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.

Healing Justice Lineages
featuring Curtis Renee

This interview features Curtis Renee, Co-founder and Director of the Detroit Safety Team and Co-lead of Black Lives Matter Detroit. 

In this interview, Curtis speaks on the work of Detroit Safety Team, a community-based organization that helps create new safety infrastructure without relying on police. By centering the experiences and needs of those most vulnerable, such as Black women and Black youth, Curtis’ interview offers how we get closer to redefining safety.

Curtis highlights several tools and practices used by the Detroit Safety Team, including Pod Mapping—a strategy developed by the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) and Mia Mingus of SOIL Transformative Justice Project. Pod Mapping helps individuals and communities identify and articulate their support systems in moments of crisis, fostering mutual aid networks and enhancing community resilience. The interview also discusses the Detroit Safety Team’s two-year fellowship program, which offers deep learning and training in navigating conflict and reimagining safety. This fellowship empowers community members by bringing language to local leaders already doing the work, offering them the space to reflect, enhance their skills and share their knowledge more widely.

WATCH IT HERE

Who Really Benefits from the Renaissance Center Deal? Teron Haynes is Fighting for Detroiters
the latest from Detroit is Different

“I really love black people.” That simple declaration tells you plenty about Teron Haynes., but his journey to advocating for Detroiters is anything but simple. His father instilled a love for Black people, while his mother’s advocacy for his two younger brothers with autism demonstrated what lifelong commitment looks like. Now serving on the Renaissance Center and East Riverfront Projects Neighborhood Advisory Council, Teron is questioning who benefits when billions in development reshape Detroit’s riverfront. His conviction is clear: “Detroiters don't deserve it,” when development creates harm instead of opportunity. Hear why representation means more than having a seat at the table.

WATCH IT HERE

More from Detroit is Different:

• Why Local Elections Matter More Sheila Cockrel on Power Politics and the People of Detroit - WATCH IT HERE

How to Build a Movement
featuring Rich Wallace

Co-hosts of AirGo sat with Rich Wallace, a brilliant organizer who has built EAT Chicago, a non-profit, community-led organization founded by and for post-incarcerated people.

LISTEN HERE

What we can build when we own something together
Southwest Voices on community owned gardens

What can we build when we stop waiting for someone else to build it for us?

I’ve been thinking about that question a lot.

We often talk about what our communities need. More affordable housing. Better access to healthy food. Safer streets. More opportunities for young people. More places to gather.

READ MORE

An Empathy Coalition
the latest from Starhawk

As tense and anxious as these last weeks are, leading up in the midterms, one of their worst aspects is the constant barrage of attack ads and outright lies coming mostly, but not exclusively, from the Republicans. One of Trump’s most destructive legacies, apart from his policies, might be his normalization of bullying, cruelty, and outright nastiness. I feel for parents of young children these days. How do you teach your five-year-old that it’s not okay to call names or tell lies when the President does it multiple times a day?

READ MORE

Curbing Cancerous Capitalism
an organizing challenge for the Ages

A recent public webinar presented in tribute to the late great Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. on his birthday reminded me that this latter-day prophet often invited us to use his term, “plantation capitalism,” to describe how things really work in the U.S. economy.

In using this expression, Lawson did not mean to suggest that contemporary wealth creation depends on actual slavery—on human trafficking—although to some degree it clearly does. What he meant is that the economic operating system we inherit, in which mostly white men and white-adjacent men enjoy unlimited freedom to exploit others, is built upon a foundation laid by centuries of chattel slavery: centuries during which the default wage was zero.

READ MORE

Talks and Shepherds’ Field
the latest from Human Rights Newsletter

This is a 12 min film about the Shepherds' Field settlement in the West Bank. The settlement, authorised by the Israeli government last November, threatens the 11,000 Christian population living next door in Beit Sahour (my town). This is home to an ancient Christian community dating back to the first followers of Christ. At Shepherds Field, Angel Gabriel appeared to the shepherds before they hurried a mile up the road to worship the baby Messiah. It is listed as a sacred Christian site in the Status Quo.

READ MORE

For the Love of Film
a monthly film screening experience

Please join the Detroit Justice Center and the LOVE Building on Thursday, October 29th from 6 –8 p.m. for For The Love Of Film, featuring three short films exploring justice, family, community, and resilience through powerful stories. The event is free and open to the public. 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

Kinfolk
memory workers meetup from Black Bottom Archives

This month BBA will be gathering at The Love Building for their Kinfolk Memory Workers Meetup, where we will share Genealogy and Family history tips including interview best practices, research tools, and documentation preservation and storage resources.

Thursday, Oct. 29

6-8pm

The LOVE Building

4731 Grand River Ave.

LEARN MORE + RSVP

Freedom Train
a theater of the oppressed workshop

In this workshop, you will use the Art and Agency model—creative practice linked to community dialogue—and methods drawn from Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants will explore common ground among communities whose bodies and identities have experienced intensive policing, including formerly incarcerated people, transgender people, and people facing mental health challenges.

Facilitators will include formerly incarcerated members of the Art and Agency group as well as participants from the Trans Advocacy Theater Collective and Detroit Peer Respite.

Monday, November 2

6-9pm

UM Detroit Center

3663 Woodward Ave, Ste. 150

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)