Little Blue House at the University of Tulsa

The Little Blue House is an interfaith center for peace and social justice at the University of Tulsa. Founded in 1968, the Little Blue House is known as a community that seeks to embrace and learn from different faiths, beliefs, and cultures. We continue this work in the present by sponsoring groups dedicated to peace and social justice, giving students a platform to gain experience as rising community leaders and organizers, maintaining a mutual aid closet, hosting voter registration events, and providing a weekly vegetarian meal for students. I’ve been privileged to serve as president over the past two years. During this time, I’ve devoted my efforts to three objectives: (1) partnering with the Queer Lit Collective, a nonprofit in Tulsa, to establish a free LGBTQ2S+ library at the house, (2) fundraising and collaborating with Ability Resources, Tulsa United Way, and friend Tom Neal to make LBH wheelchair accessible, focusing on ramps, a ramp awning, and a bathroom renovation project; and (3) creating the East Holland Peace Garden in collaboration with donor Kim Holland, in honor of her late husband Jim East, an influential journalist and civil servant. This space includes a pollinator garden for bees and butterflies, comprising coneflowers, bronze fennel, milkweed, primrose, blanket flowers, blazing star, and purple aster. Photos shown here highlight progress made on these projects over the last two years.

With Queer Lit Collective founder Michelle Simmons and QLC board member Aubrey Naiman

View of the ramp awning donated by Kim Holland, designed to protect the ramp from falling branches, common in Oklahoma weather

View of the East Holland Peace Garden from Evanston Ave.

The pollinator garden at the Little Blue House