Support independent writing by and for the Rust Belt. Become a member today. »
(Cancel anytime.)
Independent, context-driven regional writing. Support Belt Magazine today. »
(Cancel anytime.)
More Stories
Introduction: “This City is Killing Me”
The introduction to a new book on "community trauma and toxic stress in urban America."
Crossing in Miller (1889)
"a man stands, balancing, // one foot on one line and the other on another, touching the pulse / of two emergent powers"
The End of Youngstown’s Vindicator
The city's daily paper is closing down, leaving a gaping hole in the local journalism landscape.
The Rippling Effect of Baron Walker
In 2015, a study found Milwaukee's 53206 ZIP code imprisoned sixty-two percent of Black men under the age of thirty-four. Baron Walker was one of them.
“Out of the Closets and Into the Streets”
Queer Midwestern communities were politically active in the pivotal years leading up to Stonewall.
2014
"Yes, I have been here before / On the threshold of justice’s door / Half a century ago / In Selma, Oxford, / And Birmingham." [From "The St. Louis Anthology"]
Cadillac Hill
"Almost every girl I know has the same story about a car, about a boy. This is mine."
Gambling on Hemp
Illinois began accepting applications to grow industrial hemp at the end of April. But the first legal crop in more than eighty years is accompanied by a lot of uncertainty.
Traveling While Black
Learning the racial geography of Indiana as a young Black girl in the 1980s.
Tying the Green New Deal to Environmental Justice in Chicago
The youth-led national Sunrise Movement made a case to local organizers.
A Complicated Heritage of Coal
In southern Illinois, one community’s complex relationship with the industry on display.

Get the latest stories from around the region sent straight to your inbox.

Get the latest stories from around the region sent straight to your inbox.
Support independent, context-driven regional writing.