Essays
On The Rouge
Of all the fathers and sons I know, I’m fairly certain my dad and I are the only ones who would spend part of a hot spring Wednesday afternoon peering into a sewer grate. However, this is not just any sewer grate.
Harvard and Cleveland
After college, I returned to Cleveland and hung out at Case Western Reserve University as much as possible. I wanted to stay in the college bubble. I wasn’t ready for the world. I helped my dad in the real estate business, and that was too real.
How To Make A Building Fall
One Saturday morning when I was eight, my dad took my brother and me downtown to watch a building get blown up. Thousands of people came out to celebrate the event, as strange as that sounds.
Requiem for Northland Center
Northland Center is the oldest suburban shopping mall in the Detroit region, and will likely close soon. Located in the inner-ring suburb of Southfield, north of Detroit, in a field in the southernmost part of its county.
Why I Left Los Angeles For This
“But … why?” she asks me in equal parts disgust and curiosity. Her words linger between us, like a sour stench waiting to dissipate up into the air and away from where we stand, locked in unlikely confrontation.
Sports In The Land That Cleaves
When it came time for me to play football in eighth grade, I didn’t have any idea what position to play. I grew up dreaming of diamonds, not gridirons.
I Used to Live Here
“I Used to Live Here” is a collaborative essay and set of images about cities and how they can and cannot be archived or preserved by Mexican artist and writer Veronica Gerber Bicceci and American writer Kathleen Rooney.
Looking At Appalachia
What images first come to mind when you hear the word “Appalachia”? No, really. The first image? One of the things I like to do in a group setting, particularly with students, is run through this exercise. I explain that there is no right or wrong answer.
Mississippi Albert
My mother gave me a harmonica for my thirteenth birthday. The first song I learned was “Old Black Joe.” I played a lot of ditties like that – easy major key tunes – throughout junior high and high school.
Katz’s Beauty
Not far from the ersatz splendor of downtown Cleveland with its god-sized chandelier and soulless schmaltz, a man is keeping the past alive.
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