TULSA, Okla. — Local iconic places in Tulsa are continuing to make the headlines. A recent interview with Vogue magazine led actress Sophia Bush to give more details about her June 11 wedding held here in Green Country.
Why Tulsa?
The "One Tree Hill" actress got engaged to entrepreneur Grant Hughes while on a trip to Italy in August 2021. News of the engagement was shared all around the world which inspired Bush to use her platform wisely.
“Global attention is a hell of a platform, and as someone who doesn’t love attention but does love collective activism, I knew that this could be an incredible moment to spin the privilege of attention," Bush explains to Vogue.
She says this led her to tell her then-fiance that they should get married in Tulsa in hopes of showcasing the city and its history.
"The Greenwood leaders we work with. The cultural renaissance happening there. Tech. Philanthropy. Civil rights justice. The art. The leadership. We could focus all of this attention and turn the spotlight on them,” continues Bush in the interview.
According to Vogue, Hughes is also from Oklahoma and the couple spent some time in Tulsa during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A center of activism
Bush has been using social media as a source of activism for many years to raise awareness of world events and fundraisers in which she also takes part in.
Movements happening in the Greenwood District, especially the raised national awareness of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, led Bush to see "so much progressive justice work" happening in Tulsa. Due to activism being important to her, Sophia wanted to incorporate that into her wedding.
“When thinking about the purpose of our wedding, we wanted our community that pours into us to pour into a community at large that we love and that deserves all our attention,” she told Vogue.
Bush worked hard with a wedding planner for a weekend full of events, all centered around Greenwood and local community leaders.
Leading up to the nuptials, Bush and Hughes spent time speaking with Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, founder of the Terence Crutcher Foundation, Nehemiah Frank from The Black Wall Street Times, and coordinated tours of the Greenwood District. The wedding party also spent their weekend in various businesses, like 19&21 and Silhouette Sneakers.
Getting married also didn't stop the couple from making their own personal contribution. Both launched the Bush Hughes Foundation for Progress, a platform to raise money and awareness for organizations advancing progress and justice in Tulsa.
The wedding day and reception
Bush and Grant tied the knot at the Philbrook Museum of Art on Saturday, June 11.
Philbrook is beloved in the Tulsa community and by all who visited the space. Philbrook is a unique experience of combining an art museum, a historic home, and an expansive garden all in one spot.
The museum opened on Oct. 25, 1939. Today, the museum hosts over 16,000 pieces ranging from Native American art to European additions. Nearly 160,000 visitors walk through the museum every year.
After the wedding, an after-party was held for the couple and guests at the Church Studio.
Tulsa legend Leon Russell originally purchased a church building and the Church Studio was created. Shelter Records ran out of the building for several years. It operates as a recording studio and museum that's open to the public with hopes of opening an audio engineering school in the future within the space.
“I have truly never felt so much positivity at once, so much clarity,” Sophia says to Vogue of the day. “As a person who suffers anxiety, it felt incredible to experience a sheer absence of it. I couldn’t stop smiling.”
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