Issue 28 Fall
2025
Megan Douglass Editorial – Definitely Not Written by ChatGPT: Staying Grounded In The Cloud
I love the Gen Z saying ”touch grass.” It’s an undeniable rejection of the ways in which time spent online, in virtual spaces, indoors, isolated, doom-scrolling, and trolling is making… Read More
Hadley Pritchard: ShotSpotter Is Not The Solution: Detroit Needs Community Investment, Not Corporate Control
The Detroit Police Department’s (DPD) contract for ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection surveillance system, is up for renewal in July 2026. This contract was supported by DPD and the Board of… Read More
Creative non-fiction by Michelle Martinez: I got “ADDD” AKA “AI Don’t Do the Damn Dishes”
Driving around Detroit, I got another goddamn flat, and I was fine enough to get it to my mom's, but I could hear the thunk thunk thunk, and it wasn't… Read More
Dr. Chanel Beebe: All Eyes On Us
Conspiracy theories once confined to the original woke, now manifesting through our phones... Technology turned traitor at the hands of those who pay for it the most... Our babies’ most… Read More
Rev. Lucious Conway: Keeping the Gate: Why I Won’t Trade Freedom for a False Sense of Safety
I didn’t just hear about AI facial recognition on the news — I acted on it. After a string of auto break-ins in my gated townhouse parking lot, I went… Read More
Annika Tutzer: How can we make A.I work for the benefit of humanity?
“Circuits of Care” What if we taught machines to care— not just to sort, compute, compare, but to sit beside a quiet bed, to smooth the pillow near your head,… Read More
One Single Rose®: Flykus /fly-koos/
Prompt: AI Artificial intelligence won’t make emotional decisions. ©2025 Flyku for YOU… By One Single Rose® Prompt: Tech Old school foundations crumble when new school upgrades can’t stand on business…… Read More
James Perkinson: Can AI Be Embraced As Kin?
A recent conversation with an activist friend unfolded around a frequently voiced conviction: “AI is here to stay, so we have to deal with it.” And the exchange then wrestled… Read More
John Telford: The 13th Hour – A Disquieting Quatrain
Xenophobic, ethnocentric, racist, classist kinds Of misanthropically myopic, microscopic minds Mask beneath intolerance a frightful face of fear That's… Read More
N.A. Laster: Back To Sticks
I wish we could gather the guns and the steel, The bombs that we build and the pain that we feel, Toss it all out in the depths of the… Read More
Dain Evans: AI Is Coming For Jobs, And We Need Systems Change To Survive It
"Watch this," I said, pulling up my audio recording app. We were in my friend's kitchen, voices echoing off the tile floor and granite countertops. The sounds of boiling water… Read More
Kevin L. Knowles: Sally Phone
Sally’s parents had mobile devices to do their business daily. Mommy and daddy were always busy and this drove Sally crazy. I want you to come and play with me… Read More
Victoria Camille and Minister Eric Blount: You Watch Us, We Watch You: Detroit’s Pending Police Video Release Ordinance
Surveillance is everywhere…greenlight cameras, facial recognition, license plate readers, video doorbells, personal security cameras, and every smart device equipped with cameras and/or microphones. Whether at home or in public, someone… Read More
Jocie Osika: What Technology Can’t Do: Community in Craft
Social media like MySpace and Facebook connect us more than ever, so it has been bitterly confusing to discover that this connection may not be elastic, drawing us together, but… Read More
Photo Essay By Valerie Jean Blakely: 2nd Annual WSU Student Walk Out for Palestine
On October 7, in Detroit, more than 50 students and community members walked out of their classrooms and workplaces in protest of two relentless years of genocide in Gaza. Organized… Read More
Lauren Fardig-Diop: Curfews Won’t Keep Our Kids Safe
The City of Detroit’s new "teen summer safety violence prevention program” intends to hold teens and their parents accountable for young people being out late by enforcing curfews and fines. … Read More
Community. Leadership. Revolution: Sparking Change in Superior Township
Growing up in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area, both Justin Harper and Jamall Bufford, the co-founders of Community, Revolution, Leadership (CLR) Academy, have long recognized the need for more youth-focused community… Read More
Josmine Evans: Sweet Potatoes and Peanuts – A Harvest of Resilience
Editor's Note: This is recipe #3 in a 4-part series of recipes graciously shared from the community-inspired kitchen of Josmine Evans, founder of the Detroit-based Indigo Culinary Co. These offerings… Read More
Stop the Data Center: No Data Centers Nowhere-Fighting The Data Center Death Cult In Ypsilanti and Beyond
A Deluge of Data Centers At this time on the world clock, it's imperative to fight fascism with everything we've got. In 2025, that means, in large part, fighting data… Read More
Kailee Hanson Poem: Sick
All my life corporations have fought tooth and nail for my attention. A tooth before I lost mine. A nail as I bit them, staring at a screen. Before I… Read More
Jesse Deerinwater: SMNRs, climate, AI data centers and US imperialism
"I tell you, friends, this is serious stuff." When you imagine the future, what do you see? What are you experiencing? What kind of freedom do you have? What kind… Read More
Mike Mosher: Art – Cornelius Phelps was beaten by Michigan State Police at a traffic stop
Neil #1, Neil #2, Neil #3. Brush & ink on Sweepstakes Rules. © Mike Mosher 2025 Saginaw community organizer/activist Cornelius Phelps was beaten by Michigan State Police at a traffic… Read More
Deborah Tien: The Golden Throne
"Technology is the answer... but what was the question?" -Cedric Price, 1966 Let us sing to the spirits of storytelling and give our thanks to our ancestors for sharing this… Read More
Alex B. Hill: Map: Path of Least Surveillance through Greater Downtown Detroit
Map: Path of Least Surveillance through Greater Downtown Detroit Originally published by Alex B. Hill on May 19, 2023, on DETROITography.com Ever since I saw the similarly named map of… Read More
Alana Scolari: The Brave Little Bot
One curious little robot unseen like a dot A metal grin plastered on his weird face Doesn’t feel like he has his own true place. He goes around to find… Read More
Megan Douglass: Rooted by Rebellion: A Reflection and Review of the memoir Hurt Baby Hurt by William Walter Scott III
Editor’s Note: This review is simultaneously appearing in the Fifth Estate, a Detroit-based, anarchist magazine now in its 60th year of publication. Its online archives contain a history of resistance… Read More
The Spirit of Mandela Coalition: NATIONAL MOBILIZATION AGAINST GENOCIDES
JULY 4TH, 2026 ATLANTA, GEORGIA Today's reading of the United States Declaration of Independence leaves little to celebrate. The forefathers of the USA called to dissolve the political bonds that… Read More
Rich Feldman: This Technological Moment: The Opportunities and Dangers for Today, Tomorrow, Ourselves and The Planet
“Our ultimate end must be the creation of the beloved community.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There are certain points in time throughout history when the qualitative changes taking place… Read More
Bryce Grubbs: Exploring Abolitionist Tech Futures with ALF Services
When we work to cultivate a collective vision for transforming the world, we must be careful not to fetishize imagination as somehow operating magically and independently from other powerful ingredients,… 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 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
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
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
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