Joan Phillips

Phillips poetry has been published in several literary journals as well as in Oklahoma Today magazine.   She says that her recent poetry collection, Rose Rock Petals, “is a compilation of poems inspired by and related to the 'state of mind' that is Oklahoma.”

Red Velvet Coat - Norma Brown

Although Norma Brown specializes in Impressionistic oils of English gardens and landscapes, traveling often to paint on location in England, Scotland and Israel, she is a versatile painter also comfortable with diverse media, including watercolor, acrylic and charcoal.  “Varying both the subject matter and the media is important to me” Norma says.  “It keeps my work from being static, and I learn something new with each piece.  I have learned to develop themes from the natural or accidental confluence of line and color so that my work has become interpretative rather than photographic in style.” Norma’s hope is that “my work is a contribution to the times; a tract or footprint of individuality which shares a bit of the art spirit with fellow strugglers - artist and non-artist alike.” 

As has become tradition, the Byron Berline Band will close the Summer Breeze season with a free concert in Norman’s Andrews Park Amphitheater at 7:30 PM on September 23.  Bring refreshments, perhaps a blanket, and enjoy an evening of lively bluegrass and country swing music!

Three time national fiddle champion, Byron Berline has played with the best.  In 1965, while still a student at OU,  he played the Newport Folk Festival, where he met the legendary Bill Monroe.  Monroe invited him to join The Blue Grass Boys.  Immediately after graduating from OU in 1967, Berline did so.  His first appearance with The Blue Grass Boys was at the Grand Ole Opry.  But after just six months with the group, Berline was drafted.