Detroit Will Breathe continues to play a critical role in nationwide protests against police brutality-- actions that have endured for over 100 days. In our ninth episode of the Riverwise Podcast, leading Detroit Will Breathe activist Nakia Wallace takes us inside the struggle to maintain a resistance that is being waged on both a local and national front.

During the August 22 Detroit Will Breathe protest in downtown Detroit, we witnessed perhaps the Detroit Police Department's most brutal response to peaceful protests yet, during which medics, journalists and legal observers, in addition to protestors, continued being physically assaulted and injured, tear-gassed, and having masks pulled off their faces before being with pepper-sprayed and maced. Detroit Will Breathe has since filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Detroit for "unnecessary, unreasonable and excessive violence" during that protest and the dozens of others that have been held since the May 25 murder of George Floyd.

As federal agents sent by the Trump regime enter the streets of Detroit, Wallace incorporates a historical perspective on resistance to government oppression against Black voices and asks why Detroit political leaders accept federal aid to increase law enforcement but refuse to demand the critical aid we need in the form of basic health services?

The Riverwise Podcast is bringing together Detroit citizens to consider new and forms of resistance to continuing economic and political marginalization in communities of color. For over three years now, the Riverwise collective has created media that depicts local activism and the profound new work being done in Detroit neighborhoods. Through the quarterly Riverwise magazine, Riverwise community conversations, and the Riverwise Writing Workshop, we're developing our collective voice.