Indianapolis

Black Heritage

& Legacy Trail

Connecting and Preserving African-American Identity Across Neighborhoods through Storytelling

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Connecting and Preserving African-American Identity Across Neighborhoods through Storytelling ✦

About

Inspired by the artist Nas’ lyrical refrain “we goin’ ultra Black,” in his 2020 classic “Ultra Black” Indy Black Heritage & Legacy Trail: Connecting and Preserving African-American Identity Across Neighborhoods through Storytelling is a community celebration through temporary public art, and an archiving collaboration between Flanner House, Rokh R&D Studio, and KT Austin Arts LLC. Nas’ lyrics highlight the dignity of Black existence. The phrase is an empowerment slogan for the unification of folks from across the Black Diaspora. This project seeks to excavate and amplify cultural heritage within a cohort of Black communities across Indianapolis, IN.

This initiative is a two-part process:

1

Community Archiving to assist residents of these communities in maintaining their family artifacts. During this process, we will work with a team of creatives to craft a narrative of each neighborhood based on the living memories of current residents.

2

Collaboratively designing the heritage markers. Each marker will be slightly unique to the neighborhood thus, simultaneously establishing a piece of public art and a beacon for the area. Once all of the temporary markers have been installed, we will host Heritage Walks within all 6 neighborhoods on Juneteenth 2025 (the 200 year anniversary).

Our Neighborhoods

Trail guides

Project Leadership

Danicia Malone

Placekeeping & Wayfinding

Danicia Monét Malone is an arts & culture ambassador and urban planner pursuing her Ph.D. on the User-Experience of Race. Her applied research is based on the context of Spatial Aesthetics – Growing Cultural Literacy in the Built Environment. Having fellowships with Yale School of the Environment, Wilma Gibbs Moore, Americans for the Arts, and Transportation for America she challenges the ideas of public space and place-making to encourage regenerative cultural democracy. Danicia holds a Bachelor in Urban Planning and Spanish & a Masters in Nonprofit Management with a focus on peace building, liberation, and sustainability. She is the Founder, Principal, and interaction designer with Rokh. Her work has been published in Forbes, the Washington Post, Next City, and Fast Company among others.

Rita Organ

Archiving

Rita C. Organ is an engaging arts administrator with extensive experience in museum management. Among her skill sets are exhibit conceptual development, collections & archival management and the ability to effectively communicate and work with visual artists of all types, historians and historic preservationists to create outstanding experiences, exhibitions and programs which entertain visitors of all ages. Her accomplishments include holding positions as a Curator of African American Materials at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; Director of Exhibits & Collections at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati; and Artifact Collections Consultant for the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Kaila Austin

Archiving

Kaila Austin is a social practice artist, working to recover community history through the public arts and archival practices. She attended Indiana University, a triple major in Art History, African American African Diaspora Studies and Painting. In 2016, she was named a top emerging museum professional through the Association of African American Museums for her work in exhibit interpretation and design. She currently works for the organization as a Mellon Fellow creating new Paths to Accreditation for African American Museums. Because of her work at the intersections of heritage preservation, the public arts and community advocacy, she was named Artist-Activist of the Year by the Arts Council of Indianapolis. In 2024, she is a Fellow with the Artists At Work Program presented by the Office and the Herbert Simon Family Foundation.

Since 2019, she has run Rogue Preservation Services, LLC, a historic consulting organization that allows her to work with historically African American communities, using the arts to mobilize their histories to save their ancestral spaces. Currently, her organization is assisting the Southside US Colored Troop Coalition, a descendant-founded collaborative to protect six Reconstruction Era neighborhoods in Southeast Indianapolis. The Coalition wishes to sustain and expand their communities as they face disruption from the Community Justice Campus, a 140 acre, $1 billion jail complex established in 2022. This program will stabilize and expand Austin’s practice so she can continue working on behalf of the USCT communities.