What's All This I've Been Hearing About Eugene V. Debs?
Union activist, socialist and Hoosier Eugene V. Debs, despite having died a century ago, is somehow back in the zeitgeist. First there was a visit to his home town of Terre Haute, Indiana, by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when the former was given the Eugene Debs award. Then New Your City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani quoted Debs in his victory speech. So, we thought it might be worth it to go back and explore the life, history, and impact of Eugene Debs. And the best way to learn about somebody, maybe? Check out their childhood home. Luckily, Nice Work host Alex Chambers - back when he hosted Inner States - went to Deb's childhood home and found someone to tell us more. Here is his story:
If you’re wondering which house in Terre Haute, Indiana has the most followers on Twitter, I think it’s safe to say it’s the one on N 8 th Street, surrounded by Indiana State University parking lots, just south of the marching band’s practice fields. It’s the Eugene V. Debs museum. Long before it was a museum, it was the home of Eugene V. and Kate Debs.
A hundred years ago, Eugene Debs was the most famous socialist in the U.S. He was the presidential candidate for the Socialist Party’s first five attempts, which suggests how well he did on that front. The last time he ran, he was in prison. He got 6 percent of the vote. At the time, it seemed not bad for a convict.
Now it’s a museum, dedicated to the memory of the most popular American socialists before Bernie Sanders, and, along with Larry Bird, who got his start playing basketball for ISU, one of Terre Haute’s most famous sons.
The museum is run, as it should be, by one of Debs’s biggest fans. Allison Duerk started giving tours of the house in college, and, just as she was graduating and looking for her first job, the Debs Museum opened up a search for a new director. She’s been there ever since.
This episode is about Eugene Debs and Allison Duerk. They’ve got some parallels. It’s also about what makes a person devote their career to a house, and a man who died almost a century ago.
Orbit Room Stays Busy
Consider Orbit Room, a space tucked away under the shops and restaurants that line the west of the square in Bloomington. It’s an event space, a pint-sized pinball parlor, a purveyor of highly regarded hot dogs, and it offers a whopping menu of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It’s a place where you might catch some cult classics shown by Cicada Cinema, an astrology lecture, a bit of jazz, a rock band, or some freak out electro-acoustic group making a stop in Bloomington as part of a larger tour. Local acts, touring acts, things not exactly describable as acts; Orbit Room showcases it all. They keep a busy calendar you can check out at orbitbtown.com
Ten Nights in a Barroom Gets a New Sound
On Saturday November 15, The IU Cinema put on a showing of a 1926 silent film with an all-black cast to celebrate the film's 100th Anniversary. Based on an 1854 Timothy Shay Arther novel, Ten Nights in a Barroom tells the story of a man’s downward spiral and his turn toward alcohol to escape. But redemption isn’t off the table since this is a temperance film, so of course, protagonist Joe Morgan finds his way back to the straight and narrow. But the plot probably isn’t as important as the film’s pedigree. A section of the film has been lost, but what remains is believed to be the only surviving film produced by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia. This particular showing wasn't just a screening of a rare and very old film; it was accompanied by a live score composed by IU Jacobs student Jamey Guzman. That means it was pretty much a one-time event, no second runs, unfortunately. But Nice Work intern Danny William caught the show and reports back.
Tendings Embraces Spontaneity
Wandering the rooms of someone else’s house, through the crowded warm kitchen, into a narrow hallway to a small bedroom where the only domestic signal comes from the pale cloth drapes over the double-hung, sash window. Otherwise, the room reads as an art gallery. There is no furniture, just small sculptures displayed and large drawings on the walls depicting bodies--part human, part horse intertwined, contorted--a hoof juts into the air. It’s the work of local sculptor, Melanie Pennington. Her work shares the room with paper pieces (also sculptural) wrinkled, translucent, gauzy and gestural, splashed across the space between the window and a corner of the room. Delicate, braid-like drawings in blue follow folds in the layers of paper. It’s a series created by Betsy Stirratt, and her work spills out into the hall. I overhear a woman explaining to a friend the process and materials used to craft the work.
This is just one room in a whole house filled with the work of local artists for a one night, pop-up art show in an empty house near Bryan Park in Bloomington. One carpeted bedroom has a tv on a coffee table, screening a short film. Another room is set up for a performance by Johanna Winters and Gabriel Garber involving overhead projectors, cut-out paper shapes and abstract electric guitar sounds.
Room after room, art fills the otherwise empty house--empty of furnishings but packed with human beings.
The event was called Tendings: an evening of art & offerings, and it was organized by Faye Gleisser (with help from Carmel Curtis and others) and hosted by Allison Quantz in the home she acquired the keys to just two days before the show. The event was a fundraiser in response to the SNAP cuts during the government shutdown. They posted QR codes on a wall for local organizations that offer food assistance, and Lou Barnhart of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard spoke of the precarity so many folks in the community face.
Faye said she was inspired by Ross Gay’s piece in Inciting Joy, where people gather for a potluck, bringing their sorrows to mingle and connect with one another. Ross read the essay to the people packed into the den or dining room of the house, where a DJ (Jason Byrne) had been spinning records since the start of the party.
Curator Faye Gleisser wanted to explore themes around how we care for each other when the systems we may have relied on begin to fail. In addition to the expression of compassion and mutual aide, Tendings was an impressive, spontaneous gathering of some of Bloomington’s most exciting artists. We hope the enthusiastic response will inspire others to create pop-up art parties in whatever spaces they can get the keys to.