Page 4 - Steph Simon News Today

Loading the player... Tulsa is commemorating the centennial of the 1921 race massacre, a violent incident of racism that almost entirely destroyed the city’s Black community. The events are putting a spotlight on Black Tulsans’ long, painful struggle toward racial equality – a struggle echoed throughout U.S. history in Black communities across the country. Both historically and in today’s political environment, the sense among many Black voters in Tulsa is that neither pa...

How Tulsa is unburying – and confronting – a history of racism Read full article May 27, 2021, 3:51 AM·29 min read On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob – enraged by a rumor that a young Black man had assaulted a white woman – attacked the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mob set fire to the district, looted businesses, killed Black residents, and displaced thousands. It was one of the most devastating incidents of racist violence in U.S. history. And it stayed mo...

Loading the player... On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob – enraged by a rumor that a young Black man had assaulted a white woman – attacked the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The mob set fire to the district, looted businesses, killed Black residents, and displaced thousands.  It was one of the most devastating incidents of racist violence in U.S. history. And it stayed mostly unmentioned for decades.   Today, 100 years after what is now known as the Tulsa rac...

Black artists have a new vision for Tulsa. Can it heal old divides? Read full article Oops! Tulsa has big plans for the centennial of the 1921 race massacre that left the city’s Black community in ruins. Many residents say these efforts are important. But members of the city’s Black community say they’re just starting the process of mourning what they’ve lost – even as they’re trying to build something new. The Greenwood Art Project aims to make sure Tulsa and the country know the h...

Loading the player... How does a city confront a violent past? Tulsa, Oklahoma, is wrestling with the question as it prepares for the centennial of the brutal race massacre that took place there on May 31 and June 1, 1921.  For Tulsa native Jerica Wortham, one answer is through art – especially art that lets Tulsa’s Black community members process their painful history, own the stories for themselves, and find a path toward healing. As program director for The Greenwood Art Project...

‘Fire In Little Africa Album Commemorates Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial The album’s mission is to recondition the minds of listeners while serving as an auditory viewpoint of Black America today. Last year, more than 50 Oklahoma-based artists set out to record Fire in Little Africa, an album that commemorates the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Rappers, singers, and producers spent several days working tirelessly from their respective locations, aiming for musical excellence. ...

Save this story for later. The Tulsa massacre of 1921 was perhaps the single worst act of racial violence in the terrible history of Jim Crow. But, for generations, few people—even in Tulsa—knew about it. Now the rap community of Tulsa is coming together to change that, with the new record “Fire in Little Africa.” Plus, four staff writers on President Biden’s Rooseveltian agenda. Biden wants to end the near-consensus in Washington that big government is bad. But are his...

Rolling Stone Poetry and Jazz Meet in a Vision of Tulsa’s Past and Future Fire in Little Africa’s debut single, “Shining,” features some of Oklahoma’s strongest voices By When a group of hip-hop artists from Tulsa, Oklahoma, began work on the collaborative project Fire in Little Africa last year, they had a dual purpose: The album is meant both to etch their hometown’s history into an artistic monument, honoring the 100th anniversary of one of America’s worst acts of ra...

Designing Women III: MOTHER Opens at Egg Collective’s Tribeca Gallery May 4, 2021 According to the National Women’s Law Center, more than 2.3 million women have left the American labor force since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 2020. For Hillary Petrie, partner with Stephanie Beamer and Crystal Ellis in New York’s Egg Collective, this data is more than just an “incredible loss in creative capital.” It points to the “motherhood penalty,” or the sociological term f...

“Carrying the legacy of the Black Wall Street community, Fire in Little Africa is a body of work filled with purpose and prolific storytelling. I am honored and feel privileged to have Motown Records/Black Forum partner with Dr. View, the Bob Dylan Center, and Guthrie Center to release this impactful hip-hop album.”  The project was recorded in Greenwood, Oklahoma over five days last year at studios set up at landmark locations throughout the city, including Greenwood Cultural Center. I...