Winter

2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Riverwise Summer/Fall 2019 Editorial: Healing As We Build

Riverwise Summer/Fall 2019 Editorial Healing As We Build How do we heal? Throughout Detroit neighborhoods and gatherings people frequently ask this question. This question acknowledges the pain we carry.… Read More

What Does the Earth Have To Teach Us?

What Does the Earth Have To Teach Us? By Sanaa Green Being taught by the earth, for some in Western, modern cultures, is an oxymoron based on the premise that… Read More

Mama Lila Cabbil Tribute: Pushing Us Toward Deeper Thought, Still

I always knew Mama Lila Cabbil did a lot. There was rarely an anti-racism event, a water justice event, or a social justice event that I didn't see her… Read More

Nandi’s Knowledge Cafe Feels Like Home

In her own words: Nandi's Knowledge Cafe Feels Like Home Riverwise Interview It hits you as soon as you cross the threshold and peer into the latest iteration of Nandi's… Read More

Eastside Convergence Asks, Community Or Chaos?

photos by Barbara Stachowski The east side of Detroit is at a critical moment. Just before the holiday season General Motors announced the closing of the Poletown Plant. By late… Read More

Youth Arts Furthers Transformation of Heidelberg Project

In the interest of full disclosure and to facilitate a more objective reading of the following article, it should be noted that Keisa Davis is a Heidelberg Arts and Leadership… Read More

Why Black Bottom Matters: Black History Informing Black Futures

During Black History Month, Black people are reminded about the importance of history. It is a time of posts spotlighting the significant advancements of exceptional Black elders and ancestors, a… Read More

Strange Fruit Quilt: A Loving Ancestral Remembrance

The quilt, Strange Fruit, is named after a song by the late Billie Holiday, and it is dedicated to Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, an African American newspaper journalist and author… Read More

A Ceremony For Hearing Our Own Wisdom

For most of history, stories have been passed down from person to person, sharing tools, lessons, values, forewarnings and healing. I recently hosted a story and ceremony workshop, sponsored by… Read More

The Theft of Belle Isle

photos taken at Belle Isle by Kenneth Smith Every spring, access to Belle Isle is shut down. The most popular end of the island is closed to Detroiters for almost… Read More

A Call To Do-It-yourself Community Health

Reconnecting to Nature and the Land Saved My Life by Lottie Spady In 2014 I started my formal herbal education and healing journey. In many ways I had lost my… Read More

Lessons From the Poletown Plant

A revised version of this article was previously published in the February 9 edition of "The Detroit Socialist." Now that General Motors has announced its decision to close the Poletown… Read More

Water Affordability and the Green New Deal

The lessons of the last decade and a half fighting for a real Water Affordability Plan (WAP) in Detroit may shed some light on what’s ahead for the Green New… Read More

Riverwise Editorial: Giving Way To Transition

Winter is giving way to spring. As the seasons shift, there is new energy emerging in our neighborhoods. Critical questions are taking on a sense of urgency as people are… Read More