Belt Magazine | Dispatches From The Rust Belt

I didn’t say, as they told me how they owned a boat and spent much of their summer cruising Maine’s coastline, that my mother’s biggest dream was to get out of West Virginia, that her bigge...

https://beltmag.com/no-son-of-mine/

By Jacob Schepers The Creeping Gait These old haunts get older and pace from town to town, glaciers receding, complete with yards of unraked leaves, curbside trash bins smelling of broiled muskey...

https://beltmag.com/three-poems-by-jacob-schepers/

May Day isn’t just an estimably American holiday, it’s a particularly Rust Belt holiday, forged in the cauldron of Chicago’s streets and factories, born from the experience of workers in th...

https://beltmag.com/may-day-is-a-rust-belt-holiday/

Would a return to my hometown after 20 years in and around New York prove the perfect move for a mom determined to say “yes” and kindle community? Here’s how it went for me.

https://beltmag.com/nyc-didnt-measure-up-to-pittsburgh/

A poem by Keri Johnson.

https://beltmag.com/vinton-ohio-on-a-december-day-2021/

Kent follows the pattern of Rust Belt city decline with recovery, including a focus on sustainability. Edible Kent fits in the framework of moving toward sustainability while also addressing econ...

https://beltmag.com/queering-agriculture-in-appalachia/

Moore used her fairies and their castle to stitch up an alarmingly tattered social contract, providing an occasion for people of all ages, races, classes and backgrounds to look together at an as...

https://beltmag.com/colleen-moores-fairy-tale-castle-of-chicago/

For many working-class folks, the job can become an integral part of who they are, a reason to be.  Yet when pressed to share his views on jobs as identity, Newman cuts against the grain, saying...

https://beltmag.com/jobbing-with-dave-newman/

All of these paintings, the originals in Tuscany, are also viewable down to the most granular detail, by the most strict parameters of verisimilitude, in an Italianate building of white granite a...

https://beltmag.com/botticelli-in-the-burgh/

One hundred years ago today, a Pittsburgh man was executed. He was likely innocent.

https://beltmag.com/execution-of-an-innocent-man/