PLAY LIST

Dear Play Lister, You are invited to the cookout. This is an episode you don’t want to miss. We have: A new Potluck Party video featuring barbecue magic. Baroque music goodness with musician Robert Bolyard. He will tell us about the Blakeman Gerber Indianapolis International Baroque Competition and play the viola de gamba for us! Thoughts on hospitality in a new City Chatter by Ebony Chappel. Here...

This edition of Play List is a big lunch. Reporter Mesgana Waiss has been covering Mirror Indy’s arts and culture beat for over a year now. In that time she has written about budget cuts to arts organizations, did a look back at 10 years of the Chreece hip-hop festival and launched weekly reels with ideas for things to do. Last week, Mesgana won the Excellence in QPOC Coverage Award from the Assoc...

Dear Play Listers, Just from eavesdropping in the Mirror Indy newsroom I know people around me are going to the Caribbean, the Grand Canyon and New York City. But not all of us will get to travel — be it because of gas prices or because it simply is not a good time. Whether you’re staying home because you have to or want to, we have a guide for a delightful staycation in Indianapolis. It packs out...

Dear Play Listers, It’s lunch time, and as I type this, I’m dreaming of the feta fries from Yazsh, the ones recommended by Byron and April Elliott in their illustrated near east side food adventure . And so, in the spirit of hunger — metaphorical and physical — I share this collection of Mirror Indy stories that answer the age-old question: Where should we go eat?  Get more Indianapolis arts and c...

Dear Play Listers, Save this email. Share this email. Print this email. It's filled with info on many of the city's major events, music series and Juneteenth celebrations. If you’re like me, you’ll pull out your paper planner and just get to blocking what you’re doing when, underlining the events you definitely don’t want to miss. You can see our full calendar with 57 things to do in Jun...

Dear Play Listers, We invited artist Israel Solomon to read the newsletter for you today. We’re doing this to highlight the new Mirror Indy merch store , featuring limited-edition tote bags, journals and puzzles with his artwork.  You may have seen Israel’s paintings at BUTTER or the Children’s Museum. His works stand out for being colorful, with people and objects painted to look like bright shap...

It’s almost Race Day, baby. The Indianapolis 500 is “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” and we all get to be a part of it.  If you have the passion and the patience, you can make your way to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and watch it live. Or you can celebrate Race Day with porch parties, family get-togethers, full-blown barbecues or what have you. I usually see it in person with my uncle-in-law...

Dearest Play Listers, Do you know how you’re spending your summer yet? It’ll be here in a blink.  For some, it already kinda is. Prom happened, graduation caps went up in the air, the Chreece headliners were announced and the signups for the public library’s summer reading program started. It’s the perfect time to choose patio seating or get an ice cream cone. Everyone is looking pretty outside. ...

Dear Play Listers, Now that I’m a new mom, I’m looking around in this new-to-me landscape of advertisements and celebrations for Mother’s Day.  According to Good Housekeeping magazine (which my mother read religiously from the 1970s until the early 2000s), Mother’s Day started as an anti-war movement. It evolved to what it is now, a $25 billion commercial holiday.  This makes me think. How can we...

Greetings Play Listers, If headlines about tech bros, the AI takeover and data centers have you feeling like tossing your phone into a sinkhole, you might find this edition of Play List highly stimulating and helpful.  But first, this Friday is the first day of May and you know what that means: Reporter Mesgana Waiss combed through thousands of events and made a list with 40 events you can only at...

Dear Play Listers, Sharing arts and culture content can be tricky. On one hand, it can mean anything from hot dog shops to pool parties and the latest symphonic choir concert series. On the other hand, it is the only place where some of us get to process and express our feelings about some of the scary stuff happening around us. Mirror Indy checked in with four artists making art about the impact...

Greetings Play Listers, To celebrate National Poetry Month, we invited poet Sam Ferrante to read a poem for us. You can also listen to Sam read her poem by clicking on the audio version of this newsletter. How to Write a Poem  by Sam Ferrante First, every poem is a love poem. You must start with yourself. By which I mean imagine you, but with tiny, sticky hands, your small nose pointed at your own...

What’s up Play Listers, The Black church is where you will find the most stylish people in the world. An impromptu fashion show unfolded in the sanctuary of Witherspoon Presbyterian Church on an Easter Sunday morning. It was led by the Rev. Winterbourne LaPucelle Harrison-Jones. The Adinkra symbol, Guy Nyame, which means “supremacy of God,” was embroidered on his robe. Accessories were the true st...

Play Listers, Let’s get down to business. We have now completed the first quarter of 2026. It was the more difficult one with the cold weather and gloomy skies. Now is when you dust off your open-toe shoes and see if your spring/summer clothes still fit you. If they don’t, you grab something stretchy from your closet and concede that you are not the same you were last year. You are a new you. Who...

Hello Play Listers, We have a delicious snack for you today: an illustrated food tour of the near northside by artist Byron Elliott . Elliott and his wife April have celebrated her birthday for ten years by spending a whole day being tourists in Indianapolis, where they live. They visit restaurants they’ve been wanting to check out and explore areas of the city they don’t often visit. With this co...

Greetings Play Listers, Forreal — drive extra careful this weekend. People will be roaming outside with their noses buried in books. They’ll be alone or with friends, possibly carrying very heavy but very cute tote bags.  Why? Because the 2026 Indy Indie Book Crawl kicks off tomorrow.  Anyone can do it. Simply visit one of the 27 locally owned bookstores participating in this year’s crawl, or any...

Hey-hey PlayListers, Late November last year, I went on parental leave. Now I’m on parental return. That means catching up with you and with all the great arts and culture stories that were published while I was hanging out with a cool little baby. Just like you, I read this very newsletter, written by arts & culture reporter Mesgana Waiss and guest writer Jenny Walton. It was pretty great to...

What’s up PlayListers,  The weather has been fickle here lately, but I’m going to continue to be delusional about the chance of sustained warm spring weather. So, I’m putting together my spring Pinterest board. I want a wardrobe that is fresh and chic complete with funky hair clips, pastel-colored button-down shirts and draped modal-knit tops (hopefully sustainably made from small brands).  Whatev...

Dearest PlayListers, I’m a sucker for stories about people finding their way back to creative passions of their youth. A poet who takes up painting. A clerk who joins a rock band. A librarian who makes zines. And, in the wake of the Winter Olympics, literally any adult out there lacing up skates. Earlier this week, I read about the “Guys and Dolls Sr.” production by Encore: Musical Theatre for Sen...

Dearest PlayListers, I’m usually a little doom-and-gloom about late February and March. By this point, I start feeling like winter might be over any day. Like, it has to be over any day now, right? Even though we’re getting spring-like temperatures this week, I’m here to remind you that it’s not. Terrible news, I know.  But that’s no reason not to enjoy it while it lasts! Find your way into the su...

Dearest PlayListers, On Sunday, I finally made it to a Real Life, Revised reading and open mic. This free series at Indiana Humanities has been on my radar for months, and here’s my honest take: If you like readings, you’ll love Real Life, Revised. And if you don’t like readings, you might still like this one. Each event is edited into a podcast that airs on WQRT . But there’s something magical ab...

你好! (Nǐ Hǎo) Play Listers, January dragged on per usual. I’m exhausted with the winter’s frigid temperatures and skies the color of spoiled milk. I can almost taste spring. According to Punxsutawney Phil, we have only six more weeks of winter.  If you’re feeling similar, let me lift your spirits with my February events guide that features 44 of the coolest things happening around town.  Did you...

Friends, I know I don’t have to tell you, but this cold is brutal. As I write this, the space heater at my feet just shut off — reminding me (again) that it’s on the same circuit as the space heater that was running in the bedroom. I’m taking the precautions I can, and I’m checking in on my neighbors. I’m sure you are, too. And I’m sure many of you are also feeling a little restless, wherever you...

Dearest PlayListers, I don’t know about you, but writer Emily Worrell and I were just talking about how bummed out we feel. Winter — even when it’s not all that cold — makes it hard to catch all the sunlight we need to feel like decent versions of ourselves.  This is about the time of year I find myself sneaking off with a book to the Garfield Park Conservatory over lunch or in the cracks of my we...

Dearest PlayListers, Last Friday night, I stayed home to work on a jigsaw puzzle. Don’t get me wrong, puzzles are the best. But here I am, writing this newsletter, telling you to get out and experience the world. So, in honor of the impulse to curl up, I’m telling you about Booth . It’s a literary magazine curated and produced by folks from Butler University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writi...