By Torri Lonergan

The issue of marriage equality, set within a larger struggle over LGBTIQ rights, has become a central element of Costa Rica’s ongoing political debate during the country’s 2018 presidential election campaign. In her first post for our Weaving the Streets series, Torri Lonergan reports on how the potential legalization of same-sex marriage is sharpening the fault lines between progressive Costa Ricans and those who hold more more conservative Catholic and evangelical views.

By Jana Morgan

For decades, powerful interests have attempted to intimidate and silence public watchdogs, journalists, and advocacy groups by filing meritless lawsuits. This repressive tactic — called “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation” (SLAPPs) — is an abuse of the court system and a violation of the First Amendment rights of those who speak truth to power. Weave News contributor Jana Morgan announces a new initiative designed to push back.

By Adam Marcinkowski

Barre, VT, once an affluent hub of granite exportation, has experienced a dramatic decline in prosperity. Home to an industry that once employed thousands of workers spread between more than sixty manufacturing firms, the Barre Granite Association has dwindled to just over five hundred employees in two dozen firms. The effects of these labor cuts can be observed within the city limits of Barre, which has since fallen into dramatic decay. The downtown and surrounding suburbs are scattered with many rundown storefronts and homes in need of repair. The town is also known to have a severe problem with drugs and poverty.  Adam Marcinkowski explores the history of the Barre Granite Industry and attempts to determine key factors that helped initiated this shift in economic standing.

By Łukasz W. Niparko

Reporting from Poland, Łukasz W. Niparko warns of a troubling trend toward authoritarianism in the country as thirty years of post-Communist “shock therapy” give way to sustained attacks on democracy and the rule of law by the ruling PIS party.

By Eliza Maher

Though not a global city, Geneva, New York, located in the Finger Lakes region of the state, has become increasingly popular among tourists, entrepreneurs, culinary artists, and young, creative people. In the first installment of our new “Glocal Dispatches” series, Eliza Maher critically analyzes the revitalization of Geneva into a city driven by local businesses, art, music, Hobart and William Smith colleges, and Seneca Lake, and explores the shift to an image-saturated society. However, the shift, often characterized as positive, innovative, and diverse, fails to acknowledge the influence the urban branding will have on the minority groups in Geneva who cannot afford the lifestyle driven by localism.

By Alexandra Nicoletti

In this reflection on the experience of living and studying abroad as an American in France, Alexandra Nicoletti explores the complex process of cultural translation involved when the #MeToo movement crosses the Atlantic.

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

“We want to honor Lucy Parsons’ legacy, Albert Parsons’ legacy, and the legacy of what brought us this idea that one day, all the workers of the world will unite.” With these words from labor activist and tour guide Larry Spivack, reporter John Collins reflects on a labor history walking tour of Chicago.

By Khadeeja Hamid

Khadeeja Hamid aruges that a more robust accountability regime that places emphasis on downward, inward and horizontal accountability is crucial for the integration of human rights with development practice.

By Jessica Sierk

What happens when high school students in rural northern New York get the chance to speak for themselves, through art, about the pressures they are facing? Jessica Sierk describes the genesis and implementation of a unique community art collaboration bringing together students from Canton Central School and St. Lawrence University.

By Rob Williams

In this piece originally published by the Global Critical Media Literacy Project, Rob Williams and Emily von Wiese deconstruct the media narrative surrounding the role of Twitter in Iranian political protest.

By Shanice Arlow

Contributing Editor Shanice Arlow interviews Professor Christopher Robé on copwatching in the age of social media. 

By Jarrodd Davis

Jarrodd Davis on the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight: "What had I gotten myself into? We gathered in a white space to watch America’s race relations play out on a literal stage and in real time."

By Darcy Best

In her latest installment for our Weaving the Streets project, Darcy Best checks in from Galway, Ireland, where street serves as a way to link the Irish language movement with broader political causes ranging from welcoming refugees to expressing solidarity with Palestinian hunger strikers.

By Cordenne Brewster

"I still felt skepticism when someone told me there was no racism in Massachusetts, even after they had told me the white supremacists I had heard about '[weren’t] a big deal,'” Cordenne Brewster writes in the first entry of Surviving PWIs for POC, a new series from Weave News. 

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 Shanice Arlow

St. Lawrence University student Shanice Arlow writes that her school is funding the College Republicans with money earmarked for underrepresented groups. 

By Kali Villarosa

Poverty is universal. No matter where in the world, there are always discussions and debates surrounding the poor: individuals who are struggling economically and unable to maintain a comfortable livelihood. But the issue with the term “poverty” itself is that it remains an umbrella term; it moves the conversation away from the specific groups (whether defined by race, religion, ethnicity, or some other category) that make up an “impoverished” population and instead lumps them all together under the general category of “poverty.” This is a problem because different groups have different needs, yet most methods and discussions of poverty alleviation rarely take these distinguishing circumstances into account. In Part IV of her Covering the Margins series, Kali Villarosa investigates how this plays out in news coverage of urban marginalization in Ahmedabad, Indian.

By Jimmy Johnson

Anti-Blackness is built into Zionism and brought from Europe to the colonial encounter, argues Jimmy Johnson. Part III of III. 

By Jimmy Johnson

Is Zionism inherently anti-Black? Jimmy Johnson looks at the immigration experience of Ethiopian Jews. Part II of III.