One Work, Many Voices: I Refuse to be Invisible – ENCORE

One Work, Many Voices: I Refuse to Be Invisible

Saturday, November 21 | 2-4 pm
OKCMOA’s Storytelling in Art gallery

$5 Members | $10 Non-Members
Not a member? Join today at okcmoa.com/membership.

How does a single work of art change when viewed through different eyes?

One Work, Many Voices invites visitors to experience a single work of art through the perspectives of guest speakers from our community. Rather than a traditional lecture, this conversation-based gallery program encourages curiosity, thoughtful discussion, and audience participation, reminding us that every viewer brings something meaningful to the experience.

Back by popular demand, this session explores I Refuse to be Invisible by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, on loan from Art Bridges Foundation. Joining the discussion are Suzanne Thomas, artist and Rose State College professor, and Tahnee Francis, chef and owner of Naija Wife Kitchen and a 2025 James Beard Award Best Chef: Southwest Semifinalist. Together, they’ll examine themes of identity, culture, memory, belonging, and visual storytelling while inviting guests to share their own observations and experiences. As new perspectives emerge, the artwork becomes a starting point for deeper understanding—not only of the work itself, but of one another.

Following the gallery discussion, guests are invited to enjoy a tasting of Nigerian cuisine prepared by Tahnee Francis. Extending the experience beyond the gallery, the tasting offers another way to connect with the cultural influences reflected in Crosby’s work through food, conversation, and community.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Suzanne C. Thomas is a mixed-media artist, painter, and educator whose work reflects a lifelong commitment to creativity, experimentation, and artistic expression. She holds a BFA from Oklahoma State University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Myriad Botanical Gardens, Oklahoma Contemporary, AHHA, Living Arts, the Gaylord-Pickens Museum, and the Kansas African American Museum in Wichita. Thomas is a tenured professor of art at Rose State College, where she also serves as Director of the Raiders Horizon Honors Program. Raised in eastern Oklahoma County, she remains actively engaged in the local arts community as an artist, educator, volunteer, and advocate.

Restaurateur, chef, author, speaker, and philanthropist, Tahnee Francis, is a self-trained chef and restaurant owner who impacts the community through Afro-fusion food. Her culinary development was rooted in love more so than flavor when she—as an African-American woman—married and had a daughter with her Nigerian husband. Her dedication to her family created an undying desire to cook food that honored both the Nigerian heritage of her husband and daughter, while simultaneously highlighting the Western flavors that would blend her family’s cultures together. At the height of the COVID19 pandemic of 2020, she decided to share her passion with the world when she opened her restaurant, Naija Wife Kitchen. Naija Wife, meaning a woman who married into Nigerian culture, is a completely gluten-free brand that feeds the community with the same love-inspired, Nigerian-American specialties she created for her blended family. News and recognition of her culinary creations spread quickly, and in 2025 she was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Foundationʼs Best Chef Southwest Award. At the June 2026 James Beard Awards in Chicago, Tahnee Francis was invited as a guest chef to serve her famous Egusi Soup with Goat Meat at the post-awards reception dinner to over 3000 attendees from all over the country.

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