Oklahoma Oral History Research Program

OOHRP's Dr. Autumn Brown will be speaking with fellow panelists on the importance of oral history in understanding history and preserving the voices of underrepresented communities. Listen in on Thursday, Jan. 9 from 7-8 p.m. at the Bethany Library.

Richard Whitman jokes that the FBI were the first collectors of his work when they confiscated his camera and film at Wounded Knee.

Born in Gypsy, Oklahoma, Whitman spoke Yuchi as a first language. He attended the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he developed as an artist and connected with his peers and teachers. He then spent a semester at Cal Art, and while in California, he joined a group that traveled up to the Wounded Knee Occupation. During this time, Richard began to build a career in visual arts and became interested in mixed-media photography.

His collections, like the notable “Street Chiefs Series,” which captured displaced Native men, explore Indigenous survival and culture. His work may not always fit well with the commercial market, but he has always relayed important social messages for the Native community.

Whitman has received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award for his activism through his art, which has been displayed in the Museum of the American Indian and the Smithsonian, amongst other institutions.

To learn more about Richard Whitman and his influential work, you can visit: youtube.com/watch?v=gJVQtcV33w4

Margaret Roach Wheeler thought of herself as an artist from a young age. She notes that she always took pride in being the “class artist" from a young age. As an adult, her work takes her worldwide from China to Scotland, to learn and teach about indigenous weaving.

Margaret was born to two Chickasaw parents. She was primarily raised outside the tribe as her father worked in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the family moved around often. Her career began in painting and sculpture, but she eventually fell in love with textiles.

Her pieces use traditional techniques and themes that are connected to indigenous culture. She started by weaving clothes and showing them in fashion shows or competitions and quickly gained recognition in artist towns like Santa Fe, New Mexico. She explores indigenous materials like buffalo fiber, and imagery and styles originating in the mounds tribes.

In 2010, she was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame. Throughout her career, she has gained a reputation for her excellent work and has been sought after as a teacher and mentor.

To learn more about Margarate Roach Wheeler, you can visit: youtube.com/watch?v=wyIaovE23JQ

The Chickasaw Nation

Today, Mike Larsen is one of the most recognized Native American artists in Oklahoma. His paintings and sculptures explore various aspects of Native culture, especially his tribe, the Chickasaw Nation. Yet, he doesn’t remember having any interest in art until his senior year of high school.

His senior art class obviously left a lasting impression, as Larsen enrolled as an art major at Amarillo Junior College and later at the University of Houston. He began a successful career as an artist and even spent some time in New York City as a part of the Art Students League at thirty-six — learning to achieve the “quality of paint” he sought in his work.

From a mural of the Five Moons ballerinas and portraits of Chickasaw elders, Larsen has an extensive portfolio that explores culture, color, and scale. He continues to work and lives in Perkins, Oklahoma, with his wife, Martha. To learn more about Mike Larsen, you can visit: okla.st/3ZHBRDo

This November's episode of Amplified Oklahoma explores the impact of Title IX on women’s sports. OSU has seen its fair share of talented athletes — many of which came from women's teams. Hard work and dedication from many women across athletics fostered developments that led us to the ever-growing popularity of women’s athletics today. Before Title IX, women simply did not have the same athletic opportunities men did.

Listen and learn about women’s sports then and now, as well as the challenges that these young women who paved the way for women’s athletics everywhere faced. You'll also hear from Karen Hancock about the explosion of support for women’s sports today and, more importantly, for women athletes themselves.

Explore the episode: okla.st/49paUHR

Henry “Hank” Byrd was raised to pursue a dependable job and a nuclear family. However, he found a creative alternative that allowed him to pursue his passions.

After four years in the military and completing his degree at Kansas State University, he started working in media. He later opened his Tulsa-based production company, Cinemental Filmworks, in 2009.

Hank has written, directed and/or edited multiple projects throughout his career. One project, "bLERDS", was based on his own experience as a self-proclaimed “black nerd.” Henry wanted to explore and subvert the often one-dimensional “Urkel” archetype, and portray Black men who were nerdy with multi-faceted and developed stories.

Byrd is excited to see the development of the Black artist community in North Tulsa, saying, “We’re historic Greenwood. We’re descendants of that. Our families are a part of that, so being cognizant of the spirit of Greenwood, the spirit of entrepreneurship, the spirit of artistry, craftsmanship, you know, that’s in us as Oklahomans.”

To learn more about Henry Byrd and his work, you can visit: youtube.com/watch?v=F08iYejQZGA

Sequena "Queen" Alexander comes from a family legacy of Black-owned businesses in North Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2021, she opened up her own – the Greenwood Gallery.

Sequena has always had an eye for art and fashion. Paired with a degree in merchandising and marketing, she had all the skills to open up a successful gallery.

The gallery initially opened in the historic Greenwood district, where it highlighted and elevated Black artists and their work. Queen wanted to bring another legacy to the area that wasn't defined by the tragedy of the 1921 Race Massacre, but by Black success and community. She hopes to see Black Wall Street rebuilt and to direct attention to the burgeoning artistic community in North Tulsa.

The Greenwood Gallery is now online but still platforms Black artists. To learn more about Sequena and her business, visit: youtube.com/watch?v=sR8Bnip5Cm0

Between 2000 and 2001, individual and group interviews were conducted with over 100 women who lived through the Dust Bowl — primarily in the seven western-most Oklahoma counties, where the Dust Bowl hit the hardest. Principal investigators Steven Kite, Shelly Lemons, and Jennifer Paustenbaugh of the Oklahoma State University Library uncovered memories of good and hard times, of the WPA, President Roosevelt, the challenges of domestic life during the Dirty Thirties, rabbit drives, Saturday evenings in town, and lives full of dust.

On Nov. 25, Dr. Steven Kite and Dr. Shelly Lemons will be speaking at UCO about their research and experiences. You can find more details about the lecture here: facebook.com/share/1DPsGXL9TA/

For Alex Tamahn, art is a way to interact with his own experiences as a black man and with larger issues and concepts within the black community.

His childhood was split between Chicago with his mother, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his grandparents. Having a sibling with a developmental disability, struggling with parental challenges, and spending a lot of time in predominately-white neighborhoods all shaped the way he interacted with his identity and social constructs.

After college, he began working to counsel youth struggling with addiction. This work fueled his motivation to create and commentate on the work around him. He eventually began to work as an artist full-time, joining Black Moon and painting murals all over Tulsa. His work expresses social themes that are hard to articulate and can sometimes become more powerful through a visual medium.

To learn more about Alex Tamahn and his amazing work, you can visit: okla.st/4fGQqwa

Join OOHRP, BLAC, Inc, and the Oklahoma Historical Society for the first ever Oklahoma City-Area Oral History Meet Up. This social gathering is designed to build networks with peers doing oral history interviewing and managing oral history collections. Free box lunch and door prizes! Sponsored by the Oral History Association.

If interested, register here by Nov. 27: okla.st/3AFZkev

Using found objects, artist Francheska Alcantara makes art that connects to life and their Caribbean identity.

They spent their childhood in the Caribbean countryside in a traditional home where they spent much time outside. But at 17, they moved to New York City to be with their mother, which was a stark change in environment and culture.

After studying literature and history and traveling a lot in the Navy, they began feeling called to create. They create art using ordinary objects from her childhood in the Caribbean, like soap, to create abstract pieces. Francheska focuses on messages that communicate Afro-Caribbean experiences, producing pieces in Tulsa and New York.

To learn more about Francheska Alcantara and their work, you can visit: okla.st/3YP0AEk

When Stevie Johnson combined academia with Hip-hop, he grabbed the attention of the academic community.

Raised by his mother, who he dubs a “hip-hop feminist” before it was even a concept, his music education started at home. He also credits educators like his first-grade teacher for melding his love of music and education.

He continued his education at the University of Oklahoma, where he was met with the culture shock and isolation that went with attending a predominantly white campus. He started DJing and quickly found community, and a lot of success while earning his Masters and Ph.D from OU. His dissertation was a combination of writings and recordings entitled ""Curriculum of the Mind: A BlackCrit, Narrative Inquiry Hip-Hop Album on Anti-Blackness and Freedom for Black Male Collegian at Historically White Institutions."" His work earned him the prestigious ASHE Dissertation of the Year.

He continues to produce, write, and advocate for hip-hop music independently and as a professor at the School of Music at The Ohio State University He served as the Executive Producer of the Fire in Little Africa project, and recently produced the album Punished for Dreaming, to accompany Dr. Bettina Love's book of the same title. His messages have historical and social motivations that continue to combine education and music.

To learn more about Stevie and all of his work, you can visit: okla.st/4hKqxgW

Biochemistry and art may seem like two unlikely counterparts, but for Tulsan Serae Avance, their connection is obvious.

Serae grew up immersed in art, with an artist father who taught her about design and color. She initially intended to follow that path but ended up studying biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma. With a genuine passion for helping others, she was on her way to becoming an orthopedic surgeon. But Serae was called back to art and quickly realized that she could mesh both studies of interest.

While studying biochemistry, Avance was fascinated with the colorful and abstract images of molecules she saw under microscopes. As she began working as a photographer, opening up her company Irie Blues Co. in 2017, she found a unique way to let biochemistry and photography interact.

Her work highlights women, particularly women of color, using unique compositions and colors. Her "Knowledge, Struggle, and Unity" series was displayed at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa.

To learn more about Serae and her work, you can visit: okla.st/3O8SLUQ

As a student musician, Am’re Ford quickly learned that classical music was whitewashed.

Ford grew up as a natural musician, singing and making music with his family in Black churches. In college, he grew frustrated with the conventions of classical music and the Euro-centric definitions of the genre. The Black Church's improvisational talent contradicted Ford's view of classical music's somewhat stuffy modern conventions.

After graduation, Am’re forwent conventions and started composing music in a way that felt accessible to him — swapping Italian musical terms for English and sticking to the style he grew up with. He found a job teaching at an all-black elementary school in Tulsa, where he teaches classical music to little kids. He continues to make music in Tulsa.

Am’re is proud of the black artistic community in North Tulsa and encouraged others to pay attention to the work coming out of the city, “I want white people to use their privilege, their power to highlight the Black creatives that are doing the work and who need the resources. Prop them up to be the center so that they can reap the benefits of the storytelling that is their story to tell. If you’re Black and listening, tell your own story. If you’re white and listening, pay for a Black person to tell their own story”.

To learn more about Am’re, you can visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_1theBxB60

Tomorrow is the last day to register for OSLEP Oklahoma "The New Deal in Oklahoma: Exploring Our Part Through Archival Collections." This course explores the history of Oklahoma's New Deal era through maps, oral histories and archival documents, taught by OOHRP's Sarah Milligan and Patrick Daglaris, and Edmon Low Library Maps and Spatial Data Curator Kevin D**e.

Register here: okla.st/4hfBNBI

Starting an oral history project can be overwhelming. Even beyond the interview process, there are many variables to account for, such as project planning, budgeting and building a team to make your project a reality. OOHRP's "Starting Your Own Oral History Project" is an essential guide for bringing an oral history project to life, and provides many resources to navigate the process!

Starting Your Own Oral History Project 00:00 Intro00:38 Defining Oral History 01:26 Goals 03:21 Teams 05:18 Equipment 06:14 Budget 07:54 Outro Starting an oral history project can be overwhelming....