Rehearsing the Future
a book launch featuring Mike Doan

We are delighted to invite you to the Rehearsing the Future book launch event on the official day of the book’s publication by AK Press!

Tuesday, Oct. 27

6pm

Source Booksellers

4240 Cass Ave.

RSVP

James and Grace Lee Boggs were two of the most influential American radical thinkers of the twentieth century. Over more than forty years of partnership in labor, civil rights, Black Power, anticolonial, and feminist movements, the Boggses articulated a philosophy of long-term revolutionary strategy called “dialectical humanism.” Rejecting state socialism and traditional Marxism, dialectical humanism instead attributes social change to the conscious, collective activity of people engaged in place-based organizing with a view to transforming everyday life.

In Rehearsing the Future, Michael Doan lays out the intellectual history of dialectical humanism, the far-reaching theory and practice that continues to guide movement-building around the world, inspiring forms of activism such as visionary organizing and emergent strategy.

For the Detroit launch, Michael will be joined by fellow Boggs Center Council member Stephen M. Ward for a wide-ranging conversation on what it means to rehearse the future today.

Source Booksellers will be selling copies of the book at the event. But also, order copies here.

Faith Against Empire
Reflections on Courage, Hope, and Memory

A conversation in 2 Segments with Rev Naomi Tutu, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas & Charlene Walker

WATCH IT HERE

The March for Palestine
reflections from Valerie Jean

The March for Palestine was held at South Peace Park in Dearborn on October 10. Hundreds of people gathered to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza.

On October 14, just four days after millions of people around the world marched to demand an end to the genocide, a two-year-old girl named Mariam Ghanem sat in her bed at 4 a.m. and watched as her mother burn to death following an Israeli strike.

Paramedics pulled Mariam from the flames. She miraculously survived, suffering third-degree burns. Her father was killed by Israel in December 2023.

Hospital aid workers refer to children like Mariam as WCNSF: “Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.”

After the attack, Mariam kept repeating the same heartbreaking words:

“I want my mum.”

“My body hurts.”

“There was a lot of fire.”

The Gaza Strip currently has one of the highest rates of child amputees per capita in the world, with between 3,105 and 4,050 limb amputations reported since October 2023. Many amputations have been performed without adequate anesthesia because Gaza is an open air prison under occupation since the 1940s.

Truckloads of lifesaving food, medical supplies, baby formula, wheelchairs, and other basic necessities remain stuck at Israeli checkpoints, while people in Gaza struggle to access the resources they need to survive. Gaza has endured decades of blockade, occupation, and restrictions on movement.

The occupation, displacement, and persecution of the Palestinian people began decades ago. For the past three years, we have watched a livestreamed genocide on our phones.

I will never understand the hatred in the hearts of those who deny this suffering or turn away from it.

Exist Differently
the latest from Visionary Organizing Lab

• Reimagining Land: Creating Community Land Trusts | How might we create stable housing that produces strong neighborhoods? In the two-hour program, Raychel Gadson will lead a deep dive into Community Land Trusts to help you determine if a CLT is right for reimagining housing and land where you live. Pay-what you-can registration here

• Imagine the Future | How do we change people's minds about what's possible? When we learn to imagine new possibilities and create visions that help others see what’s possible, we can show rather than tell them what's possible. In this 3-part workshop, participants will learn how to create visions and share them with others. Pay-what-you-can registration here

• Listen Differently | Armand Van Helden -  Flowers | LISTEN HERE

• Read Differently | Matt Birkhold- Black Power Praxis: Theory, Practice, and Activist Intellectuals in Detroit's Black Power Movement | GRAB A COPY HERE

We Watched the Footage, Now We Demand Accountability
The body cam footage of Alonzo’s shooting is out. Now we need you in the courtroom on Tuesday

The body camera footage is out.

And now you can see what we’ve been saying since June 22: Alonzo Lee-Perkins was shot in the back while running away.

No weapon brandished. No threat to officers or the public. Just an 18-year-old father, fleeing for his life, and a cop named David Gonzales who fired three shots into his back, shoulder, and buttocks.

READ MORE

READ THE PRESS RELEASE

Statement on Flock and Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)
presented by the Coalition for Police Transparency + Accountability

Almost every person driving, biking or walking around Detroit has their image captured by Flock cameras. These cameras are generally attached to traffic lights and bridges with the capability to record not only the license plates of cars but details from distinctive bumper stickers to dents. The cameras also record clothing on people. All of this can then be searched with the help of AI to track and document our movements.

READ MORE

Alive in the End Times
letters from Peter

Last week I was privileged to be part of a gathering that brought ten younger activists together with ten movement elders at a beautiful mountaintop retreat center.

With the world on fire and a major U.S. election just days away, it might seem like an indulgence and a luxury for us to go away to a place of repose at which the very stones and trees seem to be rejoicing. But finding healing connection to those stones and healing connection to each other turned out to be just what we needed—what we will always need, in fact — in order to be of use in the wider world.

READ MORE

Radical Reflections
artist talk with Raina Rising

Riverwise Magazine and BYP100 Detroit are partnering on a monthly series called Radical Reflections / Artist Talks — featuring writers and artists from Riverwise's latest editions in collective reading, artist conversation, and community discussion.

Their first featured writer is Raina Rising — writer, birthworker, Abọriṣa, abolitionist, and mother — on her piece "Movement Meditations."

This isn't a lecture. It's a collective reading and honest conversation.

We'll read from Raina's piece together, hear her reflect on her writing process and why she authored it, and open the floor for community discussion. We'll explore:

• What it means to center parents and children in movement spaces

• The demands of motherhood in a society that does not honor or respect mothers — especially Black mothers

• Safety, trust, and community agreements required to build multigenerational movements

• Chosen family, expansive kinship, and the work of village-rearing

• What it takes to build a strong, multigenerational movement in Detroit and beyond

Raina writes: "The demands of motherhood and fear around a lack of safety and care have often kept me distant. I'm moving beyond self-blame and isolation and feeling like I don't belong. I'm moving to creativity and thinking about how to expand my village to include more chosen family and soft places to land."

We're asking the same question together.

Wednesday, Oct. 21

6-8pm

27th Letter Books

3546 Michigan Ave

For the Love of Film
a monthly film screening experience

Please join the Detroit Justice Center and the LOVE Building for For The Love Of Film, featuring three short films exploring justice, family, community, and resilience through powerful stories.

The event will feature "No Exception to the Promise", a powerful short film that exposes how exceptions in Michigan's Constitution have allowed exploitation to persist through mass incarceration and prison labor.The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring filmmaker Marcus Kelley

Thursday, Oct. 29

6-8pm

The LOVE Building

4731 Grand River Ave.

LEARN MORE + RSVP

The People’s Potluch
prepare to care

The Riverwise Collective has partnered with BYP100 Detroit, The Grand River Community Block Club, Ride With Purpose, CRAFT - Citizens Resistance Against Fermi Two, Democratic Socialists of America Detroit, and General Strike Detroit to bring you The People’s Potluck!

Join them for an afternoon of preparing to care! We’ll break bread together as you’ll hear from local poets, make zines, create art with @keneegokeshekstudio, enjoy music, and learn ways to prepare for any situation.

Bring a dish (with all ingredients noted) if you can, and please bring anyone who could use shelf-stable food, blankets, personal hygiene items, Diapers, or new socks.

Donations will be accepted at the event. We are putting together a list of donation drop of sites throughout Detroit and will post them soon so you can drop off donations ahead of time. We will be collecting shelf-stable foods, diapers, wipes, personal hygiene products, new socks, gently used or new blankets, first aid supplies, warm coats, backpacks, candles, flash lights, and emergency preparedness supplies for our free store.

There will be Riverwise Magazines, social justice publications, zines, and stickers for you to take home.

If you have any questions, would like to share your talents (music, poetry, etc.), or would like to contribute in any way, please email Riverwise at riverwiseinthed@gmail.com or contact Valerie Jean at 313-704-5150.

Saturday, Nov. 14

1-4pm

Central United Methodist Church

23 E. Adams, 2nd floor (on the corner of Woodward and E. Adams)

For the past two years, Detroit People’s Food Co-op (DPFC) has served as a model of community-ownership, cooperative economics and Black Food Sovereignty. We have endured personnel changes, equipment failures, vandalism and escalating food prices.  While we are currently generating close to $3 million in annual sales, we need to significantly increase sales to become sustainable.

To support the store’s urgent and immediate cashflow needs and to build the community support needed for the Co-op to survive and thrive, the DPFC Board of Directors has launched the Mframadan Campaign. Mframadan is one of many Adinkra symbols used by the Akan peoples of Ghana, West Africa.  The meaning of the symbol translates into English as “a house built to withstand windy and treacherous conditions.”

They are asking our community to support the Mframadan Campaign in one or more of the following ways:

• Become a member/owner of Detroit People’s Food Co-op and encourage three friends to do the same.  We are seeking to recruit 500 new member/owners.

• Shop at Detroit People’s Food Co-op regularly.  If you are already a shopper, and are able, increase your purchase amount by an additional $10 each time you shop. If you have been intending to shop at DPFC and have not yet done so, now is the time! We need your support!

• For those who are able to invest $1,000 or more, contact them at invest@detroitpeoplesfoodcoop.com about becoming an investor in our Non-Voting Investment Certificate Program.

• Schedule an opportunity for a DPFC rep to talk with your church, block club, fraternity, sorority, social club, or community organization about the Co-op’s community-ownership model by emailing moc@detroitpeoplesfoodcoop.com

• Donate to our online fundraiser at https://gofund.me/e32302e6d
  
  

The Mframadan Campaign runs from September 8 – November 30, 2026.