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BLACK WALL STREET ARTS–
101 N. Greenwood Avenue • Tulsa, OK 74120 -(918) 521-8201
TULSA, OK — Black Wall Street Gallery, a subsidiary of Black Wall Street Arts, will launch the sixth installment in the Conciliation Series on Friday, Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. Black Wall Street Gallery is located at 101 N. Greenwood.
The Black Wall Street Arts mission is to create platforms, grant access, and bridge the racial gap in Tulsa.
The Conciliation Series February installment features Christina Henley and Western Doughty.
The work of Western Doughty is a series of studies in vivid contrasts and unseen beauty which hearken back to his childhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where gender, race, and class struggles impacted him profoundly. Also raised in the world of art and photography, he first began shooting images for his father’s company as early as nine years old. “I draw from anything I see that leaves a profound impression. Gaylord Oscar Herron, Larry Clark, Robert Mapplethorpe, Francesca Woodman, David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, James Baldwin and Akira Kurosawa are all significant to me in that I could relate to them. Each has, in different ways, enabled me to see that my own struggles with the world around me can be incorporated into my art.” Western Doughty’s professional photography career has spanned twenty years of gallery, portraiture, advertising, and commissions.
From her early childhood experiences in the arts by performing in school plays, to singing in the choir, Christina Henley took more of an interest in exploring the arts after graduating from high school. Deciding to pursue a higher education, Christina attended Tulsa Community College, and received an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts. She then transferred to Oklahoma State University and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art, with an emphasis in printmaking and sculpture. Currently, Christina resides in Tulsa, OK where she was born and raised and is a member of the Tulsa-based arts group, Black Moon Collective.
Curator Dr. Ricco Wright said “Conciliation” suggests mediating between parties at odds with one another. It also allows space for acknowledgment, apology, and reparation.
“The Conciliation Series seeks to generate positive relations between, primarily, Tulsa’s black and white communities. Our shared history evidences the imperative of working collaboratively toward amicable, productive, and sustainable engagement,” he said.
This twelve-month series will pair black and white artists of various media to build personal and group relationships that cultivate meaningful, lasting bonds.
THE CONCILIATION SERIES UPCOMING EXHIBITS:
February: Christina Henley and Western Doughty
March: Stacie Monday and Marjorie Atwood
April: nosamyrag and Austin Gober
May: MOLLYWATTA and Matt Phipps
June: Tailynn Tindall and Taylor Painter-Wolfe
July: Boomintree and Cheyenne Butcher
August: Melody Allen and Julianne Clark
PAST FEATURED ARTISTS:
September: Alexander Tamahn and JP Morrison Lans
October: Monarch Jones and Andrea Martin
November: Diamond Walker and Laura Elisabeth Voth
December: Abdallah Alislam and Frida Cornelio
January: Elizabeth Feahther Henley and Nicole Donis
Literary Editor
Casey McLerran is the Literary Editor at the Black Wall Street Times. She is a Sooner State transplant from Forest Hills, NY. McLerran arrived in Oklahoma at the age of three shortly after gentrification displaced her and her family out of their home in New York. At first glance, many think they have McLerran figured out. To be frank, she’s a biracial American young woman that unapologetically embraces her half-African identity — a feminist-womanist she is. Her pen operates as her voice as well as her sword. Her accolades include the 2018 Rural Oklahoma Poetry Museum’s Oklahoma Poem Award, a business management degree, and her three beautiful children. Her objective with the Black Wall Street Times is to elevate and amplify the literary art of modern black American culture, pay tribute to African-American literary trailblazers, all while simultaneously linking and introducing children to the world of colorful American writers.