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Raki Dem rolled up to the Crispus Attucks High School parking lot with her friends before traveling to watch the school’s baseball game Monday evening.
Before balls and strikes, though, came glasses, which Dem — a senior — and her classmates pulled on to safely watch the total solar eclipse.
“Look at it!” junior DaRhonda Woods shouted at the group just two minutes before the moon completely blocked the sun. “Look! You got to.”
The eclipse emptied out many schools in the Indianapolis area on Monday — in fact, all 11 of the Marion County school districts were either closed or had a virtual learning day. But students across Indianapolis still found ways to enjoy the event.
Across the parking lot from Dem and her friends, junior Jabreel Abdullah watched the eclipse with his younger brother and sister, eighth grader Maijeur and fifth grader Eryss. They were among the roughly two dozen attendees who celebrated the eclipse with a program at the Crispus Attucks Museum that paid homage to African tradition and heritage.
During the museum program, Yoruba priest Anthony Artis cleansed the atmosphere hours before the eclipse with a gourd covered in beads, known as a “shekere.” He encouraged attendees to call out names of ancestors in a type of invocation.
As the moon crept closer to the sun, 10-year-old Eryss slipped out of the museum and slid on her glasses. She and her brothers, who are home-schooled, waited for the moon to blot out the sun at precisely 3:07 p.m.
As downtown was covered in darkness, Dem and her classmates pulled out their phones, shouting in excitement.
“Oh that’s tight!” one exclaimed as fireworks rang off in the distance.
As totality ended and the parking lot grew brighter, Artis reflected on the importance of remembering ancestors who experienced similar eclipse events in many years past. What happened today was just a continuation of what happened many years ago, he said.
“It’s a new beginning. The putting out of the old, the old sun has been put out, figuratively speaking. And then the new sun comes up,” he said. “And so what are you going to do with that newfound energy?”
For Dem and her friends, that new energy was spent packing up from the Crispus Attucks High School parking lot to cheer on their friends at the baseball game.
Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.