Ray Steele

Hanukkah continues. That means if you're in the right place, you'll hear a musical tradition that's been around for centuries known as klezmer. To learn more, WFYI’s Ray Steele spoke to Dr. Shawn Royer, the chair of music and theatre at Marian University in Indianapolis.

When Dominic Dorsey was little, he never saw a Santa Claus who looked like him. So when he and his community group Don’t Sleep created the Black Business Bazaar that happens every holiday season in Indianapolis, he made sure that the Black Santa Experience was part of it.

Joey Chestnut is the 16-time Nathan's Famous hot dog eating champion, and he was the only winner of the St. Elmo shrimp cocktail eating championship here in Indy until last year.

It took Lily & Madeleine almost four years to finish their latest album. But “Nite Swim” is finally out, and while there are some familiar sounds from the folk/pop sister duo from Indianapolis, the album is also a major departure from their previous work in several ways. Lily & Madeleine spoke to WFYI’s Ray Steele.

High School dropout is not how you might expect to begin a conversation about a new examination of John F. Kennedy. But the man who made this new docuseries about Kennedy is no ordinary high school dropout, Ashton Gleckman grew up in Carmel, and before he decided not to finish school, he had recorded a music album, he launched a successful YouTube channel, and since then, he has composed a lot more music for film and got into making films himself. His eight-part series for the History Channel is simply entitled “Kennedy.” Ashton Gleckman spoke via Zoom with WFYI’s Ray Steele.

“Frozen: The Musical” is part of the current Broadway in Indianapolis season, and it’s a homecoming for one of its lead cast members. Evan Duff is from Fishers, a graduate of Hamilton Southeastern High School. He is portraying the Duke of Weselton in the touring production of Frozen, and he spoke recently via Zoom with WFYI’s Ray Steele.

It’s an old trail bell. But it’s not just any old train bell. It’s also the biggest prize in college football in Indiana. Literally. “It is a big bell. I think it weighs 350 pounds,” said Dr. Scott Feller, president of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, an hour northwest of Indianapolis. The bell is the Monon Bell, and Wabash doesn’t have it right now. The bell currently resides on the campus of Wabash’s rival, 30 miles south in Greencastle.

It’s because the new HGTV show “Buying Back The Block” tells the story of Mike and his wife Kyra literally buying the block in the Kennedy-King neighborhood in Indianapolis where Mike grew up. They bought six homes, some of which Mike lived in when he was young, and two of which he and his family were evicted from. “Those couple made it. I can feel all of it. It takes two,” Epps said.

The American south has been a hostile place for Black people for much of this country's history. In the 1840s, some Black families decided to look for something better. They undertook a dangerous journey to the north and west to Indiana, and one of the most notable places where they settled was in Grant County, northeast of Indianapolis.

Recently part of Indiana Avenue got a new name. It’s now Madam Walker Way, named for Madam CJ Walker, the legendary creator of beauty products and the namesake of the historic Walker Theatre -- now the Madam Walker Legacy Center. The center's leadership also released some big plans for the next few years leading up to its 100th anniversary. WFYI’s Ray Steele recently spoke to Kristian Little Stricklen, the president of the Madam Walker Legacy Center, about those plans.