Monthly Archives: October 2022

A Touch of Tulsa

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Conferences can take you to places you never had any ambition to visit otherwise. I have to admit, Tulsa, Oklahoma was not one of my top destinations around the U.S., but since the annual American Folklore Society meetings were held there last week (and as a steadfast folklorist I try never to miss AFS), It was the place to be.

Besides the 1921 tragedy of the Greenwood neighborhood, which I learned a lot more about, and as the home of the Woody Guthrie Center, which I visited, I didn’t really know what to expect of Tulsa. I was pleasantly surprised by its very walkable downtown, Art Deco flourishes, and very nice eating establishments.

Of course, one has to steal moments away from the conference paper sessions, forums, meetings and presentations to explore the city at all. It’s all too tempting to stay inside the hotel and not see anything past the meeting rooms and hallways, with occasional forays to forage for sustenance. But, having traveled all that way, I was determined to get out and about.

A highlight of the “out and about” was a visit to the Philbrook Museum, thanks to a friend of a friend who is a Tulsa native and drove us there, since it is a ways from downtown. This stately mansion formerly the home of the Phillips family (as in, Phillips Petroleum) houses three stories of a very eclectic art collection inside, and beautiful gardens outside. On the way there and back we saw many lovely neighborhoods, parks, and the riverside, all of which I wished I had time to explore.

In conclusion, I might need to visit Tulsa again someday to see the things I missed. Meanwhile, here are some photos of what I did see and do!

Downtown Tulsa boasts a number of snappy Art Deco buildings, which are lit up at night.
Tulsa is also chock full of murals, many of them more colorful than this one on the side of the Woody Guthrie Center. But this one is quite striking.
Folklorists always have to document what they are eating. My friend Lucy and I had a Caribbean feast for late lunch/early dinner at Sisserou’s.
For some reason I did not fully understand even after I read the explanation, the Bob Dylan Center is also in Tulsa, right next to the Woody Guthrie Center. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind…? I liked their use of archival boxes in one display.
Autumn splendor in the Philbrook garden. Lots of butterflies and bees in the almost too warm weather.
Least the spendor of the house, museum and gardens prove too much, a humble log cabin has been reconstructed on the grounds of the Philbrook as well. With an artistic twist, of course. If you look closely, you’ll see this “fireplace” is totally constructed from books! And the ceiling is festooned with recycled glass lighting fixtures. “Chinking” is fabric treated with some sort of glue/acrylic. Super cool use of repurposed materials!
The final night of the conference, we were invited to a Native American stomp dance which took place in the cavernous space which is the ballroom. You are not allowed to dance unless invited by a community member, so we just observed, but it was interesting to watch the community using the ballroom for this event, which is traditionally, we were told, done out of doors.