Author Archive: April M. Short

April M. Short is an editor, journalist and documentary editor and producer. She is a writing fellow at Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Previously, she served as a managing editor at AlterNet as well as an award-winning senior staff writer for Santa Cruz, California’s weekly newspaper. Her work has been published with the San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Salon and many others.
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How Making Space for Grief Can Promote Community Healing

Released for Syndication: 02/19/2021

Grief spaces and community listening circles in Ashland, Oregon, model ways for communities to navigate these trying times—from fires to COVID-19 to racist police killings.

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How One Rural Community Creatively Solved Keeping Its Residents Well Fed During a Pandemic

Released for Syndication: 02/12/2021

The people of Comox Valley broke many molds to keep people fed through COVID-19 and got its government’s attention on food security.

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Exploring Local Solutions to Our Collective Crises That Actually Work—From California to Alaska

Released for Syndication: 02/01/2021

The new Salmon Nation project launches with the ‘Festival of What Works’ to amplify innovations to localize food systems, repair climate destruction and heal.

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How New Solar Power Projects Support the Homeless and Fight Against Fossil Fuels

Released for Syndication: 01/29/2021

New Mexico’s efforts to solarize local venues paint a vision for a future of community energy self-sufficiency.

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COVID-19 Has Exposed the Fragility of Our Food System—Here’s How We Can Localize It

Released for Syndication: 01/25/2021

The pandemic has demonstrated the shortcomings of our mega-food industries and the necessity to localize food production. Farms and mills from Northern California to Canada are creating new small-scale, regional food systems.

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How the Community Helps Sustain Portland’s Ongoing Black Lives Matter Protests

Released for Syndication: 01/22/2021

Portlanders have been protesting everyday since May. Community mutual aid ‘blocs’ support BIPOC activists with everything from groceries to haircuts to tattoos.

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War Is Not Innate to Humanity—A More Peaceful Future Is Possible, Says Historical Anthropologist

Released for Syndication: 01/14/2021

Brian Ferguson’s research on the origins of war, going back to the beginning of human history and our closest ape relatives, suggests war is not part of our evolution.

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How Decades of Local Activism Led to the Biggest Dam Removal Deal In U.S. History

Released for Syndication: 01/06/2021

Due to decades of activism by a coalition of Indigenous groups, commercial fishers, concerned citizens and environmentalists, Oregon and California state governments have committed to removing four dams along the Klamath River.

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Philadelphia’s Unprecedented Housing Deal Will Cede Vacant Houses to Homeless Protesters

Released for Syndication: 11/16/2020

The breakthrough agreement could become a template to curb the U.S. housing crisis.

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How Californians Came Together to Deal With Wildfires During the Pandemic

Released for Syndication: 11/10/2020

As the climate disaster worsens, this Santa Cruz neighborhood offers a model for how one person and some flyers can become a collaborative mutual aid initiative.

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