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Topology Magazine - Artful dispatches from the places where we find ourselves Artful dispatches from the places where we find ourselves
  • Essay
    • The violence of frenzy
      The violence of frenzy
    • The sound of roots
      The sound of roots
    • Summer’s lease
      Summer’s lease
    • Editorial
    • Throwback
  • Poetry
  • Image
    • Deep Roots
      Deep Roots
    • Hope and Expectation
      Hope and Expectation
    • No Trespassing
      No Trespassing
  • Quote
  • Themes
    • Upcoming
    • Volume 1
      • 0.1 Intro
      • 1.1 Margins
      • 1.2 Living with the Seasons
      • 1.3 Thriftiness
      • 1.4 Noise and Silence
      • 1.5 Bodies
      • 1.6 Transportation
      • 1.7 Waterways
      • 1.8 My Economy
      • 1.9 Sharing Food
      • 1.10 Coming and Going
    • 2.1 Labor
    • 2.2 Bridges
    • 2.3 Shops & Stores
    • 2.4 The Darkest Night
    • 2.5 Sabbath
    • 2.6 Local Government
    • 2.7 Solastalgia
    • 2.8 Borders & Boundaries
    • 2.9 Play

Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma lives and works in Three Rivers, Michigan, where he is the Executive Director of *culture is not optional. He tries to contribute to the flourishing of his city through community development work of various kinds: Michigan Main Street; World Fare, a fair trade store in downtown Three Rivers; and the Huss Project, which seeks to build imaginative capacity in our city.

QuoteNovember 10, 2016

Civic Alchemy

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

After the election, May we seek to practice Civic Alchemy May we turn: Battle Ground Into Common Ground Swing States Into United States And…

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QuoteJune 10, 2016

Knit together

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

A better food system will not fix all … problems. It won’t heal everyone. But if we can take control of the food environment…

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Life's too short to not read David Dark's book
EtceteraFebruary 24, 2016

Life’s too short not to read David Dark’s book

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

We’ve highlighted our friend David Dark‘s uncanny ability to turn a provocative phrase many times over the years by featuring his words in the daily asterisk….

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EtceteraDecember 4, 2015

Canada’s vast, interconnected and stunningly beautiful waterways

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

Last week we published a link to John Lavey’s watershed map of the United States. Topology Essay Curator Henry Bakker just came across this beautiful…

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Melancholy Christmas
EssayDecember 3, 2015

Melancholy Christmas

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

We moved to Three Rivers, Michigan, 13 years ago during a snowy winter to live in a cottage on Pleasant Lake. The cold arrived…

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Buying a post office; saving a farm
EtceteraNovember 24, 2015

Buying a post office; saving a farm

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

Shannon Hayes, author of Radical Homemakers, writes in Yes! Magazine about her family’s experience trying to make the numbers work on her family farm, which unexpectedly…

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Gate A-4
EtceteraNovember 17, 2015

Gate A-4

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

Following up on the “Healing our blindness” piece we published yesterday, here’s a beautiful story from Naomi Shihab Nye on Live & Learn about how small…

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Sunday Night Mourning
EssayNovember 16, 2015

Healing our blindness

By Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma

As I write, I’m sitting in my living room watching football on a Sunday evening. I just finished eating a meal made with organic…

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About Topology

Topology Magazine

Topology Magazine is a place for active contemplation through prose, poetry, and art: the produce of thoughtful labor in the places where we find ourselves. Each person is inextricably tied to their physical location, and Topology cultivates that connection by publishing work which explicitly or implicitly recognizes the influence of place. Read more …

Contributors

  • Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma
  • Deborah Haak
  • Henry Bakker
  • Elisabeth Wenger
  • Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma
  • S. Alexandra Harper
  • mt
  • the daily asterisk
  • Marjorie Maddox
  • Alex Joyner
  • Katie Hoogendam
  • William Overbeeke
  • Alex Quick
  • Bethany Beachum
  • Karissa Knox Sorrell
  • Laura Menze
  • Amy Carpenter-Leugs
  • Naomi Wenger
  • Tom Springer
  • Brett Beasley
  • Carol Stephen
  • Deborah Lewis
  • Uche Ogbuji
  • Bill Boerman-Cornell
  • Aline Lindemann
  • Kathryn T. Jones
  • Name Withheld
  • Scott Peterson
  • Raechelle Kennedy
  • Monica Sharman
  • Jeff Gundy
  • Katie Karnehm-Esh
  • John Pierce
  • Alek Frost
  • Gail Heffner
  • Robert Andy Coombs
  • Ingrid Lochamire
  • Joy Riggs
  • A. Non
  • Denise Frame Harlan
  • Chris Bullard
  • Sylvia Keesmaat
  • Elisabeth McClanahan
  • Brother Abraham Newsom
  • Nora Kirkham
  • John Davis Jr.
  • Amy Nemecek
  • Christine Darragh
  • Randy Smit
  • Ian Randall Wilson
  • Luke Johnston
  • Lisa Witz
  • Neil E. Das
  • Peter Freedman-Doan
  • David Stewart
  • J.C. Elkin
  • Mary Ann Honaker
  • Claire Ibarra
  • Kenneth Arthur
  • June Mears Driedger
  • Lauren Wayne
  • Jeff Burt
  • Christopher Smith
  • Larry-Michael Hackenberg
  • Heather Hutchison
  • Lindsy Wallace
  • Laura Fabrycky
  • Rachel Marie Stone
  • Deborah Bowen
  • Paul Douglas McNeill II
  • Jennifer Crow
  • Devon Balwit
  • Amanda Hiland
  • Lynne S. Viti
  • Kendra Stanton Lee
  • Robert Stout
  • Rebecca Wolff
  • Amie Adams
  • Jeremy Huggins
  • Josh MacIvor-Andersen
  • Grant Elgersma
  • Kristina England
  • Jim Schmotzer
  • Katie Rendon Kahn
  • Mark Andrew Heathcote
  • Debra Dieppa
  • Jerry Berrigan
  • Denise Vredevoogd
  • Kurt Armstrong
  • Amy Hetletvedt
  • Ann Klotz
  • Brandon Marlon
  • Tamra Carraher
  • Clinton Inman
  • Sophie Blanc
  • Elisavietta Ritchie
  • Matthew Deames
  • Mike Wilson
  • Lea Page
  • Nathan Van Hoff
  • Marylu Dykstra
  • Nina Bannett
  • Danielle Germaine
  • Michael Penny
  • Shawndra Miller
  • Jennifer Hernandez
  • Daniel Roy Connelly
  • Lorraine Caputo
  • Nate Maxson
  • Jill McDonough
  • Lynn White
  • Christie Walkuski
  • Amy Oestreicher
  • D.S. Leiter
  • Lee Hull Moses
  • Robert Peace Jordan
  • Valerie Bacharach
  • Gail Walters
  • Jeff Santosuosso
  • Sara Sterley
  • Rick Kempa
  • Christopher Smit
  • Jacqueline Ristola
  • L. L. Barkat
  • Matthew Landrum
  • Katie Houston
  • Karen Fitz La Barge
  • Emily Ulmer
  • Hardeep Sabharwal
  • Kate Bowman-Johnston
  • John Yohe
  • Erica Schemper
  • Vincent A. Cellucci
  • Celine B. Roque
  • Gary Guthrie
  • Stefanie Möser Zitö
  • Kierstan Barbre
  • Geneva Langeland
  • Wm. Anthony Connolly
  • Joel Schueler
  • Gwen DiPietro
  • Alexa Shearer
  • Nicole Carlin
  • Jennifer Martelli
  • Katie Reich
  • Hannah Thyberg
  • Catherine Woodiwiss
  • Andy Rogers
  • Eileen R. Kinch
  • Jacque Rowe Fields
  • Sam Gesch
  • Ched Myers
  • Amelia Rhodes
  • Kathy Fenton-Miller
  • Donald Illich
  • Carolyn Adams
  • Daniel Silliman
  • Matt Prater
  • Thomas Swann
  • Jacob Miller
  • Travis Poling
  • Julie Keefer
  • Larry Kamphausen
  • Michael Knowles
  • Alan Van Wyk
  • Jeffrey Allen Mays
  • Barbara Ruth
  • Jennifer Monroe
  • Zach Bartz
  • Amanda Cleary Eastep
  • Mike Finley
  • Kendall Vanderslice
  • Stephanie Nikolopoulos
  • Ben Brazil
  • Aaron Nell
  • Nathaniel Harper-Brees
  • Griffin Paul Jackson
  • Chris Fuller
  • Samuel J. Fox
  • Joyce H. Munro
  • Nate Al Attas-Bradford
  • Erin O'Connor-Garcia
  • Cat Dixon
  • Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence
  • Ruth Asher
  • Heidi Fettig Parton
  • Rob Testing

Join Topology

We're looking for writers, artists, practitioners, and more to contribute to the magazine. Please get in touch or join our contributor e-mail list to receive our regular pitch calls.

Featured

  • The violence of frenzy
    The violence of frenzy
  • The sound of roots
    The sound of roots
  • Summer's lease
    Summer’s lease
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