Something in the Night: Bruce Springsteen at the Agora
I am a bespectacled 23-year-old with a deep affinity for Oxford shirts, Levi’s skinny jeans, and overpriced beer and coffee, and I, like so many of my kombucha-sipping contemporaries...
Weekly Links Roundup
News of the Rust Belt from around the world, brought to you weekly by the staff of Belt Magazine.
On The 64: A Bus Ride Through Pittsburgh’s Past And Promise
5th & College: 10:07 a.m.: Cameron messaged me. He was on board. So began our adventure — riding Pittsburgh’s 64 bus line end to end.
Our Friendliness Will Save Us
“Can you tell me which one is the fennel?” I looked up at the voice, annoyed at being drawn out of my own panicky thoughts.
Readers’ Corner: Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Malcolm X Street, Lansing, Michigan
In his Autobiography, Malcolm X titled the chapter on his Lansing years “Nightmare.” In 1931, when Malcolm was six, his father was fatally struck by a streetcar.
All Aboard the Red Line Greenway
Standing atop the viaduct bridge that carries commuter trains between downtown Cleveland and the city’s west side, Lennie Stover stoops down and fishes a rusty piece of metal from the gravel next to the tracks.
Of Rumor and Riot
In late summer of 1967, waves of rumors moved through metropolitan Detroit, announcing a series of race divisions across the city and between city and suburb.
Belt Industry Tour: Cleveland
Belt is excited to announce a guided and up-close look at some of Cleveland's historically significant industrial locations. Celebrate Cleveland's rich manufacturing history with the inaugural Belt Industry Tour.
The Dark, Violent, Grotesque, Drug-Induced Whatever
I’m a Patrick Michael Finn fan. This, unfortunately, is a lonely thing to be. His output is modest: One novella, A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovitch, and a story collection, From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet, both from small presses.
Readers’ Corner: Marie’s Golden Cue
Marie’s Golden Cue, on the corner of Montrose and Troy, endures in a 1930s deco storefront with glossy white terra cotta tiles. The phrase: "Cue Stick Repair Shop, Professional Workmanship," appears on the picture window.
Can Detroit Save White People?
OK, so, all you white people coming from Brooklyn (or L.A., or Portland, or Austin, or Chicago, or London, or whatever) to Detroit looking to “save” yourself: What, exactly, are you saving yourself from?
A Belt Q&A With Eric Lundgren
The Facades is about the best and the worst of the Midwest. Eric Lundgren’s 2013 novel takes place in a fictional Trude, a hard-boiled, moth-bitten metropolis bounded by interstates and a high-modern retirement home.