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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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650 Smithfield Street, Suite 2200 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412.685.9009 E-MAIL info@pghcitypaper.com

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JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019 VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 31 Editor-In-Chief LISA CUNNINGHAM Associate Publisher JUSTIN MATASE Director of Operations KEVIN SHEPHERD Managing Editor ALEX GORDON Senior Writers RYAN DETO, AMANDA WALTZ Staff Writers HANNAH LYNN, JORDAN SNOWDEN Photographer/Videographer JARED WICKERHAM Digital Media Manager JOSH OSWALD Editorial Designer ABBIE ADAMS Graphic Designers JOSIE NORTON, JEFF SCHRECKENGOST Events and Sponsorship Manager BLAKE LEWIS Sales Representatives KAITLIN OLIVER, NICK PAGANO Office Coordinator MAGGIE WEAVER Events and Marketing Coordinator BRYER BLUMENSCHEIN Circulation Manager JEFF ENGBARTH Featured Contributors REGE BEHE, LISSA BRENNAN, LYNN CULLEN, TERENEH IDIA, CHARLES ROSENBLUM, JESSIE SAGE Interns SARAH CONNOR, JARED MURPHY, EMILY WOLFE Office Administrator RODNEY REGAN National Advertising Representative VMG ADVERTISING 1.888.278.9866 OR 1.212.475.2529 Publisher EAGLE MEDIA CORP.

FIRSTSHOT

BY JARED WICKERHAM

An adaptive rowing clinic takes place along the channel near Herrs Island

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COVER PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM READ THE STORY ON PAGE 6

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CP PHOTOS: JARED WICKERHAM

Left: Mia Macdonald on her houseboat along the Allegheny River at the Bell Harbor Yacht Club Above: Inside the houseboat

THE BIG STORY

PORT IN A STORM

BY HANNAH LYNN // HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

HEN MIA MACDONALD’S parked car

was totaled, she received $5,000 in an insurance payout and used some of it to buy another car, and the remainder to buy herself a home.

That might not sound like enough for both, but in this case, Macdonald settled on a 1973 Burns Craft houseboat, named it Seamore, and moored it to a dock at the Bell Harbor Yacht Club in Blawnox.

Macdonald has lived on it for roughly four years, even through the winter, when the frozen river sometimes slams into the side of the boat and sounds like “sleeping in a bowling alley.” The boat has no motor, so it stays at the dock like a floating apartment.

There are only a handful of other boats docked at the Bell Harbor Yacht Club, which is not as much of a yacht club as it sounds. It has a faded sign announcing the “Yacht Club & Banquet Hall,” along with a phone number that is disconnected.

The banquet hall building is empty, with lion sculptures guarding nothing. If you peer through the windows, there are still remnants of a place that used to host parties, like banquet chairs and a bar made of stones.

Houseboats are generally cheaper than apartments, especially with rising housing costs in the city.

According to Zillow, average rents in Lawrenceville, where Macdonald used to live, have nearly doubled since 2012. Average home prices there have more than doubled since 2000. There are no statistics about how many people in Pittsburgh live on houseboats, but it’s fair to assume the number is very low, especially during the winter. It’s also fair to assume that in the future, living on houseboats will become more common, as sea levels rise — the U.N. met earlier this year to discuss building floating cities.

Macdonald’s boat cost around $3,000, and she pays rent twice a year to keep it at the dock. It can

get expensive in the winter with the electric heaters blasting, but the overall expenses are still less than an apartment. Not having to pay for gas helps too. She plans to stay until it becomes impractical, like if she moved in with a partner or had kids.

IF YOU’VE EVER been on a houseboat, or more likely, watched the TV show Tiny House Hunters, you know that a lot can be done in small spaces. Houseboats are designed for maximum efficiency, in a way that makes regular homes feel excessive and inefficient.

Seamore has a bed, seating area, kitchen, bathroom, and TVs, plus the decks and roof. There’s even room for an E.T. collection.

Macdonald bought the boat while in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, and felt that the boat — alone in a quiet place, on peaceful water — would help her. “I wanted to use it as a way to be calm and by myself and get my life back together,” CONTINUES ON PG. 8

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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PORT IN A STORM, CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

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Mia Macdonald and her cat, Bubba Lou

she says. There are several studies that show that being around or looking at bodies of water can have a positive effect on mental health.

“I was like, if I simplify my life it’ll be easier to get out of those patterns and be actually able to afford while saving money and not spending it on drugs or alcohol,” she says.

This semi-isolation is part of the appeal for Macdonald, who chose to live on a houseboat in part to pare down her life. She wanted a place of her own without roommates, something affordable, and somewhere she could feel at ease.

Macdonald lives on the boat with her cat, Bubba Lou, who roams the docks and surrounding land freely. A friend helped her fashion a cat door on the boat, so Bubba Lou can come and go.

One winter, raccoons found their way through it and onto the boat. “I woke up in the middle of the night hearing what I thought was my cat and it was raccoons that were just hanging out,” she says.

There are also certain vulnerabilities that come with living on a motorless houseboat that don’t usually happen with an apartment on land. Once during a storm, the wind was so strong the rope tethering the boat snapped, pulling the boat out into the water, and Macdonald had to flag people down to help her reel it back in.

“I feel like just having a small place to take care of is less stressful, but I didn’t know all the other stresses that would come with it, like my pipes bursting, and [the boat] sinking, and the electric going on and off,” she says.

Occasionally she spends the night at her mom’s or girlfriend’s house and remembers the upside of a typical apartment. “It’s not like an easy thing. When I go to people’s apartments I’m like, ‘Oh, this is so nice. Your electric doesn’t turn on and off.’”

MORE PHOTOS ONLINE AT PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Still, Macdonald likes living on the boat because of how cheap it is and how much privacy she gets. Standing on the deck and looking out at the water, it feels far from the city (it’s still technically bus accessible). There’s no internet as a distraction either, just the sound of the river (and a lot of DVDs).

“I like how simple it is, and it’s small, and I don’t need that much,” she says.

BELL HARBOR is currently cheap and

mostly empty, but it might not stay that way forever.

While the Blawnox club isn’t a

thriving boat community, across the river in Verona, there are several, like the Algonquin Canoe Club and the Sylvan Canoe Club. In 2011, there were plans to turn the Bell Harbor property into a high-end, riverside property development of townhomes called One River Road (the address is 1 River Road), according to an article from the same year in TribLive.

The article states that construction for the development was supposed to begin in spring 2012 and that each townhome would come with a dock. If you look at a street-view image of Bell Harbor on Google Maps, which has an image from 2013, it shows a Prudential Realty “coming soon!” sign.

Unlike many cities where waterfront property is highly valuable, Pittsburgh is only just now entering a period of developing restaurants and housing by the rivers.

Since 2011, Bobby Berarducci, the previous owner of Bell Harbor has died, and there’s no evidence of any past or current construction on the property, except for the slow updating of the docks, which feature a few new planks scattered among the old ones. Macdonald says Berarducci’s son took over, and there are still plans to put new housing in.

“I feel like once those condos go in, this is gonna look a lot different,” she says. “I mean it’ll look prettier, but I kinda like it.

It’s cheap and no one knows about it.”

Follow staff writer Hannah Lynn on Twitter @hanfranny

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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NO GOTTA REGATTA

BY RYAN DETO RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: STEPHEN CARUSO

Three Rivers Regatta

Three days before thousands of people, boats, and vendors were set to fill Pittsburgh’s rivers, Three Rivers Regatta announced the cancelation of this year’s event.

At a July 30 press conference, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Regatta board member Charles Scholz said that the board, along with city and county leaders, came to the “difficult but necessary conclusion” to cancel the event.

Scholz said LionHeart Event Group, the Pittsburgh-based management and production company, failed to acquire the proper insurance, which meant permits couldn’t be issued for the event. He said LionHeart misrepresented the status of the insurance to the board.

“The blame is solely with LionHeart,” said Scholz. “Other vendors were ready to proceed.”

Scholz said the Regatta board has launched a probe LionHeat’s failures.

Law enforcement has not yet been involved in any investigation.

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said he was “disappointed” in the cancellation. This will be the first time since 1978 that Pittsburgh has not hosted the Three Rivers Regatta.

LionHeart has managed the Regatta for the last three years.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he and his staff tried to move the Regatta to the North Shore area of North Side, in an attempt to avoid cancelation.

Peduto said he was aware of problems that LionHeart was experiencing last week, but only discovered early this week that the company had failed to acquire insurance.

Some artists scheduled to perform at the Regatta received an email informing them of the cancelation at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, just an hour before the press conference. •

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CP PHOTOS: JARED WICKERHAM

Redfin Blues on Herrs Island

.NEWS.

ON THE RIVERFRONT Why are there so few riverfront restaurants in Pittsburgh?

BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

T’S THAT TIME of year when

Pittsburghers flock en masse to the three rivers.

But beyond summer recreation, there is a loud and growing demand to be able to enjoy the rivers all the time, not just during large festivals and other events. And one of those specific demands is riverfront dining.

Stephan Bontrager, the vice president of nonprofit Riverlife, says one of the most common requests the organization

hears is to add more restaurants on the river. Currently within the city limits, there are only a handful of restaurants that offer riverside dining with views of the Allegheny, Monongahela, or Ohio rivers. Redfin Blues is a casual eatery on Herrs Island in the Allegheny.

Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh in South Side sits near the water, offering nice views of the Mon. And the Grandview Buffet, located in North Side’s Rivers Casino, looks out onto the Ohio.

Bontrager says there are 15 miles of riverfront just within the Downtown vicinity, so a lack of available property is not really an issue when considering the dearth of riverfront dining.

But Bontrager says getting over preconceptions and attitudes about the rivers has been a major obstacle. Pittsburgh’s industrial history has led people to associate the rivers with pollution, he says, with a hangover lasting even after most of the industry declined.

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The 5th Judicial District of T Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Pretrial Services urges you to enjoy your weekend out in Pittsburgh but

make the right choice, “I think people used to think, ‘The river is dirty, why would you want to eat next to it?’” says Bontrager. “Twenty years ago, most people would have thought that it was not a nice place to eat.”

Because of this mindset, most of the land along the rivers was undervalued, says Bontrager. This contributed to the properties, which are mostly former industrial sites, to be split up and sold to different owners.

That made Riverlife’s job a lot more difficult when the organization was founded 20 years ago. Bontrager says Pittsburgh lacked a central agency tasked with redeveloping the riverfronts.

That meant it was lagging behind other cities with the advantage of one or a few entities owning most of the riverfront property. Pittsburgh was also in financial trouble during most of the 1980s and 1990s, when most other cities started to redevelop their waterfronts.

“We started this process a lot later than so many other cities,” says Bontrager, noting that we still haven’t completely gotten over our aversion to the rivers.

“And you still see a ton of that today.

We still don’t have a lot of restaurants on the water.”

But Riverlife is optimistic for the future. Trails and public spaces along the river have been a successful part of Riverlife’s strategy to get people to see the rivers as more than a relic of the industrial past. And it has worked. Not only are riverfront developments popping up in the Strip District and the South Side, but Bontrager says half a dozen new restaurants and cafes are planned for the new development near Station Square,

many looking out to the river.

Riverlife also hired a new president, Matt Galluzzo of the Lawrenceville Corporation, who will start in September.

Galluzzo was a big part of the successful redevelopment of Butler Street, which encouraged small retailers, cafes, restaurants, and bars to fill the neighborhood.

Bontrager says Riverlife has been working to help get the 15-mile riverfront loop surrounding Downtown developed since 1999, and that area is now 85 percent complete. He says Riverlife has raised $128 million to help boost riverfront development over that time span, which has led to $4.2 billion in adjacent riverfront developments.

“Investing in the riverfronts makes good economic sense,” says Bontrager.

The tide has shifted, says Bontrager, and developers are now hungry for riverfront properties. TribLive reported earlier this month how development has gotten so hot in the Strip District that developers like the Buncher Corp. are now “eyeing an 11-acre section of the North Side near the 16th Street Bridge as the city’s next development hot spot.” This spot is right on the Allegheny River.

And Bontrager is confident restaurants and other amenities will be part of this new development, even if it still takes a bit of convincing. Riverlife held an event recently near the dog park at 25th Street in the Strip District. They staged a popup booth, and a bunch of food trucks. It attracted hundreds of attendees.

Bontrager hopes events like that will convince developers waterfront dining in Pittsburgh is a good idea.

don’t drink & drive.

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Follow senior writer Ryan Deto on Twitter @RyanDeto PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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.RESTAURANT REVIEW.

SCALING UP

BY MAGGIE WEAVER MWEAVER@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

N MARCH, Cinderlands Beer Co. was

running out of beer. The three and a half barrel brewery, located on Butler Street in Lawrenceville, couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Expanding seemed a natural choice.

So Cinderlands opened a second location in the Strip District called Cinderlands Warehouse. And with the beer expansion, came some culinary growth as well.

Cinderlands Warehouse is an impressive space. It can host 350 people, with dining rooms and bars spread out across two tiers and a massive secondfloor patio. A stunning mural by Jeremy Raymer welcomes guests through the front doors. The industrial-chic decor turns warehouse necessities into decoration, utilizing the big pipes and view of steel fermentation tanks to give the building a gastropub feel.

On any given day, there are between eight and 16 beers on tap at the warehouse. The expansion from three and a half to a 15-barrel system closes the gap between production and consumption while providing room for brewers to get creative and explore. For the consumer, it means more beer.

In the two years that Cinderlands has been in operation, the brewers have explored seven categories: hop-driven beers, pilsners and lagers, tartshakes, stouts, fruited sours, farmhouse, and tea and coffee brews. An eighth style, barrelaged beers, will be added in time (plans for a two-story, barrel stacked wall are in the works). The warehouse is now responsible for the majority of production, though Cinderlands’ brewers are still using the equipment at their Lawrenceville location, too.

The brewery’s expansion has also opened up a larger menu. Though dishes at Cinderlands’ two locations are different, executive chef Joe Kiefer

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

Beer can chicken and funky chilled shrimp and grits is shown with a Raspberry Whipper Berliner Weisse beer at Cinderlands Warehouse.

maintains his well-known style at each establishment. It’s a mix of hearty, old-school Pittsburgh tastes and bold flavors that link classic drinking food to upscale dining.

Kiefer’s menu is broken down into six categories. The list starts with snacks, boasting some of the chef’s most beloved dishes — spent grain chicharrones and scotch eggs — and then moves through veggies, seafood, entrees, and sweets.

Conceptually, everything I ordered

CINDERLANDS WAREHOUSE 2601 Smallman St., Strip District. cinderlands.com

was fantastic. There were goat rodeo cheese curds, fit with strawberry romesco and spiced honey, and an adventurous head cheese dish paired with pickled green strawberry mostarda.

A chilled pea salad, doused in green goddess with zoodles, crab, and covered in a mountain of parmesan preceded a

FAVORITE FEATURES: Crunch Wrap

Big light bulbs

Dad Beer

Who needs Taco Bell when you can get a better version at Cinderlands?

Imagine a fishbowl. Now, stick some wires in it, and hang it from the ceiling.

That’s the size of one of the brewery’s massive light bulbs.

Beer for dads! (Or anyone else who likes unfiltered brews.)

forest-like mass of chanterelles, grilled peaches, and roasted bone marrow.

Kiefer’s concoctions shone with simple flavors. The chilled pea salad, crisp and in season, was light and filled with small and surprising pockets of flavor.

Spicy peppers added a delightful bite to sweet strawberries, the romesco cutting through fatty, fried cheese curds with a pleasant kick.

But the moment a dish lost that simple, clean touch, flavors became cumbersome. A pickled mostarda made a sour match for headcheese. The taste of chanterelles was completely covered by a strong barbeque sauce.

Cinderlands’ food is a few steps behind the atmosphere, which is extraordinary. When it catches up, the brewery will be a haven for beer lovers in search of pub food that is anything but ordinary.

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Follow staff writer Maggie Weaver on Twitter @magweav

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DINING OUT

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ELIZA HOT METAL BISTRO 331 TECHNOLOGY DRIVE, PITTSBURGH 412-621-1551, ELIZAHOTELINDIGO.COM Set on the site of former iconic iron works, Eliza Furnace, Eliza is an American Bistro exploring classic Pittsburgh flavors, beloved by those that worked the furnaces, combined with the fresh perspective and seasonal sourcing that define what we eat in our region today. Relax with great food, cocktails, and enjoy live entertainment on the rooftop bar.

LEON’S CARIBBEAN 823 E WARRINGTON AVE., ALLENTOWN 412-431-5366 / LEONSCARIBBEAN.COM Family owned and operated since December 2014. Here at Leon’s, we take pride in our recipes and quality of dishes. Simple menu with all the traditional dishes! Leon Sr. has been a chef for 30+ years, mastering the taste everyone has grown to love and can only get at Leon’s.

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It’s not your standard pizza shop; in fact, this isn’t a “pizza shop” at all.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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Eating Happily.

Leaving with Smile.

PHOTO: ROSÉ ALL DAY PGH

Rosé All Day PGH

The True Taste of Thai

.ON THE ROCKS.

LA VIE EN ROSÉ

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

G 2018 MURRAY AVE. PGH, PA 15217

412-422-6767

WWW.TOOKTOOK98.COM

RACE MILLER enjoys a good craft

beer, so much so that she and her husband, Marc Turic, created the annual Beers of the Burgh Festival to spotlight the region’s breweries.

But her taste also expands to other beverages, specifically wine.

“I’m a craft beer drinker, but I do really appreciate a good rosé, especially during the summer,” says Miller.

That’s why she launched Rosé All Day PGH, a new festival all about the pink varietal. Taking place on Sat., Aug. 3 at Nova Place in the North Side, the event will feature over 20 wineries, both local and national, as well as rosé-inspired craft beers, ciders, and cocktails from a variety of breweries, distilleries, and restaurants.

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Miller credits some of the inspiration for Rosé All Day PGH to visiting Los Angeles, where she noticed the city’s penchant for “big, fancy rosé picnics.” She wanted to bring the idea to Pittsburgh as a way to make wine more accessible.

“Rosé is just kind of a fun thing to get behind,” says Miller. “In Pittsburgh, we have wine festivals, but they tend to be a little more serious, more for a connoisseur or collector of wine, as opposed to the casual drinker.”

Not quite a red or white, rosé comes from incorporating a small amount of color from grape skins, and are typically a by-product of producing red wine. While the wine has been overlooked as a less refined choice compared its darker or lighter

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counterparts, it has grown in popularity over the years, with bars now selling refreshing, frozen rosé drinks called Frosé.

Miller has also noticed rosé gaining more coverage in magazines like Food & Wine and Bon Appétit as a wine pairing for certain foods, which led her to discover just how much it has to offer.

“I didn’t realize for a long time that there are so many different styles of rosé,” says Miller. “I thought there was light and dark and sweet and dry, but there are so many different kinds.”

She sees the festival as a chance for guests to try different rosés and find a kind they like.

The festival will also give back to the community as a fundraiser for the North Side arts nonprofit City of Asylum, which will receive a portion of profits from the event.

Miller says partnering with City of Asylum seemed like a natural fit, as the venue often hosts wine-friendly events like live jazz. The nonprofit even introduced them to musician Yoko Suzuki, who will be performing at the festival.

“They do such incredible work and we’re excited about the opportunity to share what they’re doing,” says Miller, adding that the festival will also allow City of Asylum to promote its 15thanniversary programming.

With so many different offerings at the inaugural festival, including from local favorites like Wigle Whiskey, Threadbare Cider House, and The Pennsylvania Market, Miller hopes to gauge local interest in something so niche.

“I’m curious to see what draws the most people and how we can turn this into a bigger, more fun event next year,” says Miller.

•

.FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 1

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo figure skater Scott Hamilton won an Olympic gold medal and four World Championships. He was a star who got inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame and made a lot of money after he turned professional. “I calculated once how many times I fell during my skating career — 41,600 times,” he testified in his autobiography. “But here’s the funny thing: I also got up 41,600 times. That’s the muscle you have to build in your psyche — the one that reminds you to just get up.” In accordance with current astrological omens, Virgo, I’ll be cheering you on as you strengthen that muscle in your psyche during the coming weeks.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): What’s the story of your life? Psychologist James Hillman said that in order to thrive, you need to develop a clear vision of that story. How do you do that? Hillman advised you to ask yourself this question: “How can I assemble the pieces of my life into a coherent plot?” And why is this effort to decode your biography so important?

Because your soul’s health requires you to cultivate curiosity and excitement about the big picture of your destiny. If you hope to respond with intelligence to the questions and challenges that each new day brings, you must be steadily nourished with an expansive understanding of why you are here on earth. I bring these ideas to your attention, Libra, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to illuminate and deepen and embellish your conception of your life story.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide,” wrote psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott. I think that description fits many people born under the sign of the Scorpio, not just Scorpio artists. Knowing how important and necessary this dilemma can be for you, I would never glibly advise you to always favor candid, straightforward communication over protective, strategic hiding. But I recommend you do that in the coming weeks. Being candid and straightforward will serve you well.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian poet Aracelis Girmay writes, “How

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Let’s check in with our psychic journalist, LoveMancer, who’s standing by with a live report from inside your imagination. What’s happening, LoveMancer? “Well, Rob, the enchanting creature on whose thoughts I’ve been eavesdropping has slipped into an intriguing frontier. This place seems to be a hot zone where love and healing interact intensely. My guess is that being here will lead our hero to breakthrough surges of love that result in deep healing, or deep healing that leads to breakthrough surges of love—probably both.” ramshackle, how brilliant, how haphazardly & strangely rendered we are. Gloriously, fantastically mixed & monstered. We exist as phantom, monster, miracle, each a theme park all one’s own.” Of course that’s always true about every one of us. But it will be extraordinarily true about you in the coming weeks. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you will be at the peak of your ability to express what’s most idiosyncratic and essential about your unique array of talents and specialties.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Sometime soon I suspect you will arrive at a crossroads in your relationship with love and sex — as well as your fantasies about love and sex.

In front of you: a hearty cosmic joke that would mutate your expectations and expand your savvy. Behind you: an alluring but perhaps confusing call toward an unknown future. To your left: the prospect of a dreamy adventure that might be only half-imaginary. To your right: the possibility of living out a slightly bent fairy tale version of romantic catharsis. I’m not here to tell you what you should do, Capricorn. My task is simply to help you identify the options.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): How many handcuffs are there in the world?

Millions. Yet there are far fewer different keys than that to open all those handcuffs. In fact, in many countries, there’s a standard universal key that works to open most handcuffs. In this spirit, and in accordance with current astrologi-

cal omens, I’m designating August as Free Yourself from Your Metaphorical Handcuffs Month.

It’s never as complicated or difficult as you might imagine to unlock your metaphorical handcuffs; and for the foreseeable future it will be even less complicated and difficult than usual for you.

PISCES

(Feb. 19-March 20):

People who sneak a gaze into your laboratory might be unnerved by what they see. You know and I know that your daring experiments are in service to the ultimate good, but that may not be obvious to those who understand you incompletely. So perhaps you should post a sign outside your lab that reads, “Please don’t leap to premature conclusions! My in-progress projects may seem inexplicable to the uninitiated!” Or maybe you should just close all your curtains and lock the door until your future handiwork is more presentable. P.S. There may be allies who can provide useful feedback about your explorations. I call them the wounded healers.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Dear Diary: Last night my Aries friend dragged me to the Karaoke Bowling Alley and Sushi Bar. I was deeply skeptical. The place sounded tacky.

But after being there for twenty minutes, I had to admit that I was having a fantastic time. And it just got better and more fun as the night wore on. I’m sure I made a fool of myself when I did my bowling ball imitation, but I can live with that. At one point I was juggling a bowling pin, a rather large piece of sweet potato tempura,

and my own shoe while singing Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” — and I don’t even know how to juggle. I have to admit that this sequence of events was typical of my adventures with Aries folks. I suppose I should learn to trust that they will lead me to where I don’t know I want to go.”

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In his poem “Wild Oats,” poet W. S. Merwin provided a message that’s in perfect alignment with your current astrological needs: “I needed my mistakes in their own order to get me here.” He was not being ironic in saying that; he was not making a lame attempt to excuse his errors; he was not struggling to make himself feel better for the inconvenience caused by his wrong turns. No! He understood that the apparent flubs and miscues he had committed were essential in creating his successful life. I invite you to reinterpret your own past using his perspective.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Even if you’re an ambidextrous, multi-gendered, neurologically diverse, Phoenician-Romanian Gemini with a fetish for pink duct tape and an affinity for ideas that no one has ever thought of, you will eventually find your sweet spot, your power niche, and your dream sanctuary. I promise. Same for the rest of you Geminis, too.

It might take a while. But I beg you to have faith that you will eventually tune in to the homing beacon of the mother lode that’s just right for you. P.S.: Important clues and signs should be arriving soon.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): What would a normal, boring astrologer tell you at a time like now? Maybe something like this: “More of other people’s money and resources can be at your disposal if you emanate sincerity and avoid being manipulative. If you want to negotiate vibrant compromises, pay extra attention to good timing and the right setting. Devote special care and sensitivity to all matters affecting your close alliances and productive partnerships.”

As you know, Cancerian, I’m not a normal, boring astrologer, so I wouldn’t typically say something like what I just said. But I felt it was my duty to do so because right now you need simple, basic, no-frills advice. I promise I’ll resume with my cryptic, lyrical oracles next time.

GO TO REALASTROLOGY.COM TO CHECK OUT ROB BREZSNY’S EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES AND DAILY TEXT-MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. THE AUDIO HOROSCOPES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE BY PHONE AT 1-877-873-4888 OR 1-900-950-7700

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PHOTO: SARAH DOCCOLO

Squonk’s Hand to Hand

.STAGE.

IDOL HANDS

BY ALEX GORDON // ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

O

NE DAY IN mid-July, Steve O’Hearn was wondering if his hands were maybe just a little too big. As co-artistic director of the Pittsburgh-based art collective, Squonk, O’Hearn had spent the previous night rehearsing for his group’s new production, which was set to debut in Baltimore 48 hours later. The show, Hand to Hand, involves a multi-tier stage with musicians flanked on either side by giant purple hands “the size of a house,” towering over the technicians and audience below. He was exhausted. Everybody was. The hands weighed somewhere between 500 and 600 pounds apiece and reached 25 feet in the air while

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extended. Maybe 20 percent smaller would have been better. Maybe 300 or 400 pound hands, somewhere around 20 feet high, with maybe a few less functions, maybe that would have been easier.

But “easy” isn’t really Squonk’s thing. Its thing, if it has one, is kind of the opposite. It’s an approach that happily embraces difficulty. The work is ambitious and silly, like something a smart child would build from a Lego set mixed in with pieces from a thousand other toys. For more than two decades, the group has specialized in performances that are flamboyant, dreamy, and avoid linear narrative.

They mix light shows, dancing, costumes, and a

semi-steampunk collection of clashing art forms.

The music is jam-band prog, mixed in with metal and the occasional accordion or bagpipes thrown in. The effect is a kind of confusing calliope show that’s not really about anything in particular but inspires awe in its audience just for existing. That sort of showmanship doesn’t come easy.

But still, wouldn’t slightly smaller hands have the same effect?

Probably not, says O’Hearn. It was just the fatigue speaking. This show is all about power and scale, according to O’Hearn and Squonk co-artistic director/composer Jackie Dempsey. The idea for

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Hand to Hand — getting its Pittsburgh premiere at the Three Rivers Regatta Aug. 2-4 — emerged in the aftermath of the 2016 election, at a time when many Americans were feeling, if not despondent about the political implications, at least confused and shocked that something experts were so sure wasn’t going to happen could happen. Squonk’s work is too otherworldly to ever be bogged down in the nitty-gritty of politics, but O’Hearn was clearly blindsided and upset by the result. “[After the election], you have the instinct as an artist to do something horrifying and dystopian, the kind of thing that happens in grad schools around the country,” says O’Hearn. “But that’s not what we do well. Our struggle with this show was how to respond to that in a gracious and celebratory way — because it’s not naturally a gracious or celebratory situation.”

So then there’s this idea of power and scale and eventually, hands. O’Hearn and Dempsey started discussing how hands represent power and how the imagery of performers dwarfed by these giant, otherworldly hands could convey powerlessness. The show, says O’Hearn, is horrifying and comic, which are two things Squonk does well.

Back to the hands. About two years ago, after the initial storyboards were drawn up, Dempsey started composing the music and Squonk guitarist David Wallace started working on a design for the back of the hands. The internal rig-

ging and gimbal carriages for operating the hands were planned and executed by technical director Todd Nunn, but for the hands’ initial build, Squonk reached out to a company called Air Works. The Dutch firm is known for bringing wildly imaginative stage props to life, and O’Hearn says, is probably the only company on earth that could do the hands right. They collaborated for months on the design of the structure, plus the physics of how the fabric, steel, rope, and air would allow the hands to be controlled by Squonkers.

Air Works did not disappoint. The hands rotate and move with eerie fluidity.

The fingers are controlled individually with ropes and the thumbs are removable.

At one point in the show, in a play on “opposable thumbs,” the thumbs break off from the hands and the two guitarists operating them engage in a faceoff. Like everything Squonk does, the silliness of that scene undercuts the grandiosity of the vision, which allows the audience to stop trying to make sense of it and just accept the entertainment for what it is.

“We aren’t people who lecture,” says O’Hearn. “We do big flamboyant things, musically and visually, and that’s what we’re going to do. Hopefully what happens is the audience feels joined by that, and not powerless.”

•

EDITOR’S NOTE: Hand to Hand was scheduled to have its Pittsburgh premiere at Three Rivers Regatta, which has been canceled.

Follow managing editor Alex Gordon on Twitter @shmalexgordon

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CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

Afro Yaqui Music Collective

.MUSIC.

WE ARE THE WORLD

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

ITH MIRROR BUTTERFLY: the

Migrant Liberation Movement Suite, the members of Pittsburgh’s Afro Yaqui Music Collective have created something even bigger than themselves. It’s an impressive feat, considering the multilingual jazz band can boast anywhere from a few main members to a twenty-plus piece ensemble.

What first began as a multicultural jazz, dance, and theater performance for New Hazlett Theater’s Community

Supported Art (CSA) Performance Series is now being released as Mirror Butterfly, an album with an accompanying release party on Fri., Aug. 2 at Thunderbird Café and Music Hall.

The original performance and Mirror Butterfly are loosely inspired by Chiapas, Mexico’s revolutionary Zapatista myth of relating to local ecology, sustainability, and rebellion. “[The CSA] program gives you a chance to expand beyond normal gim-

AFRO YAQUI MIRROR BUTTERFLY CD RELEASE PARTY 8 p.m. Fri., Aug. 2. Thunderbird Café and Music Hall.

4053 Butler St., Lawrenceville. roxianlive.com

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micks or disciplinary boundaries,” says Ben Barson, a member of Afro Yaqui and the composer of Mirror Butterfly. “We wanted to do a mixed-media piece. We’ve traditionally been a jazz-funk, fusion band with hip hop, opera, and Eastern instrumentation. We wanted to do stage work that reflected our vision and values and put in dialogue with different folks from around the world.”

After completing the project, Afro Yaqui received feedback from the CSA program that the music in Mirror Butterfly was strong enough to function as a standalone piece. Not long after the debut, the members of Afro Yaqui found themselves performing Mirror Butterfly

at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. “We had no idea going into the project that we’d get to do it again so soon at one of the biggest national theaters,” says Kelsey Robinson, one of the group’s lead vocalists. “There’s been a bunch of little steps and celebrations along the way. It gathers a little bit more steam every step of the way.”

Along with the Kennedy Center, Mirror Butterfly has been presented both nationally and internationally in venues such as the Lincoln Center, the Red Rooster in Harlem, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Vibrato Jazz Club in Los Angeles, and the Mesopotamian Water Forum in Iraq, as well as universities around the Americas from Pittsburgh to Vermont, to Mexico and Cuba.

these things are coming from this root of capital greed. And that’s what telling the story through these specific women’s words does, as well as the folk tale. “[Mirror Butterfly] allows you to illustrate that these are tropes, are themes that are cyclical, and they’ll keep happening over and over again unless we really return to the land, unless we really give power to women and come together to fight in these ways,” she says.

“And that’s how we defeat the sword. It’s these three women. All three of them couldn’t do it individually. You needed the three of them to come together.”

Robinson says Mirror Butterfly can also relate to the city of Pittsburgh, citing the rapid gentrification in East Liberty and alleged ICE arrests throughout the city, people being forced from

“WE WANTED TO DO STAGE WORK THAT REFLECTED OUR VISION AND VALUES AND PUT IN DIALOGUE WITH DIFFERENT FOLKS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.” “What we created is mutually intelligible across thousands of miles,” says Barson. “We’re hoping the CD will have that kind of resonance in social-movement spaces. The CD is a tool to create awareness and engagement with environmental activists across the world.”

Mirror Butterfly was inspired by interviews conducted with activists and artists and focuses on three women, as described on the collective’s website: “Mama C, a former Black Panther now in Tanzania, symbolized by the Mulberry Tree; Azize Aslan, part of the Kurdish woman’s movement, fighting ISIS and Turkish repression, symbolized by the Stoneflower; and Yaqui women Reyna Lourdes Anguamea and Gizelxanath Rodriguez, both represented by the almost-extinct Kautesamai Butterfly of Sonora, Mexico.”

Throughout the piece, viewers follow the women’s confrontation and engagement with violent, repressive colonial occupation (symbolized by the Sword character), whose destruction of ecosystems results in forced migration and climate crisis.

“One of the things that [Mirror Butterfly] does is touch on where all of these things meet,” says Robinson. “Where a need for prison reform or ending white supremacy or the refugee crisis, all of

their homes and towns. The problems found here are similar to those all over the world. “Looking at those points of intersections of where the problems overlap is how we fight them in a way that stays.”

While the purpose of Afro Yaqui’s upcoming show at Thunderbird is to promote the CD release, Barson says the show will be a hybrid of new and old.

The beginning of the night will start with a smaller, nine-piece version of the group performing songs fans have come to know over the years. For the second half of the night, the larger portion of Afro Yaqui will take the stage with a choir and an expanded string section.

“We’re not going to scale back,” says Barson, “but we’re going to fuse what we do as a smaller ensemble for the first part, and the second part we’ll let it evolve into this crazy incredible organism.”

Because much of the work was derived from activists and people in Tanzania, 100 percent of the album’s sales will go to Namakasia Radio, the medium of communication of Yaqui River defense in the town of Vicam, in the territory of the Yaqui Tribe, based in Sonora, Mexico.

“When people come to the show and buy the CD, they’re participating in this exchange across the world,” says Barson.

•

Follow staff writer Jordan Snowden on Twitter @snowden_jordan

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Best Of Party August 8 • 7pm NOVA PLACE Get your tickets now at cooltix.com PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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SEVEN DAYS OF CONCERTS

PHOTO: THETURTLES.COM

PHOTO: THETURTLES.COM

The Turtles in Edmonton, Oct 2012

The Turtles at The Fillmore East, 1968

HAPPY TOGETHER TOUR FRIDAY, AUG. 2

Relive the summer of love when the Happy Together Tour 2019 makes a stop at The Palace Theatre. Some of the biggest names from the ‘60s and ‘70s — The Turtles, Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, The Buckinghams, The Classics IV, and The Cowsills — will transport fans back to the sunshine and psychedelic-tinged sounds of the past. Sing along to “One,” “Over You,” and more, without breaking out the vinyl.

8-10 p.m. 21 W. Otterman St., Greensburg. $49-69. thepalacetheatre.org

THURSDAY AUGUST 1

FOLK/COUNTRY MORGAN ERINA. Bierport.

8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ACOUSTIC

MIKE MEDVED. SouthSide Works.

6 p.m. South Side.

CELLO FURY. Sweetwater Center for the Arts. 7 p.m. Sewickley.

ALTERNATIVE/INDIE

WEST DEER BLUEGRASS REVIEW. Elwood’s Pub. 7:30 p.m. Tarentum.

JB UNPLUGGED. Southern Tier Brewing. 5 p.m. North Side.

FUNK TWEED, SWEET EARTH. Spirit. 9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

HIP HOP NICK JORDAN. The Smiling Moose. 6:30 p.m. South Side.

ROCK HEART, JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS, ELLE KING. KeyBank Pavilion.

7 p.m. Burgettstown.

COPPER CHIEF. Hard Rock Cafe.

8 p.m. South Side.

JEFF LYNNE’S ELO. PPG Paints Arena. 8 p.m. Downtown.

FASTER PUSSYCAT, BANG TANGO. Jergel’s. 8 p.m. Warrendale.

REGGAE KEYSTONE VIBE. Federal Galley.

7 p.m. North Side.

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

WARM DRAG, LATE., DARK MONEY. Brillobox.

9 p.m. Bloomfield.

BLUES BRANDON SANTINI. Club Cafe. 8 p.m. South Side.

JAZZ RICK MATT JAZZ BAND. Lucca Ristorante. 5 p.m.

Oakland.

FRIDAY AUGUST 2 BLUES THE CONTENDERS. Cioppino Restaurant & Cigar Bar. 7 p.m. Strip District.

JAZZ DIXIELAND. Allegheny Elks Lodge #339. 8 p.m. North Side.

THE BLEIL BROTHERS (ALBUM RELEASE).

Enix Brewing. 8 p.m. Homestead.

CLUTCH, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. Stage AE. 6 p.m. North Side.

ANDREW BELLE. Club Cafe. 8 p.m. South Side.

COUNTRY/FOLK

R&B

SUNDAY AUGUST 4

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE. KeyBank Pavilion.

7 p.m. Burgettstown.

BIT BRIGADE. David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

10:30 p.m. Downtown.

METAL/PUNK

BUFFALO ROSE. McKee’s Point Marina. 7 p.m. McKeesport.

BILL DEASY. Club Cafe. 7 p.m. South Side.

ACOUSTIC

ACE FREHLEY. The Palace Theatre.

8 p.m. Greensburg.

SOLARBURN, DISILLUSION EFFECT, GREYWALKER. Howlers. 8 p.m. Bloomfield.

CROOKED GHOST, DEATH INSTINCT, SILVER CAR CRASH. The Government Center.

8 p.m. North Side.

STICK TO YOUR GUNS. Rex Theater. 6 p.m. South Side.

ELECTRONIC LYCHEE. 3577 Studios. 9 p.m. Polish Hill.

BUSCRATES. Bierport. 8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

POP

CHRIS HANNIGAN. Wolfie’s Pub. 5 p.m. Downtown.

INTERNATIONAL BKO. Brillobox. 10 p.m. Bloomfield.

SATURDAY AUGUST 3 POP THE CHAD SIPES STEREO (ALBUM RELEASE).

Thunderbird Café & Music Hall.

7 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ELECTRONIC LONGTURN PRESENTS: FORGE. Brillobox. 9 p.m. Bloomfield.

LET’S GROOVE TONIGHT (EARTH, WIND & FIRE TRIBUTE BAND). Crafthouse Stage & Grill.

9 p.m. Whitehall.

BLUEGRASS

ROCK

METAL

ROCK

COVERS 7 BRIDGES (EAGLES TRIBUTE).

Jergels. 8 p.m. Warrendale.

GUTTERRICH. The Smiling Moose.

10 p.m. South Side.

LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS. Hard Rock Cafe.

9:30 p.m. South Side.

HIP HOP/RAP ROCK

KIRK FRANKLIN. Byham Theater.

7 p.m. Downtown.

SUBHA DAS TRIO. Wolfie’s Pub. 8 p.m. Downtown.

MOLLY ALPHABET, GO GO GIDGET. Weather Permitting.

5 p.m. Shadyside.

LEGENDARY ALBUM SERIES: JANIS JOPLIN. Rex Theater.

8 p.m. South Side.

HIP HOP/R&B

KINDO. The Smiling Moose.

6:30 p.m. South Side.

FOLK

HI-REZ. The Smiling Moose.

6 p.m. South Side.

STRING MACHINE (ALBUM RELEASE). Mr. Roboto Project. 7 p.m. Bloomfield.

FOLK

MYCHOLE STARR. Club Cafe.

10 p.m. South Side.

COVERS

THE SHAMELESS HEX, THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS. Chatham University Eden Hall Farm. 6:30 p.m. Gibsonia.

DRAUVE. Mr. Smalls Theatre.

6 p.m. Millvale.

pghcitypaper.com

MOLLY HATCHET, MARCUS TYLER AND THE MARKS BROTHERS. Wild Things Park.

7 p.m. Washington.

BIT BRIGADE. David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

9:20 p.m. Downtown.

AARON NEVILLE. Meadows Racetrack & Casino.

8 p.m. Washington.

GUTTERRICH. The Smiling Moose.

10 p.m. South Side.

THE PRINCE PROJECT. Crafthouse Stage & Grill.

9 p.m. Whitehall.

FULL LIST ONLINE

FORSAKEN BY SOCIETY, EVERYONE HATES EVERYTHING. Gooski’s. 9 p.m. Polish Hill.

JAZZ NEON SWING X-PERIENCE. NOLA On The Square.

8 p.m. Downtown.

GUSTER. Hartwood Acres Park.

6:30 p.m. Allison Park.

BAD RELIGION. Roxian Theatre.

8 p.m. McKees Rocks.

DIRTY HONEY. Hard Rock Cafe.

8 p.m. South Side.

ZAC CLARK, BOB OXBLOOD. Crafthouse Stage & Grill.

7 p.m. Whitehall.

METAL/PUNK CROWN THE EMPIRE. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 5 p.m. Millvale.

RARITY, LOTUS KID, LOOK OUT LORETTA. Mr. Roboto Project.

7 p.m. Bloomfield.

POP UB40. Jergel’s. 8 p.m. Warrendale.

PHOTO: JEFF FASANO

Stew and Heidi Rodewald

STEW AND HEIDI RODEWALD FRIDAY, AUG 2 Passing Strange, the 2006 comedy-drama rock musical turned Spike Lee film is getting a revival. With a special concert event, co-creators of the award-winning piece, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, are showing a side of Passing Strange that has never been seen before. Join the two at Alumni Theater Company as they sing intimate versions of the songs and tell obscure stories about the wild, unlikely road that took them from Los Angeles’ dive bars, with their critically acclaimed band The Negro Problem, to Broadway in New York City. 7:30-9:30 p.m.

6601 Hamilton Ave., Homewood. $35. stewheidipittsburgh.eventbrite.com

MONDAY AUGUST 5 ROCK RITUAL HOWLS, BRING HER. Get Hip Record Store.

7:30 p.m. North Side.

DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY. The Smiling Moose.

6:30 p.m. South Side.

PUNK THE WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY. Club Cafe. 8 p.m. South Side.

JAZZ MEMBERS PICK IAN KANE, RONNIE WEISS, TOM BOYCE. Hambone’s.

6:30 p.m. Lawrenceville.

BLACKTOP MOJO. Hard Rock Cafe. 8 p.m. South Side.

J. MAMANA AND THE PLACE-NAMES. The Government Center.

7 p.m. North Side.

PIERCE DIPNER AND THE SHADES OF BLUE. Wolfie’s Pub. 5 p.m. Downtown.

TED NUGENT. Carnegie Library Music Hall. 8 p.m. Homestead.

JEROMES DREAM. Mr. Roboto Project. 7 p.m. Bloomfield.

ARIA412. Wallace’s Whisky Room and Kitchen. 7 p.m. East Liberty.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS. Byham Theater. 7 p.m. Downtown.

POP SHAWN MENDES. PPG Paints Arena. 7:30 p.m. Downtown.

POISON BOYS, THE CHEATS, ROYAL HONEY. Tiki Lounge. 9 p.m. South Side.

FLOWER CROWN. Spirit.

8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

THE REGRETTES. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 7 p.m. Millvale.

JAZZ

SUSTO. Club Cafe. 8 p.m. South Side.

ROCK

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 7

WHITE REAPER. The Smiling Moose. 7 p.m. South Side.

ROCK/METAL TRAIN. KeyBank Pavilion.

7 p.m. Burgettstown.

FROM ASHES TO NEW. Jergel’s. 7 p.m. Warrendale.

JAMES JOHNSON III. Katz Plaza. 5 p.m. Downtown.

JOHN BUTLER TRIO, TREVOR HALL. Roxian Theatre.

7 p.m. McKees Rocks.

HERB ALPERT, LANI HALL. MCG Jazz. 7:30 p.m. North Side.

CLASSICAL/OPERA

TUESDAY AUGUST 6 BEN FOLDS, VIOLENT FEMMES. Stage AE. 6:30 p.m. North Side.

FUNKY FLY PROJECT. Wigle Whiskey Barrelhouse.

6:30 p.m. North Side.

HERB ALPERT, LANI HALL. MCG Jazz. 7:30 p.m. North Side.

DJS DICCI, KINETIK, CHRIS MAZE. The Goldmark.

10 p.m. Lawrenceville.

INTERNATIONAL CIMARRÓN. Spirit. 8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

JAZZ

ACOUSTIC

CLENN ZALESKI, JAMES JOHNSON III. City of Asylum.

7 p.m. North Side.

WE ARE THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. Jewish Community Center.

6 p.m. South Hills.

These listings are curated by Pittsburgh City Paper’s music writer Jordan Snowden and include events from our free online listings. Submit yours today at www.pghcitypaper.com/submitevent PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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PHOTOS: THÉO BIGNON

Studio shots of Indecent Exposure

.ART . .

INDECENT EXPOSURE

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

HO DECIDES what is excessive?

This question drives Indecent Exposure, an exhibit at Bunker Projects featuring new work by resident artist Théo Bignon. With this inquiry, Bignon, a French artist who previously studied at the University of Pittsburgh Studio Art Department and now lives in Chicago, Ill., intends to examine how, among other things, “homosexuality and queer desires trouble the idea of the natural and are insulted as being unnatural, excessive, and inappropriate.”

By using provocative embroidery and fetishized garments such as underwear, jockstraps, and tank tops, he turns the homey gallery space into a site of

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“forbidden desire, untamable sexuality, and voyeuristic play.” He will also share his craft on Thu., Aug. 8 during an embroidery workshop.

Ahead of the show’s opening on Fri., Aug. 2, Bignon discussed with Pittsburgh City Paper how his identity as a gay man and his French upbringing informed the show and how the American fiber art movement inspired him.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE CONCEPT FOR THE EXHIBITION? I was initially planning a whole different exhibition, but it changed once I got to Bunker Projects. The gallery space is this gorgeous former living room and

dining room of a traditional Pittsburgh house with moldings, a beautiful cheminée [fireplace], and hardwood floor. Instead of erasing this aspect of the space and seeing it as a white cube, I wanted to highlight the domestic aspect of it …

Besides, coming back to Pittsburgh — I used to live there four years ago — really felt like a sort of homecoming and just reinforced my wish to play with this idea of the house and decided to make curtains, add new moldings, and fragments of wallpaper on the walls.

The title of the exhibition … is directly linked to a material that is a leitmotif in the show: mesh. Because it is at the

mother — the ultimate hobby kind of embroidery — to do a master’s degree in textiles [at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago].

junction of functionality and decoration, and due to its intersection with queer cultural history — for example, the mesh tank top became a semiotic marker for a lot of queer men starting in the ’70s — this whole exhibition is examining and playing with this material. It is wild to think that a male torso dressed in mesh is fine and sexy, but on a woman’s torso, it is often illegal and can result in a charge for indecent exposure.

DO YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN EMBROIDERY AND NEEDLEPOINT? I was never formally trained in embroidery or needlepoint … But since a young age — probably around 9 — I started embroidering with my grandmother. I used to spend every summer with her in the French Riviera. She was a crossstitch kinda gal and very into flower designs. I would sit next to her and embroider for hours. I would never follow the pattern, though, and would throw in some other colors or pattern.

That used to drive her crazy. I’ve always had an ongoing embroidery project, often sitting on my bedside table.

But once I was done with undergrad [at Sciences Po Paris] and was in the U.S., I became aware of the existence of the fiber art movement and that I could

INDECENT EXPOSURE 7-10 p.m. Fri., Aug. 2. Continues through Sat., Aug. 31.

Bunker Projects, 5106 Penn Ave., Garfield. Free. bunkerprojects.org

use needlework in a fine art context.

I am always amazed by how many different traditions of embroidery exist around the world … for example, in this

exhibition I have been using a lot of beading techniques frequent in French haute couture. Ironically, I moved from learning cross-stitch from my grand-

Follow senior writer Amanda Waltz on Twitter @AWaltzCP

WHAT’S YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE WITH THE SHOW’S THEMES? I have never been arrested for indecent exposure but could have been. More seriously, this exhibition is pretty personal: it consists [of] a lot of embroideries that are coded with elements of my own sexuality and experience, wallpapers with hidden clipped digital images of amateur porn, and some garments I made for myself in this same vein. I feel like as artists we spend a lot of our time showing what’s pretty intimate, and it can feel like an indecent exposure sometimes … I am pretty sure some people will deem the work indecent, but depending on who thinks that, it might be a good thing.

I remember what it was for me to be young and to see evidence of gay and queer sexuality in museums or galleries. It felt good. It felt like I wasn’t alone.

I usually hope for a lot from the viewers … but if a single person leaves the exhibition feeling that their feelings and desires considered deviant or indecent are valid, then I would be very, very happy.

•

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

25

.FILM.

GOOD GRIEF

BY HANNAH LYNN HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HE MORALITY of lying seems like a pretty black-and-white issue, until you’re an adult and realize that the issue isn’t so clear. People lie all the time for both good and bad reasons, and it can be difficult to separate one from the other. The Farewell, a dramedy directed and written by Lulu Wang, explores this territory with a Chinese family trying to conceal the fatal diagnosis given to their matriarch.

Billi (Awkwafina) lives in New York, where she grew up with her Chinese parents, who immigrated when she was six years old. They live far from Billi’s grandma, who they call Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), along with the rest of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. When Nai Nai is diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer, the family quickly pulls together a cousin’s wedding as an excuse for the whole family to get together with Nai Nai for what might be the last time. The family decides to hide the diagnosis from Nai Nai, a not uncommon practice in Chinese culture, so she can enjoy whatever time she has left and not be burdened by the prospect of imminent death.

When she gets to Changchun, China, Billi makes the case that Nai Nai should get to say goodbye and has a right to know about her health, but everyone — her cousin, dad, uncle, great-aunt, and even a doctor — agree that it’s a “good lie” and will allow Nai Nai to live peacefully. Her father (Tzi Ma) is the closest to siding with Billi, but he refuses to go against the rest of his family. It’s his brother (Jiang Yongbo) who puts things into perspective in a way that Billi (and audiences raised in Western cultures) might not under-

PHOTO: NICK WEST/A24

stand. In Eastern cultures, he explains, your body does not belong to only you; it is part of a larger whole. “It’s our duty to carry this burden for her,” he says.

Billi is fiercely independent, never wanting to ask for help from anyone, so the idea that a person’s body might not completely belong to themselves is a shift for her. After all, the United States is in the middle of a political fight about whether or not the government has a right to control people’s bodies. The Farewell weaves in several conflicts between Chinese and American culture, including education, money, and career aspirations. Billi is distressed, not only by Nai Nai’s situation, but by the life in China she left behind as a child and how little

of it remains (the movie is filled with establishing shots of the seemingly endless construction of new high-rises being built in Changchun.)

THE FAREWELL Written and directed by Lulu Wang.

Opens Fri., Aug. 2 at Manor Theatre, 1729 Murray Ave., Squirrel Hill. manorpgh.com

The movie is a natural tearjerker, given the intense tenderness of the subject. It’s a study on how people grieve differently, how some barely cry, and others can barely hold back their tears. But it’s also funny in all the ways

Pittsburgh’s lone liberal talkshow host for 30+ years Listen live Monday thru Thursday at 10 a.m. at lynncullen.pghcitypaper.com 26

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you’d expect from the dynamics of a big family and from a grandma who’s lived long enough to not hold back her opinions. In one scene, the family is placing offerings on their grandpa’s grave, including cigarettes, despite protests from some family members. “Let the man smoke, he’s already dead,” Billi’s uncle says.

Awkwafina is a strong lead, going deeper than her comedic/musical background usually calls for, but the entire cast is sturdy. The score, too, is potent, and the cinematography is generous, letting the camera linger on shots longer than usual. They’re all good elements on their own, but they’re part of a greater, more special whole.

•

.LITERATURE.

LANDFALL

BY REGE BEHE CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

HILE CASTING about for an

idea for his second young adult novel, author Nick Courage turned to his youth. He didn’t land on a particularly fond memory, but one that caused no small amount of anxiousness when he was growing up in New Orleans: hurricanes.

Courage, who lives in Brookline and is a co-founder of the literary website Littsburgh, wanted to tell a story about a natural disaster from multiple locations and perspectives in his new YA novel, Storm Blown (Delacorte), which was published on July 16.

“In the United States, you hear a lot about New Orleans and the damage a hurricane does in the area the reporting is coming from,” says Courage. “But when I was growing up, you really didn’t hear about what was happening in the islands on its approach … I wanted to tell the story of a hurricane from beginning to end, the animals it affects,

PHOTO: RACHEL EKSTROM COURAGE

Nick Courage

the people it affects, and how it brings people together.”

Storm Blown is set in Puerto Rico and Louisiana — eerily, Courage finished the story right before Hurricane Maria ravaged the U.S. territory in 2017 — and centers around Alejo and Emily, two preteens separated by the Gulf of Mexico, but bound by horrific circumstances.

Both are torn from parents or caregivers

during the storm.

As in his debut novel, The Loudness, Courage illustrates the natural resilience of young people when they are faced with daunting circumstances.

“I realized after I finished Storm Blown that if you flipped them, Storm Blown could have been the prequel to the dystopian aftermath of The Loudness,” he says. “Kids literature, and all good litera-

Follow featured contributor Rege Behe on Twitter @RegeBehe_exPTR

ture, has that element of life and death.

It’s so compelling. I don’t think I wanted to put kids in peril, but it’s just part of good children’s literature.”

Courage also wanted to show what happens to animals when hurricanes and other natural disasters strike. Storm Blown features a goose, a turtle, and a petrel (a tubed-nose seabird), but not just as background figures. Instead, Courage shows their fears, their anxieties, and their wounds.

“The storm was such a character already, it was just a matter of putting myself in that place with the goose (and the other animals) and describing what I saw,” Courage says.

Having witnessed firsthand the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina — his mother’s house was severely damaged in that storm — Courage remains struck by the images of Hurricane Maria. The fact that he finished the book while Puerto Rico was being devastated was an “unexpected and unfortunate coincidence,” but he hopes that beyond telling a good story, Storm Blown will serve another purpose.

“Now that it’s publishing, hopefully it will put the spotlight back on these places that are still affected by hurricanes,” Courage says.

•

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.STAGE.

BACKSTAGE

BY LISSA BRENNAN CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NAME: Michelle Engelman, Highland Park WORK: Production and stage manager, Quantum Theatre QUANTUM THEATRE PERFORMS AT UNCONVENTIONAL LOCATIONS ALL OVER THE CITY. HOW IS YOUR JOB DIFFERENT WITH A SITE-SPECIFIC THEATER THAN IT WOULD BE WITH A TRADITIONAL SPACE? It focuses on how to make the onsite aspect as much of a theater experience as possible. Security, how we’ll store things, where the audience will come in, what the overall experience will be that already exists for a regular storefront theater.

How everything is at the site and at the rehearsals, figuring out footprints for the location, what your backstage is, how that gets laid out as the design continues to be built and made. What Plan A is, then throwing it out and figuring out now that everything’s solid, what the real plan is.

PLAN B, C, OR D …

Plan Triple C. IS EVERYTHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM ONE SHOW TO THE NEXT? There’s a certain amount of things that carry over. There has to be a dressing room, there has to be some sort of under-the-booth storage for all of the equipment: power, tie-ins, sound equipment that can be secured to be there permanently for the run or to go to a different location and be locked up because of weather or accessibility.

There’s at least one show a season that’s outside, then sometimes an indoor/ outdoor space that’s partially covered, or a warehouse that’s not airtight so you could be outside in a tent with how much moisture and water there is.

HOW IS EVERYONE PREPARED? You start rehearsal and there’s a big wordy email: “Dress comfortably, bring layers, wear close-toed shoes, bring a coffee cup, and you’re gonna want to have a lid because there might be insects and birds.” It’s definitely not your standard, “Hi, we’re going to sit at a table and read,” even though there’s a meet and greet and read-through. There’s, “We’re

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CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

Michelle Engelman

going to take a field trip and see the site, but we can’t work there yet.” There’s a lot of different scenarios that you don’t have at a place with a rehearsal room and a green room and, you know, bathrooms.

A LOT OF YOUR JOB IS CONTROLLING AN ENVIRONMENT IN ENVIRONMENTS OVER WHICH YOU DON’T HAVE CONTROL. Right. Then it’s about communicating to the team. Weather completely changes.

Trains. A lot of warehouse locations and cool spots in town are by train tracks because they’re such a part of our infrastructure. You get to know the schedules. Or we’re right by this delivery, and it’s happening at this time. That goes in your notes.

WHAT IF UNEXPECTED THINGS HAPPEN DURING A SHOW ITSELF? You go with the punches. Sometimes that’s sending someone who’s running a computer with you to help someone else, or having a longer intermission because we have to dig a saw out of storage to fix this thing that just broke. Or adjust timing to avoid highlighting the jogger who just ran through the show. (We laughed and cried and cursed about that jogger the entire run.)

DOES THE PAYOFF EQUAL HOW EXTRA THE PROCESS IS FOR YOU? My favorite thing is the unknown, the X factor. That’s what drew me to the company in the beginning.

They’re doing work people generally

haven’t seen before in some section of town that you have been dying to see or a neighborhood that has been abandoned and left behind. Bringing art is fulfilling no matter how wild getting to the process is.

You turn the corner and you see this beautiful set. Someone throws open the door to Iron City Brewery, and we built a giant Australian mountain. You hear the gasps and people instantly talking, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t know what to expect and how they were gonna do that and now here’s this huge mountain in a warehouse.”

You forget about it because we see the small changes all the time. The audience doesn’t see the whole spectrum of it, just the magic moment.

•

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WED., AUG. 14 BLACK CROWN INITIATE 5:30 P.M. SMILING MOOSE SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $13-15. 412-431-4668 or ticketfly.com. With special guests Inferi, Warforgeed, and Entheogen.

WED., AUG. 14 GAME GRUMPS LIVE! THE FINAL PARTY 7 P.M. CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD MUSIC HALL MUNHALL. All-ages event. $35-99.

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WED., AUG. 14 GENTLE YOGA 7 P.M. NORTH PARK ALLISON PARK. $15-19. alleghenycounty.us/parks

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Murray Hidary playing paino

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SILENT STRIDES

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

M

URRAY HIDARY has always had an interest in music. In addition to graduating from New York University with a degree in Music and Composition, Hidary has trained in the study of Aikido and the Shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute) and the ancient music tradition of Zen monks.

He’ll channel all of this into SilentHike, a guided, meditative walk in Frick Park on Fri., Aug. 2.

Sound, however, took on an entirely new meaning for Hidary when a little over ten years ago on his way home from traveling the countryside in South Africa, he looked in his rearview mirror to see that his sister Mariel, who also riding a motorcycle, was in a wreck.

“I quickly pulled over, jumped off my bike, threw my helmet to the ground, and ran as fast as I could to see her,” Hidary said in a 2018 TEDxBerkeley Talk. “What I saw would change me forever. I knelt to the ground and held her broken body in my arms. From the scene, I called my parents to let them know that their only daughter had just been killed.”

Heartbroken and dealing with tremendous despair, trauma, and depression, Hidary found solace in sound. As a

dancer, his sister also had had her own connection to music.

“As a trained composer, I turned to music to heal,” he said. “I would sit at the piano every day and just play.

Emotions that I had no words for, I expressed, through music.”

Hidary also immersed himself in traditions of ancient wisdom and theoretical physicals; anything he could get his hands on to help him understand what was happening in the universe.

“One day, in a moment of surrender, a surrender through music, I felt an incomparable beauty, love, and connection,” continued Hidary in his TED Talk.

“It overwhelmed me. In that moment, I realized my purpose was to bring this experience, this personal musical ritual, out to the world.”

After studying moving meditation with the Japanese Zen flute, Hidary translated that process to the piano and began to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become MindTravel, a transformative musical meditation in motion. Drawing from his expertise across different disciplines, MindTravel mixes Hidary’s passions for contemporary classical music, visual art, theoretical physics, and wisdom traditions to create

SILENTHIKE 7-9 p.m. Fri., Aug. 2. Frick Park, 2005 Beechwood Blvd., Squirrel Hill.

Search “MindTravel SilentWalk in Pittsburgh” on Eventbrite.

the space for people to have healing, reflective, and transcendent inner journeys.

There are a handful of different ways to experience MindTravel: in theaters or museums, outdoors, underwater, or through Hidary’s newest concept, SilentHike.

During the SilentHike session, participants wear wireless headphones and embark on a hike with music, guidance, and thoughtful commentary from Hidary. After the hike, Hidary will perform a “silent” piano concert in the gardens.

All the components — music, words, silence, visual cues — work in synergy to help participants connect with themselves and the world around them.

“It’s in that inner landscape that the music has the opportunity to shift us,” said Hidary in his TED Talk, “and the hope is that once we shift that inner landscape, the way we perceive our external world can also be shifted.”

Typically, traditional forms of meditation are an isolated experience, and while the headphones are meant to make the experience deeply personal, the SilentHike is an exercise in going inward while also exploring and being present in the evolving world around us.

It’s a musical journey into mindfulness.

“My aspiration is to continue to explore these explorations of deeper consciousness,” says Hidary, “and one day, just maybe, maybe I’ll get to see my sister dance again.”

•

THIS WEEK ONLINE AT PGHCITYPAPER.COM

PHOTO: O. ALEXANDRE

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY NOW HAS A VENDING MACHINE DISPENSING SHORT STORIES The machine, made by the French company Short Édition, is the first of its kind in Pittsburgh.

JENSORENSEN

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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SEVEN DAYS OF ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

PHOTO: YONI BROOK/IFP SCREEN FORWARD

^ Mon., Aug. 5: A Stray

THURSDAY AUG. 1 EVENT Save the date for Blackout Weekend 2k19, a celebration for Black LGBTQ communities living within the local tri-state region.

Presented by True T PGH, the annual, multi-day festival showcases local LGBTQ artists and includes a kickoff event at True T Studios, featuring

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the latest fashion collection from Var Blackson. There will also be Blackout Week 2k19 Party at True T Studios. Continues through Sat., Aug. 3. Various times and locations. truetpgh.com

FILM It’s the last day to catch the Sundance Film Festival Shorts Tour at Harris Theater.

The touring revue includes favorite short films at Sundance 2019, including sometimes, i think about dying, about a death-obsessed introvert who is lulled

out of her shell by an office romance; Alexandra Lazarowich’s documentary Fast Horse, which chronicles the “original extreme sport” of Indian Relay horse racing; and Suicide By Sunlight, the story of a Black vampire whose skin color allows her to survive in the sunlight and can, thus, pursue custody of her estranged daughters while repressing her innate desire for blood. Each showing includes all seven featured films. 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m., and 9 p.m. 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $8. cinema.pfpca.org

FRIDAY AUG. 2 FEST The Harambee Black Arts Festival returns to Homewood with a weekend dedicated to local Black arts and culture. The communitysponsored event kicks off with a parade and continues with live music and dance performances, information tables with area nonprofits, kid-friendly activities in the Children’s Village, and a mobile art

PHOTO: HEATHER MULL, WITH PROCESSING BY BOOM CREATIVE

^ Fri., Aug. 2: Looking For Violeta

gallery. There will also be things to see, buy, and eat at various food and retail vendors. 3 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 4. Kelly St. and N. Homewood Ave., Homewood. Free. harambeeujima.org

ART VaultArt Studio explores one of pop music’s most successful and controversial artists with the new exhibition Britney. Created to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the release of Britney Spears’ debut hit song “... Baby One More Time,” the show investigates her public and private life, including her experiences with mental illness and a decade living under parental conservatorship. VaultArt Studio artists will pay tribute to her iconic looks (think: the “Oops! ... I Did It Again” red jumpsuit), favorite junk food, and more. 6-10 p.m.

5100 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. Free. vaultartstudio.org

ART BOOM Concepts will highlight local multi-disciplinary artist and filmmaker Corrine Jasmin with the opening of her solo exhibition Beams of Light. The new works, ranging from text prints and ^ Fri., Aug. 2: PSO performs Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets PHOTO: ©2002 WARNER BROS. HARRY POTTER PUBLISHING RIGHTS © J.K.R.

photographs to video and installation, are described as exploring a “Utopian future where oppressed bodies are celebrated while navigating through space and time, joy, tenderness, and cleansing.” The show appears to fall in line with Jasmin’s central goal as an artist which is, as she states on her website, “to elevate Black joy, a narrative which goes underrepresented.” 7-10 p.m.

5139 Penn Ave., Garfield.

Free. boomuniverse.co

SCORE Experience the fantasy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at Heinz Hall when the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performs the film’s original score by composer John Williams. PSO will provide live accompaniment to a screening of the 2002 screen adaptation of author J.K. Rowling’s wildly successful book. The second installment of the Harry Potter film franchise heads back to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for another round of mystery, magic, and adventure — this time with every fan’s favorite house-elf, Dobby. 7 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 4. 600 Penn Ave., Downtown. $40-105. pittsburghsymphony.org

STAGE The life and work of Chilean artist Violeta Parra are criminally under-appreciated in most parts of the world, but her influence as a reinventor and reviver of her native CONTINUES ON PG. 34

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

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CALENDAR, CONTINUED FROM PG. 33

ART: “GIMME MORE” BY SEAN REGIS TRAYNOR

^ Fri., Aug. 2: Britney

music looms large, whether you know it or not. Parra’s work got a boost from artists like poet Pablo Neruda and a cover by Joan Baez, since her death in 1967. But her catalogue and story deserve more than that, and they get it in Quantum Theatre’s world premiere of Looking For Violeta by María José Galleguillos with original music by Emily Pinkerton.

The show digs deep and wide into the complexities and misconceptions of Parra’s life, staged in Quantum’s non-traditional style, which recreates the outdoor performance spaces of Parra’s life at Frick Park. Bring a picnic.

9 p.m. Continues through Sun., Aug. 25.

Frick Park Lawn Bowling Greens, 7300 Reynolds St., Homewood. $10-30. quantumtheatre.com

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SATURDAY

David Lawrence Convention Center, 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Downtown. $20-100. replayfx.org

GAMES

SUNDAY

AUG. 3

Not to play favorites, but Day Three at ReplayFX 2019 is possibly the most stacked of the weekend. It marks the inaugural TOONY Awards (a part of the user-created online role-playing game Toontown Rewritten — either you understand that or you don’t), the final rounds of Pinburgh, hours of Smash Ultimate and Melee, and the cosplay contest. The night tops off with some of the best video game-themed bands on the planet: Lame Genie, Flashback, Bit Brigade, and Steel Samurai. But make sure to get some sleep, too: The annual pie toss starts 11 a.m. on Sunday. 9 a.m.

AUG. 4

FUNDRAISER Pit bulls are one of the most negatively stereotyped dog breeds. They’re often seen as aggressive and violent, even though studies have proven they are not any more so than other dog breeds. Check out Pittsburgh Tattoo Co. for Love-A-Bull Ink, a fundraising event for pit bull advocacy group Hello Bully. Get a flash tattoo, hang out with some pups, and learn more about these special dogs. All proceeds go to

Hello Bully. 12-5 p.m. 103 Smithfield St., Downtown. $75-150. tattoo-pittsburgh.com

MONDAY AUG. 5 FILM Join City of Asylum for a screening of A Stray. The drama follows Adnan (Barkhad Abdi), a young man trying to find his place among his friends, family, and faith within the Somali refugee community in Minneapolis, befriending a stray dog along the way. The screening will be followed by a discussion hosted by the Muslim Women’s Association of Pittsburgh. 7 p.m. 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free. cityofasylum.org

PHOTO: HELLO BULLY

^ Sun., Aug. 4: Love-A-Bull Ink

TUESDAY AUG. 6

COMMUNITY Back-to-school events may spell impending dread for many students, but for some parents and summer haters, it’s a godsend. At the back-to-school party National Night Out: Garfield, all can hopefully put their differences aside to enjoy a late-summer soiree. The night promises to deliver free food, free school supplies, games, and more as Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation closes down a few streets on Garfield for a block party not to forget. 5 p.m.

113 N. Pacific Ave., Garfield. Free. bloomfield-garfield.org

COMMUNITY The Greater Pittsburgh Food Action Plan wants all Pittsburghers to have access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable food. The organization is addressing regional challenges by creating a food system rooted in community. To fully address the diversity of Pittsburgh voices, public meetings are being held where residents can learn, give input, and be a part of the process. 5:30 p.m. Baldwin High School, 4653 Clairton Blvd., Baldwin.

Free. foodactionplan.org ^ Tue., Aug. 6: Shannon Watts PHOTO: MOMS DEMAND ACTION

TALK When the Sandy Hook mass shooting took the lives of 20 children and six adults in 2012, then stay-at-home mom Shannon Watts felt a call to action. She founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grassroots movement working to reduce gun violence by closing loopholes and fixing laws that make it easier to access firearms. Now part of Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action has become an instrumental force in challenging the country’s gun laws and the powerful pro-gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association. Watts will discuss her journey and mission during a talk at Chatham University’s Eddy Theater. 7:30-9 p.m. Woodland Road, Shadyside. Free. Registration required. chatham.edu

WEDNESDAY AUG. 7 STAGE Dolly Gallagher Levi is on a quest for one thing: her dream man. The sly matchmaker, star of 1960s classic musical Hello Dolly, has her sights set on half-a-millionaire Horace Vandergelder. Follow the socialite through Yonkers as she tangles relationships between unlikely people, forging a path for love. 7:30 p.m. Continues through Sat., Aug. 11. 237 Seventh St., Downtown. $26.25-86.25. pittsburghclo.org • PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

35

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER

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IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-9091. In re petition of Yiming Su for change of name to Yiming Zhao. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 28th day of August, 2019, at 9:45 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JULY 31-AUG. 7, 2019

37

PEEPSHOW A sex and social justice column

BY JESSIE SAGE // PEEPSHOWCAST@GMAIL.COM

A

S A WRITER who openly reflects on my own experiences in the sex industry, I often have folks of all genders tell me that they are interested in becoming sex workers.

When I ask them why they are considering sex work, their answers overwhelmingly fall into a category of what I would call sexual exploration, with a few exceptions. They often say that they feel like it would be a safe way for them to explore their sexual interests outside of the context of romantic relationships, dating, or hooking up.

While I do not believe that there is just one reason to go into sex work – people enter into the sex industry for a variety of complex reasons – this particular reason seems misguided. While being a sex worker will expose you to a vast array of sexual fetishes and desires, and while this may open your mind to new enjoyable sexual experiences (I won’t lie, the work can be fun), these experiences are not primarily for or about you or your exploration.

Sex work is a customer service job that is other-oriented.

While we often develop intimate bonds with our clients and can have positive sexual experiences, these interactions/ transactions are not symmetrical. As sex workers, we get paid to create a fantasy or meet the needs of our cus-

bank account gets seized and you lose your money; when your custody gets challenged; when you are publicly ostracized; when you are arrested, or worse. Sex work is serious, and the consequences are real. There are certainly easier paths to sexual fulfillment.

Sex work burnout can impact your personal sex life.

SEXUAL EXPLORATION AND FULFILLMENT ARE WORTHWHILE GOALS AND DEEP HUMAN NEEDS. tomers. Moreover, not only are these not necessarily our needs or desires, they are often not even about us. We are fill-ins for other people in their lives.

Sex is often a small part of the work itself.

Part of the work of creating fantasies is behind the scenes, and isn’t particularly sexy. This includes a constant and carefully curated maintenance of social media/marketing; diligent attention to safe practices which include doing gymnastics with our identities

and bank accounts; weeding through endless time-wasters who want our attention for free and distract us from paying customers; accounting; and expensive and time-consuming beauty regimes, photoshoots, and more.

The social cost of doing sex work can be really high.

Many forms of sex work are criminalized, and all forms of sex work are stigmatized. You have to think about what will happen when your family finds your porn; when your

Earlier this year, I interviewed Nina Hartley for the Peepshow Podcast. She reflects that it takes a special kind of person to do sex work because, “It is one thing to have a soul-killing job, but at least you can go home and wank off.

It is very bad when your soul-killing job is wanking off.” While for most people sex is a respite from work, sex workers have turned sex into their work, and this has to be done with care, otherwise it can harm your personal sex life.

Sexual exploration and fulfillment are worthwhile goals and deep human needs. No one knows this more than sex workers, who spend their lives helping folks meet these needs. For this reason, my first impulse when people talk to me about wanting to do sex work in the way I previously mentioned, is that what they want is to be a sex work customer. When wanting to explore your personal sexuality, I would suggest patronizing sex workers; it is what we are here for.

•

JESSIE SAGE IS CO-HOST OF THE PEEPSHOW PODCAST AT PEEPSHOWPODCAST.COM. HER COLUMN PEEPSHOW IS EXCLUSIVE TO PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER @PEEP_CAST. HAVE A SEX QUESTION YOU’RE TOO AFRAID TO ASK? ASK JESSIE! EMAIL INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM. QUESTIONS MAY BE CONSIDERED FOR AN UPCOMING COLUMN.

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SUMMER EVENTS2019

PortAuthority P ortAuthority

Let’s Connect.

Stop by and see us at local community events all summer long. Visit our tent to learn more about new technologies and other improvements designed to enhance your riding experience.

Upcoming Events: • Health and Wellness Market at Market Square Mondays from 11am-2pm • Fashion Market at Market Square Fridays from 11am-2pm • Pittsburgh Vegfest (Free event with music and family activities on the North Side) August 10 11am-5pm • Spirit’s 4th Annual Summer Recess (Free all-day music and food festival in Lawrenceville) August 24 2pm-9pm

PortAuthority.org