Only One in the Room | Thursday, Sep. 26th
Doors 5:30pm, Starts 6:00pm
Oklahoma Contemporary
11 NW 11th St, OKC, 73103
ATCOKC presents a group of inspiring talks by Denise Duong—muralist/artist, Nichole Burroughs—graphic designer, Ontario Byrd—photographer and Ray June—musician, focused on the topic of being ‘the only one in the room.’ Talks will be followed by a Q&A session and audience members will be provided with useful resources to follow up on the topic. ATCOKC is excited to partner with OK Contemporary for this event. We are a brand new organization, and ticket sales allow us to raise funds to continue to offer unique experiences to our community.
FREE for members | $15 for GA (+$2.50 fee)
If you are an ATCOKC season pass holder / member, you can RSVP for a FREE ticket through Oklahoma Contemporary’s website with a Promo Code. Please check your welcome email for the code.
Meet the speakers:
Nichole Burroughs
As a creative in OKC, Nichole has honed her skills in building innovative brands. Her passion for design extends beyond aesthetics; she is dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices through her creative work. Nichole's commitment to diversity is evident in her involvement with projects that focus on social-good and underrepresented groups, such as 988 - Oklahoma’s Mental Health Lifeline, Afropop, and Sunny Dayz Mural Festival. She highlighted her career with a chapter focusing on research of Black designers in “An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design”.
Ontario Byrd
Ontario Byrd, also known as wannabepeterparker, is a 25-year-old creative born and raised in Oklahoma City. He primarily expresses himself through photography but does not shy away from exploring other creative avenues. He created a feature film titled "From a Byrdseye View," a coming-of-age story about him and his community discussing themes of growing up. His more popular photography series, titled "O'CITY," showcases different stories all set in Oklahoma City. His overall goal is to amplify the voices of people of color in this community within the art scene and to put OKC on the map for creative purposes, proving you can do it all and represent where you come from.
Ray June
Ray Smith Jr, also known as Ray June, founded SWAT Meet Inc. in April of 2019. Ray is a musician, songwriter, and producer. Swat Meet was started as a result of the passion he has for the youth, the music, and the message popular hip-hop music carries. The fact that the number one reason black males were dying was murder and murder being one of the hottest topics in hip-hop music strongly moved the founder to do his part with changing that narrative. From that came Swat Meet. Only running songwriting / recording workshops & programs in the beginning, the organization’s programming soon evolved into a complete curriculum engaging youth that are not solely interested in music, but other art-based outlets.
Denise Duong
Denise Duong is a Vietnamese American artist from Oklahoma City, Ok. Her nomadic spirit, curiosity, art, and lust for adventure and exploration has landed her all over the world. After attending university at the School of the Arts Institute of Chicago, she went on to create paintings, murals, drawings, sculpture and installations and having her first solo exhibitions in Oklahoma City and Park City, Utah circa 2005. Her works have been shown throughout the United States and featured from South Korea, Singapore, Southern India, Canada, to Colombia. Along with creating solo work, she also collaborates with her life and art partner, Gabriel Friedman. They have created sculptures that reside at Scissortail Park, Capital Hill, and the Science Museum of Oklahoma. A truly special project dear to their hearts they did together was an artist residency at the OU Children’s Hospital, in which they worked with many of the young patients and created a giant puzzle/mural. Duong currently resides in Oklahoma City with Gabriel and their 2 daughters, 2 cats, a fish, and the ghost of their lost dogs.