Hey There Friends! Welcome to this season of rebirth, of the warming soil and highways of Detroit lined with explosions of yellow forsythia flowers. This summer Owólabi Aboyade, Planet Detroit, and I are co-creating a project that invites creative reflections and imaginings of metro Detroit’s social ecology. We will produce and commission several place-based art … Continue reading CALL FOR ART & STORIES
The Locality of Love: Digging a Grave for Banjo
This essay was written on August 25th, 2020 The house shakes as a huge truck carrying parts and raw materials to an auto plant goes by. My whole body is aching with grief at the passing of my dog friend of 12 years, Banjo. Banjo and I had a really special relationship—we both loved exploring … Continue reading The Locality of Love: Digging a Grave for Banjo
Weak (love is)
https://www.youtube.com/embed/GN_E5i08KP8 Recently I produced a music video for a healing justice anthem from Detroit by my dear friend Will See, featuring Adela 'Noble Snows' Nieves Martinez Produced by Matthew Cross for Rise Like Lions Productions. The video premiered during the REMOooOTE Telepresence Healing Festival: From the North End to the Multiverse Winter Solstice Celebration produced … Continue reading Weak (love is)
CALL FOR ART: LIFE IN THE CRACKS
The A.W.E. Society and Planet Detroit’s Detroiters Do Science Project are pleased to announce an open call for photos, artwork, writing, or surveys of sidewalk botany! The ecosystems nearby have always known how to make do, even in difficult circumstances — finding ways of thriving in a world of concrete and mowed lawns. Rebellious weeds persist and … Continue reading CALL FOR ART: LIFE IN THE CRACKS
Sacrificial Landscape Painting
As I drove through Northern Michigan, I passed an area with a lot of recent deforestation and a vast checkerboard of oil derricks, and then, of course a confederate flag hung proudly along-side its sister flag- the flag of the republic of Amerika. Land of the free and the brave? https://youtu.be/kOkKvCfPn_4 Painting in a forest … Continue reading Sacrificial Landscape Painting
The Infinite Detail of this Place and Time
https://youtu.be/N0bCBrp_YYo A live performance by Virago & The A.W.E. Society at the Duderstadt video studio in Ann Arbor Michigan, on January 31st 2020. Full performance here.
The truth of my being here
I’m lying in the overgrown lawn, neglected by the mover for over a year. It's gone to seed and follows the gestures of the wind. In this thick grass, in this thick moment new life is establishing itself, growing leaves and roots in the cool shaded understory, under what first meets the eye. I realize … Continue reading The truth of my being here
The Covid-19 Radicalization Process
Coloring sheet (8.5" x 11", black and white)Download Pandemic Radicalization Poster (11" x 14", color)Download
Transforming the Green Ooze into a Movement for Tri-county Environmental Justice Solidarity
The Ooze Cruise In January 2020 My friend Lauren Schandevel and I hosted the "Ooze Cruise", a walk around Electroplating Services in Madison Heights. This site has become famous in Michigan because of the "green ooze", a toxic mixture of Hexavalent Chromium, trichloroethylene (TCE) and cyanide which was dumped into earthen pits in the basement of … Continue reading Transforming the Green Ooze into a Movement for Tri-county Environmental Justice Solidarity
Grappling with Invasive Species Management on a Colonized Land: Part I
For a few years now, I have invested time and energy into cultivating native plants and removing invasive, non-native ones – as a paid worker, an unpaid volunteer and a recreational gardener. My reason for this work is that native plants are beneficial to the local landscape but threatened by invasive plants, a notion well-supported by scientific research and further endorsed by many governmental initiatives. While I sense that the American public is becoming increasingly aware of the economic and ecological threats that some high-profile species pose, I’ve encountered various reactions to how such species are removed, especially when pesticides are involved. I want to better understand the complexities of invasion ecology so that I can advocate for smart natural resource management. But I must admit, I harbor a certain uneasiness about the dichotomy of “native vs. non-native” that is so prevalent in invasive species discourse, and believe some reflection…
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