Tent City in the Heartland: The Life and Death of the Chickahominy Indian Tribal Rescue Mission
I stood on the bridge and looked out over the scattered patches of tents that rose from the land like wild mushrooms, clustered yet separate.
The Gritty Realism of Genre Artist David Gilmour Blythe
In the 1940’s, a Pittsburgh steel baron named G. David Thompson began collecting the paintings of an obscure 19th century artist, David Gilmour Blythe.
Shawarma with a Side of Culture, Controversy: Pittsburgh’s Conflict Kitchen Feels the Heat
Dawn Weleski was on a flight to Houston to attend a conference when she got word that Conflict Kitchen, the critically acclaimed restaurant-qua-public art project she runs with Carnegie Mellon art professor Jon Rubin
Life Without Bats
I grew up in a tiny rural township, ten minutes outside of Akron, Ohio in a neighborhood surrounded by looming second-growth hardwoods and whispering cornfields.
From Carpet Joints to Racinos: How Midwest Gambling Went Legit
Wherever my paternal grandfather is – and if it’s his idea of Heaven, it probably looks like the old Dairy Queen in Lisbon, Ohio, with a couple pool tables – he’s got to be laughing his ass off.
Rediscovering Russell Atkins
A leading avant-garde poet lives in obscurity in Cleveland.
Girl Strikers: Gender and Cleveland’s Garment District Strikes of 1911
Never before and likely never again will Cleveland witness packs of young Jewish and Italian girls roving the streets for strikebreakers and scabs.
“A large city, near the Miller Factory”: The Glorious Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Great Midwestern Brewer
Yelp reviews of the Miller factory tour are, to be blunt, as bland as the beer. "Kinda cheesey but that's OK," one reads. "Better than I expected," says another. Bottom line? "It's free, people!"
The Only Thing You Ever Regret Is the Typewriter You Don’t Buy: Attending the 2014 International Typewriter Collectors Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The rules and copy for the “Fastest Typewriting Contest” at the 2014 International Typewriter Collectors Convention, which took place August 7-10, are the same as those used at the International Typewriting Contest held in New York City
An Unexpected Lesson In Boxing and Jack Johnson Through Poetry
Most boxing gyms are battleship grey in color – the painted concrete floors, the duct tape holding together the punching bags, the old sweat-stained tee-shirts of the fighters.
Storming The Beach At Conneaut – A WWII Reenactment
3,700 miles away from the original battle for Normandy, D-Day in Conneaut, Ohio, began in 1999.
Repurposing Old Rail Stations in the Rust Belt
Marilyn Rodgers could do just about anything with her Saturday off, but instead she chooses to vacuum a train terminal. The executive director of Buffalo’s Central Terminal Restoration Corporation (CTRC), a nonprofit that’s rehabilitating the city’s vacant train station, goes up and down yards of original Terrazzo flooring, sucking up dirt with an industrial-strength cleaner. “I have to clean my house,” she jokes of the 523,000 square foot space where she frequently visits.