SEPTEMBER 6, 2024 STUDENTS GROUNDCOVER NEWS Six things every college student should know about Groundcover News JANE ATKINS Groundcover contributor I heard about Groundcover News through an English class I had taken during my freshman year at University of Michigan, but I wasn’t really sure what the newspaper was about beyond its mission statement. Now, as a sophomore, Groundcover has been one of the most positive experiences of my freshman year, and I never knew back then how involved I would be now. If I could go back in time, here are five things I wish I knew about Groundcover News as a freshman: 1. Every Groundcover vendor is a person experiencing homelessness or poverty. Each vendor keeps the profits they earn from selling the newspaper, which means that the money you spend on a newspaper goes directly into the pockets of the vendor you bought it from! 2. It's easier than you think to find a vendor selling the paper. Many of them wear blue vests and they always have a Groundcover News badge on. You can find vendors all over Ann Arbor, and some even like to stay around the same area every day, which makes it very easy to buy the paper regularly. 3. Groundcover News is a nonprofit organization that is mostly run by volunteers, and they value their work greatly. Every day in the office is a fun one, and volunteers are what make the newspaper happen. Groundcover is always looking for people to volunteer who want to make a difference in the Ann Arbor community and care about housing justice. 4. You can buy the street paper with Venmo! I didn’t know this at first, but it makes it much easier to buy the paper since I don’t think most people carry cash around these days. Each issue has a Venmo QR code you can scan on the front cover, and in the comments you write the name and vendor number so you know the money is going directly to your vendor, all for a cost less than a cup of coffee. You can watch a "how-to" video on the Groundcover News Instagram page. Some vendors use their own Venmo accounts, too. 5. Groundcover is more than a street newspaper. They host fundraisers, art fairs, poetry slams — they even have their own audio version of the newspaper called Groundcover Speaks, which you can listen to on their website through the Ann Arbor District Library. They also host workshops for vendors to practice their writing skills, salesmanship and more. 6. Groundcover News publishes a variety of writers and voices. While they place an importance on stories written by their vendors, there are also stories written by volunteers (like the one you are reading now!) or U-M students who are in English classes partnering with Groundcover. It is a newspaper filled with diverse perspectives and topics. Like snowflakes, no issue is the same as the one before! I hope this article has been informative and calls you to volunteer, start reading the paper regularly, or at the core, makes you more aware of the community that exists around you. If you are interested in getting involved, visit groundcovernews.org and fill out the Volunteer Interest Form! 11 Take Back Bikes is redefining "bike share" INDIRA SANKARAN Take Back Bikes The story of Take Back Bikes begins not in Michigan, nor in the United States, but in Palestine — where there is an ongoing genocide and decadeslong occupation by the zionist entity. After months of pressure on the University of Michigan administration to divest the $6B tied up in companies that contribute to or profit off of the genocide, students, staff and community members of the Tahrir Coalition erected the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to escalate their demands. The encampment, which lasted a month before U-M Police Department violently raided it, was a space of freely shared ideas and food, the creation of communal art and music, and, above all, was a community insistent on taking radical action towards collective liberation. The encampment was also where upwards of 20 bikes were donated by community members eager to support the folks camping out; it was there the idea of Take Back Bikes was conceived. In Washtenaw County, many who rely on the bus know it's easy to get stranded if it's too late at night, too early in the morning, or too far from a bus route. The activists who started TBB hope to contribute to free transportation accessibility, while keeping the genocide in Gaza at the forefront of the visual landscape. "No one should be able to go about their day without the reminder that our tax dollars are going towards genocide, and basic services like transportation, healthcare, and housing remain neglected in our communities," said one TBB organizer. All bikes are decorated with themes of Palestinian liberation in mind. TBB has distributed four bikes in Ann Arbor, with another four soon to follow in Ypsilanti. These bikes were either recovered from the encampment or donated by the community. Each bike is repaired, tested, decorated and inspected for safety. To use a bike, find the code to the lock on the bike, ride where you need, and lock it back up in a heavily trafficked or downtown location. In its first few weeks TBB has received a warm and hopeful welcome from the community. A TBB organizer said, "The other day [a bike user] needed to get back to his camp with his bags before the rain hit. He found a TBB bike and was able to make it back home to his tent just in time before it started pouring." TBB has already begun experiencing repression from the police. In August, one bike was tagged by the Ann Arbor police with a notice saying the bike would be impounded if not removed within 48 hours. This appears to be selective enforcement of a city ordinance, as many bikes around the city PUZZLE SOLUTIONS are left on racks for months with no issue. Time and again, pro-Palestinian protestors have been repressed through arrests, charges, brutality and changes to law and policy. While a bike notice is insignificant in comparison to the felony charges that some activists are facing, it shows how the law flexes to specifically repress the Palestinian liberation movement at every level. What can you do to support TBB? The biggest request is to ride the bikes! If you are interested in getting more involved, you can attend the next TBB workday. Details will be posted on their instagram @takebackbikes. Take Back Bikes also needs money for parts, tools and decorations, which can be donated to givebutter.com/kb4qff. Questions can be emailed to takebackbikes@proton.me. By providing a free community service meant to challenge for-profit, exploitative business practices and oppressive university policies, TBB is one of the many ways people in our community strive to build healthy communities and work towards the world they wish to live in. Ride on and Free Palestine.
12 Publizr Home