Summer

2023

Fists Clenched, Hearts Wide Open: Countering state based narratives of violence and nonviolence

One in four (25%) of Black trans and nonbinary young people reported a suicide attempt in the past year. Black Americans at every age die at an earlier age than… Read More

Detroit Love-n-War

Detroit Love-n-War by Poem by Rosemarie Wilson a.k.a One Single Rose The Spirit of Ðetroit’s head bows in shame. Uninviting images broadcast through the idiot box and the tangled web they’ve… Read More

Keepers of The Straits: Heart Of The Turtle Tribal treaty rights, sovereignty and the fight against Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline

Keepers of The Straits: Heart Of The Turtle: Tribal treaty rights, sovereignty and the fight against Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline By Hadassah GreenSky (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Chippewa and Odawa… Read More

Detroit x Stop Cop City Solidarity Statement

a riot is a prayer is a maybe is a yes—

a riot is a prayer is a maybe is a yes— (in praise of refusal, of the dark, of “yes;” in praise of every unknown regarding the world to be… Read More

if a tree falls (and No One is around)

if a tree falls (and No One is around) (new liturgies against “representation”) Does it make a sound? The man was white that named the tree “no one,” and so… Read More

An Act of Love

An Act of Love By Laura Bailey Brandon We sat on a patchwork of blankets in a field, hugged by trees. We sat facing each other, knees bent against strangers… Read More

Fat On Freedom

“Fat on Freedom” by Megan Douglass As we prepare for the long haul, we asked: What is guiding, fueling, feeding our work? All this conflict is a part of movement,… Read More

The Return of Afrofuture Fest in 2023: Reflections on the Past and Communal Futures

The Return of Afrofuture Fest in 2023: Reflections on the Past and Communal Futures By Adrienne Ayers Afrofuture Fest originated as a 25th birthday party for myself on Anishinaabe Land at… Read More

Riverwise Sacred Spaces: Concert Of Colors 2023

Suicide, Violence, and Abolition

This March, thirty-four organizations in Detroit signed on to a statement in solidarity with the abolitionist #StopCopCity protests in Atlanta, denouncing the police killing of innocent people, calling to defund… Read More

NCOE Statement Opposing Transphobic, Homophobic, and Gender Violence

Image downloaded from Just Seeds https://justseeds.org/graphic/my-body-my-choice/. Visit Kill Joy and Just Seeds online to learn more and support! On Instagram @kill.joy.land, @la.onda.grafica and @justseeds “…the issues of race and class… Read More

Cocooned and Covered

Author’s Note: Though I am not a member of the trans community, my niece and I co-created this piece about her journey of transition. We offer this story with the… Read More

Say His Name: Porter Burks; Say What This Is: Genocide

I vividly remember the bodycam footage of the murder of Porter Burks in the early morning hours last October, shortly before settling into my workday as a psychiatrist who works… Read More

Making and Baking A Greater Detroit Our Children Deserve

Too many Detroit children have inherited an unfortunate, unfair set of economic and educational inequities. Too often, when we speak or hear of Detroit, we hear or speak of scarcity… Read More

Michiganders Unsatisfied with DNR “Denial” of Camp Grayling Expansion and New MOU

Photo credits to Kenny Karpov Camp Grayling is a Michigan National Guard (MNG) training center and part of the National All-Domain Warfighting Center located in Crawford, Kalkaska, and Otsego Counties.… Read More

Holding Their Feet to the Fire

ShotSpotter is audio surveillance technology marketing itself as gunshot detection technology. City Council’s approval last fall of the Detroit Police Department’s (DPD) request to extend and expand ShotSpotter throughout the… Read More

When She Found Me

I look out at the Atlantic. This is my view, everywhere I turn. I see it in my waking hour and something in there reminds me that… As much as… Read More

Mutual Aid In Michigan

Photo by Laura Bailey Brandon Community Support Networks & Services Alternatives for Girls: alternativesforgirls.org Back Alley Bikes: backalleybikes.org Black To the Land Coalition: On FB @ BlackToTheLandCoalition Church of the… Read More

Cold Turkey

Photo by Laura BaileyBrandon taken on the North Country Trail in Wilderness State Park (Carp Lake MI) A retrospective of the author’s last six years, retiring from community activism in… Read More

Ready, Set, Listen!

Dr. Martin Reinhardt is president of the Michigan Indian Education Council, lead singer, and songwriter for the band Waawiyayaa (The Circle). He is a tenured professor of Native American Studies… Read More

1954 / 2022

“Separate and unequal” Has an evil sequel: The devilish creation Of racial segregation Is abject subjugation And clear discrimination. So found ‘Brown Versus Board of Education.’ True reconciliation And total… Read More

Compassion, Solidarity, Care: Detroit-Area Youth Respond to the Pandemic

“Oh my god I can’t believe my teacher just . . .” “Y’all see this tweet from the superintendent?” “When’s winter break start?” “They just changed up my schedule and… Read More

Stewardship as Ownership

Participants in action at the Build a Chair = Reframe a House workshop, Detroit Reuse Collective. Editor’s Note: Note: A previous version of the essay was published in Log 54 Centering… Read More

Back Alley Bikes brings year ‘round riding to the Motor City

Detroit is a bike town. With its flat, often lightly traveled streets, it's bike riding weather all year round. People embrace their bikes, bringing their own flavor and style to… Read More

The Dreams That Called Me Home

I dream of a resting place. Systems are crumbling. The powers are wreaking havoc. The climate is in crisis. It is enough to make you weep. Enough to make you… Read More

I Know Women

I know women who are tall women, even while sleeping their spirits rise to the occasion; I know women with mountainous cheekbones that serve as steeples for the light of… Read More

(Trans)capes Sacred Spaces Centerfold

My series (Trans)capes is about looking at the transgender experience through a different lens. By using trees in place of the trans body, I illustrate both the growth and change… Read More

Will Michigan become a Sanctuary State for Reproductive Freedom?

On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled against constitutional protections for the right to receive an abortion. For one this ruling has massive implications for bodily autonomy… Read More

Existence Over Living

Poverty stirs me awake. I press to the window for a ray of sun to hit my upturned face. I see the cool waters of Spring bubbling up through the… Read More

An Understory – for St Peters

beneath the high altar, where icons watch, flicker in candleflame, direct below, and precisely so, a kitchen stovetop flames for decades, bringing to boil a rotation of hearty soups (confess… Read More

The Language of Waters Speaks to Us All

I believe that art is a universal language. It is a form of communication that every individual can understand, no matter their origin, no matter the language that rolls off… Read More