People who use active transportation (think walking, rolling, biking and busing) face a lot of stress on their daily commutes.
From dodging behind-the-wheel texters to close-passers and icy sprays of slush, there’s all kinds of unpleasantness involved in sharing the roads with automobiles.
Learning how to safely commute by bike or navigate the city’s bus system can be intimidating. But in spite of this, people keep using active transportation for all sorts of reasons: to save money, to protect the environment, to stay active or because they don’t have a driver’s license.
Some lucky folks simply choose to not drive cars because it’s more convenient to get around without them.
The zine “People We Meet on the Bus” started as a conversation between two people out for a walk. We discussed all things transportation — especially the community we were meeting and witnessing on our bus rides.We wanted to find a way to celebrate it.
We had the idea to create a collaborative zine about the moments of solidarity we see in active transportation.
So, we asked Indianapolis to send us works of poetry, prose, photography and visual art describing interactions with transportation systems and the people encountered there. We reached out through social media, invited our own friends to contribute and passed out flyers all over town — and on the bus.
Indianapolis delivered.
But we still wanted more. We hosted several poetry pop-ups, and thanks to Tea’s Me Cafe and the East 38th Street Indianapolis Public Library branch, we co-created poems and artwork with community members.
While all of our submissions were coming together, one of us (Kayla) was in Poetic Justice, a writing program for people impacted by the justice system that is co-led by writers Januarie York and Mark Latta. The money from that program’s “community joy allowance” allowed us to print physical copies of the zines, which we shared locally and delivered to readers beyond Indianapolis.
The icing on the cake was our Zine Release & Open Mic party at 10 East Arts. If you missed the event, no worries. You can check out Mirror Indy’s Documenter notes and photography from that evening.
In the zine, you’ll find stories of friendship, new motherhood, solidarity with strangers, and the freedom and possibility active transportation offers.
The works featured in the collection also stay real about the challenges our city faces in making these systems truly convenient, safe and accessible.
Our hope is that by highlighting how vital this infrastructure is for a thriving, connected community, we can face the bumps in the road ahead with heart.
How can you read “People We Meet on the Bus”? We’re glad you asked. You can explore the digital version for free below. (Tip: There’s a button at the bottom right to make it full-screen for easier reading.)
If you’d rather keep things analog, see if you can find the copy that’s in the Zine Collection at the East 38th Street branch of the Indianapolis Public Library. You can also purchase a copy for yourself.
Thanks for being along for the ride!
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