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Betty Perry

(Aug 8,1948 -Feb. 11, 2022). Perry was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Betty Jo-Ann Montgomery. She was the oldest of nine children who, at the age of five was orphaned, moving into the foster care system. When Perry was nine years old, she and two siblings went to live with their maternal grandmother Rebell Kearse Tobe in the Bronx neighborhood of Fort Apache. At age 12, Perry received a scholarship to study viola at Third Street Music Settlement in New York City. Teachers noticed Perry’s gift for playing. They… Read More »Betty Perry

Dust Bowl Tournament

The Dust Bowl Tournament emerged from a Police Athletic League (PAL) sponsored basketball league at the Lockefield Gardens, a segregated WPA Black housing community that opened in February 1938 on Indianapolis’ near west side. The original dust bowl referred to a dirt court, composed of cinder and gravel, that sat on Colton Street at the south end of Lockefield. The court was bookended by two backboards with net-less rims. The dust bowl was a popular after-school spot for many young African American basketball players from the area. Lockefield Gardens resident… Read More »Dust Bowl Tournament

LifeJourney Church

LifeJourney Church–originally known as Jesus Metropolitan Community Church–was founded in 1990 as a trailblazing church of refuge for LGBTQ Christians. At the time, it was the only predominantly LGBTQ congregation in Indianapolis. Over the years, the church grew to become a congregation of over 400 and became a leading advocate for spiritual and legal equality for LGBTQ people. Examples of its advocacy efforts included organizing ICON, the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination, a statewide coalition of affirming congregations that formed in 2001 and advocated for LGBTQ equality at the Statehouse and… Read More »LifeJourney Church

Mae Alice Engron

(Jan. 29, 1933-May 4, 2007). An abstract artist, Engron was born in Indianapolis to Reuben and Hattie Starks and attended the Indianapolis Public Schools. After suffering injuries while working at the U.S. Postal Service, she decided to attend the Herron School Of Art. She graduated in 1984, at the age of 42. Engron was one of a few Black abstract expressionist artists working at the end of the 20th century. Although she worked in the same vein as such world-renowned artists as Jackson Pollock, known for his “drip technique” of… Read More »Mae Alice Engron

Monasteries And Retreat Houses

A monastery is home to a group of religious believers who reside in seclusion to pursue a life of contemplation. The monastic life is characterized by asceticism and self-denial. The general physical property of a monastery includes the church, cloister, work area, and individual cells—usually forming a quadrangle. An Indianapolis example of this lifestyle and architecture is the Carmelite Monastery on Cold Spring Road. Five sisters from Iowa founded their Indiana mission in New Albany, Indiana, in 1922. Ten years later, the sisters relocated to a newly constructed monastery on… Read More »Monasteries And Retreat Houses

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