I’ve been very conscious, in the last couple of weeks, of the distinction between making things and circulating them. The kinds of things that I mean are, of course, the kinds of things that I make myself. So I don’t mean widgets or washing machines or ice cream cones or garden gnomes – I mean …
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 …
Tara Ehrcke of Victoria, BC, was initially politicized as part of the global justice movement in the 1990s. As that movement faded after 9/11, she was peripherally involved in anti-war organizing, but put more of her energies into local political work. In the early 2000s, she became a teacher, and for a decade and a …
As part of Toronto’s Shelter and Housing Justice Network (SHJN), Lorraine Lam is active in struggles related to housing, homelessness, and poverty. She connects her commitment to social justice to growing up in a church setting, saying, “It was there that I learned a lot of the values around what it means to love people …
Kerri Claire Neil (she/her) is a community organizer based in St. John’s, Ktaqamkuk (Newfoundland). She is Co-Chair of the Social Justice Co-operative of Newfoundland and Labrador (SJCNL) and recently took over her family’s business, Downtown Comics. Currently, Kerri is actively involved in Tent City 4 Change, a grassroots collective that is advocating for housing justice …
Dev Ramsawakh is a disabled, transmasculine, and diasporic Indo-Caribbean multidisciplinary storyteller, producer, and educator. Their written, audio, and video work focuses on their intersecting identities, on community, and on deconstructing colonial systems, and it has appeared in a wide range of outlets, venues, and events, both grassroots and mainstream. They are also a co-founder of …
[Originally published on The Media Co-op.] Saleh Waziruddin is a South Asian anti-racism activist who has participated in grassroots struggles throughout his adult life. In his 20s, he organized in the Muslim community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now in his 40s, he lives in Niagara, Ontario, and is active in the Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association (NRARA). …
[Originally published on The Media Co-op.] Nina Newington is an organizer based in rural Nova Scotia. In recent years, her grassroots work has focused on protecting forests in the province. Newington says that her political consciousness “really emerged from being a queer kid in England in the 1970s” and not knowing that there was anyone …