Ep. 22 - Ebony Chappel and Ariana Beedie - Mirror Indy
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Intro
When I first reached out to Ebony to be on the podcast, I did it for much the same reason I reach out to nearly any one. I thought she seemed cool. I saw posts on Twitter or short clips of her in random places and she just seems like someone who I’d like to talk to. I loosely knew of Mirror Indy, it’s not a site I had been reading so regularly as to be familiar with its reporters and higher ups.
So when she finally replied in the affirmative to have a conversation I was jazzed. She suggested that Ariana also comes along which I am never mad about.
The conversation that followed I think was a powerful example of when people who mix passion and expertise into their daily work. These two, and all of the Mirror Indy staff, put all of themselves into their work here in Indianapolis and it shows as they deliver on the promise of true community coverage. I am so thankful to have had them on the podcast and I hope you enjoy our conversation. I certainly did.
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Story Time
Episode Summary
Episode Transcript
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Important links and mentions
Ariana Beedie
Ebony Chappel
Production learnings from the episode
Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check - Sound check.
Thank you for listening to my piece.
Additionally, I really feel the need to dial in the phone camera a bit more I feel like every scene has a yellowish/orange tint and I’m not certain what’s doing that. I applied some slight color correction to the full video here, but it is something I’m thinking on for the wider experience. Though I am only three episodes in on the new phone/camera.
Return to Form
There is something I said in this episode that I want to highlight. Mirror Indy is a return to form for news. It is a reminder of what news used to be. Sure the newspaper ran ads, but the main driver of its continued existence was the community on which it reported. This is what Mirror Indy is attempting, and succeeding, to emulate.
What this means is that they can more easily report on what is happening without harming their bottom line, without compromising their entire existence, and can tell the whole truth. This is not something that is common any more. We have consolidated media and news company so completely and wholly that they are nearly a singular entity. This makes for a steep lack of accountability of both those doing the reporting and those being reported on.
Mirror Indy and Free Press Indiana is attempting to break that trend. I personally feel at this time they are succeeding. That’s why I am so thankful for this conversation with Ari and Ebony. I could feel the vision in their words and I literally was almost brought to tears at one point. They care about this city and the people within it. I hope they can succeed on the vision they shared with me and I hope you can get a bit of an insight into that vision as well.
Thanks for listening and reading.
Third Space Indy is supported by City Rising
Episode Summary
Third Space Indy: Celebrating Community Journalism with Mirror Indy
In this episode of Third Space Indy, host Michael Zarick is joined by Ariana Beedie, Community Journalism Director, and Ebony Chappel, Director of Brand and Community Strategy, both from Mirror Indy. They discuss the importance of local journalism in Indianapolis, Mirror Indy's mission, and its impact on the community. The conversation delves into the challenges and triumphs of launching a nonprofit newsroom, the significance of community engagement, and the vital role of neighborhood reporters. The guests also share personal stories and reflect on the true essence and resilience of Indianapolis. The episode highlights the importance of creating trust in journalism, the efforts to make news accessible to everyone, and the future goals of Mirror Indy.
00:00 Introduction and Audio Disclaimer
01:01 Meet the Guests: Ariana Beedie and Ebony Chappel
01:39 The Mission of Mirror Indy
02:07 Community Engagement and Trust Building
05:08 The Role of Free Press Indiana
09:20 Challenges and Opportunities in Local Journalism
22:34 Personal Reflections and Future Goals
27:23 Advice for Aspiring Journalists
36:19 Navigating Legitimacy and Community Building
37:40 The Importance of Consistency in Community Engagement
40:22 The Concept of Third Spaces
42:42 Personal Stories and Community Impact
54:26 Reflections on Indianapolis
01:01:56 Closing Thoughts and Future Questions
Episode Transcript
Mirror Indy
[00:00:00] Michael Zarick: Quick note ahead of today's episode. I totally failed to do a sound check when doing this recording, so the audio is all through my phone's speaker, which still leaves it listenable, but not up to my personal standard. That said, I think this is one of the best conversations yet, and I'm thankful for the time Arianna and Ebony gave me.
I really hope you take the time to listen, but if you don't. Take some time to check out Mirror Indy at Mirrorindy.org Sign up for the text alerts and think about donating if you have the means. I hope you enjoy the episode. And a special thanks to local artist Dead Silence for permission to use his song Like Me off his new album The Last Days as today's Intro.
Peace.
Hello, my name is Michael Zarick, and this is Third Space Indy. In this podcast, we talk to community builders, leaders and organizers all over Indianapolis, who are doing their best to make Indiana, uh, sorry, Indianapolis a better place.
Today I'm talking to Ariana Beedie. Who's the Community journalism director at Mirror Indy and Ebony Chappel, who's the director of brand and Community Strategy. Also at Mirror Indy, uh, I'm talking to some real big wigs today. They're very gracious to take time out of their extremely busy schedules.
They've got you. Are you both gonna that event later?
[00:01:32] Ebony Chapel: Well, I have a different event.
[00:01:35] Michael Zarick: Yeah. So very, very busy schedules. We're calling,
[00:01:37] Ebony Chapel: uh, double duty today. Yeah. Uh,
[00:01:39] Michael Zarick: to take some time out and talk to me about local journalism. Mirror Indy and just themselves, I hope. Uh, so hey, just how you doing?
[00:01:50] Ariana Beedie: Pretty good.
Yeah. Good. Thursday.
[00:01:53] Michael Zarick: Thursday. Another day in the week. Almost. We're almost done. You guys work seven days a week. This journalism never stop
[00:01:58] Ariana Beedie: commute. Just
[00:01:58] Ebony Chapel: community.
[00:01:59] Ariana Beedie: Ever
[00:01:59] Ebony Chapel: Stop. I, yeah. The real, no, no. I am picking up where you're at Ari. Our community never stops. So even though our technical job hours, like when you come to the office, certain days a week, like standard five day a week thing, when you're doing community where it really does never stop because you're out on the weekends and then it gets to a place where now, uh, the work of Mirror Indy, um, is becoming more.
Relevant to people, people are becoming more aware of it. So you go places and people are like, Hey, I gotta talk to you. Like I know you get that all the time. I, I got some shit to say, yes, yeah, yeah. Let me tell you what's going on. So it does not stop. And then you're always thinking of things too, like how to improve what you do and make it better and make it more accessible.
So it's like, it really does never
[00:02:51] Ariana Beedie: shut down. Mm-hmm. It's funny 'cause I get excited about it and it's like, wait, wait, wait. No, these are my, these are my off time. Yes. My other to-do list, like I have to turn my brain
[00:02:59] Michael Zarick: off a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so before we get too deep into it, and this is for me too, 'cause I only know as much as I've seen, um, but maybe both of you can answer in your own way, but like, tell me what Mirror Indy is and then also maybe a little snippet about Free Press Indiana as like a, the expansion of Mirror Indy.
[00:03:20] Ariana Beedie: Yeah. Okay. So
[00:03:21] Michael Zarick: I
[00:03:21] Ariana Beedie: can start the Mirror Indy part on the other side. Yeah. So Mirror Indy is a nonprofit newsroom based in Indianapolis. Telling community stories and building trust and bridging gaps with Indianapolis neighbors, just to help inform folks to shape their city for the better.
[00:03:36] Michael Zarick: Mm-hmm.
[00:03:37] Ariana Beedie: Um, and our supporting organization is Free Press Indiana.
I could have said more. I, I could say more as, can you say as much as you want? Okay. Sorry. Sorry, Ebony. No, you like, hold on. I just gave a
[00:03:46] Michael Zarick: little snippet. We have a full hour and we are not even a minute in.
[00:03:51] Ariana Beedie: Okay. So I think the cool thing about Mirror Indy one, of course we're a nonprofit, so we don't have a paywall.
You can easily access our news, but we try to make sure that outside of just our website, we get it to you in many different ways. So we're lucky enough to first start with our team. We have neighborhood reporters, so folks that live or are very close knit with the communities that can help build trust with neighbors, report on what's happening right on the ground.
Then of course we have reporters with other, you know, kind of traditional beats like education, government, health. Um, housing, uh, which I love. And even though they're traditional, I guess I could say beats, we do things differently. Mm-hmm. We bring a human perspective and center a person in the story as a way to explain this bigger issue.
Um, and we also have our amazing newsletters. We have text lines, multiple text lines where you can reply to our newsletters and he comes right back to us and texts us back. Um, so we're different because we also do events like our Chat and Chews. We have our documenters that are real people that go to public meetings.
Um, we, we have other events where we just show up and support and engage and just really, uh, build, bring news that people can trust, but also show that we're real people. Mm-hmm. And we wanna get to know you. And part of that is just showing up and saying, Hey, let's
[00:05:03] Ebony Chapel: go. Yeah. Yeah. I'll add, um, onto what Ari's sharing.
Ari was the first person hired for what started as an idea. So, um, that was. Some years ago, have you already had your two year mark?
[00:05:21] Ariana Beedie: Yes. In
[00:05:21] Ebony Chapel: May. In May. So May 2, 3,
[00:05:23] Ariana Beedie: 2.
[00:05:24] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. 'cause it's like, it's, it's like kind of mixed up. So Ari was hired in May, I was hired in June. Um, so we were the first two employees and at the time it was an idea of, okay, we want to build a newsroom in Indianapolis, which became your Indy.
Um, but the newsroom would be supported by a statewide organization. Um, that is really the support in the back end from a business perspective. Um, and that became Free Press Indiana. So, um, what I do with our first newsroom of which we hope to expand, and maybe it is not necessarily like building another newsroom, you know, TBD because we're still very young.
Um, Mirror Indy and Free Press Indiana officially launched in December of 2023. So everything is still pretty young. Um, but we do plan to through our, uh, three pillars of filling gaps, fostering collaboration, and um, bringing in more investment into facilitating investment in the news ecosystem, that we would make sure that people all across the state have access to the local news they need.
Because we are in a crisis in our country where there are so many communities that do not have local news outlets. They're reliant on whatever the national news trickles down to them to know what's going on. Um, or social media, which can be a good thing and a bad thing depending on who's behind these platforms and the type of information, or in some cases.
Misinformation they're sharing. So my role is really about helping to build and develop the brands in a way that resonate with people and identify a way, identify ways to collaborate with the team on our marketing and our outreach. So that's working with RA to support, chat, and choose and make sure that people know about them working with the newsroom.
So you mentioned earlier that at the time that we're recording this, we have an event tonight. Mm-hmm. Um, around, uh, mental health. So doing that in collaboration with our health reporter and our East Side reporter, because the event is gonna be on the east side of Indy. So those are, that's just kind of a snippet of the type of things that we do.
But Free Press Indiana is the support org. That just helps, you know, make the business make sense in the background. Mm-hmm.
[00:07:59] Michael Zarick: That makes a lot more sense to me than it did. Five minutes ago.
[00:08:04] Ebony Chapel: I'm glad we can make it make sense. It's a little complicated. So,
[00:08:07] Michael Zarick: yeah, because I, because like when you go, you should donate to Mirror Indy.
When you go to donate to Mirror Indy, you're donating to Free Press Indiana, not to Mirror Indy. It is a sort of overarching thing.
[00:08:18] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Yeah. So definitely we try to emphasize the support part, um, because Free Press Indiana does a lot of things with over 75 plus news partners and information partners across the state.
So helping to amplify that, we just launched a statewide newsletter, um, that the first issue actually comes out today. It's called The Lens, and it's where we work with partner organizations to amplify their news coverage and in exchange they amplify the things that we have as well. So me, Indy, like Ari mentioned, is not behind a pay wall.
It's always free to read and it's free to republish. So a lot of these places republish it, um, on their news platforms as well. Um, we also hired our very first statewide reporter. She is a women and girls reporter. So glad you brought that up. I was gonna bring it up. Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:13] Michael Zarick: on to that note, um, could you tell me the importance, at least in your view of, of having a reporter like that?
Who is covering things that, or I guess maybe having a more specific focus of something that maybe doesn't get coverage otherwise. Yeah. Uh, if you want to use the word diversity, but just like in general of like, oh, here's, here's this person who's specific goal is to cover women and girls. Yeah. And just cover specific stories.
[00:09:39] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. So it seems, you know, to some people unorthodox, like an unorthodox choice, but when you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense because there's not any issue that happens in our state that doesn't affect. Women and girls, women and girls are involved in every single aspect of different things that happen in our state, especially
[00:09:59] Michael Zarick: in Indiana.
[00:10:00] Ebony Chapel: Yeah, yeah. Especially in Indiana. They, and then also, you know, outside of, you know, policy and different things that, um, Ashley C. Ford, who is our women and girls reporter in New York Times, bestselling author outside of the things that she's going to cover, I'm sure that will come from, um, an awareness and a policy standpoint.
Also drivers of culture and, uh, cultural identity in our state. There's a lot of things that people inside and outside of Indiana assume about what it means to be a Hoosier, what it means to be from Indiana. And I fear that we're often just missing the mark because sometimes we lean into those tropes.
Instead of uncovering the reality of where we are now, like our state has changed rapidly. We have people all over the world here, people with so many different ideologies. So there's an opportunity to paint a very real picture of, of what the state is. Also, uh, the Women's Fund of Central Indiana was one of the big supporters of bringing that role to life and they released a comprehensive report that goes into what is the status in the state of women and girls in Indiana.
And it's really eye-opening. There's a lot of information in there, um, that really helped inform the necessity of creating this role, um, which is, you know, why we were so successful in bringing it to life was having that background and that information.
[00:11:32] Michael Zarick: Someone told me, I don't recall who someone told me that before you hired for the role, you had already secured funding for three years.
Meaning that that person is secure for a substantial amount of time before they even get started. Yeah. Which is amazing to hear, uh, from someone. So my wife works for Fox 59. Uh, you know, and that I think the corporate media world, like a lot of them,
like, , A lot of those people don't feel secure. We saw at Wish TV like a couple weeks ago where a lot of those people were effectively pushed out by what is, uh, a very corporate moving news arm. Mm-hmm. Uh, saying like, like, sign this contract or get out. Which most of 'em chose to get out rightfully. I think, um, and maybe this is a question for you.
Ariana. Like what does it mean to have. Boots on the ground, people who are in the community, which, you know, Indianapolis is amazing in that we have this very distinct neighborhood system where everyone has this, uh, sort of tight-knit identity between neighborhoods.
Um, to be able to tell a real truth of Indianapolis. Um, maybe even with some teeth like we've seen with, the, , data center on the south side, like being able to like, do some real reporting that I think a lot of more corporate media isn't able to do because of varying outside factors.
[00:13:03] Ariana Beedie: I think we're able to get up close.
I think trust, like you're gonna hear me say trust a million times, um, news has been harmful in the past. There's many neighborhoods who feel like they have been mischaracterized misjudged. Painted as a certain picture or stereotype that has nothing to do with their reality on their block.
[00:13:20] Michael Zarick: Mm-hmm.
[00:13:21] Ariana Beedie: But also understanding that whatever the boogeyman or whatever the fear is, that's everywhere.
That's anywhere. So the idea of not letting that inform our work or our lens, but actually just clear that and just show up and just say, Hey, hey, I'm me by the way, and actually I'm gonna be quiet and let you speak and I can listen to what you have to say. A lot of people wanna be heard. A lot of people are wanna be seen and are tired of being scared.
Yeah. And so I think to keep it very simple, us showing up outside of, Hey, I have the story. I'm on deadline. I'm, I'm, I'm hurrying up and reaching out to you. And then it's over. We try to support community in many other ways. All of our other initiatives I mentioned, you know, the ways we reach out to people, these type of events where we're just informing people about the reporting, um, showing up to volunteers, showing up to pack supplies, just showing up to say hi.
I think it really helps folks feel. Like wow, you really care and you're really there. And you know what, maybe you're not gonna be gone in five seconds or maybe I'm gonna have a different experience or say like, I talked to a journalist, I know a journalist. Most people just know who they see on tv. And that same person might have said falsehoods about their neighborhood, or maybe they just weren't able to get as close as we have the opportunity to.
Definitely.
[00:14:33] Michael Zarick: Yeah. How many of your, um, neighborhood reporters live in the neighborhood? They report
[00:14:38] Ariana Beedie: two out of three. Okay.
[00:14:39] Michael Zarick: Oh, that's crazy. And
[00:14:40] Ariana Beedie: Darien Vincent, our east side reporter, she went to Lawrence. She's from the east side. Enrique, born and raised. Yes. Born and raised. Enrique's Signs, I would say his last name wrong.
Um, he is not from the west side, but he's a stakeholder. He's lived there, I think over 10 years, has raised his family there. Um, his family's very, uh, woven into the west side and as a west sider, I sit next to him. I'm always like, okay, so what's going on this weekend? Where can I take my kiddo? Like what, what are the neighborhood stories?
Yeah. Um, and so I just think that that helps a bit. They say, I'm right over here. I'm experiencing the same things you are.
[00:15:13] Michael Zarick: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And not to discredit my wife, 'cause she's an amazing journalist in her own right. Many people, uh, who work in the, the larger news stations also live in, have grown up here as well.
Um, so a lot of them also have, um, you know, investment, they just don't, I think, are sort of, uh, disenfranchised by their positions. Whereas you guys have a lot of freedom in, in the way you move.
[00:15:38] Ariana Beedie: I think there's, um, I mean, as journalists we're taught to not become the story to stay away. And I've always been a rebel with that in my own right.
My initial introduction to journalism was arts and culture and musicians. And that was a way to, to engage a bit more closely. And so I love that my, uh, role I've, I've been able to explore, um, community building and community journalism and really fuse this into this magical thing where we can get a bit closer still, you know, maintaining our integrity and telling the story, not becoming it just.
Just showing that we're in the trenches a bit more. Mm-hmm. I just think, like I said, people are tired of being scared and wanna see that we're real humans, and that's just a way to get a little bit closer. Definitely. And again, I, I mean, I can only imagine what it's like to have a, a corporate framework or, I don't know, we just have a different framework where we're able to lean in a bit more.
I'm, I'm super thankful Yeah. For the impact we're able to make.
[00:16:28] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Yeah. It's a fantastic thing and it's starting to become, um, more and more popular across the country. So if you look at organizations like the American Journalism Project, which helped, um, to fund us, it helped support us in our startup base.
There are organizations all over the country that are really flipping this idea that we have of news and what makes news and what's important, and who gets to decide that, that are really flipping that around. And I think it is a powerful movement. For our country, um, to have that be supported in such a major way.
You know, you have philanthropy, you have community, everybody wrapping their arms around this idea of we can be proximate, we can tell the truth, um, we can be in community with one another. Like, it just feels very, um, very promising. So I love the fact that our people are right there in the neighborhood and they actually participate in their community.
They don't feel like they have to shutter themselves off, um, and not be involved with the people. So I just think it, you know, can yield us so many positive results and impacts for the future. Yeah.
[00:17:44] Michael Zarick: Amazing. Do you think it's almost like, um, how do I phrase it better? Like a, a return to form? Like, I feel like this is what news was when you went to go pay a quarter for the weekly newspaper or whatever.
Yeah, I hear that a lot. It's just like, oh, I'm, I'm a direct, um, what's this? The stupid word stakeholder in my news. Like, that's like this. I'm investing in it and now you're giving me the yes, the return, which is of better coverage.
[00:18:12] Ariana Beedie: I, uh, had to pitch for a competition for funding about like the importance of our work.
I was able to share. And, and so the reason I said yes is because, you know, I, I talked about, you know, the, the, the probably a hundred dollars I spend in all of the different streaming services. And it's like if I could take 20 of that, 10 of that and just put it in something local, uhhuh, and it's the power that I have to shape what's literally informing me about what's happening right on my block, right.
On my city. And that's, that's just so powerful.
[00:18:37] Ebony Chapel: It is. It is. And so your comment about a return to form, I often think about the legacy of the Black Press, which I'm an alum, like I'm a product of, um, the black press having worked at the Indianapolis recorded newspaper. But when those organizations started, um, it was with the express purpose of.
We wish to plead our own cause like for so long, you know, other people have spoken for us and now today is a new day, like we wanna speak for ourselves and the scrappiness of it, the bootstrap ness of it, the um, ability to just talk about things that other people weren't talking about. You think about Ida B Wells and writing about lynching in black newspapers and how, you know, that got her a lot of flack.
But now, today, in 2025, we know things about what that meant, what that era meant in our country that we would've never known about had it not been for people like her putting themselves on the line and using their own resources to print up papers and tell the truth and take really, you know, unorthodox ways of getting it out there.
So. It just, it really does feel like, like you said, like a return to that legacy of what that actually meant. Um, it is not supposed to be this elitist thing that's so far away from the people that it's unreachable. Mm-hmm. Um, even the words and the language that are used, that's something that I know in the newsroom they talk about a lot.
Yes. You know, before growing up in school, you know, taking classes, they would say, you need to write to a sixth grade reading level or an eighth grade reading level. That's different now literacy is different. Mm-hmm. Everybody's not gonna read. But we do often use our phone. So how do you take the story and put it in a way where they can get all the information they need from an Instagram graphic, you know, and that's been a lot of, I think what has continued to, um.
Make what we do compelling mm-hmm. For people. Yeah.
[00:20:49] Michael Zarick: You wouldn't have Ben Davis, right?
[00:20:50] Ebony Chapel: I did. I Were you in the career center? Been Davis Ryan? Yes. I was in a career center. I did BDTV when I was there. Okay. That's my wife I class of oh seven. Really? Yeah. Okay. We, I think we're a couple
[00:21:01] Michael Zarick: years younger than you.
Yeah. I'm from Louisville, but she went to Ben Davis.
[00:21:04] Ebony Chapel: Okay. Um, yeah. So she was there with Mr. Goins then? Yes.
[00:21:07] Michael Zarick: He's still there. You still I haven't met him, but I've heard stories about Mr. Goins
[00:21:11] Ebony Chapel: listen, diligence, diligence, uh, diligence, discipline and effort. DDE, that, that was like our motto in class. But he was really, you know, like a legend of that because he was this highly decorated news photographer, been all over the world, came over to Ben Davis and built a world class TV and radio station that has pumped out a lot of talent.
Mm-hmm. Um, and him and Mr. Easter over there with the radio and Mr. Havolind did the media classes and all that good stuff, but. Cool. Yep. That's where I'm from.
[00:21:45] Ariana Beedie: Did you, are you from, are you from East? I'm that town, born and raised. Oh, where you go? I went to North Central, so I was like, but my kid is a, I'm a Wayne Township mom, so I'm like, hang on.
She's in kindergarten, but she loves interviewing people already. So. Awesome. See you. They need to start a, uh, a young people thing. She's already the youngest hearing new correspondent at this point. She did an interview for the Ninja Turtles, uh, in our first year. Is that real? Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. You can check it out on the website.
Yeah.
[00:22:11] Michael Zarick: Uh, I'll get that link from you. I'll post it in the, in the
[00:22:13] Ariana Beedie: show for sure. That's so funny.
so yeah, I think us being from here, we, everyone has a, um, like a lens. We are stakeholders, but I think our stories hold a bit more weight and help guide each of us being from the west side, but different side, different parts of the west side.
Um, but it just really shapes how we, uh, view our work. Mm-hmm. And do our work.
[00:22:33] Michael Zarick: Yeah.
Where do you think, is like next for Mirror Indy? Because I feel like you talked about being so young. Mm-hmm. And you're probably always thinking about how you can expand, how you can share your work with more and more people. I moved here still less than a year ago, and I came across you. Um, and I love reading your work, but like, how, like what is, what's next?
How are you sort of thinking about engaging more with, or I guess expanding your reach, not maybe engaging more? 'cause it sounds like you guys already do too much.
[00:23:04] Ebony Chapel: There's always room to grow, maybe not
[00:23:06] Ariana Beedie: enough.
[00:23:07] Ebony Chapel: Yeah, yeah. There's always room to grow. There are, um, so many different, you know, ways that we could expand.
But the way that I think about expansion and have for a long time is more about. Going deeper as opposed to growing wider.
[00:23:25] Michael Zarick: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:26] Ebony Chapel: Um, because I think the way that our society has run for a long time is all about more and more, more bigger, bigger, bigger. And, you know, that's a pathway.
[00:23:37] Michael Zarick: Yeah.
[00:23:38] Ebony Chapel: However, I think going deeper and getting like closer to people, to the place where I, I think another level of success for me would be that, um, more and more people are like, if Mirror Indy didn't talk about it, then I don't know, I have to check what they said to see what the real deal is like.
To me, that would be a different layer of success. We're getting there because that's already the case. Like Ari runs the documentaries program. There are so many, uh, meetings that we're not used to people showing up, even though they're public meetings, they weren't used to people being there. So now people are sitting up a little, like, we hear that over and over again.
People are sitting up straight or like, oh, there is somebody here like clocking it, like they're paying attention what's going on? Um, so I think another layer of success is just that, um, growing the audience, being able to further reach people where they are. Um, maybe in the future that means bringing on multilingual, uh, reporters.
We are also very interested in building up people who come from non-traditional backgrounds to be a part of the reporting process. Um, so I just think like going deeper on a, on the mission is what the expansion looks like. And then from a Free Press Indiana lens, it's uh, the statewide growth. So expect to hear and see more from that.
[00:25:09] Michael Zarick: Dope
[00:25:10] Ariana Beedie: any thoughts? Absolutely. Um, I would say more engagement. I don't think we're doing too much. I think that we've checked a box as far as, yes, there's a, there's a group of folks that we are pretty sure would, would find us and know who we are, and we love that. But I'm trying to get those folks that are hanging out at the gas station.
I'm trying to get those people that I pass at Kroger where I'm like, please don't ask me about work. Please ask me about work because I'm always ready to talk about it. Or at least drop a link, pass a card. Um, I want my community and all communities that feel ignored to, um, be able to trust us. Be able to say, you know what?
Nobody's ever really represented us and I feel left out, or, that's a little too much for me. Or, I'm not gonna click through all those ads and sign up for that to read this one thing. No. Or, how about I get the text? Or how about I just know I can trust such and such reporter, such and such person to listen to me and actually tell my story, give me a resource that actually makes a difference.
So I'm looking for forward to closer connections with neighbors. You can always be going to more neighborhood meetings. Mm-hmm. Just showing up. Just, just connecting with folks more. Yeah. And I'm excited to see how we can grow by going deeper in the communities. You're gonna make me cry actually.
[00:26:19] Michael Zarick: You guys are hittin'.
Uh, the, um, I'm gonna ask some for some advice. Uh, so I, I
[00:26:27] Ebony Chapel: personally love to give advice, so I'm excited about this,
[00:26:32] Michael Zarick: that why that crack me up. So what is the way you were sitting Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, it felt like, yeah. Is this like a, like a I'm coming in to ask you for a relationship. Are you that type of person?
Like, someone's like, I
[00:26:42] Ariana Beedie: hope your wife are y'all good? You brought her up so many times. No. You need relationship advice. No, no. I was like, I was like, I dunno. I'm clowning. Yeah. But I
[00:26:52] Ebony Chapel: mean, I, it's one of the things, so we also talk a lot about astrology at work and I know I was going, I was like, yes, I am a Virgo.
And sometimes we just really like to. And it's a good thing. And at times I've learned to have the discipline to like hold back until somebody directly ask me, what do you think about such? And so, so yeah. But you ask, so now I'm like, yeah,
[00:27:18] Michael Zarick: now you're locked in. Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, that's so funny. Um, I've been thinking about ways to support local transit.
IndyGo is an amazing service. Mm-hmm. Um, and one thing I'd love to do is get more man on the street questions. Like talking to people on the bus or talking to people like you said at the gas station or whatever. But I hate, you know, I talk to strangers all the time on this podcast. It's like my whole thing, uh, talking to strangers and going strange places.
Uh, but talking to lowercase strangers that are just people standing around, it's like really scary.
[00:27:52] Ariana Beedie: What does lowercase mean in that? Just what do you mean by that?
[00:27:55] Michael Zarick: Uppercase stranger is like someone I'm reaching out to scheduling with. Uh, and like, like you guys, you guys are strangers. Um, and like, oh, I'm come like, Hey, do you wanna meet somewhere a specific time?
Versus like, lowercase stranger to me. Sorry. Thank you for asking. I was is just like random dude. I don't like bothering people. Um, gotcha, gotcha. Casual, impromptu, um, you know, I don't wanna come off as like I'm shoving a camera on your face or like interviewing you and that type of thing.
[00:28:22] Ebony Chapel: We see how that can get a little problematic online.
Ooh, there's somebody, and I'm like, oh. I
[00:28:26] Michael Zarick: mean, I'm well aware what very self-conscious of, of, of being viewed or how, how you're showing off other people's views. Um, if I were to sort of want to go do that type of thing, do you have any advice for me or someone else?
[00:28:43] Ebony Chapel: Hmm. I'm sure you have some thoughts
[00:28:45] Ariana Beedie: As someone that used to run a, a zine that focused on black and brown artists.
And I guess I, a lot of my interactions were lowercase, uh, which is just meeting people and then I'm like, oh, actually I'm a community director and actually we're all assets and, and we're all stakeholders. In community. Um, what I would say is meet people where they are. Um, ah, there's a, how do I keep it professional?
Um, just, you know, you're a real human and understand that like you don't need to be scared of people. Mm-hmm. Check your bias. How are you showing up? Yeah. How do you feel about these people? Why is it scary to you? Not you in particular, but just in general? Um, I, as someone who has, has journalism training and roots, but really was able to lean more into community work and be of the community in a way.
Um, I just like to show up as one of the people. I'm not better than you, just because I have this training, just because I can ask these questions. Matter of fact, let's just kick it and talk. Let's just be real. Mm-hmm. You know, but don't, don't pose. Don't, don't try to force it. Just ask people what's going on?
How are you really feeling? Mm-hmm. And just let 'em talk. Yeah. And sometimes the magic will come out of just letting them flow.
[00:29:53] Ebony Chapel: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:53] Ariana Beedie: Sometimes in interviews that I used to do a lot. My favorite, uh, spotlight moments or light bulb moments would come out of the answers that I didn't have a scripted question for.
I just let the conversation flow. So I, I would say that, and I would say push yourself to get outta your comfort zone. It may not, you may not wanna talk to people at the gas station, and let's be real, sometimes, certain time of day, I'm not talking at the gas station Okay,
[00:30:18] Ebony Chapel: though,
[00:30:19] Ariana Beedie: but, you know, maybe I'm in the aisle of Kroger and I'm just talking about something random and I bump into somebody.
Sometimes I don't know a stranger. I know my child is annoyed by that as I was by my mom, but sometimes it's helpful to just have a casual conversation and you never know where that will come from. So, yeah, I just challenge you to get in some spaces and talk to some people. Absolutely.
[00:30:39] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Yeah. Um, you mentioned about, um, checking your biases.
I think that is incredibly important because we all have 'em. Uh, the crime is not in necessarily having them. The crime is in. I think refusing to be aware and honest about what they are. And then two, then blindly operating in that way, which has the potential to cause a lot of harm. Um, which going back to what was stated earlier about journalism has been harmful to communities in a lot of ways.
Um, I've experienced levels of that myself. Um, there are, uh, there's, there's one example. I'm not gonna get too deep into it because I haven't talked about this publicly. Um, but it's something that I will at some point because it was transformative and eye-opening. Um, but I, you know, worked as a journalist for a while, um, like full-time reporting.
I still do like things here and there, but now I'm more like in a different aspect of the business. But did that for a time and. Talk to families that had been impacted by horrendous events, right? Like that became a thing and I always felt so uncomfortable being the person to then come and talk to them.
And I was probably like the millionth person that had asked them to speak about their loved one. So, um, but it's also part of the job. Like I can't ignore that. My role in the organization or my role right now is to be that person that helps to facilitate this conversation. So, you know, learning how to go about that in a way that didn't bother my integrity, but still allowed me to do my job.
And it was a day to day thing. But a lot of it, to Ari's point meant meeting people where they are working on my intentions. Like what is my intention? And, and it's moment, it is my intention to just get my job done. It's my intention, like some of these people that we talked about on social media that are walking up on strangers and asking 'em embarrassing questions on the street, you know, is my intention to be salacious and get attention?
Is my intention to be a thought partner in this moment? Or to be the, um, be someone that assists in bringing this person's truth to the forefront. Like, what is my intention? And like checking that is really important. Um, and yeah, just sitting there with people and just letting them, let it all out. Not passing judgment.
Because sometimes people are gonna say things to you that you don't agree with, that you think, wow, that's really toxic. That's really this, that's really that, but this is their truth, right? So just finding a space for that and it really takes, I think if you're gonna commit to that pathway as a lot of like practice at it, um.
And just constantly doing that check-in. But I brought up the talking to families because I had done that, not knowing that many years later I would be in a situation where I would be on the other side of it and have people come and wanna talk to me about one of the worst days in my family's life. And the things I experienced were, it ran the gamut.
There were people that were very compassionate and there were people that approached me and my family in a way that felt so disgusting and so disturbing. Um, and I just wondered, wow, people go through this every day. People go through this every day and this is what it's like. Um, and I, I think a lot of it came from the fact that those professionals didn't take the time to.
Check in as a human, they're just thinking, I need to go and get this job done. I gotta get this sound bite, I gotta get this quote. Mm-hmm. Whatever. I gotta be a part of the story because I don't want such And so to be the only person that's telling it, like, we gotta have something on that too. This is hot and it just turns into this thing.
Um, but yeah, it's a lot of what has chipped away at the integrity of, of our business. Mm-hmm. Which I know like, we call it a business, but for some of us it's definitely a calling. Like I definitely think Ra and I and a lot of people on our team come from it, from that calling standpoint. Absolutely. So it's less about the industry of it all and more about this is what I am in service to for my community.
Mm-hmm. Well said
[00:35:39] Michael Zarick: that, that like, I don't have a response fire. Um, I appreciate it. Yeah. Uh, you also said something that I really, um, connected with, which was talking about like, don't come at a conversation from a, a place of authority or mm-hmm. A position of like legitimacy or whatever. I think about that a lot in terms of this podcast starting out a couple months ago and like emailing people, like no Instagram account, just be like, Hey, you wanna be on my podcast?
And now I email, uh, Ebony and she's like, check me out. I have clips and stuff. And it's like legitimizing in that way. It's like, would you have said yes a couple months ago? Like, is this uh, legit? I would've liked
[00:36:22] Ebony Chapel: to, but yeah. The way the world is set up. No, I know, I know. You gotta do your Googles.
Absolutely. You have to try to find out something like, okay, am I walking? When am I walking into, that's,
[00:36:32] Michael Zarick: I think about that a lot in terms of like, I have legitimized, quote unquote myself in the eyes of others, and you have a legitimizing force of Mirror Indy behind you. Like you can walk into spaces that you may not have been able to before and I can,
[00:36:47] Ariana Beedie: well, I'll say yeah.
[00:36:49] Michael Zarick: Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm interested.
[00:36:51] Ariana Beedie: We did this before, like it is been an honor. I think Ebony and I, I've called us two sides of a similar coin. I think that's a good way to say it, because we've, we legitimized ourselves before. That's why we are in these roles. Yeah, absolutely. Is because before, I didn't mean to discount your No, no, no, you didn't.
You didn't. But I guess what I'm trying to say to you is you don't have to be super shiny uhhuh like, yeah, you got some clips, so keep going. But like, yeah, the emails are great, but you're community building. So it, it's kind of like, just go, just start it. I don't know. And you never know. Some of the folks that I, I, I'm able to work with closely.
We've been doing this work, building ourselves up, starting little small events. Now. We got some funding. We have an organization behind us, but it's been cool to. Say like, oh, I'm in community building for the past decade or more in this city. I've been doing this work for a long time. Yeah.
[00:37:39] Ebony Chapel: Yep, yep. And picking right back up on that, it is, um, especially when you're like doing stuff with people, it's the consistency of showing up, you know?
So sometimes, like my rule of thumb used to be when I was working in a different role where my role was very much like going into community and eventually I was gonna ask them to do something right? I was gonna ask them to make a decision that was kind of like a really serious decision. Um, so I had to tell the people I worked with.
I was like, look, it doesn't work like that. I can't just show up on a random Monday afternoon and ask these people like, Hey, can you like do this thing? If they have not met me, they don't know me. I have done nothing for them. At all. Like I haven't shown myself to be like really a part of what they're doing.
I can't do that. So I was like, I need the freedom and the ability to go and spend time with people. So that role required me to travel. So that meant like I was driving back and forth to Evansville and like going to church Evansville is when Ari's old stomping grounds. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But like I'm driving back and forth to Evansville and like going to church and eating at people's grandma's house and spending a whole weekend and driving up to Fort Wayne and going to every community meeting and volunteering and donating and all this different type of stuff.
Because I was like, I can't even get to the ask. Mm-hmm. Which everybody has an asked, but it's like, I can't even get there until I lay this groundwork. I have to put in work with these people. Because too often they're used to people just being like fly by night. So it's like I have to do that. So a lot of that came from like.
Doing the grunt work, the stuff that's the, you know, people always wanna label stuff sexy and unsexy. So that to some people will be like, very unsexy, like, oh my gosh. And you're like carrying boxes and da da da. And it's like, look, it's an honor that these people even gave a damn enough to want to let me carry their boxes.
Come on. Okay. Like, they could have easily been like, no, we
[00:39:42] Ariana Beedie: good. Mm-hmm. Matter of fact, you're not coming to my house. No, no. I'm, I'm okay. Yeah, yeah. No, you're paying your dues. And they remember that. Yeah, they do. They do. Absolutely. So it translated into I'll sign up. Yeah. What, uh, Ms. Mona from North Northwest landing neighborhood, Flanner house neighborhood.
She's like, I'll share our whole neighborhood. Loves your paper. I'll share your paper. And I'm like, I know what that means, but that's because I showed up. Yeah. Many time and times before. Yeah. So,
[00:40:09] Michael Zarick: cool. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on that. I have a question that I don't have written actually. I actually have some canned questions, uh, that I ask you every time.
Um, and then I have another question at the end that I should write down before I forget. Um. Hey, uh, Third Space Indy is sponsored by, uh, City Rising. Mark Latta has decided to sponsor the podcast. Okay, Mark, uh, City Rising is a social impact studio that that tries to connect with leaders and organizers and organizations all around the world, I think, uh, and helps them sort of develop plans to improve their environment.
So if you're interested in more information about City Rising, go to cityrising.org. You sponsored the next question, which is what is a third space to you? Do you know what a third space is? Absolutely. Okay.
[00:40:55] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. I had to just explain this to our CEO when I was telling him Ari and I were gonna do this.
Um, and he won't mind me saying this because it's kind of a term that lives in a certain space. So, like, of course we've heard it before, but he was like, so what does that mean? Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Uh, but you go ahead.
[00:41:14] Ariana Beedie: Yeah. Yes. Uh, yeah. So, yes, absolutely. Um, we're losing 'em. I'm a kid that grew up going to the skating rink.
Mm-hmm. Um, playing a sport, goin' to church. These are spaces that we were able to go to, to find refuge, just to have community. You go back to your schedule, go to school, and you think about all of the places you were. And it just, for me, it helped me be an early community builder that I am and hope to continue to pass on to my child.
Um, it's the first thing I thought of was the gym, because that's where I was like, exercise, gym. Yes. Yes. Um, but I think that there we're losing 'em fast because I think a lot of us, these are third, fourth, and fifth places, but I love to try to take up those spaces and reintroduce folks. So like our Chat and Chew events, we have a lot of them in their community conversations where we're building trust with folks, and a lot of them are at libraries.
Just, and I, I can't remember who I was just talking to earlier. Oh. About like, when's the last time you went to an event at the library? And me doing these events at the libraries made me on a Saturday, take my little girl and let's go get our library books. And she gets hers and I get mine, and then we just continue to go.
Um, and there's so many more, but I just think we have to get out there. I went to a park on, uh, Northwest Way Park recently with a friend from college. Our little girls were playing and then there were all these dads there with their kids on a Sunday morning. It was awesome to just connect with all these black dads.
Let me just say that. Clear. That's beautiful. Um, that was even more exciting for me and I'm like, oh, they do this all the time. I need to come back to the park on Sunday morning. Um, so I think like we have these spaces that are, I don't wanna say dying, but I'll say collecting dust and I think we just need to refocus and align.
I mean, it makes me think about when I, when I was your neighbor off Meridian, uh, and, uh, the, the old men that, um, would sit at the McDonald's and drink their coffee. Yeah. That's the third space. That's awesome. My grandmother used to get, uh, listen to WTLC, have her coffee and crochet in the parking lot. I, that was her third space.
Mm-hmm. Um, so very familiar. And I want to continue to blow the dust off these spaces so these younger kids have places to go.
[00:43:20] Michael Zarick: Mm-hmm.
[00:43:20] Ariana Beedie: Always trying to get my little girl, get up off the couch, let's go. So find your third space. Yeah. Ebony. Yeah.
[00:43:28] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Uh, I too grew up having a wealth of third spaces, so I'm really grateful for that.
I grew up in Haughville and we had so many parks. Um, so was really grateful for that. I also was, you know, involved in the community through work that my family did. So that always had me at the community center, like the Concord Community Center was a spot that we went to, um, which had a park next to it.
Um, our Girl Scout troop would meet there. We, um, also had the candy store. We had. The sidewalk in front of the house was for curb ball. Like we had so many, but also I think for certain communities, you know, we are just the types that will reinvent stuff all the time. Like, here's this little spot. They did not intend for that spot to be used like that.
However, it's the space we have access to, so we're gonna take advantage of it because maybe, you know, you don't have the resources to always be going somewhere and spending money. I think that's another issue with, um, having the third space, is that too many things are attached to come and spend money and not just a little bit.
[00:44:49] Michael Zarick: Mm-hmm.
[00:44:50] Ebony Chapel: Like grabbing a little cup of coffee, but like this event costs money. This thing costs a lot of money. Um, which is why I've always tried to make. Everything I do free or as close to free as possible. Mm-hmm. Um, for that reason. But yeah, no, I love a good third space. I think my favorite, um, that's gonna be a hard one.
'cause there's so many, like the library in the gym, like, well, I don't like the gym. I'm gonna be honest, I don't So cold. I go, but it is not a thing I enjoy. I love the dance floor. I love the dance floor. What's, what's your dance for space? Anywhere?
[00:45:33] Ariana Beedie: The old HiFi anywhere? Yeah. Friday nights Hi-Fi Sweet Poison shows.
[00:45:39] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Yeah. The original HiFi, I gotta give a shout out to, um, State Street Pub. Um, they've been a good partner of both of ours in like individual endeavors. We've done. Like to bring different, you know, events and gatherings to the community. Shout out. Yeah. Chreece Oreo. Sorry, this was totally, no, listen, we turned it, we turned it into a shout out session.
Um, shout out Chreece that like makes every, all types of places a third place in, uh, Fountain Square to just turn up the festival. Um, I love, love, love parks. I know that, um, you just recently met with Tedd Hardy, you mentioned. Um, so we and a bunch of other people got together to bring Belmont Beach into the new millennium that existed back in the thirties as a third space for black people that, you know, were living in a time of segregation, um, will codify segregation in our city.
Um, I love a porch. That's something that's big for me. I'm a first time homeowner and I have a porch, but that was a deal breaker. I had to have a porch. Yeah.
[00:46:49] Michael Zarick: Brian, my, uh, this is a constant conversation in my household.
[00:46:53] Ebony Chapel: Mm-hmm.
[00:46:53] Michael Zarick: Which is what, how do you define a porch? We always talk about this
[00:46:58] Ebony Chapel: has is a porch.
Yeah. Tell
[00:46:59] Michael Zarick: me what a porch is to you.
[00:47:00] Ebony Chapel: For me, a porch is, it has to have enough space for a couple of people to sit.
[00:47:07] Ariana Beedie: Yeah.
[00:47:08] Ebony Chapel: At the very least. Okay. It needs to have a space for a couple of people to sit, um, at the, at, at, at its basic definition. That's what I would say. 'cause they can be smaller, they can be bigger.
I know what I prefer. Yeah. Yeah. Or out of a porch, which is, I gotta have a storage area. I got, 'cause we, we always had like kind of bigger porches growing up. Even if the house was like mad small, the porch was pretty big. Um, all the reason to be on the porch. Yes. Yeah. It's smaller. There. We gotta be outside.
We can spread out. But, and I need to be able to, uh, look at my neighbors across the street and like, wave at them or like talk to them from the porch. Like we do that a lot in my neighborhood. So having that ability is key for me. Yeah.
[00:47:56] Michael Zarick: We like walking up and down the street in, uh, we live in Warley life, whatever.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Shout out to Warfleigh, tons of porches. Mm-hmm. And we're like, uh, just like looking at the different designs or like, um, we've had conversation about like, is the porch covered or is the porch like, you know, all that type of stuff. My preference is covered
[00:48:16] Ebony Chapel: well, technically, like we,
[00:48:17] Ariana Beedie: I'll say I'm lucky enough to have a covered one.
Yeah. Yeah. Think about my, my Aunt Kozzy who used to live in Midtown, uh, who had an enclosed porch. That's my ideal. Right. I don't have that, but I'm working on it. I'm a back porch as another first time homeowner. And it is funny 'cause my neighborhood is, is very like, how many years have you been here? So, okay.
You're not gonna get the squint. You might get a wave and then Yep, yep. There's one neighbor who will talk all the time. But it is interesting. Are there halfways
[00:48:43] Michael Zarick: and happy waves? You get like the, the hand up or like
[00:48:47] Ariana Beedie: the, not kind of, it depends right here. My neighbor's on either side we're there, but other folks, everybody really keeps to themselves very quiet and I get it.
I get, you gotta kind of put your time in. They don't know you. And I'm the only black homeowner on my block, so I'm definitely like, what's up y'all? Let's, let's talk.
[00:49:01] Ebony Chapel: Listen. But we need to at least have an understanding just so
[00:49:06] Ariana Beedie: I'm here. I'm happy to be here. I hope you're happy to see me. Yep. Um, but yeah, enclosed somewhere I can hang out and just, just talk, just be able to fellowship, have family, but also just sit and read my, read my paper, read my book, sit and watch my daughter do a million cartwheels.
'cause she's going for a record right now and like to be up here. Just relaxing.
[00:49:25] Michael Zarick: Oh my God. Yeah. Um, I mean, thank you so much for sharing. That was one. I love asking that question, um, from Tedd Hardy. Ask a question from the previous guest every episode. Tedd already asked a question of you. Nice. It's sort of a two parter kind of, uh, he said, who was your third best friend?
Or if you can't remember, or third, third friend, just doesn't have to be best friend. Um, or if you can't remember who your third friend was, tell me about your third grade teacher. Hmm.
[00:49:58] Ebony Chapel: No, what is her name? I remember my third grade teacher. My third friend. I can tell you it was probably some girls that lived next made door to us when I was in preschool, and their names were Andy and Jackie.
But then it was a girl down the street named Rose, like, but I was in preschool, so I'm guessing it was around that time. Um, but my third grade teacher, her name was Mrs. Harrison, and this is when I went to, uh, Maplewood Elementary. Um, and she was great. I remember her and her husband, like had horses. Or road horses.
Something with horses. But her husband was definitely like a black cowboy because we saw him one time when he came into school. Um, but she was great. Um, yeah, and helped me a lot. She was very patient. So I don't know where Mrs. Harrison is, but shout out to her and thank you for being patient with me.
[00:50:55] Michael Zarick: You trying to give her advice?
You said what now? I said we trying to give her advice.
[00:51:00] Ebony Chapel: Listen, she was trying to give me advice.
[00:51:03] Michael Zarick: And you weren't taking it.
[00:51:05] Ebony Chapel: No, no, no. I was, I was not as receptive as people probably would've appreciated at the time. Yeah. But shout out to her,
[00:51:15] Ariana Beedie: Arianna. That's funny. I'm sitting here, trying to think. I think my third grade up was Mrs.
Crow. So I to, I grew up in Pike, so I went to Guy Creek Elementary and I, I just third grade, I remember Stefan's Avirex jacket. 'cause I had a crush on him. Ooh, Avirex. Yes. Yeah. Come on now I bring back the style. Yes, please. Yep. Um, yeah, I don't know. I guess can I like finesse the question because my memory's bad.
You can hit
[00:51:41] Michael Zarick: me with a, a influential teacher for all I care, or I was gonna hit you with my third best friend from college 'cause Oh, that's
[00:51:45] Ariana Beedie: perfect. My, my college girls are, are, uh, just reminding me lately that, uh, I'm just so thankful for them and their experiences. Mm-hmm. So I'm trying to think. So my girl, Cecilia, because it was Molly, Kaylee, just saw Molly part.
Not the order, not the order, Kaylee and then Cecilia. Why? I'm like, they, they mean a lot to me. But Cecilia was a good friend of mine, still is. But I used to like hang, like I, she would pick me up from campus and I would just spend weekends at her house all weekend. And that was the beginning of me getting, okay, yes, this makes sense.
Uh, that was the beginning of me getting into the Evansville Arts community because I went to, uh, university of Southern Indiana. It's my alma mater study journalism in French down there. Mm-hmm. Um, but that's when I really dove into the power of journalism. I worked for the student paper and was a sports writer at the, uh, city paper.
But I ran a column called River City Sound, interviewing artists and bands. And a lot of the stuff that I did done here with Chreece and State Street Pub and Community Building started down there seeing amazing musicians and thinking, who's gonna write about this? Somebody's gotta write about this. And anyway, Cecilia was always just that person that was just ready to ride, ready to go to shows, ready to go record a random mix tape at Guitar Center on a Saturday morning and annoy the staff.
But just true story. I need to find our demo. But I just like, it is funny, like college was important. I'm glad I got the training I got. But for me, I just love my friendships and love the community building that we we did there. And now when I run in the USI people here, it's just great to see folks. And Cecilia was just amazing.
So shout out my dog, Cecilia. Yeah.
[00:53:19] Michael Zarick: That's so be
[00:53:19] Ariana Beedie: third best friend in college.
[00:53:21] Michael Zarick: Yeah. I, me that SoundCloud link. We'll, it was Jen. If
[00:53:24] Ebony Chapel: you're in to Lofi and Synth, that'll get you. I am, first of all, I love this piece of, uh, Ariana lore. There's so much I did not know that. This reminds me of like, when I say stuff to my siblings and they're like, when did you do that?
Like, it'll be the most random stuff. And they're like, excuse me.
[00:53:42] Ariana Beedie: Oh, so were skateboarding through the library. Oh, I love skateboard through the library. Oh, yeah. Oh, because yeah. So we, we were the skaters on campus. I I long, we long boarded and then I think that checks
[00:53:53] Michael Zarick: out based on what I'm, I'm viewing
[00:53:54] Ariana Beedie: Yes.
Had a boyfriend who had a shortboard and I was like, well, we're just skateboarding. We're gonna do it better than him. Yeah. Good times. Evansville was, it was just cool to community build and then be able to be like, all right, I'm going back home where the jobs are and then I can continue that. Cool work.
[00:54:09] Ebony Chapel: Yep.
[00:54:12] Ariana Beedie: So it was a two-parter, right?
[00:54:13] Michael Zarick: Sorry. No, that's, that's the two, the two parts where friend and teacher is like big one. But you guys did great. This, we have a couple minutes left and I, uh, this question is lingering in my head, um, and I hope, I know you're gonna have a good answer. what is the, the true story of Indianapolis?
[00:54:31] Ebony Chapel: Hmm. I spend a lot of time thinking about this
[00:54:35] Michael Zarick: because we hear a lot of, yeah, A lot of opinions.
[00:54:39] Ebony Chapel: A lot of opinions. I think that the true story of Indianapolis and, you know, shout out to downtown Indy. They just went through a rebrand. Um, that's all I'm gonna say because if you've been on the internet, you can gather whatever comments you would like.
Sure. To see how people feel about s Rent. The point is, I saw one of their pieces that just rolled out that had the tagline, uh, the people make the city. I am so happy to see that Finally. Because there are some of us that have been trying to, which is really was a lot of the impetus for where we landed with Mirror Indy.
Um, but people have been, uh, talking about this for a long time because, and you ask some people and they wanna lean toward the sports, you ask some people and they want to lean toward, I don't care about sports, and we talk about it too much. Or then you have this weird thing about like, the crime, and now we're painted as one of the most dangerous places in America based on certain people's, you know, perspective or whatever.
Like there's, so it's all over the place. Um, but the point about the people, I think has not even scratched the surface, has never been delved into, because people think of us as a. Uh, fly over place. Like that's been a joke for a long time. Or saying Indy a no place". Like I remember hearing that when I was a kid and thought it was corny as hell.
I still do like, yeah, you really good job for you, whoever came up with that. Um, but the people, we have amazing people here that are really the heartbeat of it. And if you highlight their stories, their perspectives, their culture, all of that, you get this really rich, yet complicated place. We are a place that, um, had like before, like people understand Chicago to be a certain way as far as like this big Midwest city that's very diverse and has like, uh, concentrated like a China town and they have like all these immigrants and all this type of stuff.
Indianapolis has a very similar history. It's really hard. Unless you can do the research, it's really hard to see it. Shout out to people like Sampson that'll go back and do it. Shout out to us. I mean, me, Indy just published a story this week about four places that talk about the Chinese. I saw your voice.
LinkedIn actually. Yeah. Yeah. The Chinese history of Indianapolis. So you have a city where things like that can happen. We can do the Pan Am games, et cetera. But this is also the city where the second coming of the Klan rose prominence. This is also the city where we run the greatest spectacle in racing, and we do all these amazing things.
And this is also a city where the housing crisis is so horrible that it is damn near impossible to, afford a place to live, but you have all this complicated stuff. And even in the midst of that, we were one of the places that helped to solidify one of America's greatest outputs, which is Black American jazz.
Come on. Like we are the place that made that possible. Madame CJ Walker moved here and became a millionaire. Like you have all of this happening. So I think, and this is something that I've preached a lot, is that if we could really like own all of that complicated stuff and be honest about it, but then say, but like this is what we are going to do moving forward.
Indianapolis could be a model of equity in the nation. So that's what I think the true story is, is like owning all of that and not just going in whatever way is the most like palatable, you know?
[00:59:03] Michael Zarick: You have thought about that a lot?
[00:59:07] Ariana Beedie: Probably too much, but yeah, that
[00:59:09] Michael Zarick: was sick.
[00:59:10] Ariana Beedie: Uh, anything to add? If I could add, I would say, I think about my grandparents, so I love that you said the people, 'cause I'm like mm-hmm.
I think about my family story. My grandparents were, uh, entrepreneurs. They, they met at RCA two black people. My granddaddy moved here from Hopkinsville, Kentucky. My grandmother moved here from Columbus, Ohio and they started a fish market. My grand, my grandmother was like, you can't work for other people.
We have to work for ourselves. So they started, uh, Eddie's Fish Market off 22nd and Central. He ran that location. Grandmother ran one at 70 ish and Michigan Road and they were vendors at the first Indiana Black Expo. Um, had customers like Julia Carson, many other folks that are like my uncles and folks today, but early community building also my grandmother had a home on, um.
Gosh, I can't remember on, on the east side, I can't remember the, the street on, on Manlove. She had a house on Manlove and then was one of two black families to move to Golf Lane, a Jewish neighborhood on the, um, on the north side. And her neighbor was Jimmy Coe, a black world renowned jazz musician. And they became family friends.
And my grandmother's landlord was Sid Eskenazi for the business. And so a black woman, uh, even though it was the business was in her husband name. She was in charge and making moves and saying, yes, I come from these places. We both come from, segregated places where we thrived and we come here and we continue to thrive for our family.
And so she is the model for me and my hard work in the way that I'm driven is because she, made a name for herself and lived through many of these things. And it's funny thinking about like sport, like immediately it was, people never thought about sports. No crime. Whatever happens everywhere. It happens
[01:00:54] Michael Zarick: everywhere.
[01:00:55] Ariana Beedie: But it's the people. It's the people that she met, it's the people that she interacted with that I can say today, I'm not aging you, but do you know about Eddie's Fish Market or like the people who I meet today and just, just the way we can community build and, and move from our ancestors and and do something big like Mirror Indy?
Yeah. Like just how incredible. So it's definitely the people. I need to think more about the answer. My answer's good, but that was, you just set me up perfectly to just come in. I'm tell you,
[01:01:24] Ebony Chapel: I've been diving in on that for a minute. But no, I think everything you shared was very beautiful. The story of your grandparents, I think is so important because it illustrates what is possible here.
So even in the midst of all that other stuff that's going on that could make it extremely complicated and does, it is possible for those things to happen because we see it happen over and over again. So, yeah. Yeah.
[01:01:52] Ariana Beedie: We thrive. Yeah.
[01:01:54] Michael Zarick: One last question. Uh, what would you like to ask the next guest of Third Space Indy?
It can be whatever you want. I know it's a hard question off the cuff, but that's part of the point. And I'll get, I'll take two. It can take two questions or you can collaborate. I don't care.
Mine is, who is your favorite local musician or album and why? And then shout and then make sure they shout that to whoever that is out.
I will. Or album. Yeah. But it has to be local. Mm-hmm. So I guess if like someone says like Freddy Gibbs album, I'm not gonna be mad because it's, but you know, try to keep it Naptown
[01:02:29] Ebony Chapel: please. Because there's so much to choose from. And shout out to shout out to Gary. I love my people from GI, but in the region area, even though some of them don't like that I'm learning, they don't like to be referred to as a region, my bad.
But just teach us, I love y'all. Um,
[01:02:46] Michael Zarick: be Indian or Indianapolis.
[01:02:48] Ariana Beedie: Uh, let's say Indianapolis, let's say Nap town artists.
[01:02:51] Michael Zarick: Got you.
[01:02:53] Ariana Beedie: And then I can give you one to introduce them if you happen to. I know a couple. Okay. Yeah.
[01:02:59] Michael Zarick: Do you have a question?
[01:03:00] Ebony Chapel: Uh, I love that question. Um, because we have some fantastic musicians here.
Um, I'll give a quick shout out to Dead Silence. He just, uh, dropped a project recently and the
[01:03:13] Ariana Beedie: last one's still a banger.
[01:03:14] Ebony Chapel: Yeah. Yeah. He's doing some really great things and just like one of the sweetest people you could ever meet and really dives into this community thing hardcore too. So shout out to him.
Um, I, my question is about food, because something else I think that our city does incredibly well that I love, love, love to talk to people about is our food culture. Mm-hmm. Is that
[01:03:40] Michael Zarick: Epicurean that just happened? Mm-hmm.
[01:03:41] Ebony Chapel: Yes. Yes. Epicurean just happened. Um, there are some other food festivals and stuff coming up.
And we just have, there's so much to tap into when it comes to that. Um, but I would ask if you were going to feed somebody like your favorite meal in town, what would it be? Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, that's the question. What would it be?
[01:04:08] Michael Zarick: Ariana Ebony, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you. Could you tell the people maybe one at a time where we can find you where we can find Mirror Indy and how we can donate?
[01:04:19] Ariana Beedie: Yeah. So mirrorindy.org at Mirror Indy across all platforms. You should definitely check out on our website our, our SMS pages.
Sign up for a text alert. Um, top right corner, click sign up. You can get signed up for. The newsletters are in the mirror, uh, comes out Monday through Friday. And then of course, the coolest Arts and culture newsletter in the, in the city. I'm biased and that's okay. Um, is playlist and that comes out every Wednesday.
Um, you can find me at AriBeedie. Yes, I know that's okay. Um, uh, on Instagram and on X and yeah, maybe check me out some other places too. More to come.
[01:04:58] Michael Zarick: I refuse to call it X. That's a personal quirk.
[01:05:01] Ebony Chapel: I say
[01:05:02] Michael Zarick: tweets. I don't, I'm supposed say X, like I don't, I don't know.
[01:05:05] Ebony Chapel: I still haven't gotten into the, all of that stuff.
Um, uh, everything that Ari said, and you can find me on everything at EbonytheWriter and, yeah.
[01:05:21] Michael Zarick: Cool.
[01:05:21] Ebony Chapel: That's where you can find me,
[01:05:22] Michael Zarick: Mirror Indy. Donate local journalism is so important. Uh, please donate to them. They do amazing work. I read it a lot. I don't wanna say every day 'cause that's a lie, but I read it a lot.
Uh, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Third Space Indy. You can find me at Third Space Indy on Instagram or thirdspaceindy.com, where I write a blog that releases with every episode. I would love to have your email so they can send it to you. Feel free. Uh, Third Space Indy is sponsored by City Rising.
You can go go to cityrising.org and learn more about that. Also, the third space Indy intro music is done by local artist Jennasen. Thank you Jennasen, for sharing your music with me so I can share it with the people. Anyways, thank you so much for listening. Have a great day. thank you guys for joining me.
[01:06:09] Ebony Chapel: Thank you. Thank you. Hope you listen to
[01:06:11] Michael Zarick: my next one. Goodbye.