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Cincinnati Has a Bridge to Sell You
A massive new highway project in the Queen City could reclaim valuable downtown acres and right a decades-old racial injustice, but only if leaders act.
Carrie Furnace’s Blood, Sweat, and Fire
These hulking behemoths with their slag and hot metal are rarely described as beautiful, but yet I am drawn to them over and over again.
In the Voice of the Prophet
An excerpt from Daniel Torday's novel The 12th Commandment, available January 17 from St. Martin's Press. [...]
Unspooling the Cassette Tape in Springfield, Missouri
The National Audio Company is keeping the cassette tape —and tape culture —alive in the [...]
From Pretoria to Peoria
There’s a neologism that I’d propose for the often-radical international activism that comes from non-coastal college towns that are too often easily ignored – midwestern cosmopolitanism.
Not Without Its Sweetness
A poem by Andrew Taylor-Troutman.
They Shrink From Hard Work
I don’t have enough memories to draw on to fit the form, and I can’t fake it without moving into the realm of fiction, without lying to myself, no matter how nice a story it would make, no matter how very rural or Appalachian these stories could present me.
Kindness is Its Own Memory
On terrible pantyhose, bad sports writing, and the eternal kindness of the late great Franco Harris.
Belt’s Top Stories of 2022
By Ed Simon This year, Belt Magazine has ranged over quite a lot of topics [...]
The Nature of Chicago Music
Music and nature are two core places where people report to experiencing and channeling the divine.
Wind Resistance
Wind turbines are being built in ocean waters off the east and west coasts. But why don’t we see any in the Great Lakes?

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