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inside COVER

AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH

P.32 Barbie is more than a toy.

She is an icon. Is she pure? Overtly sexual? Independent? Subversive?

Submissive? In Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool, 32 women artists from across Oklahoma alter the icon as they interpret Barbie and her place in society. By Laura Eastes.

Cover by Anna Shilling

NEWS 4 5

6

Metro Local Impact: calls to action city OKCPD implements

procedural justice

State OK Democratic Party’s

Native American liaison

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Letters

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11

Chicken-Fried News

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26 Feature female chefs and restaurateurs 28 Feature Nicole Asali 29 Briefs

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38 Art Tammy Conover’s

spirit paintings

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40 Theater The Rhythm of the World 41 Theater Canterbury Voices’

Israel in Egypt

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42 Youth twirler Haylee Chiariello

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NEWS from left Oklahoma Progressive Network members Christine Huckleberry, Kasey Greenhaw, Liz Oglesby, Lauren LaBar, Phyllis Klugas and Stephanie Price | Photo Garett Fisbeck

metro

Council, Norman City Council and Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education candidates stacked up on issues.

Last month, board members livestreamed their reactions while participating in U.S. Republican Sen. James Lankford’s telephone town hall.

Weekly, the board hosts a podcast examining local, state and federal issues, as the board views all three branches as having a direct effect on Oklahomans, Huckleberry said.

“We understand the landscape here.

We know we have to look past parties and start looking at values,” Huckleberry said. “What are Oklahoma values? The value of hard work, the value of community and the value of honesty. Those are nonpartisan values. Those are the values we want to promote in our state.”

Local impact

Oklahoma Progressive Network and Indivisible foster social media and real-life connectivity as they respond to federal issues that affect local communities. By Laura Eastes

Editor’s note: Local Impact is an Oklahoma Gazette news series examining how federal policies and decisions impact local communities.

As Stephanie Price puts it, she was a “blueberry in a sea of tomato soup.” The phrase brought humor to her situation as a liberal living in a conservative Oklahoma community, where she experienced feelings of alienation because of her beliefs. Such thoughts only intensified after the November election when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump swept all 77 counties in the state.

“I felt like I was the only liberal in Oklahoma,” Price said. “I knew it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t find people to connect with that shared my values.”

From controversial Cabinet picks to conflict-of-interest accusations, every day brought a new concern to Price and others like her, who she discovered through social media.

By the time the president signed his first executive orders, Price was connected to an Oklahoma community of like-minded people.

By visiting the Oklahoma Progressive Network’s invite-only Facebook group, she could catch up on national news and share and read opinions about how the new administration affects her community and how to take action.

As a private group, Oklahomans felt free to share viewpoints in a climate free 4

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from tense, polarized arguments.

In a few months, the Oklahoma Progressive Network had expanded from a private Facebook group to a public Facebook page with a board dedicated to uniting progressives and promoting civic engagement.

“Part of the goal of Oklahoma Progressive Network is to unify,” said Price, who serves on the group’s board.

“It is important to change how people in this state look at the words ‘democrat,’ ‘liberal’ or ‘progressive, ’ which can be perceived as negative words. I want to change that. We are not bad people. We don’t have bad values or ideals. It is important that we don’t feel alone.”

Social media

Oklahoma Progressive Network is among the many social media-based grassroots groups to crop up following last year’s presidential election.

The groups tend to be liberal-focused rather than conservative, but the trend runs parallel to the Tea Party movement that grew in prominence following the 2008 election of Democratic President Barack Obama.

Critics have blamed social media for creating “bubbles” in which people largely only see posts and shares from others who hold the same views and political persuasions. Price said such a critique is blind from the realities of those living blue in a red state.

Following the contentious presiden-

tial election, Oklahoma’s “silent minority” took to social media in hopes to find and connect with others who shared their views and reservations over the new administration.

Staying quiet was no longer an option, said Jennifer Harmon, a leader in Indivisible Oklahoma. Before the start of 2017, individuals in Oklahoma City and Lawton created invitation-only Facebook pages for Indivisible, part of a national movement to resist Trump’s agend a . For mer Democr at ic Congressional staffers formed the movement in mid-December by sharing a Google document link. By mid-March, there were 25 Oklahoma Indivisible chapters on Facebook.

“What people have said over and over again is ‘My [U.S.] senator is not on the same page as me,’” Harmon said. “People have either said, ‘[President Trump] hasn’t kept his promises’ or ‘I voted for him but had I known that, I wouldn’t.’”

Civic engagement

Oklahoma Progressive Network was previously known as the Sooner State’s version of Pantsuit Nation, an inviteonly Facebook group that began a few weeks before Election Day to support and celebrate Democrat Hillary Clinton as the first woman president.

Following the election, there was a strong desire to continue the group, but members wanted to take the concept beyond a Facebook support group.

“We want to make civic engagement a natural part of life in Oklahoma; the idea that you register to vote and actually do go vote,” said Christine Huckleberry, Oklahoma Progressive Network co-founder and president. “You know who your elected officials are, and you trust that they will represent you.”

The organization crafted voter guides and candidate interviews for February’s election examining how Oklahoma City

Town hall message

Just days after Trump took the oath of office, he signed an executive order to freeze hiring at many federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The order stunned Harmon, a disabled veteran who has spent the last decade in seminary to become a VA chaplain. The hiring freeze is part of the administration’s focus to overhaul the federal workforce and reduce federal spending. Under the order, only the military and other positions deemed necessary for national security and public safety were exempt.

“When Trump signed that hiring freeze, it cut me out of a job,” she said.

“Really we are talking about 40,000 people cut out of jobs.”

Harmon’s situation is pretty common when compared to others on the Indivisible Oklahoma Facebook group.

Between posts and private messages to group administrators, thousands of Oklahomans are affected by the executive orders and proposed federal budget cuts.

Last week, Indivisible Oklahoma hosted its first town hall event to address and discuss federal decisions affecting local lives and communities. Indivisible leaders invited U.S. senators Jim Inhofe and Lankford, but two chairs reserved on the stage of Rose State College Hudiburg Chevrolet Center were vacant during the two-hour event attended by hundreds of guests. Discussion centered on veterans, health care, education and more.

“We have spoken,” Harmon said.

“They work for us. Now what are they going to do? … It is really ironic that the reddest state in the country has so many Indivisible groups popping up. What is going on? What’s going on is that they are not paying attention and not listening.”

CIT Y

Equitable law OKCPD adds procedural justice policies encouraging transparency and quality interpersonal interaction. By Laura Eastes

The Oklahoma City Police Department recently

When Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty presented his department’s fiscal year budget, he didn’t just talk numbers; he also discussed police and public interaction.

Moving into fiscal year 2016-17, the Oklahoma City Police Department concentrated on four key issues: police presence and services, violent crime, advancing technology and procedural justice.

Following the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the Ferguson Police Department after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, procedural justice entered the lexicon of law enforcement leaders around the country. With its close link between police and community, it’s worthy of public attention.

Procedural justice focuses on the way the justice system, including police officers, interacts with the public. It’s the practice of fair and impartial policing, according to the DOJ. The National Initiative for Building Community Trust

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& Justice says it’s based on principles that include “treating people with dignity and respect, giving citizens ‘voice’ during encounters, being neutral in decision making and conveying trustworthy motives.”

Citty said it’s fair policing that benefits both the community and law enforcement agencies. Nine months after making the subject a department issue, pushing an agenda of continuing to maintain and increase public trust, procedural justice guidelines were added to the department’s policy and procedure manual. The manual sets the standards, values and expectations of the department.

“This is basically a policy that states this is our philosophy from now on,” Citty said during a March 14 presentation to the Oklahoma City Council. The council approved the addition in a unanimous vote with Ward 3 Councilman Larry McAtee and Ward 7 Councilman John Pettis Jr. absent.

In addition to introducing the concept

added procedural justice policies to promote fair enforcement of the law. | Photo Gazette / file

to officers and department employees, OKCPD’s strategies around the subject involve periodic policy and procedure review and revision.

Procedural justice supports the department’s efforts to strengthen and further develop community outreach and partnerships. In December, OKCPD announced its NE OKC Safe Grant Program in which officers began doorto-door visits with northeast Oklahoma City residents. The program introduces officers to those they serve and protect.

Over the past year, the Oklahoma City Police Athletic League, where officers and community members serve as youth sports coaches, has grown in participants and teams offered at elementary schools.

The department’s officer body-worn camera program also falls under procedural justice strategies.

While law enforcement officials across the country discuss procedural

justice and introducing the concept in officer training, it’s not clear how many departments are adding it to manuals.

Citty said Oklahoma City is ahead of the curve.

“We’ve had chiefs previously that have been progressive and way ahead of the game. We’ve always had that tradition and history,” Citty said. “This [policy] formalizes it, and it will be our philosophy.”

Procedural justice “The department has adopted procedural justice philosophies in order to promote fair enforcement of laws in the community, accountability within the agency and transparency to those we serve.

“Procedural justice is defined as the idea of fairness in the process that resolve disputes and allocates resources. When procedural justice, as a philosophy, is translated into day-to-day practices, the results are positive organization change, increase police legitimacy in the community, and enhanced officer safety.”

— Oklahoma City Police Department Policy and Procedural Manual, under section 111.0

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NEWS

Tribal bond

LaRenda Morgan is the Oklahoma Democratic Party’s new Native American liaison. By George Lang

LaRenda Morgan did not hesitate when Oklahoma Democratic Party chairman Mark Hammons asked her to become the party’s new Native American liaison.

She saw the need for greater outreach every time she spoke with lawmakers who needed to understand Native issues and the constituents who needed their voices heard.

Before she ran unsuccessfully in 2016 for the Democratic nomination in House District 93, Morgan lobbied lawmakers on issues surrounding the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law that sets minimum federal standards for child custody actions surrounding parental rights termination, adoption and the removal and foster care placement of Native American children.

She often encountered lawmakers who could not wrap their heads around the issues or their importance to tribe members.

“I’ve gone to the state leaders and legislators, and I felt like I talked my head off,” said Morgan, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “I didn’t see anything on their faces that showed that anything was clicking.”

On the other side of the equation, many of her fellow tribe members prefer to engage in intertribal politics rather than venture into state-level voting. In fact, she is the first person from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes to file for state-level election.

Through her new position, Morgan wants to bridge the gaps she sees between Native American and mainstream politics. She said many cultural and systemic barriers — largely stemming from decades of disenfranchisement — inhibit political engagement for tribal members.

“Even now, as I take people into events, there’s still a standoffish feeling between the people in the party and the Natives I’m bringing,” Morgan said.

“That’s the barrier I’m hoping to break so when I try to recruit Natives to be involved, they won’t have that feeling.”

Because of this responsibility, Morgan often finds herself not only a liaison between the tribes and the state Democratic Party, but also a liaison between the tribes and U.S. politics in general. While larger tribes such as the Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee nations regularly field state-level candidates, Morgan said engagement falls off sharply with the smaller tribes.

“There are 35 tribes that aren’t to that point yet,” she said. “For how many tribes we have in this state, we don’t have very much representation in the state Senate and the House.”

When Morgan turns her attention to building relations and strengthening Democratic engagement with tribes, she

Oklahoma Democratic Party Native American Liaison LaRenda Morgan | Photo provided

runs into Republican majorities in the state and in many of the tribes. The Chickasaw Nation closely affiliates with the Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Tom Cole represents Oklahoma’s 4th District and is Chickasaw, and his district splits representation of Cheyenne and Arapaho lands with 3rd District Congressman Frank Lucas.

Furthermore, the Cheyenne and Arapaho areas surrounding Concho are rural and mostly conservative.

So there are hurdles, but Morgan identifies as a conservative Democrat, which means her issues often dovetail with her Republican neighbors.

Still, she said she often gets shut down when she speaks with tribal leaders about the state Democratic Party.

“I’ve been cut off. I’ve spoken with a few tribal leaders that were like, ‘Well, I’m a Republican,” Morgan said. “And I said to them, ‘Well, that’s great, and I respect that, but you might have tribal members that are Democrat, and I want to extend the invitation to your tribe and say, ‘Is there anything the Democratic Party can do to help you? We’re here to support the tribes.’”

She said this congenial give-and-take helps smooth over the partisanship.

“The response I’ve gotten back is good,” Morgan said. “They say, ‘I respect that, LaRenda.’ ... You know, the tribal communities are very tight-knit. They stick close to their tribes, and I’m very close to my tribe. And there are a lot of Natives who are registered Democrats, but they’re not involved. They just vote, or sometimes they don’t even vote.”

And while she encourages political action at the grassroots level — activity that can force legislators to listen to Native American policy issues — Morgan also wants more people to take the chance she did in running for the state House last year.

“We’re trying to get the message out to tribal leaders that, hey, when your term is over with your tribe, consider running for a state office,” she said.

letters

NEWS Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to jchancellor@okgazette.com or sent online at okgazette.com.

Include a city of residence and contact number for verification.

Sweeping wind

Clean renewable energy does not cause earthquakes or health hazards or pollute water. There are no economic peaks and valleys affected by oil prices set on the international market.

Unfortunately, anti-wind lobbyists want to convince Oklahoma legislators to cut off the tax incentives that promote wind development even though the industry creates thousands of jobs and spends millions of dollars for local schools and governments.

The electricity produced by wind turbines is the cheapest source of electricity. This keeps electric bills low for small businesses and employers.

Wind farms also pay royalties to farmers and ranchers in rural western and central Oklahoma, which helps keep them on the farm during droughts and

bad times in agriculture.

If Oklahoma legislators reduce or end tax incentives for the wind subsidy, tell them it’s only fair to do the same for oil and gas producer credits, which cost taxpayers four to five times as much.

They must stand up to anti-wind lobbyists from out of state who don’t care about Oklahoma wind energy; steady, good-paying jobs; and other benefits to Oklahomans.

Jody Harlan Yukon

Community support

On March 2, through an event organized

by CAIR Oklahoma, Muslim leaders from across the state gathered at the state Capitol to promote conversation between Muslims and our legislative leaders. State Representative John Bennett asked these Muslim participants to fill out a questionnaire before meeting with him. One of the questions asked, “Do you beat your wife?”

While we are appalled by this question, our response is to give back to our community, especially the unfortunate women and children victimized by domestic violence. Oklahoma ranks No. 3

in the nation for women killed by men in single victim-single offender homicides. In 2012, nearly 25 percent of homicides in Oklahoma were classified as domestic abuse murders.

Oklahoma County is the most populous county in the state of Oklahoma, and the YWCA is the only shelter for battered women and children in the county. The YWCA provides emergency shelter and supplemental services for over 350 women and children every year.

The American Muslim Association (AMA) of Oklahoma City oversees the Grand Mosque. We condemn domestic violence, and we support empowering women who have been victimized by domestic abuse.

We launched a Totes of Love fundraising campaign, and proceeds will go directly to buying supplies like hygiene products, blankets and socks to be packaged into at least 500 Totes of Love for the YWCA domestic violence shelter.

We will gather 10 a.m.-noon April 1 at the AMA Event Center, 3201 NW 48th St., to package these totes. We welcome and encourage our non-Muslim family to join us in sending a message of unity to the Oklahoma community.

Please learn more about Totes of Love and donate to the campaign at launchgood.com/project/totes_of_love.

Basheer Shakir Oklahoma City

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chicken

friedNEWS Legal lanes

Sooner schnockered

Of all the hits University of Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield has taken and will take, it is unlikely any will hurt more than the lick a Fayetteville, Arkansas, police officer laid on him in late February.

Sure, there was great physical pain involved. In a dashcam video of the incident made available to the public earlier this month, a noticeably intoxicated Mayfield (who turned 21 in April) gets knocked hard into a four-foot concrete retaining wall after attempting to run from police.

According to a story by NewsOK.com, Mayfield took off after police began questioning him about a heated public exchange between him and another person over stolen Chinese food.

Mayfield’s gray hoodie appeared to be stained with soy sauce.

Alas, the everlasting damage to the Heisman Trophy finalist’s pride, ego and reputation will be far greater than the hurt of colliding with a concrete wall. The quarterback does not come across as a sympathetic figure in the video as he repeatedly asks what he has done wrong (Well, running away from police, for starters.) and says he is “done” while continuing to resist arrest.

After authorities pinned him to the ground, Mayfield burst into tears, probably with the realization that this story would spread like wildfire in the news media.

Once he was handcuffed, the cops eventually realized they detained OU’s star football player.

“He’s not very fast,” one of them pointedly observed.

No one as sloshed as Mayfield appeared to be that night is likely to win any track medals.

Injuries might heal, but the internet is forever.

You’re not supposed to drive in the left lane!

We all know it’s just there to smile and look pretty and provide symmetry for those of us who might prefer that sort of thing.

But, really, it’s repeatedly stressed in driver education classes and tension-filled vehicles as teenagers and their parents try to ignore the fact that they’re flying 70 mph down the interstate in a death trap with an inexperienced driver at the helm.

March 7, the Oklahoma House of Representatives approved House Bill 2312, which would allow police and highway patrol officers to ticket drivers staying in the left lane.

That doesn’t mean you can’t use that lane at all.

Drivers could still use it to pass right-lane vehicles and “when traffic conditions or road configuration require them to use that lane to maintain safety,” according to NewsOK.com.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol legislative liaison Randy Rogers

told NewsOK.com that HB 2312 isn’t meant to penalize people driving in the left lane when there’s no traffic around them; it aims to stop lane hogs who back up traffic and reduce the rate of accidents — and, logically, road rage.

So, basically, the only thing that would really change is the annoying person driving 60 mph in the left lane with 12 irritated drivers trailing behind would get a ticket if there was a police officer around to see them — and it would be easier for emergency vehicles to get to emergencies quicker rather than having to wait for people to merge and get out of their way.

The investigative news hacks at Chicken-Fried News realize a 2010 law already bans four-lane highway drivers from driving in the left lane.

However, HB 2312 would allow law enforcement to ticket offenders for their heinous lane hogging.

Before HB 2312 can become the law of the land, it needs to be approved by the Oklahoma Senate and signed by Gov. Mary Fallin.

connect to

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Repetitive injury

It happens all the time.

The sun rises and falls and women are sexually harassed at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

“About 50 percent of women can expect to be sexually harassed at some point during their working career,” OU Professor of Management Mark Bolino told NewsOn6.com. “I think the fear of retaliation is the No. 1 issue.”

The news channel submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request on Oklahoma House sexual harassment claims dating back to 2010.

But lawmakers exempted themselves from the open records act requirements, according to NewsOn6.com.

A recent House Rules Committee investigation into harassment claims made against two House members resulted, in part, in a recommendation of mandatory sensitivity training.

All House employees already receive clear guidelines defining harassment and how to report it as part of their job training.

However, the news station reports that the language is absent from

handbooks that legislative assistants receive.

And the world goes ’round.

In recent weeks, Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall has repeatedly emphasized his no-tolerance stance against sexual harassment and that he takes complaints seriously.

An unidentified legislative assistant told NewsOn6.com, “If you can’t understand that leaving a note on your assistant’s desk that says ‘I couldn’t stop staring at your boobs today,’ if you’re not sure if that’s inappropriate or not, I think you have a real misunderstanding about what sexual harassment is.”

So ends another day at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

Teacher pay saga

An Oklahoma teacher pay bill might be a tease.

Yes, earlier this month, an Oklahoma teacher pay raise bill was approved by the House, and it’s now on its way through the Senate.

However, House Bill 1114 wasn’t warmly received by Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Schulz.

“I think it is giving a lot of people false hope that we are going to

find the money this year to do it,” Schulz told Tulsa World.

Just when we at Chicken-Fried News thought the teacher pay saga was over, we heard the f-word. Talks about funding are such a buzzkill!

While HB 1114 calls for raising teacher pay by $1,000 the next fiscal year, it doesn’t identify where those funds will come from.

Over time, HB 1114 would increase raises by $2,000 and then $3,000, according to the World.

As Schulz sees it, without funding, the only thing this proposal does effectively is raise false hope.

Lawmakers have to fill an $878 million budget hole and fund key government services before they can

fund teacher pay raises.

Man, oh man!

Budgeting is the worst!

Is there any chance teachers might still get a raise?

Yes, according to House Speaker Charles McCall.

Lawmakers can designate revenues to HB 1114 in an appropriations bill, one of the final pieces of legislation to pass through the House and Senate.

Right now, its’s fine to pass an unfunded teacher pay, McCall said.

“We understand there are fiscal challenges for implementation to that, but we are committed to addressing that issue because we believe the people of Oklahoma expect us to do so.”

Well, who is right?

Maybe they both are.

Or maybe — just maybe — they will work together to find a solution that works for everyone, especially teachers.

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PM

Saturday, april 1St from 9am - 4pm Seminole Municiple Park on Milt Phillips Car Show - 382-3640 | OBI Blood Drive | 5K Fun Run - 382-0731 Poker Run - 380-3670 all different kindS of food vendorS

Oklahoma grown and produced products & businesses Event starts with a spaghetti dinner Friday March 31st, 5pm to 7pm at the municipal building.

Stay for the movie in the park at 8pm. Starting Saturday in the Seminole Municipal Park on Milt Phillips enjoying items made, produced, and sold in Oklahoma. Seminole’s Made In Oklahoma Festival, Business Expo, & Car Show will be open from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. We will feature over 100 vendor booths: including but not limited to handmade jewelry & clothes, soaps, candles, and furniture. There will be numerous food vendors and a blood drive. You will be able to look at cars, shop and eat all day long. The poker & fun run are open to anyone; if interested, call 380-3670 for the fun run and 382-5690 for the Poker Run. Please plan on bringing the whole family out for some quality time and see what all Seminole has to offer. Don’t forget to purchase your commemorative Made In Oklahoma or Car Show Shirt!

If you have any questions or wish to participate in the festival or car show, please feel free to call the Seminole Chamber of Commerce at 405-382-3640 or e-mail us at Seminolechamber@sbcglobal. net. The applications are also located on our website at www.seminoleokchamber.org/.

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ners ed the win t c le e s e v en and ha have spok Z I .B c k o s of orite ss. he reader of Busine r their fav t fo s e e t B o ’s v r o a readers t for this ye Z asks its I .B ranged c k o , r ma . ategories o C h . e Each yea la s k n O o l p a ing res ning and s in Centr ver whelm vent plan o e o n businesse t a e s r a u w t c , there archite This year estate and l a e r l ia c llecting mer s. A fter co s ie from com r o g e t a s. companie 25 c 1 le 1 a 1 in s , t e ll e n a li le n f n I o auto otes ore rmined. ast their v were dete p f ive in m s o r t e e n h t Readers c in w in , the e were s of votes sts, as som li a in thousand f r o s be er winner eser ve to d u o . y y , r s r o were eith ateg Bill custome industr y c Publisher d by your e id n a s io p than one ,” s m t a n u a r e ch ts a high plishme “W hen yo nd accom s represen a s e s e in s s s u e c B c f our su s Best o proud of y honored a p u o r g e “Th ice.”

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Best Continuing Education or Professional Development Institutions Sandler Training of Oklahoma Dale Carnegie Training Francis Tuttle Technology Center Professional Development Institute, Oklahoma City Community College University of Central Oklahoma

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ach year, okc.BIZ presents Best of Business, a readerdriven nomination, voting and awards process that spans more than 20 categories, hundreds of nominees and thousands of votes. Below are 2017’s winners.

Best Commercial Bank or Financing Sources Bank of Oklahoma BancFirst MidFirst Bank Regent Bank Republic Bank & Trust

Best Web Design and Services

Best Advertising Agencies VI Marketing and Branding Ackerman McQueen Freestyle Creative Jordan Advertising McMahon Marketing

Best CPA or Accounting Firms for a Business Eide Bailly LLP BKD CPAs & Advisors HoganTaylor LLP Hyde & Company CPAs PC Matthew Mann CPA PLLC

Best Local Places for a Business Event

Best Event Rental & Planning Companies

Best Agencies for Business Travel

factor 110 | 110 events Conventions & More Eventures LimeLight Productions Marianne’s Rentals for Special Events

Travel With Kathy AAA Bentley Hedges Travel Journey House Travel Inc. WorldTravelService

Best Commercial Law Firms Durbin, Larimore and Bialick, P.C. Blau Law Firm Crowe & Dunlevy Attorneys and Counselors at Law McAfee & Taft Spencer Fane LLP

Best Places for a Company Retreat Chickasaw Retreat & Conference Center National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Oklahoma Memorial Union University of Oklahoma Sooner Bowling Center The Artesian Hotel, Casino & Spa

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Best Commercial Construction Companies

Levant Technologies Freestyle Creative McMahon Marketing s design, inc.

VI Marketing and Branding

21c Museum Hotel Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse Oklahoma Memorial Union University of Oklahoma Skirvin Hilton Hotel

DBG Construction LLC Alliance Property Development Lingo Construction Precision Builders Smith and Pickel

Best Commercial Architecture Firms

Best Commercial Real Estate Companies

Best Commercial Sign Companies

Frankfurt Short Bruza fitzsimmons architects GSB, Inc. Krittenbrink Architecture LLC TAP Architecture

Baker First CRE Services Equity Realty Keller Williams Realty NAI Sullivan Group Rieger Realty, LLC.

Blue Diamond Signs FastSigns Industrial Signs & Neon J&B Graphics Signs Now

Best Public Relations Firms

Best Caterers for a Company Event

Best Local Commercial Insurance Agencies

Jones Public Relations, Inc. Anglin Public Relations Freestyle Creative Koch Communications VI Marketing and Branding

Aunt Pittypat’s Catering Abbey Road Catering Running Wild Catering Sooner Legends Banquet & Catering Services The Petroleum Club of Oklahoma City

Garner Insurance Company Bradford Willis, Farmers Insurance INSURICA NFP Corporate Services Rich & Cartmill Insurance and Bonds

Best Employer Group Medical Insurance Providers BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma Aetna Cigna INSURICA United Healthcare

Best Business Furniture / Equipment / Supplies Companies Stow’s Office Furniture Copelin’s Office Supplies Galleria Furniture Scott Rice Smart Image Systems

Best Promotional Products Companies Moisant Promotional Products IMAGENation Promotional Group, Inc. Impressions Printing Lure Promo SmithDryden

Best Business-Related Nonprofits Oklahoma Venture Forum Better Business Bureau Chickasaw Nation Department of Health HeartLine Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits

Best Commercial Graphic Design Firms Freestyle Creative Levant Technologies McMahon Marketing s design inc VI Marketing and Branding

Best Local Investment Advisors or Providers for a Business Eide Bailly Financial Services Cameron Financial DM Wealth Management Gorton Financial Group Scott Dunn, Opes One Advisors These are the honorees in each

Best Information Technology Management Companies

Best Commercial Property Management/ Leasing Companies

InterWorks, Inc. DMC Services Dobson Technologies Smart Computing Technology, LLC Standards I.T.

Northstar Properties Baker First CRE Services Midtown Renaissance Price Edwards & Company RentKing, LLC

category listed in alphabetical order; the company that earned the most votes is in bold italics and at the top of the list.

VISIT OKC.BIZ TO SEE THE FULL BEST OF BUSINESS PRESENTATION! O kg a z e t t e . c o m | m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

Best Commercial Bank or Financing Sources

Best Web Design and Services

Bank of Oklahoma

Levant Technologies

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ank of Oklahoma combines the best of two banking worlds. As part of BOK Financial Corporation, it’s a top-25 U.S.-based financial services company with a long history of strength and stability, offering resources and experience that smaller banks are not always able to provide.

BOK Financial, headquartered in Tulsa, has grown to include operations in a 10-state area, and personal service remains a priority. Bank of Oklahoma emphasizes relationship

banking for companies of all sizes. It helps growing companies raise capital in a variety of ways, from providing assistance with Small Business Administration 504 (SBA) loans to serving as an agent for loan syndicates to companies that need multibank credit facilities.

The capacity to lend, paired with state-of-the-art treasury services and local customer service, continue to make Bank of Oklahoma the ideal bank for businesses.

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t starts with listening to client needs and ends with customized websites and apps accessed by thousands. Norman-based Levant Technologies is the key for getting the message of local businesses, nonprofits and entrepreneurs online.

With a personalized approach and a commitment to extraordinary customer service, hundreds have turned to the experts at Levant for compelling website designs.

This small, hardworking team has

even been named one of the Top 5 Best Overall Companies in North America and one of the Top 5 Community Impact honorees for its work with nonprofits, awarded in 2016 by the U.S. Business Excellence Forum.

The company has grown over the past 14 years to a full-time staff of 14 with offices in both Norman and Chicago.

Honorees: BancFirst, MidFirst Bank, Regent Bank,

Honorees: Freestyle Creative; McMahon Marketing; s design, inc.;

Best Commercial Architecture Firms

Best Public Relations Firms

Frankfurt Short Bruza

Jones Public Relations, Inc.

Republic Bank & Trust

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ince its founding in 1945, Frankfurt Short Bruza has exceeded expectations and contributed iconic structures to Oklahoma communities. Specializing in the markets of aviation, civic, corporate, educational, federal, infrastructure/technology and Native American projects, FSB is renowned for its ability to exceed client expectations.

Operating under guiding principles of character, teamwork, excellence and community, employees enjoy working at FSB.

Nearly 30 percent of the firm’s 150 employees have been with the company more than 10 years. Today, a vibrant new brand, new collaborative workspaces and a growing Fortune 500 client list continue to attract high-caliber staff. FSB’s reputation for quality and service allows it to win projects such as the Will Rogers World Airport terminal expansion, Oklahoma State Capitol interior renovation, Choctaw Nation headquarters and an Air Force One aviation facility at Andrews Air Force Base.

Honorees: fitzsimmons architects; GSB, Inc.; Krittenbrink

Architecture LLC; TAP Architecture

VI Marketing and Branding

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ones Public Relations, Inc. is known for making its clients heard in Oklahoma City and across the nation. Established 16 years ago by Brenda Jones Barwick, APR, president and CEO, the firm provides clientele with integrated communications strategies in areas including public affairs, digital and social media, content marketing, consumer marketing, branding, creative services, research insights and leadership training.

This well-connected firm boasts

significant international, national and statewide contacts with extensive intelligence of the public sphere and political policy.

Through its team of close to 20 members, Jones PR gets your message to the right people at the right time. In 2015 and 2016, Jones PR was ranked in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America.

In recent years, the firm has earned multiple No. 1 honors in okc.BIZ’s Best of Business awards.

Honorees: Anglin Public Relations, Freestyle Creative,

Koch Communications, VI Marketing and Branding

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

Best Employer Group Medical Insurance Providers

BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma

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lueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma (BCBSOK) is the state’s largest health care company, serving more than 800,000 members from every corner of Oklahoma and everywhere in between. BCBSOK stands apart because it now reaches more members through the Mobile Assistance Center, which helps members and nonmembers with things big and small, from insurance inquiries and claims to printing insurance ID cards.

For more than 76 years, BCBSOK has been there for its members, in

large part because of its employees’ commitment and passion. Everything BCBSOK does is guided by the straightforward core purpose: “To do everything in our power to stand with our members in sickness and in health.”

After multiple years on the okc.BIZ Best of Business honoree list, this year, business peers voted BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma the No. 1 Best Employer Group Medical Insurance Provider in the metro.

Sandler Training of Oklahoma

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t’s never too late to learn new things, and Sandler Training of Oklahoma knows this. The company uses reinforcement, business coaching and accountability to ensure visionary clients have the best learning experience possible, whether they’re learning by themselves, with a team or as part of an organization. Sandler’s clients have excelled in more than 200 industries over four decades and have cemented the company’s status as a

global education leader. Doyce and Mike Crandall founded Sandler Training of Oklahoma in 2009, and they are still active in helping clients grow. Sandler trainers have already had highly successful careers as sales and management professionals, and they use the Sandler methodology in their mission to train and mentor others to be successful in their professional lives, which typically positively impacts their personal lives, too.

Honorees: Dale Carnegie Training, Francis Tuttle

Technology Center, Professional Development Institute at Oklahoma City Community College, University of Central Oklahoma

Honorees: Aetna, Cigna, INSURICA, UnitedHealthcare

DESIGN SERVICES

Best Continuing Education or Professional Development Institutions

PRINTING AND BINDERY SERVICES

CONGRATS to all of the winners

PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS

CORPORATE APPAREL

MAILING AND DATA SERVICES

WEB DEVELOPMENT

your partner in business solutions.

117 E. Hill Street • Oklahoma City, OK 73105 • 405.843.3185 • accesscomtech.com

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Best Advertising Agencies

Best CPA or Accounting Firms for Businesses

VI Marketing and Branding

Eide Bailly LLP

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t VI, the pursuit of innovative marketing and branding ideas for clients is both satisfying and consuming. From its first day, VI team members were early adopters of the belief that every company, product and service has a story to tell, that every brand worth its salt should have a voice and unique position in the marketplace.

A regional firm approaching 70 strong, VI Marketing and Branding has been exercising its integrated ap-

proach for more than 28 years. The VI team succeeds by developing new strategies that help transform companies from good to great.

VI maintains its position in the market by living its brand identity every day while practicing its principles through its people, culture, work and community engagement.

In 2016 alone, VI was awarded 68 Oklahoma City American Advertising Awards (ADDYs), including 24 gold and a People’s Choice honor.

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ide Bailly client experiences are different than at other CPA firms.

Its professionals deliver genuine and insightful advice, and they strive to become your trusted business advisors. Founded in 1917, Eide Bailly is one of INSIDE Public Accounting’s Top 25 CPA firms in the nation, with 29 offices in 13 states. Its clients benefit from local, personal service while enjoying access to 1,700 professionals with diverse skill sets and experiences. From its core services of

audit and assurance and tax to expanded services including accounting services, cost segregation, financial services, forensic and valuation, health care reform, international services, risk advisory services, technology consulting, transaction services and wealth management, its experienced professionals make clients feel understood, connected and confident.

Eide Bailly’s collaborative approach demonstrates its dedication to all its clients and their success.

Honorees: Ackerman McQueen, Freestyle Creative,

Honorees: BKD CPAs & Advisors, HoganTaylor LLP,

Best Places for a Business Event

Commercial Real Estate Companies

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

Baker First CRE Services

Jordan Advertising, McMahon Marketing

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ational Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum opened its doors in 1965. For more than 25 years, it has offered facility rental services to businesses and organizations looking to surround themselves with a first-class experience that encompasses true American and Oklahoma history. The museum is America’s premier institution of Western history, art and culture.

With a focus on hospitality, the venue offers world-class food and bev-

erage services through Petroleum Club Oklahoma City and state-of-theart audio-visual service through PDCAV. In addition to the Sam Noble Special Events Center, the museum offers venues such as the S.B. “Burk” Burnett Board Room, Dub & Mozelle Richardson Theater and its newest event space, Prosperity Junction.

Prosperity Junction, a turn-of-thecentury cattle town, offers a unique opportunity to immerse guests in the narrative of the American West.

Honorees: 21c Museum Hotel, Broadway 10 Bar & Chophouse, Oklahoma Memorial Union-University of Oklahoma, Skirvin Hilton Hotel

Hyde & Company CPAs PC, Matthew Mann CPA PPLC

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ith experience in all types of commercial real estate, from raw land to developed properties and all aspects therein, Baker First focuses on superior attention to clients. Its services include commercial brokerage, property management, development and construction. Many national chains and other businesses turn to Baker First CRE Services when looking to expand to Oklahoma City.

Opened in 1988, the company has strong institutional knowledge of the

regional market.

This knowledge, combined with its robust relationships, helps the firm provide quick results. The combination of services common with a large firm and customer care that is typical from small business has allowed Baker First to develop a strong reputation in the industry. Baker First stresses innovation, which has helped the company better understand client needs and desires as it provides seamless communication from start to finish.

Honorees: Equity Realty, Keller Williams Realty, NAI Sullivan Group,

Rieger Realty, LLC.

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

Best Caterers for a Company Event

Specializing in Professional Development for Leadership, Management, and Sales

of Oklahoma www.customgrowth.sandler.com | 405-844-1700 3000 United Founders Blvd., Suite 224 Oklahoma City, OK 73112

Aunt Pittypat’s Catering

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unt Pittypat’s Catering has led quality catering in culinary creativity in Oklahoma City for more than 35 years.

It boasts an exceptionally welltrained staff, high-quality and modern display equipment, creative and detail-oriented sales managers and one of the best executive chefs in the city — co-owner Christine Dowd.

Aunt Pittypat’s has been in the Howell family since 1986. Bob Howell established it as a culinary leader and

trendsetter then. His daughter Maggie Howell bought the business with Christine Dowd in 2004.

They pride themselves in great customer service and restaurant-level staffing and training that matches the high quality of food, which are big reasons businesses voted it Best of Business’ No. 1 spot for Best Caterers for a Company Event.

Honorees: Abbey Road Catering, Running Wild Catering, Sooner Legends

Banquet & Catering Services, The Petroleum Club of Oklahoma City

this is what style tastes like!

Best Event Rental & Planning Companies

factor 110 | 110 events

featuring the trend setting culinary talents of chef christine dowd

Setting theStandard in Events for over35 years! weddings • meetings corporate events private chef dinners milestone celebrations & more

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or many companies, putting on a meeting or event can be nervewracking. Finding a location and confirming the details can be a massive undertaking. For factor 100 | 100 events, success is about factoring in the difference. It’s about the difference they provide in their service, value and creativity by exploring unique approaches while respecting the mission and budget.

Celebrating 10 years in 2017, the company is proud of its track record

and prides itself as an industry trendsetter. factor 110’s unparalleled knowledge of the finest local venues, caterers, attractions, tours, transportation and other services allows clients to achieve the ultimate destination experience while 110 events provides the finest inventory in event rentals.​The certified, award-winning team has more industry certifications, awards and crisis management training than any other event company in the state.

Honorees: Conventions & More; Eventures; LimeLight Productions, Inc.; Marianne’s Rentals for Special Events

Best Information Technology Management Companies

InterWorks, Inc.

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ith a history of providing top services while building strong client relationships, InterWorks, Inc. continues to excel in the field of information technology management.

InterWorks, founded in 1996, has a passion for technology and people. It delivers full-spectrum IT and data solutions to a diverse client base. From servers and storage to development and visualization, InterWorks does it all. “We continue to win the repeat business of our clients, establishing

ourselves as trusted advisors for all their technology needs,” CEO Behfar Jahanshahi said.

Leveraging innovative technology from partners such as Dell and Tableau Software, InterWorks helps organizations across the globe build foundations for sustained success, offering services from coast to coast and even in the U.K., Germany and Netherlands. InterWorks also is a regular honoree on okc.BIZ’s Best Places to Work in Oklahoma list.

Honorees: DMC Services; Dobson Technologies;

Smart Computing Technology, LLC; Standards I.T.

Best Commercial Law Firms

Durbin, Larimore and Bialick, P.C.

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hat sets Durbin, Larimore & Bialick, P.C. apart from other law firms is its capability to provide the quality, reputation and full range of services expected of larger law firms while maintaining the accessibility, flexibility and efficiency of a smaller firm.

Its attorneys each share a deep commitment to maintaining the highest standards of excellence in the legal field, whether they are repre-

senting individuals, startup companies, a growing business or established institutions in the courtroom or in the boardroom.

Durbin, Larimore & Bialick, P.C. was founded in 1983 by Gerald E. Durbin, James K. Larimore and Mark E. Bialick. All three remain active in the firm today.

The firm maintains a MartindaleHubbell rating as one of the top 1,000 law firms in the United States.

Honorees: Blau Law Firm, Crowe & Dunlevy Attorneys and Counselors at Law, McAfee & Taft, Spencer Fane LLP

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

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Chickasaw Retreat & Conference Center

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ocated about one hour south of OKC in south-central Oklahoma in the heart of the historic Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Chickasaw Retreat and Conference Center is an ideal location for corporate retreats, weddings, family reunions, church groups and relaxing getaways.

The retreat sits at one of the highest points in the Arbuckle Mountains and includes numerous conference and meeting rooms, an amphitheater, a

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lounge and both group and private dining spaces. Additionally, guests can enjoy the retreat’s two-story, state-ofthe-art fitness center with more than 30 pieces of equipment and an indoor walking track, an on-site by-reservation spa, an indoor lap pool, a sauna and steam room and more.

The opportunity for organized adventure makes the retreat a model location to work on team-building or to relax and enjoy some downtime.

Honorees: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum;

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Oklahoma Memorial Union-University of Oklahoma; Sooner Bowling Center; The Artesian Hotel, Casino & Spa

Best Commercial Sign Companies

Blue Diamond Signs

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lue Diamond Signs is relatively young, and owner and president Donny Ho sees that as an advantage.

Ho started his custom signage manufacturing business in 2001 as an advertising agency and soon found a niche for creating signs that stood out from the competition.

Blue Diamond offers a wide variety of products while offering a turnkey solution, including design, permitting, fabrication and installation. Ho’s client roster includes Lockheed

Martin, Kings Travel Plaza, Cumulus Media, Turner Turnpike, Mustang Elementary School, Natural Grocers and more. The company creates custom monuments, digital LED message boards, awning and canopy signs, vehicle wraps, banners, neon and more — and all Blue Diamond Signs’ work is guaranteed. Many of Ho’s designers and technicians bring more than two decades of prior experience with them as they help clients achieve their branding goals.

Honorees: FastSigns, Industrial Signs & Neon, J&B Graphics, Signs Now

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Best Commercial Construction Companies

DBG Construction LLC

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ounded in 2007, DBG Construction LLC is beginning its 10th year as a woman-owned small business and full-service general contractor in Oklahoma City.

Co-founders Deemah Ramadan and Frey Radfar have built the company’s reputation as an innovative firm that manages and executes timely, cost-effective results. DBG’s construction operations were founded on transparent communication, and they continue to champion the company’s purpose of building a better community one person, one building at a time. DBG

Construction has successfully completed major projects for clients such as Chase Bank, the University of Oklahoma, Norman Regional Hospital, Moore Public Schools, Carlisle FoodService Products and Dunlap Codding law firm. These projects include construction management, ground-up construction, design/build and facility maintenance. The company’s facility maintenance team handles repairs and multitrade projects, currently servicing more than 100 locations throughout Oklahoma.

Honorees: Alliance Property Development, Lingo Construction,

Precision Builders, Smith & Pickel Construction

Best Local Commercial Insurance Agencies

Garner Insurance Company

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n its four years in business, the independently owned and operated Garner Insurance Company insurance agency has been committed to providing outstanding customer service. With access to more than 125 companies, Garner can tailor a policy to fit many different needs.

Commercial insurance coverage options include bonds, general liability, commercial auto and property, business owners policy (BOB), contractors, builders risk, restaurant and

even church insurance. Garner has grown rapidly in the past year and a half, from two employees to six, and serves the Norman community and the state of Oklahoma.

“We serve all types of businesses, but we’ve developed a niche in trucking companies and those that do directional drilling for cable, sewer and water lines,” said owner Jared Garner.

The company also provides personal home, vehicle and life insurance.

Honorees: Bradford Willis, Farmers Insurance; INSURICA;

NFP Corporate Services; Rich & Cartmill Insurance and Bonds

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

Best Commercial Property Management/Leasing Companies

Best Agencies for Business Travel

Northstar Properties

Travel With Kathy

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orthstar Properties thrives as a reliable and innovative property management company overseeing apartment complexes and storage space throughout the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas. Its staff is determined to deliver maximum results, increasing profits through commercial property management, finance, administration, construction, development, rehabilitation, due diligence services, modernization and more.

Northstar maintains its reputation as an industry leader by focusing on

employee education and fostering honest, profitable relationships with investors and clients. Co-founder Edmond Carlson established his property management career in 1984 when he helped build and manage two of the region’s most successful property management firms. He and his partners quickly grew the company to be one of the largest in the state.

In 2004, they formed Northstar Properties so they could streamline their portfolio and emphasize relationships with employees and residents.

Honorees: Baker CRE Services; Midtown Renaissance;

Price Edwards & Company; RentKing, LLC

Best Business Furniture/Equipment/ Supply Companies

Stow’s Office Furniture

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tow’s Office Furniture has everything its clients need to transform ho-hum offices into exemplary workspaces that radiate success. The locally owned and operated business offers a wide selection of desks, chairs, conference room furnishings, accent pieces, filing solutions, modular system workspaces and more. Stow’s staff will work with you to meet your office needs while staying within your budget. With almost 30 years in the business,

Stow’s is adept at anticipating business needs and helping create office environments perfect for both clients and employees. Started in 1989 by Jerry Stow, today, Jerry and his wife Diana maintain partnerships with more than 30 manufacturers while providing customers with a superior selection of new and quality preowned office furnishings from their three-story, 60,000 square-foot facility in downtown Oklahoma City’s historic Automobile Alley district.

Honorees: Copelin’s Office Supplies, Galleria Furniture, Scott Rice,

Smart Image Systems

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ravel With Kathy serves businesses and nonprofit organizations in several ways. These include trips that are awarded as prizes for employee contests or as raffles by nonprofits. Travel With Kathy also can arrange trips for an entire small company. Owner Kathy Cardott said she vets cruise lines and tour companies to determine their ability to deliver what they promise.

The firm is accredited by Cruise Lines International Association and

has extensive experience organizing cruise and vacation packages to Hawaii, Alaska, the Caribbean, Canada, South America, Mexico, Europe and cities like New York, Chicago and Orlando.

Cardott provides exceptional personal service with her attention to detail and a superior dedication to her clients. Her love for languages and travel inspired her to create a business in which she could help others enjoy their own travel experiences.

Honorees: AAA, Bentley Hedges Travel, Journey House Travel Inc.,

WorldTravelService

Best Promotional Products Companies

Moisant Promotional Products

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stablished in 1990 by Bill and Teresa Moisant, Moisant Promotional Products has grown into a multimillion-dollar company that continues to offer the exceptional level of individualized customer service it was known for when Bill and Teresa were its only employees.

The locally owned and operated company has built its reputation the old-fashioned way. It knows good service builds loyalty. Moisant provides clients with a variety of custom-

ized promotional goods — awards and recognition products, tools and hardware, apparel, executive gifts, games, caps and hats, sports and outdoor accessories, home and kitchen accoutrements and more.

Moisant professionals consult with clients on the best ways to promote their brand, and the business continues to grow by using the technology necessary to stay ahead of the game.

Honorees: IMAGENation Promotional Group, Inc.;

Impressions Printing; Lure Promo; SmithDryden

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BEST OF BUSINESS 2017

Best Business-Related Nonprofits

Best Commercial Graphic Design Firms

Oklahoma Venture Forum

Freestyle Creative

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klahoma Venture Forum is the state’s preeminent entrepreneurial development organization and promotes economic growth by fostering discussion and development opportunities between inventors, investors, innovators, community leaders and others.

Its diverse membership represents an array of business interests across the state. Since 1987, the nonprofit has connected entrepreneurs to Oklahoma’s growing network of investors, venture funds, incubators and other service providers through monthly meetings,

social media, publications and annual awards. OVF programs create awareness of business opportunities and trends and offer purposeful networking for leaders of commerce.

Over the past five years, its monthly speaker series luncheon has hosted more than 90 entrepreneurs.

Luncheons and after-hours events offer a variety of presentations from Oklahoma entrepreneurs and features some of the country’s most impressive and groundbreaking technology, science and applications.

Honorees: Better Business Bureau, Chickasaw Nation Department

of Health, HeartLine, Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits

Best Local Investment Advisors or Providers for Businesses

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reestyle Creative describes itself as the intersection between strategy and creativity. Founded in 2007

by Vahid Farzaneh as a film production company, its services now include targeted digital marketing, advertising, branding and design, website development, video production and public relations. Every good brand has a story to tell, and Freestyle helps bring that story to life. Its “full circle” client service process is comprised of six steps: research and analysis, creative development, deployment and

customer engagement, weekly campaign progress measurement, analysis and campaign adjustment and delivering quantifiable results.

This up-and-coming advertising agency serves clients big and small, from the University of Oklahoma and the Chickasaw Nation to venturebacked tech startups such as Driven Analytics. Freestyle’s team of young professionals assists clients in creating holistic marketing and creative strategies built to drive growth and deliver a targeted message.

Honorees: Levant Technologies; McMahon Marketing; s design, inc.;

VI Marketing and Branding

lations Congratu ar’s 2017 to this ye usiness Best of B nd Winners a !

Honorees

Eide Bailly Financial Services

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or nearly two decades, Eide Bailly Financial Services has helped clients effectively navigate the seasons of their financial lives. It’s important that clients are connected, understood and confident, and Eide Bailly Financial Services team members employ a variety of resources — including financial planning, retirement income planning, education planning, portfolio design, asset management, insurance services and fiduciary reviews — to create comprehensive,

customized solutions that meet client goals. As a CPA-based financial services firm, the company brings together the talents and knowledge of key advisors by using a collaborative, academic, research-driven approach that demonstrates its dedication to each client’s success and culminates in solutions, ideas and opportunities.

At Eide Bailly Financial Services, financial planning is the defining core of what the firm is as well as the foundation of each client relationship.

Honorees: Cameron Financial; DM Wealth Management; Gorton

Financial Group; Scott Dunn, Opes One Advisors

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ns for Nominatio ess t of Busin s e B 8 1 0 2 017. te June 2 la in g e b will

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EAT & DRINK

Clean eats

From the hot bar to the heat-and-eat section, Provision Kitchen makes eating better a pleasure.

By Greg Elwell

Provision Kitchen 6443 Avondale Drive | 405-843-2310 provision-kitchen.com What works: The hot bar is a treasure trove of locally sourced clean eats.

What needs work: Prices are high, but you’re paying for quality.

Tip: Any single-serving heat-and-eat meal can be ordered ahead of time as a family-size meal for parents on the go.

When the subject of eating healthy arises, many of us make that face. You know the one, that crinkled-nose, nearsneer that crawls unbidden across your mouth when the memory of a particularly unpleasant lima bean incident is dredged up from the murky depths of your brain.

That’s a problem, especially in a state where 33.9 percent of adults are obese.

At least one-third of us need to lose weight, but how can we if the thought of eating better makes us cringe? One answer is Provision Kitchen, 6443 Avondale Drive.

Though I’m smitten with the hot bar, it’s nice to have some options to eat later in the day or the next morning.

Owner Whitney McClendon and executive chef Beth Ann Lyon are focused on making healthy food that tastes as good as it makes you feel. A big part of that is using real food as ingredients, which they ensure by getting as much of it as possible from their own farm.

If you want to know where an ingredient came from, look up. The information is on the wall. When I went in a few weeks ago, the restaurant was carrying garlic, cauliflower, onions, sweet potatoes, broccoli, spinach, sun gold tomatoes, bell peppers, organic eggs, squash, jalapeños and pasture-raised pork from Provision Organic Farm in Oklahoma City.

The restaurant had a build-your-own salad bar but will phase that out in favor of its own composed salads. I was particularly fond of the Out of This World kale salad ($11), which has dressing akin to Caesar on it.

Kale is certainly a buzz-worthy green, but it has rarely been one of my favorites until now. Provision’s kale salad

had body but was far easier to eat than most I’ve had. Usually kale has roughly the same mouthfeel as trying to eat a still-living shrub, but this salad was tender. The curly tips of the leaves held on to the dressing made with almonds, garlic and olive oil, which helped the hearty greens go down.

The nuttiness was divine, though it was a tad saltier than I liked. It’s the kind of “simple” salad everyone thinks they can make but can rarely pull off.

Just down the line from the salads is Provision’s hot bar, which changes daily.

This is where Lyon’s skills truly shine.

She has deep roots in Oklahoma City’s food scene, including stints heading the kitchens at The Coach House, Kitchen No. 324 and The Mule, but I don’t think she has ever looked happier than she does cooking for the hot bar.

On a recent visit, I tried the Moroccan meatballs over a root vegetable mash, but that lineup changes frequently. Hot bar meals are $13.50, including a base, a protein and two fresh sides. The meatballs were nicely spiced with Moroccan seasonings familiar and exotic. The texture was succulent and juicy with a slight crunch from onions added into the beef mixture.

I love meatballs, and these could stand with any of my favorites. They held together when speared with a fork and promptly melted beneath a barrage of teeth, spilling forth a beefy flavor tinged with cumin and coriander. Put them on a sub or over a plate of pasta and they’d be right at home.

The root vegetable mash is a frequent guest on the hot bar and one I’m always happy to see. Sweet potatoes and carrots are roasted and mashed with a touch of seasoning. Add a little salt to amplify the mild sweetness inherent in the root vegetables.

Moroccan meatballs over root vegetable mash | Photo Greg Elwell

Beth Ann Lyon preps some fresh greens at Provision Kitchen. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Much as I love Brussels sprouts to be fried or deep-roasted, Provision cooks some of the best in the city, and they do them very simply. Sliced lengthwise, the sprouts are roasted and tossed with a hint of maple syrup. The spices bring a tickle of heat, and the sprouts lack any bitterness.

Provision Kitchen’s initial concept was balanced, heat-and-eat meals in the cooler section. Though I’m smitten with the hot bar, it’s nice to have some options to eat later in the day or the next morning.

Balanced Breakfast ($8) is scrambled organic eggs, roasted sweet potatoes and a big chunk of pork sausage from the farm. Whatever concerns I had about microwaved eggs and sausage disappeared immediately once I started eating the dish. The eggs are supple and taste fresh. The sausage has a good chew and wonderful flavor. The sweet potatoes are cooked nicely, but the texture doesn’t translate quite so well as the pork or eggs.

Sweet potatoes played a prominent role in both heat-andeat lunch dishes I tried. Ginger-lime salmon ($14) arrived with Brussels sprouts and Out of This World kale salad | Photo Greg Elwell

a Sriracha-mixed sweet potato mash.

That was a much more successful use of sweet potatoes, which held onto the spicy chili sauce and made a filling side for the fish.

Fresh-cooked salmon will always have the edge over reheated salmon, but the big portion of fish in the meal was tasty with good moisture. McClendon’s science background is evident in these meals. Not only are they broken down with calorie counts and nutritional info, but she has really found a sweet spot for microwaving complex meals.

The same goes for the buffalo sliders ($13.50). It makes sense to do two smaller burgers instead of a larger one. Buffalo is a pretty lean meat, so the heat needed to warm up the middle of a large burger would likely leave most of the patty too dry. The smaller burgers are cooked through and stay moist with a slightly sweet barbecue sauce and melted cheese.

As long as you’re eating meals that are good for you, why not enjoy a treat? If I didn’t know the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies were gluten-free, I’d never have guessed. The cookies had a slight coconut flavor, but the texture was spot-on and the taste of chocolate came through loud and clear.

If knowing where your food comes from and what’s in it is important to you, Provision Kitchen is a perfect fit.

Ditto if you want to eat healthier but don’t want everything to taste like cardboard. It’s little wonder the restaurant has become so popular with athletes and food lovers alike.

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

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EAT & DRINK

Women’s place?

Wherever they choose. A new generation of female restaurant owners, managers and chefs build culinary success in Oklahoma City. By Greg Elwell

Oklahoma City’s food scene has evolved rapidly over the last decade. It’s not just the food that’s improving; the industry is also becoming a much friendlier place for women.

Chef Kathryn Mathis, co-owner of Oklahoma City eateries Back Door Barbecue, Big Truck Tacos and Pizzeria Gusto, said she experienced sexism in the kitchen when she first moved to Austin, Texas.

“I didn’t last very long there,” she said. “It was the only job I ever noshowed for.”

But the lessons she learned stuck with her. She passes them on to new managers at her restaurants.

“Remember all those good things the chef or manager you love did, and remember all the bad things the manager or chef did that you hated and try not to be that,” Mathis said. “Be the good, but don’t forget the bad.”

A kitchen requires thick skin, but she said there’s a difference between playful banter and crossing a line.

Stella Modern Italian Cuisine executive chef Melissa Aust said that’s the ideal but not the reality in some kitchens. While she hasn’t dealt with sexism while working in Oklahoma City restaurants, she did while working in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

“Everybody had their niche,” she said. “The guys were pretty cocky. They gave me shit, but I have a little thicker skin than most.”

It’s hard coming up in an established food city, but she arrived here just as the scene was starting to pop. That put a hard reset on gender inequality in the kitchen and allowed the strongest cooks to come to the fore.

She said she and Stella owner Lori

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Burson have a business relationship based on open communication and honesty.

“We just have a really good dynamic together,” Aust said. “We’ll call each other out. Today, we’re work partners; tonight, we’re friends.”

Friendship is why Pie Junkie owners Darcy Schein and Leslie CoaleMossman began working together.

“Darcy and I met when our daughters were in Mother’s Day Out,” CoaleMossman said. “We started hanging out and cooking together.”

After starting a catering kitchen inside St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, the women were approached by Shannon Roper from S&B’s Burger Joint about making a pie for the restaurant. It became so popular, they were soon making several pies a week for S&B’s and began looking their own storefront.

They opened their shop, 1711 NW 16th St., about four years ago. But that put a different challenge in their path.

“Trying to find a balance between being a wife, a mother and a business owner is really challenging for us,” Coale-Mossman said. “When you’re at the shop and miss things the kids are doing, you feel guilty. At home, your thoughts are what’s going on at the business.”

Finding that balance is difficult, and she’s not sure they’ve figured it out yet.

“It’s a daily struggle, partially because we’re really hands-on in our business,” Coale-Mossman said. “We have our hands dirty every day. That’s why we’ve had some success. We didn’t start something, mic-drop and walk off.”

While it’s difficult being away from their kids, it’s also providing them an

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Leslie Coale-Mossman and Darcy Schein | Emmy Verdin / for Oklahoma Gazette

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opportunity to teach them.

“I want them to see that they can be successful. What that requires is hard work. Things aren’t handed to you,” Coale-Mossman said. “I hope I’m modeling that for my girls.”

She’s proud to count herself among women contributing to the community.

“It’s not a gender thing. They’re working hard and killing it right now,” she said.

Talent reigns

The Pritchard Wine Bar, 1749 NW 16th St., where general manager Mindy Magers and executive chef Shelby Seig are creating one of Oklahoma City’s best dining experiences, is a bastion of fine wine and cuisine. They are also trying to create one of the best working environments for their staff.

Remember all those good things the chef or manager you love did, and remember all the bad things the manager or chef did that you hated and try not to be that.

Kathryn Mathis “Two-thirds of our ownership group is female. Our [general manager] is female. Our executive chef is female,” Magers said. “It’s not positive because it’s female. It’s positive because people who come here know what they’re getting into. If they’re not comfortable working for women, they won’t come here.”

It’s not that way everywhere, she said. While working at a fine wine and liquor store in Dallas, Magers said the general manager was fired when it came out he had hidden cameras in her office (which was also the female employees’ changing room). She was promoted to

his job but had to keep doing her old job as operations manager, too — all without a raise.

Seig began as a pastry chef, a role that she said tends to be more femaleoriented. But on the savory side of the industry, it can be more of a boys’ club.

“There’s an attitude of, ‘You’re a girl.

Get out of here,’” she said.

That means female chefs have to work harder to gain the same respect as their male peers. It’s unfair, but Seig finds the challenge pushes her to be better.

“You have to be on-point all the time,” she said.

It’s an unfair standard, but one she works to counteract by giving young women in the industry a chance to learn and prove themselves.

“You bring other strong females in, but it’s really about who is best for the job,” Seig said. “If it weren’t for women encouraging each other and bringing each other up, I wouldn’t be in my position.”

No one gets a free pass because they’re female, nor is she harder on male employees.

“But if you don’t give them the opportunity, they can’t prove themselves,” she said.

One employee she hired while working at Boulevard Steakhouse is Chelsea Berry, now a pastry chef at En Croûte, 6460 Avondale Drive.

“I have to give it up to Shelby,” Berry said. “She gave me the opportunity. She gave me responsibility.”

That open door led her to En Croûte with managing partner and cheesemonger Crosby Dyke.

“When I started in culinary school, I was told that I should go into pastry because I would never make it as a line cook,” Berry said. “Women are automatically expected to be the baker and put into a dessert role.”

Dyke said her path has been an easier one because En Croûte is her first restaurant job.

“I did six years in the oil and gas industry,” she said. “Definitely there, it’s a man’s world.”

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EAT & DRINK

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Vegan venture

Chef Nicole Asali crowdfunds a cookbook focused on plant-based diets.

By Greg Elwell

FRIDAY

dJ Peace@9PM HaRding fine aRTS PeRfoRMance fundRaiSeR 7-9PM

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Nobody cares if it’s vegan so long as it tastes good.

That’s the principle driving local chef Nicole Asali to create Millennial’s Guide to Plant-Based Diets, a cookbook she’s crowdfunding through Indiegogo.com.

Asali owns Health Koncious, 730 NE 42nd St., a startup business introducing communities to plant-based diets.

She has been a chef for seven years, and she started exploring veganism after her best friend was diagnosed with lupus.

“I started reading up on plant-based diets as a holistic way of helping,” she said.

Her friend died, but Asali’s hunger for knowledge led her to become a vegetarian and then a vegan before transitioning to a wholly plant-based diet.

“It’s really the proteins that make a difference,” she said. “You can make it taste as good as your average comfort food.”

Millennial’s Guide to Plant-Based Diets will include recipes, but its main focus is translating nutrition information for an audience that might not know much about healthier eating.

Asali said she isn’t evangelizing for veganism. She presents information and lets people make their own choices.

“When people are educated, they make better decisions,” she said.

Chef Nicole Asali ladles vegan chili over a plate of nachos. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Cooking comfort

One reason people don’t consider becoming vegan is that they’re afraid they’ll have to give up their favorite foods, she said.

But vegetables can be transformed using different cooking methods and spices to fulfill those cravings.

Asali frequently creates dishes that astound meat-eaters, including a vegan fried chicken made from vital wheat gluten.

“You pull the starch and build a dough,” she said. “Then it’s boiled in vegetable stock.”

Vegan macaroni and cheese with kale and beans. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

The end result is a “fried chicken” with a meaty texture and flavor.

Though Asali is more interested in worldly cuisines, she said the way to introduce a vegan lifestyle to Oklahomans is through comfort food.

“I do Italian food and Cajun food with New Orleans spicing,” she said. “But everyone wants comfort food.”

Her specialties include a vegan macaroni and cheese that is creamy and flavorful and nachos covered in vegan chili. Her challenge now is making her dishes more accessible.

“I’m working on ways to prepackage some of the foods,” she said.

Asali plans to add meal prep and manufacturing to her business by 2018. Her mission is to create an affordable, accessible and functional plant-based product for people regardless of income. And that takes funding.

Chef Nicole Asali is rallying community support to help fund her vegan cookbook project.| Photo Garett Fisbeck

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Money matters

Asali hopes to raise $15,000 via her Indiegogo campaign, which will fund the cookbook’s publication and help her begin manufacturing specialty foods that will make vegan comfort dishes easier to create for the community.

She wants to sell protein powders, dairy-free cheese sauce and seitan — the wheat gluten chicken substitute.

Asali has spent years working in the community with Health Koncious, hosting demonstrations and events to give people a taste of how satisfying plant-based cooking can be.

Her next event is Koncious Bites and Kanvases 6-10 pm. April 22 at Nault Fine Art, 816 N. Walker Ave. Tickets are $85 on eventbrite.com or free with a $75 donation to her Indiegogo campaign.

“If we can get people on this, they can open up to more things,” she said. “Then we can start loving vegetables again.”

b rief s By Greg Elwell

A crowd enjoys live music at Beats & Bites in 2016. | Photo Riverwind Casino / provided

•Beats & Bites Riverwind Casino’s food truck and music festival Beats & Bites returns in May, and organizers are already working to get the event ready for the public.

This year, the casino is asking local food trucks and vendors to apply online to take part this spring and summer.

The application is available at riverwind.com under the Entertainment tab.

Applicants have until Friday to register. Approved food trucks and vendors will be notified by March 31.

Riverwind general manager Jack Parkinson said he expects Beats & Bites to grow in its second year. About 26,000 people attended the festivals last year, and casino officials learned a lot from vendor and food truck operator feedback.

Beats & Bites kicks off the season 6-11 p.m. May 13 in the casino’s west parking lot, 1544 State Highway 9, in Norman. The free event happens the second Saturday of each month through August. Visit riverwind.com.

•Right-A-Way return

A run of bad luck doomed Right-A-Way Burger in late 2016, said owner Jimmy Johnson. A busted hood vent on his busiest days and a broken thermostat that wiped out his fresh beef supply forced him to close his far north Edmond burger location.

“After I closed Right-A-Way, I was eager to get back to cooking for the public while the iron was still hot,” Johnson said.

Fans of his burgers can scarf them down at Photo Garett Fisbeck / file 51st Street Speakeasy, 1114 NW 51st St. “With the perfect mix of some of my recipes and the Speakeasy, it is a delicious combination,” he said.

Speakeasy’s kitchen is open 4-9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, serving Baja fish tacos, black bean burgers, nachos and Johnson’s from-scratch burgers. Ideally, Johnson said he’d like to open the kitchen for lunches, too.

The centralized location puts Johnson’s food a lot closer to Oklahoma City diners.

Visit 51stspeakeasy.com.

Zoo food

Minnesota-based Lancer Hospitality took over food service at Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden in January and replaced some of the entertainment destination’s more tepidly received restaurants with new concepts.

“We are a food-first company,” said Pete Virnig, Lancer senior regional director of operations. “We create restaurant-quality, restaurant-style food in a zoo setting.”

In Oklahoma City, that includes new restaurants focusing on burgers, pizza and taqueria-style tacos. At Big Rivers Café, the company serves freshly made buttermilk chicken tenders with waffles.

“All the food we create is fresh and locally sourced as much as possible,” Virnig said.

Bill Dockum, senior director of guest experience, said the zoo wanted the quality of food to match the quality of other experiences for guests.

“It’s easy to do the corn dog or the chicken nuggets, but our guests deserve more,” Dockum said. “They deserve the same quality they’re getting elsewhere in the zoo.”

His favorites so far are the chicken and waffles and sweet roasted corn that “just melts in your mouth.”

The Zoo is located at 2101 NE 50th St. Visit okczoo.org.

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

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eat & DRINK

Budget bites

Oklahoma is in the midst of yet another fiscal crisis, facing enormous revenue shortfalls that threaten to disrupt vital public services, cripple schools and force another round of budget cuts.

Wow. That’s a huge downer.

Budgeting doesn’t always have to be bad news, though. Many metro restaurants offer great deals on tasty food to keep our bellies and wallets full. Try these spots if you’re hungry for a bargain.

By Greg Elwell Photos Garett Fisbeck and Gazette / file

Hugo’s Taquizas

3409 NW 23rd St. facebook.com/hugos.taquizas 405-601-1244

Every day is a good day for tacos, but Tuesdays are especially fortuitous for money-conscious munchers at Hugo’s Taquizas. That’s when Hugo’s sells delectable taqueria tacos for uno dinero. One dollar is a heck of a deal, especially when you can choose from al pastor (pork), cabeza (beef cheek), lengua (tongue), carne asada (steak), pollo (chicken) and, my favorite, alambre — a mix of steak, bacon, peppers, onions and cheese.

Coney Island 428 W. Main St. 405-239-8568

A great lunch — like the ones at Coney Island — sometimes requires you to carry cash. Diners can score chili dogs with mustard, chili, cheese and onions for a scant $1.55; Frito chili pies for $3.55 and Greek-style spaghetti covered in chili for $4.85 — but only if they pay with cold, hard cash. This downtown lunch spot offers a tasty, spice-infused chili, no-nonsense service and great value.

Naylamp Peruvian Restaurant 5808 NW 50th St. 405-603-3997

If you think Paddington Bear is Peru’s greatest export, you really need to check out Naylamp Peruvian Restaurant. Start with fresh ceviche and a hit of lime or get something heavier with plato serrano — deep fried plantains, yucca and sweet potatoes. But lomo saltado, the pride of Naylamp, is on sale weekly for lunch for $7.99 with a soft drink. Steak, onions and peppers served with rice and fries? Move over, marmalade.

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Time is money. You can save both by driving straight down May Avenue to Perry’s Restaurant. Open 24 hours a day, Perry’s has classic diner food whenever it fits into your schedule. It’s hard to beat a breakfast of two fresh eggs with pancakes and hash browns for $4.99. Unless you like your eggs scrambled; then it just makes sense to beat them. Still hungry?

Steak and eggs are $10.99.

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Every Wednesday night is $3.99 charburger night at McNellie’s. This Tulsa import is already one of the best places in Oklahoma City to taste great craft beers, and the restaurant has long fed Midtown delicious Irish fare. But when those IPAs are flowing and the evening grows late, it’s wonderful to top the night off with a fresh, juicy burger. Order a few for the table while you wait for your designated driver to pick you up.

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There is an asterisk by this amazing deal, but that’s to be expected when talking about a $3.50 dinner at one of the metro’s coolest restaurants. Sauced on Paseo is best known for serving tasty pizzas and cold beer to denizens of Paseo Arts District, but on Thursday nights, the restaurant has a crazy all-you-can-eat “sketti” dinner. Well, it’s all-you-can-eat until the spaghetti runs out anyway. So go early, pile on the pasta and enjoy one of the city’s best patios.

Hold the phone! No, seriously. Hold my phone, because I need two hands to enjoy Covell Park’s all-you-can-eat sushi on Thursdays. At $30, it’s not the thriftiest meal around, but it’s served all day long.

Besides, sushi fanatics can blow through a budget twice that size when ordering rolls for everyone. But if fish isn’t your thing, Covell Park still has a deal for you.

Mondays are when kids eat free, which can help make family dinner a little more affordable and a lot more delicious.

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31

ARTS & CULTURE

cov e r

Lit muse

Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool confronts cultural norms and ignites debate at an April 1 exhibition benefiting Women Lead.

By Laura Eastes

Her coiffed ponytail, untroubled blue eyes, puckered red lips, permanently arched feet — the best for wearing high heels!

— and improbably lean figure wooed the world when she first introduced herself in 1959.

The Barbie doll captured the imaginations of girls while it played into late 1950s and early ’60s societal trends and culture.

Over the past five decades, with her beauty and charmed life of designer gowns, pink Corvettes and a resume spanning more than 150 careers, Barbie remains a symbol of popular culture.

Barbie is not purely a toy. She is an icon.

All icons — especially those that permeate every corner of culture — transmit a variety of messages. The doll represents the good and bad of American culture.

Some see it as overtly sexual, shallow and materialistic; others see a toy representing the evolution of real-life feminine goals of independence, success and equality.

In Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool, 32 Oklahoma women artists alter Barbie or aspects of the Barbie brand in their work and, through various media, interpret Barbie and her place in society. Sponsored

by Women Lead Oklahoma, the art exhibit and fundraiser is April 1 at Plaza District’s Kasum Contemporary Fine Art and is a spinoff from last year’s successful Altered Barbie Art Party.

Founded in 2015, Women Lead is a nonprofit that empowers and engages 32

m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

women, with emphasis placed on those systematically disenfranchised from the civic process.

“In engaging and empowering women, we pull back those barriers or perceived barriers that prevent women from getting engaged, involved and their voices heard,” said Kendra Horn, Women Lead executive director. “To do that, we question the ideas and stereotypes around icons.”

Timely message

The Women Lead event comes just two months after the burgeoning movement to advance an agenda for women’s rights in Oklahoma and across the United States.

While the role of women has changed drastically in recent decades, Oklahoma’s lack of progress on women’s issues in areas of health, economics, leadership and violence prevention is a black eye for the state.

In January, thousands of women and allies marched around the Oklahoma State Capitol, sending a message to state lawmakers to pass women-friendly policies. Out of this context, Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool turns to Oklahoma’s women artists and their message. These artists contemplate and challenge cultural narratives, play with imagery and evoke emotion in ways traditional politicking and community advocacy can’t.

Here, Barbie takes the stage.

“We imagined a creative collaboration with the art community in ways not yet thought of — new formats and alliances to reach out to our audiences with a powerful visual message,” Women Lead board member and artist Lynette Mathis told Oklahoma Gazette. “The match of Barbie plus Women Lead works quite well for us.

You might say that, together with these talented artists, we’re reclaiming and repurposing Barbie for a new era.”

Barbie inspiration

It didn’t take long for artist Stacey D. Miller and Tony Morton, the husband-and wife duo behind Kasum, to embrace the concept of artists altering Barbie as a means of reflecting on current society.

After 10 minutes of browsing art fea-

“Professionalism: Dressing Like A Woman”

by Jennifer Allen-Barron | Image provided

“Within For You Without” by Angela (A.K.) Westerman | Image provided

tured in last year’s event and meeting the leaders of Women Lead, the two committed their support, paving the way for this year’s exhibit and fundraiser to happen at Kasum.

Additionally, the two were instrumental in developing Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool’s artistic character.

“There are some exceptional artists that chose to participate in this show, from real fine-end established artists to some that are emerging at the collegiate level,” Morton said. “They are all really forwardthinking women in their abilities to put conceptual depth into what they do. … I have no doubt that for those who like to look at narrative, subjective art and unravel a mystery, there will be a lot of interesting subtle complexities to be discovered in these projects.”

As the exhibit’s organizing curator, when Miller approached artists, she passed along news articles and scholarly writings examining Barbie’s role in society and her influence as a cultural icon. Beyond web links, she also shared instructions on how to present their interpretation of Barbie.

“I left it as open-ended as I could,” Miller said. “I wanted the artists to use Barbie as a muse. As a fundraiser for Women Lead, a women’s organization, I wanted them to use their voice for sparking their interpretation of Barbie, looking beyond Barbie’s Mattel marketing department.”

Controversy erupted when Barbie debuted, and criticism never ceased, Morton explained. As a doll for children, Barbie had a figure of a grown woman, one who was super-thin with a tiny waist, and exuded a contemporary image of beauty.

Over the years, Barbie took on many forms through her various careers of teacher, astronaut, doctor, athlete and even presidential candidate.

Not fooled

Speaking to the Gazette from inside Kasum gallery, both Miller and Morton said that feedback over the exhibit was overwhelmingly positive; only a few artists declined an invitation.

“The artists took it to some really interesting places,” Morton said. “When you start thinking about Barbie as this statement, it can be confrontational.”

“She Reigns in Perfect Beauty” by Diana J. Smith | Image provided

Many still argued the 12-inch-tall doll reinforces a distorted body image. Mattel, the toy maker, was slow to introduce petite, tall and curvy versions of Barbie, which hit store shelves last year.

Miller added that negative perceptions of Barbie are not universal. While preparing the exhibit, she noticed that different generations of artists presented contrasting views and feelings about Barbie. Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool represents a spectrum of perspectives on the doll and examines how and where women fit into important roles in modern society, Miller said.

“I had Barbie (dolls) as a kid. I never thought and still don’t see Barbie as negative,” Miller said. “I look at it from the marketing and advertising standpoint — that is the part that bothers me.”

Earlier in her career, Miller created a series of paintings that she coined her “feminist series.” After reviewing 1950s advertisements targeting women, depicting them in the kitchen, speaking with kids and expressing joy about a utopian

The concept of Barbie didn’t fool me as a child, but what will the other artists say?

Stacey D. Miller home, kitchen appliance or food product, Miller painted satirical scenes to convey how far societal norms have changed.

She seeks to do the same with her piece for Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool.

Depicting silhouettes of women’s heads through the decades, Miller shows the progression of a modern woman and contrasts it with a progression of blondehaired, painted-lip Barbie who hasn’t changed much in her 50 years.

Miller connects Barbie’s sluggish evolution with the limited standards of beauty and women portrayed in media and in advertising.

Above all, Barbie is a consumer product.

“Whether you think Barbie is bad or good, she didn’t fool me,” Miller said. “The concept of Barbie didn’t fool me as a child, but what will the other artists say?”

this crazy moment in time?” Mathis asked. “And how will Barbie — our old friend and nemesis — help them say it?”

Mathis’ piece is “Party on the Glass Ceiling,” an installation in Kasum’s front window. She presents a visual story about Barbie as Everywoman through scenes “The Spinning Wheel O’ Fortune,” “The Sisterhood of All Barbies Ever y where,” “The Cage of Unfortunates” and “Feelin’ the Love (The Lovely Alliance of Barbie + Ken).”

Painter Jennifer Allen-Barron found inspiration for her work by inspecting a local Target store’s doll aisle. There, she found Barbie dressed for a professional career. She also noticed Barbie’s high-heel shoes and perfect makeup.

“Barbie presents a narrow version of femininity,” Allen-Barron said. “I know many women who don’t wear heels every day or makeup every day. … There is a much broader spectrum for women to express their style and professionalism.”

Her acrylic piece, “Professionalism: Dressing Like a Woman,” depicts Barbie and Ken accessories and the norms governing gender-appropriate business attire.

Each piece will be auctioned off, with proceeds split between Women Lead and the artist. The ticketed event also includes hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

As an icon, Barbie conjures many feelings and sparks a range of conversation, but when altered — emphasizing good and bad — she raises new questions, and the answers lie with the artists.

“Altered Barbie is about looking at this iconic imagery,” Horn said. “What does it mean, and what can it mean? Question those underlying assumptions. What did the artist want to embrace, and what did they want to let go?”

on

tTwiTter Women Lead executive director Kendra Horn | Photo Garett Fisbeck

to see what we are

tweeting about!

Ronna Pernell | Photo provided

Exhibiting artists Tammy Brummel Diana J. Smith Stacey D. Miller Sarah Morgan

@okgazeTte

Suzanne Wallace Mears Adrienne Day Katy Seals Katherine Puterka Ronna Pernell Michelle Himes-McCrory Angela (A.K.) Westerman Sheridan Conrad Janice Mathews-Gordon Cynthia Corch-Rodriguez Brooke Rowlands Erin Cooper Kalee Jones W. Jennifer Allen-Barron

Oklahoma Gazette

Krystal Brewer Jenny Woodruff Kim Camp

Artist preview

For artists that participated in last year’s event, Barbie was portrayed as a model and party girl as well as a political activist and feminist, explained Mathis, the Women Lead board member who initiated the exhibition and fundraiser. Mathis is eager to see what the other artists produce.

“What will these Oklahoma women artists have to say at

FoLlow Us

Nicole Moan Haley Prestifilippo Claudia Wylie “Black Barbie” by Ronna Pernell | Image provided

Beatriz Mayorca Sara Jane Rose

Altered Barbie: Nobody’s Fool 6:30-9:30 p.m. April 1 Kasum Contemporary Fine Art, 1706 NW 16th St.

Lynette Mathis Karen Collier Janet Massad Jody Larrison Madison Moody Cindy Donelson

womenleadok.org $45-$90

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c ultu r e

ARTS & CULTURE

OPENSTREETSOKC.COM

&

n w o t Up 23rd

Paseo Arts Dis t r ict

Apr. 2 Noon-4p.m.

RD A O B E T A K S | E IK B | WA L K

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Work, balance

Halcyon Works offers small business owners productivity and peace of mind in The Paseo Arts District. By Ben Luschen

On one end of the spectrum is a typical office. Yes, people often get work done there, and it is usually fitted with the tools you need to get stuff done. But the cluttered, tight environment and fluorescent lighting sometimes amplify stress and anxiety.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is home. Yes, it’s comfortable. All your personal stuff is right there, after all. But good luck getting any work done.

Somewhere between the two extremes is Halcyon Works. The Paseo Arts District’s new co-working space, located at 405 NW 30th St., stylishly blends the productivity of the office with the comfort of home. The 2,500-square-foot space is open, bright and chicly designed.

Halcyon is a partnership between founders John Handy Edwards, his wife Sarah Brune Edwards, Erin Cooper and her husband Tim Cooper. The co-working space is next door to the Cooper’s branding and design studio CooperHouse.

Halcyon is geared toward anyone in need of a quiet place to work with the intention of building a community of small business owners who want to share skills and bond with others.

“We want our members to benefit each other and form a network of support,” Erin Cooper said. “For a small business owner, when you’re out by yourself, it can be kind of scary. It’s good to be part of a community where you can support each other.”

Halcyon, which welcomed its first coworkers in early March, accepts both full and partial members.

Full members are welcome to the space any time of the day or week. There are two full-time co-workers currently registered, and Halcyon has the capacity for 16 full members at a time.

In addition to full members, Halcyon also welcomes in part-time members during business hours Monday-Friday.

Part-time members can purchase a weekly pass, which essentially constitutes 40 hours of work and internet time that could be used in one week or over the course of a longer span.

The office features high-speed internet; rentable conference rooms; eight large, long desks for workers; standing desks; a kitchen; a lounge and storage lockers where full-time co-workers can have mail delivered. Cooper said the space was dirty and vacant when they began converting it. After eight months of renovation and design, Halcyon looks like it could have been built new.

Another draw for Halcyon workers is its convenient, highly walkable surrounding Paseo neighborhood.

“We’re nestled within this great community here,” Cooper said. “There’s artists; there’s galleries; there’s restaurants.”

Halcyon will soon add programming that fits co-worker needs not directly related to work, like yoga and meditation.

And Halcyon is not the only co-work space in the metro. Cooper said she believes they serve a different niche than the city’s other options.

Member Seth Hickerson, owner of Boost Sports Performance and Leadership, a sports psychology and leadership training firm mostly aimed at high-school athletes, said he heard about Halcyon through a friend.

“I love it,” Hickerson said. “For what I do, it’s a great space.”

He said he enjoys the laid-back but intelligent atmosphere and its hip decor.

“I’ve been to a bunch of different office spaces, and it was too officey, too businessy,” he said. “This was the best that I saw, especially with their different membership structures.”

Visit halcyon.works.

Halcyon Works brings chic design elements to shared workspace. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Palm Sunday & EaStEr Holy WEEk

c ultu r e

Gilded pick An exceptionally rare Mastertone banjo — the bright, plucky lead instrument in early 1900s jazz and string bands — finds a home at American Banjo Museum. By George Lang

Not all banjos are created equal. From 1937 to 1940, Gibson produced the TB-18 Mastertone, a skillfully engineered, consummately crafted work of art, and only manufactured 25 of the instruments before World War II halted production. One such TB-18 spent 60 years in storage — barely played — until it finally showed up in the collectibles market in the early 2000s.

And now it resides in Oklahoma City.

Last fall, the American Banjo Museum acquired the nearly pristine, four-string TB-18, which is valued at over $100,000. As a preserved artifact of pre-World War II instrument making, it occupies an important place in the museum’s collection, located at 9 E. Sheridan Ave., in Bricktown.

‘Stradivarius of banjos’

Museum executive director Johnny Baier said the TB-18, often described as the “Stradivarius of banjos,” was bought new in 1940, stored for six decades and then passed through two collectors before being acquired by the museum.

For a nearly 80-year-old instrument, it is nearly perfect with the exception of some loss of gold plating on the armrest.

The brackets on the tension hoop were never adjusted, and it never had a five-string neck bolted onto it, which makes it an exceptionally rare find.

“The collectors who had it before shared the same mindset that we do,” Baier said. “If I start turning screws on this, I can never take it back — I can never unscrew that screw. That’s really important. If I could say that every banjo here had this mojo connected to it, that would be wonderful. This has relevance to the modern banjo.”

Gibson’s Mastertone banjo line first went on the market in the 1920s and continued until 2010, when the guitarmaker’s Nashville factory was devastated in a flood.

Band leader

While it is considered the gold standard of the Mastertone line, the TB-18 was produced at a time when the instru-

SErvicES dirEctory Palm Sunday iSSuE april 5 ad SPacE duE marCh 29

EaStEr Holy WEEk iSSuE april 12

ment’s popularity had essentially cratered. From the mid-19th century up through the 1920s, the banjo served as a lead instrument in string and jazz bands, but its bright sounds fell out of favor during the Great Depression, Baier said.

“The banjo was the most popular instrument associated with American pop music in the 1920s,” he said. “You could compare it to the electric guitar of today — that’s the level of popularity.

And from that level of popularity, it died.”

The banjo was the most popular instrument associated with American pop music in the 1920s.

You could compare it to the electric guitar of today.

Johnny Baier For nearly two decades, the banjo was essentially an artifact of days gone by. Much like saxophones in pop music largely disappeared after the 1980s, banjos simply lost ground in most bands to their six-stringed brethren.

But in the mid-1940s, mandolinist and bandleader Bill Monroe brought banjoist Earl Scruggs into his group,

Johnny Baier holds a rare, 80-year-old

ad SPacE duE april 5

Gibson Mastertone banjo, now on display at American Banjo Museum. | Photo provided

the Blue Grass Boys, and Scruggs popularized the three-finger picking style that came to typify bluegrass.

Today, banjos are seen with greater frequency in modern folk groups like Mumford & Sons, featuring banjoist Winston Marshall, but perhaps the instrument’s greatest evangelist is actor, comedian and musician Steve Martin.

“He is a serious banjo player,” Baier said. “When he plays and presents the banjo, because he’s Steve Martin, it becomes cool.”

Truly unique

While later Gibson models often rival the tone and quality of the TB-18, the older instruments are sought by collectors and prized by musicians for their clarity and physical beauty.

With its art-deco accents and maplesunburst resonator, the TB-18 stands out among its contemporaries, and the fact that the museum’s instrument, one of only 12 remaining, was rarely played and never adjusted or modified makes it unique.

Baier said that the American Banjo Museum’s acquisition of the TB-18 gave the instrument a perfect home.

“We have a stated mission, and if protecting artifacts of our culture isn’t part of that, we might as well close our doors,” he said. “If we don’t do it, no one will.”

Visit americanbanjomuseum.com or call 405-604-2793.

Call 405.528.6000 or email

speCialseCtions@ okgazette.Com to reserve today!

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ARTS & CULTURE

Walter Jacques, KGOU donor

Spring 2017 Fund Drive

#PowerKGOU17

art

List your event in Submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date. Late submissions will not be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.

Submit your listings online at okgazette.com or e-mail them to listings@okgazette.com.

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Native imagery

Fred Jones Museum and Oklahoma tribes collaborate on PHOTO/SYNTHESIS. By Brian Daffron

The Native American images taken by Edward S. Curtis between the years of 1906 and 1930 are iconic. In over 20 volumes of black-and-white images, Native individuals throughout the United States are shown in their tribal regalia with a spiritual aura about them.

Yet these images are seen by some in the Native community as romanticized and problematic.

For example, many of the women photographed are only identified as “Wife of _________,” while many children are only identified by tribe.

But the Curtis images also are shrouded in the troubling theme of the “vanishing race,” one that conveyed Native Americans and their culture would disappear entirely if non-Native photographers such as Curtis weren’t there to capture them on film.

“I think there’s great value in those images in that they’re beautiful,” said Navajo photographer Will Wilson. “But then I also think that this notion that Native Americans are vanishing is dangerous. … We haven’t vanished. If anything, there’s been a kind of resurgence of Native Americans since Curtis fin-

“Gordon L Yellowman, Citizen of Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes” | Photo Will Wilson / provided

ished his project.”

Wilson, the head of photography at Santa Fe Community College, has respected exhibitions to his credit that include Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX ) and Auto Immune Response. Wilson sought to recreate Curtis’ images using people from the same Oklahoma tribes as Curtis’ North American Indian Volume 19, The Indians of Oklahoma: Cheyenne, Comanche, Ponca, Wichita, Osage, Pawnee and Otoe.

However, Wilson’s work — PHOTO/ SYNTHESIS — differs from Curtis significantly. Rather than the photographer acting as sole artist, Wilson’s work is done in a spirit of collaboration. This includes Wilson, the seven tribal governments and the University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (FJJMA).

While Wilson is the photographer, he gives a great degree of credit to Chickasaw and Choctaw artist heather ahtone, FJJMA’s James T. Bialac Associate Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art.

“The central question that [Wilson] and I arrived at was ‘How could images be created that have their starting point in the beautiful images of these tribal community ancestors? How can we make [Native communities] involved and make them full partners in the creation of these images?’” ahtone said about collaborating with the tribes.

“Terri Parton, Citizen of Wichita and Affiliated Tribes and affiliated Caddo, President of Wichita and Affiliated Tribes” | Photo Will Wilson / provided

s m U a w r o g Ll a t Fo s on in to see all our

#selfies!

Living history

The initial concept became a two-year process of approval through the museum’s internal committees and gaining trust with tribes’ political and cultural representatives.

Originally, the goal was to photograph direct descendants from those in the Curtis works. However, this wasn’t always an easy task.

In some cases, identification wasn’t possible. When this happened, tribal leaders designated those who would represent the tribe for the exhibit, with many choosing to wear traditional regalia for their portraiture.

By the time they took the photos, summer 2016, more challenges arose.

In order to keep with the authenticity of Curtis’ technical approach, Wilson went to great lengths to use both authentic equipment and the development process.

This included a Civil War-era lens, a “wet-plate collodian” onsite processing of metal plates, people within the portraits having to be still for a minimum of seven seconds and the challenge of using chemicals with a 95-degree boiling point in the post-100 temperature of Oklahoma summers. Some of the solutions included a portable icefishing tent as a darkroom and keeping the chemicals on ice in a cooler.

“The emulsion has to stay wet throughout the process,” Wilson explained. “If it dries, you won’t get an image.”

Wilson also combined the techniques of another time with the digital age, giving participants digitally scanned images of their portraits in addition to “Kevin Gover, Citizen of Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and affiliated Comanche, Director, National Museum of the American Indian” | Photo Will Wilson / provided

@okgazeTte

Oklahoma Gazette

the developed image through wet plate development. However, some aspects of the older technologies were left intact, such as lettering on T-shirts remaining backwards.

Living portraits

More than 400 guests attended the Jan. 26 opening, including over 50 of the 123 portrait participants, some driving from as far as Pawnee and Pawhuska.

The final exhibit includes 53 new Wilson photographs and 33 of Curtis’ images shown for comparison. The sizes include both the original plate size and enlarged images. Selected video images of Wilson’s portraits are additional treats in the exhibit.

Called “talking tintypes,” these video images can be viewed on either a smartphone or tablet through the Layar app.

“I believe that what [Wilson] does in creating those images is he gives authorship, which is a very generous act for an artist to do for the people who are being represented by those images,” ahtone said. “The energy from those people is a sense of positive ownership and engagement directly with the viewer. In that sense, the role is shifting the energy between what’s resolved in the image and the people sitting in the chair through an alchemy that’s executed through that lens and through the human engagement that happens through the process of creation of that image.”

PHOTO/SYNTHESIS continues through April 2 in FJJMA’s Nancy Johnston Records Gallery, 555 Elm Ave., in Norman. Visit ou.edu/fjjma or call 405-325-3272.

PHOTO/SYNTHESIS 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, Fridays-Saturdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays; 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Sundays through April 2

IN CONJUNCTION WITH AFTER THE FLOATING WORLD: THE ENDURING ART OF JAPANESE WOODBLOCK PRINTS

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THRONE OF BLOOD

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FRI, MAR 24, 8:30 PM / SAT, APR 1, 5:30 PM

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YOJIMBO

SANSHO THE BAILIFF

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FRI, MAR 31, 8 PM

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art 555 Elm Ave., Norman ou.edu/fjjma | 405-325-3272

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ART

ARTS & CULTURE

Soulful canvas

Artist Tammy Conover uses art therapy to bring spiritual healing to herself and others. By Ben Luschen

Quotes and messages of positivity and optimism hang all around the studio as Tammy Conover paints. There’s a large quote by Nelson Mandela, but most of them are Conover’s own words — positive thoughts she hopes manifest in her life in tangible ways.

“I am one with God,” one phrase reads.

“I am enlightened and awakened. I am one with Tammy.”

“I like anything that’s positive,” Conover said in a recent interview with Oklahoma Gazette. “I’m a very positive person. I just love everybody — anybody I meet. I can walk in Wal-Mart and make friends in five seconds.”

Conover is an abstract expressionist painter whose brightly colorful works occupy homes, offices and galleries across the country. Her art studio is located at 9106 S. Walker Ave. She also owns Zen Dog Grooming, 8121 S. Western Ave. Painting realistic art, she said, does not excite her. Don’t ask Conover for the world’s most accurate still life or a pictureperfect portrait. She would much rather paint the essence of your soul.

Conover offers a popular soul journey painting service — an art process in which she meets and prays with a person and then paints using God and the subject’s spiritual energy as guidance.

In addition to her soul painting projects, Conover has works on display at galleries in California and in Aspen, Colorado. She said several local collectors 38

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also often buy her pieces.

Conover said her work and artistic method is inspired by 20th-century American artist Jackson Pollock, who grew famous for his splattered style. Due to its seeming randomness, Conover said people sometimes assume the style is effortless.

“People think, ‘Oh, you’re just throwing paint on a canvas,’” she said. “Well, it’s not as easy as what you think. There’s a technique to it.”

Conover owns paintbrushes but rarely uses them. Often, she paints with her hands or paint rollers, even kitchen spatulas. Like Pollock occasionally did, she’ll find a stick from outside and use that.

Sometimes she steps up on a ladder and drops paint onto the canvas from eight feet up, using a fan to blow paint and move color across the white plain. The first work Conover ever sold in the Aspen gallery was created while blindfolded.

Often during her creative process, she will put on one of her favorite movies, 2000’s Pollock, which stars and was directed by actor Ed Harris, whose parents are from Oklahoma.

Conover estimates that she has seen the movie at least 150 times.

“I could tell you the movie word for word,” she said. “I mean, I know that movie.”

Painting makes Conover happy, and it’s something she has done throughout her life. But two years ago, she started

taking it more seriously in an effort to chase her passions and live life more fully.

Though her spirit paintings are made to help others and she often donates her work to charities for fundraising purposes, Conover said the truth is that the art is as beneficial to her own happiness as it is to anyone else’s.

“I tell people when I paint, it’s like my God time,” she said. “It’s like being in church. When I come down here, I pray and I meditate each time before I start painting. … It’s like the best feeling I can ever feel in my soul when I paint.”

Art therapy

Conover gets people for her soul paintings the same way she gets any other attention to her art or dog grooming business — fervent word of mouth. The artist said she has probably done 100 spirit paintings just this year. Those getting their spirits painted by Conover come in and briefly speak with the artist. Conover then works to relax the subject, leading them through a series of aura cleanses, meditations and prayers. The subject is asked to do little more than listen carefully.

After the prayers, she gets to work depicting the sitter’s spiritual essence.

Conover said she rarely knows anything about a subject before a session and they only get to see the completed project.

“I just ask God to bring whatever colors vibrate with their soul,” she said. “The people are really just blown away.”

The process is intimate and feels like a holistic therapy session. Subjects almost always leave feeling satisfied and grateful.

“It’s a very healing experience for people,” Conover said. “Even when people take the painting home, they can feel love and God’s energy. They really feel something from it.”

Tammy Conover demonstrates her painting technique inside her south Oklahoma City studio. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Good karma

Conover often uses her art as a tool to help causes she believes in — especially those that help children or animals.

Her reputation as an advocate for those in need eventually led her to the source of much of her artistic direction.

Norman’s Women’s Resource Center held a fundraising film festival event with actor and longtime supporter Ed Harris in November. Because of Conover’s connection to Pollock’s style and her involvement with charitable efforts in the past, the artist was asked to speak at the event and donate a painting to the cause.

That night, Conover got to meet and speak with Harris and presented him with an original painting as a token of thanks for the inspiration he has given her in the past. After countless repeated viewings of Pollock, she was finally face-to-face with the man who — over the course of the film’s production — embodied the famous artist’s essence. “[Harris] told me that he did feel really connected to Jackson Pollock, which is why he wanted to write the story and produce the movie and play the part,” she said. “Really, I felt like I couldn’t have gotten any closer to Jackson Pollock that night by doing it through Ed Harris.”

The meeting was a poetic payoff for Conover’s years of dedicated work and kindness, but it is not the praise or cool opportunities that keep the artist going.

She is naturally good-natured.

“I just love people,” she said. “I really, truly do. I’m all about helping people and helping animals. I’ve always had a positive attitude.”

Visit tammyconoverart.com.

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR THE CLASS OF 2017 Help us recognize the men and women who are shapingOklahoma City and its future.

To nominate one of Oklahoma City’s brightest young leaders visit okc.BIZ today.

DEADLINE IS JULY 7, 2017

brought to you by

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39

ARTS & CULTURE Marjan Esáa dances in last year’s The Rhythm of the World | Photo Cesar Velez / provided

portunities here.

Esáa finished her advertising degree at the University of Oklahoma.

In addition to putting on The Rhythm of the World each year, she teaches belly dancing for Mystical Hips Dance Troupe.

T h e at e r

Dancing brave

Globe trotters

Dancer Marjan Esáa finds healing and comfort in The Rhythm of the World. By Ben Luschen

The Rhythm of the World has become an annual opportunity for Central Oklahoma residents to take in dance and music culture from around the globe.

This year’s event begins 7:30 p.m.

Saturday in Randall University auditorium, 3701 Interstate 35 S. Frontage Road, in Moore.

The showcase is in its seventh year at the college. Most people rarely get a chance to see so many cultural dance styles in one show.

Rhythm of the World includes Hawaiian Hula from the Halau Hula ‘O Nani dancers, Mexican folkloric dances

by Grupo Folklorico Norahua, Latin dances from Candela Latin Dance and Clips ’N Hips, some traditional Indian folk dancing from Nritya Arpan Dance School, belly dancing by Mystical Hips Dance Troupe, hip-hop by Men of RACE and more.

Show producer and founder Marjan Esáa said she first developed The Rhythm of the World as a way of giving dancers who weren’t in ballet or fine arts an opportunity to perform on stage.

“Doing festivals and events, you would not believe some of the places you end up dancing,” Esáa said. “Concrete, dirt or maybe a small platform the size of a chair. I’m not complaining, because we love being involved in all types of community events, but there was not a performance opportunity that I knew 40

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of onstage for dancing artists that brought variety and multiculturalism.”

The Rhythm of the World is entirely a product of Esáa’s vision.

The show is self-funded, and she works with many local dance companies and groups to book the performances.

Dance has been Esáa’s calling from a very young age, and it has guided her life in ways she could have never imagined.

“It’s always been my outlet,” she said.

“It’s really been the one thing that I have to do.”

Early transition

Esáa was born in Venezuela and was 3 years old when her parents put her in her first ballet class, which eventually led to her discovering and excelling at modern dance styles. For her, dance was “love at first sight.”

Her life took an unexpected turn as a teenager when her parents moved the family to Miami, Florida. Esáa is grateful now, but at the time, she did not want to be uprooted from her home country.

When she arrived in the United States, Esáa was depressed. Everything was different and even the way she spent her time had to change.

“I couldn’t dance when we first migrated,” she said. “We didn’t even have beds, so I couldn’t go an enroll in a class.”

Her parents recognized their daughter’s sadness and scraped together

enough money to enroll Esáa into a class.

Dancing brought some level of familiarity into her life.

“It was like I was me again,” she said.

Life discovery

While dancing in Miami, Esáa was discovered by a choreographer for Univision who hired her as a background dancer on a number of popular shows, including Sábado Gigante. For the first time, she was a paid dancer, and she was hooked.

Professional dancing wasn’t the only new experience Esáa enjoyed in Miami.

In her last years at the University of Miami — and newly engaged to her current husband Steve Scott — Esáa saw a flyer for a belly dancing class. She tried it out of curiosity, and the art form quickly began taking over her life.

[Dance] has always been my outlet.

It’s really been the one thing that I have to do.

Marjan Esáa Unlike in ballet, Esáa said she did not need a specific body type to excel at belly dancing.

“It didn’t matter that my feet were flat,” she said. “It didn’t matter that my legs were not straight. You still need to have good lines, but you can hide them underneath the big skirt.”

Esáa moved to Oklahoma when Scott, now a licensed psychologist, got an internship in Tulsa. They stayed in the state because there were good job op-

One of the highlights in each year’s Rhythm of the World event features Esáa’s solo performance. Each year, she tries to outdo herself, usually dancing over one of her trademark high-energy, high-pep songs.

In 2016, however, Esáa felt far from peppy. She was at a regularly scheduled check up for her unborn second child when the doctor gave her the grave news that her baby’s heart was not beating.

Esáa instantly felt sick and rushed to the restroom.

It was like missing a part of herself that she would never get to see. Esáa took some time off but eventually had to return to her students and regular life.

Even more foreboding, The Rhythm of the World was right around the corner, and she still needed to choreograph her solo performance.

She tried hard to think of something but hit a creative roadblock. It affected her self-confidence.

“I was starting to get anxious and insecure,” she said. “I thought, ‘Am I any good?’”

Finally, she was hit with an epiphany.

Instead of dancing against her emotional flow, she should channel the way she felt into her dance.

In her 2016 solo performance dedicated to her unborn child, Esáa chose a slower, more introspective song. Instead of looking out into the audience to make a connection, she looked inward and upward in somber contemplation.

Not everyone who watched it knew what Esáa was going through, but they were all touched by her emotive display.

As she finished, she began hyperventilating. Her students huddled around her in a warm hug of support.

Heading into this year’s performance, Esáa is more cheery. Her firstborn, Victor Miguel Scott, is now 3 years old, and she celebrates the birth of her second son, Lucas Gabriel Scott, now 4 months old. She is dedicating her solo to her thankfulness to God and for her family.

That gratitude comes from a new personal peace she might never have found if dance didn’t help her let go.

“The weight came off my shoulders because I felt like I let it out,” she said. “I didn’t know how to deal with such sadness. I had never been that sad before.”

The Rhythm of the World 7:30 p.m. Saturday Randall University auditorium 3701 Interstate 35 S. Frontage Road, Moore marjandancer.com | 405-820-0797 Free-$15

T h e at e r

Southwestern Oklahoma State University Presents:

Biblical beats

Canterbury Voices’ final concert this season tells the story of Moses in Egypt. By Lea Terry

Canterbury Voices concludes its 48th season April 2 with Israel in Egypt, an oratorio by George Frideric Handel that tells the story of Moses starting with the Israelites’ bondage in Egypt.

It also features the plagues Moses called down upon Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and other key biblical tale moments, all illustrated by “word painting,” in which the music is designed to depict the text.

“I hope that they will be blown away by the drama of it,” said Randi Von Ellefson, Canterbury Voices artistic director. “People have to remember this is before electronic devices and before technology. Handel is doing everything he possibly can to enhance the energy and the drama of the text.”

For example, at the line “he rebuked the Red Sea,” the orchestra drops out to demonstrate that the sea is now dry. Brass and tympani signal the arrival of hailstones and fire coming down from heaven.

“There really will be told a dramatic story that is very colorful and is really part of the Judeo-Christian tradition,” Von Ellefson said.

First performed in 1739, Israel in Egypt stands out as primarily a choral piece, with fewer arias for soloists than some of Handel’s other works.

The chorus propels the plot forward, narrating the story and acting as a commentator.

Canterbury features all its local soloists in this performance and also features a bass duet that is frequently cut from most performances because, Von Ellefson said, many conductors don’t want to hire two bass soloists just for one piece. However, Canterbury already had two musicians it could call on, including one of its members and a student from Oklahoma City University (OCU), where Von Ellefson is choral activities director and a professor of music.

It also features a baroque instru-

Israel in Egypt features over 200 singers and the

When: Wednesday, APril 5 at 7:30pm Where: Fine Arts Center 100 Campus Drive WeatherFord, Ok 73096

Oklahoma City Philharmonic. | Photo Michael Anderson Performing Arts Photography / provided

ment called a theorbo, a continuo instrument that resembles a guitar.

Canterbury starts planning its shows three to four years in advance. Von Ellefson said this show’s timing makes it relevant to many concertgoers, because it happens near the end of Lent and not long before Passover begins, appealing to both Jewish and Christian traditions.

Von Ellefson said the concert also is ideal for anyone who has said they’d like to hear more of the chorus in Canterbury’s shows. Israel in Egypt features choruses and double choruses, and with Canterbury singers being joined by members of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and by two of OCU’s choirs, there are moments when 200 singers are performing together on stage.

“Visually and sonically, it will have a lot of impact, a lot of power,” Von Ellefson said.

While the other concerts in Canterbury’s season featured multiple works, Israel in Egypt represents its tradition of presenting a major oratorio.

The group hasn’t presented the work in over 10 years, but Von Ellefson said he thinks it has a commitment to preserve great works from the Western tradition.

“I think we owe it to the history of great choral music to do some of these major works, not just a concert of a lot of different works by a lot of different artists and composers, but one full concert unified by a main theme and by a major composer,” Von Ellefson said.

Visit canterburyokc.com.

Israel in Egypt 3 p.m. April 2 Civic Center Music Hall | 201 N. Walker Ave.

Tickets: Tickets are $10 in advance or $20 at the door buy tickets now on stubwire.com Info:

For more info, Call 580.774.3063 Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma City Community College Cultural Programs Presents

Friday, March 31, 8:00

pm

OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater ONE

YR

canterburyokc.com | 405-232-7464 $15-$60

7777 South May Avenue • www.occc.edu/pas tickets.occc.edu • Box Office 405-682-7579 O kg a z e t t e . c o m | M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

41

ARTS & CULTURE

New exhibits showing through May 14

Hollywood and the American West

A Yard of Turkey Red: The Western Bandanna

The Artistry of the Western Paperback

Yo ut h

Haylee Chiariello leads a one-day twirl, dance and cheer clinic for Native American youth through the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic. | Photo Garett Fisbeck

Power & Prestige Children’s Gallery

Monday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, Noon – 5:00 p.m.

1700 Northeast 63rd Street • Oklahoma City, OK 73111 (405) 478-2250 • nationalcowboymuseum.org Clockwise from top left: 1. Father and Son. John Wayne and son Ethan on the set of El Dorado. Old Tucson, Arizona, 1966. John R. Hamilton/John Wayne Enterprises. 2. Cowboy. 2015.002.001. John H. Thillmann Collection, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. 3. Four Warriors (detail) by Nock-to-ist (Bear’s Heart), Southern Cheyenne, ca. 1875, Arthur & Shifra Silberman Collection, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. (1997.007.018). 4. Deadline at Durango. Cover art by Stanley Borack, 1950. RC2006.068.1.07763, Glenn D. Shirley Western Americana Collection, Dickinson Research Center, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Oklahoma City Community College 2016-2017 Performing Arts Series Presents

Opus Cactus Dance Company

Momix transports audiences from their everyday lives to a fantasy world through its trademark use of magical lighting and imagery. Artistic Director Moses Pendleton combines athletic dance, riveting music, outrageous costumes, inventive props and pure talent to create an entertaining multimedia experience of the Southwestern desert.

Tuesday April 11, 7:30 p.m.

OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater 7777 South May Avenue • www.occc.edu/pas tickets.occc.edu • Box Office 405-682-7579

ONE

YR

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M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

Sight to see

A life-changing medical diagnosis inspires a baton-twirling teen to share her passion with other Native American youth. By Laura Eastes

In the sport and art of baton twirling, there is nothing like the feeling that comes when the performance is over.

When holding the final pose and taking in the applause, all the hard work and hours of practice become worth it.

Last week, when baton twirler Haylee Chiariello and dozens of smiling children held the last pose, she felt a different sort of pride. In the span of a day, Chiariello introduced twirling basics to child patients of Oklahoma City Indian Clinic (OKCIC), where four years earlier, Chiariello received a lifesaving referral from an optometrist.

“I give all credit to my story and my healing to the Indian Clinic because without them, I wouldn’t have known there was a problem,” Chiariello said.

“I wanted to find a way to give back to the clinic that has given me so much.

It gave me my life.”

As a child, Chiariello never grew bored watching her military father rehearse rifle spins and drills for his honor guard unit. Chiariello gripped her own metal baton for the first time when she was 12 years old.

“As soon as I got a baton in my hand, I wouldn’t let go,” she said. “There was so much I wanted to learn. It is such an awesome sport because you’ll never achieve everything in twirling. You can always build on it.”0 Often performing with marching bands, their routines are filled with dance, gymnastics and baton-twirling feats like spins, flashes and flips, sometimes while using three batons at once.

Four years ago, Chiariello visited OKCIC for a routine eye exam. She and her family are Cherokee. While there, the optometrist expressed alarm over swollen optic nerves. Following a referral to a specialist, Chiariello was diag-

nosed with hydrocephalus, a condition that results from the accumulation of fluid in the brain.

The specialist recommended the teenager undergo emergency brain surgery.

Two weeks after her initial eye exam, Chiariello was booked for surgery and an extended hospital stay.

“I went from being perfectly healthy to completely sick,” Chiariello said. “It was really weird to go through such a dramatic change in a short time. When I came home from the hospital, I had a lot of healing to do. ... I had to work really hard to regain those normal everyday skills like talking and walking.”

Part of her recovery was baton twirling.

“As soon as I could walk, I wanted to put a baton in my hand,” she said. “It worked my brain and it sped up the process of regaining basic skills.”

Now the high school senior is a well-known baton twirler across the metro. She has performed in dozens of local parades, at the Oklahoma State Fair and as a featured twirler at University of Central Oklahoma football and basketball games.

Last October, Chiariello contacted OKCIC with a proposal to teach baton twirling to Native American youth.

Planning began for a one-day spring break clinic. Thirty children signed up.

The clinic combined Chiariello’s two passions: twirling and working with Native youth. She plans to pursue Native American studies in college as well as twirl.

“I didn’t know if I would ever be able to do this again,” Chiariello said. “To share this with other people is really awesome. … I hope to do more clinics and camps and help this sport grow in Oklahoma and among Native youth.”

Yo ut h

Tuned engines

OKC Phil presents Machines, Motors and Music as part of its Discovery Family Series.

By Christine Eddington

Yo ut h

Sometimes live music can be uninteresting to young concertgoers. Oklahoma City Philharmonic’s Family Discovery Series introduces children to quality music in a new way.

“We want to create a wholesome experience around great music for the whole family,” said Susan Webb, Oklahoma City Philharmonic marketing and communications director.

To that end, OKC Phil launches its final Discovery Family Series concert of the season, Machines, Motors and Music, 2 p.m. Sunday at Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N. Walker Ave. Special activities begin at 1 p.m. in the lobby.

“There is a feeling you get in your soul when you hear a wonderful piece of music, and we want to share that with young people and their families,” Webb said.

Machines, Motors and Music takes its audience through a rollicking roster of tunes including George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter,” The Beatles’ “Yellow

Throughout this season’s Discovery series, OKC Phil has brought in community and educational partners — Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden, SixTwelve, Oklahoma City Museum of Art and others — to add to guests’ experiences.

Learning programs

Submarine,” Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor and more.

The show is conducted by Matthew Troy, education conductor, whose love of music began when he was 11 years old and began playing viola.

The Discovery Family Series is designed for families and children ages 4-13. For an hour before the show, beginning at 1 p.m., ticketholders also are invited to play in the center’s lobby.

OKC Phil’s fundraising and volunteer organization, the Orchestra League, offers an “instrument playground” allowing kids to learn about and try some of the instruments they will see on stage.

Trained docents are on hand to show kids how to play them.

“The theme Machines, Motors and Music is designed to appeal to everyone — boys, girls, moms and dads,” Webb said.

Other pre-performance activities include visiting Conductor’s Corner and a meet-and-greet with performers.

OKC Phil offers a varied slate of educational opportunities and resources for budding performers and music lovers of all ages.

The philharmonic offers two Youth Concerts for students each year, and select rehearsals are open and available to students and teachers by reservation.

The Musical Stories program entertains youths in hospitals, Link Up connects students to Carnegie Hall in New York City and the Music Resource Guide offers information for young musicians.

OKC Phil has deep roots in the community and has evolved through many incarnations, beginning in 1924. Webb said the Oklahoma Philharmonic Society came to life in 1988.

Tickets to Sunday’s performance are $9. For $18 more, patrons can become members of the Kid’s Club.

Members receive a T-shirt, a gift at each performance, a birthday card, a quarterly newsletter and a membership card.

Visit okcphil.org.

Ewww-some fun

Matthew Troy conducts Sunday’s Machines, Motors and Music. | Photo Oklahoma City Philharmonic / provided

Machines, Motors and Music 2 p.m. Sunday Thelma Gaylord Performing Arts Theatre Civic Center Music Hall | 201 N. Walker Ave. okcphil.org | 405-297-2264 $9

Upcoming events

Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden’s Grossology program offers kids viscous adventures. By Kevan Goff-Parker

April 1: The Zoo’s a Garden Too, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

April 4: Read Across Oklahoma, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

April 7: First Friday Garden Tour,

Families can ewwww and ahh while they learn about lizards, rabbits, hippos and more at Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden’s animal-related Grossology program 10-11 a.m. Saturday in Rosser Conservation Education Center, 2000 Remington Place.

Zoo animals present a variety of opportunities for families to learn about unique ways animals evolve and adapt to survive in their environments, said zoo education director Rachael Robinson.

“Owls eat a bunch of crazy things, but they can’t digest bones,” Robinson said. “They produce owl pellets in their gizzards, and then they regurgitate them. We’re going to dissect the owl pellets and look through them to learn about the animal.”

The pellets contain materials like skulls, teeth, claws and feathers that could damage an owl’s digestive track.

Robinson said rabbits also eat some of their own poop, called cecotropia or night feces.

Grossology features hands-on projects for children like creating their own

versions of mammalian and reptilian emanations.

“We also plan to create some slime,” Robinson said. “Hippos create a pink ooze that protects them from bacteria and sun damage both in and outside of the water. The horned lizard can also shoot blood out of its eye to distract predators that has a weird taste that they don’t like.”

Examining adaptive traits like these help children connect with and learn about animals and conservation.

“This is science we’re talking about, but we’re using a different take on it to get families interested,” Robinson said.

“Kids love the sense of humor involved … and adults will see the excitement and passion that children have for animals.”

Grossology registration is $12-$15 and open to children ages 4 and older.

More to experience

Afterward, guests are encouraged to head into the zoo and explore.

“There are a lot of new and exciting things to see and experience this spring,” said Candice Rennels, zoo mar-

10 a.m.

April 8: Building a Butterfly Garden, 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

April 14: Paw-jama Party, 6 p.m.

April 20: EdZOOcation LIVE! Series, Flower Power, 2-3 p.m.

April 22: Earth Day & Party for the Planet, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

April 22: Garden Tour of Water Conservation Garden, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Grossology participants enjoy hands-on activities like getting dirty with worms, meeting the zoo’s animal ambassadors and more. | Photo OKC Zoo / provided

keting and public relations manager.

“We now have some new residents, three wallabies, who are featured in a new habitat in the Children’s Zoo.” Three more of the kangaroo-like marsupials will join the wallabies later this summer, Rennels said. They have been out of the zoo’s collection since 2001.

“They’re a very energetic species, and they’ll hop up and say hello to you,” she added.

She said the zoo now has giraffe feed-

ings and several baby and young animals, including Achara the two-year old elephant, Ketara the male giraffe (born in December) and a sea lion named Phoenix who turns 1 in June.

Visit okczoo.org or call 405-4243344.

Grossology 10-11 a.m. Saturday Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden | 2000 Remington Place okczoo.org | 405-424-3344 $12-$15

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

43

What Mama Wants

Showcase your gift ideas in this Mother’s Day Gift Guide advertising section to show them all What Mama Wants!

Present a special unique item or service you offer in the Gazette’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide. Purchase any size ad in these issues to receive your complimentary item in the Gift Guide.

Publishes: May 3 & 10 Deadline: April 24 Call your account executive at 528.6000 or email specialsections@okgazette.com today to reserve your space!

BRUNCH /br n(t)SH/ noun A meal sometimes eaten e

in the late morning that combines breakfast and lunch.

ISSUE DATE: AprIl 12, 2017

DEADlINE: AprIl 5, 2017

Call 528.6000 or email speCialseCtions@okgazette.Com to book Your spaCe todaY 44

M a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

ARTS & CULTURE those stories morphs as she tells them — she has published series spanning two to 17 installments as well as standalone novels in young adult and paranormal and contemporary romance genres.

“If I can imagine it, I can write it,” she said.

Showalter’s paranormal fiction includes the Teen Alien Huntress, Atlantis and Lords of the Underworld series, drawing from elements of fantasy to tell tales of darkness and light, pleasure and pain. Showalter’s five-book White Rabbit Chronicles reimagines elements of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a modern way.

“While Alice dreams her trip to Wonderland, my Ali is caught in what seems to be a nightmare when she realizes her father was right and monsters [and] zombies are real,” Showalter said.

Instead of the Cheshire Cat, Ali meets Kat, and the Mad Hatter has a normal name — Cole. Showalter draws from characters and scenes to create something else entirely: a horror romance and test for survival.

Lifeblood continues the Everlife story that began in Firstlife. | Image provided

B OO K S

Writing, sharing

Turning pages

Gena Showalter’s Lifeblood novel marks the most recent chapter of the Oklahoma author’s prolific career. By Ian Jayne

Oklahoma-based Gena Showalter began writing in her 20s. The fever sparked a flame and then a five-alarm obsession after she published her first novel at age 27.

After several false starts in college, where she managed to complete one semester of nursing school, Showalter, a young mother, finally decided to take up her pen and create.

“Writing books was the only thing I could see myself doing long-term,” she said in an Oklahoma Gazette email interview. “I knew I’d regret it forever if I didn’t give this thing my all.”

More than 50 novels later, she now celebrates her latest work, Lifeblood, which has reached No. 6 on the Young Adult Hardcover New York Times Bestseller list.

Released last month, the young adult novel continues the story of the Everlife series that began in Firstlife.

“In the Everlife series, this present life is a dress rehearsal and real life begins after death, where two realms are in power,” she explained, “Troika and Myriad.”

In Lifeblood, Tenley “Ten” Lockwood, who has the superpower of transmitting light, makes her way into the afterlife, where she dives into the war between Myriad and Troika.

As some readers might already have

Gena Showalter | Photo Debbie Brunch / provided

realized, Lifeblood has a biblical precedent.

“Scripture inspired me,” Showalter said. “There are numerous scriptures about a kingdom not of this earth, kingdom versus kingdom, a war between spiritual forces and the power of choice.”

She combines oppositions such as life and death, blessings and curses, light and dark and good and evil in Lifeblood — with a special twist. Not only does Ten save souls; she must do so while battling a more personal fight.

“I had to add a forbidden romance to the mix,” she said.

Writing books was the only thing I could see myself doing.

Gena Showalter

Prolific storyteller

Showalter’s ability to write across genres is perhaps the most striking aspect of her oeuvre.

She melds romance, paranormal and horror fiction, often in the pages of the same story.

And even how she chooses to tell

Perhaps because of her varied and prolific output, Showalter has continued the conversation with her readers and fans outside the pages of her work.

Her website, members.genashowalter.com, features a fan forum and “ask me anything”-style question-and-answer sessions.

“I love my readers,” she said. “[They’re] such a wonderful, supportive group of men, women and teens.”

She also connects with fans via Twitter (where she has nearly 40,000 followers), Facebook and Instagram, sharing small bits about her writing process and progress and upcoming books.

Showalter also said she found a strong writing community in Oklahoma. She met her friends and fellow writers Jill Monroe and Sheila Fields at an Oklahoma Romance Writers of America (OKRWA) meeting.

“What an incredibly supportive group of women,” she said.

Daily devotion

While she loves engaging with other authors and her fans, her writing remains an individual pursuit, and for good reason — she advises aspiring novelists to “write for an audience of one.”

“You can’t please everyone. What one person loves another will hate, and what one hates another will love,” she said.

“Write what you love and your passion for it will shine through.”

Although Showalter acknowledged the importance of writing what one likes, she also stressed the fact that writing takes dedication.

She writes every day, even when she does not want to.

“Writing is a passion, yes, but also a job,” she said. “I love to tinker with my books, and I could do so forever.”

She said she stops writing only when

Image provided

she runs out of time or when she begins to make only minor revisions.

Many writers bemoan the blocked channels of inspiration, manifesting in the dreaded “writer’s block,” but Showalter said she has not yet encountered this problem, though she admits she has “written herself into a corner” on occasion.

She said she finds the creative process both challenging and enjoyable.

“I had fun thinking of exciting ways to get myself out of the corner,” she said.

“If the solution surprises and delights me, it will probably surprise and delight readers.”

Even though she has written and published dozens of novels, Showalter still finds major milestones to be particularly exciting.

“Nothing beats finding out you’re going to be published for the first time,” Showalter said, “[or] you’ve hit The New York Times for the first time and you’ve sold the movie rights to one of your books.”

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calendar are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

OKC Financial Forum, hosted by Gorton Financial Group, featuring ESPN analyst Lou Holtz and benefiting the OU Children’s Hospital Volunteer Association, 6:30-9:30 p.m. March 28. OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center, 7777 S. May Ave., 405682-7579, occc.edu. TUE Cards Against Humanity Tournament, good wine and dirty minds come together for the ultimate Cards Against Humanity tournament. Only two of the most horrible minds will win gift cards, 8 p.m.

March 29. The Pritchard Wine Bar, 1749 NW 16th St., 405-601-4067, pritchardokc.com. WED

BOOKS Hollywood’s Transition Westerns: Bridging Traditional and Modern in the Old West, during this Brown Bag lunch series, join film historian Elizabeth Anthony, author of ReelClassics.com, as she leads this cavalcade through iconic transition Westerns, 12-1 p.m. March 22. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. WED Illustration in the Modern Era: An Evening with Illustrator CS Jennings, an illustrator and writer from Austin, Texas who has published works with Penguin Group Books, Scholastic, Stone Arch Books and Sterling Publishing lectures on his experience as a graphic designer and creative director, 6:30 p.m. March 23.

DC on Film Row, 609 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-4103563, dcfilmrow.com. THU The Other Side of Infamy, the world’s second oldest Pearl Harbor survivor, Jim Downing, talks about his Pearl Harbor experience followed by a book signing, 7:30-9:15 p.m. March 23. OU ROTC Armory Building at the University of Oklahoma, 290 W. Brooks St. Armory, Norman, 405-325-3211, ou.edu/rotc. THU 100 Things to Do in Oklahoma City Before You Die, Angela Botzer signs her book about the many things the Sooner State has to offer: eclectic foodie culture, historic districts, architecture, live music and so much more, 1-3 p.m. March 25. Barnes & Noble, Norman, 540 Ed Noble Parkway, Norman, 405-579-8800, barnesandnoble.com. SAT Mouth of the Dragon: Prophecy of the Evarun, author Thomas Barczak signs his book about a dark, epic and redemptive fantasy that challenges everything a hero’s journey can be, 12-2 p.m. March 25. Best of Books, 1313 E. Danforth Road, Edmond, 405-340-9202, bestofbooksok.com. SAT The Mark of a Horseman, during the Brown Bag lunch series, join Don Reeves, McCasland chairman of Cowboy Culture at National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, for a discussion about temporary exhibit A Yard of Turkey Red: The Western Bandanna, 12-1 p.m. March 29. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. WED

Kaleidoscope of Colors, a unique perspective on the colors of spring in a new orchid and spring flower show. See thousands of tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs in the celebration of spring, 9-5 p.m. through April 15. Myriad Botanical Gardens, Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-297-3995, myriadgardens.com.

FOOD The Art of Mindfulness Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s galleries are already peaceful and serene enough, but some slow-flow yoga and meditation brings the zen level to a peak. After the mindfulness exercise, participants go on a guided tour through the museum. The session is 6-9 p.m. Friday at Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive. Tickets are $60. A dinner in Museum Cafe afterward is optional and included in the ticket price. Email routedconnection@gmail.com to reserve a spot in the class.

Visit routedconnection.com. Friday Photo Gazette / file

FILM Merchants of Doubt, (UK, 2014, Robert Kenner) documentary looking at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change. Hosted by OKC Citizens Climate Lobby with co-sponsors Sierra Club Cimarron Group and SixTwelve, 7:30-9 p.m. March 22. SixTwelve Venue, 612 NW 29th St., 405-208-8291, sixtwelve.org. WED OKCine Latino Film Festival, third annual film and community celebration of Latino cinema and culture featuring full-length films, documentaries, short films, workshops, panels and more, 4:30-11 p.m. March 25. CHK | Central Boathouse, 732 Riversport Drive, 405-632-0132, eventbrite.com. SAT Eva Hesse, (US, 2016, Marcie Begleiter) documentary feature film focusing on the life and times of Eva Hesse, a ground-breaking artist who was active in New York and Germany in the ‘60s, 2 p.m. March 26. Meinders School of Business, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405-208-5536, okcu.edu/ business. SUN MindGamers, (US, 2015, Andrew Goth) students at a quantum academy attempt to create a collective consciousness only to discover that they themselves are part of a greater experiment. The event concludes with a live Q&A and reveals the world’s first image of collective human cognition created simultaneously by the audience, 8 p.m. March 28.

Cinemark Tinseltown, 6001 N. Martin Luther King Ave., 405-424-0461, cinemark.com. TUE Wendy and Lucy, (UK, 2008, Kelly Reichardt) over the summer, a series of unfortunate happenings triggers a financial crisis for a young woman and she soon finds her life falling apart, special screening followed by Q&A session, 7:30 p.m.

March 28. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com. TUE

Momentum OKC Some of the best young artistic talents Oklahoma has to offer are on display at this year’s annual Momentum OKC event. The artist showcase inside 16th Street Plaza District features music by Magnificent Bird, Fresh, Klair Larasan, Cosmostanza and Carte Blanche. Catch the event 8-11 p.m.

Friday-Saturday inside venues including Graphite Gallery, 1741 NW 16th St.; District House, 1755 NW 16th St.; The Venue OKC, 1757 NW 16th St.; and DNA Galleries, 1709 NW 16th St. Admission is $10 in advance. Visit ovac-ok.org or call 405-879-2400. Friday-Saturday Image Marissa Raglin / Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition / provided

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Museum Films Presents Kurosawa and Mizoguchi, presenting a series of eight masterworks from two of Japan’s most revered filmmakers: Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. Films include Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, Yojimbo, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, Utamaro and his Five Women, Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff, March 23-April 1.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com.

HAPPENINGS Wild Illuminate Opening Celebration, join Amanda Zoey Weathers and Downtown OKC, Inc. during the celebration for the opening of Wild Illuminate, a light box installation, while enjoying coffee and donuts from Holey Rollers, 9-10:30 a.m. March 22.

Bricktown Canal, 115 E. California Ave., 405-2353500, downtownokc.com. WED Suited for Success Spring Cleaning Week, clothing drive accepting donations for business attire to assist women joining the workforce. Spring and summer business and interview-appropriate clothing will be accepted to directly impact the lives of underserved women who are making their best effort to join or reenter the workforce, through March 25. Suited For Success, 4149 Highline Blvd., 405-521-1089, suitedforsuccessokc.com. WED -SAT

30th Annual Chefs’ Feast, food-tasting event benefiting Regional Food Bank’s Food for Kids Programs. Complimentary beverages and a twist on Oklahoma-inspired food from 25 of the metro area’s finest chefs and restaurants, 6-9 p.m. March 23. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org. THU Soundbites, an acoustic lunchtime concert series with yard games, live performances from local musicians and The Saucee Sicilian food truck, 11:30-1 p.m. March 28. Kerr Park, 102 Robert S. Kerr Ave., 888-7572291, dougloudenback.com/downtown. TUE

4 O’Clock 4Cast, receive access to reports that discuss trends and projections in real estate markets, an Edmond demographic overview, City of Edmond information and profiles from the Edmond Public School District and Universities, 3:30-5:30 p.m. March 23. Oak Tree Golf & Country Club, 700 W. Country Club, Edmond, 405-340-0116, eeda.com. THU OKC Home and Outdoor Living Show, over 300 experts and vendors providing tips for remodeling, cooking, decorating and outdoor entertaining. Featuring Alison Victoria from DIY Network’s Kitchen Crashers and Sara Bendrick, host of DIY Network’s I Hate My Yard, March 24-26.

Oklahoma State Fair Park, 3221 Great Plains Walk, 877-871-7469, homeshowokc.com. FRI-SAT Silkscreens and Zines Workshop, a collaborative printmaking workshop teaching students screenprinting skills to make their own zine, 10 a.m.4 p.m. March 25. Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, artspaceatuntitled.org. SAT OKC Dodgers Fan Fest, event including behind-the-scenes tours, Dodger dog eating contest, batting practice in the team’s indoor cages and autograph signings from former Rookie of the Year Eric Karros, 10 a.m. March 25. Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, 405-218-1000, milb.com. SAT Home Gardening 101 Workshop, three-day gardening workshop providing hands-on experience giving knowledge and resources to start the growing season right. Discuss proper soil preparation and composting, irrigation, water conservation and much more, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. March 25. Will Rogers Garden Center, 3400 NW 36th St., 405-713-1125, ones.okstate.edu/oklahoma. SAT Cars and Coffee on Western, share your passion of automobiles and coffee, hosted by Wheels on Western, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. March 25. Will Rogers Theatre, 4322 N. Western Ave., 405-604-3015, facebook.com/wheelsonwestern. SAT Artist in Residence Talk, Sarah Atlee has created a series of quilts using deconstructed garments and other reclaimed textiles based on historical maps of Oklahoma City as well as her own photographs of the urban environment, 4-5 p.m. March 25.

Artspace at Untitled, 1 NE Third St., 405-815-9995, artspaceatuntitled.org. SAT Legends Night, highlighting the Deep Deuce district’s rich jazz history by bringing musicians back to their roots.

Enjoy live jazz music, food and drink specials, 7 p.m.

March 25. Urban Johnnie, Second and Walnut St., 405-208-4477, urbanjohnnie.com. SAT Trees: A simple solution to a complex problem, engaging and innovative look at addressing public health issues with nature-based solutions. Featured guests address challenges facing cities such as Urban Heat Island effect and how nature can play a role in remediating these issues, 5:30 p.m. March 28. Park House, 125 Ron Norick Blvd., 405-2327275, eventbrite.com. TUE Innovation Series: Scott Booker, networking/speaker program specifically designed for business and nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to gain a competitive edge, 5:15 p.m. March 28.

Metropolitan Library System, 300 Park Ave., 405-231-8650, metrolibrary.org. TUE

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

I Am My Own Wife An inspired performance by Matthew Alvin Brown guides the captivating one-man drama I Am My Own Wife, the 2004 Tony Award winner for best play. The production is based on the true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorff, a transgender woman who survived Nazi and Communist regimes in Berlin while hiding in plain sight.

Opening night is 7:30 p.m. March 29 at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, 1727 NW 16th St. It runs through April 9. Tickets are $25-$62. Visit lyrictheatreokc.com or call 405-524-9312. March 29-April 9 Photo Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma / provided

Edmond Lions Club Chili Supper, give the gift of sight by enjoying an all-you-can-eat chili feast with proceeds benefiting the Oklahoma Eye Bank, providing vision screenings, service dogs, eyeglasses, training and medicine to improve vision, 5-7 p.m. March 28. Edmond First Church of the Nazarene, 3001 S. Boulevard, Edmond, 405341-0127, efnaz.org. TUE

YOUTH Oklahoma First Robotics Competition, teams from across the country compete in the robotics competition designed to pair professionals and youth to solve engineering design problems and compete, March 23-25. Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens, 405-6028500, coxconventioncenter.com. THU -SAT Royal Tea with Characters, calling all princesses, villains, pirates, knights, ladies and princes for a photo-op with costumed characters for charity, 2-6 p.m. March 26. My Chic Geek, 4413 N. Meridian Ave., Warr Acres, 405-367-7955, mychicgeek.com. SUN Children’s Basic Cooking Class, students learn how to make food from scratch while focusing on cooking basics like knife skills, kitchen safety and how to make a nutritious recipe, 3:30-5 p.m. March 28. Variety Health Center, 500 SW 44th St., 405632-6688, varietycare.org. TUE Read for Adventure, the OKC Zoo and Metropolitan Library Systems have partnered to publish the children’s book, Our Day at the Zoo, creating the community Read for Adventure program enabling readers to check out the new book from any of the 19 metro library locations, through March 31.

Metropolitan Library System, 300 Park Ave., 405231-8650, metrolibrary.org.

After-School Art Program, activities include visits to the museum’s galleries with related projects and guest speakers/performers, 3-4:30 p.m. through March 31. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

Aladdin, experience interactive theater while playing drums on Aladdin’s front step, become flowers for the Sultan and help Aladdin defeat the evil magician, March 25.-April 4. Oklahoma Children’s Theatre, 2501 N. Blackwelder Ave., 405606-7003, oklahomachildrenstheatre.org.

Power and Prestige Children’s Gallery, designed to complement the temporary exhibition Power and Prestige: Headdresses of the American Plains, the museum offers a fun activity space to explore bravery, pageantry, artistry, community and respect for culture and diversity, through May 14. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

and commemorative medal, 8:15 a.m. March 25.

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, 2 S. Mickey Mantle Drive, 405-218-2104, milb.com. SAT Yoga and Tea, known for her devotion to healthy alignment, Megan Burnett teaches balance for creating an endorphinreleasing environment, a yoga class that will stretch and tone the body and clear the mind, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. March 25. Halcyon Works, 405 NW 30th St., 405-601-3335, halcyon.works. SAT All-Star Pro Wrestling, the Sooner State professional wrestling group combines hard-hitting wrestling with a stand-out roster, 6 p.m. March 25. America Legion Post 12, 6101 NW 50th St., Warr Acres, 405-787-6010, okamlegion.org. SAT

VISUAL ARTS Abbreviated Portrait Series: Poteet Victory, Victory’s portraits employ common mental cues or triggers commonly associated with popular personalities, the titles of which are abbreviated in a manner akin to popular acronyms, through April 2. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, 405-325-3272, ou.edu/fjjma.

Art Show Charity Event, silent auction and door prizes to benefit Water4; a public charity with a mission to provide safe drinking water to at-risk impoverished areas and to train and facilitate employment opportunities, 4-7:30 p.m. March 2324. Grapevine Gallery, 1933 NW 39th St., 405-5283739, grapevinegalleryokc.com. THU - FRI Cloudscapes, 16 oil-on-canvas works of art by Oklahoma artist Marc Barker, drawing inspiration equally from his backgrounds in science and art, through May 14. Myriad Botanical Gardens, Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory, 301 W. Reno Ave., 405-297-3995, myriadgardens.com.

Connecting with the Creative Process, Jave Yoshimoto’s drawing workshop focuses on the participant’s inner stimulus to create work in a safe space, with the focus on self-awareness rather than the technique, allowing

Matt Sadler, Sadler’s crowds have a hard time coming up for air while he takes on everything from trivial matter like the universe and immortality to topics like marriage, cocktails and more, March 2225. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-239-4242, loonybincomedy.com. WED -SAT

Men’s Basketball, OKC Thunder vs Philadelphia 76ers, 7 p.m. March 22. Chesapeake Arena, 100 W. Reno Ave., 405-602-8700, chesapeakearena. com. WED LuDown Run, raising money for the children and families in the Norman and surrounding communities. Proceeds benefit Crossroads Youth and Family Services, Earth Rebirth, Loveworks Leadership, Women’s Resource Center and Among Friends Activity Center, 8 a.m. March 25. Truman Primary, 601 Meadow Ridge Road, Norman, 405637-8877, ludownrun.com. SAT OKC Dodgers Inaugural CommUNITY Run, participate in a variety of runs to support the OKC Dodgers Baseball Foundation and the OKC Police Athletic League, runners will receive a T-shirt

Exhibit C Ledger Art, four contemporary artists experienced in ledger art display their works.

Discover a captivating scene showcasing the creations by Paul Hacker, George Levi, Dylan Cavin and Lauren Good Day Giago, through June 30. Exhibit C, 1 E. Sheridan Ave., 405-767-8900, exhibitcgallery.com.

Her Flag: A Solo Exhibition of New Works by Marilyn Artus, featuring exhibit receptions, lectures, demonstrations, pop-up exhibits and more, through March 28. Kasum Contemporary Fine Arts, 1706 NW 16th St., 405-604-6602, kasumcontemporary.com. WED -TUE

Bus Stop, a howling snowstorm forces a bus to make a stop at a roadside diner with five weary travelers who will have to stay overnight. Cherie, a nightclub chanteuse, finds herself kidnapped

by Bo, a headstrong young cowboy who wants to marry her, through March 26. Jewel Box Theatre, 3700 N. Walker Ave., 405-521-1786, jewelboxtheatre.org. WED -SUN

ACTIVE

freedom to create without expectation, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. March 25. Norick Art Center, NW 26th St., 405-208-5000, okcu.edu/artsci. SAT

Fictive Selves of Color, showcasing a wide array of mediums, including paintings, sculpture and photographs reinforcing the need to be culturally aware of and celebrate the differences that make us all unique and beautiful, curated by Jane Hsi, 8-5 p.m. March 22-24. The Lightwell Gallery, 520 Parrington Oval, Rm. 202, Norman, 405-325-2691, art.ou.edu. WED - FRI

PERFORMING ARTS

Ralphie Roberts, having a dysfunctional view on life that he loves to share with audiences, Roberts discusses relationships, jobs and even performs parodies of popular songs, March 29.-April 1. Loony Bin Comedy Club, 8503 N. Rockwell Ave., 405-2394242, loonybincomedy.com.

Wednesday-Sunday Jason Cytacki / JRB Art at the Elms / Provided

Expressionist paintings, American Expressionist Bert Seabourn makes each piece of art a unique fusion of design, color, form and composition using a layering of texture with drips, smears, runs and splatters, through April 29. 50 Penn Place Gallery, 1900 Northwest Expressway, 405-848-5567, 50pennplacegallery.com.

Ugly Bugs!, Oklahoma Ugly Bug contest with an exhibition of larger-than-life photos of insects all captured by the contest’s 2016 winners, through June 18. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-3254712, samnoblemuseum.ou.edu.

Masters of Soul, a celebration of legendary songs and performers that defined Motown and soul music, the ultimate stroll down memory lane that produced many of the greatest music acts ever recorded, 8 p.m. March 25. Hudson Performance Hall, 2820 N. May Ave., 866-977-6849, protixonline.com. SAT

Tom Toperzer, Todd Stewart, Haley Prestifilippo and Jason Cytacki Jason Cytacki, a nationally and internationally exhibited artist who lives in Norman, joins Todd Stewart, Tom Toperzer and Haley Prestifilippo at Paseo Arts District gallery JRB Art at the Elms, 2810 N. Walker Ave. Cytacki’s works (pictured) blend hyperrealistic and surrealistic elements as he explores national identity through the lens of contemporary popular culture, mythology and history. Visit soon, as the exhibition ends Sunday. Admission is free. Visit jrbartgallery.com or call 405-528-6336.

Hollywood and the American West, candid, intimate and raw, these photographs showcase private access to the greatest movie stars, musicians and directors of all time. Subjects include John Wayne, Natalie Wood, Ann-Margret, John Ford and more, through May 14. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

Powerful Prose Examines Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg Next up in Oklahoma City University’s series Powerful Prose: Great Ideas and the Literature That Advances Them is Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s biography My Own Words, which she co-wrote with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams.

Ginsburg’s first book since becoming a Supreme Court Justice in 1993 includes writings and speeches on gender equality, the Supreme Court, law and lawyers in opera and how we should interpret the Constitution. OCU associate English professor Karen Youmans leads the free Powerful Prose discussion 6 p.m.

Thursday at Full Circle Bookstore in 50 Penn Place, 1900 Northwest Expressway. Visit okcu.edu or call 405842-2900. Thursday Photo Oklahoma City University / provided

Jeffrey Gibson: Speak to Me, internationally known multimedia artist Jeffrey Gibson’s first Oklahoma solo exhibition features recent artworks that draw upon his Native American heritage, aesthetics and traditions, through June 11. Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd., 405-951-0000, oklahomacontemporary.org.

Kiowa Black Leggings: Through the Lens of Lester Harragarra, photography exhibit featuring images of the Kiowa Black Leggings Warrior Society as seen through the camera of the award-winning Yukon, Oklahoma photographer, through March 31.

Red Earth Museum, 6 Santa Fe Plaza, 405-4275228, redearth.org.

Lowell Ellsworth Smith: My Theology of Painting, featuring watercolor studies and Smith’s own words and observations, it introduces the man, his methods and his belief in the power and potential of creative energy, through July 9. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63rd St., 405-478-2250, nationalcowboymuseum.org.

Oklahoma Pride: The Next 50 Years of Oklahoma, artists in the wake of WWII took a new look at creative expression and progressive politics; they focused on self-expression, self-discovery and concepts beyond arts ordinary function, through April 8. Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum, 1400 Classen Drive, 405-235-4458, oklahomaheritage.com.

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge.

Shared Science., stories from four indigenous communities, providing real-life examples of how traditional knowledge and Western science together provide complementary solutions to ecological and health challenges we face today, through May 7. Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, 2401 Chautauqua Ave., Norman, 405-325-4712, samnoblemuseum.ou.edu.

The Cultivated Connoisseur: Works on Paper from the Creighton Gilbert Bequest, Gilbert was a renowned art historian specializing in the Italian Renaissance and was one of the foremost authorities on Michelangelo. The bequest includes a total of 272 objects, the majority of which are works on paper, spanning a time period from the 14th century to the 20th, through June 4. Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave., Norman, 405-325-3272, ou.edu/fjjma.

The Unsettled Lens, showcasing new acquisitions in photography and photographs from the museum’s permanent collection. By converting the familiar into unrecognizable abstract impressions of reality, by intruding on moments of intimacy, by weaving enigmatic narratives and by challenging notions of time and memory, these photographs take viewers to unfamiliar and often unsettling places within the bounds of their own minds, through May 14. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive, 405-236-3100, okcmoa.com.

The Works of Nicole Emmons-Willis and Jerry Allen Gilmore, Willis is a filmmaker and animation artist specializing in stop motion. Her films have screened at film festivals and on television shows as varied as Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken and NBC’s Community.

Gilmore creates works that are autobiographical, repurposed and retraced narratives, such as identity, sexuality, spirituality, beauty and mortality, through April 1. IAO Gallery, 706 W. Sheridan Ave., 405-2326060, iaogallery.org.

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by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date.

Late submissions cannot be included in the listings.

Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible. Fax your listings to 528-4600 or email them to listings@okgazette.com.

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For okg live music

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O kg a z e t t e . c o m | m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

47

Fri, Mar 24

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m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

MUSIC

E v ent

The Nixons circa mid-1990s | Photo provided

Nix’ in line

Oklahoma City’s ’90s indie grunge heroes The Nixons return for the classic lineup’s first full show in more than 15 years. By Ben Luschen

When Zac Maloy first wrote and recorded songs like “Sister” and “Happy Song” as a young man with Oklahoma City grunge staple The Nixons, he never put any thought into how difficult it might be to replicate those strained vocal efforts in middle age.

“Some of these songs, it’s like, ‘Why did I scream like that?’ because now I have to sound like that 15 years later,” Maloy said.

The Nixons, formed as an alternative rock four-piece in 1990, enjoyed more than a decade of local and national success before officially splitting in 2002. The band celebrates its first full reunion in 15 years March 31 at Chevy Bricktown Events Center, 429 E. California Ave. Last year, lead vocalist and guitarist Maloy regrouped with guitarist and backing vocalist Jesse Davis and drummer (and current Seether percussionist) John Humphrey for a partial, acoustic reunion during April’s inaugural Oklahoma Songwriter’s Festival.

The band’s March 31 reunion adds bassist Ricky Brooks and plugs in for the full, amplified Nixons rock sound so many came to know and love.

Humphrey is currently the rhythmic heartbeat of one of rock’s hardest working post-grunge bands, but returning to classic Nixons material was as easy as getting back on a bicycle.

“I didn’t even have Nixons on my

iPod,” he said during a recent conference call with Oklahoma Gazette — The Nixons’ first interview with all four members in more than 15 years. “I had to go and download all the stuff. But [the songs] just all came back to me. There were no songs that were like, ‘Man, I don’t even know how any of this goes.’”

The four bandmates called in from scattered national locales. Before meeting this month in Oklahoma City to rehearse for their upcoming gigs, the band’s classic lineup had not shared a room or even a conversation since 2000, after the release of its last studio album Latest Thing.

While many fans eagerly wait for a Nixons stage comeback, merely making the time to be creative as a group of peers again was enough inspiration for Brooks, who said the positive energy associated with the reunion soothed whatever uneasy tensions might have remained after years of silence.

“I’m less excited about the show than I am about rehearsal and being really loud in a small room,” Brooks said.

Memory lane

The Nixons formed in the early 1990s during Maloy’s college years. Many fans were endeared to its sound around the release of its 1995 debut full-length effort Foma.

The quartet built a national reputation as tireless road warriors, some-

times touring more than 300 days a year. The bandmates shared many highlights during that time, including opening for KISS and performing New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“We played Red Rocks [Amphitheatre in Colorado] enough times that they gave us a little trophy,” Maloy said. “I still have it in my front room.”

The band recently launched an official Facebook page where the musicians post old photos and videos while reminiscing about the past with fans.

Humphrey said sifting through the memories reminds him of how lucky they were to play at a high level during their young careers.

“It was a great experience and a great learning experience — learning the business, getting signed and learning how all that works,” he said.

More than showbiz glitz that can be gleaned from old YouTube clips of national television performances. Brooks said his strongest memories are of the starkly less glamorous behind-thescenes happenings.

“Being in a band is a lot more like being a truck driver than people realize because most of the time, you’re in a stinky van or a bus,” he said. “You’re really only a rock star for about 50 minutes a day.”

Different roads

Their appetite for a full reunion grew after last year’s acoustic gig. Their main obstacle was scheduling conflicts, primarily for Humphrey, who frequently records and tours the globe with Seether. Seether took a longer-thanexpected break before the May release of its new album Poison the Parish, opening up time for a Nixons comeback.

Shortly after announcing its Oklahoma City reunion show, The

Nixons booked an April 1 follow-up at Frisco, Texas’ Edgefest — an event it last played almost two decades ago.

The members’ lives have gone in distinct and interesting directions since The Nixons formally disbanded in 2002.

Maloy lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and works primarily as a producer and songwriter. Once known for smashing guitars on stage, he’s most widely known as a contributing pen behind songs like Carrie Underwood’s “Temporary Home” and Tim McGraw’s “Words Are Medicine.”

Brooks, a motorcycle enthusiast, lives in Utah.

On a recent journey, the bassist rode his Suzuki DR650 all the way to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost point of South America’s mainland.

It took him nearly a year, including fording his bike across a river and hitching a ride on an old German sailboat.

Davis lives in Oklahoma City and owns a lifestyle management business with his wife.

He’s a member of the band Anchor the Girl, which recently recorded with producer Wes Sharon in his Norman studio.

Being in a band is a lot more like being a truck driver than people realize.

Ricky Brooks Davis is the only Nixons member remaining in Oklahoma. He said it’s where he said he feels most comfortable.

“I never quit writing songs and wanting to do music,” he said. “But after we had children, I had to change what I do.”

Maloy said there could be more Nixons activity in the future, as long as Humphrey is available. In the meantime, the men are concentrating on their first full live show together in more than 15 years. Maloy said they bring classic Nixons showmanship into the modern era by incorporating video and a variety of special effects into their set.

“Back in the day, it was us having to put on the three-dimensional show with fire and smashed guitars,” he said.

“There may be some of that in this show, but this will be the most unique Nixons show ever.”

The Nixons

with Nicnōs, Life Lessons and MozKow 7 p.m. March 31 Chevy Bricktown Events Center 429 E. California Ave. chevyeventscenter.com | 405-236-4143 $27.50

O kg a z e t t e . c o m | m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7

49

e v ent

MUSIC

R&B roots

Ronnie Milsap became a ’70s country superstar after years toiling as an R&B singer. By George Lang

Nearly 45 years ago, Ronnie Milsap started a Nashville career that took him to the apogee of country crossover stardom, scoring huge hits such as “It Was Almost Like a Song,” “(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me,” “I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World” and “Any Day Now.” But before Milsap became a superstar, he played bills with Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and his friend and mentor, Ray Charles.

“I was in Raleigh, going to the school for the blind,” said Milsap, 74, who performs 7:30 p.m. March 30 at Rose State College Hudiburg Chevrolet Center, 6420 SE 15th St., in Midwest City. “I studied — oh, I don’t know — 13 years of classical music. I said, ‘I want to become a professional musician,’ and they said, ‘No. We can’t let you do that. You’re getting state money for a scholarship to go to college — you need to do something better than that.”

Milsap, who was born almost completely blind, went to the authority on making it as a sightless musician. He traveled to Atlanta and was escorted backstage by Charles’ pilot. Charles had recently left Atlantic Records and, at the time, was one of the most beloved

singers in American pop music.

“I was sitting in there, playing Ray’s piano, when he came in,” Milsap said. “I said, ‘Mister Ray Charles, you are truly the high priest. I love your music, I’ve probably got all of your records and I want to become a professional musician like you.’ He said, ‘Well, play me something!’ So I played him two or three songs I was working on, and he said, ‘I can tell you love it, don’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes, I do; I just love it — I want to soak it up every day like a sponge.’ He said, ‘Well, son, you need to get in the middle of it and become a professional musician.’”

Having received the word of the oracle, Millsap returned to Raleigh completely validated.

“I said, ‘Ray Charles says it’s OK for me to become a professional musician!’”

Humble beginnings

So he did. Although Milsap received a full scholarship to Young Harris College in Georgia, he only stayed long enough to become established as a player in Atlanta’s burgeoning R&B scene. He declined a law school scholarship in 1964 and left school to play in an act called the Dimensions. With that band, he re-

Everybody out in Hollywood thought [Elvis] was one of the nicest guys out there, and he was.

Ronnie Milsap 50

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leased his first single, “Total Disaster,” which became a regional hit on Princess Records. Milsap parlayed that moderate success into a recording contract with New York-based Scepter Records, which released his next single, the Nickolas Ashford/Valerie Simpson-penned “Never Had It So Good.”

The hits were few and far between, but Milsap frequently performed with his mentor, Charles, playing back-toback so they could easily communicate.

Eventually, Milsap received an offer to move to Memphis, where he worked for producer Chips Moman, best known for producing Alex Chilton’s first group, The Box Tops, Carla Thomas and Bobby Womack. Arriving in 1968, Milsap was right on time to record with Elvis Presley, who Moman was producing in the wake of Presley’s “’68 Comeback.”

He performed on two of his late ’60searly ’70s hits, “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain.”

“I got to spend some time with him,” Milsap said. “Oh man, he was humble and he was nice, real nice. Everybody out in Hollywood thought he was one of the nicest guys out there, and he was.

And I don’t know that those movies meant a lot to him. I liked Elvis early on, when he was on Sun, before he hooked up with Colonel Tom Parker. As time went along, it wasn’t what it used to be, but is it for anybody?”

Elevator intervention

Then, in 1972, a decisive moment in Milsap’s life and career came. He was playing at the Whisky A-Go-Go and staying at the nearby Continental Hyatt House, the infamous “Riot House” that hosted Led Zeppelin, The Who, David Bowie and other superstars in the 1970s.

Milsap’s wife Joyce was in an elevator

Ronnie Milsap | Photo provided

when she recognized country star Charley Pride. That chance meeting led to a phone call and a suggestion to Milsap that he try his hand at country music.

“I didn’t sing much country back then,” he said. “Pride said, ‘Man, you need to move to Nashville.’ I said, ‘I would if I had a job.’”

Milsap said that he believes in divine intervention because within weeks, he had an offer to play at Roger Miller’s King of the Road Hotel in downtown Nashville. The following year, Milsap signed to RCA Records and released his first country singles, the Top 10 country hit “I Hate You” as well as “Pure Love” and a version of Kris Kristofferson’s “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” which both went to No. 1.

What followed was country superstardom and crossover success on the pop charts, three Country Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year awards, a 1977 CMA Entertainer of the Year award, six Grammy Awards and the kind of massive success that tends to overshadow those early beginnings.

Milsap said he rarely plays those older songs anymore — the fans want to hear the favorites.

But he credits his background in R&B and rock with helping him achieve crossover success in the late 1970s.

“It was an exciting time and a fruitful time, all those years at RCA,” he said. “It was a dream come true.”

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LIVE MUSIC These are events recommended

by Oklahoma Gazette editorial staff members. For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com.

WEDNESDAY, 3.22 Electric Six/Residual Kid, Opolis, Norman. ROCK Greg Northwood, Lobby Bar. BLUES Kenny Holland/Jarvix/The Ivy, Paramount Theatre. VARIOUS Jamie Lin Wilson, Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER The Soulmen, Bourbon Street Bar. R&B

THURSDAY, 3.23 Blake Lankford, Blue Bonnet Bar, Norman. SINGER/

SONGWRITER

St. Basic/Johnny Manchild and the Poor Bastards and more, Paramount Theatre.

INDIE

The Garage Band, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES

FRIDAY, 3.24 80z Enuf, Remington Park. COVER Aaron Newman, JJ’s Alley. FOLK Barefoot Jazz Band, Michelangelo’s Coffee and Wine Bar, Norman. JAZZ Brad Paisley, WinStar World Casino, Thackerville.

COUNTRY

The Oklahoma City Get Down Fans of the popular Netflix series The Get Down can take in some firsthand hip-hop culture thanks to a bevy of local supporting artists in The Oklahoma City Get Down. Jim Conway, Chief Peace and Chris “The God MC” Cain host an event that includes all aspects of hip-hop. The showcase begins 7 p.m. March 31 at Russell’s Lounge, the bar inside Tower Hotel Oklahoma City, 3233 Northwest Expressway. Admission is $5, and proceeds benefit youth art programs. Email okcgetdown@gmail.com or call 405842-6633. March 31 Photo provided

Dirty River Boys, Wormy Dog Saloon. FOLK Drive, Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse. COVER Evan Burgess/Tattoo Slover/Larry Frost, Malarkey’s Dueling Piano Bar. PIANO Four Year Strong/Can’t Swim, 89th Street Collective. ROCK Harumph, Noir Bistro & Bar. JAZZ Nick Williams, Othello’s Italian Restaurant, Norman.

Wade Bowen/Dalton Domino, Wormy Dog Saloon.

COUNTRY

SUNDAY, 3.26 Edgar Cruz & Brave Amigos, Othello’s Italian Restaurant, Norman. BLUES Margo Price, ACM Performance Lab. SINGER/

SINGER/SONGWRITER

SONGWRITER

Out of Sane, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK

Ocean Disco, Red Brick Bar, Norman. ELECTRONIC

Ronnie Jay and The Hawks/Max Ridgway Blues Trio, Alley Records. BLUES RPM, Newcastle Casino, Newcastle. ROCK Samantha Crain/Husbands, Opolis, Norman. VARIOUS Sign Of Lies/BlackStar Republic/Wood N Bone/ and more, Thunder Alley Grill and Sports Bar. ROCK Stereo Deck, Oklahoma City Limits. COVER They Act Human, Dig It. ELECTRONIC Vibro Kings, Belle Isle Restaurant & Brewery. BLUES Wildings, Blue Note Lounge. FOLK

SATURDAY, 3.25 Costello/LCG & the X, Opolis, Norman. VARIOUS Dan Martin, Blue Bonnet Bar, Norman. FOLK Esoterik/Just Another Monster/For the Wolf, HiLo Club. PUNK Jamie Bramble, Full Circle Bookstore. ACOUSTIC Jane Mays, Bedlam Bar-B-Q. SINGER/SONGWRITER Jim the Elephant, Oklahoma City Limits. ROCK

Direct Connect Band, Elmer’s Uptown.

R&B

The Exclusives, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES

MONDAY, 3.27 Comin Up Zero, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK Icarus The Owl/Stolas/Mylets, 89th Street Collective. ROCK

TUESDAY, 3.28 Howie Day, Blue Door. SINGER/SONGWRITER Mountain Smoke, UCO Jazz Lab, Edmond.

BLUEGRASS

Trifecta, Bourbon Street Bar. ROCK Vanessa Silberman/Drew Sanders/Jesse John Shavel, Paramount Theatre. SINGER/SONGWRITER

WEDNESDAY, 3.29 Larry V TheRemedy, Oklahoma City Limits.

ACOUSTIC

Maurice Johnson, R&J Lounge and Supper Club.

JAZZ

2 TICKETS TO

Limp Wizurdz, Blue Note Lounge. ROCK

CAIN’S

WEDNESDAY

UMPHREY’S BALLROOM APRIL MCGEE ENTER TO WIN OKGAZETTE.COM/GWW 2017

19

GO TO OKGAZETTE.COM/GWW TO ENTER TO WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS

GAZETTE’S WEEKLY WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED EACH WEEK IN THE TABLE OF CONTENTS. PRINTED WINNERS HAVE 7 DAYS TO CLAIM TICKETS. MUST PROVIDE EMAIL, FULL NAME & PHONE NUMBER. 52

m a r c h 2 2 , 2 0 1 7 | O kg a z e t t e . c o m

Lost On Utica, Remington Park.

COVER

Michael Updegrove Band, Othello’s Italian Restaurant, Norman. BLUES Red Club & Mullaly Trio, Artspace at Untitled. BLUES Rocky Kanaga, Belle Isle Restaurant& Brewery.

SINGER/SONGWRITER

Sammy Mitchell, JJ’s Alley. COUNTRY Stinnett, Bourbon Street Bar. BLUES Stone Moses, Red Brick Bar, Norman. BLUES

Live music submissions must be received by Oklahoma Gazette no later than noon on Wednesday seven days before the desired publication date.

Late submissions will not be included in the listings. Submissions run as space allows, although we strive to make the listings as inclusive as possible.

Fax your listings to 528-4600 or e-mail to listings@okgazette.com.

Sorry, but phone submissions cannot be accepted.

go to okgazette.com for full listings!

puzzles New York Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle TAKING THE FIFTH

By Alan Arbesfeld | Edited by Will Shortz | 0319 ACROSS 1 Chest protectors 7 The 2000s, with “the” 14 Camry competitor 20 Fisher of fashion 21 Coming up 22 1943 conference site 23 “Put that Southern state on next month’s agenda”?

25 Like some wedding cakes and stadiums 26 Sulk 27 Pooh’s pal 28 New York : The Big Apple :: ____

: The Big Guava 30 Pain in the neck 31 Go off course 32 What a male babysitter may sport?

36 Panama, e.g.: Abbr.

37 Numbskull 38 Minuscule, informally 39 Romantic liaison 42 Shared with, as a story 45 Ending with chick 46 Spoils, in a way 47 Playing a fifth NFL period, say 48 Romanian currency 50 Capital of Yemen 54 Race pace 55 ____ volente (God willing) 56 Like a fired Broadway star?

59 Small handful 62 Comedian Smirnoff 64 Auric Goldfinger, to James Bond 65 Leave thunderstruck 66 Color in “America the Beautiful” 68 Do to do 69 A.A.A. and B.B.B. 71 Jai ____ 72 One in a crowd at a bookstore?

73 Total 74 Billiards feature 75 South American greeting 76 Eskimo-____ languages 77 Winter hrs. in Vail 78 Sweaty, irritable rabbit?

83 Suffix with nod84 Follow 86 Really bother 87 Grp. in the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour 88 Kunis of Black Swan

89 Stuck 92 Bit of bar food 94 Real hoot 96 Commotions 97 Setting for many Stephen King novels 99 “The Persistence of Memory” artist 100 “Pencils down!”

101 What’ll feed everyone at a

tailgate party?

104 “What else could it be?!”

107 Road to the Forum, e.g.

108 “Lovergirl” singer ____ Marie 109 Christmas-song contraction 110 Broadway star Rivera 112 Supermodel Bündchen 114 Reformed barbarian?

118 Start of a marital spat?

119 2000s TV hit set in Baltimore 120 Guinness entry 121 Vocal quavers 122 A cross might be given for it 123 Invites across the threshold

DOWN 1 Held in reserve 2 Queen topper 3 Jostle 4 Move, informally 5 Is unobliged to 6 Soldier, for one 7 Curtain fabric 8 Ticked off 9 Wear and tear 10 Some sporty cars 11 Popular landscaping plants 12 Compact 13 Dreaded comment on a returned exam 14 Lead-in to boy or girl 15 Island chain?

16 1993 film that garnered Best Actress and Best Supporting

Actress Oscars

17 Turnaround too tempting to pass up?

18 Wand wielder 19 “What happened next?”

24 Puzzle inventor Rubik 29 Brandy fruit 33 Unpopular baby name 34 Formation fliers

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35 Hour in the graveyard shift 37 Target of a 1972 ban 40 It’s inescapable 41 “Shoot!”

42 Nice piece of change 43 Plays without a break 44 “Check out the Argentine soccer star!”?

45 500, e.g.

49 Exercitation 51 Grp. that might have a launch party 52 Where kids get creative in school 53 Diving equipment co-invented by Jacques Cousteau

56 Shout from an arm waver 57 Exodus 58 They may have many chapters

60 Part of the brain that controls involuntary functions

61 Reds, Blues or Browns 63 World Cup chant 67 Start to practice?

70 Schedule position 79 Baltic Sea feeder 80 2005 horror sequel 81 Undercover operation 82 Stuffy-sounding 85 Heavenly 88 Picture of health, in brief?

89 Tense 90 First African-American to win a

Best Actor Oscar 91 Tivoli’s Villa d’____ 93 Attractions for bees 95 They’re always tired

97 French ice-cream flavorer 98 Lessener 99 Gossip 102 Moor 103 “____ where they ain’t” 104 Natural-history-museum exhibits, for short

105 Centers of early development 106 Composer who taught Beethoven 108 Bill & ____ Excellent Adventure 111 Pawn 113 Short, for short 115 1945 battle site, informally 116 2018 Super Bowl number 117 Internet ____ (what we live in)

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Assistant EDITOR Brittany Pickering Staff reporters Greg Elwell Laura Eastes Ben Luschen Contributors Brian Daffron, Christine Eddington Jack Fowler, Ian Jayne, George Lang Kevan Goff-Parker, Lea Terry Photographer Garett Fisbeck Circulation Manager Chad Bleakley Art Director Chris Street

Graphic Designers Anna Shilling Megan Nance

New York Times Crossword Puzzle answers Puzzle No. 0312, which appeared in the March 15 issue.

P E W E E

EDITOR-in-chief Jennifer Palmer Chancellor jchancellor@okgazette.com

Production coordinator Arden Biard

Stumped? Call 1-900-285-5656 to get the answers to any three clues by phone ($1.20 a minute).

Sudoku Medium | n°29453 Fill in the grid so that every row, column and 3-by-3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9. www.printmysudoku.com

Advertising advertising@okgazette.com 405-528-6000 Account EXECUTIVES Stephanie Van Horn Saundra Rinearson Godwin Christy Duane Elizabeth Riddle

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free will astrology Homework: What's the part of you that you trust the least? Could you come to trust it more?

Testify at Freewillastrology.com.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Of course you want to

get the best of everything. But that doesn't mean you should disdain cheap thrills that are more interesting and gratifying than the expensive kind. And of course you enjoy taking risks. But there's a big difference between gambling that's spurred by superstitious hunches and gambling rooted in smart research. And of course you're galvanized by competition. But why fritter away your competitive fire on efforts to impress people? A better use of that fire is to use it to hone your talents and integrity.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If you own an

untamable animal like a bull, the best way to manage it is to provide a fenced but spacious meadow where it can roam freely. So said famous Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki, using a metaphor to address how we might deal with the unruly beasts in our own psyches. This is excellent advice for you right now, Taurus. I'd hate to see you try to quash or punish your inner wild thing.

You need its boisterous power! It will be a fine ally if you can both keep it happy and make it work for you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If I were to provide a

strict interpretation of the astrological omens, I'd advise you to PARTY HARDY AND ROWDY AND STRONG AND OFTEN! I'd suggest that you attend a raging bash or convivial festivity once every day. And if that were logistically impossible, I'd advise you to stage your own daily celebrations, hopefully stocked with the most vivacious and stimulating people you can find. But I recognize that this counsel may be too extreme for you to honor. So I will simply invite you to PARTY HARDY AND ROWDY AND STRONG at least twice a week for the next four weeks. It's the medicine you need.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You are on the verge of achieving a sly victory over the part of you that is unduly meek and passive. I believe that in the coming

weeks you will rise up like a resourceful hero and at least half-conquer a chronic fear. A rumbling streak of warrior luck will flow through you, enabling you to kill off any temptation you might have to take the easy way out. Congratulations in advance, my fellow Cancerian! I have rarely seen our tribe have so much power to triumph over our unconscious attraction to the victim role.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo journal entry, Thursday:

Am too settled and stale and entrenched. Feeling urges to get cheeky and tousled. Friday: So what if I slept a little longer and arrived late? Who cares if the dishes are piling up in the sink? I hereby refuse law and order.

Saturday: I'm fantasizing about doing dirty deeds. I'm thinking about breaking the taboos. Sunday: Found the strangest freshness in a place I didn't expect to.

Sometimes chaos is kind of cute and friendly. Monday: The nagging voice of the taskmaster in my head is gone. Ding-dong. Let freedom ring!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): William Boyd writes

novels, which require him to do copious research about the real-world milieus he wants his fictional characters to inhabit. For example, to ensure the authenticity of his book Waiting for Sunrise, he found out what it was like to live in Vienna in 1913. He compares his process of searching for juicy facts to the feeding habits of a blue whale: engorging huge amounts of seawater to strain out the plankton that are good to eat. Ninety percent of the information he wades through is irrelevant, but the rest is tasty and nourishing. I suspect you'll thrive on a similar approach in the coming weeks, Virgo. Be patient as you search for what's useful.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here's a new word for

you: enantiodromia. It's what happens when something turns into its opposite. It's nature's attempt to create equilibrium where there has been imbalance.

Too much NO becomes YES, for example. A superabundance of yin mutates into yang, or an overemphasis on control generates chaos. Flip-flops like these tend to be messy if we resist them, but

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interesting if we cooperate. I figure that's your choice right now. Which will it be? The latter, I hope. P.S.: The reversals that you consciously co-create may not be perfect. But even if they are baffling, I bet they will also be amusing and magnificent.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): When I was 24, I lived

in rural North Carolina and had a job washing dishes in a city four miles away. I was too poor to own a bicycle, let alone a car. To get to work I had to trudge down backroads where hostile dogs and drunk men in pickup trucks roamed freely. Luckily, I discovered the art of psychic protection. At first I simply envisioned a golden force field surrounding me. Later I added visualizations of guardian animals to accompany me: two friendly lions and two sheltering wolves. Maybe it was just the placebo effect, but the experiment worked. My allies made me brave and kept me safe.

You're welcome to borrow them, Scorpio, or conjure up your own version of spirit protectors. You're not in physical danger, but I suspect you need an extra layer of protection against other people's bad moods, manipulative ploys, and unconscious agendas.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) : I'm not suggesting you should listen to your heart with rapt attention every waking minute for the next four weeks.

I don't expect you to neglect the insights your mind has to offer. But I would love to see you boost your attunement to the intelligent organ at the center of your chest. You're going to need its specific type of guidance more than ever in the coming months. And at this particular moment, it is beginning to overflow with wisdom that's so rich and raw that it could unleash a series of spiritual orgasms.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The empty space at the end of this sentence has intentionally been left blank.

The serene hiatus you just glided through comes to you courtesy of Healing Silence, an ancient form of do-it-yourself therapy. Healing Silence is based on the underappreciated truth that now and then it's restorative to just SHUT UP and abstain from activity

for a while. (As you know, the world is crammed with so much noise and frenzy that it can be hard to hear yourself think -- or even feel.) With Healing Silence, you bask in a sanctuary of sweet nothingness for as long as you need to. Please try it sometime soon. Wrap yourself in the luxurious void of Healing Silence.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I hope you won't feel

the need to say any of these things: 1. "I'm sorry I gave you everything I had without making sure you wanted it." 2. "Will you please just stop asking me to be so real."

3. "I long for the part of you that you'll never give me."

Now here are things I hope you will say sometime soon: 1. "I thrived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me." (This declaration is lifted from novelist Joshua Graham.) 2. "I'm having fun, even though it's not the same kind of fun everyone else is having." (Borrowed from author C.S. Lewis.) 3. "I'm not searching for who I am. I'm searching for the person I aspire to be." (Stolen from author Robert Brault.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Are you fantasizing

more about what you don't have and can't do than what you do have and can do? If so, please raise the "do have" and "can do" up to at least 51 percent. (Eighty percent would be better.) Have you been harshly critiquing yourself more than you have been gently taking care of yourself? If so, get your self-care level up to at least 51 percent. (Eight-five percent is better.)

Are you flirting with a backward type of courage that makes you nervous about what everyone thinks of you and expects from you? If so, I invite you to cultivate a different kind of courage at least 51 percent of the time: courage to do what's right for you no matter what anyone thinks or expects. (Ninety percent is better.)

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes /daily text message horoscopes.

The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

P h o n e (4 0 5 ) 5 2 8 - 6 0 0 0 | E - m a i l adv e r tisi n g @ o kg a z ette . c o m

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EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin or an intention to make any such preference, limitation, preference or discrimination.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of this law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings in . our newspaper are available on an equal housing opportunity basis

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