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ESSAY
Give Your Money to Mary Lane
The legendary blueswoman has never gotten her due.
Give Your Money to Mary Lane
The legendary blueswoman has never gotten her due.
Featured Stories
PERSONAL HISTORY
From Croatia to Cleveland to Columbus
On generational migration and identity in the Midwest.
ENVIRONMENT
In Minnesota, A Thirty-Year Biological Survey Nears Completion
Fieldwork is done, and scientists are at work on their final reports. What do we know so far?
POLICE VIOLENCE
Remembering David Cornelius Smith
Nearly ten years before the killing of George Floyd, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department suffocated another Black man to death.
POSTCARD
Portraits of Gary, Indiana
Photographs of everyday life for young people in the city.
Portraits of Gary, Indiana
Photographs of everyday life for young people in the city.
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More Stories
Liberation is a Long Haul: Lessons from Juneteenth
"Juneteenth is a joyful ritual of collective memory and cultural cohesion."
The People’s Free Food Project
Black and brown Chicagoans are making sure everybody eats—while holding space for revolution and joy.
Minneapolis, Revisited
"They said the city was a testament to liberal pragmatism. They said that the gaunt-eyed brown children of the borderless had ruined it."
Cleveland Doesn’t Need Your Love—It Needs Your Fire
Commentary: A goodbye letter to the city.
Protest and Power
Scenes from a moment of reckoning.
Coming Into a Black Woman’s Anger
On Audre Lorde and Minnesota Nice.
Not Another Working-Class Youngstown Story
An excerpt from "Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology 2nd Edition."
My Life in Oil
Detroit, the tar sands, and burying my father in toxic ground.
What Happened to Northeast Ohio’s ‘Chemical Shore’?
In the middle of the twentieth century, industrialists tried to rebrand the coast north of Cleveland. Like many marketing ploys, it straddled the fuzzy line between aspiration and actuality.
The Contradictions of a Progressive Police Chief
Newly-appointed CPD Superintendent David Brown left a complicated legacy in Dallas. Will he have his second chance in Chicago?
Reviving Detroit’s Historic Blue Bird Inn
Once “the nerve center” of the jazz scene in Detroit, the venue is now in shambles. But the Detroit Sound Conservancy and neighborhood leaders have plans to change that.
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From the Archives
Racism, Rebellion, and Police Violence in the Midwest
Stories on the long history of racism and police violence in the Midwest—and what to do about it.
Belt Magazine News
Call for Submissions: A Sioux Falls Anthology
Belt Publishing will be compiling an anthology of essays about Sioux Falls in 2021/22 as part of its City Anthology series.
The Best of Belt Magazine 2019
Announcing a new anthology of regional writing, available exclusively to Belt members.
Call for Submissions: Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook
Announcing the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook, to be published by Belt Publishing.
