Bolts

1 week ago | boltsmag.org | Daniel Nichanian

The water system that provides for the entire Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota has been contaminated with dangerous levels of manganese that have made the water undrinkable since May. For Lonna Jackson-Street, chair of the Spirit Lake Tribal Council, which is now scrambling to provide bottled water to residents and install a filtration system, the crisis underscores the need for Native voices in government.

2 weeks ago | boltsmag.org | Daniel Nichanian

Some 30 years ago, volunteers with Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign knocked on Patty Hernandez’s door in Denver. Hernandez, a U.S.-born citizen who was raised in Mexico, at the time spoke fluent Spanish and limited English. After she told the door-knockers that she wanted to vote but didn’t know how, they gave her a pamphlet on voter registration, written in English that she could not understand.

3 weeks ago | boltsmag.org | Camille Squires

Latoria George’s home was in bad shape. The apartment in Baton Rouge, where she’d lived for four years, had no heat and no smoke detectors. The mold in her bedroom had gotten so bad she’d started sleeping on the couch. When her stove caught fire, she paid out of pocket to replace it, just like she’d paid for other repairs that her landlord refused to cover. That put George, who works two jobs, behind on rent. Her landlord wanted to kick her out.

3 weeks ago | boltsmag.org | Daniel Nichanian

Maida Dooley is careful not to speak Spanish too loudly in public these days. She moved to the U.S. from Venezuela as a child, gained U.S. citizenship three years ago, and now keeps her passport card on her at all times, fearful that her skin tone alone could lead police or immigration enforcement to question her. When she mentally rehearses such a confrontation, she imagines officers accusing her of fabricating the card.

4 weeks ago | boltsmag.org | Camille Squires

Ten years after Kalief Browder’s death by suicide, his story lingers as a reminder of both the horrors of New York City’s Rikers Island and the cascading consequences of solitary confinement. At 17 years old, Browder was sent to the Rikers Island jail complex, where he was held for three years pending trial—nearly two of which he spent in isolation.