A collection of over 100 photographs showcasing the resiliency of the Haitian people. All money donated at this high-impact show will support local medical missions to Haiti & aid in earthquake relief. King’s show will feature photographs from her own pre- and POST-QUAKE missions to Haiti coupled with excerpts from her journal.

When: Opening Reception: March 5, 6-10pm; photos shown March 5th – March 25th
Where: Athenaeum ArtSpace 401 Michigan Avenue Indianapolis, IN, 46204 (located on the second floor)

Amy King says of the show:

A Nod to Haiti will benefit Heartline Field Hospital in PaP….an orphanage before the quake; a full scale hospital after the quake (where Rob & I volunteered). The show will also support the The Road to Fondwa project. Finally, the show will benefit the STA medical mission to mountaintop Belle-Riviere, Haiti…… Rob & I have grown to LOVE THAT VILLAGE. We have (had) 2 Godchildren in Haiti….. Dominique’s little Haitian baby Amy & Genesis/Irene’s 16month-old boy Chris. Chris died in the earthquake. They dug for 4 days to find his body. I was able to go to the burial while we were volunteering for Heartline in January. Lottttttttts of Heartline & STA medical mission & baby Chris & orphanage & I could go on & on photos will be up on Friday. There will be detailed injury pics (!! sectioned off !!) for anyone to look at….exposed bone, leprosy, necrotizing fasciitis, etc………

+Wine and food provided by Mass Ave Wine Shoppe (Jill Ditmire www.massavewine.com)
+Cafe Rebo Haitian coffee will be served

+++Documentary “THE ROAD TO FONDWA” will be screened at 7p, 8:30p, & 9:15p + Director Justin Brandon will be in attendance for Q & A + www.fondwa.org

+Paintings by fantastic artists will be hung for silent auction at the show:
Casey Jo Ailes – www.figarosstudio.com
Nicole Yalowitz – www.lowemill.net/nicoleyalowitz.html
Gayla Hodson – www.gaylahodson.com
Kevin Smola – www.smolaart.com (Power Over Poverty)
Gwyneth Sutherlin – www.gwynethsutherlin.com

Haitian fashion designer Berny Martin with Catou Couture (www.catouwear.com) will Silent Auction off a tailor made suit
Poem by Amelia Reiling for purchase
Haitian arts available

Gennesaret Free Clinic (serving the downtown Indianapolis indigent population www.gennesaret.org) will be at the event providing a way to help & volunteer on a LOCAL LEVEL

Info contact: Amy King at rolaking@hotmail.com

In the days after the Haitian earthquake, Provocatrix Gwyneth Sutherlin put her Kreyol (Creole) language skills to good use volunteering for 4636 Haiti, one of the cool stories of cheap cutting-edge social networking technology making an important difference. In this case: how can people around the world who don’t know each other coordinate emergency responders for a country that has just collapsed into rubble? Says “How a tweet brought makeshift 911 services to life in Haiti“:

It’s a striking story of how a few tech-savvy social entrepreneurs, receptive ears in the U.S. government and hundreds of Haitian Creole-speaking strangers crowdsourced from around the world were able to help people on the ground get food or medical attention.

Hours after the earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, 23-year-old Josh Nesbit, who heads a non-profit delivering health care in Sub-Saharan Africa through mobile phones, thought that an SMS gateway would be critical in Haiti.

He sent a tweet out asking for help. A Cameroonian managing a startup incubator in Africa, Jean Francis Ahanda, responded mentioning that a contact, Jean-Marc Castera, was headed to the command center of the Caribbean’s largest wireless carrier Digicel that day.

Within three days, they had co-opted a shortcode, 4636, that had been used for weather information in Haiti. They rushed to get several other partners like Ushahidi, which provides an open-source platform for tracking crisis communications, and Google on board. A non-profit that specializes in using technology for disaster relief, Instedd, built an emergency information system using the shortcode. On a very late Saturday night, a cobbled-together team of a half-dozen organizations or so launched ‘4636′ as an emergency number.

They started publicizing it on the ground in Haiti through radio stations. Haitians could text the number with messages about injuries, people trapped under rubble or reports of missing people.

Within days the 4636 Haiti volunteers logged more than 20,000 text messages. A lot of people are alive today because volunteers like Gwyneth received texts in Kreyol, translated and prioritied the messages, identified geocoords of the messages if possible (and when not possible, sent messages to Haitians familiar with the shattered neighborhoods), forwarded the translated requests to organizations such as Red Cross which then directed the messages to rescue workers on the ground.

Not all of the 20,000 messages were pleas for immediate help.

The messages do reveal a picture of people in Haiti desperate to connect, even just to make their voices heard. It was tough work for the translators, too. Gwyneth provides a sample of the messages she translated, with her comments:

tanpri kčm ap kase mwen pa ka pran nouvel manmanm

Please my heart is breaking because of no news of my mother

But who is your mother?  Who are you?  Where are you?  I ask other volunteers in a chat room about a few of the words as if I might be mistaken in my translation, but I am just stalling having to select the category on the form called “not enough information.”  Not enough information for an aid team to act on.  Triage is another thing altogether from translation.  The group’s collective decision-making gives me the stamina to encounter this sadness hour after hour. 

Voye lapolis jizi mirak kounye a

Send the police Jesus [send] a miracle now…

Just a fragment.  A cry for help. While another part of the team pieces these fragments together, being blind to that part of the process and to the actual incident prompting the message causes me to lean towards the screen as if a flare had been sent up instead of a text.  Leaning and squinting maybe I’ll see where to send help. 

KAY NOU KRASE NOU GRANGOU FÈ YON JAN POU NOU

our house is crushed we’re hungry make a way for us 

When a volunteer got this message, we talked about the tiny word “jan,” which might mean ‘path to the victims’ or ‘way for them to get out’ or ‘aid to get in,’ as if clarifying the slight ambiguity in this sentence would give us the enough detail to estimate a latitude and longitude to relay to the relief agency.  It’s the short, simple ones which repeat the messenger is dying without help and he or she cannot last that I dwell on.  If there’s an address, even a scrap of a street name, I can rush to look it up, but the defeat of the most urgent and unanswerable plea takes a moment to shake off.

Mwen se r—l j?j mwen rete kfou f?ymoun kfou pa jwenn manje pou yo manje map mande tanpri pou nou pase bayo yon ti bagay pou yo manje mwen konte sou nou m?si

 My name is R—l, I live in Carrefour Feuilles. People in Carrefour can”t find food to eat. I am begging you please come give us a little something to eat. I am counting on you thank you.

Is moving this message from one electronic pile to the next creating a strong enough ripple to move food to your mouth and a tent over your head?  Will the accumulation of pinpoints on the incident map swell into the truckloads of relief you await?

Ki sa pou nou fe ak timoun yo kos?nan lekol la e pui kile moun duval nan croi des bouket ap jwen manje pou met nan vant yo

What can we do with the children regarding school and when will the people of Duval in Croix des Bouquets get food to put in their bellies?

I don’t know.  I don’t know.  I feel like I should know.  The translators ask each other about the status of neighborhoods and if someone has a relative they have heard from today.

Nou gen on paket kay ki kraze nou paka fe anyen pou yo moun yo mouri yo santi nou paka espire nan katye a svp fe me…

We have a house which is crushed we cannot do anything for the people the dead we feel like we can not breathe in this neighborhood please do…

The words themselves seem to pile up and their repetition gives the message an urgency and a claustrophobic quality when I say it out loud.  I say them all out loud.  After a moment I realize that they can not breathe because of the stench of corpses. 

Denletrenblemen.deter.je perdir 4 personnes sen conte pied coupe

In the earthquake I lost four people not counting an amputated foot.

I translate this one because I would want to be heard and be counted.  There is no urgent request and I quickly move this out of the message queue marking it as “not enough information,” but somewhere this person’s feelings of loss have been recorded in two languages.  That is all I can do. 

 Mwen pa k bay san paske map mal viv

I am not able to give blood because I am not well

The first time I read this it sounded defeated and overwhelmed, but a second reading seemed angry and defiant at the ridiculous plan.  There was a call out to give blood.  Many responded, ‘How can we?  We are barely alive?’  The emotion is not something that is always apparent when I translate the message, but the volunteers share observations each day of how the tone is changing.  We discuss if we should redact the curses.  Is it important to preserve the sentiment of the message? 

nde nou tanpri edem trouve yon bous etid poum ka kontinye fe etid mwen oubyen yon bous nan nenpot domen apre poum vin nan reskonstriksyon peyim. Mesi

please help me find a scholarship for me to continue to do my studies or better yet a scholarship in anything [related to] rebuilding so that I’ll be prepared in the reconstruction of my country.  Thank you

For the many who deeply care about the future of their country, handling this fragile moment when change is possible has become as urgent as the need for water and food. 

non:br— :pwofesyon:doukoman:nimewo tel:—- mwen mande pou nou fe-m jwen yon travay paske kay mwen kr

Name: Br– profession: dock worker: telephone number— I am asking you to find me a job because my house was cr[ushed]

Because this is not an emergency, I must mark it as ‘not enough information.’  I can’t help feeling like I’ve cheated this person.  Sometimes full resumes come in SMS form which give every detail and certainly have ‘enough information.’   The volunteers reevaluate the protocol for  dealing with job requests often.  Could there be a category for these?  Where do these requests go?  It is because we feel as though we are betraying their good intentions, their amazing energy.   For the moment, the messages are shuffled away clearing the queue for true emergencies.  Perhaps they will be pulled out one day soon.

Ki rol anseyan yo ap jwe nan rekonstriksyon Haďti a

What role will teachers play in the reconstruction of Haiti?

That is an excellent question.  I will do my best to find out for you.

 

 The volunteers of 4636 Haiti//contributed by Gwyneth Sutherlin

Coming March 21 is International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Laureate Series: 1990 Silver Medalist Marco Rizzi:

1990 IVCI Silver Medalist Marco Rizzi with join the IU Violin Virtuosi to perform Tartini’s Devil Trill Sonata and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Described by the The Strad as “…a first-rate violinist with a rich tonal palette, fine technique and a lovely string vibrato…a musician of surprising honesty and maturity,” Rizzi is a prominent recitalist, soloist, and recording artist in Europe. He has performed with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica di Milano ‘G.Verdi’, and many others.

Alert Provocate reader Josef Laposa notes:

“Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was native of Pirano, Istria. His native city is now Piran, Slovenia which is a Sister City of Indianapolis! Slovenes honor Tartini by preservation of his family home located on Tartinijev Trg/Tartini Square and with ongoing musical events.”

From the very beginning of discussions about IndyTalks — the year-long series of events in Indianapolis intended to provoke thought and discussion about our community and globalization — organizers have wanted “unconventional,” even “edgy.” Count on the surrealistic gang clustered abround the Big Car art collective to deliver on “unconventional,” big time. Here’s the original description of the event that will take place in the Clowes Auditorium of the Central Library:

Seven prominent names of the city’s art community join in panel to discuss the future of Indianapolis arts in the face of globalization. However, there’s a twist—the lecturers will be speaking at the same time. Audience members will be given the power to arbitrarily raise or lower the volume of each speaker as the talks progress, creating a frantic, unstructured whirlwind of words and ideas. After the lectures, audience members will be encouraged to express the ideas and feelings generated by this surreal presentation in a facilitated discussion period.

Each of the speakers will stand in the front, back to the audience, facing her PowerPoint slides projected on a screen, ears encased in headphones so she can hear the ten minute talk she is delivering. Whether anyone else is hearing the talk depends on how engaged the audience gets. Each of the lecturers will be assigned a number, audience members will have cards with the numbers inscribed … and the crowd will lift the numbers of the speakers that want to hear. After ten minutes of this performance art piece, Jim Walker of Big Car will lead a discussion of the ideas that gushed out during the talkapalooza.

Goofy fun like that is part of the Big Car brand, and it necessarily attracted the brightest and most fearless (or masochistic) from the arts community who want to be shouting for attention. For a while it was up to 14 lecturers, who’d be run in two heats of 7 like in the Summer Olympics. Then, perhaps when they realized what they had gotten themselves into, the numbers started dwindling … it now is down to 9, with three heats of 3 lecturers. That’s surely going to be easier for the audience, only needing to hold up one of three numbers to select which of the lecturers’ noise would be pumped up.

So who are the brave souls who have decided to put their voices and slide shows on the Library’s stage? Appearing Wednesday evening will be a Who’s Who of eight of Indy’s top designers, artists, and musicians … plus one token un-hip old man.

• Richard McCoy: conservator at Indianapolis Museum of Art, IUPUI instructor, a founder of  Wikipedia Saves Public Art. 
• Flounder Lee: Artist and professor of photography at Herron.
• Wil Marquez: Architect and community leader.
• Michael Kaufman: runs Asthmatic Kitty record label, artist and musician, Big Car Collective member.
• Craig McCormick: owner of Method Architecture, president of the Harrison Center board, photographer and Big Car Collective member.
• Andy Fry: designer, artist and musician based in Fountain Square, Big Car collective member, and member of the band Pravada
• Kelli Mirgeaux: Executive director of the International Film Festival, Fountain Square Arts Council
• Gautam Rao: professor of art at Butler, artist, iMOCA board member.
• John Clark: founder of Provocate (not the cool John Clark who helped found Big Car)

Speakers talking to their powerpoint programs clueless whether they are being heard, audience members fumbling with number-bearing cards as they try to cut out the lectures they don’t want to hear … besides another off-beat evening at the Library with Big Car (and the Car’s even zanier comrades, Know No Stranger), what does it mean?

Says Big Car’s Jim Walker: “Overall, this project relates to Big Car’s love of spontaneity, improvisation, audience involvement, collaboration, experimentation — and experiencing the joy that comes from creating a big, stressful mess and finding the happy accidents that can only come from that mess.”

Earlier this year, when the Indianapolis Star asked for an article about IndyTalks and globalization, I saw the event in a darker light:

Expect more from IndyTalks than conventional lectures and panel discussions. On Feb. 24 at the Central Library the surrealist art collective Big Car puts on “7 Simultaneous Lecturers: Indy Arts and Globalization.” Seven experts will share the stage, all speaking at the same time about our global challenges. The audience will vote whose microphone is turned up or down. This is how Washington-based pundits sound to us in the heartland, loud voices struggling to be heard. All too often we in the audience respond by tuning out messages we dislike, listening only to views with which we agree.

Babble and bubbles: a cacaphony of pro- and anti-globalization voices shouting to be heard, an audience that chooses to stay in a sheltered space of only listening to agreeable views. Is that all we have?

Maybe not. Another way to view the Big Car event is a demonstration of the remarkable resources Indianapolis has available as we figure out how to interface with the world in the 21st century. Flounder Lee has exhibited his work in Poland, Chile, Serbia, and other countries. Wil Marquez has worked in Abu Dhabi, Morocco, and Argentina. In just a few years Kelli Mirgeaux’s Indianapolis International Film Festival has emerged as one of the most respected in the Midwest. Richard McCoy is working to make public art (which is by its nature rooted in a local space) available to everyone in the world. This matters for more than just having cool people who’ve chosen to make Indianapolis their home.

I’ll argue (whether or not anyone turns up my volume) that without an engaged arts community globalization is a failure. Art has a unique “convening power,” drawing us out of the virtual world into real world spaces where we can discuss challenges and possible solutions. Poets can capture the essence of problems with a truth that fact-based journalists or historians can lack. World musicians can blend cultures, taking the best from several and combining them to create something new and better than any particular genre or culture would have produced on its own. This trans-cultural creativity can be an example for everyone, not only artists. I will argue that establishing a sustained network of links between Central Indiana groups and Haitian groups, a long-term effort to help Haitians recreate their lives, will be a great case for this approach.

The lesson of the event is that we have more important local voices speaking on global issues than can be attended to in a single sitting. So let’s be sure to continue the conversation begun at the Central Library. Around 9:00, after the multiple lecturers event, the Rathskellar will host an informal conversation were the ideas shouted out and perhaps tuned out at the Library can be further developed.

And don’t miss the rest of the IndyTalks series … the events may not be as gaudy and goofy as “7+ Simulataneous Lecturers,” but they are all sure to beinteresting and fun, and perhaps even important.

A citywide effort designed to foster a sense of community through respectful and creative civic dialogue, some of the city and state’s most imaginative organizations will examine Indiana’s future from their own unique perspective in provocative and fresh ways through the IndyTalks initiative. Afterwards, join the collaborating organizations to continue conversations begun in these events, and help turn the ideas into actions. For more on IndyTalks, visit www.indytalks.info; to peek inside Provocate’s thinking about the series, visit The Unofficial IndyTalks Blog.

Feb. 24 — 7 Simultaneous Lecturers: Indy Arts and Globalization. Surrealist art collective Big Car and friends stage a panel discussion at the Central Library with seven prominent figures in the city’s art scene … all speaking at the same time. Audience members will be given the power to raise or lower the volume of each speaker as the talks go on, capturing the all too common feel of experts expounding on art and economy.

March 18 — Backyard Pundits: Public Leadership & Ethical Questions for Indiana’s Future. A group of Indiana’s leading thinkers comes to Marian University to ask: “What role should the Indiana public intellectual serve in engaging ethical issues that affect all Hoosiers?” and “What are some ethical concerns specific to the character of Indiana and Indianapolis now and for the future?”

Apr. 21 — When Did I Get Old? UIndy’s Center for Aging and Community organizes a panel of experts at the Athenaeum to discuss how we can maximize the opportunities offered by a graying population.

May 4 — Food for Thought. The Indiana Humanities Council organizes dinner conversations at venues across the city, addressing the question of food and community in the 21st century.

June 15 — Is it Good to be a Hoosier? Historian James Madison discusses how the distinctive traits we associate with people of Indiana can be an asset or liability in the years ahead.

July 22 — What the Arts Mean to Indianapolis. The Arts Council of Indianapolis discusses how culture can connect Indiana and the world, at the Indianapolis Arts Center.

Sept. 30 — An Evening with Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert. Celebrity chefs leave the TV screen to come to Clowes to chat about how food and eating can connect local and global.

Oct. 7 & 14 — Hoosier Values: Can We Reconcile Independence & the Common Good? Hoosiers value their independence and self-reliance, but they also value their families and communities. A provocative panel organized by Christian Theological Seminary and IUPUI’s Common Theme will engage the participants in conversation about where these values intersect, where they compete, and how “Hoosier values” and ethics should (or should not) help shape Indiana’s future.

 

January 13 was supposed to be a big day for Central Indiana’s connections to Haiti. Acclaimed Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat was scheduled to speak this evening at Butler. Expected to attend were many of the remarkable local groups who are working with Haitians to make their country a better place, groups working also to give Hoosiers the chance to be global citizens. Ms Danticat was eager to meet with these groups and individuals after her talk, to hear about the links between a Midwestern city and her home country. It would have been a great evening, and as always with great evenings like this it could have generated entirely unexpected new initiatives and ideas for partnerships. 

The terrible earthquake that shattered Haiti yesterday has postponed this evening’s event, while of course making the event even more urgent when we do have the opportunity to gather. Ms Danticat is preoccupied trying to get word from her family and will not be able to come to Indianapolis until an unspecified later date. If you want to hear a bit of what she missed, an interview with NPR this morning can be heard here. 

We can make a differece as Haitians pull their broken homes and hospitals together. Central Indiana has a quantity of connections to Haiti that surprised Ms Danticat … and I could give her only a partial list. 

• St. Thomas Aquinas church, a few blocks from Butler, is one of dozens of Indiana churches with a twin parish in Haiti. Joe Zelenka has made several dozens of trips to Haiti in recent years. He and his fellow parishioners will be important players in rebuilding the neighborhoods in which they work.
• Fran Quigley of IU-Indianapolis Law school and the IU Medical School partnership with Moi Universityin Kenya is a passionate friend of Haiti. Fran can look with depth and insight at Haiti’s often mutually reinforcing problems of human rights abuses, medical needs, and poverty. Fran’s brother Bill is a law professor at Loyola and runs an important center for Haitian human rights.
• A distinguished Haitian Hoosier is Berny Martin, an internationally renowned fashion designer who makes his home in Indianapolis. He was planning to dres Ms Danticat for her Butler event this evening. Berny has been honored by the UN for his work fighting poverty and injustice in his home country. Learn about Berny’s work at www.catouwear.com
• Marian University students from the school of nursing will spend their spring break on a medical mission in Haiti. On of the professors leading the trip is Barbara Blackford.
• Marian’s partner on their mission is the south Indianapolis organization working in Haiti, Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism.
• The Timmy Foundation also send medical missions to Haiti.
• One of the world’s important research centers on  haitian culture is the Creole Institute at Indiana University Bloomington

 

These will be part of the rebuilding efforts in the weeks and months ahead, and we are fortunate to be able to help such a vital project. In the meantime, immediate assistance to Haiti can be provided through some of these organizations: 

 If talking about globalization makes Hoosiers nervous, Provocate has an easy suggestion: More talk! We have many chances this year thanks to IndyTalks, a very diverse series of events sparked in part by Richard Longworth’s excellent book, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism. Some of the region’s most creative institutions have cooked up a heady mix of discussions, performance art, video discussions, and pitch-in dinners. But whether the series becomes more than just a bunch of cool events, whether it sets off public conversations that are both civil and creative … that’s up to us. Read on … 

 

Talk about globalization makes many Hoosiers nervous. They think of local jobs lost to companies employing cheap workers in China. They feel vulnerable to financial crises outside our borders, to mysterious economic forces made less understandable by so-called “experts” on TV news or talk radio who seem most interested in scoring partisan points. 

 

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on DC-based pundits and partisans. Globalization’s impact on the Midwest is clearly analyzed by Richard Longworth’s splendid book, Caught in the Middle: America’s Heartland in the Age of Globalism. Think Thomas Friedman’s “x1” meets the really flat states. Longworth looks at shuttered shops in small towns and failing public schools in big cities, at state-of-the-art biofuels plants and struggling family farms. Combining personal anecdotes and economic statistics, he sketches a sobering picture of the challenges Midwesterners face. 

__________________________________________________________ 

Want to learn more about globalization and its impact on Indiana?  

Hear former director of Pres. Bush’s chair of the National Economic  

Council Al Hubbard talk about “The US Economy and its Global  

Impact” on April 20. Or hear Steve Forbes on March 24. 

__________________________________________________________ 

For nearly sixty years, the family farm has been vanishing, unable to compete with the astonishing productivity of gigantic scale agribusiness. Rural depopulation slowed a bit three decades ago when companies built factories in small towns. But this manufacturing is most vulnerable to global competition, and now boarded-up factories add another sad touch to a bleak rural landscape.  

The most distressing feature of globalization may be that its victims seem unable to understand the real causes of their problems. During the 2008 election, whether to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement emerged as a hot Midwestern issue. But NAFTA has been a net economic benefit for Indiana and other heartland states, and the real threat to local manufacturing jobs is not Mexico but China. The answer is smarter investing in education and encouraging innovative collaboration at home, not restricting trade. But “stop NAFTA” is a convenient slogan for saying “stop globalization,” not a solution. 

Immigration is another issue that seems to cloud our ability to think clearly. Food processing plants are keeping many small town afloat. But these towns have experienced such a flight of their young people to cities at the first opportunity that a massive inflow of hard-working immigrants from south of the border has been necessary. Rather than an infusion of fresh blood, locals see “Illegals” and “Mexicans” who threaten hometown values and the rule of law. 

__________________________________________________________ 

The best place to learn about immigration in Indiana? The 2nd  

Multiethnic Indiana Conference, “Building Indiana’s 21st Century  

Communities” on April 26. 

__________________________________________________________ 

Longworth focuses attention on the Midwest’s major research universities, which are increasingly dependent on attracting the “best and brightest” from around the world to hold their own against rivals on the coasts (and increasingly in Asia). Local companies that can compete globally will themselves need to attract and retain these foreign-born brains.But to many in the Midwest, these newcomers are a source of concern. They crowd native-born students outfrom universities, they speak strange languages and practice religions that might be dangerous. 

Global competition, Longworth reminds us, has not always been scary for the Midwest. In the first half of the 20th century, the Midwest generated more patents than anywhere else. Our factories used the best technologies, our workers and farmers were the most productive in the world. We were the cutting edge. 

__________________________________________________________ 

In a strange twist of history, cutting edge manufacturing may be returning  

to Indy as we speak. Learn more at the IMA’s screening of the film “The  

Ascent of the Electric Car” February 11.  

__________________________________________________________ 

Our problem today is that yesterday’s successes make it tough to think clearly about hard choices we must make for the future. Political leaders and citizens in Indiana and its neighbors are blinded by a complacent belief that, on the whole, we really are all right. The worst case of this myopia in Longworth’s book is Cleveland, where he says leaders not only have no idea what the answer is, they have no idea what the questions are. But Indianapolis could be headed that direction. Unless we think creatively and talk seriously about how we want to live in a rapidly changing world, he argues, the years ahead will be rough for Indiana. 

We can think and talk creatively, and enjoy ourselves in the process. 

IndyTalks kicks off at noon Wednesday January 13 when WFYI FM 90.1 interviews Longworth. Read his book, hear what he has to say — and listen to what he doesn’t say. Longworth identifies many of the human assets and regional resources that could help us meet those challenges. IndyTalks focuses on our hidden strengths that even such a sharp-eyed observer might miss. 

Longworth, for instance, rightly claims the Midwest’s major research universities can produce future breakthroughs and innovations. But in addition to Purdue, Indiana University and Notre Dame, more than 30 small, independent liberal arts colleges are scattered across Indiana. For many towns, these colleges can be vital sources of ideas and talent. Goshen College is helping Northern Indiana integrate the rapid influx of Latino immigrants. The University of Evansville’s Institute for Global Enterprise in Indiana is reshaping local business strategies in the south. 

__________________________________________________________ 

To discuss the central role of research universities in the  

revitalization of Indiana’s economy, attend the Indiana Life Science  

Collaboration Conference on February 26. 

__________________________________________________________ 

On March 18, Marian University hosts “Backyard Pundits: Public Leadership and Ethical Questions for Indiana’s Future,” an IndyTalks event highlighting the importance of small liberal arts colleges. More than partisan “talking heads” on TV or shrill “shock jocks” on the radio, local public intellectuals can engage the community in a civil and constructive discussion about how the world is shaping local life, and how local groups in Indiana can help make the world better. 

Expect more from IndyTalks than conventional lectures and panel discussions. On Feb. 24 at the Central Library the surrealist art collective Big Car puts on “7 Simultaneous Lecturers: Indy Arts and Globalization.” Seven experts will share the stage, all speaking at the same time about our global challenges. The audience will vote whose microphone is turned up or down. This is how Washington-based pundits sound to us in the heartland, loud voices struggling to be heard. All too often we in the audience respond by tuning out messages we dislike, listening only to views with which we agree. 

(Don’t worry if this sounds too much like a piece of uber-hip performance art, IndyTalks will feature a more conventional discussion of “What the Arts Mean to Indianapolis” on July 22, hosted by the Indianapolis Arts Council.) 

__________________________________________________________ 

A couple good chances to discuss art and globalization: “Hip- 

Hop and its Impact on Global Culture” at Butler on January 21,  

and “Voices in the City: Language, Literacy and Urban Life” at  

IUPUI’s Joseph Taylor Symposium February 25.   

__________________________________________________________ 

Many of the features of Midwestern life that could be seen as obstacles to prospering in the world of the 21st century could be assets, if only we are clever and flexible. Consider that most homey and provincial of epithets, “Hoosier.” Our challenge in Indiana is not that immigrants will cause us to lose our Hoosier values of generosity, trust, hospitality, and so on. Our challenge is to be able to tell newcomers the story of what it means to be a Hoosier — explain to them what makes us special — in a way that makes them want to join us. We also need to listen to newcomers tell us why their cultures and values are also special so that we can incorporate the best from around the world into what it means to be a Hoosier. We can start discussing what this means at the Indiana Historical Center on June 15, when Prof. James Madison of Indiana University asks “Is It Good to be a Hoosier?“ 

Farming is a major issue in Caught in the Middle, and it’s no surprise that food turns up twice as topics for IndyTalks. A product of small town Iowa, Richard Longworth knows that even though manufacturing is the economic heart of the Midwest, agriculture is its soul. Corporate mega-farmer in the Midwest produce more than anyone else, anywhere on the planet. In order to compete the rest of the world, in fact, is being forced to adopt consolidated farming practices developed here … we can still be at the forefront of globalization. 

The problem is that no one likes the idea of corporate mega-farming. Longworth believes it has fatally destroyed the lives of small towns across the Midwest. He sees glimmers of hope in thriving niches of non-corporate small-scale local farmers using less industrial methods. The glimmers may be brighter than he thinks. The “locavore” movement in Central Indiana is driving the blossoming of urban gardening and farmers markets. More generally, many families appear to want to think about what they are eating, and how the food got to their tables. May 4 IndyTalks takes on this desire with “Food for Thought.” The Indiana Humanities Council will set up venues across the city for pitch-in dinners where people can share food with one another, and informally discuss the meaning of what they are putting in their mouths. 

__________________________________________________________ 

You’ll be hearing a lot more about the idea of “Food  

for Thought” in 2010. It’s the theme of the next Spirit & Place  

festival in November, and the theme for the Indiana Humanities  

Council for 2010 and 2011. Some chances for different perspectives  

on food coming up? Sen. Richard Lugar will discuss “Assuring  

Global Food Security” among other security challenges for  

the US at Marian University on January 31. Two Purdue winners of  

the Worold Food Prize (the equivalent of the Nobel for feeding the  

world) will talk about global food security on February 6. IUPUI’s Common  

Theme shows the film “The Garden” about urban gardening in LA on  

February 16.  

__________________________________________________________ 

The issue of food and globalization turns up again on September 30, when celebrity TV chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert come to Clowes Hall. IndyTalks concludes with a topic so important it has to be discussed twice (October 7 and October 14): “Hoosier Values: Can We Reconcile Independence with the Common Good?“ 

IndyTalks will succeed only if it delivers on its name, only if it gets us talking and listening to one another about how to meet our common challenges. Want to learn more about how to be part? Visit the IndyTalks website: www.indytalks.info. The IndyTalks Facebook site is here… become a fan! For background info, visit Provocate spin-off, The Unofficial IndyTalks Blog: http://indytalks.blogspot.com. News articles about IndyTalks include:

• From the Indianapolis Business Journal: “IndyTalks gives the public a civil way to speak up“
• From NUVO: “IndyTalks tackles the future of Indiana“
• From the Indianapolis Star: “Civil dialogue fosters sense of community” and “Clear thinking about hard choices facing the community“

The International Interfaith Initiative is collaborating with The Village Experience to host the second annual Middle East Journey, leaving Indianapolis on December 27 and returning on January 9^th 2010.  Middle East Journey is a delegation eleven of conscientious citizens from diverse faith and vocational backgrounds who are traveling to the Middle East to learn about and participate in programs that are effectively building a better future for the region. 

But Why Go Boldly?

By Liz McWhirter  

There’s a nervous energy in the air. John Samples slows his sentence, stumbles around his next words, prefaces them with, “Allow me to use a term . . . hopefully, without the negative . . .” 

Then, he drops it— 

“Evangelical pastors.” 

I look up at the eight other people listening to him. They’re all sitting quietly, smiling, waiting for the rest of the sentence. 

 

John Samples’ words refer to the faith leaders he works with as Executive Director of the Christian HolyLand Foundation. Perhaps he’s exaggerated the need for semantic sensitivity in this setting, but what do you expect in a room of Muslims and Christians discussing faith and the Middle East? It’s risky business speaking up in a group like this. But that’s what I like about these people—they’re risky. 

Risky because they’ve all signed up to travel to Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank of Palestine in a group comprised of members from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu faiths. On December 27th this very mixed copany will be heading to one of the dicier regions of the world, a place where faith lines divide the land like livewires. 

The group’s trip is supported by the International Interfaith Initiative, an Indianapolis-based organization that promotes multi-faith collaboration in order to stimulate creative cooperation and strengthen civil society. The group will be eleven strong on the day of departure, but tonight, only six of them (plus a few intrigued listeners) have gathered here in this cozy Broad Ripple abode to discuss their upcoming travels. 

As I listen to these excited travelers (many of whom are meeting one another for the first time), it’s clear to me that I’m witnessing the planting of the first seedling of several fruits this trip will inevitably bear. Tonight’s meeting marks the beginning of an exchange of information, a running dialogue that will continue to deepen as they travel across sacred lands. The bond that will form, the friendships that will develop across faith lines . . . well, it’s inspiring. 

But a unique bond and an enlightened global perspective are not the only positive outcomes these travelers seek. They also hope to positively change the people they encounter—whether by working alongside Palestinian refugees on a community project in the West Bank, or communing over dinner with Iraqi refugee families in Amman. At the very least, the group will simply be present for people, ready and eager to listen and learn from their stories of daily life and war, of struggle and of hope. 

 

I ask the trip’s travel guide, Kelly Campbell, co-founder of the Indianapolis-based international travel and trade company The Village Experience, why they have chosen to travel as an interfaith group. She points out that most single-faith groups traveling to the Mid East visit only those areas connected to their particular faith; they usually see only those projects their congregations support. A mixed-faith group, Kelly believes, will branch out, will explore areas important to all the group members’ faiths. 

And she should know: Kelly’s been on this trip once before—in June 2008 the International Interfaith Initiative took their first trip to the Middle East, returning with a passion to support and encourage the remarkable grassroots initiatives they saw working across the region. 

It’s evident that the people gathered together tonight are approaching this trip as learners and observers, not as teachers, or Westerners with answers. Their itinerary is chock-full of meetings with peace workers in every place they will visit—including representatives from the Interfaith Center in Amman, several Bedouin women’s projects in Tel Sheva and Lakiya, the Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development in the Negev, the Ibdaa Cultural Center at the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, and Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. 

The dialogic opportunities this trip provides would likely be applauded by Egyptian interfaith activist Mohamed Mosaad, who has said that interfaith dialogue “has to move from the five star hotels to the neighborhood mosques, churches, and synagogues. Religious people of different religious backgrounds have to meet frequently, listen to each other, communicate humanely, and share what they value the most: their individual religious and spiritual experiences.” 

 

 

Though focused on experiencing the Middle East together, I learn several group members also have particular interests they hope to address during their trip. Kelly Campbell and her associate Sheila Viswanathan want to search out new handmade products from native women to sell in the Village Experience’s Broad Ripple store. Charlie Wiles, who directs the International Interfaith Initiative, is particularly interested in meeting with some of the family members of Iraqi refugees he has come to know in Indianapolis. John Samples is eager to connect with those living in the Christian communities of Israel, as he believes meeting people from the west who are willing to learn about them is a big encouragement for Arab Christians. Father Jeff Godecker, chaplain for the Catholic Community at Butler University and dare I guess the eldest member of the group, says what he’s looking forward to about the experience is, “the ability to see through somebody else’s eyes whose worldview may be very different from mine. The most attractive part [of the trip] to me is Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the same place.” 

And what places they will stand together before!—Petra, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Nativity, King Abdullah Mosque. I ask Charlie Wiles, leader of the first interfaith Mid East trip, about the impact of seeing such sacred spaces from an interfaith context. “It’s enriching to hear how others interpret the sites we see,” he says. “For instance, when we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it was helpful to hear how a Presbyterian felt about the site, or hear how the Rabbi felt about the Western Wall, and the Imam felt about the Dome of the Rock. We all gained from hearing about the perspective of others.” 

One group member’s perspective will be particularly sought after during the trip. Hyam Elsaharty is a non-profit worker in Chicago and will be the sole Muslim representative in the group. She confesses at the meeting that she’s been reading, “the ‘Idiot’s’—no, ‘the Dummies,’—no wait, it’s—Arabic for Dummies” in preparation for her trip. 

 

 

Becca Huttsell, an Indianapolis resident who’s dedicated much of her career to working with the city’s juvenile offenders, cracks up and admits that she’s been reading Islam for Dummies. Becca tells me she sees this trip as “a myth-busting mission—for all religions.” Pointing around the room, she forewarns her fellow travelers, “I’m going to pick all your brains.” 

She puts it lightly, but Becca’s words get at the heart of the purpose of interfaith travel. As British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks theorizes in his controversial book The Dignity of Difference, each faith has only part of the truth. When faith groups come together, they possess more of it. 

It’s possible the witness these travelers will bear to the power of interfaith harmony could make a lasting impression. Charlie Wiles notes from last year’s trip, “When people asked about the composition of our group they were impressed with our diversity . . . I feel that is something we should promote about America, that we have examples of where diversity works for the greater good.” 

The interfaith approach to troubled Middle East regions has certainly gained momentum, especially since Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah’s unprecedented announcement in March of 2008, calling for an interfaith dialogue amongst the world’s monotheistic religions. 

 

 

Though much hope swirls around the words “interfaith dialogue,” for his part, John Samples is keeping things in perspective. He explains, “I am not one who believes peace for the region is right around the corner; I do not even know that it is attainable in any long-term, meaningful way. However, when the focus is on individuals, we can bring peace to families and small communities. And if there is ever to be peace in the big picture, it will be because hearts are changed in the people who will then change the leaders.” 

In a word universal to the Hebrew, English, and Arabic languages: “Amen!” 

Note: The five other travelers participating in the 2009 interfaith trip are: George Kelley, Sheila Viswanathan, Paul Gibson, Michael Sutherlin, and Tim Sutherlin. 

About the trip: 

This year’s delegation includes a dynamic group of individuals that represents the rich religious diversity here in Central Indiana. Among the 11 participants is the Catholic Chaplain at Butler University, the Jewish education director at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, two members of 91^st Street Christian Church, a Hindu Masters student at UIndy and the daughter of one of the leaders of Al Huda Mosque in Fishers. We are also traveling with a civil rights attorney and a woman who has dedicated her life to reduce recidivism in our community. The goal of the journey is to continue building relationships based on mutual trust with individuals and organizations working for positive change in the Middle East. 

This year’s Journey will take us to various sites in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank in Palestine. New Year’s Eve will be spent at Wadi Rum, a breathtakingly beautiful National Park in the southern desert of Jordan. 

The journey begins with a meeting with members of the Iraqi refugee community in Jordan. The meeting will take place at the Jesuit Center in Amman where the priests have befriended hundreds of Chaldeans who fled Iraq after the war began in 2003. The delegation will also meet with Professor Edward Curtis, an IUPUI professor who is on a Fulbright Scholarship teaching at Jordan University this semester. In the West Bank of Palestine the delegation will participate in a volunteer project and learn about youth development programs implemented by the Holyland Trust. The delegation will also hear about a “narrative” project at Bethlehem University where social studies teachers from Israel and Palestine are working to develop a common history of significant events in the region since early 1900. 

The delegation then travels to Jerusalem to meet with members of a Jewish-Arab dialogue project organized by the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. Leaders from this project, Rabbi Ron Kronish and Imam Mohamad Zibdeh, spoke at a conference here in Indianapolis on October 23 this year. The delegation will also meet with a church in Cana, a village in the Galilee area of northern Israel, that is a partner with 91^st Street Christian Church on various projects that foster interfaith understanding. 

You can be part of the trip. A fundraising dinner is planned for Wednesday December 9 from 6-9pm at the Riverwalk “Lodge” in Broad Ripple 6729 Westfield Blvd. Fortunately all of the expenses for Middle East Journey 2009 are paid so all of the money raised will go directly to the organizations in the region doing exemplary work to make a positive difference, increase understanding, and create a better future for everyone. The cost is $20 per person or a table of 8 for $160.  There will be a sumptuous dinner catered by Al Basha’s Middle Eastern restaurant in Fishers. This will be a fun, informal and family friendly event; there is no better time of year to show your support for a brighter future in the Middle East. 

The money raised will: 

• Provide Iraqi refugees living in and around Amman, Jordan better access medical and education supplies
• Enable the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Jerusalem to continue dialogue between the Arab and Jewish community
• Help young children in Bethlehem so that they can participate in wholesome after-school programs and summer camps

RSVP to charlie@mcdiii.com or call (317) 283-2730 

Tax deductible contributions can also be made to “International Interfaith” and sent to 4554 N. Delaware St. Indianapolis, IN 46205.  Please write “ME Journey” in the memo section.

The global economic meltdown has thrown even more people in Africa and around the world into desperate poverty. At the same time, the crisis here has led many in rich countries to feel as though we have lost any previous ability to help the billion-plus who are living on less than a dollar a day … if we have any money to spare, think many, we should use it to help our next-door neighbors, not unknown strangers on the other side of the world. In reality, the economic crisis may change the urgency of foreign aid, and may have shifted the political will to help in wealthy democracies … but the really important questions about providing those most in need with humanitarian assistance have not changed at all. Long before the meltdown, fierce debates raged about the effectiveness and rationale of foreign aid. could helping poor countries actually make poverty worse? And why should we feel a burden to help those who are not our own fellow citizens anyhow.

Several widely discussed books have lately staked out different positions on these questions. Princeton philosophy major Katherine Culver, who studies ethics and public policy, gives a careful critique of five of them:

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey Sachs

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa byDambisa Moyo

Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor by Paul Farmer

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer

Can the very different arguments made in these books about how to end poverty in Africa be reconciled? Might they even be synthesized? And what implications do they have for the hundreds of nongovernmental local-to-local partnerships that connect Indianapolis and Africa? Provocate uses Katherine’s excellent review of these books as a roadmap to conversations throughout Indianapolis this fall, events at which you can talk with people who are engaged in helping Africans and others find solutions for soul-crushing poverty.

What you will discover at these events is that Hoosiers don’t see a transfer from “us” to “them” … they see themselves as part of a relation that entails mutual obligations and that transforms all partners. Their reasons for engagement differ widely, from religious to commercial. But almost all will say that they are engaged so they can become different than they were when they began, so they can become better. At the end of her review, Katherine discovers the great Russian anarchist Petr Kropotkin, who finds the correct phrase: “Mutual aid.” It’s an insight that the writers she reviews could have used.

Read on …
Continue reading “Mutual Aid”: A Dialogue between Katherine Culver, five contentious writers, and the people of Central Indiana

Provocate is well-known for attracting the most creative thinkers and most energetic doers in Central Indiana. The current Provocate team is no exception. Look for us at events around Indianapolis. Let us know how we can help connect you to some of the many important initiatives that are transforming neighborhoods and the world.

And if you would like to learn about joining Team Provocate, contact John Clark.

Want to meet Team Provocate? Read on … Continue reading Team Provocate