Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook Launch Party
On Wednesday, June 22, we're hosting a launch party for The Cleveland Neighborhood Guidebook! You should come. Seriously! Starting at [...]
Stories from Nowhere, Michigan: An Interview With Christine Rice
In her debut novel Swarm Theory, Chicago writer Christine Rice reimagines a landscape from her past, a mash-up of disintegrating farmland and emerging suburb that most Midwesterners will instantly recognize...
Roger Ebert And The Multicultural Passkey Of The Midwest
Shortly after he graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1964, Roger Ebert left his native Urbana for a yearlong postgrad fellowship in Cape Town, South Africa.
A People’s Park
“Hey! What’re y’all doin?” he yelled across the empty park. A pint-sized paper bag sat on the sidewalk next to his smooth-soled tan work boots.
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt Magazine. News from the week of May 30-June 5, 2016
How You Should Be Talking About Detroit
Every year on Mackinac Island, a resort spot in Lake Huron, off the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Detroit Regional Chamber — something akin to a downtown development agency — holds an annual gathering...
It’s Never Been Easy To Be Black In Detroit
I hadn’t been to Second Baptist in years. The last time I went: An eighth-grade field trip, stocked with prank-playing boys, one of whom flipped a fingernail in my mouth after tricking me to open it.
When The Number 9 Bus Was Like Home, And Downtown Was My Playground
I strained my neck to look down the row of occupied orange seats to see who was getting on the bus. A big crowd -- I should slide over close to the window, scrunching my book bag on my lap...
Making, And Leaving, Home In Flint
In 1997, an international incident was brewing. The World Wrestling Federation’s Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst Helmsley had declared war on their Canadian rivals, the Hart Foundation.
Made in America: The Pinto, and Other Cars of My Youth
I was eighteen, living with my first husband in Roxbury, Massachusetts, when I fell in love with Ford Pintos. I considered them the cutest little cars ever and wanted a Pinto station wagon ...
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt Magazine. News from the week of May 16-22, 2016
The Company Is Your Family
I’m from this little town, raised here all my life. I’m disabled right now, but I worked at a refractory plant for almost thirty-eight years. I used to run the forklift and load and unload trucks. Stopped in 2006.