Dispatches from the Rust Belt, Vol. VI

For more than a decade, Belt Magazine has published reporting and essays that are of the Rust Belt, by the Rust Belt, and for the Rust Belt. In 2024, the site covered the repurposing of old churches and steel mill art festivals, labor struggles and baseball comebacks, Trent Reznor and the queer witches of Appalachia, and as always testimonials from those living on the outskirts of society. A year of both triumphs and tragedies, but Belt has been there and will continue to be there, offering the perspective from Cleveland and Detroit, Pittsburgh and Buffalo, Chicago and Minneapolis.