OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — If you play an improvised jazz solo in regards to the metropolis’s African American tradition, it’d look quite a bit like what’s contained in the Oklahoma Black Museum and Performing Arts Center.
It’s been almost 15 years since Rosetta Funches took over what was a veterinarian’s workplace north of the Oklahoma State Capitol and turned it right into a warren of cabinets and shows.
“All kinds of art, history, publications,” she explains on a brief tour.
She grew up in a tiny, unincorporated Black neighborhood referred to as ‘West-town’ in the times when dangerous stereotypes and segregation held sway.
Looking at a wall stuffed with outdated commercials that includes Black stereotypes, she tells us, “They used to call black folks ‘pickaninnies.’”
After transferring again from California, she and a number of pals have been decided to protect a wealthy history that included early jazz and blues giants, fights for equality, and artwork.
“This is Earl Davis,” she states, pointing at a shelf of wooden and steel sculpture.
They collected as a lot history as they may.
Rosetta began her personal on-line radio station.
She and a volunteer employees collected books for a analysis library.
“I asked God to give me music and culture in my last days,” she relates.
The museum she began is actually filled with every little thing from artwork to Zulu robes, which brings us to her personal dream to raised protect this wealthy cultural stew.
“How are you going to know it if somebody doesn’t tell it?” she queries.
Plans have been drawn and re-drawn for a bigger museum facility and a National African American Jazz Museum.
Rosetta argues, “You tell me what’s better than jazz? In the whole world, tell me a bigger art form than jazz and I’ll eat your hat. It’s something that we all need to have here in Oklahoma. Just like you said, ‘Is Oklahoma great or what’?”
For extra information, go to the Oklahoma Black Museum and Performing Arts Center and the Jazz Museum.
‘Is This a Great State or What?’ is sponsored by WEOKIE.
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