Artist Dr. Leslee Stradford Breathes Life Into Loss

What does it mean to pick up the baton from your ancestors, even if it is charred?

Artist Dr. Leslee Stradford reaches back to her family roots to create “The Night Tulsa Died: The Black Wall Street Massacre 1921,” both a book and an exhibit at the Julie Keyes Gallery in Sag Harbor. “Once when I was six Grandma Mumzie told me the story of ‘The Night Tulsa Died.’ She told me other scary stories too,” says Stradford, “But this one was real.”

On May 31st 1921 a prosperous black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma experienced the single worst incidence of racial violence in American history. In the course of 16 hours the 37 blocks of a thriving black community in Greenwood were burned to the ground with estimates of 300 to 3,000 or more killed including women and children. Stradford’s great grandparents were there and barely escaped the carnage which was only whispered about for decades. Read More