The Doorway to Hope Artist Talk & Prayer: Honoring the Living Legacy of North Tulsa

TULSA, Okla. – As part of the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival’s 4th annual commemoration of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa-based creative Marlon Hall will host the “Doorway to Hope Artist Talk & Prayer.” This event will take place under the N. Elgin St. bridge, between the historic Mount Zion Baptist Church and John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park, at 2 PM on June 1, 2024.

Celebrating the Living Legacy: Highlighting North Tulsa’s Unsung Heroes Through Art and Storytelling in Doorway to Hope

“Oftentimes, we focus so much on the legacy – there is to remember – when it comes to our history and heritage. And that is important,” Hall explained. “This project is a way to honor the legacy that’s living – the living legacy of North Tulsa.”

The project features 20 large-scale images of North Tulsans, whose identities are often minimized. This initiative maximizes their presence through large portraits of community members nominated by their peers. Each image includes a QR code that leads to an audio narrative where the members share their personal stories in their own words. Each image is accompanied by a door. 

“We have doorways because they represent the pathways or portals through which we travel when we hear a person’s story,” Hall explains.

Commissioned by the Oklahoma Artist Council in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the City of Tulsa, this project highlights the significance of local collaboration. Hall and his partner worked with various Tulsa-based artists to bring this vision to life.

“I choose to work with Tulsa-based Black artists because it’s artwork for the people, by the people, and with the people,” Hall emphasized.

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Rev. Joey Crutcher’s Enduring Legacy: Honoring Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors and Leading Tomorrow’s Prayer

Rev. Joey Crutcher, one of the nominees, strengthened the connection with the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival.

“I’m so honored and humbled that out of all the people who were nominated; I had also been chosen. They chose to put my image on the wall. I don’t even have words to express it,” Rev. Joey Crutcher said.

Notably, Rev. Crutcher is a descendant of survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Both his mother and grandmother shared with him their harrowing stories of fleeing to nearby Muskogee, Oklahoma, to escape the fires and the violent White mob. Last May, Rev. Crutcher became Dr. Rev., receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Phillips Theological Seminary. 

Hence, it will be Dr. Rev. Joey Crutcher who will lead tomorrow’s prayer at the Doorway to Hope Artist Talk & Prayer, which honors the victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race massacre, the worst act of racial violence against Black lives on American soil.

The public and press are invited to attend this event to raise awareness of the positive creativity and living legacy that continues to persist in North Tulsa even after a century-old tragedy.