I’m obvious, driving slowly down the residential side streets on Chicago’s South side, looking left and right at the Victorian-style homes in Pullman. Though I have lived in Chicagoland all my life, I am seeing this neighborhood for the first time.
Our meeting was improbable, but lucky. I found Alex van Oss through a research project involving the University of Buffalo’s Leo Tolstoy College/College F.
The Midwest is the center of my earth. The winds of the Great Lakes carry my family’s ties to the outer reaches of Erie, Michigan, Superior. Old farmlands hold their stories – of rejection, toil, love, and aspiration.