Portside

Afrofuturism posits a future that disrupts the present and calls out its injustices. Krista Franklin produces poetry and visual art in the Afrofuturist tradition. Her poems and art works have been published in Black Camera, Copper Nickel, and Encyclopedia, Vol. F-K. Franklin’s work has been exhibited nationally in the U.S., and was featured on 20th Century Fox’s ‘Empire’ (Season Two). She is interviewed on Berlin Art Talk about her artistic interpretations of the future.

My wish as I mourn the lives lost in Orlando? Let all families hold their loved ones dear; and let our LGBT American Muslims live their lives with dignity, openly and freely.

In this new book, Jerry Harris traces the links between the current stage of the development of transnational capitalism and the decline of democratic norms throughout society. Harry Targ guides us through this terrain, and, along the way, raises some critical questions about the significance of Harris's findings for today's social movements.

The Mexican government followed through on its threat to use force against striking dissident teachers.

 Despite hyped-up media accounts, Bernie-or-Bust was just one of many directions explored in Chicago.

Birmingham, Alabama, 74% African-American, with 47 % of its children living in poverty passed a minimun wage bill to take effect this March. Republican in the State House passed legislation to undue the measure, taking away the right of local juristiction to enact labor ordinances that impact workers. As a result, 42,000 low-wage workers in Birmingham lost wages increases. Now workers are fighting back with a state-wide Living Wage campaign.

A likely vote of no confidence in Portugal's hard-right government will signify whether voters in the EU can still choose their own government.

Dear Dr. Dollar: It seems like Puerto Rico’s economic and financial mess came out of nowhere. Until recently, there wasn’t much about Puerto Rico in the press, but what there was seemed to portray things as fine, with a generous amount of funds going to the island from Washington. Sometimes, Puerto Rico was held up as a model for economic development. So where did the current mess come from? —Janet Sands, Chicago, Ill.

Jefferson County school board politics have made headlines across the state and the nation for nearly two years. Pundits called the election Tuesday a political “proxy war” over larger right-left economic and cultural issues, a key battle for the future of public education, a warm up for the 2016 presidential election year in a bellwether county in a crucial swing state.

Just a few years ago, insiders and experts wrote us off and assured the world Keystone XL would be built by the end of 2011. Together, ranchers, tribal nations and everyday people beat this project back, reminding the world that Big Oil isn't invincible.