Summer

2025

Megan Douglass: Editorial – Memory Fuels the Movement

There is a grounding exercise that I have loved ever since it was introduced to me at a National Council of Elders convening by Shea Howell, a revolutionary elder and… Read More

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Dr. Hoda Amer: Palestine in Chains

Palestine In Chains is an illustrated story of survival, bravery, pain, and resilience. In this drawing, a woman sits cross-legged on the floor. She cries tears of barbed wire, symbolic… Read More

Anjelica Jade: The Pulse of Eternal Knowledge: Memory and Mycelium

When considering memory in relation to nature, trees often come to mind. The rings inside each tree tell us exactly how long it provided the precious oxygen we need to… Read More

Leslie Cieplechowicz: A Conversation with Ramiro Alvarez, Communications Director of the Detroit Disability Power

“Honestly, straight up, the biggest problem people with disabilities face is that people do not care enough. People don’t even like the word disabled. We've been called everything in the… Read More

Dom Witten: Hair and Lineage

It’s been nine months since I’ve wanted to [ ]. I could’ve birthed a copy of myself but one night I saw my body unzip crown to heel. Thick… Read More

Fatou Sow: Art, Poetry, and Prose

Fatou Sow is a creative writer, poet, and professor with Senegalese and African American roots from Detroit, MI. Her work focuses on familial connection, self-reflection, and humanistic experiences shared across… Read More

Hank Kennedy: What’s in a Name? Stop honoring fascists and bigots in civic infrastructure.

“It used to be called Dondero.” “Yeah, I went to Dondero.” “Hey, remember Dondero?” Dondero. Dondero. Dondero. When I worked and shopped in Royal Oak, I heard that name a… Read More

Joanne Coutts: In Search of Solidarity: Reflections on a weekend of Search and Recovery in the Sonoran Desert

Introduction By April 2020, as the world grappled with the harsh reality that the COVID pandemic was not going to be over quickly and that not everyone who contracted the… Read More

Megan Douglass: Celebrating Our Roots, Cultivating Our Collective Consciousness: A Conversation with Elder Baba Simmons

Listen to the whole interview at Podcast - Riverwise Magazine Read More

Katelyn Rivas: Ecology of Migration on Detroit River

Midnight passage over water. Blushing strawberry moon. A litany of stars reflecting the deep blue story curving into my Black body. I hope to see my mother on the other… Read More

Katelyn Rivas: The Longing of Migration

When I see the bodies of Gazan children pulled out from an ocean of rubble, I often think of the humpback whale who carried her lifeless calf on her head… Read More

Mary Gagnon: Everything That Hurts

Artwork by Mary Gagnon Acrylic on birch. 4 feet by 3.5 feet. It is called "Right of return" and it depicts two sisters who, after being displaced by war into… Read More

Josmine Evans: Sassafras – A Spring Tonic for Healing

Editors Note: This is recipe #2 in a series of recipes graciously offered from the community inspired kitchen of Josmine Evans, founder of the Detroit based Indigo Culinary Co. We… Read More

Making Room for Abolition

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Laura Bailey “LB” Brandon and Charles “Buddy” Smith: The Soul of Charles Buddy Smith

Part 1: The Migrating Memory of Music Article & Inquiries by Laura Bailey “LB” Brandon Music, Poetry, & Stories by Charles “Buddy” Smith A direct link to music history in… Read More

Mary Gagnon: The Art of Remembering: A Defiant Act of Resistance

References: Clarke, K., & Yellow Bird, M. (2020). Decolonizing pathways towards integrative healing in social work. Taylor & Francis Group. ProQuest Ebook Central. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wayne/detail.action?docID=7245245 Decolonizing Pathways Towards Integrative Healing in Social… Read More

Russ Bellant: TALKING ODE TO A SNOWFLAKE

Today a beautiful snowflake flew through the sky and fell on the land that I call home. I tell it that its artful unmatched design is a gift of its… Read More

Nancy Poprafsky: UNSUITABLE

Very rarely did I see my grandpa wear a suit. He was a farmer. A farmer’s most important business was taking care of the land so he could take care… Read More

Triniti (iii): 26

"Pieces of Me" collage art by Trinity (iii) Teach me Inner technologies And circuit my mind back to Source Remind us of how we arrived dancing with light And that … Read More

Demetric Walls, aka DWallsCanTalk, aka Shabazz Shakur: Turning Pain into Pathways Through the Power of Music and M.O.T.I.V.E.

Every single person walking the earth is a music producer. It’s no coincidence that human body parts share the same name as music instruments (organs, eardrums, vocal chords, heartbeat). I… Read More

Tanya Martinez: Las Manos de Generaciones

In my piece, Las Manos de Generaciones, I aimed to express the importance of immigrant families in adapting and persevering. I was inspired by my own family and the millions… Read More

Community Win!

Community win! Congratulations, Detroit Disability Power! Read More

Tap In Times

Find your people! Read More

Katy Nightingale: Migration is an Act of Courage

Riverwise back cover Katy Nightingale (she/they) is a semi-nomadic woman of Western European immigrant descent who grew up in the Great Lakes region. On her travels she has learned from… Read More

YVAK: A Meditation on Modern Movement Organizing

Richelle Still (she/her) is a passionate young person dedicated to making a difference wherever she finds herself. As a recent graduate of the University of Miami, she is making her… Read More

Lynching and Crucifixion A Holy Week Meditation

IMAGE: Standing next to a handmade crucifix, Bill Wylie-Kellerman reads the meditation in front of Detroit Police Headquarters. Photo credit: Three Lyons Creative Each Holy Week for 47 years, the… Read More

Detroit Will Breathe & National Lawyers Guild Win Major Victories in BLM Movement

IMAGE: Nakia Wallace restrained in a chokehold by Detroit police at Detroit Will Breathe Protest. Photo by Adam Dewey. We are celebrating that since the writing of the following article… Read More

Dazzling Cultural Swag MASKS MADE IN DETROIT

Diop was founded in Detroit in 2018, just in time to provide beautiful facemasks to help us get through the pandemic. Diop produces reusable, cotton, washable facemasks, including sizes for… Read More

Red Packets

Background Art: During the Chinese New Year celebration, there is a tradition of offering gifts — especially to the children — in brightly decorated red envelopes that convey best wishes… Read More

Punjabi Culture Empowers Farmers’ Protests in India

IMAGE: Parchaváyn (Shadows) by Navjeet Kaur. Watercolor, coffee, charcoal, hair, and thread on paper. - 2016. India is in the midst of the largest protest in human history during a global… Read More

Significant Changes Amidst Setbacks and Trauma

As summer approaches, we are reaching out tentatively to one another, slowly finding ways to re-establish connection with family, friends, and community. Marked by incalculable losses and sorrow through the… Read More

Realizing A People’s Plan In 2021

Despite a year of grievous health crises and economic challenges, we end 2020 affirming the work that is being done to advance the relationships with one another and to promote… Read More

READING LIST AND NOTES TOWARDS ENDING POLICE VIOLENCE

A call to read, study and debate What does abolition mean? Why is it better than reform? What class do the police (and the military) serve and protect, both inside… Read More

Dr. Naomi Long Madgett Poet Laureate of the City of Detroit 1923 – 2020

Born in Norfolk, VA in 1923, Dr. Naomi Long Madgett was an active member of the Detroit community from 1946. In her early teaching career, she was a curriculum innovator… Read More

A LOVE LETTER TO OUR LEGAL COMMUNITY: A CALL TO ACTION AFTER THE 2020 ELECTIONS

Dear Legal Community, This summer, we saw the largest mobilization of protest in U.S. history. Across the country, communities rose up in love and rage, for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd,… Read More

Letter of Hope From Movement Elders to Young Activists

Letter of Hope Learnings from lived experiences From Movement Elders to Young Activists November 2020 The National Council of Elders was organized in 2011 to bring together leaders of the… Read More

Testimony of Paul Jackson People’s Tribunal on the Execution of Hakim Littleton

Detroit October 25, 2020 Sponsored by the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability On Sunday, October 25, the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability held a People’s Tribunal at which… Read More

A Block Club In the Making

Piper Carter has embarked on a journey, building community one step at a time. Located near west Chicago Blvd. and Schaefer, Carter and a few neighborhood allies are reconstituting the… Read More

Apocalyptic and Revolutionary Education

Today’s youth face fearsome challenges in what our society calls “mental health,” some as a result of having suffered childhood traumas, but many others simply from the stress of trying… Read More