Click To Download Riverwise Fall Edition 25

2024

Megan Douglass – Editorial: Follow The Money

There is no sugarcoating the Truth. These are tumultuous times. The more conversations I have the more I encounter an ever present uncertainty about the future, sadness about the state… Read More

Khyla Bussey: The Blind Pig, Detroit 1967

A ceremonial scene; light a cigarette with an ashed finger to soothe the emotional anguish, indignant vestige. Inhale the lingering smoke; soft pedal into an aesthetic dimension; jive against… Read More

Detroit Will Breathe: Why We Need a Mass Movement Fighting Racist Policing at Home and Abroad!

The Current State of Policing Today, May 25th, 2024 marks the four year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and the largest uprising and social movement in the history of the… Read More

Marcellus Williams: Perspectives and Emotions

i have this place where i can go (a place of calm) - but still i need help there is no way to make it all by myself -you see… Read More

Emergent Justice: Dismantling The School -to- Prison Pipeline

Leslie Cieplechowicz – Ventra Asana: Creating Bird Meadows within Detroit

“As an ecology minister, one who situates the value of earthcare at the center of my ministerial calling, I believe that the protection of nature is a divine mandate, not… Read More

Russ Bellant: Tax Abuse in the City

The fight for tax justice in Detroit affects every resident of the city. You are subject to tax injustices if: you pay property taxes or a water bill, or if… Read More

Jennifer Disla: Who does America Belong to…

America founded through oppression Built its capital on Black Bodies Yet Pilgrims came in search of religious freedom But whose freedom Who decides what freedom means Who decides which religion… Read More

Mediterranean Fire Project, Curated by Habibah Sheikh

These works were created in response to poetic texts written by Habibah Sheikh, a nomadic performance artist originally from Lebanon, and curator of the exhibition Mitli Mitlak (Like Me, Like… Read More

Rev. Deb Hansen: Perspectives from the People’s Conference for Palestine

On the last weekend this past May, the People’s Conference for Palestine: Our Struggle for Liberation was held at Huntington Place in Detroit. Convened by fifteen organizations, the conference drew… Read More

Bill Wylie-Kellerman: Book Review -No Guilty Bystander: The Extraordinary Life of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton by Frank Fromherz and Suzanne Sattler

In a fitting coincidence of gospel nonviolence, Detroit Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, 94, crossed over to God in fullness on April 4, 2024, the anniversary of the assassination of Martin… Read More

Tawana Petty: Alchemizing Violence

Purveyors of violence Do not goad us into peace They distribute ammunition In biometric vending machines They coerce cult retribution Erode all sensibilities Oblivious to the Frankensteins Alchemized inside their… Read More

Laura Bailey Brandon: Island

For thousands of years you were a sacred place to the Anisshanabee. A marshy peninsula hugged by the clear waters of a mighty river. An entry point for those passing… Read More

Myrtle Thompson-Curtis and Aminah Thompson: The Feedom Freedom Growers Youth Enrichment Program (Y.E.P)

This is a collaborative article written by Myrtle Thompson-Curtis and her granddaughter, Aminah Thompson (18). In 2009 the Manistique Community Garden was started on the west side of Detroit. After… Read More

kim d. hunter: when

when you blame yourself for bills and bad actors that flood your living space on the regular, that seep through holes in your pocket as the robots of repossession block… Read More

Gabrielle Knox and Josmine Evans: Sowing Stories Through The Soil; Reaping JOY As We Grow

What is theJOYproject? More than a community garden, though not exactly a farm; theJOYproject is more what we see to be a living archive of Afro-Atlantic agriculture and foodways. Now… Read More

Nickie Van Lier: Who Pays for Environmental Quality in Detroit? Stormwater Management, Water Affordability, and the “83/17 Split”

Few Detroiters would be surprised to learn that water rates in the city have increased by 400% since the early 2000s. Although this statistic is staggering, Detroiters have been confronted… Read More

Riverwise Community ‘Zine Making At The Potluck Detroit: Perfect In Our Imperfections: Creating With Our Hearts and Hands

This past Memorial Day, Riverwise collaborated with the folks from The Talking Dolls Studio on the Eastside of Detroit to host a zine making event at their annual community art… Read More

We demand freedom for all US-held Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War!

"It is extremely essential to support our political prisoners and prisoners of war. How else do we show our appreciation for their selfless labors and sacrifice on behalf of us… Read More

There should be no exception to the promise

Slavery was supposed to have ended with the end of the Civil War and the creation and ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. It was supposed to enshrine a… Read More

Accountability and Transparency Now! How Detroiters Can Leverage Their Right to Civilian Oversight

Civilian Oversight in Detroit Today The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) was established in 1974 to provide civilian oversight of the Detroit Police Department. The Office of the Chief… Read More

I don’t know your ocean, but I know our lakes

I don’t know your ocean, but I know our lakes. And I imagine the love I have for my lake is the same as you have for your ocean. I… Read More

What Happens When You Uproot a Cedar Tree?

what happens when you uproot a cedar tree? when the stories kept captive in its trunk lie dormant in the arab spring what happens when the roots have absorbed the… Read More

A Call to Social Justice Movements & Organizations: Build collective safety AND fight the carceral state and state-sanctioned violence

More info here! https://www.muslimsforjustfutures.org/blog/acalltosocialjusticemovements Read More

Creating Other Worlds: Abolition As A Portal To The Possible

Many of us are familiar with the idea of abolition from history lessons that link it with the fight to end chattel slavery in the United States. However, given this… Read More

What We’re Reading, Watching, Listening To

A Few Organizations Feeding, Fighting For, Helping to Heal Our Environment & Community

Arboretum Detroit arbdetroit.org Black To The Land Coalition blacktothelandcoalition.com Capuchin Kitchen Earthworks Urban Farm cskdetroit.org/earthworks Clean Water Campaign For Michigan michigancleanwater.org Citizen’s Resistance At Fermi 2 - https://www.shutdownfermi.org Detroit Black… Read More

Who’s Energy? Our Energy! The People’s Power Program Uplifts Activism, Advocacy And Agency in Creating Just Utility Policies

In Fall 2021, DTE Energy, which serves 2.3 million customers across Southeast Michigan, put $50,000 in dark money into the narrative campaign which helped to tank Proposal P. Proposal P,… Read More

no single path through the mountains

Ali Gali (they/them): I am a queer, non-binary artist, cultural organizer, and space-maker from Antakya, Turkey. In my visual practice and poetry, I trace entanglements of bodies, spirits, and… Read More

Where is the Sun? How Climate Change has Changed the Mental Health of Children

On June 26, 2023, the sky did not look right. It was red, full of smoke, and you could not see the sun. There was an alert for high air… Read More

Mapping Detroit’s Buried Waterways – Part I: Finding the creeks

When I first moved to Detroit in 2014, my orientation to navigate to work, the grocery store, the theater, indeed anywhere I wanted to go, was centered around the freeway… Read More

Co-Authored Futures: Youth-led Design-build

On a cloudless summer day in late July, twenty high school students attending Lawrence Tech’s summer architecture camp board a bus from the LTU campus in Southfield bound for Detroit’s… Read More