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

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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

(Re)membering Home – Demolition in Detroit as Dismemberment

By Erin Stanley Alive I learned that my place is alive despite the messaging that land is property, and the world is a machine, Learned it was suffering before… Read More

Youth Activists Check in on Neighbors:

Staying Connected During COVID-19 By Riverwise Editorial Team The EMEAC (East Michigan Environmental Action Council) Youth Street Team recently demonstrated the power of direct organizing. They spent ten consecutive Sundays… Read More

Message to Detroit Freedom Fighters: Commemorating the 1963 Protest of the Police Murder of Cynthia Scott

First, we wish to give a warm thanks to all of you courageous souls, especially the youth, for standing up to oppose the systemic… Read More

Green Chairs Not Green Lights: Keeping Perspective During Covid-19

In 2019, Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) partnered with coalition members, the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership (Boggs Center), Green Light Black Futures Coalition, Feedom… Read More

Beyond Reform: The Detroiters’ Bill of Rights

A strong community-based coalition brought together by Detroit City Council President Pro Tempore Mary Sheffield and Council member Raquel Castañeda-Lopez introduced a Detroiters’ Bill of Rights that outlines basic values… Read More

Police “Reform:” A Totally Obsolete Illusion

In this article, I present excerpts from a historic presentation by the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality (DCAPB) to the Detroit City Council. This November 30, 1998 statement of the… Read More

Police “Reform:” A Totally Obsolete Illusion

Police “Reform:” A Totally Obsolete Illusion In this article, I present excerpts from a historic presentation by the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality (DCAPB) to the Detroit City Council. This… Read More

Beyond Policing To Community Peacekeeping

Riverwise 2020 Summer Special Issue Editorial Beyond Policing To Community Peacekeeping Throughout this extended season of crises and mourning, activists nationwide have intensified our thinking about dismantling unjust systems. In… Read More

We Need Federal Funds, Not Federal Agents!

Photo by Adam Dewey Notes From The Movement We Need Federal Funds, Not Federal Agents! by Monica Isaac Before attending a mass demonstration at the ATF building on July 29th… Read More

Enduring Connections Sustain Us Through Crisis

Enduring Connections Sustain Us Through Crisis by Megan Douglass There is an old Swahili proverb that has stuck with me ever since I first read it… Read More

Great Lakes Activists Continue Fight Against DTE Nuclear Reactor

Great Lakes Activists Continue Fight Against DTE Nuclear Reactor by Jesse Deer In Water Siyo, tohitsu? Hello, how are you? A common greeting amongst my peoples in Northeast Oklahoma, The… Read More

Fighting Racist Surveillance in Detroit

Fighting Racist Surveillance in Detroit Flashing green lights let you know you’re being watched by Bill Wylie-Kellermann Reprinted with permission from Sojourners, March 2020, (800) 714-7474, www.sojo.net. WE GATHERED THIS fall… Read More

Spring 2020 Riverwise Editorial/A Matter Of Survival

Photo Credit: Keviyan Richardson Spring 2020, Riverwise Editorial A Matter of Survival The brutal murder of George Floyd has propelled thousands of people into the streets demanding a radical shift… Read More

Sustained Protest: The Beginnings of System-Change

Photo by Keviyan Richardson The daily protest demonstrations against police brutality in Detroit have been relatively peaceful. Yet, until yesterday, police response has been extremely antagonistic. Nearly 150 protesters were… Read More