The atmosphere in the room is teemantalizing with excitement. People whisper to their seat neighbors as the lights dim. It’s 30 minutes after 2 pm, the scheduled time of the event’s start, and they’re *still* letting people in as the line curved around the block. I should know, I had to pass through it twice […]
Reporting by Steve Ahlquist and Sabrina Ruiz On October 18, at least 15,000 people gathered outside the Rhode Island State House in Providence, joining countless other cities and towns across the United States to condemn President Trump’s fascist overreach and to declare that America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people. Here […]
Our Republic was designed around independence to prevent any one person, institution, or corporation from taking too much power over neighboring communities, organizations, or government branches. The Constitutional laws, courts and Congress that reflect most Americans’ virtues enforce the checks and balances on executive power and partake in a social contract in which Trump has […]
Mayor-elect of New York City Zohran Mamdani is a self-avowed “democratic socialist,” and his policy proposals include free public transit, free child care, city-run grocery stores, and free everything else, all funded by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy city residents. Mamdani has based his suddenly rocketing popularity on telling people what they want to […]
I live in North Kingstown, and a friend of mine, a retired police officer, rented the downstairs half of a house down the street from me. At least he did until last year when his landlord told him the rent wasn’t nearly as high as the market would bear, and raised it again. When my […]
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been increasingly scary and threatening under the Trump administration. A few days ago, armed and masked agents converged on a Chicago apartment house, some even rappelling onto the roof from military helicopters. They forced men, women, and children outside, even naked, restraining them with zip-tie handcuffs. Most of […]
Political violence is a bad thing from any perspective, but there is a long tradition of it. In the classic 1970 collection of over one hundred primary source documents American Violence, the earliest account is Pilgrims versus Puritans from 1634 and the most recent, two years before the book was published, are the Chicago Riots […]
It should be abundantly clear to anybody who has read my work over the last years of published pieces here at Motif: I love the city of Providence. Everything about it to me exudes quiet charm, limitless narratives, and alluring architecture, all set to the soundtrack of an artsy yet brutalistic urban landscape. This admiration […]
On November 25, 2023, Brown Student and Palestinian-Irish American, Hisham Arwatani, was shot in Burlington, Vermont, while visiting family during his Thanksgiving break. He, alongside two of his friends, was taking a walk while wearing Keffiyehs and speaking a mix of English and Arabic when they were unprovokedly shot at. One was shot in the […]
At this point, what more can be said about the orange stain on our country that is Donald J. Trump? From his blatant racism and misogyny, to his constant grifting and obvious lies, it’s become all too clear that he has absolutely no intention of putting any American first except for his billionaire cronies. This […]