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

Listen to the whole interview at Podcast - Riverwise Magazine Read More

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

a riot is a prayer is a maybe is a yes—

a riot is a prayer is a maybe is a yes— (in praise of refusal, of the dark, of “yes;” in praise of every unknown regarding the world to be… Read More

Detroit x Stop Cop City Solidarity Statement

Keepers of The Straits: Heart Of The Turtle Tribal treaty rights, sovereignty and the fight against Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline

Keepers of The Straits: Heart Of The Turtle: Tribal treaty rights, sovereignty and the fight against Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline By Hadassah GreenSky (Little Traverse Bay Bands of Chippewa and Odawa… Read More

Detroit Love-n-War

Detroit Love-n-War by Poem by Rosemarie Wilson a.k.a One Single Rose The Spirit of Ðetroit’s head bows in shame. Uninviting images broadcast through the idiot box and the tangled web they’ve… Read More

Fists Clenched, Hearts Wide Open: Countering state based narratives of violence and nonviolence

One in four (25%) of Black trans and nonbinary young people reported a suicide attempt in the past year. Black Americans at every age die at an earlier age than… Read More

Mutual Aid In Michigan

Photo by Laura Bailey Brandon Community Support Networks & Services Alternatives for Girls: alternativesforgirls.org Back Alley Bikes: backalleybikes.org Black To the Land Coalition: On FB @ BlackToTheLandCoalition Church of the… Read More

Cold Turkey

Photo by Laura BaileyBrandon taken on the North Country Trail in Wilderness State Park (Carp Lake MI) A retrospective of the author’s last six years, retiring from community activism in… Read More

Ready, Set, Listen!

Dr. Martin Reinhardt is president of the Michigan Indian Education Council, lead singer, and songwriter for the band Waawiyayaa (The Circle). He is a tenured professor of Native American Studies… Read More

1954 / 2022

“Separate and unequal” Has an evil sequel: The devilish creation Of racial segregation Is abject subjugation And clear discrimination. So found ‘Brown Versus Board of Education.’ True reconciliation And total… Read More

Compassion, Solidarity, Care: Detroit-Area Youth Respond to the Pandemic

“Oh my god I can’t believe my teacher just . . .” “Y’all see this tweet from the superintendent?” “When’s winter break start?” “They just changed up my schedule and… Read More

Stewardship as Ownership

Participants in action at the Build a Chair = Reframe a House workshop, Detroit Reuse Collective. Editor’s Note: Note: A previous version of the essay was published in Log 54 Centering… Read More

Back Alley Bikes brings year ‘round riding to the Motor City

Detroit is a bike town. With its flat, often lightly traveled streets, it's bike riding weather all year round. People embrace their bikes, bringing their own flavor and style to… Read More

The Dreams That Called Me Home

I dream of a resting place. Systems are crumbling. The powers are wreaking havoc. The climate is in crisis. It is enough to make you weep. Enough to make you… Read More

I Know Women

I know women who are tall women, even while sleeping their spirits rise to the occasion; I know women with mountainous cheekbones that serve as steeples for the light of… Read More