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