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Voices and Visions: Women artists declare “We will not whisper” at Alluvion exhibit

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For women in particular, art has long been a vehicle for confronting gendered, social, or political marginalization. Across generations, women have used storytelling, language, the body, performance, and self-representation to make experiences previously overlooked visible. That art resonates in present-day America—a time marked by rising authoritarianism, assaults on reproductive rights, threats to LGBTQ+ communities, pervasive gun violence, environmental instability, the humanitarian crisis surrounding migration, and now, an escalating global conflict in the Middle East. This tradition of female conscience persists today, urgent and uncompromising, manifest in the work of a cohort of women artists here in northern Michigan, presented in the exhibition “We Will Not Whisper” which is on display at the Alluvion in Traverse City until April 11.

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Not a sprint, not a marathon. For Minnesotans it’s a relay race

Report from the resistance to ICE’s invasion of Minneapolis: “We take the bags of groceries—dried beans, rice, cornmeal, plantains, avocados, fruit pulps, meats I don’t recognize and juices with names I can’t pronounce—and load them into the IKEA bags in my trunk. Quickly, in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are nearby. Five deliveries today, down to Eagan, out to Woodbury, and a few in St Paul. The car smells like tamales. This isn’t our usual Sunday afternoon Trader Joe’s run,” writes St. Paul resident Julia Wheeler Ludden, who was raised in Leelanau County. “We’ve been coming here for weeks now, picking up groceries to deliver to families “sheltering in place.” Usually reserved for natural disasters, this phrase now applies to many people of color in Minnesota. It’s anything but natural, and yet, two months into the largest federal immigration roundup operation in U.S. history, it has started to feel normal. White folks and brave Black and Brown U.S. citizens deliver a lot of food these days. We all follow the same protocols: Text when you arrive. Don’t knock. Expect dark windows, shades drawn. They’re home.”

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Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, Folded Leaf, area students join ICE OUT! nationwide protests

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Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate in Empire is closed today, as part of a nationwide “ICE OUT!” day of protest to call attention to the federal agency’s aggressive tactics in Minneapolis, which have resulted this month in the killing of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The Folded Leaf bookstore in Cedar will also close today in solidarity with protests against ICE. Traverse City Area Public School high school students are also planning a walk-out this afternoon to stand in solidarity with Minneapolis and protest ICE.

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