Vanessa Adams-Harris

Vanessa Adams-Harris is Muscogee (Creek) American Indian with African American/Scot/Irish ancestry.  She is an artist, facilitator/presenter, interpreter of history, human rights community activist/peacebuilder.  She has presented both nationally and internationally.  She currently serves as Director of Outreach & Alliances for the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation-Tulsa, OK, Past Vice-Chair for the Greater Tulsa Area Indian Affairs Commission, President-North Tulsa Historical Society, Vice-President of TKWolf, Inc, an American Indian non-profit organization, an assistant to Rev. Gerald L. Davis, Church of the Restoration Unitarian Universalist-Tulsa in the historic Greenwood District and is a 2022 Cultural Vistas Transatlantic Cultural Exchange Fellow in Building a Diverse and Inclusive Culture of Remembrance (DAICOR) transatlantic exchange program funded by the Transatlantic Program of the German Government, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Washington, DC and the U.S. Embassy-Berlin.  She has presented in Mumbai, India, Stockholm, Sweden, Edinburgh, Scotland, Liverpool, England, Caux, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. 

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She presents regularly to schools as well as civic organizations and the public on Oklahoma history, race and reconciliation.  She is an Oklahoma Chautauqua Scholar (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2024) and was the 2019 Artist in Residence for Chautauqua Enid Public Schools where she presented the 1921 Tulsa Massacre’s history to over 2,500 Oklahoma students.  She is a presenter/facilitator with the Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival and co-presenter with Dr. Ann Dapice for the 2018 Women Are Sacred Conference “Resilience: Walking in Ancestral Footprints, Carrying Our Medicine,” Albuquerque, NM, and has trained among an international coalition for Women as Peacebuilders through the Just Governance Human Security-X-IoC(Initiatives of Change) Caux, Switzerland on the Six Pillars of Human Security. She trained with Father Michael Lapsley’s Institute of Healing for Memories-NA Workshop in Ossining, NY.

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She edited and directed the documentary by TKWolf, Inc. “Unheard Voices-Stalking in Indian Country” and “Unheard, Unseen” an Interview with Dr. Reid Melloy a leading stalking forensic psychologist. Her area of study in anthropology and theatre from the University of Tulsa, continues to support her interest of the search for meaning with our sense of place giving emphasis on the essential usage of reconciliation in the process of building a lasting peace.   She draws on the need to present the historical accuracy of African American and Indigenous peoples' voices and lived experiences.  She is currently pursuing master’s degree from Phillips Theological Seminary-Tulsa.