Ambitions As A Rider

 Gotta bike? Planned on using it, but didn't know any good trails or anyone to go with? Are you just plain tired of paying for parking even on Saturday?
All of the above are very understandable, but usually that takes an entire culture of cycling to get the streets prepared and get everyday people like us out on the track. Well, if only Indianapolis had a Cycling Club for novice bikers like ourselves that met up this time of the year to make that a thing, it would be heaven sent, and you wouldn't have to spend so much money at a gym... Hey guys, I gotta secret. It's got two wheels, three amazing young women, and a collective of folks just like you.  Indianapolis, Forty5th Floor would love to present: Red, Bike, and Green.


Red, Bike, and Green originated in Oakland, California, by an African-American cyclist by the name of Jenna Burton. In the fall of 2007, Jenna gathered up a small group of black cyclists with the hopes of creating a Black Cyclist Group. Jenna began thinking of reasons for her dream, which is when she generated the 3 point plan.  These three points would bring life and purpose to the cycle group and develop a relevant cause towards the black community in California. 

Point #1: Health;  African Americans have the highest prevalence rates for many chronic diseases, largely due to lack of healthy foods and exercise.  Biking is an intergenerational form of recreation where we can improve physical health as well as improve our mental health by enjoying the company of our people.

Point #2: Economics; (1) As African Americans we experience many economic hardships.  Riding bicycles instead of driving cars saves us valuable money that we can use towards our present realities and bright futures.  (2) Red, Bike and Green promotes the patronage of Black business.  Advertising and partnering with Black businesses on our rides is our strategy to support and praise the important services that sustain our community.

Point#3: Environment; African American communities bear the brunt of too many environmental injustices (e.g. asthma due to high prevalence  of carcinogens).   Biking provides us the power to reduce the carcinogens we produce as we continue advocating against environmental racism at institutional levels.

(Jenna Burton, 2007 Red, Bike, and Green, 3-point plan)


After a few successful rides, the few cyclists began to reach and expand throughout Oakland, and officially launched in 2010.  Since then, RBG has generated branches in three other major cities (Chicago, New York City, Atlanta).



Now, because of our own three amazing women, RBG has come to Indianapolis. Thanks to Danicia Monet (Colour Blind), Cheria Caldwell (Owtspok3n Photography), and Malina Jeffers (Mosaic City), we can all have an opportunity to be a part of something larger than this city.  So if you are one of those people who want to start a new healthy lifestyle with new healthy relationships, within your city, join up with Red, Bike, and Green Indy and prepare for the most important ride of your life.

This is another level from Forty5th Floor. Hope you're lifted.

Ejaaz The Spazz
+L.Y.D.O.B.V.+

Ya Haven't Heard From Me In A While...

It's been a minute and some days.  When you last heard from me consistently, we were more focused on #Localove, where I post a local character who's "so and so" had inspired me, give a couple of words about how it's genius, and share a link.  Before then, everything was opinionated, controversial, and incredibly grammatically incorrect.  Now, my last serious post was under the title, "When It All Becomes Home", a smaller article about familiarity that comes with one's chosen art. There were supposed to be follow-ups on different individuals, sharing their own story on what makes their art form "home" for them. Quite honestly, it was the first big response I had ever gotten out of the cyber realm.  What happened?

To say the least, Forty5th was about to expand. Sad to say, expansion for a less tangible entity isn't as sporadic as we're all so compelled to expect. On my long and untraditional hiatus, I took to the road and became a full-time spoken word artist. I've been to Detroit, New York City, Kentucky, and at least three different cities in Ohio.  For that short and beautiful year, I met people who would show me talent, hustle, passion, kindness, and many other human aspects from an entirely new spectrum.  While disappearing from home, periodically, I was able to be a fly on the other side of the window. After each trip, Indianapolis has never looked so fragile, precious, pathetic, and unfinished in my 23 years of living here.  Each city gave me her energy, in exchange of my analysis.  Detroit, being my favorite, showed me that when people are deprived and tired of it, they WILL learn gratitude. Never have I ever witnessed such a well-rounded, family oriented poetry scene. Say what you want about their crime rate and economy, but my God is it beautiful in Detroit.  N.Y. will always buzz around in my memory like 24 hour subway stations and corner stores. All of it's brilliant lights, and attractions.  Quick story, we were walking down Broadway, and a guy in a coat brushes past me. I noticed an envelop on the ground. Out of it, were what I would guess was 30 hundred dollar bills.  I did the "Indianapolis" thing and caught up with the guy to give it back...  Even he looked at me like, "That should've been yours, foo!" Back to the thesis, all of these cities gave me something special to take back home with me.  The road was amazing, but nonetheless, one cannot make a foundation if he can't sit still. So here I am, back on my clunky and convenient laptop, tapping away at a keyboard, somewhere in the center of Crown Hill, to tell you Welcome Back.

And now... We elevate....





Full Metal Alchemist
Pope Adrian Bless

#localove Pt. ???

   Ninety-six problems and a hook ain't one. Tully Cicero, Pope Adrian Bless, Abe Linx, and Chuck Mason representing one time for Crown Hill USA. Just a little more #localove from The Forty5th... check it out...

Abe Linx, Tully Cicero, Pope Adrian Bless, and Chuck Mason
96 Bars

Follow Me:
Twitter: @AbeLinxGFE @tullycicero @AdrianBlessRWG @ChuckMasonMusic

When It All Becomes Home...

    There's a point in every aspiring artist's life, when that easel and canvas become a piece of miscellaneous furnishing, equivalent to an old shoe box. When that small booth, and/or walk-in closet is the girlfriend, whose arms are always opened, but not as "obviously" inviting as she once called your name, now signals and insinuates something normal that could become something interesting.  With all people following their true passion, there will come a time, rather it is a microphone, drawing pad, composition notebook, or saxophone, it will all become home.



    What is it about that familiarity, that gives us the feeling of haven?  Usually, people of a more left-brain approach spend a certain amount of time in life, if not all of it, expressing and compensating feelings of loneliness and complacency, and after so long, the only place of comfort, where self-identity has no need for headstrong defense mechanism, is where the magic they create is made.  Even if the only thing being created is an expression of that solitude.  Although today's "people of the passion" are getting used to a more domestic culture of home studios, and portable digital devices, there are still those of us who find beauty and appreciation of what might be considered the hard way.  Not all of us agree with rapping into a laptop, then looping it to a software, where you can practically turn what sounds like an MC stuck in a sewage system, into Prince having a magic moment at Studio 54 after a divorce with his first celebrity wife.  As hard as it may be for some of those iPhone photographers to accept, there are several people who prefer dark rooms, and film cartridges.  It is something about the extra labor making the finished product more particular than the ideal "fecund selection" modification that almost anyone can fathom, once they find out where to download your sound pack, for FL Studio 12.  So, we've know, now, that in the world of "different" there are even more awkward people within. But what do we know about them? And what do they have to say about their whims and preferences?... To Be Continued




 

 

V.O.W.

If you're hungry and in need of food, the lyrical cafe is open at MidTown Arts and Coffee Lounge!!Wednesday nights have now become the new Friday. After Mondays' stagnance, and Tuesdays' follow up, leaving work on Wednesday calls for a celebration! Come on out to Vibes On Wednesday with your host Theon Lee. This guy has no filter, and has no issue making sure that everyone feels welcomed and ready to laugh. For only $7 at the door, you will enjoy awesome food prepared by Ms. Amber Michelle Harper, and positive uplifting vibes. On 38th and Ruckle, right next to the Domino's Pizza!!

Every Wednesday, be it rain, sleet, or snow, there is a V.O.W., opened.

And Life is Grand
-ParaLectra

 Staff Writer



Coming at you with more goodness. 

Check out this new vid from Indy native, Blake Allee.

 

"Headlights" directed by Digital Rabitt

Editorial on Blake Allee COMING SOON! 

Stay tuned!

-Ari Attack 

Staff writer

 Serena does the C-walk, Pres. Obama sings Al Green, and the world's corrput. Well, if you cannot see the small photo of a Nascar event above, it is a picture of a largely welcomed presence of the Civil War Confederate flag. I guess you guys are still upset about the black fists at the other Olympic uproar, huh? It's hilarious and absolutely rib-shaking to know that "black history" and the culture behind it makes everyone uncomfortable, and the reactions are completely reasonable, says the young man who is not allowed to display a peace sign because it is a patriotic act of gang violence. No twisted fingers, no blue flags, and nothing that in the common background of this dance, that would indicate that Serena is forreal thuggin' it, shows itself. But all through an entire night of family fun, there goes that flag that was only made after slaves were given jobs, rather licks on the back, being flung across the Manifesto-American atmosphere.


   Listen, maybe she could've been a tad more conscious about the outcome, but you crackers and hollywood niggas don't even know its initial origin. Just to clear some things up, The gang movement formally known as "G.D." (which stands for Gangster Disciples) was an answer of communal and ethnic security in a time where half of your Dale Earnhart Sr. fans were secretly covering klansman in sheriff badges.  And like most things, the culture of that particular area, along with it's patriots, has taken another form of recognition. I don't know how many times I've seen White America replicate the 'Kid N Play' dance. Wonder how many people would erase their Facebook accounts, close their checking accounts, and take a family leap off the Chase Tower.  The lack of maturity and audacity of people to, not just criticize, but single out and condemn someone for using what could still be a representation of rapid violence and massacre, as a reminder that good things can come from the slums of California. How many of those people are Catholic, and sport the cross (* a signature execution punishment from the Romans) around the neck, on top of their churches, sewn into their into their bibles, encrypted in  stain glass murals, etc? 


  Lesson: If you're going to use insignia to judge someone's character, well hey... I'm sure there's a KKK application you can fill out online. Unless you can literally cause a change of karma on a man, shut up and let people embrace their origin. It's not like us minorities have a lot of that to work with, anyway. In the words of another beloved Californian, We "...Build our own pyramids, write our own hieroglyphs." Inferior society, stop getting pissy because people are becoming authors of their own legacy. "Go, build another route to China, if they'll have you." I solute you, Williams sister. May you "worship" all the way to the pages of history.