Category Archives: Voices

The Danville Abortion Clinic Troubles

Posted on August 2023 by Barbara Kessel

Mary Catherine Roberson, chair of the Danville chapter of Personal Pac, warns, “do not take it for granted that because you live in Illinois, you are safe. If the anti-abortion forces start organizing in your town, reach out to Personal … Continue reading →

194 total views

Posted in abortion rights, health care, Healthcare, Reproductive Justice, Section, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged abortion rights, anti-abortion violence, reproductive justice, women's rights | Comments Off

Code Blue: Suffering through DWB in Rantoul

Posted on August 2023 by Kevin Williams

This essay, submitted to the Rantoul Press in 2009, was never published. The author shares it now to give context to community concerns with policing in Rantoul in the wake of recent police shootings of young Black men. “You were … Continue reading →

836 total views

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Champaign County, Justice, Police, police accountability, Police Brutality, Police brutality, Policing, Racism, Section, Voices | Tagged African Americans, Driving While Black, local community, police harassment, policing | Comments Off

Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing to Reduce the Post-Pandemic Youth Housing Divide

Posted on August 2023 by Marilena Prisco

Housing cooperatives have a long history in the US. In university towns like C-U, those laboratories of young people assume new importance in the post-pandemic city. Escaping the logic of a typical landlord-tenant agreement, members self-manage and maintain the houses … Continue reading →

129 total views

Posted in Community, Cooperative, Homelessness, Housing, Students, Voices, Youth Services | Tagged community, cooperatives, homelessness, housing, housing crisis, student housing, youth housing divide | Comments Off

The Kingfisher is Flying to Illinois

Posted on August 2023 by The Kingfisher Task Force

In 2007 the UIUC Board of Trustees acknowledged the opposition of faculty, student organizations, and NCAA guidelines prohibiting the use of race-based mascots in intercollegiate athletics, and voted to eliminate “Chief Illiniwek” as the campus mascot. Tired of waiting for … Continue reading →

228 total views

Posted in Section, Students, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged campus activism, mascot, UIUC | Comments Off

Anti-Abortion Centers Mislead People at Their Most Vulnerable

Posted on July 2023 by Julie Laut and Celia Barbieri

Reproductive justice: the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. This past January, on the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, SisterSong … Continue reading →

163 total views

Posted in abortion rights, Feminism, Healthcare, Reproductive Justice, Section, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights, Youth | Tagged abortion rights, anti-abortion, feminism, reproductive justice, women's rights | Comments Off

Diesel Therapy

Posted on July 2023 by Shamar Betts

The odyssey of Urbana resident Shamar Betts continues. Betts was arrested for authoring a Facebook post at age 19 in the wake of the George Floyd murder in 2020. He was sentenced to four years in federal prison and charged … Continue reading →

294 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American, African Americans, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Prisoners, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African Americans, Black Lives Matter, incarceration, US Marshals | Comments Off

UIUC GEO Wins a Progressive Contract

Posted on July 2023 by Essam A. B. Elkorghli

Graduate workers across the US have been hard-hit by the skyrocketing inflation induced by federal mismanagement of monetary policy that is being felt by all too many working-class people. The laughable wage increases that were “handed” to many low-paid workers … Continue reading →

Posted in labor, Labor/Economics, Public Universities, Section, Students, union soldarity, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged bargaining, campus labor, Campus organizing, GEO, UIUC, union solidarity, unions | Comments Off

The Lavenders: Past and Present Queer Journalism in Champaign-Urbana

Posted on May 2023 by Public i

On February 23, UCIMC Executive Director Miriam Larson hosted a virtual conversation with representatives of two generations of activists in Champaign-Urbana. Mary Lee Sargent, former director of Parkland College’s Women’s Studies Program (now residing in New Hampshire), was one of … Continue reading →

309 total views, 2 views today

Posted in African Americans, Feminism, LGBTQ, Media, Section, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminism, Illinois activism, local independent media, women's rights | Comments Off

Slaves—Our Ancestors

Posted on May 2023 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

We give praise to those who came before us, fighting for the right to be free. Who were they? They are our ancestors, who suffered unendurable pain. Pain, from the snake-like whip that mutilated their flesh as it bit into … Continue reading →

283 total views, 2 views today

Posted in African American history, African American Women in Champaign-Urbana, African Americans, Arts, Local Arts, Section, Violence, Voices, Women | Tagged African American history, African American women, local African American voices, local arts, Slavery | Comments Off

Illinois Correctional System: What Is It Really?

Posted on May 2023 by Kevin Stirnichuk

The Public i is partnering with the Education Justice Project (EJP) to share writing completed by incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center. The EJP is a comprehensive college-in-prison program based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Through its educational … Continue reading →

265 total views, 2 views today

Posted in Arts, Education, incarceration, Prison Arts, Prisoners, Section, Voices | Tagged education, incarcerated people, incarceration | Comments Off

Urbana-Champaign Reproductive Justice Week: Educate, Elevate, Act!

Posted on April 2023 by Julie Laut

SisterSong: The National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective defines reproductive justice as the “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” Many … Continue reading →

253 total views, 1 views today

Posted in abortion rights, Reproductive Justice, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged abortion rights, community action, reproductive justice, women | Comments Off

Woman – Life – Freedom: Interview on Resistance in Iran, Part 2

Posted on February 2023 by Public i

Part 1 of this interview was published in the December 2022 issue. The text has been substantially shortened and edited. Public i: I want to shift the discussion to the US now, and ask what can or should the US … Continue reading →

297 total views

Posted in Feminism, Foreign Policy, International, International, Section, Voices, Women | Tagged feminism, human rights, Iran, protest | Comments Off

Frustrations of Peer-to-Peer Education in Prisons

Posted on February 2023 by Mathew Laird

The Public i is partnering with the Education Justice Project (EJP) to share writing by incarcerated students at the Danville Correctional Center. The EJP is a comprehensive college-in-prison program based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Through its educational programming … Continue reading →

240 total views

Posted in Arts, Education, incarceration, Prison Arts, Prisoners, Section, Voices | Tagged incarceration, prion arts, prison education | Comments Off

Women – Life – Freedom: Interview on Resistance in Iran, Part 1

Posted on December 2022 by Public i

Public i: Just start with a basic overview of what’s happening now and what sparked it, an update on the latest, and also what do you think people should know that isn’t being covered in the mainstream US media. Faranak … Continue reading →

939 total views

Posted in Feminism, International, International, Section, Voices, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminism, hijab, human rights, Iran, protest | Comments Off

Why I Called Herschel Walker Coonish: The Right of Black People to Call Out their Traitors

Posted on December 2022 by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua

Editors’ Note: This article has been held until after the Georgia runoff election so there would be no suggestion of a political endorsement. Since Donald Trump’s incursion into US politics in 2015, deprecation and intimidation have become pervasive. Trump and … Continue reading →

357 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, bigotry, Politics, Racism, Voices, White Nationalism | Tagged fascism, media, politics, racism | Comments Off

How The Issue of Representation Impacts Central Illinois

Posted on December 2022 by Marcus Pruitt

The issue of unequal representation of cultures has plagued the nation since its birth, often resulting in the perversion of people’s natural rights. In central Illinois, it extends that perversion through aggressive discrimination. Although minorities have seen more representation on … Continue reading →

492 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, bigotry, Media, Racism, Section, Violence, Voices | Tagged African American, discrimination, media stereotypes, racism, violence | Comments Off

Drag Shows in Champaign-Urbana: Interview with Amy Myers

Posted on November 2022 by Karen Medina

“Drag is an art. It is a culture.” As a cis, straight woman, I did not fully understand the cultural importance of drag shows until 2019, when I was managing a community center that has a wonderful zine collection and … Continue reading →

308 total views

Posted in Arts, LGBTQ, Local Arts, Women | Tagged drag shows, LGBTQ+, local culture | Comments Off

Links

Posted on November 2022 by Thomas Stromblad

239 total views

Posted in Arts, incarceration, Prison Arts, Prisoners | Tagged incarceration, Prison arts | Comments Off

Donald Trump v. Shamar Betts

Posted on September 2022 by Shamar Betts

I, Shamar Betts, incited a riot through a Facebook post encouraging my people to join alongside the rest of the world in an attempt to express our feelings on the tragic death of George Floyd in May of 2020. Although … Continue reading →

393 total views

Posted in African American, African Americans, BLM, Court System, incarceration, January 6 insurrection, Justice, Prisoners, Racism, Trump, Voices of Color, Youth | Tagged African American, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Trump | Comments Off

A Time of Monsters: The New Nadir and the Crisis of the Black Worker

Posted on September 2022 by Gus Wood

We currently reside in what Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci called “A Time of Monsters.” Exacerbated by the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic, the Black working classes continue to struggle under what Black Studies scholar Sundiata Cha-Jua has dubbed “the New Nadir.” For … Continue reading →

322 total views

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Economy, labor, Labor/Economics, Politics | Tagged Black workers, economic inequality, economic racism, new nadir, underemployment | Comments Off