A powerful new community theater production, 13 Fires, will bring the story of one of America’s great Black cultural districts to the stage in Boulder this season in celebration of Juneteenth. The play tells the story of Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis—once a thriving Black neighborhood filled with jazz clubs, Black-owned businesses and the pioneering entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, and legendary performers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.
Then the neighborhood was almost completely wiped out.
13 Fires explores how Indiana Avenue was dismantled during the expansion of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, when property acquisitions, eminent domain threats, redlining, and rising taxes forced families out of the homes and community they had built. Through intimate storytelling and memories of the Avenue’s golden era, the play confronts the human cost of development and displacement.
While the story unfolds in Indianapolis, the production speaks directly to ongoing conversations about housing, belonging, and community change in Boulder and across Colorado.
Presented during the Juneteenth season, 13 Fires is a moving reflection on culture, displacement, and the enduring spirit of a people determined to keep their stories alive.