Let’s begin with what was good about the 43rd Indiana Black Expo.
I was impressed with the understated eloquence of Spike Lee, the passion of Tisha Campbell-Martin, the quiet dignity of the legendary Billy Dee Williams and the exuberance of the O’Jays.
Macy’s replicating their cosmetics department in Expo’s exhibit hall.
The visibility of Gov. Mike Pence, with remarks at the Governor’s Reception, Corporate Luncheon and especially the Ecumenical Service, where he issued a call for the community to come together to deal with the recent violence. Something the governor repeated on our WTLC-AM (1310) “Afternoons with Amos.”
Seeing hundreds of joyful children as Expo’s Children’s Day became part of the weekend, instead of a beginning of the week forethought. And it was great seeing children accompanied by parents and grandparents strolling Expo’s exhibits and displays.
Opening Preview Night of Expo’s health fair saw Disneyland type serpentine lines of people waiting to get health screenings.
Best of the 43rd Expo – the professionalism of the men and women of law enforcement, the positive demeanor of the employees of the Indiana Convention Center, and most, most important, the hard work – sometimes under difficult, trying and exasperating circumstances – of Indiana Black Expo’s volunteers. These volunteers are Expo’s lifeblood – the DNA that’s made this event survive this long. I honor them. I salute them. And any shortcomings I might point out about Expo in no way disses their sterling, heroic service this past weekend.
Because unfortunately, Black Expo, which critically needed to reverse their precipitous attendance slide, didn’t accomplish that key objective this year!
Put another way, for those who’ve only attended Black Expo the past four to five years, what they saw and experienced was OK. But for the many of us who have attended Black Expo for years, for decades, what we saw this past weekend was the continued slow, sad decline of a community heritage.
Though moving Children’s Day to Friday did bolster that slow day’s attendance, the critical Saturday and Sunday attendance inside the Convention Center continued to be weak.
As Expo Saturday concluded, and the mall closed at 9 p.m., downtown pedestrian and vehicular crowds were the smallest I’ve seen in the 38 Summer Celebrations I’ve personally witnessed. The hordes of unescorted teens and youngsters that used to crowd Expo and downtown streets were literally non-existent this year. Even crowds in Circle Centre were down.
By 10:15 p.m., downtown Indianapolis looked like a Wednesday or Thursday night, not Black Expo Saturday.
If folks wanted unescorted children and teens not to hang out downtown for Expo, they got their wish. But Expo didn’t increase its adult attendance to compensate.
Stunningly, there was a significantly smaller crowd at the free concert. Veteran Indianapolis Star reporter David Lindquist, who’s covered the concert for years, said it “attracted a crowd estimated at 20,000, a gathering notably smaller than past Summer Celebration free concerts.”
IMPD told me they kept Meridian Street open to traffic all evening, except when the concert ended. That’s something police never had to do before because pedestrian and vehicle traffic was so crowded.
Booths were noticeably down again. Biggest shocker was the absence of a mega multi-national consumer company, beloved by African-Americans, and led by an African-American who grew up in Indianapolis.
I’m not going to recite Black Expo’s problems this year, since I’ve well documented them in the past and those problems, some of which are getting worse, haven’t been corrected.
I will say that if Indiana Black Expo was a public company, stockholders would be in revolt, pressuring management and the board for changes, even proposing to elect new directors.
But sadly, while Indiana Black Expo is a community crown jewel, the community is effectively frozen out of any say in the governance of the organization.
Expo’s increasingly out of touch board seems satisfied with accepting mediocrity, substandard performance, declining sponsorship and participation from corporations and continued declining attendance.
Those who remember a peaceful, vibrant Black Expo, an event that excited, electrified and engaged the community, that attracted tens of thousands downtown, seeing this 43rd event makes us feel like family members who are watching a loved one slowly wither and die. And there’s nothing we can do to prevent it.
That’s the Expo tragedy!
What I’m hearing in the streets
Saturday’s Indy Trayvon Martin rally, a part of the National Action Network’s 100 city effort, was successful in bringing several hundred people together despite a strong rain squall that cut the event short.
But in the short rally’s short time, powerful messages were brought by an ecumenical gathering of local pastors from Pastor Jeffrey Johnson, to Minister Nuri Muhammad, to Rev. Steven Clay and Rev. Michael Jones.
In fact when the rain arrived, no one moved. They stayed to bear witness to the issue and pay respects to Trayvon and his family.
Despite his high visibility at Expo events, Mayor Greg Ballard remained stubbornly quiet about the recent violence. Only appealing for “more mentoring” at the Expo Mayor’s Breakfast. Ballard could’ve used Expo to announce formation of a community task force to deal with causes and solutions. But sadly he didn’t.
Mike Wells, the talented African-American sports journalist who’s covered the Pacers for the Indianapolis Star suddenly left the paper last week to work for ESPN. A month ago, the Star had suddenly switched Wells from covering the Pacers to covering the Colts.
Wells’ departure leaves no African-American sports reporters at the Star. Worse it reinforces the negative fact that the Star now employs no African-American beat or general assignment reporters. Shameful.
Black Expo’s Media Awards honored WRTV/Channel 6 Anchor Ericka Flye and WTHR/Channel 13 Meteorologist Chris Wright this year. WRTV’s general manager, reporters and key managers turned out to honor Ericka. No one from WTHR showed up to honor Chris. Shameful!
See ‘ya next week.
You can e-mail comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
