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COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY
St. Louis’ Skate Sanctuary
Built under the South Kingshighway Viaduct, a newly demolished elevated roadway that once divided the neighborhood, a community of skaters constructed a skatepark.
St. Louis’ Skate Sanctuary
Built under the South Kingshighway Viaduct, a newly demolished elevated roadway that once divided the neighborhood, a community of skaters constructed a skatepark.
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More Stories
Three Chicago Sonnets
Three poems by D.A. Hosek
A Poet in the Rust Belt – An Interview with Mary Quade
"As a writer in the rust belt, I’m quite aware that being a writer is a strange and privileged way to spend time."
Belt’s Top Stories of 2023
When trying to describe what exactly I envision the magazine to be, I often joke with people that I aspire for Belt to be The New Yorker of the Rust Belt (except that I’m not really joking).
Ghost Towns Lost and Found
David Exelby was scrolling through Reddit when he came across a mysterious post. This guy had stumbled on a ghost town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The problem was no one could find it. David and producer Max Howard go looking.
Down and Out in the Midwest
I’m sure you’ve read a lot about rejection because you’ve been rejected a lot. Me too.
Damned in Ohio
My immediate family was irreligious. My grandparents were raised in contradictory faiths, and their first grandchild was the singular blessing, the lone scandal, that could unite them in disbelief.
Beyond Chicago’s Sustainable Square Mile
“The Sustainable Square Mile was born to be in Black communities everywhere. So, our vision at Blacks in Green is self-sustaining Black communities everywhere.
To Be Marquette
“If you lived up here, you’d know what it was. It’s all anyone talks about. You’re either for it: it’s going to create jobs. Or you’re against it: it’s bad for the environment. No one’s neutral.”
Episode Five – Paradise on Fire
On colonization, Indigenous knowledge, and how we learned to cook the planet.
Psychedelia in the Burgh
The Psychedelic Club of Pittsburgh is an open-to-all monthly discussion group geared as a free-form way for anyone with an interest in psychedelic substances to trade experiences, tips and tricks.
Barbara Kingsolver’s Appalachian Epic
It took a long time for Kingsolver to be able to write a book that goes right at the hardest parts of her home. The notion that everybody in Appalachia is hanging out on their porch, eating cornbread and drinking moonshine is certainly a stereotype, but there is some truth to it.
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