It is hard to believe that just over a year ago, on October 5, we opened our new Indianapolis Liberation Center. Despite our lack of financial resources, corporate or city sponsors, or grants, we maintained we were opening not only physical doors to a new centrally-located and accessible organizing space, but to an entirely new phase of building the people’s movements in Indianapolis, around the country, and even the world. Our operating premise was that the difficult work of building unity across the artificial-but-very-material divides that separate us was the only way to build an independent political movement. Through constant reflection and discussion, the Center continues growing in our ability to support each other and uplift our community.
Although small, our founding members and organizations had the collective experience at the time of opening to know that the movement is unpredictable and flexibility is key. Two days later, when the Al-Aqsa Flood—the latest iteration of the Palestinian Intifada–erupted, we didn’t abandon those detailed and time-consuming plans created for the Center’s first three months. Together, we showed in practice what uniting through a truly independent political organizing center can accomplish.
Through our member-organization ANSWER Indiana and their allies in the Middle Eastern Student Association at IU Indianapolis, Students for Justice in Palestine – Butler, Jewish Voice for Peace – Indiana, and the Palestinian Youth Movement, we mobilized to support the Palestinian liberation struggle. In rapid succession, we collaboratively held a series of unprecedented protests, rallies, art builds, panels, and marches–and chartered our first bus to D.C. for the historic Nov. 4 march for Palestine. At the same time, we held our first book talk, carried out our first entry in our ongoing series, “Fourth Fridays: Unleashing the Creativity of the Masses,” continued building a coalition of families IMPD victims, held regular weekly protests at Prosecutor Ryan Mears’ office, maintained our website, maintained regular office hours, and more.
Palestine banner painting
Rally for Palestine
Artists against apartheid
Uniting and expanding the terrain of struggle
In just the first few months of our opening, the people’s struggles in Indianapolis, the surrounding areas, the country, and world went through years of progress. While the reasons for such sharp social developments were not of our own making–as in most cases–we seized the momentum to unite with new member-organizations and mobilize our new volunteer base.
Since opening, the Center’s official member-organizations have almost tripled. Some groups joined based on our shared history of struggle together while others joined after taking time to build the relationships, trust, and mutual respect necessary for a genuine coalition. What matters more than the number of groups is the diversity of struggles they lead and the sectors of our city’s marginalized, oppressed, and exploited we can bring together and engage.
Arte Mexicano en Indiana, founded by Eduardo Luna in 2002, joined in September as we were moving into our new space. This was the foundation for our increasing number and variety of cultural and artistic programming, including events celebrating the revolutionary Black tradition in the U.S., the anti-colonial struggle, and our new annual tradition, “Frida by Colors.”
When Free Shaka Shakur joined the Liberation Center in December, it was the first time the New Afrikan Political Prisoner and leading organizer and theorist of the New Afrikan Independence Movement had a physical center of operations. With a home base and dedicated cadre of Center volunteers, Free Shaka Shakur recently grew into a nationally-recognized 501(c)(3): the Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign. Headquartered at the Center, it has chapters on the East and West coasts. At the same time, to promote not only the struggles to free Shaka and all political prisoners but to promote and spread the suppressed revolutionary praxis of the New Afrikan Independence Struggle, the Center started our small in-house press, the Indianapolis Liberator, which most notably published Shakur’s latest work, From the Republic of New Afrika to Palestine, which launched nationwide at our neighborhood’s Dream Palace Books and Coffee.
Outreach for Shaka Shakur
Liberated Readers storytime
Angelita Hampton’s Frida works
We started 2024 by welcoming FOCUS Initiatives, LTD, an abolitionist organization that stands for “Forever on Course, United in Solidarity.” FOCUS includes both a re-entry or post-release program and an initiative to support families and loved ones of the incarcerated–all while tackling the underlying causes of racist mass incarceration. In June, we joined forces with IDOC Watch, which is building a mass-based inside-outside movement to abolish the prison industrial complex and its root causes. The Center is now the central physical location uniting one of the most difficult divisions we face: those behind and outside of prison bars. In March, we were honored to organize and host Leon Benson’s return to Indianapolis exactly one year after he was exonerated and freed from 25 years of unjust incarceration.
At Benson’s event, we connected with Vernon T. Bateman, one of our city’s kindest and most talented artists, authors, illustrators, educators, and community advocates. We produced our first documentary to promote the tragic story of his still ongoing fight for freedom after 26 years of imprisonment, and will stay by his side until he, too, is exonerated.
Every member-organization introduces new types of programming, but even more valuable is their ability to bring new oppressed and marginalized peoples and struggles to the Center, and to bring the Center to new neighborhoods and communities. In February, the Indiana Black Librarians Network joined the Center after years of fighting together–and winning concrete victories–to make our libraries truly public. IBLN’s new monthly “Liberated Readers” story time at the Center promotes the critical literacy, agency, and imaginative capacity of one of the most disenfranchised and overlooked segments of our city: children.
Vernon Bateman at DePauw
Leon Benson rebirth event
CFAC potluck
We mean it: This is your liberated space
The growing number of member-organizations has helped the city’s Liberation Center provide space for local organizations and people aligned with our mission and vision. We hosted the “Assembly of the Unrepresented” for an election watch night with newly-elected City-County Councilor Jesse Brown—who spent the night with the people instead of with corporate sponsors–and a celebration of Nichelle M. Hayes, forever the people’s choice for our public library’s CEO.
We’ve built relationships and organized with Indiana AID (Assistance for Immigrants in Detention), the Indianapolis Education Justice Coalition, Midnight Riot, GANGGANG and the Marion County Re-Entry Coalition, to name just a few.
By forging authentic relationships and fostering new fighters and leaders, we were able to help build the Community Food Access Coalition, which the city government allowed to languish for over three years. Working together, community members took it upon themselves to form the coalition and did so within a matter of months.
PSL Indianapolis and Hope Packages both increased the impact and regularity of their activities. PSL continues engaging in struggles for working and oppressed people of Indianapolis. They won key victories in a battle against the murderous IMPD, forcing a local Burger King to reveal information on IMPD’s killing of Freddie Davis and, through weekly actions, exposing the lies of the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office by taking Prosecutor Mears to court. PSL’s monthly Liberation Forums offer key chances to connect with guest speakers like Orlando “Magik” Gilyard, who helped organize a truce between the Bloods, Crips, and the Black Guerrilla Family.
Liberation Forum discussion
Orlando Gilyard
Protest for Freddie Davis
The Indianapolis Liberation Store continues expanding, now selling key revolutionary literature like Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States and A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice, handmade art prints, t-shirts, and buttons, and zines that speak to our local struggles for queer liberation, prison abolition, and a free Palestine. The Indy Liberation Store also serves local and national alike: you can now get your liberated texts in-store and online.
Hope Packages, which is now an independent entity, continues hosting monthly assemblies. Just after moving into our new space, Hope Packages released their new 10-point program, clarifying their role as a political direct-aid program. Each assembly works to advance their 10-Point Program, a clear and realizable vision that guides their activity.Perhaps most significantly, ANSWER has been a leading force in our city in the struggle for Palestinian liberation, organizing countless protests, study groups, discussions, art builds, and more. Not restricting itself to anti-war organizing, ANSWER Indiana has also played a role in defending people from racist attacks here in Indianapolis. Perhaps most notably, they supported Dr. Meleeka Clary, who struggled in court against her ex-husband’s attacks on her ability to live on her own.
Palestine art build
Hope Packages concert
Hope Package assembly
Advancing the movement for a people’s Indianapolis
The first year at the Center both felt like years and no time at all. The fast paced and important nature of our work makes days fly by, while the tremendous volume of lessons and experience gained are equal to those we may have gained over years of time.
One of the primary lessons this period taught us is the importance of having a central, open space which working and oppressed people can leverage to advance their struggles. It is abundantly clear that the people that claim to represent us, like Joe Hogsett, have no actual interest in bettering our lives, and instead are only concerned with their own self-preservation, even or especially at the cost of our safety. The 2025 city budget further reinforces this. The task to create a powerful, independent movement that truly fights for our advancement falls to all of us, the main victims of this system.
Center organizers do this work because we know the immense impact and potential it has for the people of Indianapolis. But we know there is still so much to be done, and we are up against well funded, and well-entrenched entities. To not just sustain, but to grow, our level of activity and impact requires additional support. Please consider making a donation to support our work, or become a monthly sustainer.
There are plenty of ways to get involved with or support the Center! Sign up to volunteer with the Center, buy Liberation Center merchandise or educational materials, or stop by to find other ways to get involved. We mean it when we say it: collaboration, not competition, gets the goods for the oppressed.
As we celebrate our first year progress, we’re already setting our sights higher for next year. By collaborating, we can forge the numbers and collective knowledge needed to transform our mission and vision into a reality.
One thing every person can do is to celebrate our year of unity and fund our next year of freedom at our first annual fundraiser this November 14. Remember, this is our liberated territory; our city’s truly independent political organizing space. We look forward to seeing and building with you soon!
Featured photo: Liberation Center organizers and volunteers during a recent organizing workshop. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.
