North Tulsa Economic  Development Initiative

Caroline Bennett

Thursday, May 17, 2018: The North Tulsa Economic Development Initiative (NTEDi) nonprofit organization invites you to support and participate in our 6th Annual Book Scholarship Awards Celebration on May 17, 2018 from 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm. The theme for the celebration is “Tomorrows Leaders, Excelling Today!”.

The Book Scholarship Awards Celebration will be held at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame; 111 East First Street-Upper Level, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The NTEDi Book Scholarship Awards celebration supports the continued education of deserving Tulsa students. Caroline Bennett, a dynamic Speaker, inspired by her realities and dreams, her passion, purpose, and hustle in life illuminates the lived experience of Black girls and their truths. She uses spoken word, story-telling and song as tools of liberation and resistance to join with Black girls who have been silenced by their past and/or paralyzed by their fears. Caroline believes “Black girls have a right and a reason to survive, 'come alive', and thrive in educational spaces, ‘da streets’ and other institutional spaces that try to “steal, kill and destroy” our identities.” -Caroline Bennett

On a full-ride scholarship at The Ohio State University, Bennett recently graduated with Master’s degree in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality studies. Attending and graduating from two Predominately White Institutions (PWI’s), her position as a Black woman has afforded her a unique “outside-within” status. She was committed to transforming the academy and classrooms from the inside out and privileging the knowledge she possesses to write, sing, speak and live as access- bridging a gap for the communities she writes with, for and to.

Born and raised on the north Side of Tulsa, Oklahoma she is a proud product of the hood. Bennett is notorious for saying, “The ‘Streets’ #RaisedMe, The University of Oklahoma #GroomedMe and The Ohio State University #BloomedMe” in efforts to acknowledge how although her formal schooling has taken place in institutional settings she’d be remised if she didn’t pay homage to where she passed her “first tests”- in ‘da streets.’ Caroline challenges society’s construction and hierarchizing of knowledge and the forms it takes.