Apr 16, 2021 | Features
Jim Krause. Photo by Shanti Knight
Jim Krause describes himself as “an accomplished adventurer, photographer, documentarian, teacher, writer, producer, musician, and composer.” Having spent years exploring the corners of the world by foot, pedal, paddle, and sail, he says his work “is awash with coastlines, cloudscapes, canyons, and mountains.”
He and his guitar, along with his wife, Anne, and her cello, spend summers living aboard their 38-foot sailboat, exploring either the Great Lakes or the Pacific Northwest.
Krause teaches video production and animation at The Media School at Indiana University and has contributed his time and talents on the boards of WFHB-FM, the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation, LifeDesigns, and Friends of Lake Monroe.
Monika Herzig. Photo by Jim Krause
by CRAIG COLEY
Jazz has always welcomed female vocalists, but instrumentalists like Monika Herzig struggle for recognition. “Advocacy was built in from the beginning of my career,” says Herzig, a pianist who grew up in Germany. “I’m far away from anything you traditionally imagine a real jazz player is.”
Now that she is an award-winning recording artist, author, scholar, and lecturer, Herzig, 56, is in a position to advocate for women. Her all-female ensemble, Sheroes, has recorded three albums, and she is currently co-editing a book titled
Jazz and Gender (Routledge), which will be published in 2022.
Feb 22, 2021 | Features
by TRACY ZOLLINGER TURNER
Jacinda Townsend is a novelist, a software trainer, and a Monroe County Community School Corporation board member. She’s also a Harvard University graduate with a law degree from Duke University and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her 2014 debut novel,
Saint Monkey (W.W. Norton & Company), won national awards and critical acclaim. Her second novel,
Kif, which was inspired by interviews with former slaves from Mauritania that she conducted for a story for Al- Jazeera, will be out in 2022. Ask her what she thinks is important to know about who she is, and she’ll tell you: “I’m a single mom and I like to go to the desert.”
Feb 14, 2021 | Features
by CARMEN SIERING
Selena Drake, who was raised in Gary, Indiana, says she never truly experienced racism prior to attending Indiana University. A racially charged incident that occurred as she started her freshman year in 2016 changed that.
“I really started noticing how people of color were treated by the predominately white students,” says Drake, now a master’s student studying law and public policy in the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
That fall, Drake participated in a memorial and march for Joseph Smedley, a 20-year-old Black IU student whose body was pulled from Griffy Lake in October 2015. While the coroner ruled Smedley’s death a suicide, many feel his death was never properly investigated. Since then, Drake has become increasingly active in advocating for racial and social justice.
Feb 9, 2021 | Features
by CARMEN SIERING
Professor Jeannine Bell, a nationally recognized scholar in the area of policing and hate crimes, has written extensively on criminal justice issues. When demonstrators took to the streets this summer demanding changes to policing in America, she was a step ahead of them.
“I write about this,” she says. “I write about change police officers can get on board with, changes they can be convinced are in their interest. There are so few reforms that are going to be of use to citizens and also to police.”
The way people talk about change is also important. “Defunding police is something the police quickly allied against because no one wants to have less money,” Bell points out. “If the conversation is about taking and this is how I, as a police scholar, would have described the same intervention then let’s take away from the police the services they don’t want to provide: social work–type services. That’s how you need to ha