In Winter 2025, Riverwise partnered up with our friends at the Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center and Gallery for the Detroit 2050: Future Beyond Billionaires exhibition, which ran from November 13 – December 20th. Works from the show are woven throughout this edition and highlight the deeply reflective visions of our artists, poets, and authors in imagining what a truly just future might look like for our city and beyond. Learn more about the Gallery and stay in the loop for upcoming shows by visiting their website swordsintoplowsharesdetroit.org. Follow them on social media @swordsintoplowshares_det
“CIRCUS, CIRCUS” By Chelsea J. Ferguson, merging newsprint, collage, and screen printing, allows her to at once archive, subvert, and respond to the historic record. On reclaimed pages, shouting typography and provocative imagery couplings cut through “objectivity” and “passive voice” to make the news plain in honest black and corrective red.
“Higher perspective” by Melanie Bruton really came about as I was grappling with the vast changes that were happening in the country in 2025. I found it far too easy to become dejected and feel stuck and I had an experience that reminded me that no matter what my current circumstances are, my future is still very much in my hands, and I can co-create with the universe to bring about some very beautiful and necessary change. All I needed was a higher perspective.
“What Lies Yonder” by Arthur Rushin III is a speculative landscape piece made to represent the optimism that remains for the black American and other black people amidst generational oppression. The ruined city represents the deviating affects of racial oppression; directly contrasting against a starry portal amongst overgrown grass, portraying a universe of opportunity and hope among the enduring growth of black people despite their persecution.
Trans People Will Always Exist by Victoria Marce
no matter what you do to us, we’re not going anywhere. Melt wrote in There Are Trans People Here: “we are living in a new world. you can join us or become extinct.” this silver fabric is a mirror, reflecting beauty back to Trans folx and reflecting love back to those scared bigots who are so obviously in need of it. it is an emergency blanket, ready to wrap around my Trans siblings so they can recover, so they can rest, so they can get ready to carry on the fight, so they can find refuge until the new world is the only world.
“Love Goes Where Intended” by Sisi Bruton
This piece represents power reclaimed by the people. Lightning, symbolizing energy and love, reminding us that the true currency of change runs through our own hands. This work imagines liberation through love. Dedicated to my physical representation of love: Zjalyn Carter. Photo reference credit: Dan Cox
Divine Intervention by Katherine Burgess. In this piece, I explore the duality of modern life, through magazine clippings as well as small 3D objects. Each canvas represents a piece of the larger puzzle- the dark, the light, and the space that exists between them, reflecting the complexity of our collective experience as well our innate ability to create change.
The White Crosses by Ellen Lenon responds to a public anti-abortion display encountered during my daily commute, questioning how institutions assert control over deeply personal decisions. By revealing the physical realities of a C-section through a layered bible book, the work challenges systems of power that regulate bodies and aligns with a vision of a future where autonomy—not authority—shapes our communities.
26 Billion Dollars by Andrea Cardinal. Dan Gilbert is ‘worth’ 26 billion dollars. What would that look like, in stacks of $100 bills? of $1,000 bills? of $10,000 bills? How long would it take to print $26 billion dollars in $10,000 bills? What would it look like if we made a team of people design, print, cut, and distribute $10,000 bills? What would you do with just one of these bills?
Laying Claim by Mary Jane Pories uses symbols from landscape architecture, excerpts from legal documents, maps, and more to explore how humans often treat the most divine feminine of all, Mother Earth. Believing we can carve up and own the earth, the sky, and the sea is a myth that distorts our relationship to our home and each other.
One Hundred White Bulls by Mike Williams depicts one hundred white bulls, a symbolic herd of sacrifice, representing how communities, labor, and resources are consumed for the ambitions of billionaires and the oligarchical class. Staring back at us, the bulls ask whether we are bound for the altar of progress or if a future of freedom is still possible.
