Big Car

Poetry and Ritual
2022-09-24 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Indiana/Indianapolis)
The exhibit, “Sister Song: The Requiem” features several commissioned poems by Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde specifically exploring themes in the exhibit and exist within the wombs themselves.Abegunde will read selected works, the community is invited to bring objects that explore healing this history for a community altar.

Sister Song: The Requiem is a community-based project that examines how art and community co-creation processes can be used to heal the intergenerational trauma associated with enslavement and its aftermaths. The project, led by artist LaShawnda Crowe Storm, blurs the lines between the public and private by transforming mundane places into sacred spaces through public rituals.
A requiem is an act of remembrance for the dead. How does honoring the dead give life to the living? How do the living remember their histories while creating new futures? How does embracing history help us release specific traumas and move toward a future where healing is possible? We explore these questions through the community co-creation process that is at the heart of Requiem: womb making.
Each womb is handcrafted and designed in wax by Crowe Storm, then cast in aluminum. After casting is completed, Crowe Storm invites artists and community members to choose a womb. Womb makers then adapt and modify the womb by following these simple directions: Make this into a talisman or spiritual object to heal your/our histories, be willing to allow what needs to emerge to emerge, and transform the womb to reflect a vision of healing. Each womb maker must also be willing to continuously ask themselves the question, “How do I reclaim the ‘spirit of the womb’ when that spirit has been stolen, harmed, wounded?”
“Requiem” is the second iteration of “Sister Song.” The first included 8 wombs that were installed as part of the exhibit Keeper of My Mothers’ Dream (2017, Indianapolis). Requiem incudes nearly 50 vessels on exhibition: the wombs by the original 8 participants along with 40 others, some invited by the original womb makers and others identified by Crowe Storm. In addition, some of the original 8 womb makers created new wombs. The exhibit also includes newly commissioned poems by Maria Hamilton Abegunde.

Participating womb makers include: Abegunde, Afriye We-Kandodis, Alice Berry, Ariana Beedie, Bambi Aldridge, Breon Tyler, Clare Wildhack-Nolan and Ezmae Wildhack-Cain, D. Olivia Jones, Joyce Moore, Juaquita Callaway, Julia Rodreguiz , Keesha Dixon, Kianga Jinaki, LaToya Marlin, Lillis Taylor, Malaika Baxa, Marilyn Kunkle, Melissa Larimer, Monica Johnson, N’dieye Gray Danavall, Phyllis Boyd, Ronda Chapman, Samantha Horton, Sharon Clark, Shauta Marsh, Stacia Murphy, Stephanie Roberston, Trish Williams, Tysha Ahmad, Uzuri Asad, Val Tate, Veronica Schwartz DeFazio, Viola Moten Ratcliffe, Yolanda Echols and Yvette Upton.

LaShawnda Crowe Storm is a mixed media and community-based artist, activist, community builder and occasionally an urban farmer. Whether making artwork or sowing seeds, she uses her creative power as a vehicle for dialogue around topics such as racial and gender violence, social change and justice. At the core of her practice is a desire to create community; any community in which the process of making art creates a space for difficult discussions with an eye towards community healing. She has received numerous awards for art and community activism. Crowe Storm received an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004.

Made possible by Mr. & Mrs. Craig E Von Deylen and Laurel S Judkins with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Arts Council of Indianapolis, The Arts Council of Indianapolis and The Efroymson Family Fund.

Select Few Sessions-Artist Interview Series
2022-09-22 19:00 - 21:00
Join TroyTrackSelect live as he interviews Fre$co at Listen Hear.

After Work Happy Hour - Energy Readings, Performance, Artisan Vendors and more...
2022-09-22 16:00 - 18:00 | Lockerbie Marketplace, 320 N New Jersey St, Indianapolis, IN, United States
Join us after work for Happy Hour at Lockerbie Marketplace — a lovely greenspace next to Needler’s Fresh Market. Purchase goods from local artisans and food vendors, enjoy live music by Mina Keohane (composer and vocalist) and visit our Sun King beer garden located right off the Cultural Trail on Alabama Street. All ages welcome. Featured vendors include Jovan Art and Vintage Kat and Mom. Numerology Readings by Ellen Robinson (Art of You) will also be available.

About Mina Keohane
Mina Keohane is a composer, instrumentalist, and vocalist. Her songs can lean as jazz-influenced progressive pop, and have been described as “if Joni Mitchell and Aimee Mann had a baby with Charles Mingus.”
As a performer, she can be found singing at her monthly residency at the Chatterbox Jazz Club every 3rd Tuesday of the month, as well as playing keyboards and accordion with Jeff Kelly & the Graveyard Shift, Sarah Grain & the Billions of Stars, Nashville-based recording artist Brandon Whyde, The Dopacetics, Hip-Hop Artist TJ Reynolds & the Freehand Orchestra, and her own band Mina & the Wondrous Flying Machine. She has had the opportunity and privilege of opening for many wonderful artists including Becca Stevens, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats, Blues Traveler, Dwight Yoakam, Esme Patterson & Robby Krieger.

About Ellen Robinson
Each human is uniquely coded with their own energy blueprint. Within each human’s coding, which Ellen calls one’s organic formula, lies all that is needed to break out of habitual patterning. Using one’s birthday and name given at birth, the language of numerology is one way to read this distinct coding. Ellen Robinson has been reading number energy since 2012. Each number or energy is aligned with a theme or archetype and exists along a spectrum. In your reading, Ellen will share the themes your soul has chosen to experience in this lifetime, in service to the evolution of your consciousness and freeing of your soul. A numerology experience with Ellen is truly an opening into your own Self – a portal to one’s truest expression.

Pyrography with Nasreen Khan
2022-09-22 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Pyrography, commonly known as wood burning, is the art of drawing and writing using a burning tool for etching designs onto different surfaces, usually wood.
You can use pyrography to add drawings or writings to wood, gourds, leather, and any other material that wouldn’t be destroyed by the heat from the burning tool.

Khan will talk about the process, give examples and allow attendees to try it out (must sign a waiver).

Indianapolis-based artist Nasreen Khan grew up in West Africa and Indonesia and moved to the gritty American Midwest by way of New York City. She and her toddler son live in their bungalow on Indianapolis’ Near Westside. On a Friday night she can be found cooking various organ meats or chasing down a stellar mint julep.
Her Indianapolis art is all a tribute to Haughville. Since moving to Indianapolis and putting down roots, walking the streets of Haughville and becoming part of the fabric here has kept her grounded. Haughville has been the tableau for building community, exploring her queer identity, motherhood, and teaching her son about race.

What’s This?
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. We’re based from the southwest quadrant in front of the Emmis.

Evening Embers: Ambient Music with Landon Caldwell
2022-09-21 18:30 - 19:30 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Landon Caldwell is a composer and multi-disciplinary artist in Indianapolis whose work examines environment, family, & class through the language of intuition and other hidden layers of reality.
He has toured in the United States, Canada, and Europe and is regularly engaged with artists and musicians across the Midwest and beyond. Since 2016 he has co-operated Medium Sound, producing a number of the label’s releases.
From 2017 to 2020 he was a co-owner/operator of A-Space, a community-focused audio workspace. Since 2020 his work with sound has ventured into conceptual, performative, and installation based work.
His collaborative work expands into multi-disciplinary fields, working with film, visual arts, sculpture, poetry, dance, and more.

WALKING WEDNESDAYS-Haiku Hike
2022-09-21 18:00 - 20:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Learn about the art of haiku observation and try your hand at some in-the-moment, 3-line poems led by poet, Big Car executive director and SPARK lead artist Jim Walker. Co-create a linked group haiku (renga) with your fellow walkers. And we’ll record haiku to air on WQRT FM. Everyone gets a free little notebook.
ALL TOURS MEET at the trailer on the southwest quad of Monument Circle. Expect to walk between a half-mile and 2 miles total. In case of bad weather, cancellation decisions will be made by 3 p.m. Check SPARK social media or website for updates.
Free
What’s This?
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. We’re based from the southwest quadrant in front of the Emmis.

Lunch Break Live - Florelis Jimenez Vejas
2022-09-20 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Florelis Jimenez Vejas is a Venezuelan singer and musician with an artistic career of more than 20 years, she will delight us with llanera music songs and among other musical genres.
Made possible by Lake City Bank.
What is this?
Circle SPARK brings you activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. It is located on Monument Circle in the southwest quad. Hours: Mondays – Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm | Wednesdays 5-9 pm | and Fridays 11 am to 9 pm. SPARK is a project of Big Car, Downtown Indy, and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Robin Raps with Deep Trombosis and Cory Gossett
2022-09-16 19:00 - 21:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Robin Raps will perform at Listen Hear to celebrate the release of his new album, along with special guests Deep Trombosis and Corey Gosset.

Block Printing with Jane Sun Kim & Yeabsera Tabb
2022-09-16 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Winter is coming, make your own dainty hankie! Artists Jane Sun Kim and Yeabsera Tabb worked together to research connective patterns, created a woodblock and will demonstrate the printmaking process on vintage hankies.
Yeabsera Tabb is an interdisciplinary visual artist with a focus in printmaking and textiles. Her work explores the intersectionalities and liminal space contained within one’s personal identity.
Yeabsera was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and came to America at the age of 13. Her work addresses her lived experience inhabiting multiple identities both as a Black woman in America and as an immigrant.
Free
Circle SPARK brings you activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. It is located on Monument Circle in the southwest quad. Hours: Mondays – Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm | Wednesdays 5-9 pm | and Fridays 11 am to 9 pm. SPARK is a project of Big Car, Downtown Indy, and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

ReImagine Discovery: An Augmented Reality Activity with artist Omar Rashan
2022-09-15 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Learn how to use art to change your reality with artist Omar Rashan. Rashan’s abstract compositions are expertly produces in rich palettes of paint, ink, aerosol and mixed media and is now adding augmented reality to his works. See examples and learn more!

Culture-based creative Omar Rashan is an “Art-prenuer” with expertise in design, branding, digital marketing, and print media. These efforts along with his many works have spawned multiple mainstream and community engagement endeavors.
Rashan’s purpose is to use his knowledge and experience to motivate the youth while stimulating world change through artistic problem-solving with hopes of attaining dreams. With 20+ years of experience, he has embarked on an immense level of innovational wisdom with the intention of distributing it throughout his community.

Evening Embers: Ambient Music with Clare Longendyke
2022-09-14 18:30 - 19:30 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Pianist Clare Longendyke’s dazzling musicianship and colorful interpretations delight audiences wherever she performs. Critics have lauded her “artistic ferocity that captivated and astonished listeners,” (Waverly Newspapers), her “great virtuosity and delicacy,” and the “loving attention” she pays to the music she performs (Hyde Park Herald). Recognized as a firebrand in the classical music field for the expressive energy and originality she brings to new and traditional repertoire, the effervescent soloist and chamber musician aspires to foster interpersonal connections between people from diverse backgrounds to catalyze conversation and the exchange of unique perspectives through music performance.
Set apart by her inspiring touch and mesmerizing way of sharing music, Longendyke is a sought-after soloist, performing over 50 concerts a year in North America and Europe. Recent orchestral partners include the Federal Way Symphony Orchestra of Washington, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra of Minnesota, and the Mississippi Valley Orchestra.
Longendyke’s appeal has earned her performances as a featured soloist in notable concert series such as The University of Chicago Presents, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, the Fazioli Piano Series in Los Angeles, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ SoundBites Series. She has also performed at renowned festivals, including the Alba Music Festival of Italy, the European American Musical Alliance of France, the New Music on the Point Festival, and the Mostly Modern Festival.
Longendyke blends a passion for music’s classical tradition with an infectious commitment to what she calls “the music of our time.” Her advocacy for innovative music and programming are evident through Music in Bloom, a new music festival she founded in 2019.
In the last decade, she has premiered over 150 new compositions and performed the music of today’s most exciting living composers—Joan Tower, Shawn Okpebholo, Mason Bates, Vivian Fung, Gabriela Lena Frank, Amy Williams, and others. Recent recordings include Homage to Nadia Boulanger: Works for Viola and Piano with Rose Wollman, and In the City, new works for Saxophone and Piano with Andrew Harrison. Her debut solo CD featuring works by Claude Debussy, Amy Williams, and Anthony R. Green is planned for release in early 2023.
Before earning master’s and doctoral degrees at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Longendyke completed degrees at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, and the École Normale de Musique in Paris. The ardent Francophile and French-speaking pianist received the Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts to study music in Paris as an undergraduate.
​A dedicated educator, Longendyke is equally passionate about helping young creators develop their musical skills as she is preparing them to become ambassadors of classical and contemporary music in their communities. She has led workshops and masterclasses at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the State University of New York at Fredonia, the University of Kansas, the University of Northern Iowa, and Wartburg College. Hailed as “a sparkling pianist” by the Hyde Park Herald, Longendyke is on track for a transcendent musical career.

WALKING WEDNESDAYS-The Circle City’s Namesake Landmark
2022-09-14 18:00 - 20:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
With this Walking Wednesday you can gain deeper appreciation for Indianapolis’s symbolic heart by exploring the history and architecture of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument and the buildings that encircle it. Tours presented by Indiana Landmarks.
ALL TOURS MEET at the trailer on the southwest quad of Monument Circle. Expect to walk between a half-mile and 2 miles total. In case of bad weather, cancellation decisions will be made by 3 p.m. Check SPARK social media or website for updates.
* FREE *
What’s This?
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. We’re based from the southwest quadrant in front of the Emmis.

Community Sitting Practice with Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde
2022-09-10 15:00 - 17:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Join us in a healing meditation practice open to the entire community to come and “sit with this” history and together use our energy to transform these histories.
Maria E. Hamilton Abegunde, Ph.D. is a Memory Keeper, poet, ancestral priest in the Yoruba Orisa tradition, healing facilitator, doula, and a Reiki Master. Her research and creative work are grounded in contemplative and ritual practices and respectfully approach the Earth and human bodies as sites of memory, and always with the understanding that memory never dies, is subversive, and can be recovered to transform transgenerational trauma and pain into peace and power. She is the inaugural recipient of the Ph.D. in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.
Dr. Abegunde is the author of three poetry chapbooks, including Wishful Thinking about the 2001 disappearance of Tionda and Diamond Bradley in Chicago. Anthologized poems are included in Gathering Ground, Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century, and Catch the Fire. Her poetry has also been published in Tupelo Quarterly, The Massachusetts Review, Cogzine, and Rhino.
Excerpts of her memory work, The Ariran’s Last Life, have been published in Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Let Spirit Speak!, Warpland, Best African American Fiction, and The Kenyon Review. Co-edited works include Jane’s Stories III with Glenda Bailey-Mershon with whom she and others co-founded Jane’s Stories Press.
Dr. Abegunde is a Cave Canem poetry fellow. She has also received writing fellowships from Sacatar, Ragdale, and Norcroft. Her awards for poetry include the New Discovery Award from the Poetry Center of Chicago and a COG poetry finalist award (Judge: Juan Felipe Herrera). In 2021 she was one of the inaugural poets selected for the Poets & Scholars Retreat at the Rutgers University Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice.
Her creative work and research was recognized through the NEH summer institute fellowship Black Aesthetics and African Centered Cultural Expressions: Sacred Systems in the Nexus between Cultural Studies, Religion and Philosophy, under the directorship of Dr. Pellom McDaniels III and Paul Carter Harrison. Her book chapter “Seeing as a Ritual for a Good Death: The Spiritual Construction of Alain Gomis’ Film Tey” appears in Ashe: Ritual Poetics in African Diasporic Expressivity (edited by Michael Harris, Paul Carter Harrison, and Pellom McDaniels III).
Because of her work on intergenerational/ancestral trauma, community healing, arts-based practices, she was invited to join faculty in the School of Education at the University of Juba, South Sudan to help create a two-year Master’s program in Teaching Emergencies. Dr. Abegunde is also a trained Civic Reflection Dialogue and Powerful Conversations on Race facilitator for Spirit & Place, which she used to launch the initial symposium and dialogues for the anti-Black racism critical conversations on race for the IU College of Arts and Sciences.
She is an inaugural winner of the Dr. James E. Mumford Excellence in Extraordinary Teaching Awards from the IU Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) and an Inclusive Excellence Award for teaching during extraordinary times.
Dr. Abegunde was the founding director of The Graduate Mentoring Center in the University Graduate School, where she directed the center between 2014-2021. As director she developed the Five-Fold Path for mentoring as a contemplative practice as well as nationally recognized student-centered mentoring practices, including trauma-informed practices, for students, faculty, and staff.
Before coming to IU Dr. Abegunde worked in elementary school education for over 20 years and as an independent teaching artist. She was the lead team teacher for the Middle Passage Project and sailed from Puerto Rico to Brazil with Captain Bill Pinkney to retrace and teach about Middle Passage routes. She also served as poet and ritualist-in-residence for the UNESCO-Transatlantic Slave Trade Route-USA Project.
When Dr. Abegunde is not teaching and working, she enjoys watching/reading science fiction.

Thursdays on the Mall Film Series-Rocky IV
2022-09-08 19:00 - 23:00 | 55 E Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
The Indiana War Memorials Foundation in partnership with Indy Film Fest and us at Big Car invite everyone to gather in Indy’s backyard, American Legion Mall (700 N. Pennsylvania St.) for a summer evening and free movie screening of Rocky IV on July 7. Enjoy food trucks, beer from Sun King Brewing, popcorn, Spark games from us at Big Car, and more. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, soak in city views, and spend time with your neighbors. The fun kicks off at 7 pm, movie starts at dusk!
Rocky Balboa (Stallone) holds the world heavyweight championship, but a new challenger has stepped forward: Drago (Dolph Lundgren), a six-foot-four, 261-pound fighter who has the backing of the Soviet Union. This time, Rocky’s training regimen takes him to Siberia, where he prepares for a globally televised match in the heart of Moscow. But nothing can truly prepare him what he’s about to face — a fight to the finish, in which he must defend not only himself, but also the honor of his country!
This event is outdoors. Check back on the Indiana War Memorials Foundation page for weather updates.

Dear You, Love Home with Brandon Schaaf
2022-09-08 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Where did you live that you miss the most? Where did you live that you hated? Who lives there now? What would you say to them? Are there secrets to reveal? Artist Brandon Schaaf will bring stationary and help you write the perfect letter to the current inhabitant.
About BRANDON SCHAAF is a visual and performance artist in Indianapolis, Indiana and a founding member of collaborative artist collective Know No Stranger since 2009.
Schaaf’s visual work includes character design, 2D animation, and illustration.
His performance work includes writing, music, singing, and acting.
His karaoke go-tos include Come Sail Away by Styx, Just A Gigolo by Louis Prima, and War by Edwin Starr.
What is this?
Circle SPARK brings you activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. It is located on Monument Circle in the southwest quad. Hours: Mondays – Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm | Wednesdays 5-9 pm | and Fridays 11 am to 9 pm. SPARK is a project of Big Car, Downtown Indy, and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Outdoor Pilates & Numerology at Lockerbie Market Place
2022-09-08 11:00 - 13:00 | Lockerbie Marketplace, 320 N New Jersey St, Indianapolis, IN, United States
Join us at Lockerbie Marketplace — a lovely downtown greenspace next to Needler’s Fresh Market. Ping pong, foosball, and giant Jenga are always available.
This week enjoy outdoor pilates by The Hot Room, Numerology Readings by Ellen Robinson, and local food by That Vegan Joint.

About the artist
Ellen Robinson has been reading number energy since 2012. Each human is uniquely coded with their own energy blueprint. Within each human’s coding, which Ellen calls one’s organic formula, lies all that is needed to break out of habitual patterning. Using one’s birthday and name given at birth, the language of numerology is one way to read this distinct coding. Each number or energy is aligned with a theme or archetype and exists along a spectrum. In your reading, Ellen will share the themes your soul has chosen to experience in this lifetime, in service to the evolution of your consciousness and freeing of your soul. A numerology experience with Ellen is truly an opening into your own Self – a portal to one’s truest expression. Make sure to pop in each week for varied activities like pilates, psychic readings, and creative activities with local artists, Rhythm Discovery Center, and the Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library.

All events are free at 320 N New Jersey Street in the greenspace right off the Cultural Trail

Check out bigcar.org/lockerbie for details and updates.

WALKING WEDNESDAYS-Indy’s German Heritage
2022-09-07 18:00 - 20:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
This week explore Indianapolis German American History with architectural historian Bill Selm. You don’t need to be German to take the tour…just interested in knowing more about this particular history of Indianapolis. Cosponsored by IUPUI Interior Design Technology & Indiana German Heritage Society.
ALL TOURS MEET at the trailer on the southwest quad of Monument Circle. Expect to walk between a half-mile and 2 miles total. In case of bad weather, cancellation decisions will be made by 3 p.m. Check SPARK social media or website for updates.
* FREE *

What’s This?
We at Big Car are teaming up with Downtown Indy and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission— to spark Monument Circle with human-scale activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. We’re based from the southwest quadrant in front of the Emmis.

Lunch Break Live-Emma Peridot
2022-09-06 12:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Emma Peridot is driven to create music that will capture the hearts of masses, all the while remaining unapologetic about who she is. Her alt-pop sound blends elements of pop-rock and electropop, and her lyrical content examines traditional themes of love, lust, angst and heartbreak, while also getting vulnerable about anxiety, self-doubt, and insecurity.
Her beginnings are humble; during her college years she began releasing music on Soundcloud and performing in small clubs and dive bars around Indianapolis and other nearby cities. But after securing an opening slot for Quinn XCII at Butler University, a confidence was ignited in her that she has something special. Fans have witnessed her hustle since then, and she shows no signs of stopping. As a young, LGBTQ+ pop artist, it’s all about the journey of documenting her experiences in a way that resonates with all those who feel misunderstood. She states, “If my music impacts any number of people in a meaningful way, that’s all I need to feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose.”
​

Made possible by Lake City Bank

Art is Around the Corner with Giselle Trujillo
2022-09-01 11:00 - 13:00 | 1 Monument Circle, South Facing Steps, United States
Make something cool out of provided recyclables.
Co-presented by Arte Mexicano en Indiana.

About Giselle Trujillo
Trujillo is an art designer & producer who specialized murals, sculptures, illustrations, videos, staging, and more. Inside of me, like inside of everyone, there are many characters waiting to come out in order to be somehow present in this world. They come out from a pencil and play with papers, from our mind and play with our life.
“Once, when I was a child, I was close to the sea and I understood everything it said to me. then my hands made a face, a body; some faces, some bodies that watched me, touched me, and I watched them and touched them and then they abandoned me, leaving with the sea, melting themselves with all those characters who were born and going to be born from the sand and they had left with the breeze and with the sea (they are still my friends that I will never see again).
It happened the same with the mud, but the faces and the bodies wouldn’t leave. and here they were; I didn’t plan them, I didn’t make a sketch of them and they appeared. They wake me up any hour, any time talking to me, moving through my hands and when they say ” leave me like this ” I transform them in stone… …And my mind and my soul will rest in the stone, in the paper and in the sand, which had already gone.”–Trujillo

Circle SPARK brings you activities like games, live music, artmaking, and socializing in a comfortable place. It is located on Monument Circle in the southwest quad. Hours: Mondays – Thursdays 11 am to 2 pm | Wednesdays 5-9 pm | and Fridays 11 am to 9 pm. SPARK is a project of Big Car, Downtown Indy, and the City of Indianapolis — with support from the Capital Improvement Board and the Indiana War Memorials Commission.

Lunch at Lockerbie featuring performance by Rob Funkhouser
2022-09-01 11:00 - 13:00 | Lockerbie Marketplace, 320 N New Jersey St, Indianapolis, IN, United States
Join us on Thursdays at Lockerbie Marketplace — a lovely downtown greenspace next to Needler’s Fresh Market. Ping pong, foosball, and giant Jenga are always available for additional entertainment.
This week enjoy live music by Rob Funkhouser and local food by Black Leaf Indy. Music starts at noon.

About the artist
Rob Funkhouser is a composer, performer, and instrument builder who can never quite sit still. His work is concerned with ideas of place, memory, and pattern and he is interested in interrogating the interstitial spaces between established genres. He holds an M.M. from Butler University in Music Composition, and most recently completed Peace of Mind, Speed of Thought for Classical Music Indy. He has released recordings, curated performances, and installed works in many places both around Indianapolis and in many other parts of the country. In 2020, he began a long-term living residency with Big Car as part of their APLR program, and served as a resident artist for Cat Head Press in collaboration with Landon Caldwell. He also serves as Education Manager for the Rhythm Discovery Center, where he runs public programming for schools and community members. He has collaborated with diverse groups including Forward Motion, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, No Exit Theater, and Chicago-based director Ryan Gleason.
All events are free at 320 N New Jersey Street in the greenspace right off the Cultural Trail

Dear Black Girl with Tamara Winfrey Harris
2022-08-20 15:00 - 17:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
A public reading and discussion around the book “Dear Black Girl: Letters from Your Sisters About Stepping Into Your Power.”

Tamara Winfrey-Harris is a writer who specializes in the ever-evolving space where current events, politics and pop culture intersect with race and gender. She says, “I want to tell the stories of Black women and girls, and deliver the truth to all those folks who got us twisted—tangled up in racist and sexist lies. I want my writing to advocate for my sisters. We are better than alright. We are amazing.”
Tamara is the author of two books: The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2015) and Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters On Stepping Into Your Power (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2021). The award-winning Sisters, now in its second edition, has been optioned by Wise Entertainment and Gabrielle Union’s production company I’ll Have Another to be turned into a dramedy for television.
Tamara’s work has been published in media outlets, including including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. And her essays appear in The Lemonade Reader: Beyonce, Black Feminism and Spirituality (Routledge, 2019); The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery (Wayne State University Press, 2018); Black in the Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest (Black Belt Publishing, 2020); and other books.
Tamara is co-founder of Centering Sisters, LLC, an organization that unapologetically addresses the needs and issues of Black women and girls; and the Black Women’s Writing Society, a monthly virtual space for Black femme creatives. She is also a certified yoga teacher who focuses her work on the healing and well-bring of her sisters.
Tamara is a native of Gary, IN, and a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc. She graduated with a BA degree from the Greenlee School of Journalism at Iowa State University.

Made possible by Mr. and Mrs. Craig E Von Deylen and Laurel S Judkins with additional support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Milford Graves-Full Mantis
2022-08-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Kan-Kan Cinema, 1258 Windsor St., Indianapolis, IN, 46201, United States
MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS is the first ever feature-length portrait of renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creativity and relentless curiosity.
Graves has performed internationally since 1964, both as a soloist and in ensembles with such legends as Albert Ayler, Giuseppi Logan and Sonny Sharrock. He is a founding pioneer of avant-garde jazz, and he remains one of the most influential living figures in the evolution of the form.
The film draws the viewer through the artist’s lush garden and ornate home, into the martial arts dojo in his backyard and the laboratory in his basement – all of this just blocks from where he grew up in the housing projects of South Jamaica, Queens.
Graves tells stories of discovery, struggle and survival, ruminates on the essence of ‘swing,’ activates electronic stethoscopes in his basement lab to process the sound of his heart, and travels to Japan where he performs at a school for children with autism, igniting the student body into an ecstatic display of spontaneous collective energy.
Oscillating from present to past and weaving intimate glimpses of the artist’s complex cosmology with blistering performances from around the globe, MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS is cinema full of fluidity, polyrhythm and intensity, embodying the essence of Graves’ music itself.
Live performance by Tyler Damon.
Presented in partnership with Rhythm! Discovery Center and Kan Kan Cinema.

Amy Kligman and Ish Muhammad In Conversation
2022-08-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Learn more about two of the artists selecting this year’s Power Plant Grant recipients!
Amy Kligman has been the Executive Artistic Director at Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, MO since 2015. Kligman’s career and experience as an exhibiting artist and grassroots curator/arts administrator spans 20 years of studio & exhibition work, independent curating and organizing, and artist-run projects. In 2011 Kligman was one of a team of 5 artist-curators who established Plug Projects, an artist-run project space in Kansas City’s West Bottoms that hosted a robust & nationally recognized calendar of exhibitions and artist-centered programming.

Ish Muhammad is a self-taught artist residing in Northwest Indiana. Muhammad’s work, post-graffiti abstract expressionism, is exhibited in galleries, museums, and site-specific installations nationally. He is a founding member of Crazy Indiana Style Artists (CISA). CISA is recognized as Indiana’s first Latino Art Collective.

Sister Song Womb Makers Artist Talk
2022-08-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Hear from some of the artists and community members that LaShawnda Crowe Storm invited to create a womb. Womb makers adapted and modified the womb by following these simple directions: “Make this into a talisman or spiritual object to heal your/our histories, be willing to allow what needs to emerge to emerge, and transform the womb to reflect a vision of healing.”
Each womb maker had to continuously ask themselves the question, “How do I reclaim the ‘spirit of the womb’ when that spirit has been stolen, harmed, wounded?”
Womb makers: Abegunde, Afriye We-Kandodis, Alice Berry, Ariana Beedie, Bambi Aldridge, Breon Tyler, Clare Wildhack-Nolan and Ezmae Wildhack-Cain, D. Olivia Jones, Joyce Moore, Juaquita Callaway, Julia Rodreguiz , Keesha Dixon, Kianga Jinaki, LaToya Marlin, Lillis Taylor, Malaika Baxa, Marilyn Kunkle, Melissa Larimer, Monica Johnson, N’dieye Gray Danavall, Phyllis Boyd, Ronda Chapman, Samantha Horton, Sharon Clark, Shauta Marsh, Stacia Murphy, Stephanie Roberston, Trish Williams, Tysha Ahmad, Uzuri Asad, Val Tate, Veronica Schwartz DeFazio, Viola Moten Ratcliffe, Yolanda Echols and Yvette Upton
Made possible by Mr. & Mrs. Craig E Von Deylen and Laurel S Judkins with additional support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

LaShawnda Crowe Storm-Sister Song:The Requiem
2022-08-05 18:00 - 2022-10-16 18:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Sister Song: The Requiem is a community-based project that examines how art and community co-creation processes can be used to heal the intergenerational trauma associated with enslavement and its aftermaths. The project, led by artist LaShawnda Crowe Storm, blurs the lines between the public and private by transforming mundane places into sacred spaces through public rituals.
A requiem is an act of remembrance for the dead. How does honoring the dead give life to the living? How do the living remember their histories while creating new futures? How does embracing history help us release specific traumas and move toward a future where healing is possible? We explore these questions through the community co-creation process that is at the heart of Requiem: womb making.
Each womb is handcrafted and designed in wax by Crowe Storm, then cast in aluminum. After casting is completed, Crowe Storm invites artists and community members to choose a womb. Womb makers then adapt and modify the womb by following these simple directions: Make this into a talisman or spiritual object to heal your/our histories, be willing to allow what needs to emerge to emerge, and transform the womb to reflect a vision of healing. Each womb maker must also be willing to continuously ask themselves the question, “How do I reclaim the ‘spirit of the womb’ when that spirit has been stolen, harmed, wounded?”
Requiem is the second iteration of Sister Song. The first included 8 wombs that were installed as part of the exhibit Keeper of My Mothers’ Dream (2017, Indianapolis). Requiem incudes nearly 50 vessels on exhibition: the wombs by the original 8 participants along with 40 others, some invited by the original womb makers and others identified by Crowe Storm. In addition, some of the original 8 womb makers created new wombs. The exhibit also includes newly commissioned poems by Maria Hamilton Abegunde.
Participating womb makers include: Abegunde, Afriye We-Kandodis, Alice Berry, Ariana Beedie, Bambi Aldridge, Breon Tyler, Clare Wildhack-Nolan and Ezmae Wildhack-Cain, D. Olivia Jones, Joyce Moore, Juaquita Callaway, Julia Rodreguiz , Keesha Dixon, Kianga Jinaki, LaToya Marlin, Lillis Taylor, Malaika Baxa, Marilyn Kunkle, Melissa Larimer, Monica Johnson, N’dieye Gray Danavall, Phyllis Boyd, Ronda Chapman, Samantha Horton, Sharon Clark, Shauta Marsh, Stacia Murphy, Stephanie Roberston, Trish Williams, Tysha Ahmad, Uzuri Asad, Val Tate, Veronica Schwartz DeFazio, Viola Moten Ratcliffe, Yolanda Echols and Yvette Upton.
LaShawnda Crowe Storm is a mixed media and community-based artist, activist, community builder and occasionally an urban farmer. Whether making artwork or sowing seeds, she uses her creative power as a vehicle for dialogue around topics such as racial and gender violence, social change and justice. At the core of her practice is a desire to create community; any community in which the process of making art creates a space for difficult discussions with an eye towards community healing. She has received numerous awards for art and community activism. Crowe Storm received an M.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004.
Image: LaShawnda Crowe Storm, “Mother At The Crossroads,” bronze, 2021. Photographer: Polina Osherov.
Made possible by Mr. & Mrs. Craig E Von Deylen and Laurel S Judkins with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Arts Council of Indianapolis, The Arts Council of Indianapolis and The Efroymson Family Fund.

Carlie Foreman: Full Disclosure
2022-08-05 18:00 - 2022-09-18 15:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Full Disclosure’s mixed media works find inspiration in collective memory and how it’s intertwined with the natural world. Foreman looks at the relationship between symbolism in ancient sites, churches and secret societies. She also explores modern-day meme culture in relation to familiar patterns of sacred geometry and environmental symbols. She views the research, process, and creation of this work as a vehicle for spiritual transformation.
Foreman says: “A built network of beliefs becomes ingrained in the DNA of the land, a part of the vibrational fingerprint of the space and its history of culture, conflict, displacement, etc. Energetically, I seek connection and translation of ancestral knowledge to honor the work of those who came before us and to build upon it with the mission of progressing toward a safe and equitable environment.”
In this, her second solo exhibit, Foreman uses color, video, projection mapping, and interactive video to reflect on how the electromagnetic light spectrum and the vibration of sound create a network of living substances.“When you choose love, you’re lifted,” says Foreman. “Full Disclosure works to visualize a future where we feel a wholesome connection to the space around us — within, on earth and beyond. I hope we can start conversations about how our world is connected — energetically and geometrically. And talk about how we can feel empathy and responsibility for collective growth. Each of us is a pillar in the bridge that takes us from our past to our future. We’re a bridge to a different world. We got here just in time!”
About the artist
Carlie Foreman is a multi-disciplinary artist from Indianapolis and studied sculpture at Herron School of Art and Design — a school of Indiana University at IUPUI. Foreman lives in Garfield Park, serves as the director of operations for Big Car Collaborative, and is a board member with the Garfield Park Neighbors Association. With interest in work that focuses on vibration and connection, Foreman works in fine arts, public art, and place-based activation. Since July of 2018, Foreman has hosted Good Vibrations, an electronic radio show, on 99.1 WQRT LP Indianapolis.
This exhibition is made possible by The Arts Council of Indianapolis, The City of Indianapolis, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Allen Whitehill Clowes Foundation.

CA Davis:A Jungle, Interrupted
2022-08-05 18:00 - 22:00 | Listen Hear, 2620 Shelby St, , Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
What did the jungles of Vietnam sound like before, during, and after the war from 1965 to 1995?
A Jungle, Interrupted is an experimental audio documentary and timelapse that features key moments—reimagined and repurposed through sound—over roughly thirty years before, during, and after the Vietnam War. Davis asks: what does the deep rumble of the free market sound like and how did it overtake the otherwise undisturbed Vietnamese rainforests? What would propel a decade of extreme, confused violence, and was it worth the bloodshed?
In his first solo exhibit, Davis creates a room-shaking, fifteen-minute surround sound piece that traces the tragic and deadly ironies, lies, and realities comprising the Vietnam War. This, staged among ephemera and original illustrations by Chicago-based visual artist Keith Couture, are laid bare for us to sit with and listen through in hopes that we may gain a clearer understanding of the relationship between capitalism and the endless conflicts that occur for or against its profits.
About the artist:
CA is a Black-Filipino-Italian-American multimodal storyteller and documentarian from Carmel, Indiana currently completing his graduate degree at Northwestern University. His most recent documentary, Inhuman Figures: Robots, Clones, and Aliens, was released by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and he is also the creator and host of a LATTO Thought, an audio documentary series exploring the histories and social developments of interracial life central to the United States. His work has been featured by TriQuarterly Magazine, Filmscalpel, and RØDE Microphones. See more of CA’s work at CADavis.me.
“Through sound and image I explore forgotten, overlooked, and complex histories of racial colonialism and imperialism perpetrated by the United States to better understand mixed racial American identities in the present. The nature of race is not biological, but it is material—our bodies are the historical evidence of oppression, economics, love, war, social justice, and moral bankruptcy. As such, I captivate my audiences with intricately edited stories, sound designs, and films so as to better invite people to learn from otherwise difficult history.”
Curator: Sylver Wallace
Made possible by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Qahar Behzad: The Colors of Afghanistan
2022-08-05 08:00 - 18:00
Opening in Tube Factory artspace’s Guichelaar Gallery is a collection of works by Behzad created between the years 2011-2022 in Afghanistan and the US.
Behzad grew up in Kabul in a family of book publishers, surrounded by centuries-old historical texts and rare books of poetry in his father’s libraries and bookstores. Behzad remembers reading traditional Afghan storybooks his father published that directly influence the art he creates.
Behzad paints about life in Afghanistan, often from observation, depicting places like Kabul’s busy bazaars and Afghanistan’s picturesque mountain ranges. He paints with depth and expressive color, drawing inspiration from one of his favorite Western painters, Claude Monet. Through these influences, Behzad expresses his take on the rich and storied culture of his country.
Behzad’s journey as an artist began in the mid-1990s, when he was six years old. The Taliban had first emerged in his home country, and Behzad’s family found safety in Pakistan. Not able to attend school yet, he spent his days drawing. Here, he completed his first artwork, a drawing of former Afghan king, Mairwais Naika, after studying his portrait in a history book.
His family encouraged him to pursue development as an artist. “I had no real training or instruction in art,” says Behzad. “I just sat down and began to draw. Everyone who looked at my drawings appreciated what my artwork stood for, and pushed me to continue.”
A few years later, his family was able to resume life in their home country, and Behzad began to explore painting in oil and watercolor. After the establishment of US military base Camp Eggers in Kabul, Behzad became the first artist to display and sell artworks there. From 2005-2015, he created daily in his studio on base, producing thousands of drawings, oil paintings, and watercolors. Behzad’s studio became a haven of peace amid an otherwise hectic atmosphere. Soldiers and other military personnel could drop in for tea, to observe Behzad’s creative process, commission a painting, or take a lesson with the artist.
One of the paintings featured in this exhibition, Behzad Bookstore and Afghan Burqas was originally created by Behzad in 2009. In this piece, a group of women dressed in traditional burqas read from shelves of books in his father’s shop in Kabul. The piece celebrates the new freedoms available to women after the first Taliban regime ended, when they could leave their homes, pursue education and learn their rights. In 2021, these freedoms were again taken away. The Taliban is again denying the education and enlightenment of Afghan people, and Behzad Bookstore has closed due to their threats. Behzad recreated this painting in 2022 to highlight this tragic regression, and to remember better times in his country.
Behzad’s works have gained international recognition. Some of these works include portraits of Queen Elizabeth ll commissioned by the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, former US President George W. Bush, for which Behzad received a personal letter of appreciation, and former US President Barack Obama, commissioned by his election campaign staff. The US Navy also commissioned a large canvas mural featuring a fleet of ships stationed in San Diego, California. Behzad has completed many paintings for U.S diplomats and advisors, NATO representatives, and the government of Afghanistan.

Qahar Behzad Bio
A self-taught artist from Kabul, Afghanistan, Abdul Qahar Behzad is now based in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he works as a Legal Assistant for Exodus Refugee Immigration. He earned a degree in Law and Political Science from Rana University in Kabul in 2020.
Behzad was the first artist to display and sell his paintings at Camp Eggers, a US military base in Kabul. From 2005 to 2018, he operated painting studios there, as well as at Camp Phoenix, NKC (New Kabul Compound) Base, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) “Resolute Support” Headquarters, Camp Cobra, and Camp Qula House, where he created artworks for soldiers and military personnel.
When Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, Behzad was working as an artist in Kabul. Amidst the chaos and violent takeover, former commanding US officials, many of whom served in the Indiana National Guard, wrote letters of support to bring him to safety in the US. Behzad evacuated to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, where he volunteered as an interpreter for 4 months.
Behzad is committed to helping other refugees like himself. He is working to bring the rest of his family to safety in the US, and advocating for the evacuation of other Afghans who still live under threat of the Taliban every day.

Thursdays on the Mall Film Series
2022-08-04 19:00 - 23:00 | Indiana War Memorial, 55 N Michigan Ave, Indianapolis, IN, 46204, United States
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Thursday, August 4, 2022, 7-11 PM
The Indiana War Memorials Foundation in partnership with Indy Film Fest and us at Big Car invite everyone to gather in Indy’s backyard, American Legion Mall (700 N Pennsylvania St.) for a summer evening and free movie screening of Rocky IV on July 7. Enjoy food trucks, beer from Sun King Brewing, popcorn, games, and more. Bring a lawn chair or blanket, soak in city views, and spend time with your neighbors. The fun kicks off at 7 pm, movie starts at dusk!
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse: Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.
Please be aware this event is outdoors. Check back on the Indiana War Memorials Foundation page for weather updates.

Rob Funkhouser and Eric Salzaar Study In Place Live Performance
2022-07-24 16:00 - 18:00 | Tube Factory artspace, 1125 Cruft St., Indianapolis, IN, 46203, United States
Rob Funkhouser will perform live on the Cristal Baschet he created during the pandemic.
Funkhouser is a composer, performer, and instrument builder who can never quite sit still. His work is concerned with ideas of place, memory, and pattern and he is interested in interrogating the interstitial spaces between established genres. He holds an M.M. from Butler University in Music Composition, and most recently completed Peace of Mind, Speed of Thought for Classical Music Indy. He has released recordings, curated performances, and installed works in many places both around Indianapolis and in many other parts of the country. In 2020, he began a long-term living residency with Big Car as part of their APLR program, and served as a resident artist for Cat Head Press in collaboration with Landon Caldwell. He also serves as Education Manager for the Rhythm Discovery Center, where he runs public programming for schools and community members. He has collaborated with diverse groups including Forward Motion, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, No Exit Theater, and Chicago-based director Ryan Gleason.
Eric Salazar holds a B.M. in Clarinet Performance from Ball State University and an M.M. in Clarinet Performance from Bowling Green State University. He currently serves as an Director of Community Engagement for Classical Music Indy where he manages, books, and promotes over a hundred and fifty performance events a year in Central Indiana. Eric also mentors and hires 30-40 independent classical musicians annually. With their combined efforts this group brings music to over 100,000 Indiana residents a year, with a focus on people who would not otherwise have access to live music performance.
Made possible through the generous support of The Efroymson Family Fund. Additional support provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Arts Council of Indianapolis and the City of Indianapolis.
