Photos by Malachi Carter
Maybe The World by–Malachi Carter
Will care for my black body
better when they see how much
my momma loves me.
She knows she did
something right by keeping
me alive. These murals–
memorials movements
are mothers in labor
for their children in the afterlife.
Their children in the future
their children–
tomorrow.
Vigils by-Manon Voice
I’ve come to split the wind
with your flames, to heap
graffiti upon the firmament with
your faces. To shout you into
a resounding echo of a thousand years.
To bloom your heart into a
flight of bouquets. To spring you
into a field of marigolds.
I have come to see you
write your will to live.
Black woman, Black girl, Black femme
I have come to split the wind
with your names.
Nasreen Khan grew up in West Africa and Indonesia and moved to the gritty American Midwest by way of New York City. She and her toddler son live in their bungalow on Indianapolis’ Near Westside. On a Friday night she can be found cooking various organ meats or chasing down a stellar mint julep.
Her Indianapolis art is all a tribute to Haughville. Since moving to Indianapolis three years ago and putting down roots, walking the streets of Haughville and becoming part of the fabric here has kept her grounded. Haughville has been the tableau for building community, exploring her queer identity, motherhood, and teaching her son about race. IG@heyitsnasreen
Malachi Carter is a proud Far East Side Indy poet. He describes his writing as “those inner city school field trips to a Broadway musical (before, during, and after).” As a third year poet in his thesis at Butler University, his works are a nod and dab to the city. His daily commute consists of teaching English and history at a high school for adults, The Excel Center. When his student asks if he has kids, he replies “yes, about a hundred,” serving as the Director of Elementary at Overcoming Church. As his weekly schedule would suggest, Malachi is occupied with joy in his heart. Other joys include performing spoken word, rapping, shooting photographs, and swing dancing. He loves drinking tea, so maybe over a cup Malachi can show you his podcast, Unapologetics Podcast or his mixtapes, blackhistory and blackhistorytoo. Malachi interchangeably expresses his art as “A+scribe” and would like for his listeners to know that the plus sign is silent.
Manon Voice, is a native of Indianapolis, Indiana and is a poet and writer, spoken word artist, hip-hop emcee, educator, social justice advocate and practicing contemplative. She has performed on diverse stages across the country in the power of word and song and has taught and facilitated art and poetry workshops widely, working with organizations such as Women Writing for (a) Change, Arts for Learning Indiana, Notre Dame Americorps, Regeneration Indy, Indiana’s WomIN’s Festival, Indiana Writers Center and Purdue University. She has been a featured poet and performer in noteworthy Indianapolis productions such as “The Wake”, “Village Voices Notes from a Griot” and “Nina High Priestess of Soul” with the Phoenix Rising Dance Company. Manon Voice has performed alongside Broadway singer and actress, Jennifer Holliday for Brothers United World AIDS Day, Indiana Poet Laureate Adrian Matejka, Artist and Songstress, Opal Staples, International Poet, and Philosopher, David Whyte, and has opened for acts such as WNBA Championship basketball player Tamika Catchings and Judge Joe Mathis.
Her poetry has appeared in The Flying Island, The Indianapolis Review, The House Life Project: People + Property Series, Sidepiece Magazine and The World We Live(d) In anthology. She has been interviewed and featured in publications such as Indy NUVO, The Indianapolis Recorder, The Indianapolis Star, FAFCollective and Pattern Magazine. She has been a panelist for Indianapolis based organizations, Indy10 Black Lives Matter, Don’t Sleep, Circles Indy, IUPUI’s Social Justice Symposium and national organizations such as La Raza for Liberation focusing on the intersections of race, gender, art, and activism.
Manon Voice spent years serving both as a volunteer and employee for Indianapolis based non for profit, Trusted Mentors, which seeks to reverse homelessness and incarceration through the power of relationships. She is a proud board member of the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, a private, non for profit organization whose mission is to ensure equal housing opportunities by eliminating housing discrimination through advocacy, enforcement, education, and outreach.
She has volunteered for organizations such as Life Bridges and Global Gifts, and has taught and facilitated hip-hop courses through Kuumba Academy, an organization that seeks to promote positive behaviors through the teaching of music and examination of musical influences. Trained in civic reflection, she has facilitated for the Powerful Conversations on Race series hosted by Spirit and Place community project. In 2017, Manon Voice co-founded the Hear Me Project, a project that centers powerful questions in civic dialogue to create spaces for individual and community healing and in 2020, merged the Hear Me Project with the Kindred Collective, LLC., an organization that gives voice to equity through workshops and consulting, along with colleagues, Ben Tapper and Joshua Riddick.
Manon Voice is a board member of the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, a private, non for profit organization whose mission is to ensure equal housing opportunities by eliminating housing discrimination through advocacy, enforcement, education and outreach. She is also an editorial board member for Indy Maven, a publication connecting women in central Indiana through storytelling and events. Manon Voice is a teaching artist for Arts for Learning Indiana, where she utilizes poetry and spoken word to educate youth. Additionally, Manon VoIce holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership and has a passion for creative consulting with a focus on cultural competency through the arts.
In 2017, Manon Voice was awarded the Power of Peace Award from the Peace Learning Center of Central Indiana and in 2018 she traveled to Avila, Spain with the organization, Mystic Soul, to study contemplative practices through the lens of Saint and Mystic Teresa de Avila. In 2018, Manon received a nomination for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry. In 2020, Manon Voice was nominated as one of the four featured Art and Soul African American Artists with the Arts Council of Indianapolis. Manon Voice is also a recipient of the 2020 Robert D. Beckmann Jr., Emerging Artist Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis and was commissioned to create a poem for the Art Council’s equity statement. She is also a cohort for the 2021 On Ramp Accelerator Program with the Indiana Arts Commision and was a selected participant in the 2020 cohort for the Religion, Spirituality and Arts Program through IUPUI. Manon Voice seeks to use her art and activism to create a communal space where dialogue, transformation, discovery and inspiration can occur.
