Reading “The Goophered Grapevine” on the Farm
Charles W. Chesnutt was a serial transplant. He found the ancestral North Carolina inhospitable. And in the North--Washington, New York, Cleveland, he was always homesick, from his earliest departures.
The Paper Companies
I surveyed all of these plausible arguments and wondered how I might prevent the paper companies from turning them into a sea of obfuscation stretching out in every direction as far as anyone could see.
Chicago Dream Houses
How a Mid-Century Architecture Competition Reimagined the American Home
Crossroads of Desire
On Black and White Indiana During the Great Migration
To Be Marquette
“If you lived up here, you’d know what it was. It’s all anyone talks about. You’re either for it: it’s going to create jobs. Or you’re against it: it’s bad for the environment. No one’s neutral.”
Bethlehem Fortune, Bethlehem Elegy
The center didn’t hold. Things fell apart. For the second time in its history, a faith was betrayed and the gates of Eden were soldered shut.
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.
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.”
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.
First Meal
Every place in the world has a story, and every person’s journey through those places can change the path for those who follow.
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.
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.