The YES! Crossword: ReBIRTH
This is Patrick Blindauer’s last puzzle for YES! as he moves on to new projects. We would like to thank Patrick for all the engaging and thoughtful puzzles he’s contributed since our Spring 2018 issue.
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For a Liberated Palestine
Nasreen Abd Elal vividly remembers a time when the Palestinian struggle against the state of Israel was not widely recognized as resistance to settler colonialism and genocide. Now a graphic designer,...
View ArticleA Civilian-Led Solution to Addressing Cartels
In August, on the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared, María del Carmen Martínez sits alone in the house her daughter, Ofelia, bought with the money she earned working as an undocumented...
View ArticleA Tool to Tackle Climate Emotions
This past spring, a colorful poster displayed a ring of emojis at a student table outside the cafeteria at Maritime and Science Technical Academy, a 6–12 school in Miami. Called the climate emotions...
View ArticleThis Argentine Prison Cooperative Ended Recidivism
One man bakes bread while a couple of others prepare pizzas for lunch. Nearby, a large farm buzzes with activity as many men cultivate leafy greens while others tend to chickens. Adjacent to the...
View ArticleThe Transgressive Pleasure of Carnival
A cloak of black oil was my passage to deliverance. When I covered myself in oil to participate in Grenada’s J’ouvert, a central aspect of the country’s Spicemas celebration, it was nothing short of a...
View ArticleWe Can Solve Our Care and Housing Crises, Together
“Home sweet home” is not quite so simple in the time of polycrisis—economic, political, environmental. Far from the white-picket-fence propaganda of earlier eras, we must reimagine how we live and...
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High Hopes for Climate Reparations at COP29
Preity Gurung is a member of the Tamang people of the Himalaya. The climate effects here are deeply felt: After a long period of drought, more than 200 people in Kathmandu were killed by floods in...
View ArticleFilipino Communities Counter Election Grief
As the United States gears up for another Trump presidency, communities are feeling shock waves of emotion that range from fear and despair to powerlessness and anger. Many of us are experiencing...
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The Power of Beautiful Solutions
What if the solutions to our greatest challenges were already all around us? This idea comes from a simple yet radical belief that the wisdom to transform our world already exists in our communities....
View ArticleA Communal Fix for Our Childcare System
Research has consistently demonstrated that early childhood—those critical years from infancy to age 5—impacts long-term social, emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being. Kids who access...
View ArticleA More Humane Future for Shelter Animals
In May, LA Animal Services Kennel Supervisor Leslie Corea, who had been working in animal welfare for two decades, was attacked by Brie, a 63-pound dog that had been exhibiting signs of fear, anxiety,...
View ArticleHow to Nationalize Minnesota’s Universal Breakfast Bill
In March 2023, when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz walked the halls of Webster Elementary, students stopped to chat with him and give him high fives. Walz was there to sign the Free School Meals for Kids...
View ArticleRebuilding Food Security After a Wildfire
When wildfires swept through southern Oregon in 2020, Maria and her family lost 14 years of hard work almost overnight. Their home, their car, and most of their belongings went up in smoke. In the...
View ArticleMurmurations: A Spell for the Winter Solstice
empire wants to feel safe alonestockpiles stonesaimed at mirror neuronssees danger everywherebut never disarms do you rememberall the times we’ve been right hereknowing exactly enough to thrivebut...
View ArticleWhy Planned Parenthood Workers Revolted Over Gaza
On Dec. 5, 2023, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) released an official statement condemning what they called “atrocities committed by Hamas,” citing violations of bodily autonomy...
View ArticleFarmers Markets Can Be a Form of Climate Action. Here’s How.
For the past four decades or so, the Florin farmers market has been a source for affordable produce for many living in the small suburb in Sacramento, California. According to Sam Greenlee, executive...
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For Siċaŋġu Nation, Taking Food Sovereignty Back Means Eating Climate-Friendly
On a Wednesday summer evening on the Rosebud Reservation, members of the Siċaŋġu Nation arrange 12 tables to form a U around the parking lot of a South Dakota Boys & Girls Club. The tables at the...
View ArticleCan Everyone Eat for the Planet? I Shopped at Dollar Store for a Week to Find...
As a fossil fuels and climate reporter, most of my journalism focuses on the need to radically overhaul the energy system. But the food sector also needs a makeover, as it creates between a quarter...
View ArticleA Crop for a Saltier Future?
In early 2020, a group of Saudi farmers led Vanessa Melino into the desert. Melino, a plant physiologist, was looking for hardy crops that could thrive in harsh, arid conditions. After driving for...
View ArticleBudgeting By and For the People
Melina Abdullah, Ph.D., is a fixture among racial justice activists in Los Angeles, leading Black Lives Matter LA (BLMLA)’s protests and actions from the campus of California State University, Los...
View ArticleCan Free Public Transit Eliminate the Need for Police?
On Sept. 17, 2024, hundreds of protesters swarmed the Sutter Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, New York, calling for an end to police violence on public transit and demanding free fares. Some...
View ArticleWhat It’s Like to Serve a Life Sentence Without Parole
I’ve been incarcerated for the majority of my life, spending more time in prison than in society. It’s where I grew up. I was arrested at the age of 23, and I’m now going on my 35th year of...
View ArticlePlantains in Heaven
This story is part of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest produced by Grist Magazine. Imagine 2200 asked writers to imagine the next 180 years of equitable...
View ArticleThe Isle of Beautiful Waters
This story is part of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest produced by Grist Magazine. Imagine 2200 asked writers to imagine the next 180 years of equitable...
View ArticleTo Rescue a Self
This story is part of Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, a climate-fiction contest produced by Grist Magazine. Imagine 2200 asked writers to imagine the next 180 years of equitable...
View ArticleIn Fighting Fascism, We Must Choose Our Battles Wisely
“They’re not trying to impose dictatorship from a position of strength, they’re trying to impose it from a position of weakness and fear.” —Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin “In the midst of discontent, talk,...
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How Restorative Justice Helped One Family Move Forward
In the middle of the room, a couple places objects that are sacred to them: a singing bowl, a trombone. Two shiny, beautiful instruments, full of potential for beautiful sound. The couple rejoins the...
View ArticleInsulin Should Be a Right, Not a Privilege
Even before President Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, he had his eyes on the Inflation Reduction Act. In September 2023, Trump stated his desire to “rescind all unspent funds” for the ambitious...
View ArticleMurmurations: Dawn of a New Beginning
Dear Beloved Murmurations Readers, I am writing with an exciting update about this column. Since we launched “Murmurations” in 2021, we have collectively survived, witnessed, and lost loved ones,...
View ArticleWhat Leonard Peltier’s Freedom Represents for Indigenous Futures
Minutes before leaving office, former President Biden issued executive clemency to Leonard Peltier, commuting the remainder of his life sentence to be served at home. While the most just outcome would...
View ArticleMothering for Justice
On March 10, 2013, Dallas police officer Clark Staller was called to an apartment complex by a resident because Clinton Allen, 25, refused to leave the location. Though the facts of that night are...
View ArticleMemory Crafters Preserve Black Women’s History
The crater from the wrecking ball stood hollow in the center of the home at 2335 Arapahoe Street in the summer of 1983. Concerned community members scrambled to pause the imminent demolition to the...
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A Tale of Two Co-ops
You’d be forgiven if you passed by St. James Towers in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, or Southbridge Towers in Lower Manhattan without noting their exceptional qualities or sensing the tumult within....
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Recovery in San Diego a Year After the Floods
Jessica Calix has tried to make the 33-foot travel trailer she and her son, Chago, share at a north San Diego RV Park feel like their old rental home in the Southcrest neighborhood. She’s set up...
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7 Ways to Rise Up Against Trumpism 2.0
Since Donald Trump’s second term began on Jan. 20, 2025, his administration has aggressively launched a deluge of multipronged attacks on immigrants, transgender people, racial equity initiatives,...
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A Feminism for the Many
On that hazy June day in 2022 when the Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional right to abortion, one thing was clear: This had been a long time coming. Feminists needed to roll up our...
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A Violence-Prevention Helpline for Those Who Want to Change
Jacquie Marroquin spent much of her childhood living in fear of her father. A child of undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, Marroquin—who grew up in Los Angeles in the 1970s—worried that speaking...
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The Queer Organizations Protecting and Supporting Trans People
As Donald Trump’s second presidency gets underway, grassroots organizers are steeling themselves to protect their communities from anti-trans policies and rhetoric. There is already work to be done....
View ArticleMurmurations: Climate Solutions Require Black Ecology
The dominant narrative of the climate crisis goes something like this: “The burning of fossil fuels has produced so much carbon dioxide that our atmosphere is being damaged, our climate is changing,...
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Immigrant Farmworkers Keep Each Other Safe from the Avian Flu
Every month, around 50 dairy farmworkers filter into a church basement in western New York after a grueling day of work. They order dinner from a local Mexican or Puerto Rican restaurant and settle in...
View ArticleA Beautifully “Wicked” Approach to Disability
When I went to see Wicked, which is up for 10 Academy Awards on Sunday, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Of course, the film’s inescapable buzz piqued my interest, but I was mostly driven to the theater...
View ArticleSafe Havens for Trans Migrants on the U.S.-Mexico Border
If Indi Tisoy has a single dream, it is to reach the United States. Her desire is so strong, in fact, that she waits at the border because it makes her feel closer to that dream. Tisoy, who is a...
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Why Is It So Hard to Watch this Oscar-Winning Documentary?
For many low-budget, independent films, an Oscar win is a golden ticket. The publicity can translate into theatrical releases or rereleases, along with more on-demand rentals and sales. However, for...
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What Frogs Teach Us About Queerphobia in Science
My favorite meme about so-called gay frogs—feared to be feminized by toxic chemicals—is captioned “You have to be male or female!” Directly beneath this exclamation is a cartoon drawing of a...
View ArticleAbove and Beyond Restoring Roe
Taylor Young has never wanted to be a mom. From the time the now 27-year-old began dating, she experienced persistent anxiety around the thought of getting pregnant in Ohio, a Republican-controlled...
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A Prison-Based Program Interrupts the Cycle of Violence
When Cecilia Gonzalez told family members she had volunteered to share her life story with men in prison, they were shocked. Gonzalez, 56, had spent most of her adult life recovering from the pain and...
View ArticleThe World We Owe Gaza
Organizers of the Palestinian liberation movement welcomed news of a tenuous ceasefire agreement in Gaza in January 2025, but it did not signal the end of their ongoing campaigns. The ceasefire came...
View ArticleApocalypse Chow: Don’t Let Corporations Define Vegetables
YES! Media is excited to present a new column, Apocalypse Chow, by Arun Gupta, investigative reporter, French-trained chef, food tour guide, and author of the forthcoming eponymous book, Apocalypse...
View ArticleSelf-Determined: Climate Resilience Is Sacred
As a tidal wave of authoritarianism crashes across the U.S., it may seem as if nothing is sacred. But in these moments of uncertainty, it is the sacred to which we must return. For the Indigenous...
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