On a snowy, ten-degree day in January 2009, my girlfriend and I woke up and randomly found our way to Gary, Indiana. We had Broadway to ourselves. At that time, the former Sheraton Hotel (since demolished) loomed menacingly over downtown.
Excerpted from The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, coming in August from Belt Publishing. By Lakisha Dumas When Ruby Jones was here, Detroit was [...]
The Whiskey Rebellion and the Rebirth of Rye: A Pittsburgh Story By Mark Meyer and Meredith Meyer Grelli November 15, [...]
When I have written about Roseland it is usually about tragedy and trauma as the result of generations of neglect. When I tell white people where I live, their response always begins with a recollection
More than anything, my dad talks about the trees. How branches reached up and intertwined over the street to block out the sun. Turned the street into a tunnel. You couldn’t see the sky. Same thing on every block he and his four younger brothers would have walked. Trees taller than all the Warrendale bungalows.
Blue City, Red State is forthcoming anthology from Belt Publishing, to appear in October 2018. We’re collecting essays about living blue in a red state—whatever that means to you
Lorain, Ohio used to be louder. In the steel corridor, along West 28th, you’d hear the roar of the blast furnace from inside U.S. Steel’s plant, the melting of iron ore into hot slabs or billets, the ding of pipe crashing down off the lifts.
Preorder The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook from Belt today and you'll not only be the first on your block to get your copy, it will come with a sweet bonus: a hand-drawn map of Detroit by Alex B. Hill.
Comedian Bill Maher said it last Friday night on live TV. Now, an official with the Genesee County Land Bank in Flint has resigned after an audio recording of him saying it was posted online. I am, of course, talking about each man’s use of the n-word.
First he came for the cast of Hamilton, but I did not speak out, for I am not in the cast of Hamilton. Then he came for Meryl Streep, but I did not speak out, for I am not certified national treasure Meryl Streep.
Although Columbus is the capital city of the state of Ohio, it does not live in the national imagination the way older Ohio cities, such as Cincinnati and Cleveland, do. They have secured a distinct cultural presence for themselves, while Columbus is still becoming - and rapidly.
Somewhere between his 12th and 13th hour inside a Chicago Police interrogation room, Lindsey Smith decided to confess to a murder he didn’t commit. The year was 1972. Multiple officers had pistol-whipped, stomped on and beaten him, again and again.