I am a racist. I grew up white in apartheid South Africa. My neighborhood, buses, trains, movie theaters, restaurants, schools, beaches were all strictly segregated. Even park benches were marked “Whites Only.” People of color were known as “Non-Europeans.” Non-Europeans built and cleaned and[…]
The Rise of Punk in Morocco
It was my fourth stay in Morocco in the fall of 2016. I was on my own, hopping around hostels and couches between the cities of Rabat and Casablanca while conducting interviews for my graduate research on the history of punk rock and heavy[…]
Sofi Tukker Tops Bands to Dance to in 2019
Sofi Tukker is starting to get radio play, but they have a lot more to offer than that one track. Here are 7 songs that are honest, relatable, and incessantly danceable.
We have twelve years to fix the planet: It’s time to change the way we bank
It can seem daunting. The UN has warned that we have twelve years to limit the catastrophic impacts of climate change, and climate change isn’t the only threat. We are also facing massive species die offs, the oceans are becoming too acidic the bare[…]
Fighting displacement with clay: A subversive real estate office is coming to Oakland
In 2015, shortly after being displaced from her San Francisco Apartment, Cassie Thornton came to possess a large truckload of clay. This clay was being removed from the construction site for Salesforce Tower when Thornton walked by and was enamored. Since then, Thornton has[…]
Resisting the planet-killing banks with style and mirth
Last week, Alexandra Casio-Cortez flayed a Wells Fargo Bank executive on Capital Hill for the role his bank played in backing the Dakota Access Pipeline. Well Fargo is one of many megabanks funding countless big oil projects, including DAPL and the Keystone XL Tar Sands[…]
Throw a Creative Mischief Party to Plan for the Next March or Rally
When you find out about the next rally or march, you may wonder how you can increase your impact. There is one thing you can always do, and it’s both easy and fun: throw a protest party to prep for the protest. By protest[…]
No Safe Spaces: A Poem by Fred Dodsworth
Standing midst the flames
like wolves’ tongues
surrounded by shattered lives,
the sun sets in the East this time,
a dark orange pallor
casting its sickly shadow
over dreams once offered.
“It’s a republic if you can keep it…”
#FridaysForTheFuture – A Kids Walkout Every Friday for the Climate
Today 13-year-old Alexandra Villasenor walked out of her school in NYC, answering the call of fellow youth activist Greta Thunberg, and conducted her own School Strike for Climate outside the United Nations Building. People talked to her, took pictures, encouraged her – until the NYPD[…]
Good Queer Decolonial Fun: The She-Ra Reboot
Just like the old show, the new She-Ra is all about coalition-building towards decolonization, but it incorporates a lot of what folks have learned about organizing and hegemonic power over the last 25 years—even if its gloss is superficial, there’s definitely enough material in each episode to use as fodder in a “talking to your kids about capitalism” conversation.