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Profiles 31 results
Zaineb Istrabadi (center), pictured here in Bloomington in 1974 with her father, Rasoul (right), and cousins, calls herself “a Baghdadi. Hoosier” Writer Michael G. Glab calls her the apotheosis of a Midwesterner in his profile of the longtime senior lecturer in IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Zaineb Istrabadi, Baghdadi Hoosier
Michael G. Glab
Zaineb Istrabadi calls herself “a Baghdadi Hoosier.” Writer Michael G. Glab calls her the apotheosis of a Midwesterner in his profile of the longtime senior lecturer in IU’s Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. He also calls her “a woman of the world” and a member of one of Bloomington’s most storied families. Click here to read the full story.
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Photo by Gannon Holsapple

15 Audio Tours By ASE Students Share Their ‘Sense of Place’
Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship English 11
For the third straight year, students in Rachel Bahr’s English 11 class at the Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship have explored a specific place that has special meaning to them — from their own backyard to Griffy Lake to high above the city. In 15 immersive audio tours, they each share their unique sense of place. Click here to watch their videos!
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Big Mike’s B-town: Vauhxx Booker, ‘Fortune Favors the Bold’
Michael G. Glab
“Everything inside me — starting with my name, Vauhxx — spoke to me and said I had to speak up,” says Vauhxx Booker, spokesperson for Bloomington’s Black Lives Matter. He also spoke with writer Michael G. Glab about his family’s deep-rooted American history, his shy childhood, and his potential plans for public office in Bloomington. Click here to read the full story.
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Artist Edwin Fulwider wrote a memoir about growing up in Bloomington in the early 1900s. Written in the 1980s, the memoir portrays a “rich landscape of local art, life, and history” of a bygone era, writes Michelle Gottschlich. This photo, from the early 1900s, is looking north on College Avenue from Kirkwood on the downtown Square (notice that Graham Plaza hadn't been built yet). | Photo courtesy of the IU Archives

Edwin Fulwider’s Early-1900s Boyhood in Bloomington, ‘A Memoir’
Michelle Gottschlich
More than thirty years ago, artist Edwin Fulwider wrote a memoir about growing up in Bloomington in the early 1900s. The memoir portrays a “rich landscape of local art, life, and history” of a bygone era, writes Michelle Gottschlich. Fulwider’s perspective is especially insightful because he grew up in several different neighborhoods. Click here to read the full story.
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With all the world music being performed this week at Lotus, at least two acts have powerful messages for our own country. Raye Zaragoza’s music often conveys political, social, or environmental messages folded into song, while Making Movies (pictured here) portrays the struggles of immigrants, writes Sara Sheikh, marketing director of the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation. | Courtesy photo

Guest Column: Lotus Artists Follow Hearts, Challenge Social Injustices
Sara Sheikh
With all the world music being performed this week at Lotus, at least two acts have powerful messages for our own country. Raye Zaragoza’s music often conveys political, social, or environmental messages folded into song, while Making Movies portrays the struggles of immigrants, writes Sara Sheikh, marketing director of the Lotus Education & Arts Foundation. Click here to read the full story.
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Francis Shok Mweze spent six weeks this summer in IU’s Mandela Washington Fellowship, taking many photos while he was here, such as this one of the Indiana University Sample Gates and Kirkwood Avenue. Now back in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, he hopes to make his hometown a “visual arts capital in the region.” | Photo by Francis Shok Mweze

IU Mandela Washington Fellow Shares Impressions and Photos of Bloomington
Limestone Post, Francis Shok Mweze
Francis Shok Mweze spent six weeks this summer in IU’s Mandela Washington Fellowship. Now back in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, he hopes to make his hometown a “visual arts capital in the region.” Limestone Post asked Mweze about his ambitions, his stay in Bloomington, and about the photos he took while here. Click here to read our Q&A with Mweze and to see some of his photos of Bloomington.
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Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, moved to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. Pictured here, Medina sits at his desk at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Big Mike’s B-town: Cristian Medina, Scientist, Poet, Chess Leader
Michael G. Glab
Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, has found plenty to keep him busy since moving to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks to Medina about his hometown — bordered by ocean, mountains, and desert — geology and climate change, his work founding Cardboard House Press, and more in the latest Big-Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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True crime writer Sarah Kolodziej has been hooked on stories of crime, murder, and suicide since she was five years old. While a case anywhere might grab her eye, most of the ones she writes about on her "Crime Spotlight" blog and Instagram account have ties to Bloomington and Indiana — especially cold cases and unsolved crimes. | Courtesy photo

‘Crime Spotlight’ Writer Does Justice to True Crime Stories
Jonah Chester
True crime writer Sarah Kolodziej has been hooked on stories of crime, murder, and suicide since she was five years old. While a case anywhere might grab her eye, most of the ones she writes about on her "Crime Spotlight" blog and Instagram account have ties to Bloomington and Indiana — especially cold cases and unsolved crimes. Writer Jonah Chester investigates. Click here to read the full story.
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Hoagy Carmichael holds son Hoagy Bix in the early 1940s. More recently, Hoagy Bix was in town for IU Theatre’s production of "Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey," and he talked with writer Michael G. Glab about growing up in Hollywood, his famous namesakes (Hoagy and Bix), and the musical that is premiering in Bloomington. | HC Series 3, Box 3, item 33. Hoagy Carmichael Collection, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University

Big Mike’s B-town: Hoagy Bix Carmichael
Michael G. Glab
While Hoagy Bix Carmichael was in town for IU Theatre’s production of Stardust Road: A Hoagy Carmichael Musical Journey, he talked with writer Michael G. Glab about growing up in Hollywood, his famous namesakes (Hoagy and Bix), and the musical that is premiering in Bloomington. They even squeezed in some talk about fly-fishing. Click here to read the full story.
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Despite living through years of hardship under the French, the Americans and their Vietnamese allies, and, more recently, conflicts with China, a vendor in a market in the coastal city of Hoi An has a ready smile for customers. She wears the nón lá — a conical hat made of palm leaf and worn by Vietnamese of all ages and both genders. | © Steve Raymer / National Geographic Creative

Local Photographer’s Career Spans the Globe in Stories and Photos
Claude Cookman
Writer Claude Cookman sits down with photographer Steve Raymer to discuss Raymer's new book, Somewhere West of Lonely: My Life in Pictures. Cookman says Raymer shows how photojournalism is “the essential eyes for citizens in democratic societies to understand an increasingly complex world.” Raymer, an IU emeritus professor, was a veteran National Geographic photographer in the “golden age” of magazine photojournalism. Click here to read the full story and see many of Raymer's photos.
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Members of the Blockhouse Bar Call & Response House Band before a show. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

‘Wednesday Is Jazz Night’ — A Conversation with Drummer Ben Lumsdaine
Jim Manion, Chaz Mottinger
With Bloomington’s jazz pedigree, it’s fitting that one of the hottest acts in town is a jazz band. On Wednesday nights at Blockhouse Bar, the Call & Response House Band features local and national jazz artists. Jim Manion, music director at WFHB, talked with C&R leader and drummer Ben Lumsdaine about the weekly jazz series. Click here to read the full story.
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Creating a community of misfits isn’t what music entertainer Darran Mosley intended or expected. After growing up in a “super-rough” neighborhood in Indianapolis, then working in computer systems in Chicago, he landed in Bloomington, where he works in IT by day and in music by night. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Darran Mosley, Misfit
Michael G. Glab
Creating a community of misfits isn’t what Darran Mosley intended or expected. After growing up in a “super-rough” neighborhood in Indianapolis, then working in computer systems in Chicago, he landed in Bloomington, where he works in IT by day and in music entertainment by night. Here, Michael G. Glab profiles this karaoke host, DJ, and vocalist. Click here to read the full story.
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