I’ve been thinking, lately, about elections. This is probably not a shock – I live in Ontario, Canada, and there is a provincial election in Ontario happening in late February, and there will probably be a federal election not too long after that. I don’t particularly want to talk about the specifics of those elections, …
As I write, Los Angeles is burning. At this stage in the climate crisis, there is nothing new about hearing that fires, floods, storms, or other disasters clearly connected to the crisis are doing massive damage to people, places, ecosystems. The progression of such things is one terrible metric of how the crisis is getting …
This week, I’ve been thinking quite a lot about a book I read – Art Works: How Organizers and Artists are Creating a Better World Together by Ken Grossinger (New York: The New Press, 2023). It is a short, richly researched book about – as the title suggests – the integration of arts and music …
One very obvious component of the writing practice that I’ve taken up in these “Creating Through the Crisis” posts is the need to come up with something to write about each week. My basic approach to doing that is to think about what has been on my mind lately, and then choose one of those …
I don’t generally pay a lot of attention to transitions dictated by the calendar. I don’t do much to mark my birthday, for instance, and I’ve never been given to making resolutions just because the count of years clicks up by one. I’m not claiming that this is any better than any other way of …
For the last few years, I’ve written an article each December looking back at social movement victories in so-called Canada over that year. In the last week or two, I’ve been working on the version for 2024. As is true every year, I’m finding it inspiring. Even though this is something I track throughout the …
I like fanfiction. That’s perhaps something that someone who wants to be taken seriously as a reader, as a writer, and as a sayer-of-things about the state of the world shouldn’t admit, but it’s true. I’m not going to say what fandoms I enjoy, but I read a fair bit of it, and I’ve (pseudonymously) …
I’ve been thinking a lot, in the last couple of weeks, about social media. This is, I suppose, not an unusual state of affairs. As is true for lots of people in North America, social media went over the years from something I had vaguely heard of, to something I was suspicious of and reluctant …
It feels weird to be me and to not know what to do in this moment. And I think that feeling points to a larger problem. Let me explain. I have been involved in social movements in one way or another for, oh, almost 30 years now. I’ve never been a high profile leader. I’ve …
I make things. It’s what I do. Mostly, I make things with written words. Sometimes those things involve audio, and occasionally photos or video. But always words. This piece of writing is intended as the first in a new, ongoing practice. Well, I say “ongoing,” but I don’t actually know that. I may decide that …