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United We Stand Convening in Oklahoma City: Connecting Through Culture

Kerri Young
September 24, 2024

Above (left to right): California Humanities’ staff Kirsten Vega and Kerri Young at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City for the opening reception of the United We Stand convening, September 16, 2024.

On September 16 and 17, 2024, California Humanities traveled to Oklahoma City for a special United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture convening hosted by Oklahoma Humanities in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities to strengthen communities and maximize the impact, scale, and visibility of the humanities to address hate-motivated violence. In attendance were members from other state and jurisdictional humanities councils, from Guam to Massachusetts, who came together to assess their own experiences creating anti-hate humanities programming but also to collectively experience spaces and organizations that are documenting the history of and response to acts of hate-based violence in their communities.

Importantly, the spaces we experienced, and that we invite others to experience when in Oklahoma City, not only document painful histories but also promote healing and the resilience of the human spirit within communities who experience hate. Below are scenes from this special gathering:

View inside a museum gallery with large floor map of Oklahoma state with photos of landscapes on the walls — A view inside the OKLA HOMMA exhibit, located in the Tribal Nations Gallery of the South Wing of First Americans Museum. OKLA HOMMA shares the stories of all 39 tribes in Oklahoma today, and invites visitors to explore this celebration of our peoples’ resiliency—told from the perspective of First Americans.

Museum panel with definition of "First American" — The museum’s explanation of the emerging term “First American,” which follows the evolution of identity terms such as American Indian and Native American.

Woman sits inside a museum exhibit featuring cushioned seats on a "bus" looking toward a screen on the wall — California Humanities’ staff member Kirsten V. in a gallery section about First American pow wow events in Oklahoma.

Woman holding bag looks at a museum display on the wall inside a gallery — California Humanities’ staff member Kirsten V. in a gallery section about First American pow wow events in Oklahoma.

Looking into a gallery space — The OKLA HOMMA exhibition includes cultural materials drawn from the growing FAM collection and loans from partner institutions like the Smithsonian.

A large group seated at tables in an expansive and light filled atrium space — (left) Oklahoma Humanities’ Executive Director Caroline Lowry welcomes attendees at the First American Museum. She was followed by opening remarks from museum Executive Director Dr. Kelli Mosteller (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), and Chef Loretta Oden
(Citizen Potawatomi Nation). (right) Cultural demonstrations from Kevin Connywerdy (Kiowa Tribe/Comanche) and Oklahoma Fancy Dancers concluded with a group dance, joined by NEH Chair Shelly Lowe.

(left) Oklahoma Humanities’ Executive Director Caroline Lowry welcomes attendees at the First American Museum. She was followed by opening remarks from museum Executive Director Dr. Kelli Mosteller (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), and Chef Loretta Oden
(Citizen Potawatomi Nation). (right) Cultural demonstrations from Kevin Connywerdy (Kiowa Tribe/Comanche) and Oklahoma Fancy Dancers concluded with a group dance, joined by NEH Chair Shelly Lowe.

Man in blue suit addresses a crowd seated around tables. — On day two, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt (Osage Nation) welcomed guests to the city and convening.

“109 public humanities programs, 359 unique events, and more than 400 partnerships formed”
Karen Kenton, Director, Federal/State Parternship, NEH, on impact of United We Stand programming over the past year

The NEH’s Karen Kenton and her team present findings from the councils’ United We Stand:
Connecting Through Culture interim reports.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin, The New York Times, 1962

A man stands at a podium inside a hotel meeting space. — Dr. Raymond Doswell (Greenwood Rising) and Michelle Brown-Burdex (Greenwood Cultural Center) explored community healing, race and reconciliation, and the general impacts of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. One of three breakout sessions focused on place-based programming around anti-hate, this session focused on program design specifically for healing and reconciliation, looking at the city of Greenwood whose history is “still being rewritten,” and is “still rebuilding.” Doswell and Brown-Burdex spoke about how the history of the Massacre was not passed down because of trauma, and that it was not taught in schools nor widely supported on the state level. Despite this, the history of the Massacre is now more widely known and unique educational programs such as TITAN at the University of Tulsa, teach “trauma informed history.”

“How can we deal with historical trauma that we’ve inherited?”
Michelle Brown-Burdex, Greenwood Cultural Center

In response to a question about finding joy in telling dark histories, Brown-Burdex replied that “getting to experience truth is something that people have been able to feel hope in.” At the same time, the work of telling the history of cities like Greenwood is “not as productive when you have people at the table who are on the same page…the challenge is getting people to the table.”

A panel, led by Texas Humanities’ Executive Director Eric Lupfer and with leaders of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum and El Progreso Memorial Library (Uvalde, Texas), discussed how their institutions have documented and responded to acts of hate-based violence in their communities. For example, Tammie Sinclair and Mendell Morgan detailed how their library served as a much needed safe-haven and space for healing following the 2022 shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

View of a display inside a museum, showing remembrance items pinned to a chainlink fence — Tours of the memorial and museum concluded the site visit. The Memorial Museum occupies the west end of the former Journal Record Building (built in 1923), which withstood the bombing in 1995. Exhibits detail those killed, those who survived, and those who were forever changed by the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building—as well as the world’s response in its aftermath.

View across an expansive park with large square shaped memorial structure on the right — The viewing deck inside the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, which sits on the site of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings and looks out onto an expansive park. The Outdoor Symbolic Memorial is a place of quiet reflection, encompassing the site of the Murrah Building, as well as the surrounding area devastated by the attack. The Memorial is open to all 24 hours a day, year-round.

California Humanities and United We Stand: In partnership with Zócalo Public Square, California Humanities presented a series of civic dialogues and public programs titled What Connects Us: Resistance Against Hate. The program, Do We Need More Food Fights?, explored cooking and food as an act of resistance in Mexican communities and garnered the SoCal Journalism Awards third place prize. To reach nontraditional audiences, Los Angeles’ grandest football arena, SoFi Stadium was chosen as the stage for Can a Football Stadium be a Black History Museum?, held in front of a major Black history exhibition by the Kinsey Collection. A third public program at the University of California Riverside How Does the Inland Empire Strike Back Against Hate? explored community resilience to an uptick in hate crimes. This series aims to foster mutual understanding and intercultural learning during an election year, which FBI records tell us invariably spikes hate crimes in America.

Visit our United We Stand page for in-depth recaps and videos of these programs:

United We Stand

United We Stand Convening in Oklahoma City: Connecting Through Culture

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