Tai Nehisi didn’t know much about Tulsa before moving to Oklahoma from the big city, but immediately reaped the benefits when she took advantage of the Tulsa Remote program. Since then, she’s turned into a bonafide Okie and continues to push the city’s tech community forward. From fostering the tech identity for an entire city to falling in love with rodeo culture, Tai talks about why she took a chance and moved to Oklahoma in this episode of Why I Moved.
Hey y’all, I’m Tai Nehisi. I’m a transplant Tulsan from Brooklyn, New York. I’m here to tell you why I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As a native New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn. I was ready for a change and I remember when the program Tulsa Remote was released. I had a colleague named Theresa who split her time between Brooklyn and Tulsa and I was like, “Tell me more…” So I came to Tulsa to check it out and it was a great visit. I got a chance to see the Gathering Place, go on a tour, and learn about how well structured the city was. I thought the tour was great, so I had to come back the next week to make sure they weren’t just trying to set stuff up, and everything was still the same when I came back.
Everywhere we went, something was being built or renovated, and that energy was really electric. That electricity showed me there was a spark of something new and I wanted to be a part of what was being built. That was ultimately the decision maker for me to decide to leave my hometown of Brooklyn, New York and make Tulsa my new home. No regrets.
Fostering New Frontiers and Building Up the Tech Communtiy
I’m very much a technologist, my nickname is actually Tech Tai. My immediate contribution to my community was to create Tulsa Tech week, which is a week to celebrate the people who make up the culture of innovation and the technology that is specific in respective to Tulsa. That way, everyday Tulsans – transplants as well as natives – can discover and engage with Tulsa as a whole and its technological innovations.
Oklahoma is really on the cutting edge of oil and gas/energy technology, as well as cybersecurity, and autonomous systems. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t come here.
A Rural-Urban Balance
One of the reasons I moved to Tulsa and continue to stay here is the cows. There is just something about the size of my city and its real delicate balance of city and country. Literally two minutes from my house, it becomes lush and green. There are active oil derricks that are working and pumping oil. Where do you ever see that but Oklahoma?
There’s just something about the lushness, the greenness of the topography and the landscape and seeing it dotted with cows just standing and chatting. They make me happy and joyous that I moved.
Dream Homes Become a Reality
Another reason I moved to Oklahoma is that it was simpler for me to become a homeowner. I really wanted a piece of Brooklyn to myself, and I lost my job during the closing. It was a visceral hurt and for years I was like, “Yeah, I don’t know if I want to do that again.” Five-plus years later and six weeks after I moved to Tulsa, I was a homeowner. Literally six weeks after I stepped on this red dirt earth, I was a homeowner.
A New Frontier for Expanding Community
On top of that, and why I continue to stay and live in Tulsa is because of my desire to be in and of service to my community – wherever I live. I live in north Tulsa, which is a historically Black neighborhood and it is nice living in a place where my neighbors look like me. I’ve been really able to be in and of service to the tech community, my neighborhood community, the overall Tulsa community, and that’s what keeps me here. No man is an island…even though Brooklyn is an archipelago.
Literally Her First, But Not Last Rodeo
A really awesome reason I moved to and continue to live in Tulsa is the rodeo culture. I attended the Boley Rodeo, which is the oldest and longest running Black rodeo in the nation in Boley, Oklahoma. It was amazing. And even though I don’t own a single cowboy hat or set of cowboy boots, I love cowboy culture. So, I went there in sandals and left with muddy feet and it was amazing. After seeing babies ride on the mutton rides and then seeing cowboys strutting in on their horses, I knew rodeo life was for me.
I think there is space and atmosphere right now that is really parallel to that former oil rush. If you think you can right now, I believe that if you move here, you will. Anything you can create, you will create here. So I recommend getting here sooner than later
