Winter

2025

Megan Douglass: Editorial – The Dialectic of Grief and Healing

If you’ve spent any time in Detroit in the social justice world, you’ve probably heard of thinking dialectically as a way to engage with, analyze, and contend with big ideas… Read More

One Single Rose®️: Bag Lady

Bag lady, I know your shoulders are weighed down from weight of the world residing inside your bags— Pain Discrimination Racial profiling Heartache Low self-esteem... The stitching is coming apart… Read More

Perseis Skipper: Healing, healing

Healing, healing is something we all must do. if it’s for a sinking heart, or grief, maybe self reflection? I too, want to heal the inner child that is crying… Read More

Kim Redigan: On Picking Apples in a Time of Genocide

It’s one of those autumn afternoons in Michigan when October holds its breath as the brilliance reaches its fleeting peak. Bent branches drop flecked apples to the earth while leaves… Read More

Veronica Trevino: The world is coming to an end

The world always feels like its ending I have to be everywhere at once and everything feels impossible I am unprepared, a mess, and am rushing at all times I… Read More

Mary Gagnon: Deir Al-Baleh

Benjamin eats burning tents for breakfast. Smoldering and braided with decay. Soaked in the oxidized blood of children. His arteries are clogged with melted I.V. lines and the last breaths… Read More

Danielle Thompson: Disaster and Deafness: Centering Community Support And Disability Awareness in the Age of Climate Change

The World Health Organization estimates that now roughly 1.3 billion people suffer from some form of disability and warns that disability prevalence is on the rise. However, the exact statistics… Read More

Marcia Lee: 20 years of grace – a love letter to Detroit

Dear Detroit, You were my first love, my heart’s home. You have helped me to come home to myself. You have shown me, through your waterways, the way you grow… Read More

Hadassah Greensky: Indigenous Peoples Day in Detroit

Detroit, Michigan — otherwise known as Waawiyaatanong — where the curved shores meet, the area between Windsor and Detroit — along the Detroit River corridor, occupied territory of the Anishinaabek.… Read More

Jenny Teed: Charity Hicks Memorial Tree Reflection

I have deep gratitude for Hadassah Greensky for including a stop at Charity's Tree, as part of the Water Walk on Waabizii Mnising (also known as Belle Isle) as part… Read More

Kristian Davis Bailey, Feedom Freedom Growers, and Ghazzah Comrades: iamWe – A Cross-Pollination Trip from Detroit & Ghazzah to Puerto Rico

In early January, I booked a last-minute ticket to Puerto Rico with one of my closest friends and comrades - RG. At that point, RG had suffered through three months… Read More

Sacred Spaces: Boggs School 5th Grade Class

Ian Dickinson These healing works come to us from members of the 5th grade class at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School in Detroit. This November they came to… Read More

Ru Colvin: Wisdom

You ever think of how wise trees must be? Some of them have been here for hundreds of years.. can you imagine the stories they’d tell if they could talk?… Read More

Andrew Kaplowitz: Home Sick on Saturday Night

“May we all heal at the speed of land” -meital yaniv The sound of the bath running blends with the pitter patter of my fingers on the keys. A cup… Read More

Hrishika Makker: Invincible

I am broken pieces of diamond, Broken, but still shining in the dark They managed to break me To carve Words I don't want to believe onto me Switched the… Read More

Birch Kemp: An Experiment in Hope

Land. Instead of holding it back let’s give it back. What does it mean to hold land in a bank? Land Bank? What a perverse concept. However, Land Bank is… Read More

John Telford: ‘ZEITGEISTIAN WISHES THREE’

Tomas Garberding: The Emerald Dream

Lush emerald surroundings sing their tune in the morning A betrodden but comforting scene, peaceful times Soft and sensitive conversation taking place, fresh with an evoking sensitivity The trip is… Read More

Monica Isaac: George Jackson

Monica is a mixed media artist living on the eastside of Detroit. Recognizing art as a tool of education and resistance shapes my creative work. Specifically, I use Film photography… Read More

Madison Katrina Flood: Naked Like Water

Naked Like Water unlearn and remember you can swim sinuously surrender to serendipity breathe simultaneously… Read More

Joanne Coutts: Mapping Detroit Buried Waterways – Part II: Building Relationship with the Creeks

Editor’s Note: This article is part 2 of a series. Part I was published in the Fall 2023 edition of Riverwise. Read it online @bit.ly/waterwayspartone or by going to riverwisedetroit.org… Read More

Gigi Boyd: Gathering The Pieces

The night after the results came in, I sat alone, a heaviness pressing against my chest. The air felt different, colder, chauvinistic as if the sun had burned through the… Read More

© Safara Parrott: Eulogy for a Stone Fruit Tree

I woke up to find you already kissing the ground from which you were raised /blood rush and overwhelmed / I did nothing/ but let out a small earnest sigh… Read More

Josmine Evans: Collard Greens and the Politics of Resilience

Editor’s Note: As an offering to the Riverwise Community, over the next four editions we will feature a special recipe and it’s story from the community inspired kitchen of Josmine… Read More

Lauren Silver: Found Objects, Found Connections: Art As A Pathway To Healing

Ghosts, mixed-medium collage with sticks and fibers 2024 My Melody, mixed-medium fiber assemblage with found objects, dried botanicals, and feathers 2024 Nest, Self Portrait, mixed-medium, found object assemblage with mini… Read More

Gay Hergert: Tapping Away The Pain: The Healing Power of The Emotional Freedom Technique

Editor’s Note: The information provided here should not be considered as providing medical advice or a cure for any particular ailment you may be experiencing. Always consult with a medical… Read More

Safiyah Basir: Demystifying Diabetes: Ending Stigmas One Story At A Time

I’m a mom to six-year-old twin boys, balancing motherhood, my studies, and my advocacy. I believe, as I often say, “There is nothing I cannot do, I just have to… Read More

Toi Theriot: Peace Returns Home

Peace taps gently and places a toe just over the threshold... Peeking into the house as it cracks the front door... "Hellooo... hellooo... hellooo... hellooo...." It's echo resounding off the… Read More

Dain Evans: Zine – What is Eco-Grief

From a Queer Death LGBTQ+ End of Life Doula Care Warning We’re gonna get in our feelings! This zine might bring up some anxiety or depression around grief. It is meant… Read More

Increasing Access: Sustainably & Locally Grown in Detroit

Caption: GROWN IN DETROIT GROWER, DETRA IVERSON OF LOVE N LABOR BOTANICALS FARM It begins with the growers When her herbs and vegetables are at their best, you can find… Read More

Creating Connections: A Totem Pole Journey for the Protection of Sacred Spaces

The House of Tears Carvers and their totem pole stopped in Mackinaw City in late July. It was their last stop en route to their final destination, the U.S. capital. … Read More

Protect The Waters Shut Down Line 5

Protect the Waters Shut Down Line 5 Dear water, Thank you for all the things that you do. I just wanted to say thank you! Your freshwater and saltwater components… Read More

Building Pipelines For Peace: Water Protectors Come Together To Demand The Shut Down of Line 3

In late summer, I had the honor of traveling to Anishinaabe land (so-called “Northern Minnesota”) to support the indigenous-lead resistance against the Line 3 pipeline being non-consensually built on native… Read More

Benton Harbor Water Struggle

Folks from Flint, Highland Park, and Detroit arrived in Benton Harbor on July 10, 2021, to support because we know what the Benton Harbor community is going through all too… Read More

Learning As We Grow: Turning Disappointments into Moments For Healing Reflection

This past August, when many Detroiters who had worked long and hard to help revise the City Charter learned that the passage of Proposal P had failed, they took to… Read More

Fall 2021 Editorial

In the TV series Game of Thrones, the saying “winter is coming” has become infamous as a potent reminder that change is on the horizon, and you must get prepared… Read More

Communities of Interest: Why Your Voice Is Essential in the Michigan Districting Process

What is Gerrymandering? Many of us are familiar with the term “gerrymandering.” We often hear it used in conjunction with the notion that our elected officials are doing something not… Read More

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Rare Commitment to Advocacy for People’s Rights

Photo by Valerie Jean Can I Get a Witness? Testimony on the Commitment of Rashida Tlaib By Sara Habbo The Detroit and Michigan Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)… Read More

Detroit Youth Reflect on Police Violence

An insightful, sensitive conversation about the crisis In the last two years, children in this country have lived through two profoundly destabilizing social upheavals. Through the media and in their… Read More

An urgent call to secure medical care for trans youth

Photo courtesy of Getty Images Horrific anti-transgender bills are being pushed all over the nation that call for a ban on lifesaving medication for trans youth and jail time for… Read More

Let’s Reimagine together

Let's swim in 9ft deep Let's watch the pain away Let's be honest Let's be authentic Let's be fierce Let's not be afraid to hide Breaking glass ceilings Knocking shit… Read More

Anthony Adams lays out his mayoral plans

Interview with Khary Frazier Detroit Is Different KF: Can you share your background and relationship to Detroit? AA: I moved to Detroit in 1981. At that time I [had just] graduated… Read More

From campus racial equity activism to the Mayor’s Office

Maya Jones calls young leaders to step up to Detroit city politics (Detroit mayoral candidate Maya Jones’s story from an interview with Khary Frazier, June 30, 2021. Riverwise ed.) I… Read More