Over Thanksgiving weekend I was making the trek from northern Virginia to New York State’s Capital Region and back. I took two different routes, mainly to avoid tolls on the return trip. On the way back to Virginia, I came across a number of stickers and billboards featuring several unsettling far-right symbols. My investigation into each of them was disturbingly easy; a simple Google search resulted in pages of far-right online content. Although the movement is increasingly based online, the lived consequences are severe. Each of the symbols I witnessed is a tiny signal of the movement’s very serious threat to democracy. 

As the United States shifts to the Biden Administration, after four turbulent years of Donald Trump, the North Country Poor People’s Campaign offers its vision of a movement that can provide a viable alternative to Trumpism: a movement led by the poor and dispossessed.

Łukasz W. Niparko writes: In recent days, we have read enough dystopian visions of the post-COVID world. I do not want to write another one. Because in the hands of upstanders rests the choice between dystopia, maintenance of the status quo, or perhaps a quasi-utopian victory for all of humanity. While being under lockdown, or while on the subway, we have the choice to rethink the losses of the past 30 years and be upstanders before others steal the few freedoms we still have left.

By Ayla Schnier

Once thought to be a permanently-forgotten Rust Belt city in Upstate New York, Utica has recently made a cultural and economic comeback thanks to an influx of refugees. However, the Trump administration’s refugee cuts -- the most drastic in US history -- are harming this small city’s prosperity. The rationale for these cuts is rooted in several global patterns, and bouncing back from their consequences won’t be easy. But Utica isn’t ready to give up without a fight.

By Meca-Gaye Francis

“Interpersonal discrimination experienced by people like me is only a reflection of the power relations in the larger international system. Exploitation and discrimination are not novel. To say the very least, they characterize the nature of relationships in the international system and today manifest as forces of globalization in regions such as the Carribean.” In the latest installment of our Glocal Dispatches series, Meca-Gaye Francis explores the case of Jamaica, where the impact of emigration continues to reverberate in the space between colonialism and globalization.

By Nicole Roché

As the “March against Racism” began on Saturday morning in Potsdam, New York, organizer Jennifer Baxtron told the crowd to raise their signs and let their voices be heard. “Show everybody that even in this little town, love conquers hate,” she said. “Love overpowers hate.” Nicole Roché reports on a march that sought to shine a light on the need to address issues of racism and xenophobia in the majority-white “North Country” of northern NY - and beyond.

By William Hunt

As the impeachment debate continues within the Democratic Party, Weave News contributor William Hunt shares a letter he recently sent to Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY). “We are living through a slow-motion coup d’etat, a steady unraveling of democratic institutions. Six more years of it and the damage may become irreparable,” Hunt writes. He also notes that “the Democrats’ obsession with winning back Trump’s white rural and working class base risks dampening the enthusiasm of some essential Democratic constituencies, among them African-Americans, Hispanics, progressive women, sexual minorities, and the young in general.”

By Nicole Roché

On the morning of October, 11, 2018, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib spoke with students on the St. Lawrence University campus, where the subjects ranged from Kanye West to Black Lives Matter to Abdurraqib’s extensive sneaker collection. After the Q&A, Nicole Roché, who teaches a class about storytelling and identity in the first-year program at St. Lawrence, interviewed Abdurraqib about his work and about his experiences talking with young people in America.

By Sheila Murray

In her latest contribution to our Weaving the Streets project, Sheila Murray reflects on her experience at the Women's March following the inauguration of President Trump.

By Nicole Eigbrett

More than sixty musicians, activists, and supporters convened today at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Suffolk County Immigration Detention Justice Center in a display of solidarity with immigrants detained at the County Jail. Weave News reporter Nicole Eigbrett was there.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

In his second post for our Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo describes a firsthand account of one of his recent invasion “The Great Boston Wall of Gentrification,” contextualizing his act of resistance.

By Savannah Crowley

As part of our ongoing Weaving the Streets project, Weave News correspondent Savannah Crowley checks in from San Diego, CA, which recently co-hosted the 2017 Border Film Festival. For more of her work, check out her earlier post, “Get Up Offa That Thing!” Showing Up for Justice in San Diego.

By Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo

In his latest post for our Weaving the Streets project, Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo introduces his new blog “Dissecting Boston: Weaving Together the Borderlines of American Identity” and the artistic activism soon to come. 

By Nicole Eigbrett

In the past week, people who identify as Women, Muslims, Disabled, LGBTQ+, Immigrants, Black, Asian, Latinx, and anyone else in between have faced a startling rise in hate threats, visual statements, and actual assault. Insanul Ahmed, a Brooklyn-based music editor, collected an ongoing Twitter list of racist accounts towards people of color in the first day following the election. The Southern Poverty Law Center launched a #ReportHate portal for citizens and witnesses to submit incidences of hateful harassment and intimidation. As of November 11, over 200 incidences were directly reported. That number is bound to rise. Not that these threats didn’t exist before, but the reactionary nature and hyper-visibility of these recent incidents are directly tied to the election of Trump.