StudioTulsa

On this edition of ST, we learn about Arab Film Fest Tulsa, which opens tomorrow (10/21) at Circle Cinema here in Tulsa and runs through Sunday (10/24). A joint presentation of Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Circle Cinema, and Mizna, an Arab American arts/cultural organization based in Minnesota, this festival will offer several feature-length movies (as well as a few shorts) of Southwest Asian or North African (as in, "SWANA") origin. The films will explore various aspects of art, identity, community, and family in order to convey the diversity and complexity of Arab and Arab American experiences. Our guests are Moheb Soliman, a TAF Fellow, and Lana Barkawi, the executive/artistic director of Mizna. (For more on Arab Film Fest Tulsa, please visit the Circle Cinema website.)

(Note: This interview first aired back in June.) When the documentary film "Period. End of Sentence." won an Oscar in 2019, the film's co-producer, Melissa Berton, said in her acceptance speech: "A period should end a sentence, not a girl's education." Now comes a book that follows-up on that goundbreaking movie, a far-reaching work that outlines the challenges confronting those who menstruate worldwide and the solutions being offered by a new generation of body-positive activists and innovators. Our guest is the author of this work, Anita Diamant. As was noted in this starred review in Booklist: "This [book] is a barn-burner of cultural analysis that never strays from the preventable suffering at its core. A life-improving title that should be made as widely available as possible."

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we look at the status quo of COVID in the Sooner State. How many people have been vaxxed in Oklahoma statewide...and how does our state compare to others in this regard? How many Delta Variant cases are being reported now by our state's hospitals? And is the number going up or down? Among those who, indeed, have been vaxxed, who should be getting a booster shot? And who shouldn't? And what about the flu shot -- who should be getting that? And is it possible, or even desirable, to get one's booster shot and flu shot in a single visit to a clinic? Our guest is Dr. Dale W. Bratzler, professor and chair of the Department of Health Administration and Policy at the Hudson College of Public Health, and also a professor in the College of Medicine, at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Bratzler was named Chief COVID Officer for the University of Oklahoma in June of last year.

Our guest is the acclaimed Chickasaw classical composer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. He's known for blending Chickasaw and other Native American elements with European musical instruments to create compositions that've been performed by the likes of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and others. Tate will be the focus of the next Signature Symphony chamber music concert, happening in-person on Saturday the 16th at the VanTrease PACE on the TCC Southeast Campus. The concert is titled "American Indian Expressions" and begins at 7:30pm; more info, including how to get tickets, is posted here. Tate will appear onstage at this special concert, speaking about his compositions as well as his training and career in music.

Oklahoma, as you might've heard, is welcoming more Afghan refugees than any state in the US other than California and Texas. How many of these refugees will be settling in the Tulsa area in the coming weeks and months? And what's being done to welcome these new neighbors of ours? What is being done to help them find homes or jobs, to help them enroll in school or locate health care, to show them how to obtain a driver's license or speak English? How are various groups and individuals throughout the Tulsa area working to ease their transition? We review these questions with Aliye Shimi, executive director of Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry, or TMM, a nonprofit that bridges gaps and builds relationships among the various faith-based and compassionate organizations in our community. TMM is working with Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma, Congregation B'nai Emunah, All Souls Unitarian Church, The University of Tulsa, and other outlets to coordinate volunteers, ensure services, and distribute donations on behalf of our incoming fellow citizens from Afghanistan. (You can learn more about these efforts -- and about how to get involved -- at the TMM website.)

On this edition of ST, we offer an another installment in the Museum Confidential podcast series, which is a co-production of Philbrook Museum of Art and Public Radio Tulsa. This time out, MC connects with the legendary musician, painter, actor, and director, John Lurie, who might be best known as a co-founder of the Lounge Lizards, the jazz/avant/indie band that thrived on the 1980s "downtown scene" in NYC. He's also acted in many films, including "Stranger than Paradise" and "Down by Law," and has composed and/or performed music for nearly two dozen TV and film works over the years. Since 2000, Lurie has been dealing with chronic Lyme disease; in this time, he has also focused more and more on his painting. And thus his well-regarded -- and typically off-the-wall -- television series, "Painting with John," debuted on HBO in early 2021. (A second season of "Painting with John" is now in the works.) Moreover, Lurie's memoir, "The History of Bones," was published by Penguin Random House a couple of months ago. He chats with MC about all of the above -- and more.

Our guest is Kyle Harper, a professor of classics and letters at the University of Oklahoma, whose books include "The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire" and "From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity." He joins us to discuss his hefty and fascinating new book, "Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History." It offers a meticulously detailed "germ's-eye view" of human life on this planet -- from the origins of disease among our earliest hunter-gatherers to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Per Kirkus Reviews: "Well-conceived.... Harper combs through the literature of history, economics, epidemiology, and other disciplines to deliver a solid study of the role of infectious disease in the human story.... A welcome addition to the spate of recent books on epidemic disease."

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Eric Garcia, a political journalist based in Washington, DC, who's worked for or written for National Journal, Marketwatch, Roll Call, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and other publications. He joins us to discuss his remarkable new book, "We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation." As Garcia, who is himself on the spectrum, writes in these pages: "This book is a message from autistic people to their parents, friends, teachers, coworkers, and doctors showing what life is like on the spectrum. It's also my love letter to autistic people. For too long, we have been forced to navigate a world where all the road signs are written in another language." Further, per a review of Garcia's volume in The Washington Post: "Outstanding.... Garcia's book uses rich storytelling and insightful reporting to uncover not only the long history of how autistic people have been mistreated but also how they continue to be ignored.... [This] is exactly the book we need to lead the way in changing the autism conversation. It belongs on the shelf next to 'NeuroTribes' as essential reading on autism and neurodiversity."

Tomorrow night, Saturday the 9th, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra will begin its new season with a concert beginning at 8pm in the Tulsa PAC. It'll be the first time the TSO has performed in this space with an audience since the pandemic began (and masks as well as proof of COVID-19 vaccination -- or else proof of a negative COVID-19 test result -- will be required for entry). The evening will feature Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade, Liszt's Les Preludes, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"), the last-named featuring the renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson. Our guest on ST is the distinguished guest conductor for this concert, Bramwell Tovey.

Our guest is Anita Hill, the University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's and Gender Studies at Brandeis University. Following her historic testimony at the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, Hill became a leading national figure in the fight for women's rights and against gender-based violence. She joins us to talk about her new book, "Believing." As was noted of this work in a starred review in Library Journal: "Hill's new book defies boundaries by bringing together elements of memoir with law, social analysis, and polemic.... [It's] delivered with the precision of a powerful lawyer and the vulnerability of someone who became a target of merciless media scrutiny after testifying to being sexually harassed by now–Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.... With searing insight, Hill shows how much and how little things have changed since 1991. Her book gives hope, inspires activism, and discourages complacency." (Please note that Prof. Hill will take part in a "vitural event" tonight, the 7th, at 7pm, to be presented exclusively by Magic City Books. For this event, which requires tickets, Prof. Hill will be in conversation with Gloria Steinem. More details are posted here.)