Give a Little Love To Tulsa
In 2012 Taylor Hanson sat on a rolling hill somewhere outside of Tulsa and wrote these words about his hometown.
I love your humble nature — you taught me a lot— and I am still learning. As I have gone out into the world year after year to spread my music, which was birthed and cultivated with you at my side. I know that I still bring a bit of our deep connection with me. You are the patchwork of contradictions I hope I would be if I ever can claim a birthday beyond 100 years. A rabble-rouser and a gentleman, a cowboy and a businessman, an artist and a pragmatist. I guess I have said a lot of things in this little note to you, my oldest friend and one of my first loves, but the simple message is this: I would not want to take a trip into any chapter of life without you in the story.
Huffington Post
Hanson have built a career and a life in Tulsa. They speak fondly and gratefully about it. Their business in firmly rooted in the arts district of the downtown and every year they invite their fan community to visit and celebrate together. During the Middle Of Everywhere tour they have extended that invitation to audiences around the world as they build an even deeper connection between their music, their brand and their city.
Fans following the Hanson guide to Tulsa might drive out to the Driller Man, The Philbrook, the Blue Rose Cafe or walk around The Brady Arts District to the Greenwood Mural, which featured in the Thinking Bout Something video. If they do they will realise that this is a city of contrasts with a history and a story all of its own.
Taylor Hanson’s investment in Food On The Move demonstrates his commitment to this City. FOTMOK has promoted action that makes a difference and directly affects local neighbourhoods with a vision for building community, effecting change and meeting people’s real needs.
The guitar raffles held at The Hop Jam each year support Local food banks and The Hop Jam itself deepens the connections between local business and arts initiatives. There can be no doubt that Hanson’s love for Tulsa, its history, music and potential fuels their passion while being a focus for its expression.
Give Tulsa Love is putting a similar passion for Tulsa into practice and we asked them to share their vision with us.
When you visit Tulsa, you fall in love with the art, music, and hometown appreciation throughout downtown and the southern areas of Tulsa. Yet, you are forewarned to not visit the North or South Mid Eastern areas. You can see a great division among these communities. After getting involved with Food on the Move and becoming residents, the truth about the division and the needs in these areas became apparent to us.
That lack of love in North Tulsa and difference in communities is our inspiration for creating Give Tulsa Love. What we have seen is that there are many abandoned buildings in the North just sitting idle in lack of revenue to the community. Residents are living in homes rotting away and no money to fix or move out. You have to get on the ground and spend time in the community to really understand.
There’s so much to do in downtown and South Tulsa because a lot is invested into these areas, but the same can’t be said for North Tulsa. Why is the North forsaken? There have been tales of high crime in the area, but today that is not the case. We feel there’s a movement in need to make aware of the lack of love in mass areas of North Tulsa.
To give is to freely provide. In our name and logo, Love is an action verb. Giving Love to Tulsa is simply offering service, what is right for the people and environment. Loving Tulsa is not just enjoying the beautiful city it is and being grateful to live there, but it is stepping up when the tough gets going and not giving up when it’s hard to rebuild. There are plenty of amazing opportunities to get involved and contribute, but not enough volunteers. We want to try to bring all areas of Tulsa together to get involved as one community and put those words of love into action.
Many thanks to Give Tulsa Love for sharing their vision with us.
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On twitter use the hashtag #givetulsalove
