Women on Waves rocked the boat well before setting sail in 2001. Lead by physician Rebecca Gomperts, this women’s healthcare advocacy group aimed to provide abortion services in countries where the procedure is illegal. They built a seafaring abortion clinic registered in The Netherlands, anchored it 12 miles away from harbors in international waters, where…
In April 2010, a shocking video of an American helicopter firing upon a group of Iraqi journalists on the ground in Bagdad stunned mainstream media and the diplomatic world, and inspired a global debate about the relationship between news outlets and the governments they report on. The video, titled Collateral Murder, was released by WikiLeaks,…
“If you really want to contribute to changes in social structures, you need time.” Jeanne van Heeswijk took this ethos to heart in Valley Vibes, her effort to gather the voices of East London’s residents, who in 1998 began witnessing gentrification–or the replacement of local culture for corporate business–in their neighborhood. As part of the…
The U.S. Social Forum gathers tens of thousands of activists over several days with the goal of building a unified, national social justice movement across the country. Since its inception, two forums have taken place, in Atlanta in 2007 and in Detroit in 2010. Each forum drew over 15,000 activists, and offered a multitude of…
For one month in January 2011, Cairo, Egypt, reverberated as thousands of citizens flooded Tahrir Square in mass protest of former president Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year-rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, economic depression, and food shortages across the region. The protests transpired for a mere 18 days, yet the during that time the…
Johannesburg-based artist Athi-Patra Ruga has a habit of inserting himself into challenging situations. He once sat in the middle of a basketball court, mid-game, wearing Jane Fonda-era aerobics gear. He also teetered in stiletto heels and a black sheep costume atop a hill in Switzerland, while corralled in a pen with actual, white sheep. In…
The houses of Naranjito, located outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, follow the contour of the mountain beneath them, rising and falling along the ridges. This is the first thing Chemi Rosado-Seijo noticed from the foot of the hillside; not the boarded windows or trash-lined streets–signs of a declining economy in what was once a…
Chiang Mai’s Warorot Market, which dates back to the 19th century, is best characterized by the word “epic”: The densely packed stalls and stores feature inexhaustible rows of wares, from vegetables and chickens to brightly dyed textiles and plastic knick-knacks. Likewise, the market’s population has become an equally diverse cross-section of religious and ethnic identities…
One Saturday morning in 2003, the mayor of a small, Czechoslovakian village, Ponetovice, broadcast a message to all 350 residents: He asked them to go shopping–at the same time. For the rest of the day, the people continued to synchronize their routine according to a schedule that was posted on the village bulletin board. They…
For one day, fifth- and six-grade students from Toronto’s Parkdale Public School provided haircuts, free of charge, in hair salons across the city. Using the tresses of mannequin heads, they trained for one week with professional stylists, learning how to trim bangs, add color, shave necklines, create long layers, and use a blow dryer. While…