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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWhen Indianapolis hosts the WNBA All-Star Weekend for the first time, the basketball festivities will coincide with Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration—an annual entertainment event that debuted in 1971.
This double-your-fun weekend stands out as a highlight in a year that will also include a big book debut, the reopening of a landmark museum and the Indianapolis debut of the musical “Six.”
The WNBA and Summer Celebration convergence is scheduled for July 18-19, with women’s hoops stars taking over Gainbridge Fieldhouse for 3-point and skills competitions on July 18 and the game on July 19. Summer Celebration’s “Music Heritage Festival” is scheduled for July 18 at a site yet to be announced. Traditionally, Summer Celebration’s upscale party known as “The All White Affair” happens the day after the Music Heritage Festival.
Elsewhere on the calendar, Oscar-winning costumes from “Black Panther” films will be on display at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis as part of an exhibition titled “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design.” In March, a touring edition of Broadway musical “Six” will be presented here for the first time.
Best-selling Indianapolis author John Green will return with his first book since 2021’s “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” and set-in-Indiana Netflix series “Stranger Things” will wrap up its retro saga of science fiction and horror.
Check out 10 new ways to be entertained in 2025:
1. Movie costumes at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Costume designer Ruth E. Carter made history as the first Black woman to win more than one Academy Award. The 64-year-old Massachusetts native won Oscar trophies for 2018 film “Black Panther” and 2022 film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Previously, she received Oscar nominations for her work on 1992’s “Malcolm X” and 1997’s “Amistad.” The exhibition “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design,” featuring attire seen in the “Black Panther” films as well as “Do the Right Thing” and “Coming 2 America,” is scheduled to open March 22 at the Children’s Museum.
2. An epic summer weekend
Looking ahead to the simultaneous staging of the WNBA All-Star Weekend and Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration, it’s worth noting that basketball has been part of Indiana Black Expo from the beginning. In 1971, male players from both the NBA and ABA participated in a Black Expo exhibition at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. For an idea of what entertainment could be in store for the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend, let’s consider last year’s event in Phoenix—where Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell represented the Indiana Fever. Rapper Pitbull performed during halftime of the game, and country music artist Cody Johnson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” before tipoff. Last year’s Music Heritage Festival concert as part of Summer Celebration featured a lineup of Johnny Gill, Lalah Hathaway, Morris Day & the Time, Atlantic Starr and Karyn White. Announcements related to 2025’s performers are expected in coming weeks.
3. Revived storytelling at the track
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is expected to reopen in April, following 17 months of closure for renovations. The new-look museum will feature a mezzanine level for telling the stories and preserving the history of the Indianapolis 500. On the museum’s first floor, a Gasoline Alley gallery will showcase more than a century of evolution at the track through cars and artifacts. An $89 million capital campaign to fund the renovations, a new offsite restoration facility and a new endowment is billed as “The Stories Behind the Spectacle.”
4. John Green’s next book
Tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease, is the subject of John Green’s next book. Green, the Indianapolis-based author of best-selling fiction books such as “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Turtles All the Way Down,” told IBJ last January that tuberculosis captured his attention during a 2019 visit to a hospital in Africa. The novelist met a young man in Sierra Leone who was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and Green bonded with the patient who shares a first name with Green’s adolescent son, Henry. Nonfiction book “Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” is scheduled to arrive in stores on March 18.
5. Contemporary art in Garfield Park
A contemporary art museum will be the centerpiece of a 40,000-square-foot building expected to open in the fourth quarter on the campus of Big Car Collaborative in the Garfield Park neighborhood. Previously a factory for making jet-engine components, the renovated building will devote five exhibition spaces to modern art. Plans for the building include a cafe, a commercial kitchen, a performance space, five business incubator storefronts, two audio recording studios and 20 studios for visual artists. Through Feb. 1, Big Car is attempting to raise $50,000 for kitchen equipment and culinary teaching tools. For more information about the “Big Table” crowdfunding campaign, visit patroncity.com.
6. Music-themed gathering space in Broad Ripple
The owners of Indy CD & Vinyl, 806 Broad Ripple Ave., plan to add a neighborhood gathering space by expanding into the former location of Landsharks nightclub. Broad Ripple “is sorely lacking in family and all-ages options, community engagement and ‘third space,’” said Andy Skinner, co-owner of Indy CD & Vinyl. A new stage will be the site of all-ages concerts as well as artist meet-and-greets. The expansion, known as “The 808 at Indy CD & Vinyl,” is projected to open in time for Record Store Day in April.
7. R.E.M. covers by an all-star band
On Feb. 24, Michael Shannon (an actor known for his work in “Knives Out” and “8 Mile”) and Jason Narducy (a musician known for his collaborations with Bob Mould and Spoon vocalist-guitarist Britt Daniel) will bring a band to the Vogue, 6259 N. College Ave., to perform the songs of 1985 R.E.M. album “Fables of the Reconstruction.” Shannon and Narducy performed the songs of R.E.M.’s debut album, “Murmur,” during a 2024 tour. The supporting cast for Shannon and Narducy includes Wilco bass player John Stirratt and Poi Dog Pondering guitarist Dag Juhlin.
8. Local debut of Broadway’s ‘Six’
A touring edition of “Six,” the musical that reimagines the six wives of Henry VIII as pop singers, will be presented March 4-9 at Clowes Memorial Hall. Created by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, “Six” debuted at the 2017 edition of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. In 2022, “Six” won Tony Awards in the categories of best original score and best costume design in a musical.
9. Giant tortoises at the zoo
The Indianapolis Zoo will showcase two of the world’s largest tortoise species, Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises, beginning in May. These reptiles can live for more than 150 years and measure up to 4 feet long. Aldabra is an island off the east coast of Africa, while the Galapagos Islands off the west coast of South America were famously visited by Charles Darwin in 1835.
10. The final ‘Stranger Things’ adventure
Three years have passed since the fourth season of “Stranger Things” introduced Kate Bush’s 1985 classic “Running Up That Hill” to a new listening audience. Sometime in 2025, the Netflix series set in fictional Hawkins, Indiana, will conclude with a fifth season. Although few details have been shared about the season set in 1987, we know episode titles include “The Turnbow Trap,” “Shock Jock” and “The Rightside Up.”•
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