Category Archives: Voices

The Real Influencer Threats in Central Illinois

Posted on 02/25/2025 by C. Owen

What Happened November 5? The headlines stated that the swing states might go blue, carried by women angry over the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, or by Latinos who would not hand their states to racists like Donald Trump, … Continue reading →

151 total views

Posted in Feminism, Immigrants, LGBTQA, Politics, Racism, Reproductive Justice, Right-wing Libertarianism, Section, Tax policy, Trump, Voices, White Nationalism | Tagged Immigrants, patriarchy, racism, reproductive rights, right-wing propaganda, second Trump administration | Comments Off

ACLU Warns U of I to Respect Free Speech

Posted on 02/23/2025 by Jane McClintock

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois recently sent an open letter to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign warning administrators that new guidelines surrounding “expressive activities” are having a chilling effect on student expressions of free speech. Despite UIUC’s … Continue reading →

119 total views

Posted in Censorship, Climate Activism, Environment, Gaza, Section, Students, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged ACLU, civil liberties, free speech on campus, Gaza protest, student activism, University of Illinois | Comments Off

CU MAC Open Letter to Champaign City Council

Posted on 02/23/2025 by CU Muslim Action Committee

This letter was sent on January 28. It has been lightly edited for style. Dear Champaign City Council, Since May 7, 2024, the Muslim community here in Champaign-Urbana has shown up to city council meetings as part of a diverse … Continue reading →

92 total views

Posted in Gaza, Islamophobia, Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Palestinians, Voices | Tagged Champaign City Council, Gaza, Islamophobia, pro-Palestinian activism | Comments Off

Hope Village: The North End Community Speaks Out

Posted on 02/23/2025 by Melinda Carr and Jackie Curry and Darleen Bailey

The north-end community acknowledges that Champaign-Urbana is facing a growing population of homeless individuals. We fully understand the need, and benefits, of the Hope Village development. We realize it is vital that empathy be shown for the homeless and a … Continue reading →

135 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American, African Americans, Community, homeless, Local Resources, Section, Urbana, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American community, development, homelessness, local planning, neighborhood activism, Urbana City Council | Comments Off

The Negro/Black Cultural, History, and Art Museum of Urbana

Posted on 12/23/2024 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

I would like to see this museum established here in our town of Urbana for the purpose of educating our people, especially our Black children: to teach them about our history and what Black people have contributed to this country, … Continue reading →

474 total views

Posted in African American history, African American women, African American Women in Champaign-Urbana, African Americans, African Americans, Arts, Local Arts, Racism, Remembering, Section, Voices, Women | Tagged African American history, local culture, museum, racism, Slavery | Comments Off

Popular University for Gaza at UIUC

Posted on 07/29/2024 by Clara Belitz and Sana Saboowala and Izzy Grosof

From Friday, April 26 through Friday, May 10, we established a branch of the Popular University for Gaza at UIUC, joining the national student movement for Palestine. This encampment was just one small piece in the long movement for Palestinian … Continue reading →

423 total views, 2 views today

Posted in Israel/Palestine, Middle East, Section, Students, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Voices | Tagged campus activism, divestment, Israel/Palestine, student protest, University of Illinois | Comments Off

Remembering Irfan Ahmad

Posted on 07/29/2024 by Roveiza Irfan

Longtime Urbana resident Irfan Ahmad passed away on May 2 due to complications from a chronic lung condition. He was 66. Ahmad immigrated from Pakistan in 1989 to pursue his graduate education in agricultural engineering at the University of Illinois. … Continue reading →

699 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Community, health care, Immigrants, Islam, Local Resources, Peace movement, social services, Voices | Tagged community health, disaster relief, Immigrants, interfaith outreach, local activism | Comments Off

May/June Issue Front Cover

Posted on 05/03/2024 by Public i

The Suffering in Gaza is Our Community’s Concern! 1,093 total views

1,093 total views

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Justice, Middle East, Palestinians, War | Tagged Gaza, Israel/Palestine, local politics, Middle East, Urbana City Council, war | Comments Off

City Business is Whatever the Community Cares About

Posted on 05/03/2024 by Dua Aldasouqi

Americans have been in the streets since October 8 demanding an end to the US-backed Israeli attack on Gaza. They’re at sporting events and camping out in front of top politicians’ homes. They were at tree-lighting and caroling events over the … Continue reading →

1,827 total views

Posted in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Justice, Middle East, Palestinians, Politics, Section, Voices, War | Tagged Gaza, Israel/Palestine, local government, Middle East, Palestinian rights, Urbana City Council, war | Comments Off

Beyond Abortion: Reproductive Justice Envisions More

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Julie Laut

The human right to choose to have children or not to have children is a foundational principle in the vision of Reproductive Justice (RJ). Thus the increase in legal attacks on abortion rights and trans rights is understandably central to … Continue reading →

480 total views

Posted in abortion rights, Feminism, Human Rights, Reproductive Justice, Section, Voices, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged abortion rights, birth justice, bodily autonomy, human rights, reproductive justice, women's rights | Comments Off

Healing Culture in Wartime

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Evelyne Accad

Forty-one years ago when we organized the Common Differences conference on the UI campus, I was a young professor, already quite engaged in women’s issues, which had led to my research, writing, travels, and overall commitment. When I retired from the University of … Continue reading →

434 total views, 2 views today

Posted in Feminism, International, Middle East, Section, Voices, War, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminism, Lebanon, Middle East, war, women's rights, women's shelters | Comments Off

Coalition of Labor Union Women for Champaign County

Posted on 05/02/2024 by Stephanie Fortado

On the evening of March 27 more than 30 people representing about a dozen labor unions and community groups gathered at the Plumbers Local 149 Union Hall in Savoy to launch a chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women … Continue reading →

446 total views

Posted in Feminism, Labor, Labor/Economics, Section, union soldarity, Voices, Women, Women | Tagged feminism, Labor, organizing, unions, women in labor | Comments Off

The Case for Reparations: Champaign County

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Jeff Trask

According to the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation, Black people in America own 10 cents of wealth for every dollar a white person owns, have lower life expectancies and higher unemployment, will earn $1 million less during their lifetimes, are … Continue reading →

688 total views

Posted in African American history, African Americans, African Americans, Inequality, Labor/Economics, Racism, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American history, discrimination, inequality, racism, reparations, Slavery, wealth gap | Comments Off

What is the Radical Black Church?

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Reverend Terrance Thomas

How Do We Define the “Black” Church? In some sense, the Black Church can be readily defined by its music, style of preaching and sounds. Yet these are only surface definitions—it is so much more. The Black Church was born … Continue reading →

589 total views

Posted in Africa, African American history, African Americans, African Americans, civil rights, Justice, Religious radicalism, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African American history, Black church, liberation theology, religious radicalism, resistance, Slavery | Comments Off

Criminology Mixology

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Leo Cardez

Criminalization, abolition, and prison reform have long been third-rail issues in America. The only benefit to this impasse of ideologies is the mountain of research that has been collected in the interim. Those of us in camp reality, camp humanity, … Continue reading →

513 total views

Posted in African Americans, incarceration, Prisoners, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged African Americans, criminal justice system, incarceration, prison reform | Comments Off

The Prison Economy from the Inside

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Shamar Betts

Nineteen-year-old Shamar Betts of Urbana had no previous criminal record when he was arrested for “inciting a riot” via a Facebook post he wrote after witnessing the video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He was sentenced to three years … Continue reading →

984 total views

Posted in African Americans, incarceration, Prisoners, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged incarceration, local African American voices, memoir, prison life | Comments Off

Black History: Is This Really 2024?

Posted on 04/01/2024 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

I am a mother of three sons and a grandmother of 83 years of age. This incident happened on Wednesday, January 31, in the middle of the afternoon. I was going to visit a friend and on the way, I … Continue reading →

677 total views

Posted in African American, African American history, African American women, African Americans, Section, Voices, Voices of Color, Women | Tagged African American women, local stories, Memory, trauma | Comments Off

Who is Un-American?

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Aimee Rickman

This article, commissioned for the Public i, appeared first in a longer version in Monthly Review on November 29, 2023, under the title “Gender, Labor, Democracy, and Americanism: U.S. History in the (Un)Making”; reprinted with permission. In the early hours of Monday, May 15, … Continue reading →

1,086 total views, 1 views today

Posted in Feminism, labor, Labor militancy, Labor/Economics, Section, Voices, Women, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged feminist history, labor history, Memory, monuments, women | Comments Off

She’s Everything and Everywhere: Riffs on Barbie and the Barbie Movie

Posted on 02/11/2024 by Audrey Wells

Barbie deserved her own biopic. More than one billion Barbie dolls have been shipped and sold around the world since her premier in 1959, and factories in Asia are still spewing her out. From her hair down to the pink … Continue reading →

1,265 total views

Posted in Arts, Feminism, film, Girls, Section, Voices, Women, Women | Tagged feminism, film review, gender roles, girls, women | Comments Off

At the Feds

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Shamar Betts

Shamar Betts had no previous criminal record but was sentenced to three years in federal prison for “inciting a riot” through a Facebook post he wrote after witnessing the video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He was also made … Continue reading →

585 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African American, African Americans, Arts, BLM, incarceration, Prison Arts, Section, Voices, Voices of Color | Tagged BLM, George Floyd protests, incarceration, memoir | Comments Off