Oklahoma is Black

‘Oklahoma is Black’ is a portrait of Black life on the Northeast side of Oklahoma City. It is a meditation on the resilience of a community, of its complexities and its nuances, and of its concern of what has passed and what’s to come.

‘Oklahoma is Black’ started as series of video installations created for Tatyana Fazlalizadeh‘s  solo exhibition ‘Oklahoma is Black,’ at Oklahoma Contemporary. This exhibition ran from February 21st – May 31st, 2019.

Tatyana is an Oklahoma City native best known for her Stop Telling Women to Smile series. With long-time collaborator Melinda James, who was new to Oklahoma City, the two took an approach that would allow the imagery of people and the environment to form the narrative. Together, they remembered and explored, while listening deeply to a community with its own story to tell.

Plays in

let me tell you what home looks like

How do Black women artists and activists reaffirm, reclaim, and rewrite to create spaces and narratives of the city that reflect their own experiences and needs?