Still She Rises: A Retired Lawyer Finds Faith, Hope, and the Ghost of Leon Russell in Tulsa

So, I went down to Tulsa a week ago to do the first lawyer thing I've done since the end of June. There is a program down there, Still She Rises Tulsa, working to help women break through various barriers to healthy, productive lives. I left Tulsa with faith in the program; finding hope springing from the lawyers, social workers, investigators, and advocates dedicated to that program and the young public defenders toiling away there; and glowing from a brush up against a city filled with grand Art Deco buildings and a musical legacy I did not know that I have loved for decades.

When anyone goes to prison, when they have given in to drugs or booze, when mental illness invades, when poverty and hopelessness grind, not just by the day but by the minute, the effect ripples through families and communities. When the person is a woman, the bearer of children, the nurturing rock of families, the brains and the energy behind so much of civilized life, the ripple is more like a tsunami. Unfortunately, women are the fastest growing prison population in a country already strangling on its prison population, and the impact upon all us is nothing but bad. The highest rate of that growth in the U.S. is in Oklahoma. Enter 'Still She Rises,' a holistic defense program "dedicated exclusively the the representation of mothers both in the criminal and civil justice systems." The program brings a team to the problem of mothers embroiled in legal systems, addiction, mental illness, and poverty. The team includes criminal defense lawyers, civil lawyers to address housing and parental rights, social workers and advocates to help with physical and mental health, to offer support of all kinds, for instance, getting and keeping jobs, or just being a supportive voice who is not trying to sell you drugs or drag you down; to offer it all with dignity and care. Still She Rises was founded in the Bronx and the Tulsa office is the second. The Still She Rises Tulsa shop was intentionally, strategically opened in the Greenwood District of North Tulsa, the site of the Greenwood Massacre, or the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921. Greenwood, at the time the most affluent African-American community in the nation, was burned to the ground and many were killed. This, by the way, was not part of the history I was ever taught. You can read more about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot.

Still She Rises is what pulled me from the damp greens and captivating fog clouds of this Olympic Peninsula winter to Tulsa, Oklahoma

Aisha McWeay is the Executive Director of Still She Rises Tulsa, that is her on the left. La Mer Kyle-Griffiths is the Director of Training and Complex Litigation. Both are long time public defenders; well seasoned line-criminal defense lawyers, leaders, teachers, and trainers. I went down to join Aisha, La Mer, and other experienced trial advocacy trainers for the inaugural Advocacy, Creativity, and Excellence Forge, a week of client centered trial skills training. The participants in the program were not just Still She Rises people, but included young lawyers from the Tulsa Public Defenders office, a blending not only wise as it melded these defense communities, but clearly mutually enriching, a cross fertilization of ideas and support.

This was the first time I'd ventured into the world of my preretirement life since beginning post-retirement life. I was excited but, have to admit, a little concerned that rust and way too many gray hairs might get in the way of communicating with a bunch young folks on a mission and up to their butts in clients needing their help. Really now, these days I'm not quite living on the high anxiety tight rope of the public defense lawyer.

But, the program was embracing and effective. The faculty La Mer brought in was excellent. Some, like Cathy Bennett, Ali Bloomquist, and Callie Glanton Steele are friends from other programs. Others, Jeff Chapdelaine, Byron Conway, Jacque Ford, Yveka Pierre, and David Singleton, were new faces, dedicated, first rate lectures and trainers all, and clearly good, dedicated people. There wasn't a weak presentation in the bunch. And the participants were just the best; here with my "Room 907" group, Mari, Chris, Amanda, and Alexis; I couldn't have asked for a smarter, more eager, talented mix. This Still She Rises (Chris), public defender (Amanda and Mari), and private lawyer with a defender heart (Lexi) crew was willing to try anything and were so wanting to improve. I left feeling great knowing our clients are in their hands.

And then there was the little bit of Tulsa I had the chance to see outside of the work we were doing. Like this Art Deco beauty on a night when the clouds crowded the skyline.

Or this modest beauty blending with its wet streets

And this homage to those whose sweat and braun coaxed from the ground the oil that built fortunes and these fine old buildings. I think this is in the Mid-Continent building

And the signs of Tulsa's proud place along America's most iconic roadway. I spotted the Mayo Motor Inn storefront before I knew that it was one of the Route 66 markers, before I knew that it is featured in the big Tulsa mural at the top of this post. But it was photogenic, I thought, old and cool, and then before I walked away a guy driving a late 50s Chevy truck in sweet shape pulled up in front, posed the truck just so, stepped into the middle of the Sunday street and took several photos. I doubt he was the first.

I hadn't given a second thought to the Tulsa music scene but as I was flying out my friend Greg Greer, an Oklahoma boy, suggested that I channel my favorite Bob Wills western swing tune and stop by Cain's Ballroom if I had a chance. Late Friday afternoon I took the little stroll to Tulsa's Art District and there was Cain's, classic neon, a rich in history old dance hall, I'm sure filled with the echos of music by those names carved into the stars stuck in the sidewalk outside. Roy Clark, J.J. Cale, Merle Haggard, Wanda Jackson, Ray Wiley Hubbard, ...and Leon Russell,

I fell in love with Leon Russell's sound in my early twenties. And that was before I knew that he had produced the unbelievable Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, that movie among the greatest rock films ever, long before MTV, and before I knew that he had played for and produced for a staggering list of rock legends. If you're wondering, take a peek at Elton John's introduction at Leon's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Stumbling into Leon's star on the walk led me to get back into his music, and I couldn't be more thankful. And, as a sort of an aside, led me to hope that Tulsa embraces Russell's "Home Sweet Oklahoma (Going Back To Tulsa One More Time)" as it's city anthem rather than Bob Wills' "Take Me Back To Tulsa, I'm Too Young To Marry" the lyrics for which I researched after coming upon a version that said "Black man picks the cotton, white man takes the money." I wondered if maybe it was actually a quiet a protest or civil rights tune. Well....it most certainly was not that... the original verse not using maybe the worst of possible word choices but coming pretty close. So...I'm going with Leon. I think (remember, I'm new at this) that you will find a great piece of a classic Leon studio session here. It will connect if you give it a few. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o93jTKhil9Y

Wonderful time in Tulsa....Great to get back to the OP