"Deep Greenwood" Series Returns With Memories and Music

Program at Big 10 Ballroom will bring Greenwood's vibrant heyday back to life on Saturday, Nov. 11

“I grew up on Deep Greenwood,” Washington Rucker told me. “I do not relate to Black Wall Street.”

We were sitting in the office of the Oklahoma Eagle during my years of research of Built From the Fire, and Mr. Rucker was unfurling his amazing origin story for me. How he’d been born right there on Greenwood Avenue in the 1930’s, developed a love of music in the 1940’s, and become a fixture at Greenwood clubs and concert halls as a teenaged drummer in the 1950’s. For him, “Black Wall Street” was a hollow slogan, but Greenwood was an actual place.

“What is the identity of Wall Street per se?” Rucker continued. “If they understood what Wall Street represented, it wasn’t about entertainment. It wasn’t about the common way of living. There was no barbershop on Wall Street. There was no movie theater on the real Wall Street. So why do you embrace that that doesn’t belong to you? Why don’t you create your own thing?”

This weekend, on Saturday, Nov. 11, I’m inviting Mr. Rucker on stage alongside me for the second event in my “Deep Greenwood” series in Tulsa (check out the full schedule here). Washington Rucker is an acclaimed drummer who has traveled the world performing with artists like Stevie Wonder and Miles Davis. He’s also an inductee in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. We’ll be discussing the history of Greenwood’s nightlife and music scene in the 1930s through the 1950s. This culture is captured most vividly in Chapter 15 of Built From the Fire. But I only researched it; Mr. Rucker lived it.

I’m especially excited to begin doing some events that expand the aperture on Greenwood beyond the Tulsa Race Massacre. While the first event in the “Deep Greenwood” series focused on the leadup to the massacre and the event itself, the rest of the series will examine other aspects of Greenwood’s history and culture.

Saturday’s talk will take place at the Big 10 Ballroom, the famous North Tulsa music venue that once hosted artists like Ray Charles, Etta James, and B.B. King. Local television news reporter MaKayla Glenn from News on 6 will moderate, and poet Phetote Mshairi will open the event with a spoken word performance. Books will be on sale at the event, courtesy Fulton Street Books.

A live band will follow the book talk while a dinner buffet is served. All activities and food are free and open to the public. The event begins on Nov. 11 at 4 PM. If you’re in the area, please come out and bring a friend!