Friday, December 5
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Indianapolis Liberation Center
1619 Prospect St.
We eagerly invite everyone to the official grand opening of our new Indianapolis Liberation Center, our first storefront located at 1619 Prospect St. Meet existing and new friends (and comrades) for a night of food, drink, community-building, art, and joy as we celebrate our city’s new liberated territory.
All of us—from those who founded the first Center in January 2021 to those who just started volunteering—are ecstatic to welcome everyone to our latest and most ambitious independent community space and organizing hub yet! We’re not only celebrating our new headquarters where activists, organizers, collectives, and organizations can collaborate and extend their capacity; we’re celebrating the next chapter in our mission to create a world without exploitation and oppression, as well as the thousands of people who put in the hard but necessary work building unity and overcoming the divisions imposed on us by the ruling class.
Feel free to come a little early, stay a little late, or pop in to make the rounds during the programming schedule below. Don’t worry about interrupting—it’s our liberated space! We don’t take funding or grants from the city or corporate foundations; we rely on ourselves and each other. Since our founding in 2021, we’ve organized and supported over 600 events, protests, campaigns, and other actions thanks to our donors and sustainers!
Program
6:00: Doors and registration open.
6:00 – 6:30: Tour our new center and visit our new Liberation Center Store! Check out t-shirts, buttons, stickers, books, magazines, pamphlets, and other gear.
6:30 – 7:00: Socialize and enjoy drinks and vegetarian and vegan tacos provided by Hot Lamb Indy. We will also have beer and wine available for donations.
7:00 – 7:30: Volunteer Organizer Jay Grillo introduces the program and invites activists from our member-organizations to share a few words.
7:30 – 8:00: Listen to testimony about the work we’ve done by uniting and remaining dedicated to our mission and vision.
8:00 – 8:30: Hear from our special Speaker Gloria La Riva!
8:30 – 10:00 pm: Socialize and Party!
Featuring special guest speaker Gloria La Riva!
In addition to hearing from Liberation Center volunteer Jay Grillo and other organizers on the frontlines of the struggle in Naptown and across the country and world, we’re especially excited that Gloria La Riva will be joining us from San Francisco!
La Riva is a life-long organizer, author, award-winning filmmaker, anti-war activist with the ANSWER Coalition, and former Presidential Candidate who ran in the 2020 elections alongside Leonard Peltier.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gloria attended Brandeis University where she was active in affirmative action struggles. Gloria has been a key organizer of many mass demonstrations and other actions opposing the wars and occupation in Central America, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and elsewhere.
Gloria worked for decades to defend Cuba’s sovereignty and against the U.S. blockade. She was awarded Cuba’s Friendship Medal in 2010 for her many years of Cuba solidarity. Until their freedom was secured in 2014, she was the coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, Cuban heroes unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. for defending Cuba from U.S.-sponsored terrorism.
Gloria has been active in the struggle for immigrant rights, organizing for and speaking at many mass marches in California over the past 30 years. In November 2018, she accompanied the refugee caravan of 7,000 Hondurans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans for eight days in their arduous march through Mexico to reach the United States. In the early 1990s, she was the initiator of the Farmworkers Emergency Relief campaign, following a disastrous freeze that left tens of thousands of Central Valley agricultural workers with no income.
Her documentaries include, “Heroes, not Looters,” filmed in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and “NATO Targets Yugoslavia,” filmed with former Attorney General Ramsey Clark during the U.S./NATO war against Yugoslavia.
Get involved as an individual or a group!
In addition to our new storefront location, improved accessibility, free parking, access to collaborative workspaces and a large programming area, we are now able to accept additional member organizations, allied groups, as well as provide affordable spaces for individuals and any variety of grouping to book and host events from book talks and workshops to study groups and film showings! To request services or the Center, fill out this form!
Featured photo: People enter the new Liberation Center for the Trans Day of Remembrance event. Credit: Indianapolis Liberation Center.