How We Show Up: Building Literary Communities

Event Details

How can we build and sustain communities that honor the art of storytelling? Whether through art, activism, mutual aid, or shared space, people find ways to connect, resist isolation, and create belonging. This panel dives into what it means to build community today—and how we can do it with intention, resilience, and care.

About the Panelists

Corey Ewing is a native of Indianapolis who pursued a love of poetry across the country on a whim. He would return home to support various poetic projects, including Word As Bond, Fighting Words Poetry, and Cafe Creative, and he currently curates VOCAB. His poetry and photography have led him to work with National Geographic Photo Camp, BUTTER Art Fair, Indy Arts Council, Central Indiana Community Foundation, and the Herbert Simon Family Foundation. He is a former Artist at Work with Kheprw Institute and continues to teach, coach, and create as a multidisciplinary artist.

Muraled as a “Keeper of Culture” in downtown Indianapolis, Mariah Ivey is a writer, poet, musician, and curator deeply rooted in the city’s vibrant arts scene. A 2016 Art & Soul alumna, Ivey founded the genre-bending hip-hop/soul collective We Are TribeSouL in 2017 while continuing her work as a spoken word artist. She has performed at iconic venues such as the Vogue, the Jazz Kitchen, and the Madam Walker Theatre and has been featured at signature events such as TEDx Indianapolis, Chreece Hip-Hop Festival, REV Indy, BUTTER Fine Art Fair, and more. Ivey has opened for artists such as Arrested Development, Anthony Hamilton, and Beverly Bond, founder of Black Girls Rock. Beyond the stage, she is passionate about creating accessible, community-centered arts experiences. She has curated numerous exhibitions and events, including The Re-Up: An Art and Wellness Festival, and the long-running That Peace Open Mic. In 2025 she partnered with the Indy Arts Council to reexhibit her latest body of work, Nourishing Well: Black Women and the Poetics of Sacred Space, at Gallery 924—highlighting nine local artists across disciplines to explore poetry and visual art as a practical response to harm and a pathway to connection. Ivey holds a BA in Africana studies and philosophy and an MA in English creative writing from Indiana University Indianapolis, and she was a 2023/24 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow.

Tatjana Rebelle (they/she) is a mother, activist, organizer, writer, performer and promoter. They have lived in Indianapolis most of their life, which is where they learned to use their writing to deal with growing up in the Midwest as a nonbinary, first-generation Afro-German and Queer. They founded VOCAB Indy, a monthly cultural arts event centering QTBIPOC communities in 1997 and stepped away from curating the event in 2020 to pursue writing and traveling.

Their work gives them the chance to follow in the footsteps of their idol, Bayard Rustin, in speaking truth to power and taking a stance against global and local oppression. Their goal is to bring art and activism to the people who need to hear it the most, with every action they take.

They are proud to be an alum of Asante’s Art Institute of Indianapolis, a 2020 recipient of the Indy Arts Council’s Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship, and a speaker at Tedx Indiana University’s 2021 event “When a Tree Falls.” Their published work includes essays in the Indianapolis Recorder, a contribution to best-selling author Tamara Winfrey Harris’s book Dear Black Girl: Letters from Your Sisters about Stepping into Your Power, and pieces in several anthologies.