Fall: Sintering in the Streets
We are stronger together
Last Fall, I wrote about gathering with our people to prepare for darkness and scarcity and this year I experienced it in the streets of Chicago. We still processed our abundance, set our tables, and hugged our people, but we also gathered near school corners, in rapid response trainings and signal chats, on foot, bike, and car patrols, and around our impacted neighbors to interrupt illegal deportations. Kelly Hayes wrote, In Chicago We Run Towards Danger Together, and this Fall we really did. Similarly, Amy Abeln wrote in her piece, The Siege of Chicago, that “cooperation becomes our city’s immune response: the civic body recognizing the injury and sending care to the wound.” Chicagoans gathered to protect each other, strategize, feel, and dream for a different world.
In doing so, we experienced moments of collective feeling that tended to our individual and shared emotions. Harm to our communities leaves wounds in each of us, whether we tend to them or not. When these feelings are prompted by shared events, we can experience shared responses that require shared healing. This is a reminder that while our emotions are our own, many similar and shared ones exist in others. In gathering with our shared pain, we can better see, understand, and respond to our hurt. Feelings often ask for assurance, does this make sense? Others ask for acknowledgment, can you see me? Some ask to be together, can you join me? Many need to see themselves in others, do you recognize me? Always seeking care and release, can you help me? These questions are better answered together and many are eager to assure, acknowledge, join, recognize, and help.
Experiencing my neighbors gather in this way reminds me of an image offered by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in her new book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead. She writes on her experiences grooming trails in northern Canada that, “Sintering is a joining. It is a communal transformation that creates a fabric of former snowflakes bonded to each other.” We sintered this Fall to protect and support each other, weaving our connections deeper into our shared environment. In resisting ICE we became a snowpack that is denser, firmer, and harder to shovel than our individual snowflakes. It is not lost on me that “snowflake” is weaponized language or that real snow set records to sinter with us and drive immigration enforcement operations out of our tundra—we are stronger together. You can listen to Kelly Hayes and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson in conversation here.
For your reflection:
What emotions require connection and mirroring to be cared for?
Where do you see your emotions and experiences in others? What happens when you do?
What makes it difficult for emotions to be shared?
When has vulnerability been possible? With trusted people, a great concert, and singing in the shower counts.
If you have funds, please consider supporting:
Midwest Immigrant Bond Fund: pay immigration bonds to free individuals from ICE custody. Board member, Jesse Johnson, Jr. shares that “each donation proves, 600,000 times over, that people in detention matter, that their freedom is non-negotiable, and that they deserve to come home. No court can take that truth away.”
Gaza Soup Kitchen: as of December 4th, 2025, they have “12 kitchens up and running, with a 13th coming soon. About half are in the middle and south, half in North Gaza. Right now, we’re focusing on the north to encourage families to return home, which also helps relieve the pressure on middle areas where resources are stretched to the max. Every day, our kitchens serve around 200 families. Each meal costs about $5, a food parcel $25–$30, a blanket $25–$30, a water truck $200, and a winter clothing package $25.” Check out their meal making videos and fund their efforts!
Chicago Community Jail Support: a DAILY, on the ground, grassroots mutual aid project to assist anyone being released from Cook County Jail, their loved ones, and the surrounding community by providing phone calls, warm clothing, snacks, drinks, PPE, safe transportation home, and emergency housing. Donations and volunteers needed!
The Range: a few gathering resources
For Chicagoans, please take a rapid response training through Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Protect Rogers Park, or Palenque: Liberating Spaces Through Neighborhood Action and get a whistle!
Mapping Community Ecosystems of Care by By Shannon Perez-Darby and Andrea J. Ritchie of Interrupting Criminalization
“Guide to finding your your people” and “What Kind of activist am I?” Toolkits available for download here.
Rapid Response Community Care Resources for Chicago
Free download of “How to Make a Friend” by Sarah Broas (@embracing.ambiguity)
I made an A Crowded Table zine in 2023 and did nothing with it. Free download to print and play with and share! It is a great stocking stuffer or 5th night of Hanukkah gift. Check out other free zines here and here!
The Pantry: a few updates from my Fall
I finished and organized and submitted a collage portfolio. I love seeing my foraging and collaging intersect in a process I am really proud of!
Speaking of collective feeling, I facilitated a “Knead It Out” therapist support group and bread making event at Chicago Minds. We are making this a semiannual offering and I so am grateful for their continued partnership!
My aunt taught me to make my first brisket for Rosh Hashanah while we gathered to honor my late grandfather through his baked goods. I can’t stop cooking meat and vegetable combinations in a dutch oven so I am excited to attend this Stews Across the African Diaspora event hosted by Azadi Folk School.
I hiked in three Illinois forrest preserves and the Wild Mile with an ongoing intention to experience ecologies closer to home. One included a visit to Ryerson Woods and the Brushwood Center which housed Lydia Cheshewalla’s exhibition, Before Dreams are the Last Place We Find You. I am deeply inspired by the intersections of her foraging and art practice and am in awe of her creations and commentary on relationship and place.
I did a lot of community organizing including rapid response, making and distributing mental health care resources, hanging these signs, and distributing 700 “Migra Watch” buttons to local patrols.
Ending with scenes from another season. May winter bring us respite, nurturance, and collective care!
