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FEATURE
Something Like Irresponsibility
"Just a few minutes of vacation from my straight life; then back in the car."
Something Like Irresponsibility
"Just a few minutes of vacation from my straight life; then back in the car."
Featured Stories
CITIES
The Potential of Public Art
The work of public memory is not only about the past, but about a shared vision for the future.
FIELD NOTES
The Rebirth of a Regional Library
After a long period of disinvestment and decline, Chicago’s first regional library is returning to prominence.
PERSONAL HISTORY
House on the Rock at Sixty
Approaching six decades of existence, one of the strangest places in the Midwest continues to defy easy description.
ENVIRONMENT
Lost and Gain
An excerpt from "Life Sentences: Writings from Inside an American Prison."
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More Stories
Garfield Park: Perspectives
An excerpt from "The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook."
When Internet Access is a Public Utility
In some Rust Belt communities, broadband access is provided by the municipal government.
Climate Resilience on Detroit’s East Side
How members of one neighborhood are addressing the effects of climate change on their community.
Edith Farnsworth’s House
"Each season she arrived, / steering her car through uncut grasses / against the wishes / of the imposing architect"
Between Old House and New
Coming to terms with a complicated family legacy on an Illinois farm.
West Virginians Are Reinventing Broken Foodways
The current system is bulky, inequitable, and bad for the environment. Can small-scale cooperatives save it?
The Afterlives of the 1933 Century of Progress Homes
They were built to demonstrate the promise of home technology for the World's Fair. What happened to them?
How to Integrate a Chicago Neighborhood
In three (not so) easy steps.
Mike’s Big Ditch
For decades, Mike Kirwan was the loudest advocate for a proposed canal from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. But he couldn't close the deal.
An Appalachian Community in Transition
In the last fifty years, loss of coal industry and frequent flooding have driven people out of Sharpsburg, Ohio. But not everyone is ready to leave.
Returning to Pittsburgh
"For all the intervening years, Pittsburgh had lived in my memory...viewable but not touchable, sequestered behind a one-way mirror of time."
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From the Archives
White Shirt Day and “The Birth of a Union”
The legacy of the 1937 Sit-Down Strike—for Flint and beyond.
Calls for Submissions
Call for Submissions: Black Midwest Anthology
Announcing an anthology of stories about the Black Midwest to be published by Belt Publishing.
Call for Submissions: Lawrence Anthology
Announcing an anthology of stories from Lawrence, Kansas, to be published by Belt Publishing.
Call for Submissions: Indianapolis Anthology
Announcing an anthology of stories from Indianapolis, Indiana, to be published by Belt Publishing.
