FAQs: #SendFlowersToGreenwood
What is #SendFlowersToGreenwood?
Upon the death of a community, its structures, its significant landmarks, its businesses, its pride, and precious lives lost, we gather and create a rightful expression of remembrance.
#SendFlowersToGreenwood is both a virtual and physical outpouring of love, light, and life for Greenwood Tulsa and the descendants of victims of the Greenwood Massacre of 1921.
What compels The Wild Mother to do this work in Tulsa?
We’ve positioned our entire business as a legacy project—an opportunity to heal our lineage forwards and backwards, to send honor to our ancestors whose experiences in America were tragic and to build a world for our future descendants that is more beautiful, more equitable, and more just. #SendFlowersToGreenwood is an amazing opportunity to humbly offer medicine to tragic history right here in our beloved home state.
What Floral installations can we expect your team to execute this May?
Great question! The Installations we’ve planned are as follows:
May 31st: The Centennial Commemorative Program is a nationally recognized memorial with speakers and performances. We have prepared floral for the stage as a part of the overall set design.
June 2nd: Greenwood Rising Dedication opens a new history museum that features the stories of Black Wall Street and the Greenwood Massacre. To see renderings of this museum, visit www.tulsa2021.org. The Wild Mother will create a series of urns throughout the ribbon cutting ceremonies.
June 5th: Dreamland Again is a multi genre music experience, featuring the Tulsa Symphony. Our stage design will support the width of the stage and will surround performances with a floral garden of sorts. UPDATE (5/10): Due to coordinating timelines and a difficult fundraising process, we’ve chosen to withdraw our volunteer designs and donated floral installations from the June 5th Dreamland Again Concert. While we are sad this third event will not come to life, we are glad our current efforts toward the Commemorative Program, creating descendant bouquets, and the dedication of the Greenwood Rising Museum will produce beautiful art as medicine.
What can I do to get involved?
Participate in #SendFlowersToGreenwood by sharing an original art piece, design, or performance to your social media platform using the hashtags: #sendflowersto #sendflowerstogreenwood #greenwoodrising #greenwoodmemorialproject #artheals #flowersforgreenwood #artismedicine
Donate to the floral artists who will voluntarily design large scale floral installations during this year’s commemorative ceremonies & events. Head to www.gofundme.com/f/sendflowerstogreenwood.
Join our fundraising campaign by sharing the GoFundMe link with your friends and help us raise awareness and funds for this project.
If you would like to partner with our team through sponsorship, please contact us at sendflowersto@thewildmother.com.
What are you using donations for?
We estimate the total value of the outpouring in Tulsa to be $50K, but we hope to offset most of these costs through donations. We will use the money donated through our GoFundMe or through a larger sponsorship to secure an Airbnb, to purchase flowers that have not been donated, and to tend to a small but mighty team of volunteers who will stay a collective 11 days in Tulsa. In short, donations cover all accommodations in Tulsa and floral product.
If you do not wish to donate via the GoFundMe links we’ve provided, you can sponsor us via one of the following tiers. All sponsors will be listed & visibly published. Checks can be made payable to “Send Flowers To,” and sent to our studio (629 W. Sheridan Ave, Suite 102, Oklahoma City, OK 73102).
Tier One: $3,000
Tier Two: $1,500
Tier Three: $750
What do you still need?
We need fresh flowers from farmers and wholesalers.
We need mechanics for large scale installations.
We need a welder or woodworker to create solid structures for our installations.
We need containers, like urns and small compote bowls.
We need aprons for up to 25 designers.
We need a delivery vehicle.
We need supplies and tools for floral design.
We need snacks, water, and other hospitality items for our volunteers. Use our Amazon list to donate items.
We need money to support our team of volunteers while in Tulsa.
What will you do with all that floral after the event?
Floral that can be repurposed after the events will be collected and used in hand tied bouquets. These will be delivered to Tulsans in need of a brightspot!
Can I join your team?
We’d love to know what you would like to offer to our team! Please send an email to sendflowersto@thewildmother.com.
Can I join you in Tulsa?
The programming by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission is open to the public. If you wish to attend public events in Tulsa, please visit www. tulsa2021.org to learn more.
Our team of florists who will work alongside TWM in Tulsa is being filled by recommendations from other actively antiracist florists who are already committed to our team.
Are you looking for other, non-floral teammates?
There are a handful of volunteer roles that we have yet to fill. If you believe that you would be an asset to our team, please drop us a line at sendfowersto@thewildmother.com.
Can I interview someone on your team?
Yes, of course! We welcome opportunities to discuss our vision for #SendFlowersToGreenwood and to discuss the history of the Greenwood Massacre. Please send an email to sendflowersto@thewildmother.
I want to be involved in the virtual outpouring. How can I get involved?
That’s amazing! We can’t wait to see what you create to dedicate to Greenwood. It’s simple, really. We encourage you to create an art piece, performance, or design that is specifically dedicated to Greenwood. Join the movement, beginning May 10, by posting a photo or video of your work on your social platforms, using the hashtags: #sendflowersto #sendflowerstogreenwood #greenwoodrising #greenwoodmemorialproject #artheals #flowersforgreenwood #artismedicine. Follow these hashtags to engage with other creatives who participate in using their Art as medicine.
Will #sendflowersto live beyond the outpouring for Greenwood?
Yes! For years, our sister-team has been in search for a beautiful intersection between Art and Activism. #SendFlowersTo naturally followed our desire to acknowledge, educate, and heal from ongoing and historic oppression that marginalized communities experience daily. We hope this hashtag will be useful for future outpourings of love, opportunities to educate about hidden histories, and moments to offer Art to communities in need of medicine.
As Afro-Indigenous women, #SendFlowersTo’s inaugural project in Greenwood, Tulsa is especially important to us because it highlights the destruction of Black wellness and wealth on Indigenous land. You can read more about this project you’ve joined on our website.
To learn more, where do I go?
Please visit www.thewildmother.com/sendflowersto and explore our blog posts about this project and the history of the Greenwood district in Tulsa. For information about the events planned by the Centennial Commission, please visit www.tulsa2021.org.
Who’s in charge of this project?
Hi there! Nice to meet you. Lauren, Leah and Callie are the Afro-Indigenous sisters, owners, and operators of The Wild Mother Creative Studio. Our team, along with a collective of faithful others have worked tirelessly to realize the outpouring of Art as medicine for the beautiful people of Greenwood, Tulsa. With our volunteer team of designers, we will fulfill The Wild Mother’s partnership with the Centennial Commission through floral outpourings at their events.
How did you get this opportunity?
The Wild Mother Creative Studio humbly submitted a proposal for what is now known as #sendflowerstogreewood to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Commission in hopes of lending a hand. After processing our vision with the team, our partnership was confirmed. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our beloved Black community, in partnership with many brilliant Black movers and shakers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
What do you mean by “art is medicine?”
In our studio, this phrase has served as a mantra, an encouragement, a reminder, instruction, and an invitation. Only recently have we begun sharing it publicly. We believe this profound truth and the depths of its meaning, and when we speak it, it’s with a posture of humility and service.
How else can I learn about antiracism or using Art as medicine in general?
If you are a creative small business owner or brand, please learn about The Wild Mother’s most recent course Lay of the Land: Building Affirming, Equitable, and Just Brands and follow our antiracist brand—The Conversation Workshops.
Why should I call the events of May 1921 a “Massacre” and not a “Riot”?
Historically, the word “riot” has been used to blame Black and Brown people for showing outrage in response to the effects of white supremacy and any other oppressive system. Riots imply a group has become so fed up by their station in life that they take to destroying infrastructures in their community. In the case of the Greenwood Massacre, the Black men who defended Black Wall Street against an angry White mob of Klan members did not seek to destroy what they had proudly built. These were victims who were bombed, shot, burned, and run out of town, without protection from Tulsa’s law enforcement, who eyewitnesses say were involved in the attack. Thus, we encourage the use of the word “Massacre,” as it is a better description of what took place in Greenwood.
Please note, The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission liberally uses “massacre,” and explicitly rejects “riot” when speaking on the atrocities in Greenwood.
Why should I learn the stories of descendants?
During the Red Summer of 1919, a string of lynchings and massacres took place all across America, raviging Black communities. White spectators of lynchings would sell photographs of lynched black bodies as souvenirs of the events. During this time a deligation led by James Weldon Johnson, poet and author of the Negro National Anthem, requested a meeting with the U.S. Supreme Court to plead with the Justice system to take action against murderous Klan activity. According to Eddie Faye Gate’s book, Riot on Greenwood: The Total Destruction on Black Wall Street (2003), she reports Mr. Johnson’s delegation is still referred to in the “official Congressional Record book… pulled from shelves at the National Archives in Washington D.C.,” as a “N***** Delegation.”
This alone is evidence of the systemic attempts to silence, demean, and discredit the stories of Black people, especially when they identify white supremacy or violence.
In an effort to resist the silencing of white supremacy, we believe it is necessary to value the stories of the survivors of the Greenwood Massacre and their descendants. If you don’t know where to begin, Gate’s book has several accounts of the 1921 Massacre, recorded from oral history among the Black community in Tulsa.
Why didn’t I learn about this in school?
Chances are you were a victim of the teaching of revisionist history which exists to sterilize the telling of actual events as they happened, especially if the truth does not favor or flatter those in power. As of February 2021, Oklahoma’s Education Department added the Greenwood Masacre to its core curriculum for the first time in Oklahoma history, in an effort to uncover what Oklahoma State Senator Kevin Matthews calls, “Tulsa’s dirty secret.” These efforts to expose the story will increase as national attention increases. In fact, film projects have been commissioned by Russel Westbrook and LeBron James.
What are your covid-19 procedures & precautions for this event?
Toward the health and wellness of our team and those in the community at large, we will continue to employ these safety measures:
All designers affiliated with The Wild Mother Creative Studio team will be fully vaccinated.
Masks will be worn in public places.
At the slightest sign of illness, any one of our volunteers will be sent home.
Can someone answer my very unique question?
We sure will try! Please send your question to sendflowersto@thewildmother.com.