“We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly.”

“That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and become more of a light to the community.”

Trey Thaxton is a Black entrepreneur with a plan to turn the violent history of Tulsa’s Greenwood district into an inspiring and bright future. Greenwood Ave. is a new magazine he has launched in print, no less, to tell the deeply moving stories of the district’s past, but most importantly to him, the refocus of all that trauma and hurt into a bright and challenging new future.

I spoke with Trey recently and we talked about his plans and how there was no choice, the magazine had to be in print for its longevity and tactile nature. For a man who is only 36-years-old, Trey is a staunch believer in print and believes that the medium is the only one that would work for his very important messages.

So, without further ado, the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Trey Thaxton, CEO and Founder, Greenwood Ave. 

But first the sound bites: 

On why it took 122 years to create a magazine about Greenwood Ave. and why it’s in print: 

The reason I did the magazine; my background is in design, print design, and branding, and  that’s why it’s in print for sure.  I went to high school in Tulsa and college in Oklahoma. And I had never heard of Greenwood or Black Wall Street until after I graduated college. I felt it was such a tragedy not to have known that history when I had been walking in the shadow of Black Wall Street for over 20 years.

On what he’s offering Black entrepreneurs that that can’t find in other magazines: And other magazines are always focused on the history or trauma or the survivors and what they went through and their fight for justice, which is all necessary and part of the story, obviously, but for me I didn’t see a part that talked about the victory of Greenwood. I think for this magazine, you really get the insight into the victory part.

On how he has diversity, inclusion and equality in his magazine: That’s the heart of the whole magazine and the brand. Our theme is Greenwood Ave. is everywhere, so it’s not just in Tulsa, but around the world. Our goal is centered around those entrepreneurs who helped build Greenwood. So for us that is the essence of why we got started and what we’ll continue to do.

On what he says if someone asks why he’s so adamant about print: We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly. I want it to sit on people’s desks and coffee tables and is passed around and shared and to really have a more tactile interaction than just a swipe on a screen. I think it means a lot more when you can touch and feel and not just read it, but feel the quality of the magazine as well.

On the cover price of $21: We wanted to make sure it was substantial and that number 21 obviously means a lot to the history of Greenwood in that year and is something we try to continue to highlight. On top of that, when people hear the word magazine, they might think of the news rags or something else on the shelf, but this is really more of a coffee table book. The word magazine is somewhat of a misnomer, but it is something that will last the test of time.

On any challenges he’s faced with this project: Just like with any startup, there will be challenges. A lot being capital or will anyone listen. The Greenwood Cultural Center worked for years telling the stories of survivors and there were a lot of documentaries about to start as I was starting this too, but for me there are a lot of different areas, there’s no one side to every story. For me, nobody was coming from the angle of the future.

On any pleasant surprises since he launched the magazine: The first was a little difficult. A lot of people in there were either friends of mine or acquaintances of people I’d met or one person away from them, but as we’ve gone on with the magazine and began to reach out to people who are outside our network to be a part of this, the response has been an overwhelming yes. They want to be a part of it. And how much the stories resonate with people outside of Tulsa has been amazingly beautiful.

On whether he think the magazine industry is moving in the right direction: I can’t speak to the magazine industry as a whole, but with what happened to George Floyd and that tragedy, there are a lot more people who are searching for ways to be an “ally.” We have a good friend here in town who has the only Black-owned bookstore in Tulsa, and he saw an enormous rise in interest in what they call an “ally box” where people from all over the world were subscribing to books on how to be an ally; how to be an anti-racist.

On why he decided to call the magazine Greenwood Ave. instead of Black Wall Street: I think Black Wall Street is ubiquitous, even Greenwood is becoming more well-known. Greenwood is a very known name. Tulsa was the first Black Wall Street, but there were others. So that’s a bit more ubiquitous. But Greenwood Ave. for me speaks to Tulsa. Being based in Tulsa, we do want to expand outside, but Greenwood Ave. to me just spoke more to Tulsa.

On what he would hope to tell someone in a year that he had accomplished with Greenwood Ave.: That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and became more of a light to the community.

On what someone would find him doing if they showed up unannounced at his house: Most likely you’ll find me with my kids. Right after work I cook dinner; I’m busy every night. My wife is also an entrepreneur. She is a real-life super-hero, working with clientele so much as a therapist. I try to make it home every night to put dinner on the table for her and our two children. So every night we try to do something with our kids.

On whether he has a mentor or not: I look at a lot of different names. I’ve been able to take inspiration from everywhere, probably because I’m not a great artists I would say. I’m not sure how I passed any of my art classes in school. (Laughs) The great thing about this is I don’t have to do a lot. The meat is really everyone else, so that is the beauty of what this is. All the stories are really telling the great things that other people are doing. And that’s a great thing for me.

On what keeps him up at night: For this past year I’ve been really working on mindset and trying to figure out my purpose and direction. For entrepreneurship, we always talk about the pivot and I think COVID in 2020 – 2021 was a big pivot for a lot of people as far as their direction. When I started doing design after graduation, in my mind if I could just work for Nike or somewhere in the NBA that would be the pinnacle of my career.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Trey Thaxton, CEO and Founder, Greenwood Ave. 

Samir Husni: Congratulations on the new magazine. It’s very well done.

Trey Thaxton: Thank you very much. 

Samir Husni: Tell me, why did it take 122 years for somebody to create a magazine about Greenwood Ave. and why do it in print?

Trey Thaxton: That’s a great question. I’m not sure why it’s taken 122 years. I know for a fact that there are books on the subject. There have been a lot of documentaries that have come out in the last couple of years on Greenwood Ave and Black Wall Street. As of two years ago there’s a new history center dedicated to the memory of how Greenwood is rising – the new River Rising – in North Tulsa right now. 

But the reason I did the magazine; my background is in design, print design, and branding, and  that’s why it’s in print for sure.  I went to high school in Tulsa and college in Oklahoma. And I had never heard of Greenwood or Black Wall Street until after I graduated college. I felt it was such a tragedy not to have known that history when I had been walking in the shadow of Black Wall Street for over 20 years. 

Being a designer and an entrepreneur in Tulsa, I believe there’s no way to hide from the gravitas that the spirit of Greenwood is. I wanted to do something that highlights the history and hopefully no one else will have the excuse of not knowing what’s happening here. And once I started hearing about the massacre, the deaths, the 300 lives that were taken and the 600 businesses that were destroyed, for me, I’m a believer in Jesus and I know that there’s more power in the resurrection that there is the death. We just celebrated Easter and I always want to make sure that we highlight that resurrection, because to me that’s where the inspiration comes from. 

I hear so many people now who are inspired by, not only that it was there before 1921, but that they actually rebuilt it bigger and better after the massacre. So to me, highlighting that resurrection; it’s not just those 40 blocks underneath Tulsa, it really is about the spirit that’s reenergizing, black people all over the world who are realizing their ideas, dreams and visions in various, different industries. 

Samir Husni: You mentioned that it’s not just about the history; you’re not just reflecting on the past, but you’re projecting the future and making it more of a magazine for all Black entrepreneurs. What are you offering that they can’t find in other magazines?

Trey Thaxton: Greenwood focuses a lot on the trauma side of everything. For instance, our first issue, the author who wrote the first article is actually a descendant of Black Wall Street and Greenwood. His great-grandparents owned shops in Greenwood and he gets asked all the time because he actually runs a company called The Black Wall Street Times based here in Tulsa and Atlanta; he gets asked all the time to write or retell stories about Greenwood. 

And other magazines are always focused on the history or trauma or the survivors and what they went through and their fight for justice, which is all necessary and part of the story, obviously, but for me I didn’t see a part that talked about the victory of Greenwood. I think for this magazine, you really get the insight into the victory part. 

We’ve only had one to come out so far, but every first quarter is our “everywhere magazines” we’re calling them, where we talk to different people in different cities. Our next issue will be around Black chefs and we have 12 different chefs from around the country: Tulsa, Houston, Florida and New York, to name a few, who submitted recipes. So, it’s not just a magazine, it’s also a cookbook. So we have recipes from five-star restaurants and chefs from around the country and we get to tell their stories and recipes through the lens of food and its history. 

The one after that is going to be around Black take-out entrepreneurs where we highlight, not only what they’re doing, but some of their struggles and how they overcame that. So I think that in this magazine we get to talk through what people are doing in different spaces and in different industries, but also talk about how they’re overcoming obstacles in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs have always been faced with adversity, so we talk about how they are able to overcome and hopefully will inspire people to continue to follow their own dreams and passions. 

Samir Husni: The buzzword now after 2020 is diversity. How are you ensuring that the magazine for Black entrepreneurs will have diversity, inclusion and equality within its pages?

Trey Thaxton: That’s the heart of the whole magazine and the brand. Our theme is Greenwood Ave. is everywhere, so it’s not just in Tulsa, but around the world. Our goal is centered around those entrepreneurs who helped build Greenwood. So for us that is the essence of why we got started and what we’ll continue to do. 

And the beauty of it is we get to characterize these different industries, whether it be tech or sports, or food, agriculture, or artists. Every issue will be a different industry, where we’ll talk to different people and show their diversity, not just in race and ethnicity, but in the diaspora as well. 

In our first one we have features in London; in our artists issue we’re talking to someone right now in Lagos, Africa, so we’re trying to show diversity across the diaspora, not just in language or area. but also in disciplines as well. 

Samir Husni: If someone asks why is this young man, who is also a print designer, so engrossed with print, what do you say?

Trey Thaxton: Funny you should bring that up. We get asked all the time if there will be a digital version? We’ll have digital aspects around it, but for me, I’ll be 36 this year, I grew up in a digital age, but I also grew up with print. I think with social media; it goes away so quick. If we did a digital magazine people might scroll through the pictures and we might get a couple of likes, but for me the print component will last a lot longer. 

We want people to actually sit and read the stories, not just look at the photos, because we spend a lot of time choosing who we want to write and the stories that are written are all really meaningful and there are reasons behind that. And I want to make sure it’s not just scrolled through or swiped really quickly. 

I want it to sit on people’s desks and coffee tables and is passed around and shared and to really have a more tactile interaction than just a swipe on a screen. I think it means a lot more when you can touch and feel and not just read it, but feel the quality of the magazine as well. We want it to be something people want to have in their space. It can get very easily lost on a phone or swipe or a save on Pinterest, so we want to make sure we have that tactile component. 

Samir Husni: It’s not a cheap magazine; the cover price is $21. Tell me about that.

Trey Thaxton: Again, we wanted to make sure it was substantial and that number 21 obviously means a lot to the history of Greenwood in that year and is something we try to continue to highlight. On top of that, when people hear the word magazine, they might think of the news rags or something else on the shelf, but this is really more of a coffee table book. The word magazine is somewhat of a misnomer, but it is something that will last the test of time. 

We try to make sure everything is evergreen. So when you pick this magazine up, the way it’s designed, the way the stories are written, the way we put it together; if you look at this in the next five years, it’ll feel just as relevant then as it does today. So it is a more expensive price, but it will last for a long time. 

Samir Husni: Has this been easy for you, or have you faced some challenges with this project along the way and if so, how did you overcome them?

Trey Thaxton: Just like with any startup, there will be challenges. A lot being capital or will anyone listen. The Greenwood Cultural Center worked for years telling the stories of survivors and there were a lot of documentaries about to start as I was starting this too, but for me there are a lot of different areas, there’s no one side to every story. For me, nobody was coming from the angle of the future. 

The challenges for me were if anyone would listen and care, but I’m a believer of doing something if it’s in your heart and you have a passion for it. With a business, you try to overcome your fears. We actually launched this project with a T-shirt series, it didn’t start as a magazine. 

As a brand and logo designer, I would take the original names of some of the shops that were on Greenwood in the ‘20s like Rambo Cab Company and Dreamland Theatre and design the shirts to help tell the story. And during February and Black History Month, we did really well. And I thought, how do I continue the story after that, which lead to a video series where we went in and highlighted entrepreneurs who were carrying on the legacy. 

That went over really well and we launched more merch around it and did more videos around it, and then just last year we really wanted to do that print component to help share stories and expand outside of Tulsa. And we wanted to help people get a piece of that history as well. 

There are always challenges: how do we do a magazine; how do we fund it; will anyone buy it, and there has been a great response so far. For me, it’s really about the level of excellence. From that movie “Field of Dreams” they say, if you build it they will come, that’s not necessarily true. It sounds great in a movie, but if you build it, you also have to promote it, get the right team around and do it well. So for me, doing things in excellence I think has shone through some of the noise and hopefully that will continue to be the case. 

Samir Husni: Have there been any pleasant surprises since you launched the magazine?

Trey Thaxton: The first was a little difficult. A lot of people in there were either friends of mine or acquaintances of people I’d met or one person away from them, but as we’ve gone on with the magazine and began to reach out to people who are outside our network to be a part of this, the response has been an overwhelming yes. They want to be a part of it. And how much the stories resonate with people outside of Tulsa has been amazingly beautiful. 

When I started this, not being from Tulsa, I’ve been here since I was 11, but not being born and raised in Tulsa and not being a descendant, I wanted to make sure that I was honoring this properly and not just seeing it as someone coming from the outside and not capitalize on anyone’s trauma. I was trying to keep that up front and I got a great response from the descendants here and from people who had been fighting for justice for a long time. And that has been a really pleasant surprise.

When we first started doing the video series, I got emails from teachers who were showing our videos inside the classroom. That wasn’t something that I’d really thought about happening, but seeing it happen has been truly phenomenal. 

We have a new partnership with Russell Westbrook and his team and the History Channel during the centennial. They used our video series as part of their curriculum to get out to kids in Tulsa and around the world. These are things you don’t see coming as you attempt to enlighten people. We were featured in Vogue magazine last year. Our jackets have been in the Wall Street Times and Wall Street journals. That kind of stuff is overwhelmingly amazing.

Samir Husni: After George Floyd and the other life-changing experiences we have had, do you think the magazine industry is moving in the right direction or just paying lip service?

Trey Thaxton: I can’t speak to the magazine industry as a whole, but with what happened to George Floyd and that tragedy, there are a lot more people who are searching for ways to be an “ally.” We have a good friend here in town who has the only Black-owned bookstore in Tulsa, and he saw an enormous rise in interest in what they call an “ally box” where people from all over the world were subscribing to books on how to be an ally; how to be an anti-racist.

So I think the hunger, thirst and curiosity was peaked a lot. I would say a few years later that seems to have dwindled down, but I try not to focus on the industry as a whole, obviously there are other ways to make money, so for me this is really more about purpose and passion versus any dollar amount. 

Our parent company is actually called Goldmill Co. and that’s our creative agency that Greenwood Ave. is under, and our whole concept is to create brands that uplift, inspire and shine. So with Greenwood, we’re able to uplift the community by uplifting other Black entrepreneurs, not just in Tulsa, but around the world. We also give 10 percent of our proceeds to North Tulsa building efforts. The Oasis Project, a black-owned grocery store doing food deserts, we support them, along with many other North Tulsa projects. So we’re able to do things like that with our work with Greenwood Ave.  

We inspire by shining a light on other entrepreneurs. We also want to have more resources to share and be that inspiration. And we want to give to other groups that are doing similar work. To me that’s what it’s all about. 

Samir Husni: Why did you decide on Greenwood Ave. and not Black Wall Street?

Trey Thaxton:  I think Black Wall Street is ubiquitous, even Greenwood is becoming more well-known. Greenwood is a very known name. Tulsa was the first Black Wall Street, but there were others. So that’s a bit more ubiquitous. But Greenwood Ave. for me speaks to Tulsa. Being based in Tulsa, we do want to expand outside, but Greenwood Ave. to me just spoke more to Tulsa. 

Samir Husni: What would you hope to tell someone you had accomplished with Greenwood Ave. in a year?

Trey Thaxton: That we are still in print. This time next year we’ll be in our seventh edition and that we have reached millions of people through our stories in print. And hopefully received emails and letters about how this magazine has changed lives. And be able to give millions of dollars to North Tulsa kids and students and become more of a light to the community. 

Samir Husni: If I show up at your house one evening unannounced, what do I find you doing?

Trey Thaxton: Most likely you’ll find me with my kids. Right after work I cook dinner; I’m busy every night. My wife is also an entrepreneur. She is a real-life super-hero, working with clientele so much as a therapist. I try to make it home every night to put dinner on the table for her and our two children. So every night we try to do something with our kids. 

Samir Husni: Being a designer and a print person at a young age, do you have a mentor?

Trey Thaxton: I look at a lot of different names. I’ve been able to take inspiration from everywhere, probably because I’m not a great artists I would say. I’m not sure how I passed any of my art classes in school. (Laughs) The great thing about this is I don’t have to do a lot. The meat is really everyone else, so that is the beauty of what this is. All the stories are really telling the great things that other people are doing. And that’s a great thing for me. 

As a designer I look at Pentagram a lot; they’re a huge design consultant that does things in print, branding, video and film. I look at that a lot. I love all that branding work. I try to look at everything, not just one or two people in the print world. 

Samir Husni: My final question is: what keeps you up at night?

Trey Thaxton: Literally our son. He’s three-years-old and he wants to be up at night in our bed and not in his own. So that literally keeps me up at night. 

For this past year I’ve been really working on mindset and trying to figure out my purpose and direction. For entrepreneurship, we always talk about the pivot and I think COVID in 2020 – 2021 was a big pivot for a lot of people as far as their direction. When I started doing design after graduation, in my mind if I could just work for Nike or somewhere in the NBA that would be the pinnacle of my career. 

Before Goldmill, I actually worked the ministry for a while helping launch a church and became a choir director for a while and stepped down after about five years. After that, I prayed about it and knew that I wanted to make sure that everything I touched for the next twenty years had real value. So for me, it’s how can I have more value to my family, our staff’s lives and to the world. And how can I share value with other people. 

Samir Husni: Thank you.