As the presidential elections and a glimpse of change approach, Colombians keep rising to disclose the numerous human rights violations and other abusive realities that the current administration has caused. In order to make sense of what is happening on the ground at the moment, however, we need to look back at the national strike that shook the country in 2021.

I am fascinated by how graffiti artists like SODA express themselves by using the public space of a city as their canvas. Graffiti is not only an artform, it is also a lifestyle, a culture. Painting at night, breaking into train stations, exploring underground tunnels, running from police (hopefully not) are part of the everyday life of a graffiti artist. They go to great extents and risk their lives, careers, and freedom to realize their work. I have a lot of respect for those who keep this culture alive.

“Jordanians are angry that the country’s economic dependence on the United States would be further compounded by this new dependence on Israel for water. Given that the Jordanian regime’s survival is closely intertwined with the West, any disagreement with either the United States or Israel could be detrimental to the country’s stability. The water-energy deal would exacerbate this relationship, and locals were quick to reject it.”

Every Sunday, a warming atmosphere spreads out in Victoria Park, a green spot in the centre of Hong Kong where groups of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) spend their one day off. Since in Hong Kong, domestic workers are forced by law to live in their employers’ houses, they often find themselves trapped in their workplace. For this reason, on Sunday, they gather in Victoria Park to share their skills and celebrate life in all its forms.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro created the National Strategic Development Zone of the Orinoco Mining Arc in 2016. Commonly known as the Arco Minero, it comprises an area of 111,843.70 km², larger than Cuba, adjacent to the Orinoco river, and is designated for unlawful mineral extraction. The Arco represents 12% of the country’s territory and is a severe environmental problem for the region.

Is Chueca also a site of radical resistance? Is the counter-cultural queer struggle of 1970s and ’80s Madrid still alive? The quiet but subtly powerful presence of posters, stickers, and wall art strewn between the trendy shops and narrow streets make one inclined to say yes. The point, then, is that this struggle is one of many.

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.

In this article, I seek to go beyond simply presenting statistics to illustrate the scope of poverty or economic insecurity in the North Country. I want to show how the limited understanding of poverty, as a threshold defined by institutions, obscures our awareness of people’s struggles to cover their necessities and of the systemic issues causing economic insecurity. Beyond this, I explore the intersection of social class with other identities such as gender and race while also highlighting the importance of grassroots work. Overall, I hope to generate more empathy for our neighbors and encourage support for the people working to improve their communities.

“The younger generation is often framed as the ‘procrastinator.’ We are the ‘kids’ who only care about social media. Yet, in the face of the Climate Crisis, our generation is mobilizing to demand change. Here in the Haudenosaunee territory (the North Country), people of all ages believe in the ideas that the concept of Rights of Nature encompasses. We believe nature deserves further legal protection in the form of recognition as a living entity with legal standing. We want to preserve and prosper with our Mother Earth. This is why young people from the St. Lawrence River watershed are working together to organize an international symposium which will take place on March 22, International Water Day. During the North Country Rights of Nature Symposium, community members will join to discuss how best to protect the region’s waterways.”

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. 

In her second installment of our Weaving the Streets series, Skylar Bergeron continues her exploration of the Chueca neighborhood in Madrid, where the politics of queer liberation defy simple divisions between Left and Right parties.

Gaia Guatri reports from Hong Kong, where several NGOs have called for the government to implement measures to check and provide acceptable living standards of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Amman has experienced successive waves of Palestinian, Iraq, and Syrian refugees for many decades as it is seen as the most economically, socially, and politically stable capital in the region. Therefore, many of the refugees — displaced by decades of “western” (especially American) interjection into the region — tend to resettle in Amman…People of various Arab regions were removed from their homes and a once familiar life, and forced to relocate and re-establish their lives and stories elsewhere so often, and yet have not forgotten the foundation of their strife.”

“There is still so much that happens to people of color that we should be upset about and protesting against. There is still so much work to be done before PWIs can truly be safe spaces for students of color too. Even though that is the case, my challenges being at a PWI taught me that I should not feel guilty for taking care of myself first. I learned about the importance of safe spaces and community.”

In her first Weaving the Streets article, Skylar Bergeron reports from the Madrid neighborhood of Chueca, where a tradition of LGBTQ+ pride mobilization exists uneasily with the forces of capitalist “pinkwashing” and far-right intimidation.

“All the years of watching American films and listening to American music could not have prepared me for the culture shock and loneliness I experienced during my time there. But despite some of the challenges I went through while trying to navigate predominantly white spaces, I found such incredible friends. It warms my heart to know that through it all we held each other in love, in care, in kindness.”

Four members of the Weave News team presented their work at the 2021 Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas (CMLCA), held virtually from October 15-17, 2021. With sessions in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, the conference celebrated the life and work of the Brazilian scholar-activist Paulo Freire (1921-1997), widely considered the “father of critical pedagogy.”

Recently Weave contributor Nicole Roche spoke with author Pedro Ponce about his new short story collection, The Devil and The Dairy Princess, winner of the 2020 Don Belton Fiction Prize. In this collection, published on Oct. 5 by Indiana University Press, Ponce deftly employs dark humor, unreliable narration, and misdirection as he explores themes related to knowledge, authority, identity, and communal narratives.

Himanee Gupta-Carlson, a writer and professor with SUNY Empire State College, is writing a series of articles about moving the farm she and her husband Jim Gupta-Carlson own and operate from a small piece of land in Saratoga County to a much larger parcel in Washington County. The articles reflect on the journey as well as the couple’s commitments to cultivating food security on a regional level through regenerative agricultural practices and participating in food sovereignty movements worldwide. This article — the fifth in the series — marks the first full year of living between two farms.