FOR THE WEEK OF
08.24-08.31.17 Full events listed online at www.pghcitypaper.com Even in late August, Pittsburgh these days is full of arts happenings. But few this summer will be as cutting-edge as the annual Performance Art Festival. For its fourth season, PAF moves to Oakland’s Melwood Avenue, where it takes over three venues — Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Glitter Box and Babyland — and nearby outdoor spaces with some two dozen acts, plus continuous video screenings, on Aug. 26 and 27.
Performances range in length from a few minutes to hours-long “roaming” outdoors shows. The performers hail from around the U.S. and from as far away as Austria and Japan. Highlights include Calling All Divas, Los Angeles-based, internationally touring Tyler Matthew Oyer’s “exploration of actual and imagined queer ancestries.” (Expect fabulous costumes.) In “The Struggle,” British performer Riikka Enne addresses labor struggles while wrapped in clear plastic, trying to scale a wall similarly wrapped. Alex D’Agostino (pictured), of Baltimore, employs a tutu, clothespins and audience participation to manifest “an invisible queer rage” in “The Swan.” Japan’s Fumi Amano creates an installation-based performance to examine women’s role in society. Berivian Sayici, of Austria, does a piece “where she is waterboarded by milk,” says PAF founder and organizer Abagail Beddall. Pittsburgh-based performers include Princess Jafar, exploring her identity as a mixed-race trans woman of Arab descent. Other local contributors include Leavitt Summer, slowdanger, Sofia Sandoval, Anna Azizzy, Dave English and Middle Children, Valerie Kuehne, Tara Fay, and Ru Emmons. New this year are screenings of performance films and documentations. But the focus, says Beddall, remains on the corporeal presence of a performer in a given space. “People are really impacted by body,” says Beddall. There’s nothing like it for exploring topics like racism, she says — or for sheer intimacy. The PAF is presented by Bunker Projects. Admission is by donation. BY BILL O’DRISCOLL
^ Sat., Aug. 26: PGH Rewind
thursday 08.25 WORDS Autumn House Press wraps this season’s Pittsburgh Parks Summer Reading Series tonight in Highland Park with readings by four notable local writers. Poet and educator Jan Beatty has been a keystone of the scene for years. University of Pittsburgh professor Dawn Lundy Martin (pictured) is an acclaimed poet, and co-founder of the Pitt-based Center for African American Poetry and Poetics. Marc Nieson is an educator, fiction writer and memoirist. And Deesha Philyaw is an author, blogger and freelance writer with credits including The New York Times and Essence. The reading is free; bring ring a blanket. Bill O’Driscoll 6 p.m. 1024 N. Highland hland Ave., Highland Park. Free. www.facebook.com ok.com (“pittsburgh parks summer”)
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saturday 08.26 ART Probably Pittsburgh’s biggest neighborhood art-and-craft festival returns with the 21st Annual Shadyside ... the Art Festival on Walnut Street. Today and tomorrow, tomorro for several blocks along Walnut, some 150 regional and national artists will personally display their jewelry, hand-crafted apparel hand-c and décor, and artworks, ranging from paintings, p sculpture and photography to ceramics, ceramics glass and mixed-media. The long-running festival festiva is produced by Florida-based Howard Alan Events. BO 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Also 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun., Aug. 27. 730 73 Bellefonte St., Shadyside. Free. www.artfestival.com
COMEDY You’ve heard of Bill Murray, John Candy and Stephen Colbert, but maybe you ou didn’t know that early in their careers they ey worked with The Second City. This weekend, nd, the venerable improv-comedy troupe’ss touring show makes its annual summer visit, it, as The Second City’s Summer Blockbusterr comes to Pittsburgh Public Theater for three ree shows tonight and tomorrow. Visiting performers rformers
4-11 p.m. Sat., Aug. 26, and 1-9 p.m. Sun., Aug. 27. 400 block of Melwood Avenue, Oakland. Admission by donation. www.pghpaf.com NEWS
include Adam Archer and Alison Gates. Who knows — maybe the folks you’re watching this weekend will be tomorrow’s movie stars or late-night hosts. Matt Petras 8 p.m. Also 5:30 and 9 p.m. Sat., Aug. 26. 621 Penn Ave., Downtown. $35-60. 412-316-1600 or www.ppt.org
M A I N F E AT U R E
TALK You know his work, especially publi public sculptures like “Joy of Life,” on the East Liberty ffountain, and “The Man,” on the University Univers of Pittsburgh Graduate School of P Public Health building. But odds odd are you know little about Virgil Cantini. The Vi late artist worked in many w
>Thu., Aug. 25: Pittsburgh Parks Summer Reading Series
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