Spring Issue 24

2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Tried to Join the Police Force; It Was Toxic.

There is a famous quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which goes “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” It is one that… Read More

Confessions of a Former Cop

It’s a hard pill to swallow when you are used for bad, Trying to go against the grain but you get why people are mad. The boys in blue represent… Read More

A Police Department with a City

Illustration by Amanda Matyas Israel has been called “not a country with an army, but an army with a country.” The proliferation of military equipment, tactics and culture… Read More

Care: A Revolutionary Idea for Responding to Crises

Photo by lance hicks Late one night, Grey received a call from a nurse informing him that his sibling had been forcibly injected with an antipsychotic after an altercation with… Read More

Song for Weelaunee

As helicopters chopped the sky above our heads and tear gas drifted on the breeze, police blocked an entrance to the massive law enforcement training facility they’re determined to build… Read More

Defend ALL or Defund ALL! Tales from a 70 year old #BadAssGrandma

Ok, so I’m not your everyday elder white lady. People often question what led me to be so involved in movement work. They wonder at this fierce older white lady… Read More

Concerts at The Cut and Jazzin’ at the Vanity

“Live music is the beating heart of our city. People look forward to engaging with it. It intertwines itself seamlessly into every facet of our identity. Beyond good eats, our… Read More

RESTLESS DEFIANCE

Yes we are nervous about tomorrow, about the future. Yes we care, and we carry the load. Yes we are insistent on a better world because we know it exists. … Read More

A New Threat to Anishinaabe territory: Transition Mines and The Green(washed) Talon Mine

A new era of corporate extraction is upon us, this time with a deceptive “green” veil. In the midst of the climate crisis, mining companies are positioning themselves as beneficiaries… Read More

Goliath Brown

Never knew equality after being subjected to prejudices spent worldwide. Chocolate, mahogany, sienna, hazel or olive, my actions have always been typified by the darkness of my skin. Perceived as… Read More

Be A lover Coloring Page

Printable coloring page! Please print it, color it, share it, and tag Riverise! Konstance Patton Ke-nee-go-keshek is an Indigenous American Artist, Muralist, Designer, and Oral Historian working between Detroit, Michigan,… Read More

So Much Bad News

Sometimes, when you get so much bad news you struggle to sort through it. What should be prioritized, what’s the point? Do I choose to report on the lady whose… Read More

Reflections on Mutual Aid: Mother Earth’s Call to Action for Regeneration

Living cooperatively is no easy task. As humans, we are all one species but we all have distinct fingerprints. This duality between self and group based identities might lead one… Read More

The State of the Young – The Young Voices Action Collective: Building New Realities, One Dream at a Time

Do you remember the dreams you had for the world when you were a child? What barriers kept you from making them a reality? Are they the same ones keeping… Read More

Art by Nicole Miazgowicz

Artist Statement: These pieces are based on a camping trip I took to Iceland a few years ago. I couldn't believe how varied the landscape was - sometimes even within… Read More

#DefendMassaferYatta! We Will Not Be Erased: Creating Community & Building Resistance One Artwork At a Time.

"Nakba" is the Arabic word for catastrophe. It refers to the violent expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from their land on May 15, 1948. From May 26 - June 17th… Read More

The Balance of Relationship & Responsibility in the Climate Crisis

By Malu Castro & Michelle Martinez, This paper was adapted from a talk given at Detroit’s 2023 Concert of Colors in 2023 and builds on ideas we are teaching at… Read More

Permitting Pollution

Siyo, greetings and good day. Jesse Deer In Water here, organizer and speaker for Citizens’ Resistance At Fermi Two (CRAFT). CRAFT is an Indigenous-led, intergenerational, multi-racial, and cross-cultural grassroots organization… Read More

A Story of Hope

Hope was a young girl who lived in the land of Gladness. Hope's hair was made of sunshine; her freckles were bits of stardust. Hope's meals came from the Spring… Read More

Lights Out

Darkness. Scamper to the window, Swipe aside the dusty curtain. I am not the only one looking out into the night. I hold one of the sets of eyes straining… Read More

Time

We are gone in ourselves. One second we try and avoid knocking down the spider’s web, only to walk right through it a minute later, unnoticed. We are cut like… Read More

Global Heating and Climate Destabilization: The Basics in Context

“No transformation without a crisis.” - Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes This year is already the hottest year on record. When I share photos and stories about my work in a… Read More

‘Nam and After: William E. Langford III

Young, with lead capped molars, his curling fro is close cropped, kept close, like many a revolutionary called up back then for exigent circumstances: to rumble in a jungle… Read More

praise to the dandelion

praise to the dandelion i too am a low thing, refusing. i too am a gentle summer light waking in the season of disbelief. Gentle to my brothers who spring… Read More

There is NO Climate Justice Without Disability Justice: Centering the Wisdom and Strength of Surviving a World Not Built With You in Mind

At first thought, it may not be obvious how disability justice is critical to climate justice, but once you dig in, there are crucial points of intersection. First of all,… Read More

Scheming And Dreaming: Public Art As Activism, Advocacy and Youth Actualization

Meet Cover Artist T’onna Clemmons “Koriand'r's love for plants and planets developed with each journey she took. She read up on tips and tricks of growing healthy plants and experimented… Read More

It Takes a Little Change to Make BIG Change

Are Capitalism and Militarism Really The Hills We Want To Die On? Choosing life over death in the fight for global liberation

On June 27th, 2023, Detroiters and folks across SE Michigan woke up unable to see more than a few yards down the road and to reports that the city had… Read More