Rust Belt Union Blues
As union halls closed and membership numbers dwindled, other networks and community group influences, often propelling more conservative values and messages, have become more central to the daily lives of workers and residents.
God Damn It Be Kind
“Like homing pigeons,” a man in a New York bar once told me about Pittsburghers. “You leave. You go back. You’re lucky. There aren’t many places like that.”
Death in Custody
We now know some of their names and how they died. Oscar Grant. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Laquan McDonald. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Freddie Gray. Sandra Bland. Alton Sterling. Philando Castile. Stephon Clark. Atatiana Jefferson. Breonna Taylor. Daniel Prude. Antwon Rose II. Rayshard Brooks. Andre Hill. Daunte Wright.
Paradise Lost in Pittsburgh
To walk through Frick Park – at least for me – is a pilgrimage into Milton's Paradise Lost, read not in words, lines, and stanzas, but rather rocks, trees, and water.
Small Town Sins
I’d recently finished my junior year of high school and was kicking around a few ideas on how to get out of Locksburg, a Central Pennsylvania backwater I’d wanted to flee ever since I was old enough to misspell its name.
Organization and Immunity
Hundreds of angry miners crowded around the machine, several attacking it with hammers and axes. Finally, fifteen sticks of dynamite were placed under the motor, and a firing wire and exploders attached. A few minutes later there was a terrific blast and the shovel was reduced to a tangled mass of wreckage.
Rediscovering the Lost Midwest
Once the cobwebs are cleared off old journals, long-forgotten records consulted, and the veil of stereotypes pierced, a remarkable world is discovered.
Donora Death Fog – The First Days
Tuesday was just an average day in Donora and vicinity, when nothing particularly special happened. Nothing, that is, except a confluence of weather conditions that would place an environmental lid on the valley.
Whole Bottle of Red Pills
Belt Magazine presents an excerpt from distinguished reporter Jeff Sharlet's disturbing, brilliant, and important new book about the threat of American fascism "The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War."
Three Short Stories from “Sidle Creek”
In the hills of Appalachia in western Pennsylvania lies a bruised, stripped and timbered town of miners, mill workers and farmers called Sidle Creek. Award-winning author Jolene McIlwain's debut collection Sidle Creek unearths themes of class, health, trauma and the unexpected human conditions that happen in close-knit communities. To be released by Melville House on May 16, 2023.
Days Between Stations
I think of Father Sullivan every time I pass, imagining him walking the circular path between the stations of the cross.
Immaculate: How the Steelers Saved Pittsburgh
Belt Magazine is proud to be the media sponsor for author Tom O'Lenic's discussion about his new book cowritten with Ray Hartjen Immaculate: How the Steelers Saved Pittsburgh as part of the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival this Sunday March 26th at Noon in the Trust Arts Center in Downtown Pittsburgh.