07/01/2026
The mural tradition in North Tulsa that has flourished since the 2021 centennial of the Race Massacre is doing something specific: it is creating a visible, public record of Black Tulsa's history in the neighborhood where that history happened. The murals are not just art — they are counter-monuments to a version of history that was suppressed for decades and is now being reclaimed in paint, on the walls of the community that has always known the truth.
The transmission of artistic skill from an artist to young students in a mural workshop is also the transmission of historical consciousness — the understanding that these images matter, that they are saying something that needs to be said, and that the next generation has both the capability and the responsibility to keep saying it. The artists who are teaching these workshops are not just teaching technique; they are passing on a practice of public witness.
North Tulsa's cultural renaissance since 2021 has attracted significant outside attention and investment, which carries its own complicated questions about who benefits and who controls the narrative. The Black artists and community organizations that have been doing this work for years — often without outside funding or recognition — are navigating a moment when their community's story has suddenly become interesting to people who weren't paying attention before. The mural workshop is one answer to that challenge: build the capacity within the community to tell its own story, on its own walls.
