Indianapolis, IN

After years of disuse, St. Peter Claver Center to reopen with food bank, after-school care

Published

7 months ago

September 13, 2025

After years of disuse, St. Peter Claver Center to reopen with food bank, after-school care

Nearly 50 years after it was dedicated as the St. Peter Claver Center, the once-thriving Near Northside building is getting a new lease on life.

Community members, including Trinity Church pastor Kim McCrackin and Marion County Recorder Faith Kimbrough, gathered outside the storied event space at 3110 Sutherland Ave. on a gray afternoon Sept. 13 to publicly commemorate the church’s plans to remodel and reopen the community center as the Trinity Youth and Family Services Center.

From beneath the drumbeat of heavy rain on umbrellas, McCrackin reminisced about the place where she would come to sing, dance and be among friends as a teenager.

“When you came here, baby, you dressed up,” she said.

The St. Peter Claver Center began in 1978 as a meeting space for the Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, the nation’s oldest predominantly Black fraternal organization. For nearly 20 years, the space hosted meetings, dances, fashion shows, banquets, even speaking engagements from the likes Maya Angelou. But after the roughly 25,000-square-foot venue changed hands a few times in the 1990s, including its most recent stint as the Omega Events Center from 1998 to the early 2000s, the building fell into disrepair.

McCrackin, an Indy native who has been a pastor for about 25 years, said she spent nearly three months in 2014 tracking down the Omega Center’s owners in the hopes of purchasing it.

She then established the Indianapolis branch of the predominantly Black, Florida-based Trinity Youth and Family Services, holding church services out of a small auxiliary building on the center’s property while steadily making repairs to the main structure.

There remains much work to be done. McCrackin said Trinity had to essentially gut the building after buying it. Graffiti pocks the exterior brick walls and there is substantial damage to the roof. A sign out front reading “St. Peter Claver Center” has been nearly bent in half. The pastor estimates that in order to completely renovate the building, Trinity will need to raise around $1.5 million.

The ambitious project already has buy-in from Trinity congregant and lifelong Indy resident Brigitte Winters, who remembers coming to the St. Peter Claver Center in her 20s with her friends for dances where beloved local DJ Thomas “Sparkle Soxx” Griffin would spin records deep into the night.

“It was so fly back in the day,” Winters said.

Longtime Indy resident Bessie Manning would frequent the center with other kids from her church, often waiting in a line of cars to get dropped off. She and her husband, George, mourned the loss of a community staple when the backgammon nights and fashion shows stopped, leading to years of neglect.

“I hate that it went downhill,” Bessie said. “If they can get it fixed up, it’ll be real nice.”

With the money Trinity hopes to receive from community donations and grants, McCrackin plans to revive the center with various functions including a food pantry, after-school programs, a playground, a fellowship area and an event space to be rented for different community celebrations, weddings and funerals. If possible, she intends to rent buses to transport food to lower-income residents who can’t come to the Trinity Center.

“We’re gonna go to them,” McCrackin said. “Somebody’s got to treat somebody right at some point.”

After the afternoon ceremony, during which Kimbrough presented McCrackin with the physical deed to the Sutherland Avenue property, the driving rain dried to a slow drip and the 20-some people present began forming a line to fill plates and clamshell boxes with chicken, ribs, goat, macaroni and cheese, salad and green beans.

Among the group was McCrackin’s mother, Doris, an Indy resident of 70 years who used to attend the Claver Center for dances, fashion shows and bingo nights. Doris hopes that under her daughter’s guidance, the community staple that once served them both can do the same for a new generation.

“There’s just so much going on, we just need to get people on the right track,” she said. “If you show them love, maybe you can bring them in.”

Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.

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Indianapolis, IN

WRTV’s new owner promised more news. It fired the staff. | Opinion

Published

11 hours ago

April 2, 2026

Press Room

WRTV’s new owner promised more news. It fired the staff. | Opinion

Circle City Broadcasting promised to serve the public, then gutted a newsroom after the federal government gave it a pass to violate an antimonopoly law.

Circle City Broadcasting, the parent company of WISH-TV and WNDY-TV, closed on a deal to buy WRTV for $83 million earlier this week. The deal went through after the federal government gave it a pass to violate an antimonopoly rule, claiming it would serve the public interest.

Mass layoffs at WRTV immediately followed. That’s bad for local journalism and is not in the public interest of Indianapolis viewers.

Circle City can’t blame finances for the layoffs

Immediately after Circle City Broadcasting purchased WRTV, former staff members reported on social media that they were fired along with a large portion of the WRTV staff.

Kyle Mounce, a meteorologist, said “the staff at WRTV was shown the door today.” Chief Meteorologist Todd Klaassen confirmed “essentially the entire staff was let go.” Nico Pennisi, a downtown Indianapolis community reporter, and Nicole Griffin, an anchor, both confirmed on social media it was their last day at WRTV.

There’s no doubt that broadcast media is facing a crisis of shrinking ratings. That has led to financial issues, consolidation and layoffs in the past.

However, Circle City Broadcasting made it very clear in FCC filings one of its main reasons for purchasing WRTV was to use the ABC affiliate to access advertising revenue. WRTV is also a higher-ranked station in the Indianapolis media market than Circle City Broadcasting’s own WISH-TV or WNDY-TV.

If the station has higher ratings and more access to advertising revenue, there’s no legitimate financial reason for laying off staff.

If around a dozen physical and digital print media publications can find ways to innovate and sustain themselves in Indianapolis, despite technological advancements and without treating their employees like indentured servants, so can broadcast media.

Circle City Broadcasting’s anticompetitive behavior

In Circle City Broadcasting’s case, the consolidation and mass layoffs reflect a troubling pattern.

The company has forced WISH-TV employees to sign wildly restrictive non-compete clauses, banning them from working in nearly any form of media — including social media and podcasts — for a year after leaving the station.

While such clauses are legal for now, they aren’t moral or consistent with free-market economics. The Indiana General Assembly recently invalidated similar types of agreements between hospitals and physicians.

The exchange between Circle City Broadcasting and E.W. Scripps, the former owner of WRTV, furthered both companies’ efforts to secure local media monopolies.

E.W. Scripps sold WRTV to help fund the reacquisition of 23 ION-affiliated stations it divested in 2021 to comply with FCC ownership rules. The company said it will “seek waivers from the FCC to the extent such rules are still in effect.”

Local news monopolies aren’t in the public interest

Circle City Broadcasting said it is committed “to investing the resulting increased revenue into the Stations to deliver even greater local news, sports, and public affairs programming.”

The company’s actions contradict that commitment. Circle City Broadcasting may as well have just bought the naming rights to the station or secured an affiliation agreement with another large media company.

That could have helped grow local journalism. Instead, a part of it was destroyed.

Dujuan McCoy, owner of Circle City Broadcasting, in a statement responding to a post I made on X claimed “following our initial transition, WRTV-ABC will increase to more than 30 hours of live local news and entertainment programming per week — distinct and separate from the 90 hours of WISH-TV’s content that we currently air.”

That would be seven more hours per week than WRTV was broadcasting before, according to McCoy — but it’s not consistent with immediately laying off the station’s staff, and it’s unclear how he plans to deliver on that promise with a decimated newsroom. More newscasting doesn’t equate to more original local journalism.

The work of journalists — discovering new information, elevating community voices and bringing attention to hyperlocal issues that would otherwise not be heard — cannot be replaced.

Contact Jacob Stewart at 317-444-4683 or jacob.stewart@indystar.com. Follow him on X, Instagram and TikTok.

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Indianapolis, IN

IU to play Syracuse at Gainbridge Fieldhouse

Published

23 hours ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

IU to play Syracuse at Gainbridge Fieldhouse

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) — IU is set to play Syracuse at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on November 9, a source confirmed to WISH-TV Sports Director Anthony Calhoun.

Darian DeVries is heading into his second season as IU’s head coach. The Hoosiers went 18-14 in his first season at the helm.

IU and Syracuse last played in 2021, a game Syracuse won in double overtime.

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Indianapolis, IN

BSU co-hosts celebrity look-alike contest with other Indianapolis universities – The Butler Collegian

Published

1 day ago

April 1, 2026

Press Room

BSU co-hosts celebrity look-alike contest with other Indianapolis universities – The Butler Collegian

College students from all across Indianapolis came together to sing, dance and have a good time. Photo by Mason Buysse.

On March 27, the Black Student Union (BSU) co-hosted a celebrity look-alike contest alongside Indiana University Indianapolis (IU Indy), Marian University and University of Indianapolis (UIndy). The event consisted of seven choreographed lip-sync routines and several impromptu performances from audience members. Celebrity impersonations included Rod Wave, GloRilla, Megan Thee Stallion and more.

Jayla Myers, a sophomore biology and Spanish double major, serves as the vice president of programming for BSU and helped host the event. Last year, she was the first-year chair for the logistics committee. Myers credited IU Indy for coming up with the idea for the event and inviting the Black student organizations at other universities across Indianapolis.

“We’re in really hard times right now, especially as a community,” Myers said. “We wanted to come together and have an event citywide, across all the BSUs, and [provide] a place for people to express themselves through the music that they listen to day-to-day.”

Zimmya, a first-year nursing major at UIndy, participated in the event as a performer. She is a member of Let’s Link, an organization serving Black and Brown students at UIndy. After seeing similar events online, she was inspired to replicate them in real life. She also enjoyed working with the other schools.

“Everyone [was] very welcoming,” Zimmya said. “[They have] a good spirit, good vibe. It was really easy to collaborate and put it all together.”

As far as her performance went, Zimmya’s chosen celebrity look-alike was Rod Wave. She said it was an easy choice to perform her favorite song by her favorite artist. She rated the overall experience a 10 out of 10.

“This is one of my first events, planning something with other schools,” Zimmya said. “It’s been pretty cool. It seemed hectic at first, but once everybody got their roles of what to do, it became pretty simple.”

Amiia Burnett, a sophomore speech, language and hearing sciences major, will serve as BSU’s communications liaison for the 2026-27 school year. She also participated as a contestant in the celebrity lookalike contest alongside first-year sports media major Amaya Nichols, where they performed as Megan Thee Stallion and GloRilla.

“I’m glad that we were able to do it,” Burnett said. “It was fun to get our energy out and have these fun, upbeat dances.”

Burnett enjoyed getting to know the students from other universities.

“I felt very welcome,” Burnett said. “It was a big group of people that got along nicely.”

Myers is also involved with Butler’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as the organization’s treasurer and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

“I love being able to cultivate a community on Butler’s campus,” Myers said.

With Butler being a predominantly white institution, Myers stated that her favorite part of BSU is trying to make sure the Black student population stays united and builds a comfortable, welcoming community.

While this is the first celebrity look-alike contest hosted by BSU, there are other events put on annually, such as Kwanzaa and a variety of events during Black History Month. Myers urges Butler students to attend BSU events.

“People love to say that Butler doesn’t have a Black community or isn’t trying to foster Black community, but you can’t show up to a neighborhood and ask to be a neighbor when you’re not a good neighbor,” Myers said. “You have to show up to events in order to cultivate a community.”

Burnett also agreed that having a Black community on campus is important to her.

“Being able to be in [Black] spaces, you’re around people that relate to you and understand what it feels like,” Burnett said.

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