ndiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you.

>> BRANDON: Coming up, meet the Naptown Roller Derby Team.

Hear the lovely sounds of gourds.

And discover groundbreaking art at the BUTTER Fine Art Fair.

That's all on this episode of "Journey Indiana"!

♪ >> BRANDON: Welcome to "Journey Indiana."

I'm Brandon Wentz, and we're coming to you from the Rhythm!

Discovery Center in Indianapolis.

The Rhythm!

Discovery Center is a project of the Percussive Arts Society.

This one-of-a-kind location is an interactive drum and percussion museum, highlighting historic artifacts and modern instruments.

And we'll learn all about this amazing place in just a bit, but, first, we're staying right here in Indianapolis where producer Adam Carroll, introduces us to the Naptown Roller Derby.

>> For me, the absolute best feeling is getting out of the pack, taking my lap, getting real low and seeing my teammates making little holes for me, and just boogying on through, and four points, and here I am making another lap.

When you can get through on skates using the skills that you learned in practice from your coaches and your teammates that helped you, that gives me the feels.

♪ >> In 2006, in Indianapolis, the Naptown Roller Derby was founded.

And in the first ten years, they qualified for countless playoffs and championships, even taking home bronze at the WFTDA Championships on two occasions.

>> So back then, we had three teams.

We had the Tornado Sirens, the A team; we had the Warning Bells, the B team; and we had the Third Alarm, the C team.

When I tried out, there were 17 people who tried out with me.

So we had a pretty big league of at least 80 to 90 skaters.

We'd practice a few times a week.

We'd get to skate in our own little new person bubble, and then we would jump up as we progressed in our skills.

We used to be in the top 40 teams in the world for roller derby.

We have great skaters, like Willsmith, Dora the Destroyer, Wham Bam, Diamond, and then COVID hit.

And a lot of our great skaters had that time off, and they thought, well, I don't know if my body is going to do this anymore.

So they decided to take some leave.

We fell on some hard times.

It was hard to keep our practice space.

So we had to move out of our practice space.

We looked for one for a while.

We're working with Indy Parks right now to skate in one of their spaces, and we are so thankful for our friends at Circle City.

They have offered to lend out their space for us two times a week.

>> But a derby team needs more than a place to skate.

They need skaters.

One unique thing about roller derby is their skater workshops.

More than tryouts, they build relationships and skills, for beginners and experienced skaters.

>> So our new skater workshops, we call 'em Storm Chasers when they first begin, going along with our tornado theme.

We take any skater of any level.

Usually post on Facebook, put some flyers out, word of mouth, emails, those kinds of things.

Today, we introduced what derby is.

We have a lot of teammates here.

They introduce themselves, talk about how they started, where they've come from, where they've been, what they do for a living because we like to show that people from all different backgrounds and jobs come here to play derby.

We teach them some of the rules.

A lot of it is putting on your gear.

First thing you need to know is how to fall.

How to fall correctly so you don't get injured, and then we just kind of get on our skates and lead through some of the minimum skills.

Sometimes we'll have some of our veterans go ahead and go out there and put on maybe a mock scrimmage or something so they can see what derby looks like.

♪ In my opinion, roller derby is unlike other sports because you could be right there in the action.

We have trackside seating on the floor, as long as you are 18 and over.

We sign autographs at the end.

So you get to meet the skaters that you just saw out there.

We are family friendly.

Try to keep our names family friendly.

We have something for adults and for children, and you just get to come see strong humans working together as a team.

♪ >> So jam starts.

It takes two minutes to run a jam, unless a jammer calls it off at any time.

They have to be lead jammer.

So they have to have gotten out first.

A jammer is the person with the star on their helmet.

There are five skaters on the track.

One is the jammer.

One is a pivot.

They have a skunk stripe on their helmet.

They can become a jammer if the jammer decides to pass them the star.

And the other three are just blockers.

They are trying to keep the other jammer from getting through.

Jammers are the scorer, runners of the game.

So a jammer earns points by passing the hips of an opposing player.

The only person they do not get points for is the other team's jammer.

So legal ways that you can hit somebody.

You can hit anybody with the front of you from your shoulders down to your knees.

Also the tops of your arms.

Anything elbows and below, you can't do that.

It's not like the '70s where you throw elbows.

You can't do that.

You can't hit anybody in the face.

You can't stick out their leg to trip them.

You can't hit anybody in the back.

You can hit them in the butt.

You can't hit them in the back.

Also read the rules if you really feel like it, but, like, it's a long thing, and I've read them probably 40 times, and I still don't know everything.

But come watch roller derby.

♪ >> There are so many reasons that people keep coming back to roller derby.

One is the camaraderie and the friendship.

You know, going through different bouts and solving problems and learning these things together brings us closer together.

Some of us have been injured several times.

I personally have had my finger skated off.

I've had ACL surgery.

Please don't let this deter you from coming.

But -- and I stay because I love this team, and people get a certain loyalty, and it's hard.

It's very hard.

But when you learn a new skill, when you get to play a new bout against a team that maybe you struggled against in the beginning, and now you do better now, like, you are constantly growing.

You are constantly learning.

It's up to you.

You decide do you want to come to all three practices a week?

Do you want to just do two?

Do you want to work out outside of practice?

Like, you write your own story.

>> BRANDON: If you haven't had a chance to see a roller derby bout yet, I highly recommend it.

And surprisingly, the rules are actually really easy to pick up just from watching.

Want to learn more?

Just head over to Naptownrollerderby.com.

Earlier, we caught up with Joshua Simonds, Executive Director of the Percussive Arts Society to learn more about Rhythm!

Discovery Center.

♪ ♪ >> Rhythm!

Discovery Center was founded by the Percussive Arts Society, and it is the only interactive drum and percussion museum in the world, and it meets our mission to educate for research, performance, and we do all those things And it's really for anybody.

It's not just for our members or for drummers or professional percussionists.

♪ ♪ So I think the diversity of instruments that we have on display is really reflective of percussion as a whole.

We have the opportunity to teach people about western versus other cultures.

Having a display and having the collection of instruments around the world is very important.

It's a big part of our mission, the international aspect, understanding percussion and music from all around the world.

And it's really important to understand the cultures, what they are used for, why we use them, how what we use today came from those.

That's an important part of it.

That's the real education aspect of Rhythm!

Discovery Center.

Always new exhibits coming in and out.

We have a marching drum exhibit right now, Drum Corps International.

They are having their 50th anniversary.

So we have a special exhibit dedicated to the marching drums.

So if you've ever been in a marching band or drum corps, some historical drums in the marching world.

Then we have, you know, a whole stage on unique instruments, things you can't really find anywhere else, one-of-a-kind instruments.

We talk about the world instruments.

We always are rotating out, whether it's Brazilian drums or drums from Taiwan or China.

♪ We always have a drum set exhibit, for a number of reasons.

One, it's a very important part of percussion, but people also like to know who played a certain, you know, drum set.

So we have Glenn Kotche's drum set from one of his records with the band Wilco.

Next to that is a Kenny Aronoff drum from when he performed with John Fogerty.

Keio Stroud is the red drum next to me.

Keio is a great drummer out of Nashville.

Those drums are constantly coming and going.

We have great relationships, and generally no one says no, when you're like, hey, can we put one of your drum sets on exhibit?

♪ I think what makes Rhythm!

different from other museums is the real interactive part of it.

There's really always an opportunity to learn something, and then you have that immediate opportunity to then play something.

So if you see an ancient drum, there might be a modern version of it where you can play and understand the sound and the mechanics.

You know, when we are young, we all gravitate towards hitting pots and pans, or, you know, clapping or whatever it may be.

And that never really goes away.

♪ The programming here is for anyone who is just interested or wants that opportunity to play or try something, and there's no wrong here.

You come.

You experiment.

You can do it with your whole family.

And it's just -- it's learning, but it's also just fun.

♪ >> BRANDON: One of the really fascinating things about this place is the fact that it is for all ages and has all kinds of percussive instruments here that you may not necessarily think would fit into the family.

Want to learn more?

Head to rhythmdiscoverycenter.org.

Up next, producer Jason Pear takes us to Peru to learn about a musician, literally, playing with his food.

♪ >> Ron Luginbill bought his first ukulele during a trip to Hawaii in 2013.

>> And when I came home, I started to play, and learned and got frustrated and did a bunch of things.

And finally ended up, you know, figuring out how I wanted to do it.

>> Now a retired school teacher, Ron had been playing guitar for nearly his whole life.

The ukulele, although similar in many ways, was new, but pretty soon he was hooked on playing and collecting.

>> Oh, it was a few years ago on the Shop Goodwill auction site, there was a gourd ukulele.

And so I bid on it and won it.

When it arrived, I looked at it, and I'm thinking, hmm, this isn't very good.

I don't think it's playable, but I looked at it, and I thought, you know what, I think I could do this.

And that's when I decided I wanted to try some gourd ukuleles.

>> That was easier said than done, because at the time, Ron's woodworking experience was limited.

His experience making instruments, even more so.

>> I never built an instrument in my life.

>> No problem!

There's got to be a how-to you can follow, right?

>> There's no guide to how to build a gourd ukulele.

Everything I had to figure out on my own.

>> Step one seemed obvious enough.

Source the raw materials.

>> And so I looked around and kind of had an idea of what I wanted to use, and I bought three gourds, and that's where I started.

>> With the raw materials in hand, Ron moved on to step two, cutting an imperfect gourd perfectly in half.

>> So I ended up using my laser line level and was able to get a perfect line, turned it around.

That's how I cut them now in half.

Scrape them clean.

And then I had to figure out how to attach all the things that need to be on it.

>> Things like the bridge, finger board and neck, all of which he outsourced.

>> I guess I could carve a neck for each one, but I don't want to.

I just want to, you know, spend my time on the body of the ukulele, the top, and getting it put together.

>> Which, for Ron, means embracing some imperfections.

>> The back of the gourds have discoloration.

There's warts.

That's part of the gourd.

But you want your playing part of it to be as perfect as you can get it.

One of the biggest challenges of building a gourd ukulele is getting everything from the neck to line up perfectly straight.

When you build your top, you take two pieces of wood.

You cut 'em, and you lay them open so there's a line right down the middle.

I'm getting better at that.

That's the hardest thing, really.

>> As for tops, that's an area where Ron likes to experiment.

>> I've used many different kinds of top materials, and I don't know that any one is better than the other.

Actually, the one I'm working on here is curly maple, and it actually was a cutting board that I found at a thrift store.

And so I also have made them out of a cutting board of bamboo that was put together in the shape of like a herring bone.

I call it a herring bone bamboo, and actually it sounds pretty good.

I wasn't sure whether the pieces would stay together when I made the top, but they have.

That's how you learn, like Thomas Edison.

I don't know how many lightbulbs he did, but I failed a few times with those ukuleles.

So for the most part, each time I build one, I feel like there's some little area that I feel like I improved on.

>> And that desire for improvement and spirit of experimentation extends to the body of the instrument itself, where Ron's considering some rather surprising alternative.

>> The man that does the pest control at my house got me a turtle shell from a snapping turtle, and it's just a shade bigger than the body of a ukulele.

So I'm preparing that to use.

I'm not sure how that's going to come out, but I just think it's interesting to find different things to make a ukulele out of.

>> And Ron's found customers who seem to agree.

♪ At arts fairs, music festivals, and shops like Weed Patch Music Company in Nashville, Indiana.

>> I think a lot of people don't know that you can make an instrument out of a gourd, though they have been around for thousands of years, you know, that's still a pretty new concept.

And the ukulele is such an accessible instrument for people.

It's a relatively easy instrument to learn to play.

So a lot of folks come in, and they see these ukuleles.

And from afar, oh, you know, it's a ukulele.

It kind of looks shaped like a regular ukulele, and then you get up close and you realize this is a really unique instrument.

>> But for Ron, it's less about sales, and more about staying active, and feeding his own natural curiosity.

>> As we retire and get older, we need to keep our minds engaged.

I will lay in bed and think about something on a ukulele, and I'll think, oh, I think that will work.

And then I will try it out the next day.

That's the exciting part for me.

>> BRANDON: You know, I really love that spirit of, I think this is gonna work, and I think it's gonna be beautiful, and each time just improving a little bit, knowing that there's no real error in trying.

Want to get your own gourd ukulele?

Ron sells them at his wife's shop, Gallery 15 & Studios.

Follow the link for more information.

Up next, we're back in Indianapolis, where producers Adam Carroll and Jake Lindsay tell us all about the BUTTER Fine Art Exhibit.

♪ >> Growing up here, I didn't really have a lot of, like, art support.

I felt like it really wasn't a huge arts scene.

♪ >> In an arts landscape, like Indy, historically has not done a very good job of celebrating People of Color in the arts, specifically across institutions.

Black people, Indigenous people, queer people, have all been marginalized.

Their artwork has not been collected at the same rates.

The value of their pieces has not -- you know, it's pretty bleak when you know the history of it.

And so, to see things changing here as rapidly as they have, and with BUTTER, is really exciting.

BUTTER is a four-day fine art fair that celebrates Black visual artists.

Not just visual artists, people with all kinds of skills and creative expertise get pulled into this.

>> It stands on its own.

I don't compare anything to it, because it allows you to pour into it what you want to get from it.

And obviously this is a fine art fair.

So BUTTER is fine art.

But BUTTER is also about culture.

It's about fun.

It's about community.

>> Because there aren't a ton of local galleries to bring in.

So we're working directly with artists instead.

Our whole curatorial team sort of played -- played the gallery representational management guidance role with the artists, as well as really thinking comprehensively about the fair environment, and what it means to work with twice as many artists as we worked last year.

And probably close to four times as many individual works of art.

You think about people who are making important work that struggled to find other platforms in the city.

And so there's sort of a lot that goes into choosing who we invite to be part of BUTTER.

It is curated.

So artists participate by invitation, who are also doing a lot of, like, knowledge sharing and professional development with people.

Then worrying about lighting and inventory and sales and -- ♪ >> They curate an environment that allows you to be your best and just to be yourself.

And that's when I feel like you flourish the most, when you are able to kind of set yourself aside from others and say, this is what differentiates me, and this is how I thrive.

And they showcase that.

♪ I paint what I feel.

And I use my canvas as a mirror.

And so I really don't go into my piece with a deadline in mind, or at least I try not to, because I want to be in flow.

I want to be connected and be authentic to my process.

And so I allow my subconscious really, to work as my project manager.

I paint from a dream journal, and a lot of things that I find is that my inner child inspires many of my pieces.

And so I believe that my art allows others to channel their creativity and their inner child as well.

♪ >> I work primarily in fiber, but I also -- it's like a two-step process within my practice.

So I also draw, and then I also do quilts.

Both of them merged together to create my practice around Black identity, Black culture.

I just thought I was born here.

I was raised here.

I might as well be involved in some way.

I'm glad what BUTTER is doing.

I'm glad that they're bringing this organization, and, like, uplifting the art scene here.

The potential that it had bringing -- highlighting the Black culture in Indianapolis, which lacks.

>> Everything about the way that BUTTER is built is kind of not following the model.

It's different.

I feel like I'm wearing more hats than maybe a curator would typically.

I knew I needed to bring in an install team.

And I need -- I'm going to be pulled in a million directions the week before, two weeks before.

I need to trust other people to do that.

Even though it's fun for me, I need to take care of some other stuff.

>> BUTTER allows people to unite, and art, I feel like, is a universal language.

And so hopefully as a society, as we are healing and coming together.

Hopefully BUTTER is like glue that continues to bring community together.

The collaborations that I've seen, that have happened just since last year's BUTTER to this year, I can only imagine how much bigger it's going to be.

And there's so much of a buzz around just the expanding art and culture.

♪ >> BRANDON: Deonna, one of the artists featured in that piece, actually sold out all of her stuff on preview night.

So I suppose I will have to wait until next year.

You can learn more at butterartfair.com.

And as always, we'd like to encourage you to stay connected with us.

Just head over to JourneyIndiana.org.

There you can see full episodes, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and suggest stories from your neck of the woods.

We also have a map feature that allows you to see where we've been and to plan your own Indiana adventures.

And before we say good-bye, I think it's time for me to put my rhythm skills to the test.

These are my options?

>> Yes.

Yeah.

Out of all the drums in here, I pulled out these two.

These are both djembes, and they are going to be the easiest to play for a first lesson.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

I'm going to go with this one.

I like the pattern on it.

>> Yeah.

Great!

>> BRANDON: So now you've got yours.

I've got mine.

>> Let's take them over to play 'em.

>> BRANDON: All right.

So I am here with Rob Funkhouser, who is going to teach me a little bit about how to use these drums.

>> That's right.

So we grabbed a couple of drums that are djembes.

Traditional djembes would have an animal hide head, which is the part that you play.

These are a little bit more weatherproof.

So they have plastic heads.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

>> And we're going to learn two basic sounds on the drum, and then we will take those and put them together into a rhythm.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

>> Do you want to give it a shot?

>> BRANDON: Sure.

>> Okay.

First things first.

Drop your arms.

Flap them around.

It seems ridiculous, but the more relaxed you are, the better you play.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

>> And then we're just going to bring our hands up, and we are going to start with the low sound.

So we are going to go in the middle, and we will just play some notes.

So let's play about eight notes.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

[ Beating on drum ] >> Great.

Okay.

So take your hands, and pull them out a little bit.

And this is going to be our high sound.

So this is our open sound.

And it sounds like this.

I will play two, and then you join>> BRANDON: Okay.

did.

[ Beating on drum ] >> Very good.

Okay.

So with that, we have the ingredients to play a rhythm.

So this rhythm is called frog legs, and it is a very watered down version of a traditional Ghanaian tune called Kuku.

So this is one part of a larger drum ensemble piece.

The way it's gonna start, is it's gonna start with two bass notes.

So we are going to go bass, bass.

And then we will come out, and do the open tone for the rest of it, and it's going to be this.

[ Beating on drum ] Try that.

[ Beating on drum ] >> BRANDON: Oh, mine sounds a little hollow compared to yours.

[ Laughter ] I think -- you try it.

>> Okay.

[ Beating on drum ] >> BRANDON: That's weird.

It makes the right sound when you do it.

[ Laughter ] So it's not the equipment.

>> It's not the equipment.

It takes a lot of years to get comfortable.

[ Beating on drum ] Hey, that's a lot better, actually.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

>> Okay.

So the name of this rhythm is frog legs, and that's a mnemonic device to memorize the rhythm.

So the way we will do it.

We are going to sing it before we play it all the way through.

So it goes like this.

Frog legs taste like chicken.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

>> I'm going to sing it once and then you sing it with me, okay?

Frog legs taste like chicken.

Frog legs taste like chicken.

Right.

So frog and legs -- yeah, you already got it in your head.

Okay.

So let's do it.

Let's do a little playing and singing.

>> BRANDON: Okay.

>> One, two, three four.

Frog legs taste like chicken.

[ Beating on drum ] >> Production support for "Journey Indiana" is provided by WTIU members.

Thank you.