In light of recent events, let me be open/clear via a loose timeline of my undergrad experience (in the context of student activism): Spring 2012 Freshman year at Eastern Michigan University Attend my first rally compliments of EMU-NAACP in protest of the murder of Trayvon Martin This is the first time I ever hear the…
Eastern Michigan University cops and administrators gushed to the press yesterday that they’d found a man on whom to pin the acts of racist vandalism that occurred on campus last year, and the mugshot they sent around showed him to be Black. More than 60 people have been interviewed and a reward of $10,000…
[Editor’s note: this zine was written by the Abolition Research Group. Download a printable PDF here.] For a brief moment, it appeared that state and federal officials were ready to reform the U.S. policing system. In March 2015, President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing issued its recommendations to police departments nationally, to address…
Reception Friday, October 6, 4:00–6:00 p.m. Lane Hall, 204 State St., Ann Arbor Featuring photographs by accomplished filmmaker and writer Nancy De Los Santos, Chicano Fotos offers a striking depiction of struggles for social justice among Mexican Americans in the 1970s. The exhibit, which makes its way to Lane Hall from Wayne State University’s Walter…
When worlds collide! The LA Weekly ran a story today entitled “Boyle Heights Event by I Love Dick Author Canceled After Pressure from Activists.” Anti-gentrification group Defend Boyle Heights captioned an image of the Weekly article this way for their Instagram feed: Chris Kraus, Semiotext(e), 356 S. Mission Rd. were all reached out to…
The story of greater downtown Detroit’s redevelopment is well-known. The New York Times calls us the “comeback city” and says our downtown “roars.” The Detroit Free Press characterized Midtown’s turnaround and spike in property values as “insane.“ Crain’s Detroit Business recently highlighted the ongoing “development rush” in downtown in which investment figures “jump off the…
[Editor’s note: the following was written by Justice Looks Like …] Video of a 16-year-old, black Ann Arbor resident named Ciaeem Slaton being violently handcuffed by an Ann Arbor Police Department (AAPD) officer has been circulating on social media since September 27, 2017. According to the police department, a fight among 15–20 youth had taken place prior to the video, but witnesses have shared that Ciaeem was not at the bus stop until after the fight dispersed. Police officers told youth to leave the bus stop, while many youth were shouting “Fuck the police” and “Fuck cops.” Community members also…
Syllabus by School of Echoes This syllabus starts from the assumption that housing is a human right, that every person has the right to a safe and affordable place to live. Housing is much more than shelter: it is our connection to our communities, even our sense of self. This syllabus draws together a host of readings that explore the profound contradictions between the economic use of housing—for profit and speculation—and this social use. We, School of Echoes, a multi-racial and multi-generational autonomous collective of organizers, teachers, and sometimes artists, have collected this research in support of a practice of…
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