September Issue Announcements

Posted on 09/18/2022 by Public i

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JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH

Grand Marshal Julie Pryde (in cart) at the 2021 C-U Pride parade in September, 2021. Photo by Danielle Chynoweth; used with permission

A memorial to the victims of the 2016 Orlando, FL Pulse nightclub massacre, at the Stonewall Inn in Lower Manhattan, birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Photo by Rhododendrites; used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

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“We Are Not Done”: Policy, Protections, and the People’s Struggle for Pride

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Aimee Rickman

Image by Anni Poppen; used with permission

June is Pride Month. It is a time to celebrate. It’s also a time to remember the struggle for equal rights, a history we are continually encouraged to forsake, fragment, and forget.

Far-reaching state laws criminalize teachers who dare break hegemonic silences to “say gay” to students and otherwise acknowledge facts and US history. Legislators capitalize on poverty to enlist constituents in incriminating neighbors, including those providing youth rare support in family, schools, and community. We must remember: we have been here before.

Many times. Continue reading →

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Posted in LGBTQ | Tagged equality, LGBTQ+, Pride, resistance, rights | Comments Off

The Public i: Countering Hegemonic Mass Media Narratives

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Fatou Jobe

I have always wondered how the Public i, which operates under one of the few Independent Media Centers (IMCs) that still exist in the United States—the UCIMC—has been sustainable for two decades despite the growing dissolutions of Indymedia centers worldwide. Hence, in fall, 2021, I conducted an ethnographic study (interviews and observations) to examine the resilience of the Public i vis-à-vis the worldwide decline of IMCs. I found that the commitments of the collective members through various efforts to counter hegemonic mass media narratives is one of the main reasons why the Public i is still vibrant. In this article, I present some of the findings from my study. Continue reading →

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Posted in Community, Corporate media, IMC, Media, UCIMC | Tagged alternative media, corporate media, Indymedia, Public i, UCIMC | Comments Off

A Win for the Whole Community: New Funds Will Improve Immigrant Access to Mental Health Services in Champaign County

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Janice Jayes and Ben Mueller

All who work with newly arrived individuals and families in the Champaign-Urbana community are aware of the challenges in trying to connect immigrants with mental health support. Teachers, school counselors, public health workers, legal aid societies, and others who are often the front line for families in need will soon have new resources to offer families thanks to the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA), the United Way, and the indefatigable efforts of immigrant advocates to make the case for the glaring need to provide mental health counseling to immigrants across Champaign County. Continue reading →

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Posted in health, Immigrants, Immigration, Mental Health, Public Health, Section | Tagged community health care, Immigrants, mental health | Comments Off

The Anti-Democratic Movement Against Public Schools

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Pat Simpson

“The path to saving the nation is very simple—it’s going to go through the school boards.” – Steve Bannon

The workingmen’s parties of the nineteenth century pushed hard, very hard for public schools and were key to their creation. Yes, immediate economic concerns like wages and bankruptcy were important, but their platforms also called for free education for all. They maintained that through public schools children could acquire knowledge and skills essential to an enlightened citizenry, a citizenry capable of challenging the self-serving assertions of social elites.

In short, they maintained that public schools were fundamental to a functioning democracy, a perspective to necessarily keep in mind in the face of current concerted attacks on our schools. Continue reading →

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Posted in Censorship, Democracy, Education, Education, Section | Tagged censorship, charter schools, democracy, education, privatization, public schools | Comments Off

Reckless Law, Shameless Order: Behind the Scenes

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Nasrin Navab

Evin – Ward 4, 1989, by Nasrin Navab, from the exhibition Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration

One afternoon in April of 2021 Faranak Miraftab called me to ask if I was interested in holding an art workshop with formerly incarcerated artists in continuation of the “IDENSCITY,” a conceptual art space that I had been developing through my praxis as an urbanist and artist looking at identities imposed by the surrounding social order and physical space through time. During our twenty-day road trip around Iran in May, 2019 we had talked about our personal experiences of revolution, war, suppression, mass incarceration, and resistance, and the magic power of art in connecting people to share experiences only expressible in art. My response was simple: “Sure! I’d love to.” Thus was germinated the seed of the exhibition Reckless Law, Shameless Order: An Intimate Experience of Incarceration, which ran at Krannert Art Museum (KAM) on the UIUC campus from February 11 to April 2, 2022. Continue reading →

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Posted in African Americans, African Americans, Arts, Immigrants, incarceration, Local Arts, Prison Arts, Prisoners, Voices, Voices of Color, Women | Tagged Immigrants, incarceration, local arts, Prison arts | Comments Off

Feminism, the Environment and Stolen Land: Socially Conscious Music from Africa and the South Pacific

Posted on 06/25/2022 by Al Kagan

Album cover for Dobet Gnahoré’s Couleur

Readers may remember my two previous world music reviews, in the February 2021 and Summer 2021 issues of the Public i. All of the music described here was reviewed in the great magazine Songlines. The music is available on Apple Music and similar sources. If you are reading this article online, please note the YouTube links for each song. Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, Arts, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, International, Music, South Africa | Tagged Africa, International, Music, South Africa, South Pacific, West Africa | Comments Off

The Value of Transaction Taxes on Financial Instruments

Posted on 06/24/2022 by Paul Mueth

Financial transaction taxes (FTT) are an innovative system whose time has come again. There has been a narrow FTT in the UK since 1694, which raised $4.9 billion in 2020, and it hasn’t prevented the City of London from being a financial center second only to New York City. It’s not covered much in the corporate media; of course, the business press is full of critiques. Right-wing think tanks are busy peddling extreme Chicken Little scenarios if the tax were to be implemented. But raising the issue of media criticism of economic issues without reference to the current misrepresentation of the inflation cycle we are in isn’t possible for this author.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Corporations, Economy, Labor/Economics, Tax policy | Tagged Corporations, economics, finance, taxes | Comments Off

Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan Threaten to Kill More Civilians than Two Decades of War

Posted on 06/24/2022 by Mark Weisbrot

Photo by Mette Bastholm/Helmand PRT/Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Department for International Development. Used under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 License

When President Joe Biden decided to withdraw the US military from Afghanistan last year, much of America’s news media came down on him like a ton of bricks. Republicans piled on, calling the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster.”

But getting out was the right move.

In fact, the real mistake was the opposite: the Biden administration did not end the war, but continued it by other means, which are turning out to be more violent and destabilizing. The economic sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies are causing widespread, severe hunger in this desperately poor country. Continue reading →

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Posted in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Poverty, War | Tagged Afghanistan, foreign policy, poverty, sanctions, war | Comments Off

June/July Issue Back Cover

Posted on 06/24/2022 by Public i

Posted in Immigrants, Uncategorized, Voting Rights | Tagged Immigrants, mental hearlth, Voting | Comments Off

Where to Pick Up the Public i

Posted on 05/26/2022 by Public i

DOWNTOWN URBANA

Beard Culture, Lincoln Square Mall
Cafeteria & Co.
*Common Ground Food Co-op
Community Connection
Courier Café
Cunningham Township Office
*Dancing Dog Eatery and Juicery
Dirty Rascal Barber Shop
Enchantment Alley
Independent Media Center/Post Office
Lincoln Square Mall
Rick’s Bakery
Rose Bowl
Schnuck’s
Urbana Adult Education Center
Urbana City Building
Urbana Free Library

MISCELLANEOUS URBANA

Continue reading →

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May Issue Front Cover

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Public i

The Cost of War

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Posted in Eastern Europe, Front Cover, International, Section, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

Progressive Dilemmas on Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Richard Esbenshade

Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced people, almost all women, children, and elderly, now top 12 million

The Left has tangled itself in knots over how to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Early statements, such as by CodePink and Black Alliance for Peace, while putatively opposing war, laid emphasis on US and Western responsibility, NATO’s inexorable eastern expansion having “provoked” the attack; labeled the 2014 Maidan events as a “US-backed coup,” which had forced the Russian occupation of Crimea and its attempts to separate the eastern border region; and failed to condemn or even mention Russian President Vladimir Putin. Looser talk labeled Ukrainian nationalism as wholly fascist, and even all Ukrainians as implicit if not explicit Nazis, and charged that the Ukrainian government had been committing “genocide” against Russian speakers in the eastern part of the country. This position dovetails with Putin’s propaganda line justifying his war—as well as that of the right fringe of US Republicans, embodied by Tucker Carlson’s full-blooded support for Putin. Such expressions exhibit a disturbing tendency that Leila Al-Shami, already in 2018, called “ the ‘anti-imperialism’ of idiots,” in reference to knee-jerk Western leftist support for the brutal Assad regime in Syria (and, by extension, its just-as-brutal Russian patron). The operative principle seems to be that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Continue reading →

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Posted in Eastern Europe, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, International, International, Politics, Refugees, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

The Great De-Centering: The World after Ukraine

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

In the US many have the impression that the entire world is aiding Ukraine, but the truth is that most countries are sitting this out

The Ukraine war is a turning point in history, but not the one you might be expecting. It won’t revive the Cold War. It won’t determine the survival of the Liberal World Order (whatever that is). And most decidedly, it won’t rehabilitate the moral reputation of Europe and the US. If Westerners could peek out from under the flower crowns and Ukrainian flags they have draped across their social media pages for just one minute they might notice that few countries are joining their parade of support for Ukraine.

Wars mean different things to different peoples, and while this war is seen across the planet as an undeniable tragedy for the people of Ukraine, for many it is also bringing into focus emotions and anger that have been building for years. Pushed to choose a side in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many are choosing to walk away instead. Continue reading →

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Posted in Foreign Policy, International, International, Middle East, Politics, Racism, Ukraine, War | Comments Off

Book Banning, Gag Orders, and the Organized Right Wing

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Al Kagan

Book bannings are very much in the news these days. They are happening mostly in more rural school districts and in the South, but not only in these places. The American Library Association (ALA) issued a statement in November of last year decrying widespread efforts to censor books in public schools and libraries. The statement notes that these attacks on the freedom to read are overwhelmingly focused on books addressing “LGBTQIA+ issues and books by Black authors or that document the Black experience or the experiences of other BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] individuals.” It further states that “Falsely claiming that these works are subversive, immoral, or worse, these groups induce elected and non-elected officials to abandon constitutional principles, ignore the rule of law, and disregard individual rights to promote government censorship of library collections. Some of these groups even resort to intimidation and threats to achieve their ends, targeting the safety and livelihoods of library workers, educators, and board members who have dedicated themselves to public service.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Censorship, Education, Education, Free Speech, Libraries, Literature | Comments Off

Two Stories from Statesville Prison

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Leo Cardez

Saving Your Mind: Mental Health in the Age of Corona

“This is some next-level shit. I thought I’d seen it all in my 20 years in prison,” said Murder (no real names used), my Quarantine Sanitation Specialist co-worker, as we dragged another fellow sick inmate to the hospital wing.

His voice cracked and I thought I noticed a tear in his eye, but never said a word about it. I understood completely. Continue reading →

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Posted in Arts, incarceration, Local Arts, Prison Arts, Prisoners | Comments Off

Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners’ Mission to Bring Books (and Bibliophilia) Behind Bars

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Katherine Langdon

When it comes to helping people make a fresh start after incarceration and avoid returning to prison, few approaches are as effective and vital as education. Many people who wind up in the prison system do not have enough literacy or education to succeed in traditional career paths, and it has been demonstrated that inmates who participate in educational opportunities in prison have a significantly lower likelihood of recidivism than those who do not. For this reason, a supply of books, learning opportunities, and support for education are essential services in the correctional system, but funding for these is usually scarce and an easy target in budget cuts. To bridge the gaps, some communities have volunteer programs that supply resources, leadership, and labor.

One such group is Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners (B2P), a volunteer-run organization that receives and fulfills requests for books from adults incarcerated in state and federal prisons throughout the state of Illinois. B2P builds awareness and support of literacy in prisons by engaging the community in volunteering, book sales, and book donation. Volunteers get to engage directly with letters from inmates and see firsthand how impactful and needed their work is. Continue reading →

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Shamar Betts Case Moves to Federal Appeals Court

Posted on 05/13/2022 by Janice Jayes

Shamar Betts before his judicial ordeal commenced

On April 8, the case of Urbana resident Shamar Betts moved to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Betts was arrested in June, 2020 in the midst of a national crackdown on protests against the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. The nineteen-year-old Betts admitted to authoring a Facebook post encouraging people to gather at Marketplace Mall and express their anger; he was subsequently sentenced to four years in Federal prison and fined $1.6 million in restitution for damages committed across the entire Neil Street/North Prospect area the evening of May 31. In their brief Betts’s defense team argued that the government case against Betts is based on a constitutionally problematic legal code open to political misuse and in need of review. In addition, they argued that the process used to determine Betts responsibility for damages was arbitrary and failed to prove causation. Continue reading →

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Posted in African Americans, BLM, incarceration, Justice, Racism | Comments Off

“It’s a Money Grab”: Billions in COVID Relief Going to Fund Police and Prisons

Posted on 05/12/2022 by Brian Dolinar

Los Angeles Police Department officers push back protesters in July 2020. Photo by Michael Muthee/Unsplash

If you’re from inner-city Birmingham, Alabama, there’s a “99-percent chance” you have a family member or friend who has been incarcerated, according to Veronica Johnson, deputy director for the Alabama Justice Initiative, which has been fighting against a proposal to build three new prisons in the state. She has an uncle serving a 60-year prison sentence.

“I’m a regular person,” she told The Appeal. “There’s nothing special about me.”

In the fall of 2020, Johnson, who is Black, traveled to rural Brierfield, Alabama—“deep into Trump country,” she said—to talk to residents about a new prison the state was planning to put in their community. It was a Sunday, and Johnson, who was wearing a headwrap with locks hanging out of the front, recalled wondering, “Do I look too ethnic?” As she went from door to door, the people she spoke to largely agreed that their community didn’t have the infrastructure to handle a 3,100-bed prison.

“Those people stood by our side—we crossed political lines,” Johnson said proudly. It was the “ultimate satisfaction.”

That campaign jump-started Communities Not Prisons, a coalition of grassroots activists, faith leaders, farmers, and national organizations, which eventually halted the proposed prison. The activists believed they had won the fight, but then COVID-19 hit, bringing a flood of federal relief money to Alabama—and, with it, renewed talk of prison expansion. Continue reading →

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Posted in African Americans, COVID-19, incarceration, Justice, Police, police accountability, Policing | Comments Off

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