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Introduction April 8, 2025

Introduction to Issue 28 | Mississippi River Open School

By Laurie Moberg, Editor

By Laurie Moberg, Editor. In the current moment, I find myself struggling with seemingly endless uncertainties. Environmental, political, social, and personal conditions create a charged sense of precarity and anxiety, like sharp rocks poking through smooth water of a river, scratching at my foot as I cross or catching my paddle as I try to stay afloat. And I suspect I’m not alone. Amid this turbulence, I’m looking for “glimmers”—the small moments that give me hope, joy, calmness, and connection.

A vibrant mural painted on a long wall in Prampram, Ghana, depicting historical and cultural themes. The artwork includes an image of a figure in regal attire, a portrait of another individual, and a raised fist. Text on the mural features quotes, including one referencing Marcus Garvey. The wall is set against a sandy ground with a palm tree to the left and a partly cloudy sky above. Image courtesy of Ebony Aya. Alt text generated by Perplexity AI.
Feature (Peer Review) April 4, 2025

Spirituality and Ecology: (Re)Membering Black Women’s Legacies

By Ebony Aya

By Ebony Aya. I don’t have a green thumb, or at least one I have discovered yet. Keeping my indoor plants alive has been an ongoing struggle! And the outside plants? On the off chance that I do decide to plant, which I did try to do for several years, my yields are few and far between. I sometimes forget to water. Rather than doing the necessary research to understand what things can actually grow in my environment, I have often just dived right in to see what works.

Introduction April 4, 2025

Action Camps Everywhere: Solidarity Programs in the Anthropocene

By John Kim

By John Kim. The Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange (Open School) (2022–2025) has engaged pressing issues at the intersections of race, environment, and extraction through education, cultural exchange, and action. A core aspect of this work has been partnerships with communities, many on the front line of struggles against resource extraction and climate-change-related natural disasters.

Feature April 4, 2025

Imagining Life-as-Place: Harm Reduction for the Soft Anthropocene

By Sarah Lewison

By Sarah Lewison

During the summer of 2023, at a conference of the Mississippi River Open School, an experimental learning group I belong to, the brilliant Dakota astronomer Jim Rock invited us to enact a performance of reinhabitation. We met near the site of Wakan Tipi Cave in St. Paul, Minnesota, a place sacred to the Dakota people. Upon gathering, each participant in our group was asked to name and express gratitude toward a river or body of water that connected to their lives in a meaningful way.

A sailboat with a red sail floats on the Mississippi River under an overcast sky. In the distance, faint outlines of buildings are visible on the shoreline. Image courtesy of Thomas Turnbull. Alt text generated by Perplexity AI.
Feature April 4, 2025

Fluvial Networks of Creative Resistance

By Joseph Underhill

By Joseph Underhill The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and…

A person wearing a blue life jacket and winter clothing paddles a canoe on the Mississippi River near the Flint Hills oil refinery at Pine Bend. The refinery's industrial structures, including smokestacks and storage tanks, dominate the background under a cloudy sky. The canoe holds supplies, including a blue container and a red dry bag. Image courtesy of Michelle Garvey. Alt text generated by Perplexity AI.
Teaching and Practice April 4, 2025

Mississippi as Method

By Michelle Garvey

By Michelle Garvey Praxis of Place When I think about the kinds of praxis—the application of theory—that enable liberatory movements, I remember bell hooks….