Naptown People’s Radio

"Vern, can you imagine, man, us sitting and talking in F Dorm about the art show we're going to have in downtown Indy at some point?" After not thinking they'd ever see each other again, in this special episode of Naptown People's Radio, Matthew Gunning and Vernon T. Bateman get an opportunity to reflect on the time they spent together in New Castle "Correctional" Facility. Joined by the show's co...

Honesty Gleaves, one of the organizers for this past weekend's rally to support women In Indianapolis and throughout the country who have survived sexual violence, joins the show this week. As people across the county celebrated the achievements of women like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and other groundbreaking women in basketball during the WNBA All-Star weekend, organizers spotlighted the growin...

Robert Taylor, the brother of Eric Taylor who was killed by the IMPD during the 2023 shooting spree, joins this week’s show to talk about who Eric was–as a brother, a father, a community member, and a human being gunned down by the cops for walking with a phone in his hand. For the Naptown Breakdown, Co-Hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford first delve into the Google Data Center being built on the c...

Organizer Lexie Chaffin and artist Matthew Gunning join co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford this week to explore efforts to expose the real criminals in our community and creative ways to protect ourselves and each other, including one that just launched today: MaskOff12.com. Our Naptown Breakdown begins with the July 7 City-County Council meeting, before which Councilor Jesse Brown announced he...

In 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech on the 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence titled, “What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July?” This week’s episode of “Naptown People’s Radio” asks a series of similar questions 173 years after Douglass’ speech: What, to Black/New Afrikan people, prisoners, women, immigrants, and all oppressed people is the Fourth of Ju...

Our theme this week is freedom: the struggle for it, the forces holding us back from achieving it, and the contradictions that groups inevitably negotiate on their path to self-determination, sovereignty, independence, and autonomy. Last weekend, Naptown was filled with Juneteenth celebrations and commemorations. Despite attempts to “co-opt” Freedom Day, our Naptown Breakdown argues it represents...

The Pacers aren’t the only ones who beat the odds this past week. This episode features Cecilia Gomez, one of the lead organizers of the June 11 anti-ICE protest outside before the Pacers played–and won–Game 3 of the NBA Finals to discuss the revival of the immigrant rights struggle after a brief period of relative stagnation. Tune in and get behind the scenes of the largest and most disciplined p...

This evening, the Indianapolis Police Department (IMPD) will hold its sixth "listening session" at Southeast Community Services. However, just like the first five sessions, not a single IMPD representative will be there to listen to the community or, in their words, hear our "valuable perspectives and help inform IMPD's strategic plan." Instead, the IMPD paid over $200,000 to Taylor Advising, a lo...

In this debut episode, co-hosts Dani Abdullah and Derek Ford discuss their personal histories and how and why they transitioned from being activists to revolutionary organizers. They explain what you can expect from Naptown People’s Radio each Wednesday and what they mean by saying they are "objective but partial." New Afrikan Political Prisoner Shaka A. Shakur introduces his semi-regular segment,...