The Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 51, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 28, 1985 Page: 2 of 22
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Greenwood Cultural
Center inspires artist
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A success story
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Porgy and Bess”, in its second year at the Met, is sold
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THE OKLAHOMA EAGLE
25 TP officers
to graduate
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Page 2 A The Oklahoma Eagle________Thursday, November 28,1985
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By Don Ross
Special to the Eagle
“I'm painting again. I'm
By Larry D. White
Staff Writer
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HAMPTON’S fine jewelry is displayed by salesmen Ken
Thompson and Len Thomas. Hampton’s features fashions for
men, women and children which are readily available with
Hampton's own charge card.
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A total of 25 officers are
scheduled to graduate from the
Tulsa Police Department Training
Academy on Wednesday,
November 27, according to Major
G.L. Thompson, Training
Director. The ceremony which
will commence at 2 p.m., is to
be held at the Gilcrease Museum
Auditorium and the guest speaker
will be Robert Lester, Director of
the Council of Law Enforcement
Education and Training for the
State of Oklahoma. The recruits
will also be addressed by Chief
R.N. Dick and Police and Fire
Commissioner Roy Gardner.
After being sworn in, the
graduates will be assigned to the
Uniform Divisions for 16 weeks
field training.
HAMPTON’S - as Tulsa’s newest department store readies
itself for Christmas, Bill Kennedy, men’s wear manager,
displays fashionable designer shirts from the Hampton’s
collection. Hampton’s is located at 71st and Lewis, in the
Kensington Galleria.
SIMON ESTES - The Metropolitan Bass-Baritone returns to Tulsa
for the second annual Simon Estes Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert
to be held December 6 at the Performing Arts Center. Proceeds from
the concert will help finance the college education of deserving Tulsa
or area students.
American regional operas, performing major roles at San Francisco's
Spring Opera, Chicago Lyric, and Boston Opera. Offers for small
parts began to trickle in from the Met, but for Estes, who had sung
leading roles to critical acclaim in Europe for years, they were
unappealing.
Finally, in 1981, the Metropolitan Opera offered Estes the part of
Landgrave in Wagner’s “Tannhauser”, - a noteworthy, if not
*
“It take a long pull to get there”
by Rosalyn M. Story
Staff Writer
Al
_
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“I'm painting again. I m ex-
cited about my work again.”
Ernest "Shabo” Foster says he
had nearly abandoned his craft.
“The community of black artists
in Tulsa didn’t seem to care
about promoting the history of
our people and the community
through art and nobody cared
that they didn’t,” he said.
Shabo, as his friends call him -
- “That’s my real name,” he
insists, came to Tulsa some eight
years ago with a road band.
“The booking fell through and I
decided to stay.” A Chicago
native, he said he was tired of
the fast track. “I thought I
wanted to settle down.
“But I was still “big city"
slick and didn’t give myself and
my talent the time it needed.”
He said when he did mature
“nobody was listening.” I just
kind of drifted away from art. I
started doing more commercial
and sign painting jobs - a man
had to eat and feed his family.”
He said a few weeks ago he
started hearing about The
Greenwood Cultural Center. “My
wife Mildred first called my
attention to it. Here was a group
not only promoting our history
and culture but black art as
well.
“She brought me some paint,
brushes, canvas and customers. I
was reluctant at first, a little bit
afraid, but slowly I began to get
back into it. It felt good. I began
searching for the masterpiece
that wold make an indelible
imprint about our people.
“I’m not as good as I once
was, but I was never as good as
I thought I was. I was a lot of
ego and marginal talent. But now
I feel good. I’m painting inspired.
Tulsa is hard on its black artist.
They want you to work free.
They understand our egos and
our need to paint. They take
advantage of you,” he said.
The Greenwood Cultural Center
has a special feeling for me. “If
the history of our people is to be
preserved it will be through the
been the easiest part. A native of Centerville, Iowa, and the son of a
coal miner, Estes began singing in the Second Baptist Church Choir.
Classical music, particularly opera, was remote from his exposure
and experience.
“My images were not of operatic singers,” he says. ‘I thought in
terms of black singers like Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis, though
I had heard of singers like Leontyne Price, and Marian Anderson.”
Estes worked his way through the University of Iowa, where he
studied premed and psychology. Upon joining the University’s Old
Gold Singers, the gifted young baritone was informed by director
Charles Kellis that he had a voice suitable for opera. With Kellis’
coaching and encouragement, Estes auditioned for Julliard, where he
received a scholarship.
In 1964, with the help of grants from the Martha Baird Rockefeller
Foundation, the New York Community Trust Fund and money raised
artists, the writers, the musicians
- we all need a place to show
our talent and promote our work
- that’s what the center means
to me.
Raised in the ghetto of
Chicago, Shabo, 31, says he's
more than self taught. “I did go
to school.” He attended the
Chicago Art Institute. “I had a
native talent that the teachers
didn’t understand but they did
coach me on.” But the streets
lured him back.
“I was a born hustler. The
streets were exciting to me.
Singing brought me the notoriety
my ego needed, the cash my
lifestyle demanded and I didn’t
have to be responsible - just go
out there sound good, look good
and get paid.”
But Windy City is a place filled
with talent and if you don’t work
at anything you lose it. “I didn’t
work at singing as I hadn’t
worked at painting. Tulsa was a
welcomed relief. I started
painting again. But I was trying
to tell people how good I was
rather than show them.
“After a while all that talk
catches up with you and you
have to produce. I’m now just
beginning to realize that I can
paint if my head is on straight.
The idea of The Greenwood
Cultural Center has been enough
to kick ine in the pants. He said
he tried to be slick, good, mean
and emotional - “I just ended up
still poor with a living to make.
“Somebody out there is trying
to make a way for me to make
a statement about my people on
the canvas. I’m going to paint
something they will like and if
they don’t, I’m going to continue
to do it until they do. I want all
the black kids to know that here
is a kid that society could have
written off, they didn't and my
work will live for them.
“Right now I’m excited. I'm
painting again and I will let my
work prove my growth,” Shabo
lamented. “But it is good to see
the most important people of our
community behind The Green-
wood Cultural Center. I know it
will happen.”
IN DESCRIBING THE EPIC career of Simon Estes, it might be
fitting to borrow a line from Gershwin’s classic American folk opera,
“Porgy and Bess”; “It take a long pull to get there.’’
While the Gershwin-Dubose Heyward libretto employs the phrase in
“Porgy” to dramatize the long, storm-plagued fishing expeditions of
residents of Catfish Row, it aptly describes the arduous road bass-
baritone Simon Estes traveled from the Second Baptist Church Choir
of Centerville, Iowa to his rightful place at the top of the
Metropolitan Opera roster.
Indeed, Simon Estes, who performs the title role in the long-
overdue Metropolitan Opera production of “Porgy,” has shared a
common plight with the beloved, but belatedly respected Gershwin
classic. While “Porgy” spent 35 years in achieving respect as an
opera worthy of the Met’s repertory, Estes waited 17 years after
establishing himself in Europe for an invitation from America’s
premiere opera house; both were long denied for reasons having to
do with color.
Now, both “Porgy and Bess” and its star, Simon Estes,, are doing
very well. _2 .
out virtually every night, and Estes and his silken, ‘bel canto’ voice
are in demand at opera houses and concert halls all over the globe.
Since his first major performance as Ramfis in a Deutsche Oper
Berlin production of “Aida” in 1965, Estes has been engaged and re-
engaged at all of the major European opera houses, including La
Scala, the Hamburg, Vienna and Zurich State Operas, and the Paris
Opera. Possessing a naturally rich and resonant timbre, he is rapidly
establishing a reputation as the definitive Wagnerian baritone, and
has performed in such stalwart vehicles as “Die Walkure” and “The
Flying Dutchman” all over world, including two appearances with
Tulsa Opera since 1980. His epochal engagement in 1978 as the
“Dutchman” at Bayreuth, the Wagner shrine, marked the first ap-
pearance there by a black man.
In spite of his numerous successes, it was not until 1961 that Estes
was offered a major Metropolitan Opera role.
ESTES IS PHILOSOPHICAL on the subject of his delayed debut at
the Met, and the general attitudes which pervade the power structure
of arts management organizations in America. He feels racial
discrimination is a home-grown ideology; more American than
European, and explains why years of success in Europe did not yield
immediate acceptance into the Met’s lineup.
“Racial discrimination exists in Europe, but not to the extent it
does in this country,” Estes says. “In Europe, because of the
closeness of countries, people are forced to be more tolerant. Also,
they have more opera houses - there are about 60 in Germany alone
- so there is a greater demand for singers.
“I don’t mean to single out the Met, but if one looks at the ad-
ministration of major opera houses, there are no blacks in policy
making positions,” Estes continues. “There are no black managers,
no black critics. Blacks must get involved in the policy-making of
these institutions before we can see a great change.” ----w---- _
Why did the Metropolitan Opera, after 17 years, finally invite Estes glamorous role - for his debut. Now, in addition to his Metropolitan
’t to debut in a major role? and regional opera engagements, Estes is busy with concerts, recitals
~ and perhaps his favorite occupation, talking to young people.
Estes’ magnanimous nature and concern for today’s youth has led
him to Tulsa twice to perform benefit concerts for the one-year old
Simon Estes Educational Foundation. He feels that exposure to opera
and classical music for young people provides invaluable enrichment,
and the notion that young blacks are naturally resistant to classical
music is false.
“I’VE GONE INTO THE the black community to schools and sung,
and they gave me a standing ovation,” Estes says, recalling an
experience at Tulsa’s Washington High School last year. “Later they
came up to me and said, ‘Gee, I didn't understand what you were
saying but I sure dug that stuff.
“They do like it (classical music),” he affirms. “I’ve never sung
anyplace where they didn’t.”
Though Estes sings before sold-out and standing room audiences in
Europe and America, he sees the miniscule representation of blacks
in concert audiences as a deep-rooted sociological problem worthy of
the attention of the black community.
“It’s because of our ghetto style of living,” he explains. “We can
give explanation for 50, 60 or 70 years ago when blacks were
ostracized, but what we need now is a cultural awakening of the
black community. So many blacks are interested in football,
basketball, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross,- but blacks have to be
brought into the complete mainstream of American life. Black leaders
need to get more involved in the arts and work to get the black
community involved."
For a performer of Estes’ caliber, the most difficult challenge now
is “staying healthy" through the rigors of travel and a demanding
scheldule. He, his wife Yvonne, and their two children divide their
time between houses in New Jersey and Zurich. Al 48, Estes expects
to peak in “the next 10 to 15 years”, and his crowded calendar lists
engagements until 1990.
As one looks at the imposing, athletic frame of Estes, it seems the
faith-testing times have only added to his durability and reinforced
his dauntless spirit. For him the "long pull” is over, and the success
‘ i was well worth the wait One expects to hear the voice of
Simon Estes for a long to come.
Teenagers and teenage
pregnancies are a top concern of
hers. “Something has to be done.
It is a major problem
everywhere,” she stresses.
Oklahoma ranks fourth in the
nation for live births of 15-19-
year-olds and seventh for
pregnancies of the same age
group.
Ann Brown makes it clear she
is here to help.
She admits that with the deep
religious structure in this area it
is sometimes difficult to be
completly insightful about the
problem.
During her tenure at Planned
Parenthood she has seen it
through. There are now offices
and clinics in West Tulsa, Broken
Arrow, and Fayetteville,
Arkansas.
The clinic, which serves such
as family counseling, birth
control, pregnancy test, vasec-
tomies, serves any patient
regardless of income. Payment is
based on a sliding scale.
When asked about future goals
Brown is emphatic.
“I want to see a Planned
Parenthood clinic in north
Tulsa,” she says. She would
even go back to managing if a
clinic were to be established in
north Tulsa.
She is continuously attending
classes and seminars to improve
her unique ability in the field she
has so aptly proven herself in.
“As long as there is something
for me to do, I’ll be here," she
declares.
That’s a comforting thought for
the people she serves and works
with.
*
"1 had been so successful in Europe,” Estes responds,
or less had to let me in.”
Europe, however, was not always so kind. When Estes sang for
conductor George Solti, auditioning for the 1983 production of
Wagner’s “Ring" at Bayreuth in Germany, Solti echoed the sentiment
of British director Peter Hall, who said a black man could not be
cast in the role of Wotan without upsetting the balance of the entire
"Ring" cycle (Das Reingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Got-
terdammerung). Incidentally, it was also Peter Hall who refused to
consider casting soprano Leona Mitchell as Don Giovanni’s Donna
Anna for the English Glyndeboume Festival, because a black woman
in such an aristocratic role would be ‘unrealistic’.
Estes has never worked with Peter Hall, but did perform with Solti
recently in Chicago. “I considered not doing it," he reflects, “but I
decided I should let the people in the Chicago hear me sing.”
Ironically, the beginning of Estes’ journey to the top might have
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by NAACP staff, Estes traveled to Germany, where he was im-
mediately engaged at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Other roles followed in
his ten month stint in Germany; he performed in “Salome", “Don
Carlo”, and “Moses and Aaron".
In 1966, Estes won a Bronze Medal at the prestigious Tchaikowsky he enjoys
In 1971 Ann Brown started
working in north Tulsa as a
neighborhood outreach counselor
through funding given to Planned
Parenthoold by the Model Cities
program.
She had just a high school
education and a chance.
Fifteen years later she has
been honored by Planned
Parenthood for leadership with
compassion, caring with common
sense, loyalty and dedication with
plain hard work.
During those fifteen years she
has gone from neighborhood
counselor to medical records
superintendent at Planned
Parenthood to her current
position of clinical assistant,
assisting mainly in vasectomies.
She is proud of being the first
black ever to serve as manager
of Planned Parenthood. She is
even prouder of making Planned
Parenthood a self-sustaining clinic
after federal and United Way
funding was taken away from it
three years ago.
Asked why she stepped down
as manager, Brown says that she
“just got tired” and wanted to
do something different within the
operation.
“I met my goals. I made
money for Planned Parenthood
without government funds,” she
said.
Making money is only one goal
however. The most satisfying to
her is the effective helping of
people planning their families in
a construtive way and helping
them though problems that en-
sue.
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The Oklahoma Eagle (Tulsa, Okla.), Vol. 67, No. 51, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 28, 1985, newspaper, November 28, 1985; Tulsa, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1806670/m1/2/?q=+%22Latimer%22: accessed July 18, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.