‘Deep Greenwood’ on Feb. 1 to Talk Urban Renewal + Spring Tour
What I'll be up to around the country and in the newsletter in 2024
After a holiday season filled with friends, family, and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, I’m returning to the road this week to continue talking about Built From the Fire and the history of Greenwood. My community book read series Deep Greenwood will include three more events in Tulsa, and I’ll be headed to several colleges around the country on the second leg of my academic book tour. All the details below:
Going Deeper on Urban Renewal at OSU-Tulsa
On Thursday, Feb. 1, I’ll be joined by Tulsa photographer Don Thompson for a discussion about the origins of urban renewal in Greenwood and its wide-ranging impacts. Mr. Thompson, who came to Tulsa in his high school years in the 1950’s, was a young photojournalist in Greenwood when the bulldozers arrived not long after. His images of the era capture what the neighborhood was like on the precipice of its second destruction.
The conversation will be moderated by Erica Townsend-Bell, director of the Center for African Studies at Oklahoma State University. The event begins at 7 p.m. at the OSU-Tulsa Campus Auditorium. Refreshments will be provided afterwards.
Academic Tour, Part II
On Tuesday, Jan. 29, I’ll begin the second half of my academic book tour at the University of Arkansas’ Multicultural Center. There are plenty of parallels to Greenwood’s story in Arkansas. The town of Elaine was the site of its own race massacre in 1919. The director of Little Rock’s urban renewal program, which was protested by some black residents, eventually headed up urban renewal in Tulsa. A big part of what I try to do whenever I leave Tulsa is explain how what happened in Greenwood mirrored events in black communities across the country.
Later in the semester I’m headed to several more colleges. I’m especially looking forward to getting to talk to some of the student newspaper staff at these schools. When I was a freshman at the University of Alabama, back in the Ancient Times, I joined the school paper the night before classes started.
Festival Season
On Saturday, Feb. 17, I’ll be at the Savannah Book Festival talking about the process of building the historical world of Greenwood at the same time I was building relationships with people in the community. This is my first appearance as a speaker at a book festival, but I got to go to the Savannah festival last year as an attendee. I honestly didn’t know people went this hard for books–I met several people from around the country who make an annual trip to the event. It’s pretty awesome. And a great reminder that even though the writing process is quite solitary, books themselves are wonderfully communal. Full festival schedule is available here.
The Future of This Newsletter
I’ve had a bit of a writing hangover for the last few months. It’s a little intimidating trying to return to the (digital) page with a voice I know won’t be as polished as what I presented in Built From the Fire–especially with new readers who might not know that half the reason I started this newsletter was to source songs for my black country music playlist. But I think it’s important that I keep the rhythm of writing for a public going, even if the Next Big Thing is a ways off.
So the newsletter will be exiting Promo Mode for the most part after this and getting back to talking about my research and offering small vignettes of black history. I’ll share some of what I’ve been reading as I explore new project ideas. And I’d like to collect some of my thoughts on what it’s been like being a capital-A Author for the last several months. Hopefully there are some unique things I’ve done with Built From the Fire that could be helpful for others trying to use books as a pathway to community and civic engagement.
In closing: Bama’s Back. See y’all in the inbox or in your city throughout the year.