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After traveling the country to highlight Black vegan chefs and restaurants on her blog, Another Vegan Journey, LLC, Quiana Quarles was left wondering how to best represent the Black vegan chefs in her own backyard.

Her answer was Black Vegan Fest Indy.

Since February, Quarles has been planning the event, the first of its kind in Indianapolis. But organizers had to postpone the in-person event until July 24, 2021. Instead, the event moves online as the Black Vegan Fest Indy Digital Experience on Saturday. The event page already has 1,400 responses on Facebook.

We wanted to see peoples reactions when they taste the food, to see them engage in person, said social media coordinator Dinah Allen. But this is the next best thing.

Black Vegan Fest Indy founder Quiana Quarles poses with a festival T-shirt. The festival will take place in an online format this Saturday.(Photo: William Thomas)

The event will include live performances, including a DJ and a local spoken word artist. The rest of the afternoon will consist of a yoga session, a talk by family physician Tameka Jonesand cooking demonstrations, including one from featured chef Cul de Sac Poe from Indys the Cul De Sac Kitchen. The event will also provide coloring pages centered around vegetables native to different African countries, recipes and collections of items from vendors.

In addition to Black chefs, Quarles said a main focus of the event is highlighting local Black-owned businesses, including Black Mama Vegan, Arm Kandy LLC, Smooves Indy, Brewer Bakesand Sip & Share Wines.

Black Vegan Fest Indy founder Quiana Quarles shows off her biomineral wrap from Cul de Sac Kitchen. Cul de Sac Poe from Indys vegan restaurant the Cul De Sac Kitchen will be a featured chef at the festival.(Photo: Quiana Quarles)

Quarles hopes the space will celebrate Black-owned businesses, as well as Black artists, chefs and physicians.

We have to support each other as a community, she said. And we can do that by being conscious about our choices in businesses we support. I want people to know that these businesses are here.

While the event centers around spreading awareness about the health benefits of veganism and how delicious vegan food can be, it is more than that, Quarles said. She saw a need for a festival like this in Indianapolis because of food deserts around the city that disproportionately affect Black populations.

Black Vegan Fest Indy founder Quiana Quarles shows off her meal from Smoove's Indy. The vegan, plant-based restaurant is one of the Black-owned businesses that will be featured at Black Vegan Fest Indy.(Photo: Quiana Quarles)

In 2019, one fifth of Indys population or 208,000 residents lived in a food desert, according to a report by SAVI, a program in the Polis Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. That number is a 10% increase from 2016 and includes 2,000 more people than in 2018.

Our communities are filled more with fast food places than grocery stores, she said. And the grocery stores we do have arent well stocked. If you move toward the more well-to-do suburbs, the Krogers are stocked with great, fresh food.

Quarles said the festival will promote the idea that everyone deserves access to healthy foods, regardless of race and zip code, and prompt discussions on the barriers that prevent some groups from accessing such healthy foods.

I just want to see my people live healthier, live longer, she said. Everybody deserves to be healthy.

Contact Pulliam Fellow Christine Fernando at cfernando@gannett.com.

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Indy's first ever Black Vegan Fest to highlight healthy eating, Black-owned businesses - The Indianapolis Star