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 …

The KI Equation: Challenging Conversations + Aliveness = Liberation

The Kheprw Institute, with all its limitations, remains a location of conversations about possibilities. In that field of possibility we’ve the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our peers, an openness of mind and heart allowing us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. These critical conversations are …

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, …

Book Review: Drug War Capitalism by Dawn Paley

The topic is controversial; the author herself is courageous for taking on such an underreported story. Dawn succeeds in connecting transnational business with paramilitaries, drug cartels, and U.S. involvement. Far too often in the media we hear of the reports that the FBI has taken down a major cartel and somehow it’s a major blow to drug trafficking. Also another …

The Mind Trust is a Trojan Horse That Is Destroying Indianapolis Public Education

by Jim Scheurich, Professor, School of Education, IUPUI I am sure you know what a Trojan horse is.  It looks so new, so exciting, you bring it inside your city.  However, as soon as you do, out pour all the enemy soldiers who take over your town, destroying your way of life, taking your children, possibly even buying naïve people’s …

Community Development Versus Gentrifcation

The President of the Near North Development Corporation (NNDC), Michael Osborne, has recently said in the Near North News  (September 12, 2013) that raising the property values in the Near North area is the most important change that needs to occur to improve the Near North.  Unfortunately, this is one of the most damaging ideas possible—much worse than doing nothing. …