Gentrification is mired with issues of class, politics, race, and human impact.With this in mind, Spirit & Place and the Kheprw Institute are partnering to offer an eight-part series of community discussions that will explore the impact and ramifications of gentrification above and beyond displacement. Gentrify: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly launched February 28 and is held the last Sunday of each month through October 30 from 3-5 p.m. at the Kheprw Institute, 3549 Boulevard Place. Each event in the series will encourage discussions of engaging topics from various angles, including but not limited to: education, culture, race, class and power, food, and global perspectives. A panel featuring local voices and speakers from other cities video conferencing in will contribute to the discussions as well.
The next program in the series, Defining Gentrification, will be held June 26. For more information, visit www.gentrify.kheprw.org.
The Spirit & Place Festival and its programs serve as a catalyst for civic engagement through creative collaborations among the arts, humanities, and religion. The festival began as a part of the Polis Center Project on Religion and Urban Culture, a six-year (1996-2002), $8 million initiative to examine the intersections of religion and community. Polis manages the festival on behalf of a community collaboration that annually involves more than 100 organizations. It also helps partners throughout the year to develop programs that extend the festival under a model known as “Powered by Spirit & Place.”
Don’t forget to mark your calendars: the 21st Spirit & Place Festival will be held November 4-13 with HOME as the 2016 theme. The Festival will urge community partners to explore the meaning of “home” from a variety of perspectives – place, relationships, opportunities, identity, community, connections and more – as we celebrate the state’s bicentennial. Indiana Landmarks, a statewide organization dedicated to saving Indiana’s historic structures and reconnecting people and communities to their heritage through historic places, is partnering with Spirit & Place this year by providing much needed space for events. The Indiana Landmarks Center is located at 1201 Central Avenue.