Entrepreneurs and creatives gathered Saturday in Tulsa for Blackwood’s second CultureFest, an event centered on building connections between Tulsans seeking to grow their circles.
Hosted at The Venue on 9th, the event opened with a panel discussion with visual artist Jordan McNear, news-anchor-turned-business-owner Mia Fleming, leadership coach and author Carlisha Williams Bradley and startup founder Dominick Ard’is.
Each shared what led them to pursue entrepreneurship while reflecting on everything from embracing and learning from failure and finding mentors to avoiding burnout and paving pathways for other Black creatives.
“Sometimes we just need to get out of our environment, get a different change of pace, be around some new energy, some new thoughts and people who don’t think you’re crazy because you have all these ideas,” Fleming told the group of about 40 people.
She worked in broadcast journalism for years before launching her own companies Mia Fleming Media and Hello Good Life. One key to success, she said, is showing up as your authentic self.
“Right now, with social media and the way the world is, we’re afraid to be seen as ‘not good.’ We want to show up perfect, we want to show the highlights, the reel,” she continued. “But it’s the real that connects us with people.”
Throughout the conversation, panelists encouraged the audience to gain confidence by trying new things and to move faster from ideation and execution.
“When I first moved here in 2020 … I was afraid of what it would mean to come here and fail. I didn’t want that,” McNear said. “I just started to apply this willingness to be creative and do things I knew I was going to fail at and do it in public.”
McNear said his creative process includes scheduling intentional social media and tech breaks and spending time in nature.
“Our phones are so deeply ingrained into not just our lives but our psyche in ways that we don’t understand,” he said.
But meditation, he said, “allows your true thoughts to come in.”
Panelists recommended several books for budding entrepreneurs and creatives including:
- “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin
- “The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love” by bell hooks
- “Briefly, Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End” by Alua Arthur
- “How to Get Your Point Across in 10 Seconds or Less” by Milo O. Frank
James Parker, who co-runs the Tulsa-based creative agency Blackwood, challenged the audience to reflect.
“Whatever you have an idea of, if you never do it, is the world going to be missing something?” he asked. “And if the world is going to be missing something, that means you owe something to the world, you owe something to yourself to do it.”
An after-party and vendor market followed the panel. Blackwood, named in honor of Black Wall Street and Greenwood, launched under different leadership in 2021. At the time, the goal was to create a co-working space for entrepreneurs.
But Parker told The Eagle he realized an entrepreneurship hub wasn’t what the community needed.
“It was more so a community, culture and a safe space missing for Black people,” he said.
Parker and Desiree Lindsey relaunched the organization this year.
Today, the pair’s goal is to facilitate spaces to help transplants and natives — entrepreneurs and those working 9-to-5s — to find their community in Tulsa.
Their intention is to “create a hub where people feel seen, heard but more than that, safe … emotionally safe to be in a space where they can be unapologetically them,” Parker said.
They envision one day expanding CultureFest into a day-long event. For now, they are looking forward to events they have planned in the remainder of 2026.
“People are always looking for something to do in Tulsa,” Lindsey said. “If you want to further yourself in Tulsa, if you want to connect with people, if you see yourself growing bigger than just what you have in your little circle in Tulsa, this is who this is for. We want you to have a safe space.”
Finding third places in Tulsa
This story is part of the Tulsa Flyer’s series on third places around the Tulsa metro — spaces and groups where people are creating community outside of home and work. Help us write more stories on the third places that already exist and where they should be by filling out the form below.
