What does BUTTER have to do with the Indy Winter Farmers Market and hiring a new Market Manager?
While Tulip Tree Creamery does offer delicious butter at the Indy Winter Farmers Market (IWFM), we’re referencing the BUTTER Equitable Fine Art Fair, an initiative organized by GANGGANG. BUTTER serves as a creative model for catalyzing equity and economic justice through the arts. We have been exploring how farmers' markets can be leveraged as platforms for catalyzing food justice, environmental justice, economic justice, and overall human well-being.
As part of BUTTER festivities over Labor Day weekend, Sampson Levingston, from Through2Eyes, once again led "Walk and Talk" tours through the neighborhood between Crispus Attucks High School and The Stutz Building. Sampson's tours consistently offer fresh insights and perspectives, even to those who have previously participated. During one of Sampson's tours that weekend, one statement stood out: When something is intentionally removed from a place, it must be deliberately re-established.
Sampson was referring to the intentional removal of the Black community and its rich culture that was intentionally removed from the area between the Stutz and Attucks by the intentional choices of government agencies and the City to build the interstate through Black communities. Sampson specifically emphasized the destruction of a Black-owned hotel, hospital, hundreds, if not thousands, of homes, as well as churches, schools, businesses, and vibrant cultural and artistic institutions. As people were displaced, so too were their social and business networks, opportunities, and investments in their communities. Generational community and family investments, inheritances, and wealth were razed along with the homes and buildings.
While we cannot truly replace what was lost or the untapped potential and opportunities that were never realized as a result, Sampson encourages us to take inventory of what has been lost and to actively create spaces, opportunities, and places for what has been denied, diminished, or oppressed to live and flourish once more. BUTTER is one manifestation of this deliberate "re-placing" and a firm acknowledgment of Black culture, art, brilliance, and community—elements that the City attempted to erase through eminent domain, the erection of the interstate, and numerous other attempts to displace and dismantle Black communities.
As we prepare to open the IWFM in November at The AMP, just down the road from BUTTER at the Stutz, it is beholden upon us to consider the history and legacy Sampson highlighted during his tour. We must specifically consider the impact of redlining, eminent domain, interstates, IUPUI, the closure of Riverside Amusement Park following desegregation, and more on the historical and contemporary availability—or lack thereof—of grocery stores, health centers, sidewalks, adequately funded schools, banks, and other essential services that historically white and more affluent communities expect as standard. We also need to take into account the reality of gentrification and even how IWFM may have contributed to gentrification in the downtown neighborhoods where we have been located over the years. How do we begin to take inventory of what has been lost?
Expanding our focus beyond Near West Indy, Near Northwest, and the broader downtown Indianapolis area, we are encouraged to reflect on how the removal and forced assimilation of Native American peoples on the land now known as Indiana, land dispossession, "settlement," state laws and policies, Sundown Towns, and other factors have shaped farming and food systems in Indiana, as well as nationally. Again, we have an opportunity to take inventory of what has been lost. Getting to know our state and city in ways we may not have previously, and taking inventory of what has been lost are healing practices that generate a thriving future for all.
So, what are the opportunities and possibilities for the IWFM to contribute to a generative community through our presence at the AMP? How can we, as IWFM and the IWFM community, not shy away from adversity but instead confront historical and contemporary challenges with courage, compassion, and curiosity, all to nurture a generative community?
In light of these considerations, we are currently seeking candidates for the IWFM Manager position. We are in search of an inspired individual who has the skills to bring the community together in generative ways. We are looking for someone with the vision and experience to leverage IWFM's platform to deliberately dismantle barriers and "re-place" aspects of food culture and community well-being. We are looking for someone ready to work collaboratively to raise the bar for the role farmers' markets have to play in food and well-being justice. This person will be an integral part of the IWFM and Growing Places Indy leadership, receiving support from our board and the organization as a whole. Spread the word. Apply today.
