Tulsa this Past Weekend

You all hear about Tulsa seemingly being the center of the world this past weekend? The Trump camp held their first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down. The rally was initially planned for Friday June 19, but moved to Saturday following pressure about the 19th being Juneteenth and all. But you probably knew about that already. We should've all known about that considering the wall-to-wall news coverage.

I'm still mentally unpacking from being in Tulsa Friday and Saturday. There's also a decent amount of still images and footage to dig through. Seeing as how it's Monday and all, I figure I could at least share a few and some of the experience.

Honestly I didn't feel like I should miss these events. Growing up super white and conservative I don't remember ever learning about Juneteenth. I'd only heard about it as an adult and honestly just recently come to know the history and appreciate its importance. I figured the Saturday Trump rally was going to be, well...something.

Events like these make up who we are as people and as Americans. I didn't want to look back years later and regret not participating knowing I had the opportunity.

Friday night's Juneteenth event in the Greenwood District was a big and peaceful summer street party. I did head over to near the BOK Center where blocks and blocks of people from all over the country were already in line and had been for days hoping to get inside for the rally.

The main story of Saturday, in my opinion, was that the Trump campaign rally was much smaller than anticipated. I had no intention or desire to be in the BOK building and I was much more interested in what was happening outside. In a continuing effort to personally process what’s happening right now, I was in Tulsa independently just to witness what I could.

Overall the atmosphere outside Tulsa's BOK Center was tense, but civil. There were plenty of spats between Trump supporters and protesters. Some got physical, but fights were quickly broken up primarily by people from both sides. I did see law enforcement step in a couple times and individuals were arrested.

One situation happened right in front of me with what felt at first like incredible efficiency but then overwhelming force. I got into more about it on an Instagram post if you're up to check it out.

I'm planning to cut something from the Saturday footage, but that'll take some time. Surely I'll post it soon enough. I don't think I've ever been more intentional and considerate about what I'm choosing to post from the events. I've covered protests for years in both a press and independent role, but right now feels different and rightfully so. Yea, I feel like we're recording a visual record of history. Granted my potential audience is absolutely meager, but that doesn't give me a pass on trying my hardest to get it right.

This Week in Complexity

Did I tell you the one about moving my family across the country during a global pandemic while also dodging protests in every major city we drove through? Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. The world was burning with a righteous anger over the death of another black man in police custody and I was driving a moving truck across the country with my dog sleeping in the passenger seat. Nearly everything we own was packed into that truck while Saint Anne the wife followed close behind in a rented SUV with our two house fires strapped into the backseat.

There's a tsunami of news, posts, and information about what's happening right now and trying to stay informed is like drinking from a fire hose. Honestly I'd much rather get into the recent release of a project I got to be on, but that blog post can wait. I'll not get into the weeds about the reality of institutional racism and police violence, but those four Minneapolis police officers killed that man. We left Brooklyn just hours before the protests broke out not far from our home and it's crushing to not be there during this time.

The past week or so here in Oklahoma City has had the wife and me focused on family and trying to adjust to life outside New York. Most of our stuff is now neatly packed into a storage unit that's six times larger and nearly a third of the price of what we had in Brooklyn. With all that's going on I feel like we're approaching Inception levels of our lives still being somewhat on hold. We're staying with our parents for a season before deciding what's next and there's plenty of room to sorta sprawl out compared to our small New York apartment; our boys are loving time with their grandparents. We even bought a car which is pretty much a must have in living here. The salesman looked at us like we had horns growing our of our face when we told him we hadn't owned a car in the last 18+ months.

In the midst of trying to get the dust to settle in our own major life event, I still strongly feel like it's important to not let what's happening in the world pass us by. Anne and I had a conversation about racism and police brutality with our seven year old. We stuttered and stumbled in our attempt, but we did the thing. Anne was eloquent as always, but what was helpful for me was to sit down with him and go through some of the photos posted from the protests, especially the ones taken not too far from our Park Slope apartment. One of the major focuses of our move to New York was to make sure our family was around people and ideas that were different than ours. Different races, different faiths, different political beliefs. No question we'd have participated in the Brooklyn protests if we were there. Like the rest of this country, Oklahoma has to address and work through its own problems and history of racism. There have been protests and demonstrations across the state and I jumped at a chance to participate in a peaceful event this past Saturday here in Oklahoma City.

Again, it's wild to be here for now, especially without serious plans. Being back in Oklahoma is like being on another planet considering all we've been through in New York. Anne and our boys will be back in the classroom in a few months and I'll be spending a good deal of time commuting to NY and wherever else for work once it spins back up.

Springtime in New York

St. Anne the Wife and I made it up north for a Spring Break in New York. Days one and two played nice weather-wise, but day three being the first day of Spring ironically brought a solid day of snow.

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We've done some of the touristy stuff before, but most of this trip had us intentionally wandering around a few different neighborhoods and dramatically adding to our daily step counts. We met up with a few friends living in the city and made some new ones as well. Anne's mom and my parents watched the kiddos while we were gone.

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Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Out in Pawhuska, OK, there's a large sign at the entrance to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve that says "BISON ARE DANGEROUS KEEP YOUR DISTANCE." But seriously, have you ever been close to a bison? I wasn't close enough to hug one, but they seem like they'd be good huggers... Probably not. I don't always have the best judgment...

Oh, and the dust stirred up from cars driving along the gravel roads looked pretty great.

NNE Oklahoma?

Oklahoma. I know it's somewhere in Oklahoma. Probably not crazy far from the outskirts of Pawhuska, OK. It's far enough out there that you can stand in the middle of the road and shoot for much longer than you probably should.

BTW, the barn below shouldn't still be standing. It's probably older than the state, but it'll probably still be there after I'm gone. No rush...

Somewhere... No clue.

Had another shoot WAY the heck out there and stopped for lighting – and to shoot – more than I should've during the 2-3 hour drive home. Don't tell my wife...

Christmas in Connecticut

We'd been wanting to get out of town for the holidays and St. Anne the Wife's mom found us all a place in Lyme, CT. With two small kids, Anne and I – plus the mother-in-law with this trip – are seemingly always playing defense so the house doesn't burn down, but I was able to sneak out with my camera right after the snowfall Christmas morning.