Skip Navigation
Edmon Low Library

Episode 10: Karl Jones - Silver Star

September 1, 2020

In this live episode, Tulsa Artist Fellow Karl Jones reads from his memoir-in-progress at Curiosity Fest, a daylong festival celebrating literature, history, philosophy, and ethics sponsored by Oklahoma Humanities in Oklahoma City.

Karl, who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York, talks about his career as a writer, children’s literature editor at Penguin Random House, performer, and visual artist. While Karl has authored and edited many books for children, his venture into writing a memoir for adults is a new experience. The excerpts he shares with Emily and Lindsey from his memoir-in-progress reflect on moments from his life that explore his sexuality, the rigidity of gender roles, and the vulnerability one must have to write effectively about sensitive topics. He also speaks about the power of silence and how it affects relationships with friends or family, reminisces on his best dance moves at the Silver Star Saloon in the late 1990s, and imagines what a perfect Oklahoma might look like. 

 

Song Credits:

 

Who Likes to Party by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4627-who-likes-to-party

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 

Realizer by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5047-realizer

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

image of
Lindsey Claire Smith and Emily Blackshear

Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith, Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma State University, directs the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa. The Center is a literary arts outreach program that hosts events with diverse writers, residencies for teaching artists in schools, and writing workshops for the general public. Lindsey is a native Tulsan, a product of Tulsa Public schools, and the daughter of two TPS English teacher parents. Lindsey has extensive expertise in Native American and Indigenous studies, especially Oklahoma literature, and has authored three books and numerous other publications on writers and filmmakers of this region. She serves as Editor of American Indian Quarterly journal.

Dr. Emily Blackshear joined the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the Oklahoma State University Library in September 2017. She directs the Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project and serves as an interviewer for other projects including the Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame and the Spotlighting Oklahoma series.