Rust Belt Union Blues

As union halls closed and membership numbers dwindled, other networks and community group influences, often propelling more conservative values and messages, have become more central to the daily lives of workers and residents.

2023-10-20T17:29:56-04:00October 16, 2023|

God Damn It Be Kind

“Like homing pigeons,” a man in a New York bar once told me about Pittsburghers. “You leave. You go back. You’re lucky. There aren’t many places like that.”

2023-10-18T09:16:30-04:00October 13, 2023|

Back to the Beehive

The Beehive’s early clientele were Pittsburgh’s “neo-beatniks”: artists and art students, those studying at nearby colleges and universities, musicians, writers, filmmakers, out-of-work ne’er-do-wells and those still trying to find their way.

2023-10-13T15:36:29-04:00October 9, 2023|

Death in Custody

We now know some of their names and how they died. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Laquan McDonald. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. Sandra Bland. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Stephon Clark. Atatiana Jefferson. Breonna Taylor. Daniel Prude. Antwon Rose II. Rayshard Brooks. Andre Hill. Daunte Wright.

2023-09-27T08:53:52-04:00September 22, 2023|

Paradise Lost in Pittsburgh

To walk through Frick Park – at least for me – is a pilgrimage into Milton's Paradise Lost, read not in words, lines, and stanzas, but rather rocks, trees, and water.

2023-09-25T09:33:10-04:00September 20, 2023|

Donora Death Fog – The First Days

Tuesday was just an average day in Donora and vicinity, when nothing particularly special happened. Nothing, that is, except a confluence of weather conditions that would place an environmental lid on the valley.

2023-05-06T10:29:16-04:00May 1, 2023|

Whole Bottle of Red Pills

Belt Magazine presents an excerpt from distinguished reporter Jeff Sharlet's disturbing, brilliant, and important new book about the threat of American fascism "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War."

2023-04-24T08:09:52-04:00April 19, 2023|

Three Short Stories from “Sidle Creek”

In the hills of Appalachia in western Pennsylvania lies a bruised, stripped and timbered town of miners, mill workers and farmers called Sidle Creek. Award-winning author Jolene McIlwain's debut collection Sidle Creek unearths themes of class, health, trauma and the unexpected human conditions that happen in close-knit communities. To be released by Melville House on May 16, 2023.

2023-04-17T07:50:38-04:00April 12, 2023|