Features
Unbreakable: Glass in the Rust Belt
What’s left of domestic glass manufacturing in the U.S. remains concentrated in the Rust Belt–eight of the industry’s top ten employers are in Pennsylvania, New York, and the Midwest. But studio glassblowing is adding relevance to a material long forgotten by many communities shaped by it. Today, the Rust Belt is home to three of the United States’ top five hubs for glass studios.
“Poetry for Everybody” – Doralee Brooks in Allegheny County
Life-long educator and poet Doralee Brooks named new Poet Laureate for Allegheny County.
Dreaming at the Mattress Factory
Given that the Mattress Factory once made literal mattresses, the place where dreams most often form in our minds, it feels fitting that it’s now a site for collective dreaming.
The New Stewards of Skateboarding
People like Sie and Scar and Dani and Frances are the future of skateboarding; they are part of a major sea change that will not only shift the demographics of skateboarding, it will also fundamentally alter its ethos. These are the new stewards of skateboarding.
Hindsight and Regulation in East Palestine, Ohio
In the aftermath of the derailment, which released toxic chemicals into the streams and air around East Palestine, many are wondering how the country’s regulations around rail traffic could have allowed a train with 20 cars of hazardous material not to be considered a “high hazard.”
The Cracked Wonder of Cementland
If the City Museum was a tribute to industrial repurposing, Cementland was meant to be its pinnacle.
Bow Before the Butter Cow
While visiting the cow in person, the level of engagement between fellow viewers and the cow was high... people stayed for much longer than the average person stares at a Rothko painting in a museum.
St. Louis’ Wealthy “King of the Hobos”
“By the hoboes, for the hoboes, of the hoboes.”
A Tale of Two Newspapers
Both cities were even large enough for two daily newspapers – even if only briefly. [...]
Exiles Living in a Church
It certainly isn’t cool, or edgy, or funny–the things people say about what it must be like to live in a church. It’s relentless.
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