After receiving a grant worth up to $120,000 to host free concerts around Tulsa, the Historic Greenwood District says it’s dealing with growing pains but making progress.
In 2025, the district was one of 66 nonprofits awarded a three-year grant from the Levitt Foundation, a national funder of underused public spaces.
The money supports seven to 10 free outdoor concerts per year between 2026 and 2028 that highlight local and regional artists. But Burlinda Radney, executive director of the Historic Greenwood District, says this year has been a learning curve.
“The biggest growing pain was really that we weren’t really allowed to even begin to work on our events until March,” Radney told The Eagle.
The concerts are split between five of the city’s main streets: Historic Greenwood, Kendall Whittier, the Phoenix District, Route 66 Main Street and the Tulsa Global District.
So far, four shows have been held. The latest was an Aug. 15 show featuring Valarie Harding, a soul singer from Muscogee who performed at B.S. Roberts Park.
Grant recipients are required to showcase they can raise money during these events as a demonstration of local support. Performers must be local or regional with an established following.
“Each of our organizations serves a completely different community, and so the idea is to really have diversity in the audience, not just diversity in terms of the performers,” Radney said.
The main delay for setting up the concerts in 2026 was the amount of preparation the Levitt Foundation required organizers to do before they entered the planning stages.
Radney, alongside three other organizers, traveled to California earlier this year to participate in workshops to learn how to properly book artists and set up security.
Another hurdle unique to Greenwood, she said, was they had to ensure concerts didn’t conflict with existing events like Legacy Fest, Juneteenth and the Black Wall Street Rally.
“We also found that there was a lot of competition across the city for dollars,” Radney said. “By the time we were able to sort of get some dates set and begin to talk to artists, most of the local businesses and foundations that support this type of activity had already spent their 2026 funds.”
With a year of lessons learned under their belts, she expects 2027 to be much more organized and better aligned with more sponsors. Although the concert series is a summer-based event, she said the intention is to start the series in April to avoid Tulsa’s hottest temperatures.
And keep an eye out for future shows — Radney says there will likely be one in October. Other free Levitt-sponsored concerts in Tulsa can be found here.
Ismael Lele is a Report for America corps member and writes about business in Tulsa for The Oklahoma Eagle. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting this link.
