Tulsa

 My girlfriend wrote an article on the Tulsa massacre. 

Anyway, I  remember reading about it first in a book of poems by Ron Padgett. Just in the middle of one of his books of poems, there is account of the events, something which is totally surprising given the mostly humorous nature of his works. Ron is from Tulsa, and he and Joe Brainard, with some help from Berrigan, started the Tulsa branch of the New York School poets. Berrigan is somehow involved, despite being from Providence. These writers ended up in New York. 

Ron P. also has a book called Among the Blacks. Half of it is a translation of a text by Roussel with this title, and the other half a memoir of race relations in Tulsa. It is a kind of strange juxtaposition, similar to the account of the race riot in his book of poems. He also has a memoir of his father, who was an Oklahoma bootlegger, after the country as a whole had revoked prohibition but some parts remained dry, including Tulsa and maybe all of the state. (Tulsa Tough). Another favorite Padgett book of mine is called Creative Reading. Padgett also wrote the poems for Jim Jarmusch's Paterson.  

It is an improbable path. To start reading New York school poetry in high school in Tulsa OK and then to become that kind of poet. You couldn't invent that kind of story in a novel because it is not verisimilar.   

Anyway, check out Beth's and forgive the digression.