Pandemics & Community Wealth: 4 Stories of Resilience

“We can, Each of us, Do the impossible As long as we can convince ourselves That it has been done before.” – Earthseed: The Books of the Living, Octavia Butler Race, class, patriarchy and capitalism are the primary driving social & economic forces today. These forces shape and define inequitable resource distribution, power and all aspects of our social constructs. …

Protect our Water: Take Action on Coal Ash

PROTECT OUR WATER Take Action on Coal Ash in IndianaINFORMATION PROVIDED BY Hoosier Environmental Council HEC has been leading the push for safe disposal of coal ash in Indiana for more than a decade. More information is available at IndianaCoalAsh.org.After coal is burned, there is ash left over. Unfortunately, coal ash contains toxic heavy metals that can contaminate water. In …

Police Reform Revisited?

“A reform that begins with the officer on the beat is not reform at all. It’s avoidance. It’s a continuance of the American preference for considering the actions of bad individuals, as opposed to the function and intention of systems.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Myth of Police Reform. On July 14th, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett announced his plan to bring …

July 2017 CCFI Food Shares and Recipes

Tomorrow is the monthly Community Controlled Food Initiative (CCFI) food pick up and Good Food Feast. We will be gathering at Kheprw Institute, on July 8th from 3-5pm, as we do every Second Saturday of the month – sharing food and building our community program. Usually, you don’t find out what is in your bag of goodies until you arrive, but we are …

Voyage Along the Horizon Between the United States and Brazil

I arrived in Salvador a 21-year old black male, raised by the Indianapolis community that created me, to embark on a journey to discover lessons from another chapter of the African Diaspora. I arrived with a backpack of journals and cameras and a large duffle bag filled with clothes inappropriate for the tropical weather. I was drenched in sweat within …

Indianapolis Equity Profile from PolicyLink

Presentation created by Alexis Stephens, Senior Communications Associate at PolicyLink. Presented at Kheprw Institute on September 25, 2016 at Gentrify: Equitable Development vs. Economic Development.

Indy Communities Taking Control of Their Food

With the loss of Double 8 foods in our communities last year, the people searched for an alternative means of obtaining affordable produce without having to drive all over creation to access them. From that need, the Community Controlled Food Initiative (CCFI) was born.   CCFI is a community led initiative that was started by the Kheprw Institute shortly after …

Gentrification: Interview with Imhotep Adisa

Members of the Kheprw blog team recently sat down with Imhotep Adisa (M) Executive Director of Kheprw Institute to talk about gentrification in Indianapolis as part of a series focused on equitable development and empowering community solutions. How do you define gentrification? M: When I think of Gentrification I think about it in very broad ways. Fundamentally it’s displacement, physical, …