Digital photography by Steven Higgs

"Alternative Conversations" is a multimedia project at The Bloomington Alternative through which we share the views of the remarkable, visionary, creative and otherwise noteworthy progressive souls we come in contact with.

By multimedia, we mean telling their stories, in-depth, through the written word, photographs and videos.

Welcome to the first installment of “Alternative Conversations,” a new Bloomington Alternative multimedia reporting project. As you will see with today’s story package on local authors, artists and activists James Alexander and Dark Rain Thom, this series explores the experiences, thoughts and environments of some of our community’s most dynamic and effective voices.

This and future chapters in this ongoing, online series will feature in-depth, thought-provoking stories of the caliber our readers have come to expect, enhanced with video recordings of the conversations and photo album chronicles of the experiences.

This edition, for example, features a conversation Alison Hamm had with James Alexander and Dark Rain Thom about art and writing, the American Indian, and our current state of affairs.