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