Organic Activist - A Poem

By: Will Copeland
We’re growing our organic activists
No Propaganda and No preservatives
We’re growing with the weeds and cabbages
Taking out the Neo-conservatives

Where Are We Going? Backwards or Forward?

By: Rich Feldman
I have read about half of the book: “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken.
Thanks, Grace and Shea, for pushing this book. It is the first book that begins to explain to me why so many of the young people in and around Detroit Summer have moved beyond the thinking of the New and Old [...]

Allied Media Conference 2008

The 10th annual Allied Media Conference, entitled Evolution Beyond Survival: Media Strategies for the Next Ten Years, will be held in Detroit from June 20-22. If you don’t know about this conference, and you are interested in Detroit, movement building and/or your role in the future of media, it’s time to do your research.
Register [...]

Relevant For Whom? A look at curriculum and culture.

By: Evan Major
Everyone knows Hamtramck is a contemporary melting pot. Some ingredients mingle in the bowels of the pot to form an exquisite and passionate flavor never before tasted. Some rise to the top as the proverbial cream, allowing the best elements of the cacophony to influence their ascendance. Yet some, despite [...]

Living for Change: Obama and MLK

by Grace Lee Boggs
[This article first appeared in the Michigan Citizen, Jan. 20-26, 2008. Then it was published on Saturday, April 5, 2008 by YES! Magazine and appeared on commondreams.org]
The new energies being unleashed by Barack Obama hold great promise. In his person and prose Obama embodies the achievements of the movements of the 20th [...]

A White Man’s View of Obama’s Race Speech

By Matt Birkhold
[giantmag.com originally featured this article on March 27, 2008]
My father has been a “Jesse Jackson is a pain in the ass” Republican since at least the Carter years. I was shocked to hear that he plans on voting for Barack Obama.
Up until very recently I’ve felt like I pretty much had my people [...]

Hope for Detroit

By: Larry Gabriel
[This article was featured in the MetroTimes, Detroit's free weekly alternative, on 3/26/08. Grace Lee Boggs and Ron Scott, both members of the Detroit City of Hope campaign, take an alternative position on the resolution of the Detroit's mayoral scandal.]
May you live in interesting times. Things are so interesting in Detroit right [...]

Emerald City: Detroit Featured in O Magazine

This month Oprah’s Magazine highlighted the burgeoning urban agricultural movement here in Detroit. O Magazine reported on the innovative educational practices of Catherine Ferguson High School, a school for teenage mothers, which also is the site of a “most unlikely and inspiring sight….an urban farm that is almost breathtaking in its scope.”
Read the full [...]

The Next American Revolution

The Next American Revolution
By Grace Lee Boggs
Left Forum Closing Plenary, Cooper Union,
New York, March 16, 2008
I have decided to talk about the next American Revolution because I
believe it is not only the key to global survival but also the most
important step we can take in this period to build a [...]

Yes, We Can - A Poem

Back in February, Detroit City of Hope held two events called MLK’s Words, Our Conversations. Those that gathered explored how Martin Luther King’s legacy should impact our current work in Detroit. During the event, we divided into small groups and used activities to engage certain themes. Those of us in the [...]