Phetote Mshairi

Phetote [Fee toh tee] Mshairi [Em shah ee ree] is an entrepreneur (New Greenwood, LLC); a Tulsa Artist Fellow; poet; author; publisher; performing artist; teaching artist; poetry slam champion; mentor; advocate; actor; songwriter; playwright; curator; host; and keynote speaker from Tulsa, Oklahoma. He earned his B.B.A. from Langston University, with a major in Business Management.  Phetote is on the Poetry/Spoken-word Committee at Living Arts of Tulsa. He conducts poetry workshops and occasionally participates in the Artist in the Schools program with ahha.  He is also a mentor with the 100 Black Men of Tulsa.

Mshairi started reciting poems, scriptures, and speeches at the Historic Vernon A.M.E Church on Greenwood when he was a tot. He has been writing poetry ever since he was a young child wielding a pen as a Word-smith's apprentice.  Mshairi appreciates the power of words and lives poetically.

Release Me: The Spirits of Greenwood Speak

Phetote Mshairi brings together an eclectic array of Tulsa creators in RELEASE ME, The Spirits of Greenwood Speak, a four-element experience comprising an anthology, a soundtrack, a music video/mini-documentary, and live performances. Transliterating the voices of the Greenwood community, RELEASE ME delves into the building and rebuilding of a thriving community. Mshairi and the other talented Tulsa artists will further explore the ways in which Greenwood’s legacy is entangled with—in some ways, trapped by—tragedy, rather than the greatness of Black Wall Street.

RELEASE ME, The Spirits of Greenwood Speak will take place on March 30 at Living Arts of Tulsa, 307 E. Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK.