Editor’s Letter – 12/20/17

Smut shaming

Last week, one Matthew McDaniel gave The Tulsa Voice a one-star review on Facebook:

I remember when Urban Tulsa was nothing but food/music reviews & advertisements for strip clubs. Now it's just social justice smut.

To start, we are not Urban Tulsa. Langdon Publishing started The Tulsa Voice after Urban Tulsa folded in late 2013. We turned four years old on Dec. 18—just two days ago. A friend said to me, “I had no idea the Voice was so young.”

Secondly, it's true—we do have editorial concerns that guide the stories we tell. In 2017, that list included: opioid addiction, people experiencing homelessness and mental health issues, violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and the presence of wastewater injection wells on Pawnee Nation land, who locally will be affected by the annulment of DACA, undervalued and overworked public school teachers, the emergency-certified teachers epidemic, the need for Oklahoma justice system reform, our state's criminalization of the poor, Black Lives Matter, the Women's March, the Oklahoma Center for Equality, prison labor strikes and activism, ICE protests at David L. Moss Criminal Justice Center, Oilfield Prayer Day protests at the Oklahoma Capitol, local access to birth control, the pro-bono Immigrant Rights Project at TU’s Boesche Legal Clinic, the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, taxes, state questions, education funding, arts funding—and the list goes smuttily, smuttily on.

But that content doesn’t even make up the bulk of the work our TTV writers and editors do, which includes coverage of visual arts, performing arts, music, film, literature, food, drink, sports, and more. In this issue, we cover Tulsa’s recent enthusiasm for the Chambong, the philosophy behind Orth Contemporary art gallery in Kendall-Whittier, Union High School’s state championship loss and their teammate’s injury, the new release by local rapper St. Domonick, plus our annual year-end ruminations.

Before you say “thou doth protest too much, Blood,” let me just say I won’t be smut shamed. Our mission at The Tulsa Voice is to be an alternative resource for news, commentary, and entertainment—and an advocate for the earnest and unruly here.

We are also 100 percent advertiser supported—so a big, huge thank you to our advertisers who do the good work of supporting local journalism—especially in a time when it’s under fire.

I hope you all enjoy this issue and the last few days of 2017. Happy Holidays!