The Best of Belt Magazine 2020
Announcing a new anthology of regional writing, available exclusively to Belt members.
Return (For Chicago)
"This city isn’t built on bullets / alone."
Building the “Black to Green” Pipeline
In Evansville, Indiana, the NAACP and IBEW are training Black people for work in the clean energy industry, aiming for an equitable transition away from fossil fuels.
The Keystone State is Ringing
Pennsylvania has always defied easy categorization. That's what makes it so great.
Election Week Through the Lenses of Black Women
Snapshots of the 2020 election from five photographers across the Rust Belt.
Following the Yellowlined Road
Yellowlining—the lesser cousin of federal-government redlining—was a discriminatory force that historians and economists have only begun to explore.
Armed, Angry Men
Trump, militias, and the long history of voter intimidation and violence in the Midwest.
How Cook County Jail Became the Country’s First Jail-Based Polling Place
Many incarcerated people have the right to vote, but steep barriers can make it nearly impossible. In Cook County, Illinois, that’s starting to change.
Cleveland and the Biden-Trump Debate
The city illustrates, starkly, the challenges and opportunities of the country in 2020.
Detroiters are Fighting for the Right to Water
Can an income-based water affordability plan solve the city’s water shutoff problem?
A Street-Level Perspective on Kenosha Protests
What happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin the night Jacob Blake was shot, according to four people who were there.
The Fall of the Grand Dragon
D.C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the KKK, was once the most powerful man in Indiana. His racism was popular. Then he killed a white woman.