond memories of consuming pickles and coleslaw with generous helpings of salted meat, others will be a little outside of their comfort zone.

“There’s no identity check at the door,” he said, smiling. “It’s for people to come together; it’s really that simple. You just come in and have dinner. Then you go on with your life.”

The menu offers three sandwich options: pastrami, corned beef, and egg salad. They serve Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda, Black Cherry, and Cel-rey (a celery-flavored soda), along with a bowl of pickles, coleslaw, and French fries, all prepared in the synagogue.

“I like to say, although it’s not exactly true,” Kaiman said, “that the cow walks in and the sandwich walks out.”

While the current iteration of the deli only happens once a month, Kaiman has already expanded it (they used to have one sandwich: pastrami), and he wants to do more. He’d like a food truck someday, but for now the once-amonth model has allowed him to test the methods, the product, and the market.

“I got a call yesterday from a woman who grew up in Brooklyn.

Her earliest memories are of a Jewish deli, and she’s lived in Tulsa now for fifty years. She came to our deli last month. She called to say, ‘I haven’t had pickles like that in forever.’”

Calls like that bring the deli’s purpose to Kaiman’s mind: people and tradition coming together to create new moments and memories.

“She gets to connect to her own history, but she gets to do it alongside her grandkids who grew up in Tulsa, who don’t have that same memory, and they’re developing that memory with her.

Some people have the nostalgic memory of what a Jewish deli is, but many don’t, and we get to introduce them to this good, tasty food. It’s salty, fatty meat on delicious fresh bread. How can you go wrong?”

The next Seventeenth Street Deli will be held January 28 at 6 p.m. For more information or to make a reservation, visit tulsadeli.org or call 918-973-DELI. a

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

Our fathers trusted in thee: they TRUSTED, and thou didst DELIVER THEM. They shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live FOR EVER.

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THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

An evening of musical contrasts of both time period and style, this chamber series concert will feature Bartók’s Contrasts, Duo Sonatas by Beethoven, and Harbison’s Songs America Loves to Sing. Featured TSO musicians include John Rush, David Carter, Ronnamarie Jensen, Kari Caldwell, and Lyndon Meyer.

VISIT TULSASYMPHONY.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO PURCHASE TICKETS OR CALL 918-584-3645

Join us for music, wine and conversation in a classically casual atmosphere.

Doors open at 6:30 PM for wine and appetizers and the music begins at 7 PM. The FlyLoft is located at 117 N Boston Ave, across from Hey Mambo.

FOOD & DRINK // 21

A w i fe a nd mot her sp e a k s a b out l i v i ng u ndo c u mente d i n Tu lsa

BY LIZ BLOOD PHOTOS BY JOSEPH RUSHMORE

22 // FEATURED

January 17 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

“When we talk about deporting people from the City of Tulsa,

we aren’t talking about strangers we’ve never met.

We’re talking about

our children’s classmates.

We go to their stores.

We go to their restaurants.

We know them.”

— Reverend Barbara Prose,

All Souls Unitarian Church

For a couple of hours in a small coffee shop, Elena shared part of her family’s story. Her two teenaged daughters sat nearby in track pants and hoodies and played on smartphones. Linda Allegro, New Sanctuary Network Tulsa program director, translated.

Elena has been married to her husband, Hector, for 20 years. She has lived in the U.S. for 18. Their family has called Tulsa home since 2005. Hector worked in landscaping. Elena cleans houses.

Last year, Hector was detained and held by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center. He was deported to Mexico three months later.

To protect their privacy, names have been changed for this interview.

LIZ BLOOD: Tell me about coming to the United States.

ELENA: My husband came to the U.S. first with a coyote in 1997. I came in 1999. It took many tries before I was able to finally get in. It felt awful. I just kept getting knocked down, but I knew I had to stick with it because I needed to be with my husband. We wanted to have a family. We wanted to be together. Even though it was really hard to leave my extended family in Mexico, I knew I needed to join my husband.

First, we lived and worked in New Jersey. In 2001, [Hector’s boss] gave my husband an opportunity to get a work permit, but to get it he had to go back to Mexico.

We thought it was a great idea initially.

We thought this was a way for us to become legal. From what we understood, if you have a work permit for over 10 years, you could end up getting a green card. It was an annual work visa, a permission for nine months. He could only renew it in Mexico, so he would go back for three months at a time, renew it, and then for nine months he would be with us.

The first and second year this worked well, but after that I was pregnant with our first child. Two years later, our second daughter was born in November and he had to leave in December. He didn’t want to leave me alone with an infant and another small child. It was very hard. Those were during the winter months and I had THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

Elena wearing both her and her husband’s wedding rings.

to do it all by myself—work and get the kids to daycare. He didn’t want to leave, but his boss insisted that was the only way he could keep his work permit, so he did it.

Then, in 2005, when he was supposed to come back, they didn’t issue him a permit.

By that time, they were fingerprinting for permits and doing thorough background checks. They discovered he had two U.S.-born children. They said, “You have two U.S.-born daughters. We’re not going to give you the permit because you’re going to want to stay in the United States.

The arrangement is just for you to live and work temporarily and then come back to your home country. But now that you have kids born in the U.S., you will want to stay.”

So, he went back to our village and we had to hire a coyote so he could cross again.

I had brothers living here in Tulsa. They wanted us to join them, so that was our motivation to come here. And it is more affordable. We got here in 2005. And just like everybody else—we started at the bottom, just started a new life.

BLOOD: Tell me about your husband’s arrest, detainment, and deportation.

ELENA: He was arrested because he’d been drinking. That day when he was arrested my youngest daughter blamed me. She blames me because I didn’t feel like going to pick him up where he was drinking— over at my brother-in-law’s house—and if I would have gone … I should have gone to pick him up. I didn’t, and so my daughters blame me.

Apparently, when someone is detained you have five hours to get over there and pay a fine, a bond, to have them released, but I didn’t know that. I had no idea. I was just waiting until the morning.

The next day my husband called me, because they’re allowed one phone call.

He said, “The only way that I’ll get out is if I fight this.” I said, “How could that be if you have no criminal record? They can’t deport you for a one-time first offense.” He said, “No, we have to get a lawyer. That’s the only way I could possibly stay.”

A month later, I found two lawyers—a

criminal lawyer to try to resolve the DUI and then an immigration lawyer. The immigration lawyer said there was a 50/50 chance that Hector would be released. Because of the new president, the policies are a lot stricter. They really do a thorough background check on each one of the detainees.

We thought they would see he has no criminal record; he has never done anything.

The first court was a criminal court for the DUI, and that judge was somewhat sympathetic. He saw it was a first offense.

But the immigration judge was harsh. He was not as sympathetic. Hector saw that judge via video conference because the judges are in Dallas. The lawyer is in Dallas advocating for the detainee. But the actual detainee is here in Tulsa, attending via video conference.

We were hoping the immigration judge would let him bond out but he said no. So the lawyer said we need to assemble a whole case to try to get Hector to stay. We had letters from his boss, we had letters in support from the community, we had records of having paid taxes, we had all our titles of things we own. We had a full case that this was an honorable person with no criminal record—even so, they denied him.

My eldest daughter has a learning disability. We were hopeful the judge would take into consideration that there’s a daughter with a disability and that maybe this was a reason to allow Hector to stay. To the judge, her disability wasn’t among the kind … they don’t consider a learning disability on the list of things they’ll consider, like autism.

The judge said if it was a child in a wheelchair he would consider that yes, the child in a wheelchair needs the father.

But the judge didn’t think this kind of disability made it essential that the father be present.

Three months after his arrest, at another court date, the lawyer didn’t seem prepared. The judge asked him, “What are the names of the girls, and what are their ages?” He didn’t know how to answer. The judge didn’t like that. He accused both my husband and the lawyer of being liars, told them to get out of the courthouse, and gave them another date.

My husband told me, “There’s very little chance that we’re going to win this. And we’ll have to pay a lot more money … I’ve been in here now for how many months?”

A lot had happened in those three months.

He was starting to get at his wits’ end. On top of it, his mother died in Mexico while he was in detention, so he felt trapped. We had a final conversation with the lawyers and decided on voluntary departure. The judge made it very clear to him: “We’ll give you a voluntary departure, but if we catch you trying to come back in, we will put you in prison for five years.”

Earlier, the lawyer had told me things had really changed. He said, “If you go visit [your husband], it’s at your own risk. If you go, we don’t know if they’ll detain you FEATURED // 23

Elena and her two daughters

as well.” I decided I could not do that, so I did not see him while he was detained.

BLOOD: What is your husband like?

ELENA: He’s a good person. A very simple, humble person. He’s very friendly with everybody. He likes to joke around. That’s why I think I fell in love with him. He always tells me, “I’m ugly. For you to have fallen in love with me must have been because of my humor.” And I was attracted to him because he’s funny and he’s very affectionate. He’s always been very good to us. He’s been good to me and to the girls.

In 20 years, we’ve never had any serious problems in the marriage. Sure, we’ve had arguments about all kinds of things, like any marriage. Some of our fights were because he would drink. My daughters were even telling him, “Don’t drink, please stop drinking, you’re going to get involved with the police.”

I have to now be the mother and the father at the same time. My husband has always worked. He’s been the principal breadwinner. He always made a little bit more money than me, so he was the provider. We are really hurting. I can’t explain it so well, but it’s been hard for us.

It is very hard [for my daughters] because they’re very close to [their dad]. They would always wait for him to get off work and say, “Oh, daddy, you’re home!” He 24 // FEATURED

would say, “Don’t hug me right now—I’m all smelly. I’ve been landscaping.” They would hug him anyway. And now he’s not coming home. That’s the hardest part— right at the end of the day, when we’re expecting him to come home, waiting for him to come up to the door, and he’s just not there.

Their grades have gone down in school. We are working with the counselor, going through therapy so that they can try to adapt to this loss.

BLOOD: Is it possible for him to try to return legally?

ELENA: Only with a work visa like he’s had in the past.

BLOOD: Does he plan to come back?

ELENA: Yes. It would be very hard for me to go back, because we have no home there.

We’ve been living here for 20 years. We have no place [in Mexico].

My girls would be … they’ve never been there. It would be very difficult for them to start all over. We’re going to try to see. He’s going to apply for a work permit to see if he could come back. But, of course, we’ll run up against the same risk that they’ll fingerprint him, they’ll run it through the database and see he has daughters here, and it will be the same denial that we’ve had before. Coming through the legal op-

tion is a very difficult process. We’ve tried it before.

BLOOD: Are you thinking of trying to become documented? Is that an option?

ELENA: The immigration laws are changing a lot. Lawyers told us that once one of our U.S.-born children turns 21, they can petition for the parent. That used to be the case. But from what we understand now, with the new administration, they’re not going to allow that option anymore.

If I would have entered legally, like on a visa and just overstayed, I would have possibly been able to get sponsored by my child. But because I entered illegally, my daughter is no longer eligible to sponsor me. And even if there was this option, we couldn’t adjust our status here. We would still have to go back to Mexico and wait it out.

BLOOD: What are the misunderstandings or misconceptions about undocumented immigrants who live here?

ELENA: You can feel the racism. People look at you—and they don’t look at you nicely.

They look at you in a distrusting way. They second-guess you.

What I would tell those people is that we’re here to work. We’re not here to do any harm. Life in Mexico is not easy. Overall, here, you can find consistent work. If you

lose one job, you can get another. In Mexico, you don’t have that security. We come here to work; we come here for a better future. We really don’t want to hurt anybody.

And even finding work is beginning to be more difficult. It’s not as easy to get a job if you’re not documented. They don’t want to give you employment because you don’t have documents.

I do housekeeping. I’d like to have my own business where I’m not working for other people. I’d like to work for myself, find my own clients and my own houses, have my own deal. It’s hard because people don’t know you, and people often ask you for papers and want to know if you’re legal or not.

BLOOD: Do you feel that you have a community here?

ELENA: I have a lot of friendships. I have some family members—a cousin and my brothers-in-law. We all support each other.

We’re all basically from the same village, and we’ve all found each other. I would just give anything to have my parents here. You know, if I had them here, it would really feel like home.

The one thing I want to convey—there’s a lot of us that are going through this right now. But we’re so afraid that we don’t say anything. We keep our mouths closed. I think it is important to get the story out so that others who are afraid know they can share and still be protected. a January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

Linda Allegro, New Sanctuary Network Tulsa project director, and protestors outside David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center last fall.

JOSEPH RUSHMORE

ONE HUMAN FAMILY Leaders at New Sanctuary Network Tulsa aim to protect undocumented immigrants from wholesale deportation

BY LIZ BLOOD

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

EACH THURSDAY, OUTSIDE DOWNTOWN’S DAVID L. MOSS Criminal Justice Center, 15–20 people gather to read the names of those inside detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These protests are part of New Sanctuary Network Tulsa’s four-part resistance to the deportation of persons without documents regardless of offense.

“It is always a call-and-response for the names of those who have been recently incarcerated and—as far as we can tell—have been snared for small, relatively insignificant offenses,” said Rabbi Marc Boone Fitzerman. Fitzerman leads most protests on behalf of New Sanctuary Network Tulsa (NSNT) and is one of three local leaders of faith who head the organization. The others are Reverend Barbara Prose of All Souls Unitarian Church and Reverend Alvaro Nova of Comunidad de Esperanza at Fellowship Lutheran Church. Linda Allegro serves as project director.

NSNT formally began last May, after the political climate became more hostile towards immigrants without documents.

The nonprofit’s four areas of focus include the weekly peaceful protests (which will move to Mondays at noon beginning Jan. 22), a hotline for undocumented persons seeking help (539664-9972), accompaniment to immigration court or check-ins, and physical sanctuary for those facing deportation.

“My religious values teach me to love my neighbor as myself,” Prose said. “We are one human family. Immigration, for me, is a religious and moral issue, one that religious leaders across faiths need to be engaged with, because those teachings are universal.”

Currently, Prose, Fitzerman, and Nova are educating their congregations about the history of churches or houses of worship offering physical sanctuary and are discussing the creation of an interfaith network in Tulsa that would provide support in these efforts. NSNT’s name comes from the Sanctuary movement of the ‘80s, which sought to provide refuge for people fleeing wars in Central America.

For a congregation to decide to provide sanctuary is no small thing. There are physical considerations—like whether the church has a shower or a place for people to eat and to live—as well as financial and logistical needs. But it also means taking a political stance, which can be a risk.

“Under the Obama administration, there was an agreement that ICE would only go after hard criminals for deportation, and they would respect sensitive locations—hospitals, schools, churches, and courthouses,” Allegro said. “The new head of ICE and Homeland Security has a different philosophy. People have been apprehended at all of those locations except churches. We don’t know what will happen with churches in the future.”

“Sanctuary is the opposite of staying underground and hoping not to run into law enforcement,” Prose said. “It is nonviolent civil disobedience. It’s a highly visible act—asking for the broken immigration system to be fixed, asking for a path to citi-

zenship or for protection, because these people are contributing as citizens.”

“New Sanctuary Network would not oppose the deportation of serious threats to American society, people with serious criminal convictions,” said Fitzerman. “What we are most worried about is that someone with a broken taillight or driving without a license might be swept up into the system—and end up in a dangerous country of origin and separated from their family in the U.S.” Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office is a collaborative partner with ICE through a program called 287(g), which means David L. Moss doubles as an ICE detainment center.

Originally, NSNT was hoping to appear at ICE raids or removals, but because immigrants are being detained and deported in a more systematic way (i.e. in a traffic stop), this has proved difficult. Because TSCO officers are hired to protect the people of Tulsa, NSNT believes the 287(g) agreement is not moral.

“We are saying ‘Can you stop this deportation engine?’ It’s breaking up families; it’s creating unnecessary grief and despair; it’s fueling scapegoating and racial profiling of a community, and it’s not really solving anything,” Allegro said. “I think we can come up with some other solutions. Stymying the flow of immigrants to the U.S. is a different question. ‘Deport them all’ is just an easy soundbite. That’s our little slice, our mission.

We’re here to raise awareness.”

“I want to be respectful of people who say one person’s insignificant offense might be another’s very significant offense,” Fitzerman said. “No one would support the public protest of the incarceration of people who have committed crimes of violence.

The main story here is people who simply lack documents. Who were at one point or another welcomed here by employers, welcomed by neighbors, and for whom the politics of the moment have taken a violent turn.”

Those politics have caused the accompaniment arm of NSNT to become more active.

“To accompany means we drive and go with them to immigration court,” Nova said. “Many immigrants do not have a license and they have to drive from here to Dallas, sometimes to Houston—because that is where the court is. So, we make sure they have a safe way to get there. And we emotionally and spiritually support them, because they are scared.”

Thus far, no Tulsa congregation has committed itself to be a place of sanctuary, though Prose said NSNT is ready to present to any congregation that wants to learn more. According to the Church World Service, more than 500 congregations around the country have “pledged to provide safety and solidarity to immigrants … targeted by [recent] negative policy changes.”

“What I would say to religious leaders in Tulsa,” Prose began, “If we don’t consider providing sanctuary, who are we?

What is guiding us? Please consider what your tradition and conscience tells you about being there for our neighbors.” a FEATURED // 25

+ BOATHOUSE VIEW

+ MIST MOUNTAIN + TURTLE ISLAND

MADE FOR YOU AND ME + OUTDOOR TERRACES

HONORING THOSE BEHIND THE GATHERING PLACE AS TULSANS OF THE YEAR

BY CONNIE CRONLEY + SWING HILL

+ SKATE BOWL

+ ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND

+ COMMUNITY DECK

F

or only the second time in the 31-year history of our sister publication, TulsaPeople, the Tulsan of the Year is not one individual.

It’s Tulsans.

This happened once before in 2004, when the magazine honored voters who approved the Vision 2025 sales tax increase, which kept jobs in Tulsa and built the BOK Center.

This year, TulsaPeople recognizes the visionaries of the Gathering Place, Tulsa’s iconic public park opening this summer, as the Tulsans of the Year.

Here’s why.

Editor’s note: the original, longer version of this story appeared in the January 2018 issue of TulsaPeople magazine.

TRANSFORMING TULSA

Nearly 80 donors joined the George Kaiser Family Foundation in contributing $400 million to create and endow the Gathering Place, comprised of 100

acres facing the Arkansas River and linked to River Parks by two unique land bridges across Riverside Drive.

Phase I of the park, which will be completed this summer, occupies 66.5 acres, from East 27th to 31st Streets on the east side of Riverside and from 27th to almost 35th along the west side.

The donors’ collective gift is the largest to a municipality in the history of the United States.

The second biggest was $100 million for New York City’s Central Park in 2012.

Many believe the Gathering Place can change Tulsa’s national identity.

“We hope that it will help our companies recruit and retain employees,” said philanthropist and project mastermind George Kaiser. “We hope it will be a place where all of our children and grandchildren want to return as they raise their children.”

It also has the potential to help unify the community.

“What great urban parks do today is bring people out of isolation,” said Gathering Place

Executive Director Jeff Stava.

“People have grown apart. We want to bring Tulsans together for a better community.”

More than 1 million visitors are expected to visit the Gathering Place annually.

HOW IT BEGAN

Kaiser didn’t envision a central gathering place out of a nostalgic memory of a park.

“I try to divorce my charitable investments from my life experiences and personal preferences,” he said. “[I want to] solve problems that reflect larger community needs.”

In 2013, Tulsa had lost the spring in its step, Stava said. The 2007 bond issue for development of the Arkansas River had failed, largely because of suburban votes. Downtown revitalization of the Arts District and Guthrie Green had not yet begun. It was a time of economic decline.

“True visionaries realize what great cities need,” Stava said.

“Great cities have great gathering places.”

“Tulsa was losing its sense of community,” Kaiser said. “We were more divided by geography, race, and class than before. A large central park might heal that divide.”

Additionally, the city needed a draw for corporate recruitment and economic development to compete with Houston, Dallas, and other metropolitan areas.

GKFF saw the need to revitalize downtown, especially for young people and arts patrons, and then to marshal public-private funding to accentuate the power of the river for families.

In 2014, GKFF pledged $200 million for the park. Williams Cos. became the lead donor with a $16 million challenge. Other corporations followed, as did the city’s philanthropic foundations and families for a total of nearly $200 million.

The City of Tulsa and Tulsa County joined with $65 million for infrastructure improvement of the park area, funded through an Improve Our Tulsa and Vision 2025 sales tax extension.

“What great urban parks do today is bring people out of isolation ... We want to bring Tulsans together for a better community.”

ALL RENDERINGS COURTESY MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH ASSOCIATES

— JEFF STAVA, GATHERING PLACE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

+ LAKEVIEW LAWN

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

FEATURED // 27

“My heart is in free programming for children to gain new experiences.

We’re providing new places for kids to learn.”

— KIRSTEN HEIN, GATHERING PLACE SENIOR PROGRAMMING OFFICER

BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE

+ SKY GARDEN

RESEARCH AND DESIGN

Planning for the park began in 2011 with community engagement and public meetings that addressed various issues, from park design to food and drink possibilities.

The Brooklyn-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates— which has designed public parks, gardens, and campuses around the world—believe urban parks should be made for use, not just for beauty. The New York company was hired.

Consultants included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Tulsa, INCOG, Tulsa County, the River Parks Authority, a scientific team (comprised of a soil scientist, an ecologist, a hydrologist, and a sound engineer), and an economic team of restaurant and park management consultants.

Germany’s Richter Co., known for trend-setting playgrounds, was hired for its daring outlook 28 // FEATURED

of paths and nature trails in a landscape with 5,789 trees of 118 different species and 16.75 acres of wildflower gardens— Sky Garden with seasonal plantings; the Four Seasons Garden with walls of natural stone; the Wetlands Gardens with aquatic plantings; and Swing Hill, which has swings for all ages and abilities.

Water features include kayaks and canoes at Peggy’s Pond and Mist Mountain, home to the Flying Fish feature and the water maze, a children’s play fountain.

The Adventure Playground is designed for robust interaction with nature, from the Ramble sensory garden, with labyrinths and a hedge maze to the Land of River Giants, with colossal depictions of native wildlife, to the Fairyland Forest.

The Riverview Passage land bridge will be an unrivaled place to watch Fourth of July fireworks.

on outdoor play. Its wooden playground equipment includes giant climbing towers.

California Skateparks customized a skateboard park specifically for Tulsa. Teens and young adults will also appreciate the park’s BMX bike track.

Crossland Construction enabled the historic project to be built within budget and of the highest quality, Stava said.

The Gathering Place operations team also settled on a security system with ample surveillance and staff.

MAGNITUDE OF THE PARK

For now, we can only imagine the park’s vastness. The property has been under construction for three years. Stava says visitors will discover a Central Park-type space, popping with “wow” recreation, nature, and culture features.

Amanda Murphy, the park’s senior marketing officer, says topography is one of the most

startling changes the Gathering Place has brought.

“It’s not flat anymore,” she said.

During peak construction, 650 people were employed.

Massive amounts of earth were evacuated, moved, and hauled in to build hills and valleys, to construct elevations reaching 53 feet, and to reconfigure the riverbank so that it swells out into the water.

The QuikTrip Corp.’s Great Lawn is the park’s center. Its heart is the five-acre Chapman Charitable Foundation’s Adventure Playground, with playground equipment and installations never before seen in the U.S. The Williams Cos. Lodge, with a three-story fireplace and floorto-ceiling plate glass windows, offers spectacular sunset views.

The lodge and boathouse are extraordinary, said Kaiser, “but it may be the peaceful pocket parks and the hidden discovery areas that provide the distinguishing ambience.”

Visitors will see eight miles

The park will employ about 45 full-time park managers and up to 200 part-time employees during peak summer activity. Proceeds from the $100 million endowment will pay for all operations, programming, maintenance, and security. The 14 leaders recruited to run the park represent a dream-team combination of large park industry veterans and professionals with Tulsa and Oklahoma roots.

Tony Moore, Gathering Place park director, is a Jamaica native who comes to Tulsa from Florida, the theme park capital of the world. His professional background includes working for Tampa’s zoo and Orlando’s SeaWorld and Universal Studios— all heavily revenue-driven. He could barely believe the Gathering Place would have no admission charge.

“It will redefine the mindset of a public park,” Moore said. “It’s not a theme park; it’s a public park with theming.” Toddlers to seniors will return for educational, cultural, and sports activities, including big production shows.

Other cities will emulate Tulsa’s private-public collaboration, he said, but for now the Gathering Place is one of a kind.

Josh Henderson, senior operations officer, a University of Arkansas graduate who worked at Myrtle Beach Water Park in South Carolina, said, “When I January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

COURTESY GATHERING PLACE FOR TULSA

give tours, people are speechless … Tulsa will be blown away when they see what this park has to offer.”

Heavy landscaping filters the noise, Henderson said. There’s no sense of being in the middle of a city. “I can’t wait to see kids playing in the park with their friends and family,” he said. His favorite area is the overlook at the ONEOK Boathouse, “a special place to have a cocktail and look at the skyline and river.”

The boathouse’s full-service restaurant, with its stunning view of the park, river, and downtown, is a favorite of Richard Shoucair, director of business analysis, another Tulsa transplant from Florida. “A lot of dreams and hard work went into this before we got here,” he said. “In Orlando, I’d seen it all, but what we have here is so unique it is absolutely breathtaking.”

The magic of the innovative park is its combination of place and programming. Kirsten Hein, senior programming officer, has 15 years of experience with parks and recreation in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the Chicago Park District. “My heart is in free programming for children to gain new experiences,” she said. “We’re providing new places for kids to learn.”

The Gathering Place’s programming will range from large-scale events for 300-plus to smaller educational programs for about 20 individuals.

With GKFF’s signature dedication to early childhood education, it is no wonder the first Tulsans to have a sneak preview of the Gathering Place were elementary school children. They visited the Reading Tree, the oldest and biggest cottonwood tree in the park and the site of a stage for storytelling and reading events.

Art will also be displayed in the park. “Local and internationally renowned artists will be a feature, including performances … and all free and open to the public,” Hein said.

Performances might include dance, theater, music, acrobatics, magic, juggling, and more on the Great Lawn’s stage, mobile stages throughout the park, and the round stage in the children’s playground.

The grand opening this summer will include special events, but Hein won’t give details.

“We’re planning big,” she said.

“Something big and special.” a

Empire Soccer—we played together last season and won the Tulsa championship.

We have a sports room at the Gathering Place, five sports courts that are universally positioned for volleyball, basketball, street soccer, street hockey—so there will be some soccer. I’m sure on our Great Lawn kids will want to kick around in a more leisurely way. In addition to that, we have a BMX pump track and a skate park, so sports and health and wellness will be a major part.

NOBLE: What other kinds of activities will the park host?

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE GATHERING PLACE PARK DIRECTOR TONY MOORE HOPES HIS TEAM OVER-DELIVERS MARY NOBLE: How would you describe the difference between working on a project that generates revenue as opposed to a project like the Gathering Place?

TONY MOORE: Mission is so important, and Tulsa is fortunate to have this investment with a mission behind it about unifying the city … making Tulsa that place to live, work, play.

The mindset is different—you are making decisions based primarily on experience and value to the visitor, and not so much cost control.

It’s important that we think into the future, from an accommodation point of view, from hotels to the supporting infrastructures that will be needed as other businesses and entities associated with tourism start to get online. But to be clear, this is a park for Tulsans by Tulsans, and our number one focus is making sure we fulfill our objective from a civic point of view. Regardless of your income or zip code, this is Tulsa’s park where all Tulsans will feel engaged [and] welcome.

NOBLE: I hear you love soccer. Have you been able to attend any Roughnecks F.C. or Tulsa Athletic games? Will soccer have a place at the Gathering Place?

MOORE: I have been able to attend a few games and am a huge fan of the Roughnecks. I was able to play on a team the coach was a part of called

MOORE: From toddlers to seniors, there’s something for everyone to do. There’s over 100 unique experiences someone can have at the park.

We have a goal to have signature programming that will make a strong statement for all our Native American friends by having an awesome festival here. Same for African Americans. We will have festivals that will highlight Hispanic and Latino cultures. Beyond that, we will have a lot of food festivals, beer and wine, and art.

Education is at the forefront of everything we do. We will have a lot of workshops, [like] our reading tree challenge, where we are challenging Tulsa County elementary schools to read over 2,000,000 books. We are also actively looking to find laser light shows and just some awesome programming that will bring a lot of Tulsans out.

NOBLE: What have been some of the greatest challenges you have faced as executive director of the Gathering Place?

MOORE: We’ve been fortunate to find a lot of talented Tulsans to be a part of this project, and not being able to hire everyone that wants to be a part of the team is certainly a challenge.

Obviously the unforeseens with weather; last year we suffered some setbacks with rain—it’s just those elements you have no control over. That pent-up anticipation, anxiety to see the park, and the pressure to deliver. I won’t lie. We have to deliver; this has to be a quality experience, and we are hoping we won’t overpromise but that we’ll certainly over-deliver.

NOBLE: What phase of completion has the Gathering Place reached?

MOORE: We are in the last run. We would like to thank all our Tulsans for their patience with Riverside and [for] waiting. It will be worth the wait, I can guarantee. We are in the last quarter of the run, positioned to open in late summer, and we are excited about it. I can’t wait to show this park to Tulsa and Oklahoma. – MARY NOBLE FEATURED // 29

An altar in “Space, Held”

artspot

A SPACE OF ONE’S OWN Women artists are making room for themselves—and you

by ALICIA CHESSER | photos by VALERIE GRANT

“To Be Seen”

30 // ARTS & CULTURE

NEED A WAY TO PRACTICE LISTENING to women? Living Arts of Tulsa’s got you covered.

In three installations on view through Feb. 15, women artists explore a potency they know well, one that comes through making space. It’s a power that hasn’t regularly been visible in Western culture—one that’s creative and playful, full of memory, poetry, softness, mystery, and change.

In many ways, the exhibits couldn’t be more different from one another. Holy Mother Collective’s “Space, Held” is a cozy, colorful tent made of fabric scraps that leads into a series of intimate altars to and about womanhood. In “Chrysalis,” Erin Rappleye fills a delicate playroom with meaning-layered objects. And Sarah Gross (“To Be Seen”), inspired by her study of Islamic architecture, works in ceramics.

What these three have in common is the idea of space-making as an empowering act: making space for a body, for rethinking femininity, for connection and empathy. It’s space-making as art and as the process by which art is made.

It’s striking to see these works arrive in front of our community at the same time the #metoo and #timesup movements flood the national consciousness.

“Talking to every single woman involved,” said Sierra Kramer, a member of Holy Mother and director of the Honeybee Schoolhouse, “they all say, ‘It was just perfect timing for this.’”

Holy Mother Collective started in response to the frustration, hopelessness, and stagnation the women were feeling, particularly after the 2016 presidential election.

“We needed to be able to speak to everything that was going on,” continued Kramer, “but also show action. We’re going to create these spaces we want to be in because those spaces don’t exist here.”

Led by artists Lydia Cheshewalla and Cyterica Kahl, 25 women met throughout

2017 to sew, paint, and collaborate. In open curatorial conversation with Living Arts director Jessica Borusky, their installation went up in just 10 days.

“It’s a site-specific and responsive organism unto itself,” Borusky said.

Collective member Rachel Ann Dennis, director of creative engagement at Philbrook, described it as being more about social practice than about a formal work of art.

“This installation is the visual record of what this community looks like in practice,” Dennis said. “The way Holy Mother has been formed, there’s a lot of active listening and considering of multiple viewpoints. One of the hardest things to do is listen and validate, even if you don’t totally agree. It’s an incredible precursor to empathy.”

Some of the content in the “Space, Held” altars might be challenging in a society that prefers women’s personal business to stay invisible. Finding men willing to share their impressions of the installations proved difficult. But photographer Western Doughty suggested that might not be a bad thing.

“What these exhibits did for me,” he said, “is make me think about the women who have raised me, and my never really considering their struggle, or just being so privileged that I’m blind to it. I encourage every male to go to exhibits like this and keep their mouths shut and think about the women in their lives and honor them, and try to understand the history of oppression that plays a part in this.”

“Some of it’s a little PG-13,” said sculptor David James. “But I think I should take my daughter to see this, maybe when some of the women who worked on it are here, so they could talk to her about what they created.”

“There’s all this softness here—blood, breasts, yoni imagery, the tent—and they’re also the strong parts of us, the life, the livelihood,” Kramer said. “For women

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

to be able to communicate these things we know to be true about ourselves—that our softness is power—is huge.”

Dennis emphasized that “Space, Held” isn’t a militant zone.

“Difficult subject matter becomes accessible when it becomes personal,” she said. “There’s so much power in creating a quiet space where you say, ‘This is where I’m at,’ but also, ‘Where are you?’ It’s been refreshing.”

Rappleye’s exhibition is a space of a different color—literally. “Chrysalis” is a mesmerizing pale cocoon made of 2x4s and cream netting. Fragile butterflies cut from edible paper flutter in a corner while strange yet familiar artifacts—a compact that’s also a tape measure, a skeletal bustle, a cup that’s also an ear horn—sit silently. Rappleye’s research for the work ranged from the study of short stories “The Metamorphosis” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” to the gendered history of tools.

Rappleye will perform in the space on Feb. 2. During the event, a kettle will go off—“and then the house becomes activated: an angry house.” Much of the installation will be destroyed as she rejects the varying ways femininity is defined in childhood and as her adult self finally sits in the throne chair in the gallery’s corner window.

“It’s a way of acknowledging one’s own kingdom,” she said.

The complex idea of what Virginia Woolf famously called “a room of one’s own” (in her classic 1929 feminist essay of the same name) informs Sarah Gross’s work, too. Arrangements of deliciously textured ceramic tiles in her show suggest doorways, windows, and landscapes. A long “red carpet” called “Consumption” is made of 700 tiles, each created using casts of Gross’s fingers.

“Each of the pieces is meant to create a space around it for people to interact,” Gross said. “I want people to see that there’s a void in the center that’s meant for you, a place for you to center yourself in. It’s a little bit of a critique of the ‘I was here’ culture on social media, but it’s also a celebration of participating with the work.”

In addition to Rappleye’s performance, the Tulsa Women’s March will convene at Living Arts on Jan. 20, and Holy Mother Collective will offer various programs and events, including a laughter yoga session, a writing workshop, and more, throughout the exhibition’s run.

“To see people at ease and so delighted in this space is what we wanted,” Kramer said. “How do you move through these things? You hold space for them, you express them and give them their time and their light, and let them go.” a

LIVING ARTS OF TULSA 307 E. M.B. Brady St. Tues.–Sat., Noon–5 p.m. livingarts.org

“Chrysalis”

“Space, Held”

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 31

lolz

Hoot, holler, and wolf-whistle

Hullabaloo Revue is bawdy and irreverent

by MITCH GILLIAM

S

ix years ago, Deric Davis had never seen a burlesque performance. Now, the booted, suited, and bearded comedian is taking his clothes off for strangers at least once a month. Davis isn’t a burlesque dancer himself, but he hosts a variety of performers in his Hullabaloo Revue.

Hullabaloo isn’t a standard burlesque show. The traveling variety event features dancers, stand-up comics, musical acts, and a sideshow. Davis strips himself down at the beginning of the show in order to introduce some levity and to show the crowd how to participate.

“For today’s audience, you sometimes have to show people that it’s okay to cheer women on for taking off their clothes,” he said. “It’s okay to hoot, and holler, and wolf-whistle.”

“It’s all about the tease,” burlesque dancer Buttercup said about Hullabaloo.

Davis’s introduction to burlesque came six years ago, when he saw Tulsa’s own TwoLips Burlesk troupe. He was an instant fan.

“I travel for work, and whenever I went to a new city I would try and find a burlesque show,” Davis said. “I realized that Tulsa’s burlesque shows were just as good as and sometimes even better than what was happening in bigger cities.”

Davis had been performing stand-up at the Comedy Parlor frequently when someone at the venue offered him his own comedy showcase. Davis leapt at the opportunity and decided to incorporate his love of burlesque, starting something completely unique to the Tulsa comedy scene.

“The whole intent of Hullabaloo is to provide an experience to the audience … to create a mood of amusing, bawdy irreverence and to show them things they cannot believe they are seeing,

32 // ARTS & CULTURE

The troupe behind Hullabaloo Revue | GREG BOLLINGER

especially in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” Davis said.

My two visits to Hullabaloo were a blast.

Women dressed like classic pin-up models led me to my seat, and, between displays of belly dancing and tassel twirling, nervous comedians sweated through jokes about their weight and sex lives. Branjae, a musician who performed at the first show I attended, left the crowd speechless.

Additional comedy was provided when a dancer got a stocking stuck on her foot during a sexy reveal and sashayed through the rest of her set with it trailing like a ribbon of toilet paper.

The show has since spread from the Comedy Parlor to themed events at several venues around town.

The Hullaballoo Carnivale event at Fur Shop in September features a sideshow with a bearded lady, a spanking booth, aerialists, a fortune teller, and fire dancing/ blowing alongside the usual bur-

lesque, comedy, and music.

In addition to the Carnivale, Hullabaloo hosts Pride Parties.

The events feature “boylesque” in addition to their usual presentation. They also hold drag queen and king contests, and proceeds from the event go to the Jerome Food Pantry.

The featured fire dancer is Chrissy Kat, a permanent burlesque performer in the Hullabaloo Troupe. Apart from permanent members like Chrissy Kat and Buttercup, Hullabaloo features performers from around the country. Oklahoma City, Texas, and Arkansas dancers are regulars, and Louisiana’s Lucy Furr recently joined the troupe for good.

Davis, Joan Wright, and Amy Elle Bordeaux are resident comedians, but the rest of the comics rotate, and Davis is particular in his selection.

“It can’t be ‘you might be a redneck if,’ or a family or Christian comic … it has to be someone who is familiar with irreverence,

can roll with the punches, and can follow a beautiful woman taking her clothes off,” Davis said.

Local comic T.J. Clark has incorporated his Hullabaloo experiences into his set.

“Of course, when the women are on stage it’s fine to look,” Clark said. “But backstage I was respectful and tried not to stare. There was so much cleavage around me, though, I could not stop sweating.

Not staring at boobs is the greatest exercise I’ve had in months. I think I burned 3,000 calories just staring women in the eye. True resistance training right there.

“Comedians are always roasting each other or talking shit about something, which is fun in its own way,” Clark said. “But everyone was so supportive and positive backstage at Hullabaloo. It was like getting invited to the coolest slumber party ever.”

In addition to Hullabaloo’s flagship and Carnivale events, the troupe is constantly experimenting with new themes.

“We take the variety aspect of our shows, our performance group, our troupe, etc., and spread that across each show with a focus on one performance type in our secondary shows,” Davis said. “We also have one-offs ... for artists to see a mini-show and then create art based off models we provide for live posing ... We have a burlesque brunch planned. A pin-up contest planned. A country music burlesque event called the Hullabaloo Honky-Tonk.”

Hulaballoo Revue will be holding a talent showcase and casting call Feb. 16, 9–11 p.m., at Blackbird on Pearl (1336 E. 6th St.).

The Honky-Tonk show is planned for March, and Tulsans can get their fill of Hullabaloo fun, flirtation, and fire-eating at the Fur Shop in April. For all events, visit facebook.com/hullabaloorevue. a

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

A PE RFOR MING ARTS CENT ER TULS

Now - Jan. 30

TREE- Tulsa Artists PAC Art Gallery Now - Jan. 21

Evita Theatre Tulsa Jan. 23-28

A Gentleman’s Guide To Love & Murder Celebrity Attractions Jan. 26-27

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Choregus Productions Jan. 28

GET TICKETS

TULSAPAC.COM MYTICKETOFFICE.COM 918.596.7111

Ensemble 4.1 Chamber Music Tulsa

TULSA SYMPHONY

2017-2018 S E A S O N T W E LV E

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MENDELSSOHN’S SYMPHONY NO. 3

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2018 | 2:30 PM T U L SA P E R FO R MI NG A RT S C E N T E R BARBER: Medea’s Dance of Vengeance, op.23a KORNGOLD: Violin Concerto in D major, op.35 MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3, op.56 (Scottish)

NE W AND DATE TIME

Daniel Hege, Principal Guest Conductor Rossitza Jekova-Goza, Violin *Pre-Concert Conversation | 6:30 PM *Pre-Concert Student Recognition Concert | 6:45 PM *Post-Concert Reception – All Welcome *Childcare Available

For Tickets, Call 918.596.7111 or www.tulsasymphony.org

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

ARTS & CULTURE // 33

thehaps

WOMEN’S MARCH ON TULSA

WANDA JACKSON

Saturday, Jan. 20, Noon–4 p.m. | Guthrie Green, Living Arts facebook.com/tulsawomensmarch

Sunday, Jan. 21 Cain’s Ballroom, Magic City Books

MELISSA LUKENBAUGH

T

he Women’s March will be an opportunity to reaffirm the commitment to building a just future for all and to celebrate the spirit of the resistance efforts over the past year. The rally will promote sustained engagement in supporting women’s rights, human rights, social and environmental justice, and widespread voter registration and engagement in 2018 and beyond.

The event begins at Guthrie Green with pre-rally entertainment, followed by speeches from several women. The March will wind through six blocks of downtown Tulsa before returning to the Arts District and concluding at Living Arts, where feminist, progressive, and grassroots organizations and candidates for office will be networking and socializing.

R

ock-and-roll pioneer (and TTV Jan. 3 cover girl) Wanda Jackson will be in town for a full day of rockin’ events.

At 2 p.m., Jackson will be at Magic City Books for a conversation on her book “Every Night is Saturday Night,” in which she tells her stories of getting discovered, refusing to return to The Grand Ole Opry for more than fifty years, the challenges she and her integrated band faced in the early 1960s, and rocking over seven decades. Tickets are $27 and include a copy of the book.

The party continues at Cain’s Ballroom. OKC surfabilly band The Vibro Kings will play an opening set at 8 p.m., then Wanda Jackson will take the stage to prove she’s still the Queen of Rockabilly. Tickets are $18–$20.

SOCIAL ACTION

ART

The United League for Social Action (TULSA) will host Speak TULSA, an event for networking and learning about human rights organizations. Jan. 26, 9 p.m., Foolish Things Coffee Co., wearetulsa.org

The Tulsa Arts District will be bursting at the seams with exhibition openings, live performances, and other events during First Friday Art Crawl.

Feb. 2, 6–9 p.m. Main & M.B. Brady Streets, thetulsaartsdistrict.org

POETRY

COOL STORY

Magic City Books will host Poetic Justice: Poems by Incarcerated Women in Oklahoma, Vol. 3. featuring a screening of the documentary “Grey Matter,” readings from the journal, and portraits of the poets. Jan. 27, 2 p.m., magiccitybooks.com

“Bobby BlueJacket: The Tribe, The Joint, The Tulsa Underworld” is the true story of a man who went from career thief to activist. Magic City Books will host the author Michael P. Daley and Bobby BlueJacket himself. Feb. 3, 2 p.m., magiccitybooks.com

TMI

ON STAGE

The brand-new Rabbit Hole Improv will host its first show, and it’s a doozy: Ok, So Story Slam presents “Dear Diary: Adults Reading Their Teenage Diaries.

‘Nuff said. Jan. 27, 7 p.m. & 9 p.m., $12, rabbitholeimprov.com

Theatre North presents “Seven Guitars.” Written

by Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson, the play centers on the funeral of a blues guitarist.

Feb. 3, 10, 11, Liddy Doenges Theatre, Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com

ZINE SCENE

BLACK HISTORY

Broken Thumb Press hosts Tulsa Zine Night, a night of music, food, discussion of zine culture and the release of The No Tulsa Sound, Issue 2. Jan. 27, 8–10 p.m., pH Community House, facebook.com/ brokenthumbpress

Power to the People: The Black Panther Party and the Civil Rights Movement in Oklahoma is a free event that will feature a screening of “The Black Panthers: Vanguards of the Revolution.” Feb. 5, 6 p.m., Woody Guthrie Center, facebook.com/okpoptulsa

34 // ARTS & CULTURE

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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ARTS & CULTURE // 35

BEST OF THE REST EVENTS

Talk Show Incorporated with Landry Miller // Guests at this local talk show will include Chuck Stikl of Z104.5 The Edge and The Sports Animal, medical marijuana proponents Oklahomas for Health, musical guests Dane Arnold & The Soup and Kaito Gigantia, and comedian Rick Shaw. // 1/18, The Venue Shrine, facebook.com/ talkshowinc All Access: New/Now // Philbrook Downtown hosts a conversation with guest curator Colin Tuis Nesbit. The show will feature behindthe-scenes access to the show as well as the processes of the artists. // 1/19, Philbrook Downtown, philbrook.org Roe on the Rocks // Planned Parenthood Great Plains hosts this Women’s March after-party, which will feature a Feminist Art Wall where purchases benefit Planned Parenthood. // 1/20, Mainline, facebook.com/PPGreatPlains Elevations Health Fair // This free event will feature yoga workshops and lectures on alternative forms of medicine, including Reiki, Ayurveda, and herbal health. // 1/20, Peace of Mind Books, facebook.com/ peaceofmindspiritworks 62nd Annual Rabbie Burns Supper // The Scottish Club of Tulsa and ScotFest host their annual tribute to the national bard of Scotland, Robert Burns. The event features a haggis dinner, scotch whisky, and readings of Burns’s poetry. // 1/20, Wyndham Hotel Tulsa, okscotfest.com/burnsnight/ An Evening with Georgia Hunter // Hunter’s novel “We Were the Lucky Ones” was inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of WWII, determined to survive and to reunite. // 1/23, Magic City Books, magiccitybooks.com Green Country Home & Garden Show // Peruse nearly 175 exhibitors and services in home improvement, gardening, energy conservation, home furnishings, and more. // 1/26, The Exchange Center at Expo Square, coxradiotulsa.com/greencountry-home-and-garden-show Phenomenally // MUSED. Organization hosts an evening of poetry performance based on Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Women.” // 1/27, The Brooksider, musedorganization.org Tulsa Boat, Sport & Travel Show // See the latest in the worlds of boats, yachts, RVs, trailers, fishing gear, and more, including President John F. Kennedy’s personal speedboat, “Restofus.” // 1/29, River Spirit Expo at Expo Square, tulsaboatshow.com/ The World in Peril: David Owen of The New Yorker // The New Yorker staff writer David Owen will speak 36 // ARTS & CULTURE

about the environmental issues of the modern world in a wideranging conversation. // 1/31, Congregation B’Nai Emunah, magiccitybooks.com Laura Linney // The Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress speaks about her cancer advocacy work. // 2/2, Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa PAC, tulsatownhall.com

PERFORMING ARTS

Concerts with Commentary: Eclectic, Reflective and Renovated // TU’s music and discussion series continues with violinists Maureen O’Boyle and Pete Peterson and cellist Lorelei Barton. // 1/18, Meinig Recital Hall, Lorton Performance Center, calendar.utulsa.edu/ lorton_performance_center OKMEA Conference Concerts // The Oklahoma Music Educators Association presents concerts featuring their Honor Band, All-State chorus, and All-State instrumental ensemble. // 1/19, Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa PAC, okmea.org Serafin String Quartet // The Quartet in Residence at The University of Delaware, Serafin String Quartet takes its name from master luthier Sanctus Serafin, who in 1728 crafted the violin SSQ violinist Kate Ransom plays. // 1/20, Gussman Concert Hall, Lorton Performance Center, calendar.utulsa. edu/lorton_performance_center TU Chamber Music Tulsa Heckman Award Competition // 1/22, Meinig Recital Hall, Lorton Performance Center, calendar.utulsa.edu/ lorton_performance_center A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder // This winner of the 2014 Tony for Best Musical is the story of a distant heir to a family fortune who sets out to jump the line of succession by eliminating the eight relatives (all played by one actor) who stand in his way. // 1/23, Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com Aspen Santa Fe Ballet // This contemporary ballet company is known for its distinctive repertoire of groundbreaking works and virtuoso dancers. // 1/26, John H. Williams Theatre, Tulsa PAC, choregus.org A Night at the Opera // Hear pieces

by Bizet, Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, and Tobias Picker, Artistic Director of Tulsa Opera. // 1/27, Van Trease PACE, signaturesymphony.org Ensemble 4.1 // This German ensemble makes use of its unusual quitet combination—piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn—playing rarely-performed masterworks by Mozart, Beethoven, and other composers. // 1/28, Tulsa Performing Arts Center, chambermusictulsa.org

Gobsmacked // A sell-out hit in the UK, Gobsmacked is a showcase of a diverse range of a capella singing, from traditional street-corner harmonies to multi-track live looping and beaboxing. // 1/30, Broken Arrow PAC, brokenarrowpac.com The Illusionists // The world’s best-selling touring magic show comes to Tulsa. // 2/1, 7:30 p.m., $25-$125, BOK Center, bokcenter.com

Chris Killian // 1/31, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

SPORTS

2ORU Women’s Basketball vs. South Dakota // 1/17, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com 018 Flo Nationals Wrestling // 1/18, Expo Square Pavilion, worldofwrestling-roller.com/ tournaments/tulsa-nationals.html

The Crucible // 2/2, Clark Youth Theatre, clarkyouththeatre.com

Tulsa Oilers vs. Idaho Steelheads // 1/19, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com

Freedom Train // This family-friendly production tells the story of Harriet Tubman through a series of scenes incorporating dance, dialogue, and music of the period. // 2/2, John H. Williams Theatre, Tulsa PAC, tulsapac.com

Criss Angel - RAW // 1/20, The Joint at Hard Rock Casino, hardrockcasinotulsa.com

Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 // Conducted by Daniel Hefe, this concert will also feature “Medea’s Dance of Vengeance” by Samuel Barber and Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Rossitza Jekova-Goza. // 2/4, Chapman Music Hall, Tulsa PAC, tulsasymphony.org

Tulsa Oilers vs. Idaho Steelheads // 1/20, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs. Denver // 1/20, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com ORU Men’s Basketball vs. Denver // 1/20, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com TU Men’s Basketball vs. Memphis // 1/20, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Colorado Eagles // 1/21, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com

COMEDY

Comedy Night // 1/17, Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577, facebook. com/CentennialLoungeTulsa

ORU Women’s Basketball vs. Central Christian // 1/23, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Vince Morris, Scott Shaffer // 1/17, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com

ORU Men’s Basketball vs. East Texas Baptist // 1/23, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

Bob Newhart // 1/20, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com

ORU Men’s Basketball vs. Nebraska Christian // 1/27, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

6-Pack of Punchlines w/ De Sofunny, Tony Beatty, Zach Khan, Jon W Tyler, Zandria Wyatt, Logan Rogers // 1/21, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook. com/BazarEntertainment

TU Women’s Basketball vs. UCF // 1/27, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com

Comedy Night // 1/24, Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577, facebook. com/CentennialLoungeTulsa Spanky Brown, Shane McConaughey, Aaron Aryanpur // 1/24, Loony Bin, tulsa.loonybincomedy.com Star Lyte, Ashley Chaitra, De’Marrio Oates, Dre Caesar, Dominic Durant, CeCe // 1/25, The Venue Shrine, facebook.com/BazarEntertainment Steve Treviño // 1/27, 7 p.m., Cox Business Center, $24.50-$52.50, bokcenter.com Nicks @ Night ft. Nicholas Osborn & Nick Birkitt w/ Damian Palmer, Kayla Esmond, Old Man Willie, Jordan Lofland, Dante Hale // 1/28, Blackbird on Pearl, facebook.com/ BazarEntertainment/ Soundpony Comedy Hour w/ Andrew Deacon // 1/29, Soundpony, facebook.com/soundponycomedy Comedy Night // 1/31, Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577, facebook. com/CentennialLoungeTulsa

Tulsa RFC Women vs. Little Rock Stormers // 1/27, Tulsa Rugby Pitch, tulsarugbyclub.com Tulsa RFC Men vs. Fort Worth Rugby // 1/27, Tulsa Rugby Pitch, tulsarugbyclub.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Rapid City Rush // 1/30, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Wichita Thunder // 1/31, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com TU Women’s Basketball vs. USF // 1/31, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs. Fort Wayne // 2/1, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com TU Men’s Basketball vs. SMU // 2/1, Reynolds Center, tulsahurricane.com Xtreme Fight Night 346 - Vengeance // 2/2, River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove, riverspirittulsa.com Tulsa Oilers vs. Allen Americans // 2/3, BOK Center, tulsaoilers.com ORU Women’s Basketball vs. Western Illinois // 2/3, Mabee Center, oruathletics.com

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

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LGBTQ friendly ARTS & CULTURE // 37

musicnotes

R

achel Bachman wrote her first song, a syrupy nature ballad called “The Trees Were High,” when she was four. She comes from a family of quirky suburban hippies who love to sing. Her mom was a club singer in Detroit in the ‘70s. All these years later, Bachman is still writing songs. Her third album, I’m All I’ves, her most eclectic and personal recording to date, will be released this month with a live performance at Soul City Gastropub and Music House.

I’m All I’ves is a strange album title. The odd word sequence makes you feel like you’ve heard it wrong. But the strangeness was deliberate.

“I took all the words from my album and put them in alphabetical order,” Bachman said. “Then I took my favorite phrase from each of the songs, and I looked at each of the words near the phrases to see what other weird phrases I could come up with. There was a lot of alliteration. So the name had an interesting sound, and it plays on the idea that I write songs that are super self-involved. It’s kind of poking fun at myself.”

On I’m All I’ves Bachman doesn’t hold any punches, but she also doesn’t take herself too seriously. She paints a remarkably honest portrait of past and present lovers, boring relationships in crisis, her obsession with mundane details, neurosis, and a world she seems happy to inhabit even as it decays.

On the opening track she admits, “It’s a big year / I’m used to living with my fear / Now all I can see are days flying by / And all the makeup in the world couldn’t hide the bags under my eyes … Closing down the bar with my friends / Binging on pizza with my love / Watching us pretend here’s the life we’ve been dreaming of.”

Out of context the lyrics sound weighty, but she sings them with an exuberant and almost blissful irony. Bachman continues: “Now that I’m sorry for myself, I’ll pour you a cup of my first38 // MUSIC

Singer-songwriter Rachel Bachman | GREG BOLLINGER

AN ODE TO ENTROPY Rachel Bachman releases her new album at Soul City

by DAMION SHADE world sadness … I am wasting all this feeling / I am wasting time.”

Bachman’s lo-fi record vacillates between sparse instrumentation and full-fledged folk rock hootenanny. Sonically, it’s reminiscent of Courtney Barnett’s Split Sea EP or one of Ani DiFranco’s neofolk records from the ‘90s.

The ukulele is central here, but Bachman plays many instruments and often adds layers of vocal harmony. Several songs contain odd little outtakes with tape noises and speaking recorded after a take. Much of the album has a conversational quality—listening

is similar to watching a show in someone’s living room, partly because Bachman recorded much of it herself at home.

“It started at Auggy Reed Studios,” she said. “I recorded a couple of live tracks, then Mike Gilliland gave me recording lessons and lent me his Mbox audio interface. I went home and recorded everything. Then we dumped it onto Mike’s computer, and he and Connor Robb mixed and mastered it and added some guitar tracks.

I recorded the vocals and ukulele and Tom Stephens on bass. Then I recorded all the percussion with

Ashlee Elmore: cajón, shaker, and tambourine. There’s no drums on the whole thing.”

Nicholas Foster adds a layer of off-kilter but interesting percussion to a few songs. Hector Ultreras delivers a Dylanesque harmonica solo, and Adrienne Gilley and Bachman’s sister Rebekah contribute backing vocals. Nearly every other sound on the album is made by Bachman, who created the intimate space many of these songs inhabit. This record helped her push past a season of creative drought.

“I wrote most of these songs from July to October of 2016 because I found this songwriters’ group online. They do these challenges called the 50/90 songwriting challenge, where you write fifty songs in ninety days. I wrote about twenty, more than I’d written in the last six years. It was just the idea of having to write a few songs a week. I had to write them.”

The process has created some of the songwriter’s most compelling material yet. Joining her cerebral, introspective lyrics with the lightness of ukulele chords and joyful crooning, I’m All I’ves is a step forward for Bachman. This album plays like a long exhalation of relief; even the most serious parts of life don’t have to be taken too seriously. On one of the album’s liveliest tracks, “A Word of Encouragement,” she delivers a strangely satisfying truth.

Bachman sings these words over a chorus of her own melodramatic oohs and ahhs: “A word of encouragement as you leave here / I want you to look around and realize that everything you see is going to end up in a landfill” a

I’m All I’ves album release show with guests Snowbug String Trio and Papa Foster’s Creole Trio Jan. 27, 9 p.m.

Soul City Gastropub and Music House 1621 E 11th St | $5

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

GOOD FOR THE SOUL Join a singalong in support of three North Tulsa public schools

by CHARLIE CANTRELL

‘LIVE AT SOUL CITY’ RELEASES FEB. 3 Songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Mark Gibson’s Live at Soul City features 13 original tracks, ranging from weighty ruminations to rich love songs to compassionate commentary on religion and politics. Gibson and his band, consisting of Chris Wylie on drums, Ryan Magnani on bass, Kendrik McKinney on keys, Chanda Graham on vocals, and Mike Cameron on saxophone, recorded three live shows at Soul City Gastropub and Music House in 2017. Live at Soul City includes their favorite cuts from each. The result is an energetic, soulful, bluesy, heartfelt, and honest album that breathes life into both the personal and the public/political. In “Love Will Find a Way,” for instance, Gibson gives us a kind of directive: “What the world needs is your love / and the walls between all of us / they will fall and turn to dust.” Don’t miss the full-band album release show at Soul City (1621 E. 11th St.), Sat., Feb. 3, 9 p.m. —CASSIDY MCCANTS

I REMEMBER SEEING MY PARENTS GLUED TO our black-and-white television screen, watching “Sing Along with Mitch.” Mom joined in, belting out “Yellow Rose of Texas,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and that marvelously nonsensical “Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends.” Dad never sang, but he enjoyed watching. I, on the other hand, held Mitch and his choir of stiffs in their little bow ties in utter contempt. They were the antithesis to my beloved rock ‘n’ roll. I wondered how that silly television show captivated my parents.

Then came “Hootenanny,” a singalong show that kept this rock ’n’ roller singing along.

Hootenanny is a term from the folk music scene in the early ‘50s. The popular rise of the word, defined as “an informal gathering with folk music,” is often attributed to Pete Seeger. Folk is a participatory, egalitarian genre handed down from generation to generation by folks gathered on porches and in town squares. Even today the music draws people together at festivals. Contra or square dance nights still exist in rural Oklahoma.

In “The Incomplete Folksinger,” Seeger says he encountered the word hootenanny when he and Woody Guthrie played at a New Dealer fundraiser in the ‘50s. Seeger helped Guthrie bring Appalachian fiddle tunes and other European folk derivatives into the American music mainstream, eventually spawning the airing of “Hootenanny.”

I’m fortunate to have grown up in Tulsa, with its rich and diverse musical heritage. I listened to Bob Wills on KVOO in the ‘50s. I grew up when bluegrass, rock ‘n’ roll, rockabilly, blues, and the Tulsa Sound poured out of every dive.

That history preceded today’s cityscape of topnotch musical venues. Our community understands the value of music in bringing a people together, evidenced by the growth of singalong events like “Rise Up Singing” at Congregation B’nai Emunah, various singalongs at the Woody Guthrie Center, and “Sing for Our Schools,” sponsored by All Souls Partners in Education, an annual fundraiser benefiting Jackson and Gilcrease Elementary Schools and McClain 7th Grade Academy.

When any rockstar today invites the audience to join in singing a beloved song, there is a near unanimous and enthusiastic response. An impromptu singalong brings joyous freedom— we check our egos and worries at the door and connect with each other through the familiarity of a song.

This year’s “Sing for Our Schools” will take place on Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. at All Souls Unitarian Church (2952 S. Peoria Ave.), with a suggested donation of $10. a THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

MUSIC // 39

musiclistings Wed // Jan 17 Crow Creek Tavern – Cody Woody Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement Soul City – Don & Steve White Soundpony – Live Band Heavy Metal Karaoke w/ Satanico and The Demon Seeds The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Vanguard – Reload Wednesdays w/ Kode Ransom, Tevin Banks, Cam Williams, Velly Vel

Thurs // Jan 18 Crow Creek Tavern – Michele Warren and Chris Brown Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Runnin On Empty Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Weston Horn, 80’z Enuf Lefty’s On Greenwood – *Travis Fite Lot No. 6 – Chloe Johns Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint River Spirit Casino - Paradise Cove – Lee Brice – ($30-$50) Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Oak House The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Thirst The Fur Shop – Free Kittens & Bread The Hunt Club – Ego Culture The Vanguard – The Devil’s Cut – ($10) Wyld Hawgz – Julie & The Retrospex Birthday Jam Yeti – Viet Rahm, Planet What

Fri // Jan 19 Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Al Jibouri Blackbird on Pearl – Sprout (The Anti-Hero) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Darrel Lee Hopper Crystal Skull – Dixie Wrecked Fassler Hall – Hosty Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Rivers Edge Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Boogie Fever, Replay Lefty’s On Greenwood – Jake Hemphill Trio Mercury Lounge – Carrie Nation and the Speakeasy Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Stars River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Band River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Ayngel & John Soul City – *Hank Born, Combsy – ($10) Soundpony – Hush Machine, Girls Club, Police Academy 2 The Colony – Annie Oakley, Dan Martin Band – ($5) The Hunt Club – The Plums The Max Retropub – Boo Ya w/ DJ Moody The Run – Usual Suspects The Vanguard – Auspicious, Skysia, Obscure Sanity, Aberrant Construct, Fester – ($10) Wyld Hawgz – Amped

Sat // Jan 20 Bad Ass Renee’s – EverFade Blackbird on Pearl – Curtis Roper Brady Theater – 2Cellos – ($37-$62) Bull and Bear Tavern – Dean DeMerritt Jazz Tribe ft. Sarah Maud C’Yote Club – Lindsay Rae Cain’s Ballroom – Stoney LaRue, Trett Charles – ($20-$35) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – *MU, Achey Orb, Sister Silent, Technicolor Caligula Crystal Skull – Mike Barham and the Honky Tonk Prophets El Coyote Manco – Los Rieleros, Ramon Ayala Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Travis Kidd Band Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Travis Kidd, Weekend All Stars Lefty’s On Greenwood – The Percolaters Lot No. 6 – Kickin! INXS ResurXtion Magoo’s Billiards – Shotz Mercury Lounge – *Helen Kelter Skelter album release w/ The Shelter People, Slow Dreamer Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Deuces Wild River Spirit Casino – The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Jesse Alan Soundpony – Favored and Flavored Presents: Welcome to Flavorville The Colony – A.H. Pierce & The Arrows – ($5) The Fur Shop – Admirals, New Time Zones The Hunt Club – BC and the Big Rig The Max Retropub – Aaron Bernard The Pit Stop – DJ MO The Run – House Party The Vanguard – *Fight the Fade EP release show w/ Modern Myth, Lilac Kings, Upland – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Metal Mayhem w/ Carcinogen Daily, Enslaved by Fear, Agents of Khaos, Judgement Finger, Doxy – ($5) 40 // MUSIC

Unit D – JD Wilkes, Pat Cook and Soul Surferos – ($12) Woody Guthrie Center – Oklahoma Room at Folk Alliance Fundraiser w/ Kalyn Fay, Beau Roberson, Lauren Barth, Dustin Pittsley, Paul Benjaman, Jesse Aycock – ($20) Wyld Hawgz – Str8ght Shot Yeti – NeoRomantics, Couch Jackets, Future Tapes

Sun // Jan 21 Cain’s Ballroom – *Wanda Jackson, The Vibro Kings – ($18-$20) Crystal Skull – Sunday Vibes Open Mic w/ Filthy Rich East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Frank and Deans Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – *Herbie Hancock Tribute w/ the Tim Shadley Trio – ($5-$20) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – *Danner Party, Carlton Hesston The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Pit Stop – DJ MO The Starlite – Mouton, Noun Verb Adjective Yeti – Shut Up! Dance Party

Mon // Jan 22 Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot, and Friends Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriots, Russell Dickerson Soundpony – *North by North, Girls Club, Colouradio The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Run – Monday Jam Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Jan 23 BOK Center – *The Moody Blues – ($59.50-$250) Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Asphalt Cowboys Lefty’s On Greenwood – Oliver, Brown & Bates Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham & Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Dane Arnold Soul City – Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic The Run – Morgan Reynolds The Vanguard – Vagabonds, My Heart and Liver are the Best of Friends, Foster Pace, Alexis Onyango – ($10) Yeti – Writers’ Night

Wed // Jan 24 Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement, Don Middleton Soul City – Don & Steve White Soundpony – Wednesday Kick Back w/ Big Ro aka Punki Loco and DJ Hypeman The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project The Venue Shrine – John Kadlecik, Ego Culture – ($10)

Thurs // Jan 25 Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Brandon Butler Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Empire, NighTTrain Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – *Vagittarius, Carlton Hesston, Joe Myside The Beehive Lounge – *Charles Ellsworth, Hector Ultreras The Colony – The Soup Kitchen w/ Dane Arnold The Hunt Club – Bria and Joey The Vanguard – Piece of Mind, Orthodox, Shame, Agony, Give Way – ($10)

Fri // Jan 26 Bad Ass Renee’s – DJ MO Bistro at Seville – Dean DeMerritt and Sean Al Jibouri Blackbird on Pearl – The Tiptons, Trett Charles Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Follow The Buzzards – ($5) Crystal Skull – Ronnie Pyle & The Drivers Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – George Brothers Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Daniel Jordan, Travis LeDoyt Inner Circle Vodka Bar – Winterfest w/ DJ Gus Major Lefty’s On Greenwood – Smoochie Wallus Mercury Lounge – Emily Chambers Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – The Hi-Fidelics River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Vashni Duo Soul City – Susan Herndon

Soundpony – No Parking Season 3 The Colony – *American Shadows, Golden Ones – ($5) The Hunt Club – Dante and the Hawks The Max Retropub – Afistaface The Run – Smilin’ Vic The Starlite – *Bowie In Boas IV w/ DJs Jessy James and Lynn K The Vanguard – Smile Empty Soul, Stella Lost, Wither, Hadsome Sinners – ($15) The Venue Shrine – *Cassie Latshaw CD release – ($5) Woody Guthrie Center – Ryan McLaughlin – ($10-$12) Yeti – The Dischord, Stinky Gringos, The Beaten Daylights

Sat // Jan 27 Bad Ass Renee’s – Oldman, Field Dressed Hooker, Carcinogen Daily, Garrett Heck Blackbird on Pearl – *Robert Hoefling and Family Brady Theater – *Marilyn Manson, Amazonica – ($45) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Deerpaw Cimarron Bar – Rocket Science Crow Creek Tavern – *Vote Yes on 788 Presents The Black Fox Boys Hard Rock Casino - Cabin Creek – Chad Lee Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – Chad Lee, Breakdown Shakedown Lefty’s On Greenwood – *Faye Moffett Lot No. 6 – Lindsey Friend Magoo’s Billiards – Shotz Mercury Lounge – Seth Lee Jones Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – Travis Kidd Band River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Fuzed River Spirit Casino - Volcano Stage – Jimmy Blythe Soul City – *Rachel Bachman album release w/Snobug, Chris Foster – ($10) Soundpony – Pleasuredome The Colony – Joe Mack, Carter Sampson Band – ($5) The Fur Shop – DJ Oreo The Hunt Club – November The Max Retropub – DJ Robbo The Pit Stop – DJ MO The Run – Audio Crush The Vanguard – Dead Metal Society – ($10-$20) Woody Guthrie Center – Beau Jennings, John Calvin Abney – ($15) Yeti – The Classless

Sun // Jan 28 BOK Center – Winter Jam w/ Building 420, Skillet, Kari Jobe ft. Cody Carnes – ($15) Crystal Skull – Sunday Vibes Open Mic w/ Filthy Rich East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – Casual Six, Brujoroots - Happy Hour Show The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Pit Stop – DJ MO The Vanguard – Embracer, Downward, Postparty, Carvist – ($10) Yeti – Shut Up! Dance Party

Mon // Jan 29 BOK Center – Avenged Sevenfold – ($25-$75) Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot, and Friends Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriots The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Run – Monday Jam Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Jan 30 Hard Rock Casino - Riffs – James Muns Lefty’s On Greenwood – Janet Rutland Lot No. 6 – Chloe Johns Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham & Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Dane Arnold Soul City – Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic The Run – Campfire Yeti – Writers’ Night Yeti – Off With Their Heads

Wed // Jan 31 Mercury Lounge – Jared Tyler & Seth Lee Jones Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Eicher Wednesdays – ($10) River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jacob Dement Soul City – Don & Steve White

Soundpony – Rebel Soul Revival The Coffee House on Cherry Street – Open Mic The Colony – Tom Skinner’s Science Project

Thurs // Feb 1 Blackbird on Pearl – Red Dirt Rangers – ($5) Cox Business Center – Travis Tritt – ($49) Hard Rock Casino - The Joint – Clay Walker, Tracy Byrd – ($49-$69) Lot No. 6 – Dan Martin Mercury Lounge – Paul Benjaman River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Jake Flint Soul City – The Begonias Soundpony – Bear and the Beasts The Colony – Jacob Tovar’s Western Night Yeti – Colouradio, Wesley Jensen & The Penny Arcade, Carlton Hesston

Fri // Feb 2 Bad Ass Renee’s – DJ MO Blackbird on Pearl – *Brad James Band – ($5) BOK Center – Kid Rock – ($39.50-$129.50) IDL Ballroom – ATLiens, Jameston Thieves Mercury Lounge – Midnight River Choir Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – R-Kaine Smitty’s 118 Tavern – The Blue Dawgs Soul City – Susan Herndon The Colony – *Animal Names, Villains, Carlton Hesston – ($5) The Fur Shop – Taylor Kropp The Hunt Club – Smunty Voje The Max Retropub – Afistaface The Vanguard – Manta Rays, Helen Kelter Skelter, The Shelter People – ($10) The Venue Shrine – Jackson Taylor and The Sinners – ($10) Yeti – Cucumber Mike’s Happy Hour

Sat // Feb 3 Blackbird on Pearl – *Bob Marley Birthday Bash w/ Jahruba, Jah Mystics, Local Hero, Stinky Gringos, Ekubembe – ($10) Dusty Dog Pub – James Groves Band Mercury Lounge – Read Southall Osage Casino Tulsa - NINE18 Bar – R-Kaine Soul City – *Mark Gibson album release Soundpony – Soul Night The Colony – Isayah’s Allstars – ($5) The Hunt Club – Flabbergaster The Max Retropub – DJ Robbo The Pit Stop – DJ MO The Run – RocKFiscH The Vanguard – My So Called Band – ($10) The Venue Shrine – *Jeff Austin Band – ($20) Woody Guthrie Center – Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road – ($12-$15) Wyld Hawgz – Bullets Yeti – The Electric Rag Band, Hey Judy

Sun // Feb 4 Crystal Skull – Sunday Vibes Open Mic w/ Filthy Rich East Village Bohemian Pizzeria – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Brandon Clark River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Brent Giddens Soul City – Bruner & Eicher Soundpony – Wood Chickens, The Dull Drums The Beehive Lounge – Madaline The Buckaneer Bar – Alan Doyle The Colony – Paul Benjaman’s Sunday Nite Thing The Pit Stop – DJ MO

Mon // Feb 5 Centennial Lounge at VFW Post 577 – Dave Les Smith, Papa Foxtrot, and Friends Hodges Bend – Mike Cameron Collective Mercury Lounge – Chris Blevins River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – The Marriots The Colony – Seth Lee Jones The Run – Monday Jam Yeti – The Situation

Tues // Feb 6 Mercury Lounge – Wink Burcham & Jacob Tovar Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame – Depot Jazz and Blues Jams River Spirit Casino - 5 O’Clock Somewhere Bar – Dane Arnold Soul City – Dustin Pittsley The Colony – Singer/Songwriter Night The Gypsy Coffee House – Open Mic Yeti – Writers’ Night

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; February 6, 2018

MUSIC // 41

popradar

DID IT SUCK THAT BAD? Ten years ago, ‘The Happening’ … happened

by JOE O’SHANSKY Mark Wahlberg in “The Happening” (2008) | COURTESY

A

friend and I have had an over-a-decade-long running (though now less frequent, sadly) habit.

Bad Movie Friday.

When we were more faithful to the tradition, we’d plop down on the couch with smokes, cheap booze, and the occasional guest to challenge our enduring taste for trash cinema. Always a double feature, with an obligatory taco run during intermission. Al pastor from Don Francisco’s on Eleventh Street, if you’re curious.

I was still writing reviews on Myspace then for a small but encouraging group of friends, and I noticed a trend toward writing exclusively about movies I liked because they were objectively good. Kind of like a food critic.

Hence, Bad Movie Friday. The goal was most certainly to watch a bad film. Just the kind that knows it’s bad. Crafted on a crazy idea, rubber bands, bubble gum, and people not getting paid much to have what is clearly a good time. They didn’t necessarily have to be cheap, either—the ‘80s was a treasure trove of cheesy movies with a budget—but they did have to have heart.

We saw “King Kung Fu” (a Kong rip-off set in Wichita, Kansas, where Kong knows kung fu); “K-9000,” a Stephen E. de 42 // FILM & TV

Souza-penned buddy cop comedy in which the buddy is a telepathic dog; “Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter,” where Jesus … you get it.

Sure, something as famously bad as “Battlefield: Earth” is truly batshit in the sense that it has a stunning production budget and makes you wonder how anyone thought it was good during the making.

But it’s also a fucking bore. First rule of any movie (or anything, really): Don’t. Be. Boring.

All that to say, it should come as no surprise that, on a Friday ten years ago, we watched “The Happening.”

Mark Wahlberg is Elliot Moore, a dorky science teacher, living in Philadelphia and married to Alma (Zooey Deschanel), who, unbeknownst to Elliot, has cheated on him by going out once for tiramisu with a guy who won’t stop calling (and leaving voicemails).

Fortunately for Alma, a supposed biological terrorist attack causes everybody around to start killing themselves in increasingly extravagant and violent ways.

Construction workers fall like lemmings from skyscrapers. Everyone with a gun kills themselves.

And anyone who notices picks up the same gun. A zookeeper decides to play with the lions and is dispassionately torn to pieces.

It’s incumbent upon me to

pause here and mention that all of this becomes hilarious after the first five minutes.

When the contagion spreads from a subtly-placed Ground Zero in Central Park to a park in Philadelphia, Elliot decides it’s best to get out of town with Alma, his best friend Julian (John Leguizamo) and his daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez) on a train though the heavily-forested woods of Pennsylvania, where they meet a crazy botanist (Frank Collison) who’s convinced that every chlorophyll-based, C02-breathing asshole in the Tri-State Area is out to kill them.

And, as it turns out, they are.

In a target-rich environment of bad and/or nonsensical writing, questionable performances, and Shyamalan’s subtle-as-a-fartin-a-hot-elevator direction, it’s really Wahlberg who takes the gold as the most unconvincing hero ever—at least until his role as Jack Salmon in Peter Jackson’s aggressively terrible adaptation of “The Lovely Bones” the following year, where he managed to sound like more of a whiny teenager than his dead, teenaged ghost-daughter. Deschanel doesn’t help matters, either. Maybe all acting is reacting, but she just reminds me of a super cute, very confused rhesus monkey.

But it does turn into sublime comedy when Elliot tries to think too hard and finds himself making friends with a plastic plant. Or leading his ever-shrinking band of survivors into even worse decisions because he’s, well, not smart.

At all. Or how Night fumbles his intentions, awkwardly jamming together rote drama, heavy-handed environmental themes, and gory counterpunches of violence (it is his first R-rated film) into a tonal clusterfuck of thinly-sketched characters unconvincingly running in fear from windblown trees.

Someone called it “The Birds” without birds. I prefer to think of them as Nazi Ents. Either way, we’re being generous.

But here’s the problem. I like it.

Ten years ago I thought this was a baffling misfire. This is where the joke of his golden boy, post-“Signs” downfall really took hold. Is it bad? Most certainly.

But now I can see it for what it is. A super-violent, relatively fun “Twilight Zone” episode. A rude answer to the reception of Night’s “Lady in the Water,” itself a narcissistic pseudo-critique of critics of “The Village.” All of those movies banked. Critics don’t matter. The only sad part is that the idea of homicidal flora wiping out humanity is a great one, ripe for exploration not found here. a

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

For this flash fiction contest, Nimrod International Journal and The Tulsa Voice will select one first-prize and one second-prize winner from the Tulsa area.

First prize: $150; second prize: $50.

Entries may be no more than 500 words long. Both winners will be published in The Tulsa Voice.

For submission guidelines, visit nimrodjournal.submittable.com/ submit.

DEADLINE: JANUARY 31, 2018 Winning work will be published in a late spring/early summer 2018 issue of The Tulsa Voice. Selected finalists will also be published, though they will not receive prize money.

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REAL COLLEGE RADIO

Tune into Tulsa’s eclectic, uniquely programmed, local music loving, commercial free, genre hopping, award winning, truly alternative music station. @RSURadio | WWW.RSURADIO.COM THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

FILM & TV // 43

filmphiles

POLKA RACKET The true story of a polka king’s Ponzi scheme Jack Black in “The Polka King” | COURTESY

FOR MANY, “ONLY IN AMERICA” MEANS hope with endless possibilities. For Jan Lewan—a Polish immigrant, entrepreneur, and polka band leader—it was a dream that became a cautionary tale.

“The Polka King,” a Sundance Film Festival entry now streaming exclusively on Netflix, is a gonzo account of Lewan’s rise and fall. His illegal business practices may not have been worth the investment, but the film about him is.

Jack Black is perfectly cast as Lewan, aka The Polka King, a charismatic entertainer who set out to build a polka empire.

He was successful—but only by bilking elderly fans out of millions.

Part of what makes Lewan so compelling, even empathetic, is that he never intended to cheat any investor. It was business naiveté and an insatiable aspiration for the American Dream that unwittingly put Lewan in a financial and legal hole.

By the time he realized what he was doing was wrong, he was in too deep to crawl out.

Feeling he had no other choice, Lewan doubled down on the Ponzi scheme he’d inadvertently created, using money

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

44 // FILM & TV

from new financiers to pay off old ones, because profits were never part of the business model.

“The Polka King” is about how Lewan built this house of cards and kept it from falling apart for the better part of the ‘90s.

It’s one of those whoppers in which truth is stranger than fiction, a story of the impossible ventures Lewan had no right thinking he could pull off—but did.

His charming powers of persuasion, driven by a sincere belief in himself, assuaged the red flags that popped up for his wife Marla (Jenny Slate), drummer and business associate Mickey (Jason Schwartzman), and others. Only his badgering mother-in-law (Jacki Weaver) could see through the facade, but Lewan’s positive zeal always trumped her grating pessimism.

The film is as much a testament to Lewan’s unshakeable determination and work ethic as it is an exposé of his own delusion.

And, as in most tragedies, it’s not the one risk taken too far that brings everything down; it’s a seemingly inconsequential, peripheral event that triggers the collapse.

As Lewan, Black exudes an earnest magnetism. Slate and Schwartzman bring human dimension to supporting archetypes as well, and the ensemble includes welcome cameos by J.B. Smoove and Vanessa Bayer.

Lewan wanted to build something that meant something. For him, the Ponzi scheme wasn’t a scam; it was a stopgap. The confidence he had in himself and his team made riches seem inevitable, along with making everything right.

He never thought he was taking people for suckers because, ultimately, he was a sucker himself.

“The Polka King” captures that innocence, leaving you with the hope that, someday, Lewan will get the kind of second chance that can happen in America.

– JEFF HUSTON

Timothée Chalamet in “Call Me by Your Name” | COURTESY

SMART IS SEXY ‘Call Me by Your Name’ is a romantic, lucid dream “CALL ME BY YOUR NAME” FELT FAMILIAR. Provincial Italian countryside, the mélange of ephemeral and enigmatic humanity colliding with fictional lives while informing our own all-too-real ones. That cinematic, temporal flow enveloping character and audience with a naturalism that almost feels like going on a vacation from yourself.

Then I looked up the director, Luca Gaudagnino, and realized I had seen his Tilda Swinton-starring “I Am Love,” which was on my Top 10 back in 2009. My memory for names isn’t good (at all), but Gaudagnino’s assured stylistic signature left enough of a footprint for me to make the almost decade-long connection. Whatever it was he had then, he still has it.

In “Call Me,” we meet 17-year-old introvert Elio (Timothée Chalamet), the musician son of a Jewish archeologist, Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg), and Annella Perlman (Amira Casar).

Living in Italy, where Mr. Perlman is recovering ancient bronze statues from the depths of the Adriatic, the professor invites a brilliant and equally statuesque graduate student, Oliver (Armie Hammer), to stay in their bucolic farmhouse for the summer and assist with his studies. Elio is leery of Oliver and resentful of losing his bed to him. This turns out to be temporary, as the pair become friends and, eventually, lovers.

Adapted by James Ivory from André Aciman’s novel, Gaudagnino nods to the themes of closeted Judaism and homosexuality found in the book (Aciman grew up in Egypt, where exhibiting one of these traits, or both, isn’t kosher). The story of Elio finding his first unlikely love in the most quixotic, confused way takes center stage—and the coming-of-age chemistry between Chalamet and Hammer is palpable, captured by the lush cinematography of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

Gaudagnino expertly balanced sensual style, slice-of-life simplicity, and literary substance with “I Am Love,” and he’s equally assured here. “Call Me” is a languorous romance, steeped in the invigoration of art as life, the beauty of its setting, the intelligence of its characters, their scholarly fascinations and emotional depths, and the respect and detail afforded to their stories. The sexual and familial politics are an unobtrusive background to the world in which Elio and Oliver change each other and the lives of those who love them without judgment.

As Perlman tells Elio, “Our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once.”

Though it’s happening in the present of its time, “Call Me by Your Name” is a bittersweet, contemporary reminiscence of roads not taken. – JOE O’SHANSKY

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps in “Phantom Thread” | COURTESY

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

“Mary and the Witch’s Flower” | COURTESY

SPELL BOUNDLESS ‘Mary and the Witch’s Flower’ brings a new day for anime IN FABLES—PARTICULARLY THOUGHTFUL ones—magic is a common allegory for power, how it can be used either selfishly or sacrificially, for good or for evil. But rarely, if ever, is it used to question power outright, in its totality, as it is in “Mary and the Witch’s Flower.” This may be the first fairy tale that, to metaphorically paraphrase, speaks truth to magic.

From Oscar-nominated director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, an artist drawn to stories of strong young heroines (“When Marnie Was There”; “The Secret World of Arrietty”), this is the debut feature anime for Studio Ponoc. Akin to Pixar, Ponoc was created by former artists from the famed Studio Ghibli (Japan’s Disney) when its legendary co-founder Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement (which he’s since rescinded).

Visually and tonally, “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” is Ghibli through and through, but thematically it sets its own postmodern course.

Based on the classic children’s book “The Little Broomstick,” it’s the story of a girl, Mary (voiced by Ruby Barnhill of “The BFG”), who lives in a bucolic countryside.

When she happens upon a hidden broomstick deep in a nearby forest she’s never explored, a magic is unleashed that ushers Mary to Endor College, a witches’ school in the sky. Its headmistress, Madam Mumblechook, and top professor, Doctor Dee,

are voiced, respectively, by Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.

Mary, with bobbed and ponytailed red hair, is a quasi-Pippi Shortstocking that doesn’t become, if you will, a Harriet Potter. Where J.K. Rowling’s magical world of Hogwarts was more traditional in nature (albeit inventive and grand), Endor College seems to have been conjured from an LSDlaced imagination, a trippy gonzo vision on par with the Ghibli aesthetic.

Mary, unlike Potter or Oz’s Dorothy, is not a Chosen One who embarks on a standard hero’s journey. Yes, she must face unexpected foes, rescue a newfound friend, and stop an evil plan, but this tale—wonderous, enchanted, and child-like as it is—is more subversive than mythic.

The journey doesn’t inspire Mary to harness magic for noble ends; rather, she takes a more humble path, one in which magic of any expression loses its allure because of how it can compromise our humanity.

Friendship is the only pure power, because it’s inherently responsible to another.

Anime often transports us to other worlds and dimensions. “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” is a stunning new chapter in that tradition. Miyazaki’s Ghibli may soon close, but in Studio Ponoc (which means “midnight,” signifying the beginning of a new day) its legacy promises to live on for generations—and, now, with a new voice. – JEFF HUSTON

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

OPENING JANUARY 19 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Set in picturesque rural Italy of the early 1980s, this coming-of-age romance follows a young man’s awakening to his gay identity as he falls for a graduate student research assistant working for his dad over the summer. This Golden Globe nominee is an Oscar season favorite, winning multiple awards from major critics groups for Best Film and Best Actor, Timothée Chalamet. It co-stars Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino (“I Am Love”). Rated R. See review on opposite page.

PHANTOM THREAD A visually lush 1950s London-set tale of obsession. Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson (“The Master”) reunites with his “There Will Be Blood” actor Daniel Day-Lewis for his final film role.

Day-Lewis stars as a renowned clothing designer who falls for a young woman that becomes his creative muse and lover.

Rated R. MARY AND THE WITCH’S FLOWER The first anime feature film from Japan’s Studio Ponoc, this is the tale of a young girl who, by the magic of a special flower, is whisked away on a broomstick to a college for witches. There she

encounters an enchanted world but also unexpected evil. Voice cast includes Ruby Barnhill (“The BFG”) plus Oscar winners Kate Winslet and Jim Broadbent.

Directed by Oscar nominee Hiromasa Yonebayashi (“When Marnie Was There”; “The Secret World of Arrietty”). Rated PG. See review at left.

SPECIAL EVENTS IN THE THICK: CONVERSATIONS FROM THE PLUS SIDE OF LIFE This locally-produced documentary explores the troubles and triumphs of plus-size women.

Produced, directed, and edited

by Tulsa filmmaker Hank Byrd, the film includes interviews, poetry, and original music. A panel discussion will follow the screening. Tickets $10. (Thu. January 18, 7:00 p.m.)

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: 50TH ANNIVERSARY Graveyard Shift presents a new 4K digital restoration of George Romero’s groundbreaking zombie horror classic. Romero supervised the transfer from the original camera negative of this late 1960s metaphor of America tearing itself apart, a theme that still resonates today. (Fri. & Sat. January 26 & 27, 10:00 p.m.)

FILM & TV // 45

free will astrology

by ROB BREZSNY

CAPRICORN

(DEC. 22-JAN. 19):

Three centuries ago, Capricorn genius Isaac Newton formulated principles that have ever since been fundamental to scientists’ understanding of the physical universe. He was also a pioneer in mathematics, optics, and astronomy. And yet he also expended huge amounts of time and energy on the fruitless attempt to employ alchemy to transform base metals into solid gold. Those efforts may have been interesting to him, but they yielded no lasting benefits. You Capricorns face a comparable split. In 2018, you could bless us with extraordinary gifts or else you could get consumed in projects that aren’t the most productive use of your energy. The coming weeks may be crucial in determining which way you’ll go.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A rite of passage lies ahead. It could and should usher you into a more soulful way of living. I’m pleased to report that this transition won’t require you to endure torment, confusion, or passive-aggressive manipulation. In fact, I suspect it could turn out to be among the most graceful ordeals you’ve ever experienced -- and a prototype for the type of breakthrough that I hope will become standard in the months and years to come. Imagine being able to learn valuable lessons and make crucial transitions without the prod of woe and gloom. Imagine being able to say, as musician P.J. Harvey said about herself, “When I’m contented, I’m more open to receiving inspiration. I’m most creative when I feel safe and happy.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Kalevala is a 19th-century book of poetry that conveys the important mythology and folklore of the Finnish people. It was a wellspring of inspiration for English writer J. R. R. Tolkien as he composed his epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.

To enhance his ability to steal ideas from The Kalevala, Tolkien even studied the Finnish language. He said it was like “entering a complete wine-cellar filled with bottles of an amazing wine of a kind and flavor never tasted before.”

According to my reading of the astrological omens, Pisces, in 2018 you will have the potential of discovering a source that’s as rich for you as Finnish and The Kalevala were for Tolkien.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I’m happy to inform you that life is giving you permission to be extra demanding in the coming weeks -- as long as you’re not petty, brusque, or unreasonable.

Here are a few examples that will pass the test: “I demand that you join me in getting drunk on the truth;” “I demand to receive rewards commensurate with my contributions;” “I demand that we collaborate to outsmart and escape the karmic conundrums we’ve gotten ourselves mixed up in.” On the other hand, Aries, ultimatums like these are not admissible: “I demand treasure and tribute, you fools;” “I demand the right to cheat in order to get my way;” “I demand that the river flow backwards.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Are you familiar with the phrase “Open Sesame”? In the old folk tale, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” it’s a magical command that the hero uses to open a blocked cave where treasure is hidden. I invite you to try it out. It just may work to give you entrance to an off-limits or previously inaccessible place where you want and need to go. At the very least, speaking those words will put you in a playful, experimental frame of mind as you contemplate the strategies you could use to gain entrance. And that alone may provide just the leverage you need.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): While thumping around the Internet, I came across pointed counsel from an anonymous source. “Don’t enter into a long-term connection with someone until you’ve seen them stuck in traffic,” it declared. “Don’t get too deeply involved with them until you’ve witnessed them drunk, waiting for food in a restaurant for entirely too long, or searching for their phone or car keys in a panic. Before you say yes to a deeper bond, make sure you see them angry, stressed, or scared.” I recommend that you take this advice in the coming weeks. It’ll be a good time to deepen your commitment to people who express their challenging emotions in non-abusive, non-psychotic ways.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): My high school history teacher Marjorie Margolies is now Chelsea

Place the numbers 1 through 9 in the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once.

NOVICE

Clinton’s mother-in law. She shares two grandchildren with Hillary Clinton. Is that something I should brag about? Does it add to my cachet or my happiness? Will it influence you to love me more? No, nah, and nope. In the big scheme of things, it’s mildly interesting but utterly irrelevant. The coming weeks will be a good time for Cancerians like you and me to renounce any desire we might have to capitalize on fake ego points like this. We Crabs should be honing our identity and self-image so they’re free of superficial measures of worth. What’s authentically valuable about you?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): If I were your mentor or your guide, I’d declare this the Leo Makeover Season. First I’d hire a masseuse or masseur to knead you firmly and tenderly. I’d send you to the nutritionist, stylist, dream interpreter, trainer, and life coach. I’d brainstorm with the people who know you best to come up with suggestions for how to help free you from your illusions and infuse your daily rhythm with twenty percent more happiness. I’d try to talk you out of continuing your association with anyone or anything that’s no damn good for you. In conclusion, I’d be thorough as I worked to get you unlocked, debugged, and retooled.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “It takes an extraordinary person to carry themselves as if they do not live in hell,” says writer D. Bunyavong. In accordance with the astrological omens, I nominate you Virgos to fit that description in the coming weeks. You are, in my estimation, as far away from hell as you’ve been in a long time. If anyone can seduce, coax, or compel heaven to come all the way down to earth for a while, it’s you. Here’s a good way to get the party started: Gaze into the mirror until you spy the eternal part of yourself.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In accordance with the astrological omens, I encourage you to move the furniture around. If you feel inspired, you might even want to move some of that old stuff right out the door and haul it to the dump or the thrift store. Hopefully, this will get you in the mood to launch a sweeping purge of anything else that lowers the morale and élan around the house: dusty mementoes, unflattering mirrors, threadbare rugs, chipped dishes, and numbing symbols. The time is ripe, my dear homies, to free your home of deadweight.

MASTER

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): When he was 16 years old and living in New York, Ralph Lifshitz changed his name to Ralph Lauren. That was probably an important factor in his success.

Would he have eventually become a famous fashion designer worth $5.8 billion dollars if he had retained a name with “shitz” in it?

The rebranding made it easier for clients and customers to take him seriously. With Ralph’s foresight as your inspiration, Scorpio, consider making a change in yourself that will enhance your ability to get what you want.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 1956, the prolific Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The award committee praised his “high spirit and artistic purity.” The honor was based on his last thirteen books, however, and not on his first two. Waterlilies and Souls of Violet were works he wrote while young and still ripening.

As he aged, he grew so embarrassed by their sentimentality that he ultimately tried to track down and eradicate every copy. I bring this to your attention, Sagittarius, because I think it’s a favorable time for you to purge or renounce or atone for anything from your past that you no longer want to be defined by.

I’ve gathered all of the long-term, big-picture horoscopes I wrote for you: bit.ly/YourGloriousStory2018 t h i s w e e k ’ s h o m e w o r k // T E S T I F Y AT F R E E W I L L A S T R O L O G Y. C O M .

46 // ETC.

January 17 – February 6, 2018 // THE TULSA VOICE

THE FUZZ THE TULSA VOICE SPOTLIGHTS: TULSA SPCA

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

NOEL never fails to make everyone she meets smile. She is a joyful two-and-a-halfyear-old shepherd mix who enjoys a variety of activities, from cuddling to swimming!

Noel’s compassionate personality makes her the perfect forever friend to celebrate the victories in life together and also to be a comfort through the hard times.

ACROSS 1 Grabs (with “onto”) 6 Cur relative 10 Climbers’ rocky obstacles 15 Activity in an online room 19 Neck-ringing event?

20 “Young Frankenstein” role 21 Do a debate activity 22 Put an edge on 23 Homer’s epic (with “The”) 24 No ___ traffic 25 Be smitten with 26 Like all of your relatives 27 Breakfast couple 30 Sport for the big 31 Any computer operator 32 Mathematical subgrouping 33 One whose job is murder 35 “___ all work out” 38 Say over 41 “Adam ___” (Eliot novel) 42 Common cleaner couple 44 Swell chap 45 Humpty Dumpty, famously 48 Hawaiian porch 49 Card player’s bullet 50 Vase on a base 51 Diet ad caption 53 “About when” inits.

54 It may be capped or chipped 57 Place for mass people?

59 Rabbit-sized rodent of South America 60 Type of ballistic missile (Abbr.)

61 ’70s boogie-down spots 63 Improve text 64 Couple of editing tasks 71 Highly spiced stew

72 Semi-modern record player 73 Lie form 74 Take on, as mortgage payments 76 Break of day 77 WMD since ’52 79 “Madam Secretary” network 82 Like an active chimney sweep 83 Chew the fat 84 Melted caramel, e.g.

85 Dazzling display 87 Like two Beethoven symphonies 88 Muffin variety 90 Couple of places 94 Celt on the Isle of Man 95 How some travel between continents 96 About three 97 Your to-do list 100 A Vegas natural 102 Place for the first couple 104 Heal for good 105 Romantic couple’s plans 112 Three gift bearers seeking Jesus 113 Words with bend or lend 114 Hand out cards 115 Home for a falcon 116 Third-generation Genesis man 117 Chatter on foolishly 118 The Old Sod 119 Hag relative 120 Too-heavy drinkers 121 Tipped, as a dealer 122 “Mush!” vehicle 123 Daly and an English river DOWN 1 Tennis player’s concern 2 Kinks hit 3 Viking god of war

DABS is a very intelligent threeand-a-half-year-old terrier mix who already knows basic commands like sit and shake. Her intelligence and energy would make her an excellent agility dog. Dabs enjoys playing fetch, chase, and tug, but at the end of the day she will be ready to snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie.

4 “My fault!” relative 5 Concession stand drinks 6 Like corner joints in carpentry 7 Expressions of repugnance 8 One of three in a 1970 war film title 9 Cut short 10 More in need of refining 11 Try another color on 12 Scratch a liftoff 13 Expert 14 King of horror 15 Morally pure 16 Tommyrot or nonsense 17 Psychology’s soul 18 Mortise’s mate 28 Distance letters 29 Be overly fond of (with “on”) 34 Dog collar attachment 35 Dot in the Atlantic 36 Fit ___ (be just right) 37 Superboy’s Lang 39 Hit a fly 40 Dashboard dial, briefly 41 Acting Kingsley 43 Goalpost-shaped letter 44 ___-Roman wrestling 45 Techniquepracticing piece 46 Comic’s question 47 Dixie dish 50 Country in a Beatles song title 52 Warm Alpine wind 55 More than chubby 56 U-turn from include 57 Accessory 58 Email attachment, sometimes 59 Indian state 60 “We Can Work ___” 62 Capital near the 60th parallel

CHARLEY would make the perfect dog for any family, especially a family with kids.

He is a two-and-a-halfyear-old border collie mix who already knows his basic commands. Charley absolutely loves squeaky toys and even shares them with his friends.

64 “___ say!” (parental order) 65 Charles who wrote the Maximus poems 66 Words after “My country” 67 Car allowing leg-stretching 68 A certain Middle Easterner 69 Word in some U.S. state names 70 Highest country on Earth 75 “I blew that” 77 One making ground strokes?

78 Showy stoles 79 Time-signature go-with 80 Shower-ready 81 Angrily agonize 83 Country girl?

84 Hand-thrown bombs 86 Type of British court 89 Be flexible again 90 Emulated a helicopter 91 “... lived happily ___ after” 92 Ribbed or teased 93 Baby’s parental word 94 Banded metamorphic rock 97 Apexes 98 Bat’s fertilizer source 99 Problem for a grain farmer 100 Stealthy fellow 101 Relative on mother’s side 103 Make so, legally 106 Geisha’s ornamental accessory 107 Astronaut Armstrong 108 Truth counterpart 109 Laundry item 110 Great cloud to be on 111 Leads a horse right

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

THE TULSA VOICE // January 17 – February 6, 2018

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

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

PORT, two-and-a-half years old, is a quirky terrier mix. Since coming to the Tulsa SPCA from a large hoarding situation, he has learned how to walk on a leash and has found a love for treats and snuggles. Port usually needs a bit of time to warm up to new people, but he is such a delight after he gets comfortable!

Beautiful MAZIE would be a cuddly, affectionate companion to her forever family. She is only a year old, but she has an old soul.

Are you looking for a lap cat to snuggle up with and watch movies?

If so, come and meet Mazie!

Universal sUnday Crossword on THe PlUs side

By Timothy e. Parker

© 2018 Andrews McMeel Syndication

1/28 ETC. // 47

Pleas e re cycle this issue.