Feb. 7, 2024 | The Reflector

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THE OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF INDIANAPOLIS • FOUNDED 1922 • INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA VOL.

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I S S UE 7

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

reflector.uindy.edu

Art & Soul highlights Black artists people and to really get out there so, I was hitting up open mics and doing local ONLINE EDITOR vending shows and the block fairs, the block parties, the fairs and festivals— everything on a grassroot level to The Art & Soul Festival is kicking connect with community and connect off Black History Month with its 28th with people. So that really became an annual festival this month. The festival, inspiration to my practice because they presented by Indy Arts Council, hosts definitely received my work and became events which celebrate Black visual art, very encouraging. Just the opportunity music, dance and literature, according to meet so many different new people, to the Indy Arts website. This year, the it adds to the catalog of the art that I events will take place at various locations can create.” on Feb. 2, Feb. 7 and Feb. 23 with The theme of this year’s festival is “We featured artists doing live performances. Are One, The Naptown Experience,” According to Event Producer Valerie according to Phelps. According to Phelps Art & Soul has provided a Indianapolis Monthly, Africanplatform for up-and-coming artists to American Indianapolis residents began become known in Indianapolis since using the nickname “Naptown” to refer 1996. She said the importance of Art & to the city in the 1920s during the “Jazz Soul stems from its history of helping Age.” Phelps said that she is honored to artists. Every year, artists are invited be able to bring that history to younger to apply to be featured at the festival, generations who do not know about according to Phelps. Naptown. “It is so worth it if you make it, because “It doesn't mean that we're sleepy,” all year they help promote you and do Phelps said, “Basically, what that means all these different things for you and is that we're really cool. We are really to make you known in the city,” Phelps cool and to this day said. “And it's just artists all around a great way for an the world refer to artist, especially a … Indianapolis opened up us as Naptown.” new artist, to be Boxx said known in the city a pathway for me really to the theme is about for what you do. connect with people ..." honoring the past. It’s a really amazing To her, it is a recognition, and timeline traveling had I been able to through the rich history of Indianapolis. do something like that when I was The festival shows that the arts and just starting off, that would have been culture in Indianapolis should not be phenomenal.” overlooked, according to Boxx. Boxx the Artist is one of the four “[The theme] is really homage to featured artists chosen to perform at the past, and really connecting to the festival this year. Boxx is a full-time the arts and culture when it comes visual artist based in Indianapolis and to Indianapolis and the history that originally from Gary, Indiana. She said has been established from just the she has been practicing art for six years overwhelming amount of talent,” Boxx now and works with different mediums said. “So with looking and honoring the such as public art installations, murals, past we kind of go down this timeline photography and film. and get to learn and experience more “I practice expressionist portraiture,” about the present.” Boxx said. “So I just create versions of Being part of Arts & Soul is portraits through my own lens.” meaningful because it means getting Boxx went to Purdue University to contribute to its ongoing history, where she studied mass communication, according to Boxx. The festival has African-American studies and political provided an amazing platform for the science, she said. She worked in project Black art scene, including performing management and marketing after she artists, musicians, singers, rappers, graduated, but after experiencing two dancers and poets, she said. layoffs in three years, she decided to “Being able to contribute to that pursue art. She said the Indianapolis history and to be a part of the legacy community has inspired her artistically. that's being built with Art & Soul, it's “I like to draw faces, so that's gonna definitely in honor and I'm grateful to always connect and draw me to people be able to contribute to that,” Boxx said. because that's just the lane that I enjoy,” More information about Art & Soul Boxx said. “… Indianapolis opened up a can be found at IndyArts.org. pathway for me really to connect with

By Olivia Cameron

Photo by Allison Cook

Indianapolis residents gaze at the works on display at the 28th Art and Soul festival. Art & Soul provides a platform for Black artists of various mediums and celebrates Black culture through their works of art with the theme “We Are One, The Naptown Experience.”

Photo by Allison Cook

The 2024 Art and Soul festival began on Feb. 2 with a kickoff at The Cabaret. Performances by artists such as Boxx The Artist, Austin Day, jus Will, Dexter Clardy of Shvdy Rollins and many others will have the opportunity to showcase talents on Feb. 7 and Feb. 23.

UIndy CCI encourages student business The School of Engineering's Center for Collaborative Innovation helps develop business ideas By Michael Harrington FEATURE EDITOR

The University of Indianapolis Center for Collaborative Innovation, located in the R.B. Annis School of Engineer ing, helps students develop, prototype and explore their entrepreneurial ideas, according to the CCI website. While originally utilized exclusively by engineering students, the CCI now extends its services to students of all majors and communities outside of the UIndy community thanks to the Elevate Nexus Higher Education G r a n t , a c c o r d i n g t o t h e CC I . The CCI currently has teams of

multidisciplinar y students who work on their prototypes over nine months throughout their junior year. UIndy Associate Professor of Engineering David Olawale said the CCI separates UIndy ’s School of Engineering from others due to creating the DesignSpine curriculum. DesignSpine helps students develop their entrepreneurial and prototyping skills in a hands-on approach, according to Olawale. “ The CCI actually stands for the Center for Collaborative Innovation, and one of the visions when we star ted the CCI was because part of the engineering school, we are what is called

INSIDE: OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3, 8 SPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 5 FEATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ENTERTAINMENT . . . . . . . . . 7

the DesignSpine curriculum,” Olawale said. “That's what makes our engineer ing sc hool unique compared to other engineer ing schools across the nation. One of the things that we discovered, as par t of our DesignS pine … people from different programs of engineering work together and work on entrepreneurial ideas.” According to Elevate Nexus, the grant UIndy received totaled $50,000 and went to support the DesignSpine Engineering Entrepreneurship Program within UIndy ’s CCI. Olawale said the grant has helped students since 2020 who have had entrepreneurial ideas but did not have access to

t h e re s o u rc e s n e e d e d t o m a k e prototypes. After the grant, the CCI now also provides business training and feasibility support, according to Olawale. “We've been doing this for I think five years now. So the engineering students, they can do that and we have a lot of resources to support them but they were not thinking of what about other students who are in business, who are in finance, who are in arts, who are in sciences that also have entrepreneurial ideas but they don't have access to prototyping,” Olawale said. “ So without thinking, ‘No, this is unfair,’ we now had the opportunity to write a grant to the Elevate Nexus Venture and

we were successful and we got a $50,000 grant from Elevate Nexus that helped to establish the CCI.” According to Olawale, the CCI has seen a large amount of student involvement over the past few years. People outside of UIndy go to their training sessions as well, according to Olawale. “All our engineering students i n t h e j u n i o r ye a r go t h ro u g h and we can be saying that and I think we've done that for almost five years. And we take about an average, maybe we're talking about let's say each year an average of not less than 20, 24 students,” Olawale said. “You're talking about over a > See CCI on Page 3

2024 SUPER BOWL PREDICTION

UINDY SPRING SPORTS BEGIN

STUDENT WINS ISBC AWARD

The Reflector’s Sports Editor has put pen-to-paper to share her predictions for the 2024 Super Bowl. Check out Page 2 to see what she—and UIndy students—thinks!

The spring sports season is ramping up with upcoming games for lacrosse, softball, baseball and more! Check out some of the excitement to come on Page 4 and 5!

Get ready for a home run with ‘Grand Slam Sports’! Turn to page 6 for a play-by-play of these internationally acclaimed student commentators!

> See SPORTS

> See FEATURE

> See OPINION


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