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

Will Michigan become a Sanctuary State for Reproductive Freedom?

On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court ruled against constitutional protections for the right to receive an abortion. For one this ruling has massive implications for bodily autonomy… Read More

Existence Over Living

Poverty stirs me awake. I press to the window for a ray of sun to hit my upturned face. I see the cool waters of Spring bubbling up through the… Read More

An Understory – for St Peters

beneath the high altar, where icons watch, flicker in candleflame, direct below, and precisely so, a kitchen stovetop flames for decades, bringing to boil a rotation of hearty soups (confess… Read More

The Language of Waters Speaks to Us All

I believe that art is a universal language. It is a form of communication that every individual can understand, no matter their origin, no matter the language that rolls off… Read More

Nexus (Mackinac Bridge)

“Nexus” Original Photograph by William T. Langford IV What they don't tell you about bridge-building is that it’s all about the rivets. You see, the industrial strength braided steel cables and iron bar-reinforced… Read More

Legacies of Mutual Aid in the Rising Tide

In June 2021, tens of thousands of homes were flooded as massive and unprecedented rainfall in Detroit met inadequate and disinvested water and energy infrastructure. The highways filled to the… Read More

Fly

fly for Detroit u Fly so fly back fly black to industrial complexes feeding on soul food lick fingers till they drip poems till they raise souls unfinished rebuke anyone… Read More

Riverwise Turns 5!

We’ve Always Been All We Need: Mutual Aid As Radical Co-Conspiratorship Throughout History

There is something irresistible about being a part of spaces aimed at overthrowing systems which pit human beings against one another. From passionate debates in community centers over strategic visions… Read More

Case study 4 – Detroit’s Right to Counsel Victory Shows the Power of the People

Photographer is Adrienne D. Warren, Mrktg Consultant & Publicist People in the photo are Rea Maci, Bonsitu Kitaba, Tonya Myers Phillips, Mary Sheffield, Chinelo Onuigbo, Banke Llori, and Evan Villeneuve… Read More

Case Study 3 – One Detroiter Looks Back: The Long Struggle for Cleaner Air

Photography by kim d. hunter Work to shut down the Detroit trash incinerator- at one point, the largest in the world- began even before the monstrosity was built. Three decades,… Read More

Case study 2 – Knowing what keeps us safe: A report on the Green Lights Black Future’s Community Safety Survey

Photography by Rebecca Smith Graphic Images Designed by Lauren Williams. Knowing what keeps us safe: A report on the Green Light Black Futures Community Safety Survey Since Project Green Light… Read More

Case Study 1 – “We Deserve a Say, too”

A Valerie Jean Blakely photo Photo Description: A few of the amazing youth leaders from the ECN Youth group after a Riverwise Writing Workshop held at the ECN. Pictured from… Read More

CAN YOU SEE ME

I greet family, friends and strangers with a sunny smile, dressed in my best attire, they glance at me and say, “You look good.” Not seeing me as they could.… Read More