Category Archives: Voices

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 →

301 total views

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 →

547 total views

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! 1,003 total views, 1 views today

1,003 total views, 1 views today

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 →

1,173 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 →

362 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 →

326 total views

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 →

323 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 →

543 total views, 1 views today

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 →

468 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 →

415 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 →

837 total views, 1 views today

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 →

579 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 →

962 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 →

1,101 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 →

456 total views

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

There Is Only Old People Here. All the Children Are Gone

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Mrs. Marilynn Dean Cleveland

There’s no hope for a better tomorrow. There’s no vision or dream for a better reason. The paths are darkened by fear and evil forces that dwells in the darkness that roams the corners of the street. There is only … Continue reading →

400 total views, 1 views today

Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Arts, children, Poetry, Section, Violence, Voices | Tagged African American, children, Poetry, violence | Comments Off

Pre-Roe Reproductive Rights Underground: The Story of the Janes

Posted on 11/18/2023 by Pat Simpson

We are back in pre-Roe Chicago. A doctor speaks about sepsis, the emergency rooms overflowing daily with feverish women dying from botched efforts to rid themselves of unwanted pregnancies. Another woman recalls her phone interactions with a mob operative. Yes, … Continue reading →

385 total views, 2 views today

Posted in abortion rights, Feminism, film, Reproductive Justice, Women, wonen's rights | Tagged abortion rights, feminism, film, reproductive justice, women | Comments Off

The Danville Abortion Clinic Troubles

Posted on 08/28/2023 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 →

718 total views, 1 views today

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 08/27/2023 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 →

1,427 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 08/27/2023 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 →

777 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