Meet & Greet: Pussy Riot
Woody Guthrie Center
March 14, 2024
Pussy Riot’s transgressive artivism has the world frothing—and Moscow fuming.
Yet in Tulsa on March 14, their truth-bombs detonated less in their usual colorful roar and more in searing whispers. About fifty Tulsans gathered in a cozy theater inside the Woody Guthrie Center for a meet and greet with five members of the Russian feminist protest punk group—and 2024 WGC Artist in Residence—known for their provocative, sometimes shocking, guerrilla performances and bright balaclavas.
Stopping in Tulsa as part of the ongoing engagement between the band, the Center, and its visitors, three women and two men from Pussy Riot sat in chairs on the stage, puffing big, white clouds as they gripped their nicotine vapes and spoke in rapid-fire Russian among themselves. They told us, in plainest English, about police brutality in Russia, the parallels between Putin and Trump, and above all, the hope they still have for the future—despite facing prison time back home.