EVENT DETAILS

Organized and facilitated by Tulsa Artist Fellow Matt Gallagher
Featuring Francheska Alcántara, Bill McCloud, and Shon Washington

Tulsa Artist Fellowship programming is free and open to all

Tulsa Artist Fellowship welcomes audience members for a candid and thorough discussion about what being a military veteran means in modern America. Oklahoma veterans Francheska Alcántara and Matt Gallagher, both Tulsa Artist Fellows, alongside Bill McCloud and Shon Washington will seek to push past the easy stereotypes and slogans, and open up about their long roads home.

Francheska Alcántara is a queer Afro-Caribbean interdisciplinary artist and U.S. Navy Veteran based in Tulsa, OK. Francheska’s artwork explores material histories, detritus accumulations, and slippages between memories, fragmentation, and longing. Alcántara holds an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University (2019), a BFA in Painting from Hunter College (2015), and a BA in Art History from Old Dominion University (2009). They have participated in residencies like Recess Session (2022), Wave Hill Gardens Workspace (2021), Creative Capital Professional Taller (2019) and have shared their work at Lehmann Maupin Gallery (2022), Brooklyn Museum (2018), Queens Museum (2018), and the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2017). Alcántara served in the U.S. Navy from 2003 to 2007. They attended recruit training at Great Lakes, IL, and completed their sea service onboard USS MONTEREY (CG 61). Alcántara ascended through the ranks from the Deck Division to become a Petty Officer Second Class Logistic Specialist working with the Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron HSL-46. Francheska completed various deployments including to the Persian Gulf with USS TRUMAN (CVN75) Strike Group supporting the Global War on Terrorism. They completed operations in the Caribbean as part of the Partnerships of the Americas and toured eleven European countries as the Flagship for Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG 2). Alcántara’s military awards include the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal (2x), Navy “E” Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary and Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (2x), and Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS). Francheska is currently a fellow at the Tulsa Artist Fellowship living with their plant babies: Tiger, Trouble, and Panther.

Matt Gallagher is the author of the novels 'Empire City' and 'Youngblood,' a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. His work has appeared in Esquire, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Paris Review and Wired, among other places. He’s also the author of the Iraq war memoir 'Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War' and coeditor of, and contributor to, the short fiction collection 'Fire & Forget: Short Stories from the Long War.' In 2015, Gallagher was featured in Vanity Fair as one of the voices of a new generation of American war literature. In January 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren read Matt’s Boston Globe op-ed “Trump Rejects the Muslims Who Helped Us” on the U.S. Senate Floor. Among other media, he’s appeared on CBS News Sunday Morning and NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, and was interviewed at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan by retired general David H. Petraeus. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Matt also holds an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. He lives with his wife and two young sons and works as a writing instructor for New York University’s English Department’s Words After War, a workshop devoted to bringing veterans and civilians together to study conflict literature.

Bill McCloud, an adjunct professor of American History at Rogers State University, is an associate editor of poetry for the on-line literary journal, Right Hand Pointing, and is the poetry reviewer for The VVA Veteran, the magazine for Vietnam Veterans of America. His first book, What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?, (University of Oklahoma Press), was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. His book of Vietnam War poetry, The Smell of the Light: Vietnam, 1968-1969 (Balkan Press), reached #1 on the "Oklahoma Best-Sellers" List (The Oklahoman). The book received a $500 Poetry of Modern Conflict Award from the Sangria Summit Society. Former Oklahoma Poet Laureate Dr. Jeanetta Calhoun Mish calls The Smell of the Light “necessary reading.” All of his Vietnam War papers have been purchased by the Houghton Library at Harvard University. Dozens of his poems are taught as part of the curriculum in English and American History classes at the University School of Milwaukee, WI and a handful are discussed in a Creative Writing course at the University of Tulsa. He has read his poems at the Air Force Academy and some have appeared in Oklahoma Today, Oklahoma English Journal, NOVUS Literary and Arts Journal, eMerge, and Dragon Poet Review, among others. He’s had poems appear in three anthologies, most recently Bull Buffalo and Indian Paintbrush: The Poetry of Oklahoma (TJMF Publishing). Seven of his poems were worked into the story in Charles Templeton’s best-selling novel of the Vietnam War, Boot. His nonfiction has appeared in American Heritage, Junior Scholastic, The World Paper, Vietnam Echoes, the VVA Veteran, Why We Write: Craft Essays on Writing War (ed. by Randy Brown & Steve Leonard, Middle West Press/Military Writers Guild), and Letters from Vietnam (ed. by Bill Adler, Ballantine Books).

Shon Washington enlisted in the Navy during senior year of high school. He’s an Iraq war veteran and served as a green side hospital corpsman from 2004 to 2011. He works as a Senior Community Manager at Spaces, a group chat/based social media app for members of the queer community. He previously worked as a program manager at Shift, a VC-backed startup that upskills veterans and creates inroads into tech careers. Shon has guest-hosted episodes of Zero Blog Thirty, a Barstool podcast that tackles a variety of issues within the military and veteran communities with levity. His 2020 essay, “Unconditional Love Tested by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was published in The Military Times.

VISITOR EXPERIENCE

Tulsa Artist Fellowship strives to provide a welcoming and accessible experience. Our public programming is free, documented, and archived. Flagship accommodates wheelchairs and strollers. Variable seating is provided in addition to area for distanced standing and wheelchairs. Family scale private washrooms are available, designed to support visitors with disabilities and caregivers who need access to increased square footage and changing tables. Street side parking is available using the Park Mobile App and is free after 5pm and all day Saturday-Sunday. Please do not attend in-person Tulsa Artist Fellowship events if you are feeling unwell. Program format and protocols could shift if community health concerns become elevated. Staff are deeply appreciative for everyone’s cooperation in upholding these visitor guidelines to keep our artistic community healthy and vibrant.

To learn more about Tulsa Artist Fellowship programming, please follow our social media channels on Instagram and Facebook or signup for our public emails at tulsaartistfellowship.org.

For questions about accessibility, to request an accommodation or share feedback, please contact info@tulsaartistfellowship.org or call (539) 302-4855.