Indianapolis, IN

Despite setbacks Indianapolis mobile barber keeps on trimming

Published

4 weeks ago

April 24, 2025

Despite setbacks Indianapolis mobile barber keeps on trimming

Barber Antwain Booker stood dressed in a matching sweatshirt and sweatpants. His son’s face, Antwain Booker Jr., printed on each. It’s the fourth anniversary of his son’s shooting death and he wears the outfit each year. Booker Jr. was only 19.

It’s always a sad day, Booker says, but on this day he believes his son was with him. The day a simple smile turned his spirits around.

With a mask on and ready for a haircut, Ja’Karr Ashley sat near Booker in a chair in front of a TV. A game console controller in his hands kept him busy. He’s 12 years old and waiting on a heart transplant at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Inside Ashley’s small heart center room, Booker snapped open his golden briefcase containing all his barbering brushes and clippers. He throws a cape into the air and down onto Ashley’s shoulders and begins to trim.

Booker is glad his traveling barber service could come in handy for the family but not lost on him is the parents’ fight to keep their son alive and bring him normalcy. Booker says he’d give anything to fight again for his son.

Through games, small talk, jokes and sincere conversation the time passes and the trim is over, just in time for a mirror check.

“He took that mask off, and he just started to smile, my whole day changed, man,” Booker said. “I looked up to the sky and told my son, ‘Thank you for bringing me to that little boy. Because I know you did this.”

Cutting hair at 13

It wasn’t until Booker moved to Indiana from Oklahoma at age 13 that he saw his first barbershop, and he was in awe.

Trims typically came from his father who bought a pair of clippers to cut barbershop costs.

“Every time,” Booker said with a laugh. “It was a single-length, all-even cut.”

For hours Booker would watch his barber, Rick, at Rick’s Clip Joint on the south side of Chicago. There was something about the way he treated his customers like family, the conversations he held and the attention he commanded.

Soon Booker would take his father’s clippers and begin trimming his own hair. By age 14 he was trimming the neighbors’. By high school, he was cutting for the football team. It was fun and the money wasn’t bad, either.

As an Indiana State Sycamores student, Booker made fliers “Kuts by ‘twain” to garner business on campus. Players on his football team shortened his name to Kuts which he still uses today.

Before finishing school, Booker Jr. was born and Booker moved to Indianapolis where he started at Kenny’s Academy of Barbering to pursue the career he truly loved. He finished in 14 months and earned his certification.

Soon Booker found himself at Craig’s Creations in Broad Ripple but he had no clientele. He gave the shop five years before jumping to another but booth rent was cutting into profits. He decided to cut hair from home.

As a now single father, Booker saw periods of homelessness, living out of his car with his then 2-year-old daughter.

That’s when a client told Booker about a job at Indiana University Health that changed his trajectory. March marked 15 years at the hospital for Booker, but no one knew he was a barber until that recent appointment with Ashley.

Bus idea

Booker found himself on a seven hour road trip alone after visiting his father in Oklahoma. He kept the music off so his mind could wander. He was ready to follow in his father’s footsteps and start his own business. But what did that look like?

The lightbulb moment came somewhere in Illinois — a mobile luxury barbershop. He’d run the idea past some friends who implored him to give it a try.

Soon he purchased a truck and transported it to Atlanta to get custom built. By May 2020, his RV was ready to roll but the COVID pandemic was in full force.

The same month he returned from Atlanta with his new mobile business, Booker lost his home in a house fire. In September, his grandmother died. By October he was getting the business started but on Dec. 11, 2020, he received a call no parent dreams.

“My son was dead,” Booker said. “It was just a total blow for me, man. He’s my first born. He was junior.”

With a daughter to focus on Booker pushed forward, working at both IU Health and inside his mobile shop on nights and weekends.

And though it started slow, business has picked up quickly. He’s brought his services to the NFL Scouting Combine, high school football games, nursing homes, rehab facilities and local schools where he talks to students about life choices in his son’s honor.

“I just hung in there, man, and I had so many opportunities to quit,” Booker said. “I just want people to know that despite all of your downfalls and setbacks you can keep going.”

Contact IndyStar photojournalist Mykal McEldowney at 317-790-6991 or mykal.mceldowney@indystar.com. Follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X.

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Indianapolis, IN

Here’s who is singing the 2025 Indy 500 national anthem

Published

1 hour ago

May 21, 2025

Press Room

Here’s who is singing the 2025 Indy 500 national anthem

Nine-time Grammy nominee Natalie Grant will sing the national anthem before the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25, Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced.

Grant, a Seattle native who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, is known for her work in Christian and gospel music, having won five GMA Dove Awards for Female Vocalist of the Year. Her most recent album “Seasons,” which debuted at the top of the Christian Billboard charts, includes collaborations with Mary Mary, CeCe Winans and more. Her cover of Whitney Houston’s “Step By Step” with Dolly Parton made the mainstream adult contemporary chart.

“Natalie’s emotional and stirring rendition of the national anthem in front of the grandstand sellout crowd will be an unforgettable moment during pre-race ceremonies for the Indy 500,” said J. Douglas Boles, IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president, in a May 21 release. “The national anthem pays honor to the country we love and gets us one step closer to the final, dramatic and electric moments leading up to the start of the Indianapolis 500.”

More on Natalie Grant, 2025 Indy 500 national anthem singer

Outside of her singing career, Grant co-founded Hope for Justice, a nonprofit that fights human trafficking. She’s an author who’s written 11 books, including the Glimmer Girls tween series about the adventures of twins and their little sister who travel the world with their vocalist mom. Grant is married to Bernie Herms, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter, producer and composer, and the pair’s three children inspired the book series.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway previously announced that four-time Super Bowl champion Rob Gronkowski will be the grand marshal of the Snake Pit on May 25. American dance producer Illenium will headline the 2025 Snake Pit. Bret Michaels and the All-American Rejects will co-headline Carb Day on May 23. On May 24, Midland will headline the 2025 Firestone Legends Day concert.

The IndianapoLIST newsletter has the best shows, art and eats — and the stories behind them

Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Sign up here for the newsletter she curates about things to do and ways to explore Indianapolis. Find her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter: @domenicareports.

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Indianapolis, IN

FOX Deportes Presents First Broadcast of Indianapolis 500 – Fox Sports Press Pass

Published

18 hours ago

May 20, 2025

Press Room

FOX Deportes Presents First Broadcast of Indianapolis 500 – Fox Sports Press Pass

11-Time Indy 500 Participant Oriol Servia Joins as Lead Analyst in the Booth

On-Site Coverage Kicks off Thursday, May 22

LOS ANGELES – FOX Deportes, America’s leading supplier of Spanish-language sports programming for more than 25 years, presents live coverage of the 109^th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Saturday, May 25 live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The broadcast of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” a first for FOX Deportes, serves as the premier event of the network’s first season as the Spanish-language home of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

Race day coverage kicks off at 10:00 AM ET with live coverage from the speedway during the network’s popular round-table sports talk program EL ENTRETIEMPO. At 12:00 PM ET, TOTAL SPORTS ESPECIAL, live from Indianapolis, brings viewers right up to the green flag.

Race coverage is helmed by renowned Spanish-language motorsports announcer Tony Rivera, Emmy Award-winning analyst Jessi Losada and experienced reporter Giselle Zarur.

Joining the team as analyst for this year’s race is former INDYCAR driver Oriol Servia. An experienced driver in multiple racing series, Servia has raced in the Indy 500 a total of 11 times including a fourth-place finish in 2012. The native of Catalonia, Spain also currently serves as the official pace car driver for all races outside of the Indy 500.

Overall coverage from Indianapolis kicks off on Thursday, May 22 as Zarur delivers exclusive interviews, features and live hits each day for TOTAL SPORTS 360, the network’s daily sports news program.

All race coverage will be streamed on FOX Sports App. Fans can also visit www.foxdeportes.com and follow FOX Deportes on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for highlights, analysis, interviews and more.

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Indianapolis, IN

Man sentenced to 110 years for 2023 double murder in Indianapolis

Published

1 day ago

May 20, 2025

Press Room

Man sentenced to 110 years for 2023 double murder in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 45-year-old Indianapolis man was sentenced Monday to 110 years in prison for a double murder in 2023.

Shawn Barnett, 23, and Larry Moorman, 42, died shortly before noon Jan. 12, 2023, at the scene of a shooting in the 200 block of Walcott Street. That is in a downtown residential area near the intersection of East Ohio Street and North Walcott Street.

Jermaine Randle, 45, was sentenced after a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder on April 2 in Marion Superior Court 7.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat, wrote in a news release issued Monday, “The defendant will spend more than a century behind bars for the unprovoked tragedy he inflicted on these men and their families. Our witnesses’ commitment to Larry and Shawn to see this through was the difference maker in this case.”

A witness at the scene immediately identified Randle as the suspect and described the vehicle he was driving. According to the witness, shouting could be heard from an apartment followed by several gunshots, and a man was seen fleeing down the steps before Randle’s vehicle pulled away. Other witnesses corroborated the identification of the vehicle Randle used to arrive at and flee the scene. Officers used license plate-reading cameras to find Randle’s vehicle just hours after the shooting near West 79th Street and North Michigan Road, leading to the arrest of Randle.

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