Oklahoma Gazette - Spring Break Splash

Housing Updates

OKC’s Key to Home program seeks funding as need continues. Originally published on Feb. 18.

By Matt Patterson, NonDoc

Oklahoma City has seen notable success with its Key to Home Partnership initiative that has housed more than 500 chronically homeless people since 2023, although making sure the program has adequate resources is always a challenge.

City of OKC homeless strategy implementation manager Jamie Caves took part in a panel discussion on homelessness hosted by the Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 12. While there were no earth-shattering revelations during the 90-minute event, Caves did touch on the funding picture for the program moving forward.

In short, money is still needed, and a lot of it. Housing each Key to Home participant costs about $20,000 to $25,000 per year, Caves said. The program, which aims to change the lives of chronically homeless people through outreach, direct housing support and job placement, has been averaging about 20 individuals each month.

“We’re looking at federal dollars,” Caves said during the discussion. “We started this effort with a lot of

COVID dollars, which allowed us to kickstart this effort and demonstrate success. And then private foundations, we’ve been really fortunate to have the support of some philanthropic leaders in the community. Part of my role is to identify gaps and the resources that are needed and then work with the board and the community to secure those resources.”

Among the many corporate supporters and philanthropic organizations that have supported the city’s Key to Home program are the Inasmuch Foundation, the McLaughlin Family Foundation, the Gaylord Foundation, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and the Kirkpatrick Family Fund.

“Because of the work that we’re doing in the city, we’re getting noticed on the national level, and that is bringing funders — unexpected funders — to the table,” Caves said.

To that end, Caves cited a recent $2.5 million donation from the Jeff Bezos Family Foundation. She said she hopes that support continues to snowball.

“Large foundations and other communities are seeing the work that’s going on in Oklahoma City, and they’re stepping in and asking to be a part of it,” Caves said.

But while successful, Key to Home can only accomplish so much.

Former Oklahoma County commissioner and current executive director of Mental Health Oklahoma Carrie Blumert told the panel that OKC’s goal should be to reach “functional zero” homelessness.

“Functional zero homelessness is when the system is such a well-oiled machine that if someone enters homelessness, the system can respond and get them placed into housing within 30 days,” Blumert said. “So that doesn’t mean no one enters homelessness. It means the system works together so well and we have enough housing opportunities and affordable housing to get someone connected to opportunities right away. But we’re not there yet.”

Blumert said economic factors account for the reason most people who become homeless lose housing.

“I would say the two biggest drivers are rising costs of housing and stagnant wages,” she said. “Of course, there are compounding factors — death in the family, addiction, illness — but I would say those are the two main underlying things.”

Caves said more than 90 percent of people contacted by outreach teams at encampments accept the help that is being offered. The problem, however, is there are only so many places to place them when it comes to permanent housing.

OKC is short about 45,000

Get ready for a stylish evening of timeless tunes and world-class talent! Great American Crooners Robbie Lee and Shenel Johns, who have both graced Jazz at Lincoln Center’s stages, and Downbeat Magazine’s #1 Rising Star Male Vocalist, Benny Benack III deliver a power-packed program of jazz hits from the great American songbook.

ON

affordable housing units, according to a 2021 affordability study. For housing to be considered affordable, rent typically must equal about 30 percent of an individual’s gross income.

But City Rescue Mission director Erin Goodin said more than half of OKC residents are spending more than that on rent. While incentivizing development of affordable housing units can be one way to meet demand, it’s a slow process.

“A lot of communities across the country are figuring out creative ways to incentivize developers to build affordable housing, whether it’s a for-profit developer or a notfor-profit developer,” Goodin said.

“I think I would love to see Oklahoma City get a little more deep into that (question) of, ‘How can we bring more affordable housing development to the metro and incentivize developers to build affordable housing?’”

Caves said development of new affordable housing units will be critical to the city’s future.

“The middle class is putting more pressure in the middle of the market, and as it pushes down on the market, it’s going to push the people that are at the bottom out,” she said. “So we need to make sure that we’ve got some affordable options for them.”

Time For Three MARCH 16

MARCH 16

Defying convention and boundaries, Time For Three (Tf3) stands at the intersection of classical music, Americana, and singer-songwriter. To experience Tf3 live is to hear the various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music fold in on themselves and emerge anew. Don’t miss this genre-bending performance from one of today’s most innovative artists.

METRO

NEWS Education Audit

Audit finds no misspending at Oklahoma State Department of Education under Hofmeister. Originally published on Feb. 18.

By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice

report expenditures honestly,” Byrd said. “However, there are some bad actors out there, and the bad news is that we do not have a system that can catch bad actors at the local level. The consequences of that can

While finding no issues with the vendor’s services, Byrd questioned why lawmakers dedicated funds to a single company and allowed it to avoid the competitive bidding process. A lawmaker who led an

OKLAHOMA CITY — A longawaited special audit of the Oklahoma State Department of Education found no misuse of taxpayer funds under former state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister.

State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd released the findings during a news conference Wednesday. Gov. Kevin Stitt requested the audit in 2021 while at odds with Hofmeister, who was term-limited in 2023.

The former state superintendent said she is pleased the probe found no evidence of wrongdoing by her administration.

“That result reflects the integrity, diligence, and transparency our team brought to its work every day,” Hofmeister said in a statement. “I appreciate the thorough review by Auditor Byrd, and we’re glad the final report confirms our commitment to responsible stewardship and open government.”

The governor’s audit request included no specific allegations of financial mismanagement at the agency.

Rather, Stitt asked for an investigation into the Education Department’s revenue sources and spending, especially during an influx of federal pandemic aid funds at the time. A scathing audit of Epic Charter School the year before attracted significant attention to

education spending.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested a separate audit to investigate the Education Department’s finances during state Superintendent Ryan Walters’ tenure from 2022-2025. Drummond has chosen to put that audit on hold, a spokesperson for the state auditor said.

The Education Department acts as a pass-through entity for billions of state and federal dollars that continue down to local school districts. The agency keeps only 0.21% of those funds for its own operations and legislatively required programs.

Byrd said her audit focused primarily on that 0.21%, or $16 million, from the 2021 fiscal year and found no misspending.

The likelihood of waste, fraud or abuse of funds is greater at the local level, Byrd said, “because that’s where all of the money is spent.”

She said the state doesn’t have a strong enough accounting system to detect fraud within local schools. The Oklahoma Cost Accounting System, which the Education Department manages, relies on each district to report its finances honestly, though it has some risk assessment tools.

“The good news here is that most school districts are working hard to

be catastrophic.”

In a statement through his communications staff, the governor said it’s time to modernize Oklahoma’s school accounting system. Stitt said the existing system “is not giving parents and taxpayers the transparency they deserve.”

Byrd didn’t lay the blame for the accounting system’s weaknesses on the Education Department. Rather, she said the state should design a new financial reporting mechanism, one that doesn’t rely on the honor system.

Auditors also homed in on a $1 million allocation for a math vendor that the Oklahoma Legislature included in the state budget in 2021. Budget records from the 2021 fiscal year indicate the vendor is Imagine Math, though Byrd didn’t name the company during her news conference.

Imagine Math is the only math vendor singled out for a $1 million appropriation in the Education Department’s budget that year. It was hired to provide “supplemental math programs (to) help PreK-9 students solve problems and justify reasoning inside the classroom and in day-to-day life, moving students beyond computation to real comprehension,” according to the agency’s budget.

education appropriations committee at that time was unable to provide any documents to auditors showing how that vendor was evaluated, she said.

“I want to be clear: I’m not questioning the quality or effectiveness of this vendor’s product, but taxpayers deserve to know that when money is set aside for an education vendor that the vendor’s services have been fully vetted and that the vendor has a documented history of success working in Oklahoma with Oklahoma’s specific learning standards,” Byrd said.

The audit also raised questions about the state’s funding of the Strong Readers Act, which in 2021 was an $11 million program known as the Reading Sufficiency Act. The program dedicates money for literacy instruction in schools.

Although larger districts understandably received more funding, others received too little for it to be effective, she said. One district, for example, got only $12.

Auditors also found no correlation between larger appropriations and better reading outcomes, she said.

“Did taxpayers get any return on investment on that $11 million?” she said. “Did more kids learn how to read? No one knows, and that’s the problem.”

State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd, pictured Feb. 11, 2025, said her office found no financial wrongdoing at the Oklahoma State Department of Education. | Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice

‘This

is a Problem’

Local election campaign finance reports in limbo. Originally published on Feb. 12.

By Andrea Hancock , NonDoc

Tuesday’s elections for municipal offices came and went without Oklahoma voters having public access to candidates’ financial reports.

More than three months after a new law began requiring local candidates to report their quarterly fundraising and expenditure totals to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission instead of city and county offices, candidates still have no way to do so.

“People went to the polls [Tuesday] and voted in the Oklahoma City mayoral race and all those Norman City Council races, and the public absolutely had zero idea who funded those campaigns and what those campaigns spent their money on,” said Aaron Wilder, who runs the consulting firm Wilder Campaigns. “Mayor [David] Holt had $200,000 in his campaign committee at his last report that he had, so who knows how much more he raised and what he spent his money on.”

When SB 890 took effect Nov. 1, it required candidates for county, municipal and school board elections to file campaign finance reports and personal financial disclosures at the state level instead of local clerks or election boards as they did previously. The change to centralize local campaign records was lauded as a

major step toward transparency in Oklahoma.

But as the Ethics Commission’s database upgrade to Guardian 2.0 floundered in the fall and fully fell apart in December, the agency reverted to its original Guardian System, which has no functionality for local candidates.

“I have tried to look at backup methods and things we could do and wasn’t given an alternative,” said Ethics Commission executive director Lee Anne Bruce Boone in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t want to say bad things about [the Office of Management and Enterprise Services], because they’ve been a huge help to us in this process, but they just they don’t have the resources to do that, is what I was told.”

At a commission meeting Thursday, Bruce Boone estimated it would take 12 to 15 weeks for Civix, the software company that developed the Guardian System, to update the platform to accept local candidate reports. In the interim, she said she will continue to pursue other possible solutions, although options seem limited.

“We don’t have the ability for 3,000 new filers to send all of their reports to our office with the limited staff that we have,” she said. “We

want to make sure that it’s accurate, that we have integrity in our reporting. We want to be transparent. This is a problem, let’s be honest. And it’s a problem, one, because we had to terminate our contract (with the developer of Guardian 2.0).”

For Wilder, the issue is not just about ensuring transparency. He remains concerned that state law is being broken. Title 11, Section 56-106 requires municipal officers to follow the state’s official ethics rules, and Ethics Rule 2.101(A) requires candidates to file a pre-election campaign finance report no later than eight days before the election.

“I don’t see in the statute any function of law where that’s legal for them to make the decision to just put a basic moratorium on local ethics reporting,” Wilder said. “They don’t have that authority. They’re instructed to take the reports and make them available to the public.”

To that end, Bruce Boone said the commission can still request and disseminate reports if asked, a similar intermediary stance that the agency adopted while Guardian 2.0 was in its beta phase and the public could not review reports for state officials.

“If anybody has a concern about a particular [report], I know we’ve reached out and gotten those and been able to supply those for somebody that has a question or has an issue,” Bruce Boone said Wednesday. “But we’re not requiring [candidates] to file them with us right

now, currently, because we don’t have a place to put them for transparency, and we don’t have a way to do that in our current system, nor do we have a way to do that through OMES at this time.”

In a late-January email to a local official’s representative, the Ethics Commission’s compliance officer said candidates should continue tracking their campaign reports for when they are eventually able to be uploaded.

“Our Guardian online reporting system is not yet set up for local candidate registration or report filing,” the Ethics Commission employee wrote. “At this time, we request all local candidates continue to keep records of contributions and expenditures, and be prepared to register and file reports when the system is ready.”

In the meantime, Bruce Boone continues to explore possible solutions until Civix gets a new filing system online. She dismissed the possibility of returning to city clerks and county election boards processing finance reports.

“We already investigated whether or not [we could] just have these filed locally again for a short time period. Is that an option? Well, the statute says that they have to be filed with us, so we can’t really go backwards due to that statutory language,” she said at the meeting Thursday.

Since returning to local filing is not an option, Bruce Boone suggested temporarily increasing the Ethics Commission staff size to

OSDE Audit Chaos

Outlawed: Tito’s or Karens?

After allegations surfaced that some Oklahoma senators were knocking back drinks during late-night debates, Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee) filed a bill aimed at keeping lawmakers from mixing Tito’s with taxpayer business. That didn’t sit well with Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R–Tuttle), who fired back by calling Jett a “Karen” during a press conference, accusing him of stirring up drama instead of minding his own legislation. law. Grab popcorn.

Auditor Cindy Byrd gave former Supt. Joy Hofmeister a clean bill of financial health, but the rest of the Oklahoma State Department of Education looks like a wild barnyard. OCAS still runs on the honor system, 23 districts spent outside cost limits, and a $1 million math vendor deal skipped competitive bidding. And Ryan Walters? Let’s just say his budget style is what happens when you hand a raccoon a calculator and a red pen.

process the reports manually. She proposed having a technology company create a temporary repository for the public to access campaign finance reports, although she advised the company would have to have an active statewide contract, otherwise the commission would have to send out an RFP — a process which could take as long as it takes for Civix to get new software online.

The Ethics Commission took no official action on selecting a potential solution, but Commissioner Adam Weintraub, who served as the chairman of the meeting, advised Bruce Boone to continue trying to find a feasible solution.

‘From 11 to midnight’: Filing halt leaves voters in the dark

Some voters have already taken notice of what they can’t see about local candidates’ campaigns.

In Norman, a city council race grew contentious after some candidates disclosed their own finances, while others did not. Dianna Hutzel, Trey Kirby and Shaista Fenwick ran for the city’s Ward 5 seat Tuesday, with Hutzel (47.98 percent) and Kirby (26.53 percent) now heading to the April 7 runoff. Kirby and Fenwick released their campaign finances on Facebook, but Hutzel has not, which drew criticism in comments and posts to Facebook.

Dave Moore, a cybersecurity pro-

fessional who owns property in Ward 5, believes the election should be nullified because state ethics laws and rules were broken.

“The whole reason for that law — I guess it’s a law — that compels financial disclosure by candidates is so people can know where the money’s coming from, who’s behind the campaign, and who’s supporting it. That’s important to know,” Moore said Wednesday. “It’s hard for people to make an informed decision about who to vote for if they’re being denied the information that they’re legally entitled to. Somebody above my pay grade needs to get in there and start figuring this out.”

While he learned of the reporting issues through his community involvement in Norman, Moore said he had an “epiphany” when considering the statewide implications.

“Honestly, when you think it through all the way, it kind of calls into question all of the elections in the whole state that took place [Tuesday]. I mean, how many other elections are out there where people aren’t getting the financial disclosure information?” Moore asked. “I would imagine it’s a lot, because if it’s happening in Ward 5 in Norman, Oklahoma, it’s got to be happening all over the place.”

While Wilder expressed disappointment that seeking transparency from local candidates is now

Weather Woes

As February comes to a close, Oklahomans are bracing for unpredictable weather, with meteorologists suggest ing a chance of snow flur ries—or sunbathing near the lake. Only in Oklahoma can you experience winter and spring in one week!

Stuck in Math Jail

Oklahoma County’s plan to plug the funding gap for its new jail quietly collapsed last month after commissioners declined to pursue a sales tax increase. Voters already approved a $260 million bond, but the price tag for the new facility has ballooned to more than three times that amount. While Commissioner Brian Maughan helped pump the brakes, the bigger issue is county leadership as a whole—who sold voters one number, built another jail entirely, and now seem surprised the math doesn’t work.

harder than it was before, he readily acknowledges prior challenges the new statewide reporting law was intended to address.

“We were in a bad ethics situation before, because the Ethics Commission was still the responsible party for compliance. Those city clerk’s offices, or your local district attorney — no one had oversight of those reports. So it was really even not even that good, because it didn’t have anyone actually checking on it. I mean, I promise you, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission was not looking to see if anyone in Oklahoma City had been filing their reports,” Wilder said. “And so what you would see at the municipal level already is missing reports, weird information that doesn’t add up, strange things happening in contributions and expenditures that just seem to fly completely under the radar.”

Before the Ethics Commission became the entity responsible for collecting and posting local election reports, Wilder said county election boards and city clerks provided finance forms with “varying levels of standardization.”

“Largely speaking, I mean, it was just — it was not awesome. So it’s not like we’ve been in a really great situation,” he said “It’s not like some like fall from, ‘We’ve had really awesome ethics or something, and

now we don’t.’ This is kind of just — we’ve gone from 11 to midnight.” Wilder said he remains excited for when the transition to filing with the Ethics Commission will be achieved, as he believes it will be easier to “analyze what’s happening in local elections” with campaign finance reports centralized.

“These changes were desperately needed,” Wilder said. “And, by the way, not to beat up on the Ethics Commission — they have been so under-resourced for so long, and even in the recent years that they’ve been given increases in their budget by the Legislature, [the increase is] pitiful.”

Other campaign professionals share Wilder’s concerns. Kinsey Westwood, who has long helped candidates with campaign compliance, said the issue needs to be addressed quickly.

“The outage of The Guardian, its transition to version 2.0, and subsequent reversion to the original platform created confusion and concern among candidates, particularly those running in local municipal and county races,” Westwood said. “Fortunately, the Ethics Commission has been responsive and helpful in guiding candidates through the situation.”

NON-PROFIT FOCUS

Protecting Our Fluttering Neighbors

The Oklahoma Monarch Society continues its flight toward conservation.

By Hope Whitmire

Springtime is on the horizon: days are lengthening and flowers are blooming—with the help of the monarch butterfly.

Their pollination rituals, which promote biodiversity, are a vital part of what makes an ecosystem thrive. But, due to pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change, monarch butterflies have become a threatened species.

The Oklahoma Monarch Society (OMS) is a nonprofit organization committed to the protection and preservation of Monarch butterflies and their habitats. Oklahoma is a central pathway in the migration route of the species, adding to the weight of responsibility upon the Sooner State.

Like meandering migration routes, the creation of OMS was not linear. The group has gone through multiple iterations, each time perfecting their conservation approach.

According to Katie Hawk, the executive director of OMS, the organization was first created after the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma was approached by the National Wildlife Federation about creating a statewide conservation plan to help prevent further threats to monarchs. This pushed the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma and The Nature Conservancy to create the Oklahoma Monarch Summit in November 2016, inviting potential stakeholders and the environmentally conscious. From this event, the Oklahoma Monarch & Pollinator Collaborative (OMPC) was conceived.

OMPC began organizing in 2016

and formally launched in 2018, supported by The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Coalition of Oklahoma. A constant challenge they faced was lack of knowledge available to the general public. To solve this they created Okies for Monarchs, whose focus was educating the masses. In this case, the programs existed before the official nonprofit organization––in other words, the butterfly came before the caterpillar.

Following the substantial growth of both programs, OMS officially launched its nonprofit organization in 2024, bringing OMPC and Okies for Monarchs under its umbrella.

Hawk describes the difference between OMPC and Okies for Monarchs as OMPC being the “behind-the-scenes” effort. The program is a collaboration between over 60 partners and environmental experts across the state, all of whom want to support this cause.

Okies for Monarchs, on the other hand, is the vehicle that makes educational information more digestible to non-experts and can inspire the public to take action. In the past two years, Okies for Monarchs has attended 82 events, raising awareness about monarch and pollinator conservation and distributing over 4,000 of their own curated regional seed mixes. Each year they host two regional events in rural parts of the state with the help of their partners. They bring resources directly to communities with limited access to native plants and pollinator education.

“Our efforts in all of these years

have been to try and keep the monarch off of the endangered list,” said Hawk. “We want to move the needle enough to be free of that threat.”

OMS recently partnered with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC) for their newest initiative, “Pathways for Pollinators & People.” Throughout 2026, OMS will work with ODOC to install pollinator gardens, implement educational programs, and spark creativity with monarch-themed murals at four correctional facilities across the state. Even at this early stage, there is a high demand and motivation to spread this movement, receiving interest from fourteen other facilities.

The organization hopes that this program will go beyond monarch conservation: “This effort is bringing splashes of color and joy to these otherwise lacking spaces. It is connecting these individuals with nature, understanding where our food comes from, and the beings who help put food on our plates,” said Hawk.

The implementation of “Pathways for Pollinators & People” is unlike anything Hawk has experienced at OMS. “It is a once in a lifetime experience to witness grown men fall in love with butterflies. It will restore your faith in humanity, if you just so happen to have lost it.”

Another intention with this program is to get the attention of municipalities, encouraging them to become more involved in conservation efforts. “There’s a lot of red tape, roadblocks, and lack of understanding that keeps [conservation] from happening within the municipal sphere and other government sectors. We want to create opportunities for our government to take a leading role in pollinator conservation.”

Want to help protect monarch butterflies across Oklahoma?

If you are interested in gardening, Hawk suggests visiting okiesfor-

monarchs.org to find what to plant and where to buy it. Milkweed is the host plant for this species; without it there would be no monarchs. Thankfully there are over 26 different types of milkweed native to Oklahoma. For beginners, native plants are the best option because they are the most acclimated to the Oklahoma climate and can be more hands-off. And, you don’t have to commit to an entire garden: start with a small corner in your backyard that gets plenty of sunlight exposure.

If a monarch-friendly garden is not possible, you can also help by avoiding the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides that harm monarchs.

Okies for Monarchs will continue their Anti-Mosquito Spraying Campaign this spring, distributing education and resources to the public about the detrimental effects that mosquito spraying has on pollinators. Last year, they sold and distributed 460 Mosquito-Be-Gone buckets and gave out flyers on how to build your own bucket, which help to mitigate the effects mosquito spraying has on our pollinator friends.

The future for OMS is fluttering with anticipation as OMPC is currently in the process of developing version 2.0 of the Statewide Monarch Conservation Plan. This updated initiative will include pushes like: Maintain and increase diverse nectar plants and milkweed on state and federal conservation lands through management and restoration, encourage businesses and nonprofits to take a pledge, build a garden, register their garden and/ or other monarch initiatives, partner with tribes to increase milkweed habitat on the over one million trust and restricted acres of tribal lands in Oklahoma, along with many other calls to action. This plan is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2026.

Oklahoma Monarch Society Executive Director Katie Hawk (left) and Board President Rick Sinnett (right) join Warden Scott Tinsley (center) at the future site of a monarch mural at Dick Conner Correctional Facility. | Photos provided

The Community Scoop

Boom Town Creamery blends creative flavors with neighborhood connection.

By Julie Porter Scott

On a warm evening along Uptown 23rd, the line outside Boom Town Creamery often spills onto the sidewalk. Families debate flavors as they wait, couples linger over cups, and kids press against the glass case, overwhelmed by choice. Inside, staff move quickly, greeting customers while scooping thick globes of flavors like cookie butter, lemon berry bliss, and hazelnut fudge into perfectly formed waffle cones.

For owner Angela Muir, scenes like this are exactly what she hoped to create: not just an ice cream shop, but a neighborhood gathering place where celebrations big and small happen over a scoop.

“Ice cream is always the answer,” reads the neon sign inside the shop — a playful motto that doubles as the company’s mission.

Boom Town Creamery opened its first location on June 22, 2022, quickly becoming one of Uptown’s busiest dessert stops. Two additional locations followed in Edmond and Moore in 2023, and last year a fourth shop opened inside the historic Skirvin Hilton downtown, bringing Boom Town into another pocket of the city’s growing food scene.

Muir’s path to ice cream was anything but direct. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she spent years working across creative pursuits –– from custom wedding gowns to eco-friendly accessories and lifestyle blogging –– all while raising four children with her husband, Matt.

In 2017, she opened Lilo’s Shaved Ice in Kansas City and discovered she loved the dessert business. When the family relocated to Oklahoma City in 2020 for Matt’s dental practice, she briefly took a corporate creative job but found herself missing entrepreneurship, and good ice cream.

“I kept comparing everything here to my favorite [ice cream] shop in Kansas City,” said Muir. “And I just wasn’t finding what I wanted. I like big chunks of cookies and brownies and swirls and new flavors. I kept thinking, ‘Why isn’t this here?’”

The idea lingered until a casual conversation with her brother. As they shared ice cream, she mentioned her dream of opening a handmade shop in Oklahoma City. His response was simple: “Why don’t you?”

Two months later, she was in New York learning commercial ice cream

production. Around the same time, she was reading Sam Anderson’s Boom Town, deepening her appreciation for Oklahoma City’s history and personality. The name and concept clicked: ice cream rooted in creativity and community, shaped by the city it serves.

The shop rotates seasonal flavors while maintaining the favorites that customers demand year-round. One of those favorites is Chocolate

Tornado, a rich chocolate ice cream folded with house-made fudge and brownie pieces. Even when chocolate prices spiked globally, Muir said that removing it wasn’t an option.

“When we run out, people get upset,” she laughed. “That flavor isn’t going anywhere.”

Another standout, Carmelita Crumble, grew from a family dessert recipe. The salted caramel ice cream swirled with oat cookie crumble and bourbon caramel has become a staff favorite and a flavor Muir considers uniquely theirs.

Everything at Boom Town Creamery is made in-house, from brownies and cookie crumbles to caramel ribbons and hot fudge.

Artisanal ingredients appear

throughout the menu, including coffee from local favorite Elemental Coffee and homemade caramel made with Same Old Moses bourbon.

While product quality remains central, Muir says that Boom Town quickly became about something bigger.

“I realized pretty early that I wanted everyone in the neighborhood to feel like this was their place,” she said.

The shop regularly collaborates with local businesses and organizations, celebrating cultural events and community partners through special flavors and fundraisers. Pride Month partnerships, Black History Month collaborations, and Hispanic Heritage celebrations are developed alongside local creators and organizations rather than simply borrowing inspiration.

“That’s really important to us,” Muir said. “We want appreciation, not appropriation. We want people involved who actually represent those communities.”

Inside the stores, that sense of belonging extends to staff culture. Boom Town employs dozens across locations, many in their first jobs, and Muir emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive workplace environment.

“It’s not a ‘we’re a family’ thing,” she said. “We’re a team. You’re allowed to make mistakes, but you also take accountability and support each other.”

She’s intentional about work-life balance, remembering the early months after opening when her children joked that the shop had become her new home. Bringing on chef Kayli Bartnicki shortly after opening allowed Muir to step away from overnight production work and focus on building the business sustainably.

Today, Bartnicki leads flavor development and production, while a growing leadership team handles operations, marketing, and culture across stores.

Despite rapid growth and steady crowds, Muir says expansion beyond Oklahoma City isn’t part of the plan.

“I love this city,” she said. “I want us to grow here, not everywhere.”

On any given night, that commitment is visible in the small moments: kids celebrating report cards, friends catching up over their cups, couples ending date nights with cones in hand.

As the growing business approaches its fourth birthday, the mission serves as the answer to every operational question, every decision about an ingredient, every potential new hire or possible new location. In the end, ice cream is always the answer. The flavors change, the crowds shift, but the mission stays the same.

The Moore location, and its delicious flavors, attracts families and foodies alike. | Photos by Shea Alan

What’s The Craic? EAT & DRINK

By Hope Whitmire

Experience Oklahoma’s own taste of the Emerald Isle through the beer, whiskey, and food selections found in these evergreen establishments. High spirits and warm smiles are guaranteed upon entry. Refine your gift of the gab as you settle in and stay awhile, sipping on your favorite draft. Good luck choosing just one for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration!

McNellie’s 1100 Classen Dr mcnellies.com

Midtown’s very own lucky charm, McNellie’s boasts one of the most extensive beer selections in the state. Choose from 60 drafts and more than 250 cans and bottles while digging into hearty, house-made pub fare. Burgers, pretzels, and nachos are the ideal lineup for soaking up a few pints and warding off a post–St. Paddy’s slump. Housed in a three-story historic building, McNellie’s is a go-to destination for polishing off a couple of well-earned Guinnesses.

Sean Cummings’ 7628 N May Ave seancummings-ok.com

When entering Sean Cummings’, it’s impossible to miss the immediate sense of welcome. Loyal regulars, friendly service, and soft, muted lighting create the easy familiarity of a true Irish pub, where traditional Irish music hums beneath lively conversation and a well-poured pint is never far from reach. A first-generation U.S. citizen with parents from Ireland, the pub’s owner and namesake’s deep pride in his Irish heritage is felt in every thoughtful detail.

Skinny

facebook.com/SkinnySlimsOkc

This dive bar is Bricktown’s hidden gem with its quaint size and European charm. There is never a dull moment at Slim’s, especially when they open extra early on the weekends so true sport fans can catch Premier League Football games while partaking in the pub’s variety of beers. As warmer weather begins to arrive, this spot has outdoor seating where you can enjoy a sweet spring breeze accompanied by live musical performances.

HE’S MAKING GOVERNMENT MAKE SENSE

Lionel Ramos is on the front lines of government news, bringing clarity to complex issues. But that’s not all — KOSU has a team of experts covering every corner of Oklahoma news.

Through radio, podcasts, newsletters or more options — KOSU delivers the news that matters to you.

MEET LIONEL RAMOS

O’Connell’s

769 Asp Ave, Norman oconnellsnorman.com

Across the street from the University of Oklahoma is O’Connell’s Irish Pub and Grille, where a good time is guaranteed. With frequent trivia nights, karaoke, and ample TVs for watching sports games, O’Connell’s has something for everyone, including friends just looking to catch-up over a basket of fish and chips. This wooden sports bar is a Norman staple that has been providing memorable night-outs for almost sixty years.

The Black Raven

1878 Church Ave, Harrah facebook.com/TheBlackRavenPub

Do your ideal St. Patrick’s Day plans include a Guinness and an escape from the noisy crowds flocking to OKC’s city center? Your dream destination might just be The Black Raven in Harrah, OK. The authentic Irish pub celebrates local Irish musicians and overflows with perfectly poured pints. Their Celtic charm pairs with their hearty food like bangers and mash.

Stag Lounge

228 NE 2nd St stag-lounge.com

For a slight change of pace, the Stag Lounge is an elevated experience, offering a sanctuary for lovers of spirits and liquors. They are known for their wide variety of whiskeys and their Old Fashioneds carefully crafted by their classically trained bar staff. Spend this St. Paddy’s day relaxed while puffing on a cigar in Deep Deuce’s own speakeasy.

Henry Hudson

3509 NW 58th St, plus other locations henryhudsonspub.com

With multiple locations across the Oklahoma City metro, Henry Hudson’s has long been a go-to for laid-back fun without a hefty price tag. A neighborhood staple with an easygoing spirit, Hudson’s offers a casual, welcoming atmosphere where regulars and first-timers alike feel right at home. Whether you’re stopping in for one of their lively nightly events, catching a game with friends, or simply lining up for a round of pool, there’s always something happening.

EAT & DRINK

Between Places

Bar None centers North America and Oklahoma in Midtown OKC.

By James Biscone

In Midtown, just off the hum of Route 66, a beautiful new wine bar has quietly opened its doors. Oklahoma City’s Bar None feels both understated and deliberate. The space, originally designed as a private dining room within Nonesuch, now operates with its own bar and distinct identity.

Walking in, the room is simple, almost restrained: elegant settings, clean lines, warm light. The complexity isn’t in the décor. It’s in the taste.

Bar None was not an afterthought or overflow concept. It was a studied expansion. Caroline Clark, beverage director for Id Est, the Colorado-based hospitality group behind Nonesuch and Bar None, said the idea grew out of a gap she noticed nationally.

“There are very few places where beverage is having the same conversation that food is having about sourcing and terroir,” Clark said in an interview with The Gazette. “That was a big part of where we wanted to extend that idea into a wine bar format.”

Nonesuch has long centered Oklahoma terroir and regional sourcing in its kitchen. Bar None applies that same lens to the glass. Instead of defaulting to Old World prestige, the wine list stretches across North America - from Valle de Guadalupe in Mexico to the Oregon Coast, with bottles from New Mexico, the Finger Lakes, Niagara and other emerging regions that rarely anchor traditional programs.

“For decades, great wine often meant looking to Europe,” Clark said. “But there’s a sense of place that’s becoming clearer and clearer in North America, and in wine, we’re always looking for that. Something

that is distinguishably from this area, works with this food, speaks to this place.”

The goal isn’t to dismiss Europe. It’s to widen the frame.

“We know Napa. We know Sonoma,” Clark said. “But there are growing regions in smaller pockets of the United States and Canada that are producing exciting, diverse wines. It’s an opportunity to get curious and explore a little bit.”

Clark believes Oklahoma City is an intentional choice for that exploration.

“Why not Oklahoma City to start this conversation right off Route 66?” she said. “It’s a convergence of cultures. It’s a convergence of movement. It’s the center of the continent.”

That regional pride resonates with Jessye Ramsey, the new general manager of Bar None and Nonesuch.

An Oklahoma native who has witnessed the city’s renaissance alongside the growth of its food and beverage scene, Ramsey sees the concept as a natural extension of the state’s agricultural identity.

“Oklahoma is surrounded by farmland,” Ramsey said. “Why not be the farm-to-table capital of the country?”

That philosophy shows up not only in sourcing but in process. Bar None mills its carefully selected grains in-house, an uncommon detail for a wine bar.

The snack menu is, as Clark describes it, “as unpretentious as it gets.” At its center is the white bread

sandwich - thick-cut, nostalgic and quietly ambitious.

Nearly a decade ago, Id Est began working with farmers in southern Colorado to incorporate heirloom and rotational grains into its restaurants. What began as an agricultural experiment evolved into a challenge: could freshly milled, organic grains produce not only rustic loaves and pasta but a truly great white bread?

“One of the big question marks was, can we use these grains and find the right blend and process to get what you want out of a white bread?” Clark said.

The result is comfort food that feels familiar but carries depthsimple yet excellent, modest yet refined. Excellence in taste without spectacle. Excellence in experience without pretense.

That same balance defines the way guests engage with wine. Rather than flipping through a traditional list, visitors are invited down a hallway into a separate wine room. Bottles line the wall, and guests are encouraged to handle them, examine labels and talk through options with the bar team.

“Instead of interacting with a piece of paper, you get to see all the labels, chat with our team and interact with the bottles themselves before you make a selection,” Clark said. “We want wine to feel super accessible.”

Wine can intimidate. Bar None lowers the barrier without lowering the standard.

Assistant general manager Kiki Mackey plays a central role in that effort. Mackey, who has been with the team for several years, focuses on cultivating an exceptional guest experience for anyone who walks through the door. The aim is to create a space that feels thoughtful but welcoming, where curiosity is encouraged and questions are part of the experience.

“I hope they feel very welcome,” Clark said of first-time guests. “A sense of warmth and neighborhood hospitality. We want it to feel open for everybody.”

That openness is palpable. The room is modest, but intentional. The service is knowledgeable, but never stiff. The wines are serious, but the mood is not.

In a city experiencing a wellearned renaissance, Bar None doesn’t try to mimic Paris or Tuscany. Instead, it leans into the middle of the continent, into farmland, fermentation and the evolving story of North American wine.

Ten minutes after sitting down, guests aren’t meant to feel overwhelmed. They’re meant to feel curious. Comfortable. At ease in a space that proves sophistication and simplicity can share the same table.

Bar None combines curiosity, ease, and wine. | Photos by Jeff Fierberg

Downtown’s New Bar Flies High

Superfly lands in downtown OKC with retro style and late-night ambition

By Julie Porter Scott

Downtown Oklahoma City has no shortage of places to grab a drink. But a true neighborhood bar — the kind with deep booths perfect for tucking into a strong cocktail, a full kitchen that refuses to close early, and an eye on all things ambiance — is a much rarer thing.

Enter Superfly, a 1970s-inspired concept that opened February 5 at 1137 NW 2nd Street, tucked in the latest cradle of cool on the western edge of downtown, beside Beer City Music Hall. The new bar comes from Denver-based restaurateur Andy Bruch, marking his first Oklahoma project.

In an early press release, Bruch described Superfly as “a fresh take on the neighborhood bar that feels elevated yet approachable.”

When I read that line, I’ll be honest, I rolled my eyes a little. It sounds like a celebrity profile in a glossy magazine, the hospitality equivalent of “She strode through the dim Park Slope diner in a dark blue hoodie and boxy boyfriend chinos, but there was no hiding those famous cheekbones.” We’ve heard this line before. It’s upscale but unaffected; it’s clever but not cliché; it’s polished but not precious. It’s this — but, God forbid — not that.

I’m a little jaded, to be sure, but OKC residents of a certain age would forgive my Gen X skepticism. When I read about a “1970s-themed bar opening in an up-and-coming neighborhood,” the only thing that prevented me from making an actual scowl was the epic amount of Botox I’ve injected into my forehead since Uptown 23rd’s Rockford Cocktail Den closed in 2017.

It’s not Bruch’s fault; he’s not from here. He’s the co-owner and chef at Point Easy, a well-regarded neighborhood restaurant in Denver known for being casually upscale — like J.Crew, but for Denver dining. In OKC parlance, it would be like if The Drake and Cheever’s had a cute, tasty baby. My point is this: Denver’s denizens never had to keep a straight face as a nearly naked Burt Reynolds gazed down at them while they tried to enjoy their craft cocktail. Bruch could not have known about the unintentionally ironic concepts that once made up our meager cocktail scene, but it does explain why my hopes were not high.

At least I’m smart enough to confess when I am wrong. Superfly

is not kitsch. There’s nothing schlocky about it. In fact, I just couldn’t help but love it, in no small part because it makes so much sense. Concertgoers can grab food and drinks before the music gets going at Beer City, or they can settle in after a show as their hearing comes back. Happy hour business meetings have a perfect spot. Weekend brunchers have a timeslot. And though the aesthetic nods to the 1970s, Bruch thankfully spares us the camp. Curated playlists take precedence over disco diecuts. Can you dig it, pussycat?

While the mood matters, Superfly is also working hard to position itself as more than a drinks-only stop. The menu anchors itself in bar snack classics, but with enough range to carry a full dinner: a smashburger, a grilled cheese, a griddled hot dog, wings. Szechuan popcorn chicken for those wanting something with a little more heat. Fries with chicken mayo. It’s wide-ranging and just the right kind of weird.

But the best news? Superfly will keep its kitchen open late every night of the week, a detail Bruch emphasized as central to the concept. “[It’s] so our service industry friends have a place to gather and grab a bite when they get off work,” he said.

In a city where many kitchens close well before last call, that commitment could carve out a meaningful niche. I’ve already made a mental note that this is the perfect spot for a bite when the rubber chicken at a downtown gala doesn’t quite cut it, but when I’m not ready to let bad fast food take the wheel. I’m sure I’ll darken the doorway here in cocktail attire before too long.

Drinks, of course, are the star. Espresso martinis tap into the zeitgeist. As a child of the Sonic era, cherry limeade runs in my veins, although I’m pretty sure the carhops weren’t slinging vodka cut with house-made grenadine. A nice balance has been struck between drinks you’ll recognize, and options that will likely test your comfort zone in an approachable, friendly way, such as the Superfly Swizzle or the Chuparossa. I was naturally inclined to try something new, not like at some other spots where the menu starts way out on a limb, leaving me surreptitiously Googling ingredients.

It’s not lost on me that this is also that reverse exodus OKC boosters have been promising for a while. How many of your friends moved to Denver? Did you really believe there would ever come a day when successful Denver restaurateurs would

stake such claim in the 405? First Id Est, and now Bruch? Who’s next? Where other spots lose their je ne sais quoi in pursuit of heavy-handed thematics, Superfly has an authenticity I didn’t really think was possible. It’s the perfect ratio of

truffle to fry, this place. Like Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown,” it’s not really about the 1970s at all — it’s just that much cooler, thanks to a little soupçon of seventies grit.

The vibes are just right, from the bar to the comfortable, roomy booths. | Photos Provided

History Alive:

Thomas Jefferson and America250

Monday, March 2 & Tuesday, March 3

6 p.m. — 8 p.m.

Celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with Colonial Williamsburg’s Thomas Jefferson interpreter, Kurt Smith, live at the Oklahoma History Center.

Reserve your seat today! Tickets are $10 for Oklahoma Historical Society members and $20 for the general public.

Purchase online, by phone, or at the door the evening of the event. Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of living history.

ARTS & CULTURE

Feeding The Wandering Mind

At 30 years old, Craig’s Emporium remains a pillar in the Oklahoma City community.

By Phoebe Grandi

After wading through the crystals and knick knacks at the front of Craig’s Emporium, you’ll come across a life-size recreation of the alien from the 1996 Tim Burton film “Mars Attacks!” Sitting atop aUFO-style shelf filled with large geodes and positioned under a plethora of rainbow windsocks and mosaic lamps, the alien hardly stands out.

The store’s evident love of the eclectic gives it a similar feel to the cult-classic movie –– or really any cult-classic movie whose eccentricity has gained a devoted following. Yet, Craig’s Emporium’s cemented place within Oklahoma City’s general culture renders it closer to a simple classic. “Our rainbow is kind of undeniable; everyone knows the big rainbow store. All we have to say is ‘The one by Walgreens,’” said Craig, laughing.

Craig Coffin, the curious store’s founder, runs Craig’s Emporium alongside his husband, Joe Coffin. The store celebrated its 30th anniversary this past August.

For those who have yet to experience Craig’s Emporium, the store’s 8,000 square feet are split between three consecutive rooms. Their merchandise includes housemade incense and candles, a variety of crystals in all shapes and sizes, rare Tiffany lamps, Egyptian beads, Japanese tea sets, handmade Amish scented lightbulbs, and handmade jewelry. Their collection of over 800 different tarot card decks –– not including their over 400 different oracle card decks –– easily competes for the largest selection in the U.S.

“People will show up at the front, checking out, and I’ll go, ‘Where did you get that?’ [They’ll have] things either I didn’t know we had at all or I haven’t seen in 10 years,” laughed Joe. “And I’m going, ‘I thought I knew what was here.’”

When Craig first opened the store, though, he didn’t plan for it to be this big. In 1995, when he was working at what is now Picasso Cafe in the Paseo, Craig noticed that there was an opportunity for the vacant 500 sqft storefront next door to turn into something the neighborhood was missing: “The area had tons of art galleries and a couple restaurants, but it didn’t have a place where you could just buy some-

thing affordable every time you came down there.”

Thus, he opened Craig’s Emporium, the Paseo’s own tchotchke shop. “When I first opened, I could literally read off to someone what I had and how many,” said Craig. “It was a much different world.”

What began as frequent dayslong stretches with no customers soon turned into increased popularity and a need to expand. He hopped across the street to a 2000 sqft location in the Paseo, before later settling in the current spot on 23rd street.

And, as expected with the fourtimes-bigger space and growing clientele, the inventory grew, too. Yet, even as more curios began to fill their new shelves, the owners remained focused on the unique inventory that defined them. “From the very beginning, we carried some crystals and some sterling jewelry with different angels and fairies on there. It’s been in our wheelhouse for a long

time,” Coffin said.

The inspiration behind the store’s witchiness began long before even the Paseo storefront.

As a teenager, Coffin would visit Starwind, an occult store formerly on Classen, and learn about spirituality outside of the context of a major religion.

“Growing up in Oklahoma, we didn’t have enough of that,” he said. “It’s exciting and fun to give people the opportunity to look at all the options, to practice what they want to practice and not feel like they’re being judged or that it’s taboo.”

As result, Craig’s Emporium becomes a spiritual space without pressuring patrons to know about or partake in the occult. And, naturally, it makes its wide array of different religious and spiritual items feel complimentary as opposed to contradictory.

As Easter approaches, the store will display rosaries and Catholic statues, while continuing to sell wares that take another approach

to spirituality. “We are the largest seller of the Satanic Bible in the whole Southwest,” said Craig, laughing. “One of my reps says, ‘This is bizarre, every two months you order 50 copies. Where do they go?’ I think people are just interested, and it’s nice to facilitate people’s wandering mind.”

It is this atmosphere of curiosity and acceptance that has made Craig’s Emporium beloved in the OKC community.

On top of that, it has one of the most unique inventories in the metro area, if not beyond. The pair frequently travels around the U.S. searching for items to add to their collection. “We shop at thrift stores and yard sales and garage sales and estate sales, so it’s a big mix that you just don’t see in retail,” said Joe.

Their commercial audacity also helps define their diverse, and sometimes comical, selection. “My ideal situation is, if no store in town will dare carry it, and it’s not too offensive, we’ll carry it,” said Craig.

Even as Craig’s Emporium continues to grow, affordability remains a central tenant. “Since we’ve been doing this so long, a lot of our vendors give us better pricing,” said Craig, explaining how they maintain their low prices. The commitment to affordability inspired the creation of Unicorn Versus Pegasus next door. Craig’s new counterpart sells discounted books alongside heavily discounted merchandise from the other store.

Their next expansion will be Medusa’s Closet, a clothing store tucked behind Unicorn Versus Pegasus. Opening in the next few months, the store harks back to Kathy’s Closet, the clothing store Craig’s mother owned in the Paseo in the 1980s.

Craig’s Emporium is, in many ways, shaped by the people who have helped create and sustain them over these past 30 years. “We’ve met regular customers and their kids,” said Coffin. “And then their kids have kids. It’s really fun to see them; it’s like a new family.”

“And, there’s a batch of customers that are no longer with us. I wish I could [tell them], ‘Look at me now,’” Craig continued, beaming.

Craig and Joe Coffin have been often asked if they will franchise Craig’s Emporium. Their answer is a unilateral “No.” They also don’t have, or want, an online store. The community Craig’s has created is based right in-store. As Joe lovingly pointed out, “You need to come in to experience it.”

Craig and Joe Coffin stand outside Craig’s Emporium. | Photo provided

ARTS & CULTURE

Oh, The Places You Can Go!

Your guide to exploring Oklahoma’s state parks and recreation areas, just in time for Spring Break. This article was made with help from the Oklahoma Tourism Department.

By Phoebe Grandi

Even as the weather continues to oscillate between warm breeze and winter storm, crocuses and daffodils are beginning to bloom throughout the city. They’re a gentle, pastel reminder that spring is, in fact, settling in.

There is no better place to experience this seasonal transition than at Oklahoma’s vast collection of state parks and recreation

areas. From swimming in crystal mineral waters to hiking one of the U.S.’s oldest mountain ranges to learning about local flora and fauna in interactive exhibits, natural excursions are abundant in the Sooner State.

And, if a spring trip is not feasible for you, be sure to save this guide for summer rolls around!

Looking for a quick getaway from Oklahoma City? Venture a mere 40 minutes to experience Lake Thunderbird State Park With 20 miles for hiking and mountain biking, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the vast waterfront or experience a moment of serenity surrounded by nature. The Discovery Cove Nature Center provides familyfriendly programming, exhibits,

and artifacts related to regional flora and fauna –– as well as a gift shop for the souvenir-motivated. For those who’ve already staved off the winter chills, there are plenty of opportunities to swim at the beaches speckling the lake’s coastline. But, remember to pack a picnic so you can feel the spring sun as you sit at their public tables!

Driving 1.5 hours south will bring you to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area , a tranquil escape with lush greenery and crystal water. Once known as Platt National Park ––Oklahoma’s first and only national park –– before merging with Arbuckle Recreation Area, Chickasaw National Recreation Area is full of ecological wonders, which are showcased in the interactive exhibits and live

amphibians at the Travertine Nature Center. The Lake of the Arbuckles, Veterans Creek, and Rock Creek offer swimming, boating, and fishing opportunities. Want to wait for warmer weather before venturing into the mineral water? Just sitting near it will give you a front-row view of sunbathing turtles.

Adventurous families will enjoy Red Rock Canyon Campground and Adventure Park , a 1-hour drive west from Oklahoma City. Defined by stunning red rock walls, this spot gives experienced visitors the chance to rock climb and rappel among exhilarating obstacles and breathtaking views. Not ready to scale the walls? Don’t worry, the park also offers a variety of selfguided hiking trails ranging in difficulty, alongside guided ex-

cursions for an additional fee. The park’s amenities make it exceptionally family friendly, with a café and swimming pool (featuring a waterslide!) as well as a locally-sourced ice cream shop currently being built. Springtime is the perfect time to visit Red Rock Canyon Campground and Adventure Park for those wanting to beat the summer rush. You might just catch the wildflowers in full bloom!

The Discovery Cove Nature Center at Lake Thunderbird State Park. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in bloom. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

Red Rock Canyon Campground and Adventure Park. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

Families swimming at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge , typically 1-2 hours from Oklahoma City, is home to breathtaking granite mountains and sweeping prairie grass. Known for its roaming bison, a day trip there can be a serene escape from the city’s hustle and bustle. Ranger programs and interactive exhibits at the Quanah Parker Nature and Visitor Center provide ample educational entertainment for families and nature lovers alike. With a variety of trails catering to casual, intermediate, and skilled hikers, every visitor can find their niche among the impressive geologic features.

Don’t let the name dissuade you: Robbers Cave State Park is a beautiful, must-see destination in Oklahoma. Located 2-3 hours from Oklahoma City, the park is home to enchanting woods, babbling streams, amazing lakes, staggering sandstone cliffs and, of course, fascinating caves. The park’s nature center provides insight into the interesting tales that have shaped Robbers Cave State Park’s history, including the one behind the park’s ominous name. But, that’s not all. The nature center has a stacked schedule for the spring months, including guided hikes, putt-putt golf, crafts, outdoor classroom events, birding with provided binoculars, and a beloved hayride.

Driving 1.5 hours south will bring you to “Oklahoma’s first and largest state park.” Known for its large and beautiful lake, Lake Murray State Park will excite the metro’s water sport enthusiasts. From swimming to boating to paddle boarding to fishing, the opportunities are endless on the water’s 5,728 surface acres. Perhaps implied by its easy-going name, Sunset Beach is a charming and popular spot for visitors to dip in. The park also houses an impressive 12,500 acres of land surrounding the lake, which are rife with hiking trails and routes for ATVs. The park’s nature center, lodged inside the historic Tucker Tower, provides context to the area’s geological and historical features.

A bison roaming the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

On the water at Lake Murray State Park. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

Climbing the caves at Robbers Cave State Park. | Photo provided by Oklahoma Tourism

ARTS & CULTURE

Capturing The Middle

Richard Sharum’s “Spina Americana” looks for unity in the places most often overlooked.

By Julie Porter Scott

In the shorthand of American geography, the middle is often treated like a void — something you cross rather than arrive at. “Flyover country” is the phrase, tossed off with casual condescension, as if the heart of the nation was just that negative space between coasts. Photographer Richard Sharum decided to sit with that dismissal, and then drive straight through it.

An editorial and documentary photographer, Sharum traveled a 100-mile-wide corridor running down the geographic spine of the United States, from the Dakotas through Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and into Texas. He spoke with more than 4,000 people and made upward of 14,000 photographs, searching not for spectacle, but for something quieter and more elusive: the connective tissue of contemporary American life.

The result is “Spina Americana,” a documentary photography book that resists easy narratives about red states and blue states, rural versus urban, or who belongs where. Instead, Sharum’s images linger on people — mechanics, surgeons, farmers, prisoners, police officers, migrant laborers, exotic dancers — encountered not as symbols, but as individuals occupying the same unsettled moment.

“This term, flyover country, was one I’d heard my entire life, but had never really thought about when it came to the condescension it implied,” said Sharum. “I felt that this part of our country had been ignored politically, socially, and culturally for decades, with its obscurity cre-

ating a subtle but consequential vacuum that had implicitly added fuel to our national divisions. I knew that in order for me to find out what America is, I needed to travel its central corridor and see it for myself.”

Sharum’s approach is deliberately unsensational. There are no click-bait images engineered for

outrage or pity. Landscapes stretch wide and quiet. Faces meet the camera without theatrical framing. People are given equal space and status, regardless of background or belief. In a time dominated by hot takes and instant judgment, “Spina Americana” asks viewers to slow down, to look longer than we are used to and, perhaps, longer than is comfortable.

The book is divided into thematic chapters that explore labor, faith, identity, authority, and belonging across the region. Mennonites and Lutherans appear alongside Indigenous Americans and MexicanAmerican families. Generational farmers with German, Scandinavian,

or Ukrainian roots share space with recent arrivals and migrant workers. The throughline isn’t sameness, but coexistence: the fact that vastly different lives are unfolding side by side, often without acknowledgment.

The final chapter, “Peril and Promise,” sharpens the project’s moral edge. Images associated with hate, decay, and danger are placed in direct conversation with scenes of duty, care, and community. The effect isn’t accusatory so much as urgent, a visual argument that what survives depends on what we choose to see and who we’re willing to recognize as neighbors.

Sharum describes photography as a form of education, and education, in turn, as the foundation of empathy. It’s a philosophy rooted in longform work rather than quick consumption, and “Spina Americana” feels intentionally out of step with the algorithmic churn of modern media. This is a book that trusts the viewer to sit with complexity rather than resolve it.

For readers in places like Oklahoma — included not incidentally, but centrally — the project lands with particular resonance. This isn’t the middle reduced to caricature or nostalgia. It’s the middle rendered as it is: complicated, fractured, resilient, and unfinished.

“Spina Americana” doesn’t claim to answer what America is. What it offers instead is something rarer: a sustained act of attention, directed toward a part of the country too often treated as invisible. In doing so, Sharum suggests that understanding who we are might begin not at the edges, but right down the center.

A lecture and book signing will be held at Commonplace Books (1325 N. Walker) on Monday, March 9 at 7:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

More images from the book can be seen on the project’s website: https://richardsharum.com/spina-americana

Sharum, R. Storm chaser, Burlington, Oklahoma [Photograph]. Spina America, 2026.

Sharum, R. Two sisters and a cousin, Macksville, Kansas [Photograph]. Spina America, 2026.

Painted Flowers Bloom, Too

Oklahoma City-based artist Suzanne Mears’s show, “Sailing Into Spring,” will open March 5 at Howell Gallery.

By Phoebe Grandi

“I find that glass really is a medium that the majority of people don’t understand,” said Oklahoma City-based artist Suzanne Mears. “They don’t know how it is created, what you use to create it, or what kind of equipment you need to produce it. The basic materials that go into it are very expensive, so you end up with a product that is going to cost a lot of money. People don’t know how it’s made, but they know it costs a lot of money. And it’s glass, so it will break.”

Mears stood looking at a large glass piece affixed above an outdoor fireplace in her backyard. It has sat in that exact spot for roughly 15 years, unweathered by Oklahoma’s heat, wind, ice, and recent snowstorm.

The piece, defined by bright greens on its left, deep blues on its right, and a myriad of colorful lines and dots all over, depicts a horizon. It’s turned vertically to fit onto the fireplace’s narrow brick chimney, even though the more orthodox viewer might prefer it horizontally, so that the glass ocean lies atop the textured hills. But, regardless of orientation, the spontaneity of the colors coupled with the fragility of the glass makes the large work captivating.

For the past 25 years, Mears has perfected the complicated techniques required to create kiln glass work. Yet, even in this challenging medium, her process is anything but formulaic.

“Artists that work in glass are often very structured. They measure everything. They’re very precise in how they cut it out and how they put it together. I’m more of a slinger, in all aspects,” said Mears, explaining her open-minded and often messy approach to glassmaking. Her pieces are birthed out of creative intuition, as opposed to a meticulous harnessing of an elusive medium. As a result, the final products are often unpredictable. “I like the creativity, the freedom. To me, that’s fun, because there’s always a mystery about it.”

It is this curiosity that characterizes the entire breadth of Mears’s current work, which includes both glasswork and painting.

Mears’s upcoming show, “Sailing Into Spring,” will open on Mar. 5 at Oklahoma City’s Howell Gallery, and it will feature her most recent body of work. The show will also be the first time Mears showcases a collec-

tion of paintings in 25 years.

The paintings, which are the defining feature of the show, are floral themed. Why? That just happened to be what Mears is working on at this period of her life.

“Why do I use color? Why am I contemporary? Why am I spontaneous? Why do I sling paint?” Mears asked. “I’m rather fearless. I don’t really accept defeat. I always think that if you fail, there’s another way. And, you better explore some other opportunities so you can take that failure, whatever it is, and make it into something that it wouldn’t have been otherwise.”

It is this fearlessness that has pushed her to explore different mediums. Before working primarily with glass, Mears worked with clay. Before that, she was trained as a painter. Her ability to hop between mediums has cultivated and sustained her creative practice, even in moments of artistic defeat. “If I’m painting and the paintings aren’t going well––maybe the paint runs together and it all turns to muck––and I’m not focusing, I’m not concentrating, I’m not committed, then I just stop and I move into working with glass,” Mears said. “I don’t want to get in a box. I want to be free to grow.”

Even in periods where one

medium or subject feels eternally invigorating, Mears’s openness to failure and commitment to growth remains abundant. Many of the paintings featured in “Sailing Into Spring” were made using acrylic, oil, or ink and then coated in resin.

“It’s a little forgiving,” she said, turning her attention to a painting of a pear hanging on her studio wall. Looking at the painting, she said, “I don’t like this. To me, it isn’t correct. So, I will go back in and I will add more alcohol ink, more paint. I will change it, and then I will add another coat of resin. You can keep doing that until you finally get what you want.”

This process often gives her paintings more literal depth, allowing viewers to glimpse at the layers of paint and time that comprise the piece.

While Mears has been an artist her entire life, she didn’t begin doing art full time until later in her life. Before moving back to Oklahoma City, Mears spent decades traveling: from visits to Nepal, China, and Greece to more extended stays in San Francisco and Aspen.

“I took a tanker from Athens to Crete just for fun. I had seven suitcases or something like that, and I booked the wrong end of the island––I had to drive four hours to get to my hotel. And the taxi driver, we had a language barrier. He’s trying to

find [the hotel], but he had never been to the other end of the island before,” described Mears, laughing. “Would I do that today? No, I would not.”

These adventures gave color to much of the work that she produced after. “I always thought that I was an empty canvas, that I really didn’t have enough background to be a really, really creative artist, the way I wanted to be, that that wouldn’t happen to me until I was really much older,” Mears reflected.

Now firmly stationed in Oklahoma City, Mears works in the art studio in her backyard seven days a week, a notably different lifestyle than her retired peers. “It worked out well that I did all that traveling when I was fairly young, in the middle of my life,” she said. “Now, I don’t travel at all. I just work full time, and I love every bit of it.”

Much like pursuing a creative profession, working with glass requires a level of determination, but also flexibility. Perhaps a show centered around springtime, a season characterized by playful rebirth and blooming amidst frost, is apt for an artist inspired by challenge, led by curiosity, and invigorated by the freedom of creative conception.

Mears lifted the lid to her largest kiln, revealing a vast, circular cresting wave, partially covered in fiber paper. This piece was made to replace a prior glass wave that cracked during firing. The broken wave now stood nobly in Mears’s kitchen.

In the new wave’s moment of birth, Mears peeled away its protective paper and revealed its body, which was characterized by a deep, translucent purple. “I don’t know where that purple came from,” said Mears, inquisitively. “I put in [iridescent] blue glass, and maybe it turned purple in the fire.” She placed the large piece back down. “That’s going to be fun, I think.”

Suzanne Mears poses with a glass bowl she made. | Photo provided

“Sailing Into Spring” will feature floral paintings by Mears. | Photo provided

ARTS & CULTURE

Carlos Barboza

Carlos Barboza is an Oklahoma City-based painter and muralist. He is one of the founding members of Canopy Art Center in the Plaza District.

By Phoebe Grandi

How would you describe your style?

It’s something that I’m still trying to figure out. I would say my work falls under realism, with a hint of surrealism. For me, if something’s done photo-realistically, there has to be a reason why it’s not just a photograph. I always try to add something that breaks the gravity of realism, to make something a little bit more interesting. It’s kind of hard to give it a word: realistic surrealism.

What medium do you gravitate towards?

I love murals. I love painting on a large scale. I love that it’s public and democratized for everybody. I love painting with spray paint, as well. I also love painting with oil and the methodology that’s behind it, from different mediums to different colors and how you combine them. I like how malleable the material is. You can push and pull oil paint around. It’s a really gratifying way to paint.

What do you like about murals, as an art medium?

Representation, I think, goes so far. People oftentimes don’t consider the importance of making work that makes people feel seen. I think murals are an especially great platform for that, because they’re large scale. I’ve seen kids get really emotional at the work because they see themselves in it. I get emotional whenever I see people responding to [my work] in certain ways. I get reminded of why I do what I do in the first place. For me, it’s about empowering people, putting people on 20-foot buildings makes them feel big. That’s why I try to put in as much thought as possible anytime I go into a new mural. I ask, “What is it that I’m trying to do here?” Because there’s an opportunity to do something special. And, the fact that it is democratized for all. As we all know, art is not always cheap. Most people can’t just drop a few thousand dollars on a painting, and I think a lot of people aren’t really exposed to art because of that. With a mural, a lot of times it’s someone’s first experience seeing art. And, as seen on the Plaza Walls, there’s a plethora of different styles. It lets people have more of an opinion on what they like and what they

don’t like. I think murals are the artwork for the people, and that’s something I love to be a part of— that movement.

If you look at the last few years, street art and graffiti culture has been dictating a lot of the art that is being put into galleries now. A lot of these artists who I look up to and admire, who are street artists, are now doing large paintings for galleries all over the world. It’s very interesting to me to see how it starts on the street and then percolates up to the top.

I’ll be doing murals for as long as I can, even though it’s taxing on the body––pulling 12 hour days on scaffolding. But, I think it’s very important work, and I try to always remind myself of that.

How are murals different than painting?

Painting is a lot more personal, that is where I find my personal voice. With a mural, I can be very influenced by whatever my client wants; I know that they have an expectation of what they want on their

that. But, when I have a canvas and all my paint, I can just do whatever I want. So, that’s where you see, I think, my most honest style or interpretation of things.

Could you walk me through a painting?

[Looking at “One Lost Soul In A Fishbowl” hanging on the wall in his studio]

I stumbled upon this picture of my sister that I took when I visited her in Italy. So, I started doing a sketch of it on a small canvas. Then, I started thinking about what the painting could be, and I started to think about my sister and our own story. As I was drawing, I felt like it needed to be on a bigger canvas, that it should be a proper painting instead of just a study. So, I put the study aside, grabbed a canvas, and started painting. I had the subject, so I started to think about what to put around it.

I was thinking a lot about when she moved away to Italy. We were undocumented at the time, and she chose to leave the country because she just wasn’t getting the opportunities that she wanted to, which I understood. But, it was still very sad to see my sister go. At the time, I couldn’t leave the country, which meant that she couldn’t come back in and I couldn’t leave. There was this moment where we both real-

ized, “I don’t know when we’ll see each other.”’ When we were going to the airport to drop her off, this song, “Wish You Were Here,” by Pink Floyd, was playing on the radio, and it felt very much like a needle drop moment in a movie for me. Every time that I hear that song it just makes me think about that moment, which was very emotionally charged and gave the song a whole new context. So when it came time to do the painting, I thought about that song. There’s a lyric, “We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl,” so I decided the background would have the surrealist nature of fish swirling around, making somebody look like they’re in a fishbowl separated from everybody else. That’s why the background gets more abstract and contemporary, because it is like a whole different world. All these ideas started to come to the surface, and the painting––the reason why I’m painting it––started to make sense to me. I always try to find that emotional hook that makes me excited to paint.

Has painting always been a grounding or emotional experience for you?

Not really. [In the past], it was a way to pass the time. A lot of my early work was not that good; I mean, it’s technically good, but I feel like I was just practicing, in a way. You know, where I was learning how to paint textures, learning how to draw the human body, learning how to do hair. So it would just be really flat images of a person or what have you. But now, in retrospect, that was really important for me to get to the point I’m at now. Now, I have something I want to say, and I have the tools to render it.

It’s really just been recently that I’ve decided to just go ahead and be a painter, you know, to be an artist. I have to put some more thought into the work that I do, so I try to always have a little bit of context in my paintings. I also think that just makes more original, interesting work, when you’re pulling from things that are very specific to you.

Have you always been an artist?

I mean, I’ve always been painting and drawing. I was also very obsessed with film and movies, so a lot of my influences come from cinematic work and storytelling.

What has it been like maintaining your practice?

I’m still figuring it out. I kind of fell into murals by accident. I was doing a nine to five before I did my first mural. I very quickly quit my job and decided just to follow this

Carlos Barboza paints a mural. | Photo provided

wave that I was having where I did my first mural and then somebody else wanted one, and somebody else. My idea was, “I can keep doing this until the work dries out, and then I’ll go back to my nine to five.” But, now it’s been seven years. The work has kept coming, and the opportunities are getting better and better as the years go on.

It’s something that me and my contemporaries always talk about, the stress that comes from having to invent something every time you go out, and then trying to maintain a certain level of success. It is really difficult. But, because none of us know what we’re doing, maybe that’s why it works. We are just following curiosity. And, that’s usually where the best work comes from, following your curiosity instead of creating products.

How did Canopy start, and what is it?

Dusty Gilpin and I got in here in October of 2024. [It was] an abandoned place. Every artist that you speak to in Oklahoma City always says the same thing; Everybody’s looking for working space, and there just isn’t much available. So, we were always on the lookout for great places to work. He’s the one that came to me with this spot.

It was very clear to us that we wanted to bring in more people to be a part of this. We currently have 5 artists here: Dylan Broadway, Tony Thunder, Maeve Wise, Dusty, and me. When people come in and ask us what the place is, I feel like we all have different answers, and that’s what makes it exciting. So, we don’t quite know. We know it’s a working space, but it’s also a community space. It’s also an event space. We sing karaoke from time to time; we watch Thunder games.

It’s a place that’s welcoming to people in the community to come and be creative, to paint and draw with us. Anybody can come in here and talk to us if they want to,

whether they have questions or need advice about the art world here in Oklahoma City. Mostly, we’re winging it and figuring it out as we go. But, at the moment, it’s just a really exciting place to be, and especially being here in the Plaza District.

I believe that any place that calls itself an art district needs to give artists more space. We’re very grateful to be a part of it. And I’m excited for what we come up with this year, to see what we do.

What has it been like working alongside other artists?

I mean, just before you came in, I was talking to Dusty about a mural that I’m currently trying to put together, and I was just running ideas by him. It’s great to talk to other artists because I think it’s kind of our job to have our finger on the pulse, on what’s exciting, and what the time calls for. It’s been a real blessing to be with talented people who can give me advice that I can really listen to and take into account. Also, I see people working and it inspires me to work, as well. And, when I see them doing great work, it inspires me to do great work, too. I think it’s a space where everybody benefits from each other.

What do you think about the Oklahoma City arts community?

I think it’s a really great place with a great art community. Everybody’s really friendly, and I don’t feel like there’s ever any real sense of competition. Everybody here is super supportive. And, I think because we’re still a young city, we’re all really excited to be part of a group of artists that may help establish what the look of Oklahoma City is going to be.

What advice would you give to a young artist?

I think about this question all the time. Ultimately, for me, what has worked well is focusing on the work first. I just want to be able to do the best work that I can, and that’s what I’m mostly worried about. So, I would tell younger artists to first focus on their work, to make sure that they have something interesting to say, and to look and see what’s great out there. Then, they should try and find ways to do it on their own terms. The work should always be the most important part; do something that’s very unique to you. And, the way to do that is to really dig in and see what makes you unique. What scares you? What makes you sad? Be vulnerable in your work. Usually, that’s when something really interesting and captivating comes through.

3/6 | ADAM AGUILAR

8pm | $10/$15 day of show

3/7 | MATTHEW SCOTT BAND

8pm | $10/$15 day of show

3/16 | ETHAN MARC BAND with Pineapple Willow & Cicada

8pm | $10/$15 day of show

EXPERIENCE

Friday, March 6, 2026 | 6-9pm In the Paseo Arts & Creativity Center at 3024 Paseo

Gallery I: Dr. Kevin Thomas

Gallery II: The March Show: Here and Now

Gallery III: Clint Stone

The Paseo Arts District has local and national art, great food, art classes & plenty of shopping!

“One Lost Soul In A Fishbowl” | Photo provided

RESERVE YOUR TABLE AT OKCBLUENOTE.COM 2408 N ROBINSON

TABLESIDE CATERING BY

CALENDAR

FILM

2026 Oscar-Nominated Films

March 1 - Animation Short Films

March 1 - Sentimental Value

March 5 - The Voice of Hind Rajab

March 6 - Mr. Nobody Against Putin

March 7 - It Was Just an Accident

March 13 - If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Oklahoma City Museum of Art okcmoa.com

“Cow Heavy And Floral” - Dinner, Screening & Panel Discussion

March 3, 5:30pm Tower Theatre eventbrite.com

El Tonto Por Cristo - A Special Screening

March 15, 5pm Rodeo Cinema rodeocinema.org

Billy Idol Should Be Dead March 20, 6:30pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

67 Bombs to Enid with Filmmaker Q&A

March 21, 2pm Oklahoma City Museum of Art okcmoa.com

COMEDY

Bricktown Comedy Club

Craig Conant, March 13, 7pm Josh Sneed, March 18, 7pm Martin Amini, March 19, 7pm bricktowncomedy.com

Gen X Takeover Comedy Tour

March 20, 7pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

Mikey B March 20, 8pm Twisters Comedy Club twisterscomedy.com

Dan Soder: The Golden Retriever of Comedy Tour

March 21, 6pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

VISUAL ARTS

Paul Reed: A Retrospective Oklahoma City Museum of Art okcmoa.com THROUGH APRIL 12

Various Views: Artists Eye the Landscape 1515 Lincoln Gallery & Bistro 1515lg.com THROUGH MARCH 28

“Sailing Into Spring” works by Suzanne Mears, Howell Gallery howellgallery.com THROUGH March 28

Opening Reception for “Sailing Into Spring” featuring Suzanne Mears Exhibition

March 5, 5pm Howell Gallery howellgallery.com

Paseo First Friday Gallery Walk March 6, 6pm The Paseo Arts District thepaseo.org

2nd Friday Norman Art Walk March 13, 6pm Norman Arts Council normanarts.org

Free To Live Art Show Auction March 27, 6pm Oklahoma Contemporary, freetoliveok.org

Factory Obscura’s Future of Sound Fest

March 28, 2pm Factory Obscura factoryobscura.com

MUSIC

Live! Mario Kart 8

March 1, 5pm 51st Street Speakeasy 51stspeakeasy.com

Black Label Society

March 1, 6:30pm Diamond Ballroom diamondballroom.com

Donny Benét

March 1, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Vitamin String Quartet - The Music of Billie Eilish, Bridgerton, and Beyond March 1, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Cory Branan

March 1, 8pm The Blue Door bluedoorokc.com

Descendents & Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls

March 2, 6pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

Bryce Crawford “I Love Jesus U.S. Tour”

March 2, 6pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Oklahoma City Jazz Orchestra

March 2, 7pm University of Central OK calendar.uco.edu

Jonah Kagen: Sunflowers & Leather Tour

March 3, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Magic City Hippies - Winter Tour

March 4, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichallokc.com

All Them Witches

March 5, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Great American Crooners

March 4, 7:30pm Armstrong Auditorium armstrongauditorium.org

Nether Hour

March 6, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Churchill March 6, 7:30pm Civic Center Music Hall okcciviccenter.com

Shortt Dogg

March 6, 8pm University of Central Oklahoma calendar.uco.edu

A 2000s Party

March 6, 9pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

JMSN

March 7, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Old Bulldog Band

March 7, 7:30pm University of Central Oklahoma calendar.uco.edu

Miss Brown To You

March 7, 7:30pm Full Circle Bookstore fullcirclebooks.com

Snakehips

March 7, 8pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Big Something

March 8, 6pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Clover County March 8, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

Bob Wills Day at the Capitol March 9, 10am Oklahoma State Capitol okhistory.org

Taraneh March 9, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

Symphonic Band and Wind Symphony March 10, 7:30pm Mitchell Hall Theatre calendar.uco.edu

KenTheMan

March 10, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusicall.com

JUMP: America’s Van Halen Experience March 11, 6:30pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

NITE

March 13, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

The Devil Wears Prada - The Flowers Tour

March 13, 6:00pm Diamond Ballroom diamondballroom.com

Chicago March 13, 8pm Riverwind Casino riverwind.com

Jambi: A Tool Experience March 13, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusicall.com

Travis Linville & Kalyn Fay March 13, 8pm The Blue Door thebluedoorokc.com

Olive Green Duo March 13, 7pm Angry Scotsman Brewing angryscotsman.com

Willis Alan Ramsey March 14, 8pm The Blue Door thebluedoor.com

Winter Jam 2026 March 14, Paycom Center paycomcenter.com

Zack Fox March 14, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Robert Jon & the Wreck March 14, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

DeVotchKa March 15, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Dear Maryanne / Arcadia Grey / See Through Person / Pretty Bitter March 15, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

Greg Jacobs, Monica Taylor, Randy Pease & Scott Evans March 15, 8pm The Blue Door thebluedoor.com

Time for Three Tf3 March 16, 7:30pm Armstrong Auditorium armstrongauditorium.com

Winyah March 17, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Spoon Benders March 17, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

Red Leather: Tahoe Tour March 18, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Pure Prairie League/ Atlanta Rhythm Section/ Orleans/ Firefall March 18, 8pm The Criterion thecriterion.com

Struggle Jennings March 19, 7pm Diamond Ballroom diamondballroom.com

Elise Trouw presents: The Diary of Elon Lust Tour March 19, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

David James McKinney March 20, 7pm Angry Scotsman Brewing angryscotsman.com

Vincent Neil Emerson March 20, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichallcom

Oscar nominated film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” screens at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. | Photo provided

Canterbury Voices on Broadway

March 21, 7:30pm OKC Civic Center Music Hall okcciviccenter.evenue.net

Robert Lester Folsom

March 21, 8pm Resonant Head resonanthead.com

Young Virtuosos: An Evening of Chamber Music

March 22, 5:30pm Fordson Hotel okyomusic.org

Trampled By Turtles

March 22, 6:30pm Tower Theatre towertheatre.com

Bad Omens: Do You Feel Love North American Tour

March 22, 7pm Paycom Center paycomcenter.com

The Phil Collins Story

March 25, 7pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

OKC! by Van Full of Nuns

March 26, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Ryan Caraveo

March 26, 8pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Fred Eaglesmith

March 26, 8pm The Blue Door thebluedoor.com

History That Doesn’t Suck with Professor Greg Jackson

March 26, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Well Known Strangers

March 26, 7pm Angry Scotsman Brewing angryscotbrew.com

Lets Go - A Tribute to The Cars

March 26, 8pm University of Central Oklahoma calendar.uco.edu

Turnpike Tributedours (Tribute Band)

March 28, 7pm Tower Theatre towertheatreokc.com

Varials

March 28, 7pm Beer City Music Hall beercitymusichall.com

Pure Prairie League w/ Atlanta

Rhythm Section March 28, 8pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

Shelly Phelps And The Storm

March 28, 8pm The Blue Door thebluedoor.com

Premieres and Standards for Oboe and English Horn

March 29, 5pm University of Central Oklahoma calendar.uco.edu

PERFORMING ARTS

A Beautiful Noise

March 3-8, Civic Center Music Hall okcbroadway.com

Solstice: a Winter Circus Experience

March 5, 7pm OCCC Visual & Performing Arts Center Theater

Scooby Doo & The Drag Brunch of Doom

March 12pm The Boom facebook.com/TheBoomOKC

CHURCHILL

March 6-8, Civic Center Music Hall, Little Theatre okcciviccenter.com

Tactus Chamber Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble: Haydn & Mozart in Vienna, March 8, 4pm Meinders Hall of Mirrors okcciviccenter.com

OKCPHIL: Masters of Music: Italy March 14, 7:30pm, Civic Center Music Hall okcphil.com

Ken Ludwig’s Moriarty Through March 15, Carpenter Square Theatre carpentersquare.com

Canterbury Voices on Broadway March 21, 7:30pm, Civic Center Music Hall okcciviccenter.com

Blue Man Group

March 24, 7:30pm OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater oklahoma-city-theater.com

Symphonicon: Music from Comics, SciFi, and Games

OKC Phil, March 27-28 okcphil.org

SPORTS

OKC Thunder Home Games vs. Golden State Warriors, March 7, 7:30pm vs. Denver Nuggets, March 9, 6:30pm vs. Boston Celtics, March 12, 8:30pm vs. Minnesota Timberwolves, March 15, 12pm vs. Chicago Bulls, March 27, 7pm vs. New York Knicks, March 29, 6:30pm vs. Detroit Piston, March 30, 8:30pm Paycom Center, nba.com/thunder

Red Coyote Lucky 66 5K March 22, 4pm, Spring Creek Trail redcoyoterunning.com/luckycoyote5K

NCAA Mens Basketball TournamentAll Sessions March 19-22, Paycom Center ncaa.com/sports/basketball-men/d1

WWE NXT LIVE

March 27, 6:30pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

Oklahoma City Comets Home Games

March 27, 7:05pm March 28, 6:05pm March 29, 2:05pm Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark milb.com/oklahoma-city

Harlem Globetrotters March 28, 2pm Paycom Center www.bandsintown.com

HAPPENINGS

Full Moon - Sound Bath March 3, 6pm Myriad Gardens myriadgardens.org

5th Annual Common Grounds Coffee Festival

March 7, 9am Cleveland County Fairgrounds

Oklahoma Children’s Theatre FairyTale Ball: Little Big Top

March 7, 6pm Civic Center Music Hall, Hall of Mirrors oklahomachildrenstheatre.org

LIVE! on the Plaza

March 13, 6pm Plaza District plazadistrict.org

Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma Spring Break Pop-Ins

March 16-20, Girls Scouts gswestok.org

Spring Break Activities at the History Center

March 16, 10am Oklahoma History Center okhistory.org

The Great Junk Hunt

March 20, 4pm Okla State Fair Park thegreatjunkhunt.com

BRICK Brick Convention | LEGO Fan Expo

March 21 & 22, 10am OKC Convention Center brickconvention.com/okc

Bingo Loco XL

March 21, 7pm The Criterion criterionokc.com

ST. PATRICK’S DAY

Do The Almost St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl

March 14, 4:30pm Downtown Oklahoma City dothecrawl.com/oklahoma-city

Paddy O’ Party

March 14, 10am The Jones Assembly thejonesassembly.com

St. Paddy’s Party @ Truck Yard

March 14, 11am Truck Yard truckyard.com/oklahoma-city

Oklahoma City St. Patrick’s Day Weekend Bar Crawl

March 14, 1pm Starts at the Manhattan. .eventbrite.com/e/oklahoma-city-stpatricks-day-weekend

Oklahoma City Official St. Patrick’s Day Bar Crawl

March 17, 5pm Santos Mexican Kitchen & Cantina eventbrite.com/e/oklahoma-city

For full calendar listings, go to okgazette.com. Add your event at okgazette.com/community

Tulips bloom every March at the Myriad Botanical Gardens. | Photo by Carl Shortt Jr.

An Electrifying Night with Moondough

The Southern California singer performs at 89th Street as part of his OMW Tour.

By Hope Whitmire

On an overcast evening, pockets of sunshine streamed through the clouds, shining a natural spotlight upon 89th Street, the historic music venue planted in the Britton District.

Baggy clothes topped with beanies and shaggy hair, filtered sporadically through the doors of the venue. Hanging lanterns above the woodpaneled bar and blue stage lights illuminated the space as heavy metal pulsed through the speakers, while audience members patiently gathered at the foot of the stage. The atmosphere was relaxed, creating a close-knit setting that allowed every detail of the evening to come into focus.

Ken Raymundo, better known by his stage name Moondough, performed in Oklahoma City on February 17 as part of The OMW Tour, the musician’s debut headlining run. The Southern Californian artist made OKC his fourth stop, bringing his groovy melodies and sun-soaked sound to the city.

Two artists were featured as openers for the night. First was Oklahoma-based artist Pretty Well, who has described himself as some-

one with a “propensity for laziness and writing emo songs.” He commanded the stage as a solo act, acoustic guitar in hand, delivering velvety, full vocals while singing about love and all it encompasses.

Following was Way Back Ruth, a three-piece band from Colorado and longtime friends of Moondough. Their indie-pop sound carried an easygoing essence, reminiscent at times of Vampire Weekend and Greer. An upbeat percussion section with bright, energetic qualities allowed the audience to feel the rhythm, displayed through steady head nods and shoulder sways.

After the openers concluded, patrons grabbed drinks at the bar while awaiting the headliner’s performance. It was a subdued crowd, able to indulge in an up-close experience with each artist.

Once the audience had been thoroughly warmed up, it was time for Moondough and his band, fondly referred to as “the raccoons,” to sweep the night away. Raymundo has described his style as drawing elements from funk, soul, jazz, and a touch of rock ’n’ roll. All of these influences blended and complement-

ed one another effortlessly, never feeling out of place or unnatural.

Raymundo was impacted by music at an early age. He has recalled a memory of his cousin showing him a guitar when he was ten years old as the moment he most vividly remembered wanting to pursue music himself.

Blue and yellow stage lights coordinated their flashes with the strongest beats of the choruses as soulful melodies floated through the air. Raymundo’s infectious ear-to-ear grin and teal tie-dye shirt mirrored the good vibes radiating from the instruments around him.

One of Raymundo’s greatest artistic inspirations is Earth, Wind & Fire, which was not difficult to detect while listening to his music. It reflected the essence of a now distant era with electrifying synth solos and hefty bass lines. His stage presence was full of irresistible movement that the audience mirrored, bopping along in time. This was the kind of music that is nearly impossible not to dance to. The singer swung his lengthy black hair and kicked his feet when the song demanded it.

The 2020 release “Time’s Up” stood out as one of the more midtempo selections, delivered with cool composure and low, warm vocals. The track allowed the electric guitar solo to carry the energy forward.

A performance of their newest release, “Intrusive Thoughts,” showcased the band’s wide range of musicality. Midway through the song, the tempo shifted dramatically slower. The verse took on a hypnotic, dreamlike quality, with Raymundo’s swelling falsetto entrancing listeners before a steady build returned the song to its original melody. The dynamic contrast highlighted the band’s versatility.

“I just hope my music can bring people together and make them feel something. If that is accomplished, I feel like I’ve done my job,” Raymundo said of his intentions as an artist.

Within the close-knit setting, there was a special quality that seemed to disarm both musicians and listeners, enabling a personal connection to the performance. There was space to breathe, yet patrons chose to stand as near to the stage as possible. Without distraction, those offstage devoted themselves fully to the music. By the end of the night, the experience felt shared and memorable.

It was hard to leave the concert not humming one of Moondough’s choruses.

Moondough performs at 89th Street. | Photo by Hope Whitmire

The Producer From Oklahoma City

SHINE on Oklahoma Music highlights Chris Cutta.

By Brian Maughan

One of the national leaders of the Hip Hop and R&B music scene is none other than Oklahoma City’s Chris Cutta. Born Chris Baldwin, he started producing music when he was a student at Putnam City Central Middle School. There, he developed the beat that earned him national acclaim and gigs producing music for artists all over the country. But, in the beginning, he sold homemade mix tapes right here in our city.

Perhaps unsurprising for someone who began his musical career so early, Cutta’s mother was an Oklahoma music personality. She was a part of the band Gospel Truth, whose spinoff group was the Truthettes. As a young boy, Cutta joined his mother on the Gospel Truth’s tours, which inspired him to pursue music.

Two weeks after graduating from Putnam City High School, Cutta went on a 15-city tour. He moved to Dallas and rotated between Los Angeles and Philadelphia over the next five years. While in Pennsylvania, he worked alongside a group of music creators and producers, including the major songwriter Sha Sha Jones when she was just getting started.

Before Cutta turned 21, he had seven songs playing on the radio. Now 41, he has gone on to work with the likes of Kanye West and Hamza Lee. Cutta has also worked with the Oklahoma-based R&B trio Meant2B, who later had success with a highcharting, certified gold album.

Currently, Cutta is working with Oklahoma artists CAJ and Triple M Zay. And, thanks to Cutta, the rapper Gorilla Zoe will record his new album here in Oklahoma.

Cutta does much of his production work at Castle Row Studios in Del City. His efforts have greatly enhanced the viability of the Hip Hop,

Rap, and R&B genres in Oklahoma, combating stereotypes that there aren’t enough local artists to foster a vibrant scene. In fact, Cutta has shown just the opposite.

Cutta also orchestrates artist profile shows. You may be thinking that such a show might feature 12 or even 50 musical acts. But, his extensive promotions and networking have attracted 500 artists to his latest showcases. These events are revolutionizing the whole Oklahoma music landscape, as Cutta’s reach has extended into nearly every major genre.

Harnessing all this attention has led Cutta to begin producing a documentary on urban music in Oklahoma. Additionally, he is collaborating with movie producer Melvin Childs to place Oklahoma-made music in motion picture soundtracks.

While engaged in these music and business ventures, Cutta has remained mainly anchored in his home state, taking time off the road to raise his children with his wife of 20 years.

Through all of his success, Cutta remains humble and appreciative to those who have helped and mentored him along the way. He still gives credit to the Burton family of Oklahoma City, who trusted him as a young boy to use their recording studio for free. He maintains that, to this day, that was the biggest boost his career has ever received.

A full interview with Chris Cutta can be viewed on the SHINE on Oklahoma Music YouTube channel.

Brian Maughan serves as Oklahoma County Commissioner, Dist 2 and conducts a series of interviews with Oklahoma music stars for the Oklahoma History Center, called SHINE on Oklahoma Music.

[Left to Right] Chris Cutta with Hamza Lee, District Judge Natalie Mai, and Dele Olasiji and Tre McCoy of Meant2B. Photo provided

City metro.

Maria Angelica Prado (Guernsey) | Kristen Vails (Downtown OKC Partnership)

Canopy Art Center Caritas Casitas Oklahoma City Champions Parade

Calle Dos Cinco

PUBLIC INITIATIVE

Edmond City Center Complex Key to Home Encampment Rehousing Initiative

Corner

PUZZLES

By Michael

and Rebecca Goldstein

92 ‘‘It’s ____ real’’

93 Delicate, as beauty

96 Photo-editing technique used to create a smooth transition

100 Wear (out)

102 Middle-of-the-night woe

104 Duchess of ____ (noted Spanish title)

105 Made younger looking in an editing studio, say

107 Reality TV franchise created by Tyra Banks

108 Philosophy symbolized by yin and yang

111 Ruby look-alike

112 Throw, in modern slang

113 Fort Collins sch.

114 Calls to task?

116 Company behind the machine used to make Slurpees

118 Kind of paper in a lab

123 In back

125 ‘‘Wait, are we done?’’

129 Queen of the fairies

130 Dueling weapon

131 Skin softener

48

61

66

69

73 ‘‘Things are only going to get worse’’ ... or a hint to answering the seven italicized clues in this puzzle

78 Science-and-nature magazine, familiarly

79 Muckety-muck

80 Frequently, poetically

81 Fair-hiring inits.

82 Chemical element whose use led to the first known law against poisoning

84 Herman ____ (potato chip entrepreneur)

85 More sardonic

87 Rest area?

90 Speeds of slow-moving traffic

132 Fruit also known as a ‘‘uniq’’

133 Largest bird in North America

134 X-ray units

135 Immodest

136 ‘‘You can’t make me!,’’ e.g.

1 ‘‘The Exchange’’ airer

2 Flaw in an argument

3 Unknown author, for short

4 Squabbles

5 Unresolved parts of a plot

6 Org. to which you might provide your bank account info

7 Renewable energy structure

8 Lost traction

9 Globelike shape

10 Dress down

11 Poetic contraction

12 Many middle schoolers

13 Ones pressed for cash?

14 Top of a latte

15 Mucho

16 M.L.B. team that once went by OAK on scoreboards

17 In hot water?

18 Fashion designer Carolina

23 Shortage

25 Behind

26 Certain public transit network

31 Singer whose ‘‘Hello’’ was the fastest video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube

34 ‘‘People ____ Strange’’ (the Doors song)

35 Conduct inciting an insurrection

37 World’s first billion-dollar corporation

39 Sac fly result

40 Game piece in Rummikub

41 Royal title

42 Where jet-setters may rub elbows

43 Chalice

49 P.D. alert

50 Prefix meaning ‘‘sun’’

51 ‘‘Heavens to Betsy!’’

54 Subscription-only website feature

56 Look into

59 Contribute

60 Chicago paper, informally

62 N.Y.C. neighborhood that’s home to the Grey Art Museum

63 Lower-body exercise

64 Occupational suffix

65 J.F.K. predecessor

67 Aromatic herb

68 Hold tightly

70 Mariner’s greeting

71 Natural attraction

73 Two peas ____ pod 74 Pitch

75 French wine region

76 LeBron James or Nikola Jokic

77 Delivery person’s assignment: Abbr.

83 ‘‘Wheels’’

85 Beverage infused with THC

86 Fixed, as a ‘‘m-i-t-s-a-k-e’’

88 County in western New York

89 Deck out?

91 Shoe with a thick sole

92 Part of an equestrian’s ensemble 94 Small songbird 95 Benefit plan option, in brief 96 Wealthy sort 97 Stretchy

98 ‘‘Next on my list’’

99 ____ chi

101 Lit up, in a way

103 ____ Valley (San Francisco neighborhood)

106 Less challenging

109 Shell out

110 Video game character aptly celebrated on Mar. 10

115 Bicyclist’s setting

117 Latin list ender

119 Lead-in to a conclusion

120 ____ Millions (multistate lottery)

121 Some addresses

122 Dos + cuatro

124 China’s largest ethnic group

126 Wellness resort offering

127 Horn contents at a Viking feast

128 Depressed

PUBLISHER

Red Center Media

EXECUTIVE

EDITOR-WRITER

Phoebe Grandi pgrandi@okgazette.com

COPY EDITOR AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Leslie A. Spears lspeas@okgazette.com

PRODUCTION EDITOR AND BUSINESS MANAGER Angela Clark Little aclarklittle@okgazette.com

SPRING INTERN

Hope Whitmire hwhitmire@okgazette.com

DISTRIBUTION distribution@okgazette. com

ADVERTISING advertising@okgazette. com

405-528-6000

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Gina Nichols gnichols@okgazette.com

Lynnisa Catlin lcatlin@okgazette.com

CONTRIBUTORS

WRITERS

James Biscone Brian Maughn

Julie Porter Scott

EDITOR

Eleanor Harris

ILLUSTRATOR Steve Hill

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY: MARCH

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In woodworking, “spalting” occurs when fungi colonize wood, creating dark lines and patterns that make the wood more valuable, not less. The decay creates beauty as long as it isn’t allowed to progress too far. Here’s the metaphorical moral of the story for you, Aries: What feels like a deteriorating situation might actually be spalting, Aries. Are you experiencing the breakdown of a routine, a certainty, or a plan? It could be creating a pattern that makes your story even more interesting and heroic. So keep in mind that an apparent decomposition may be transforming ordinary into extraordinary beauty. My advice is to play along with the spalting.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I suspect you will soon be invited to explore novel feelings and unfamiliar states of awareness. As you wander in the psychological frontiers, you might experience mysterious phenomena like the following. 1. An overflow of reverence and awe. 2. Blissful surprise in the face of the sublime. 3. Sudden glimmers of eternity in fleeting moments. 4. A soft, golden resonance that arises when you hear arousing truths. 5. Amazingly useful questions that could tantalize and feed your imagination for months and even years to come.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If I were your mentor, I’d lead you up an ascending trail to a high peak where your vision is clear and vast. If I were your leader, I’d give you a medal for all the ways you’ve been brave when no one was looking, then send you on an all-expenses-paid sabbatical to a beautiful sanctuary to rest and remember yourself. If I were your therapist, I’d guide you through a 90-minute meditation on your entire life story up until now. But since I’m just your companion for this brief oracle, I will instead advise you to slip out of any silken snares of comfort that dull your spirit, cast off perks and privileges that keep you small, and commune with influences that remind you of how deeply you treasure being alive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Biologist Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize by developing

what she called “a feeling for the organism.” She cultivated an intimate, almost empathic relationship with the corn plants she studied. She didn’t impose theories on her subjects. She listened to them until she could sense their hidden patterns from the inside. When you’re not lost in self-protection, you Cancerians excel at this quality of attention. Here’s what I see as your task in the coming weeks: Transfer your empathic genius away from people who drain you and toward projects, places, or problems that deserve your devotion and give you blessings in return.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Sufi writers describe heartbreak, grief, and longing as portals through which divine love enters. They say that a highly defended ego and a hardened heart can’t engage with such profound and potent love. In this view, suffering that makes the heart ache strips away illusions and fixations, allowing greater receptivity, humility, and tenderness toward all beings. I’m not expecting you to get blasted by an influx of poignancy in the near future, Leo, but I’m very sure you have experienced such blasts in the past. And now is an excellent time to process those old breakthroughs disguised as breakdowns. You are likely to finally be able to harvest the full power they offered you.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In traditional Balinese culture, Tri Hita Karana is a concept that means there are three causes of well-being: harmony with God, harmony with people, and harmony with nature. When one is out of balance, all suffer. I’m wondering if you would benefit from meditating on this theme now, Virgo. Have you been focused on one dimension at the expense of the others? Are you, perhaps, spiritually nourished but socially isolated? Or maybe you’re maintaining relationships but ignoring your body’s connection to the earth? Here’s your assignment: Do a Tri Hita Karana audit. Which harmony is most neglected? Add to your altar, call a friend, or go walk in the great outdoors—whichever one you’ve been shortchanging.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You are a diplomat in the struggle between beauty and inelegance. Your aptitude for creating harmony is a great asset that others might underestimate or miss completely. I hope you will always trust your hunger for classiness even if others dismiss it as superficial. One of your key reasons for being here on earth is to keep insisting on loveliness in a world too quick to settle for ugliness. These qualities of yours are especially needed right now. Please be gracefully insistent on expressing them wherever you go.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The bad news: You underestimate how much joy and pleasure you deserve—and how much you’re capable of experiencing. This artificially low expectation has sometimes cheated you out of your rightful share of bliss and fulfillment. The good news: Life is now ready to conspire with you to raise your happiness levels. I hope you will cooperate eagerly. The more intensely you insist on feeling good, the more cosmic assistance you will garner. Here’s a smart way to launch this holy campaign: Renounce a certain lackluster thrill that diverts you from more lavish excitements.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In classical music, a “rest” isn’t the absence of music. It’s a specific notation that creates space, tension, and meaning. The silence is as much a part of the composition as the sound. I suggest you think of your current pause this way, Sagittarius. You’re not waiting for your real life to resume. You’re in a rest, and the rest is an essential part of the process you’re following. It’s creating the conditions for what comes next. So instead of anxiously filling every moment with productivity or distraction, try honoring the pause. Be deliberately quiet. Let the silence accumulate. When the next movement begins, you’ll understand exactly why the rest was necessary.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Interesting temptations are wandering into your orbit. You may be surprised to find yourself drawn toward entertaining gambles and tricky adventures. How should you respond? Should you say “Yes! Now! I’m ready!”? Or is open-minded caution a

wiser approach? Conditions are too slippery for me to arrive at definitive conclusions. What I can tell you is this: Merely considering and ruminating on these invitations will awaken uplifting and inspiring lessons. PS: To get the fullness of the blessings you want from other people, you must first give them to yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The engineer Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) said he envisioned his inventions in intricate detail before building them. He didn’t need literal prototypes because his mental pictures were so vivid. I suspect you Aquarians now have extra access to this power. What scenarios are you dreaming of? What are you incubating in your imagination? I urge you to boldly trust your thought experiments. Your mental prototypes may be unusually accurate. The visions you’re testing internally are reconnaissance missions to futures that you have the power to build. Regard your imagination as a laboratory.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Sufi mystics tell us that the heart has “seven levels of depth,” each one bearing progressively more profound wisdom. You access these depths by feeling deeper, not thinking harder. Let’s apply this perspective to you, Pisces. Right now, you’re being called to descend past surface emotions (irritation, worry, mild contentment) into the layers beneath: primal wonder, the wild joy you’re sometimes too cautious to express, and the sacred longing that can lead you to glory. This dive might feel risky. That’s good! It means you’re going deep enough. What you discover down there will reorganize everything above it for the better.

Rob Brezsny Free Will Astrology freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com