Here is Anthology contributor Denise Grollmus representing Rust Belt Chic Cleveland in Rust Belt Chic Warsaw.

Here is an excerpt from her piece entitled “Speak in Tongues” about an underground music club sharing the same name as the title:

Few people even knew the club was there. There were no signs, just an old storefront that appeared abandoned, with the exception of some Cleveland weirdo sitting on a stool against the front door, collecting the $8 or whatever it took to get inside. It was a total dive with worn out wood floors and sagging couches against the walls. Some said it was a bowling alley at one time, though I’m not sure if that was true. There was barely a stage or a PA system and the only incandescence came from the dim glow of Christmas lights haphazardly hanging from a sheet that hid the “backstage,” which was little more than a narrow pathway cluttered with broken music equipment. It was the scariest, coolest place I’d ever been in my life. It was like living inside a Jim Jarmusch movie—gritty, dark, and sparsely populated. The sort of place you could only find in Cleveland.