I live in Salt Lake City, which lies between the Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake, on the ancestral lands of the Ute, Goshute, and Shoshone peoples. My ancestors are Mormon settlers who colonized the Salt Lake Valley in the 1800s. Like many here, I became concerned in the last few years about the drying of Great Salt Lake.

Across the world there are tens of thousands of attempts to construct alternative realities — either through sustaining things from the past which are still relevant, equitable, and just, or creating new ones.

By John Collins

What role does spatial planning play in the Israeli process of colonizing Palestinian land? Researcher and longtime Weave News contributor Somdeep Sen discusses this issue in a recent podcast hosted by the Danish NGO Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke.

By John Collins

“In the past, fishing was better, because we could go out 12 nautical miles and no one targeted us,” observes one of the young Gazan fisherman. “Now, it’s only six miles and there’s no fish there.” This basic fact - the literal shrinking of the space within which people in Gaza can engage in fishing without risking harassment and death at the hands of the Israeli military - lies at the core of “Six Miles Out,” a striking new video released on Facebook last week by the We Are Not Numbers project (whose work has been featured previously here on the Weave News site).

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo reveals his final act of artistic resistance. As the conclusion for this "Dissecting Boston" series, Tzintzun created a public installation on the beach of Plum Island, Massachusetts. This installation, "Forest of Watchers," embodies the subaltern gaze. It destabilizes the colonial borderlines of history; borderlines we are all complicit in constructing.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo contextualizes his acts of artistic resistance/vandalism. To accomplish this task, Tzintzun revels his previous intrusions within the border walls of the museum. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, Tzintzun employed art/activism to re-politicize the white walls of censured history.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo explores his Mexican American mask and the layers of racism that lie underneath the surface of Plum Island, Massachusetts. To illustrate his argument, Tzintzun narrates the act of artistic rebellion he underwent to prevent the flattening of his Mexican American heritage into a "taco." Hard shell or soft shell, anyone?

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo delves deeper into the development/conquest of Plum Island, Massachusetts. In doing so, Tzintzun grapples with the correlations between real estate and border construction. All bordered communities exclude portions of the population. The question remains: Who are these "undesirables"?

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo explores the correlation between private ownership and climate change. By analyzing the 1920s partitioning of Plum Island, Massachusetts, Tzintzun dissects humanity's ownership addiction.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo describes his own act of figmantary division on the beaches of Plum Island, Massachusetts. In a public installation piece (beach art) entitled the "Outer Limit," Tzintzun brings to light the correlations between borders, private property and human induced global warming.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo explores the historical roots of New England's gentrified divisions, unraveling the complex history of colonial boundaries. 

By John Collins

As part of our occasional series of “Interweaving” conversations, I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Somdeep Sen, a Weave News blogger and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen, regarding a number of issues related to his field research in Palestine/Israel. Our conversation touched on his experience of the politics of race and violence while in the field as well as his first-hand observations from Jerusalem and the West Bank regarding the current state of Israel's settler-colonial project.