June 12, 2019 - Pittsburgh City Paper

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JUNE 12-19, 2019 VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 24 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 Advertising Sales Assistant TAYLOR PASQUARELLI Circulation Manager JEFF ENGBARTH Featured Contributors REGE BEHE, GAB BONESSO, LISSA BRENNAN, LYNN CULLEN, TERENEH IDIA, CHARLES ROSENBLUM, JESSIE SAGE, STEVE SUCATO 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

GENERAL POLICIES: Contents copyrighted 2019 by Eagle Media Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in Pittsburgh City Paper are those of the author and not necessarily of Eagle Media Corp. LETTER POLICY: Letters, faxes or e-mails must be signed and include town and daytime phone number for confirmation. We may edit for length and clarity. DISTRIBUTION: Pittsburgh City Paper is published weekly by Eagle Media Corp. and is available free of charge at select distribution locations. One copy per reader; copies of past issues may be purchased for $3.00 each, payable in advance to Pittsburgh City Paper.

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People’s Pride March COVER PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

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PHOTOS: AIMEE OBIDZINSKI/UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Cerina Wichryk, a member of Oakdale’s Filipino community, walks under an archway of flowers.

.CULTURE.

FILIPINO FORCE

The new Philippine Nationality Room was a 20-year process, but worth the wait for Pittsburgh’s passionate Filipinos

BY EMILY WOLFE // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A

FTER TWO DECADES of planning, the new Philippine Nationality Room in the Cathedral of Learning ran into a conflict in its final stages over the .seating arrangement.

The initial vision was to situate the classroom with long benches in a circular pattern, with a space in the middle where the professor would stand.

It’s an unconventional design for a Nationality Room, and apparently the safety regulations agreed. The long benches would violate a number of requirements for classroom safety, so in the end, the room was furnished with 24 wooden, straightbacked chairs.

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That disagreement ended up being just the final road bump in the journey to make the room a reality.

Located on the third floor of the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, the room had its grand opening celebration on June 9, after a process that lasted 21 years, with starts and stops, countless disagreements, and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised. But for a Filipino community that numbers less than 2,000 people in Allegheny County, the representation of a room in Pittsburgh showcasing its rich culture is a milestone.

“When the committee and the task force got together, they wanted to create a room where, if a Filipino came, [they] would walk into the room and

say, ‘Yes, this is the Filipino room,’” says Maryann Sivak, who works in the Nationality Rooms as the Assistant to the Director. “And they succeeded, because many times when I come and do the tour, they say ‘Yep, this is Filipino.’”

The room, completed late in 2018, is the latest entry in Pitt’s collection of 31 Nationality Rooms — classrooms that double as miniature museums for the cultures they represent. The Philippine room is meant to resemble a 1700s-era bahay na bato, a stone house style found all over the Philippines.

Judith Portugal, a member of the PhilippineAmerican Performing Arts of Greater Pittsburgh (PAPAGP), sits on the task force that created the

The Philippine Nationality Room

nationality room. She says the design truly encapsulates the uniqueness of Filipino culture and design.

“If we go into the nipa, the straw hut, it’s just like any other country. Cambodia, Thailand, China — they all have the straw huts,” says Portugal. “So that’s why we picked the bahay na bato design. …

The bahay na bato is [different] from any other Asian design.”

Also included is a legendary golden bakunawa dragon painted on the ceiling, a Spanish-influenced mirror framed with etched glass panels, and lattice-patterned windows filled with translucent capiz shells collected in the Philippines.

Warren Bulseco, an architect at WTW Architects in the North Side, signed on to design the room pro bono in 1998, when the planning process began. He is grateful for the opportunity to work on a project that is “so meaningful.”

At the time, of course, Bulseco had no idea he was volunteering for a 20-year project with a revolving door of collaborators. Eventually, he ended up

working with Philippines-based architect Popi Laudico, and a national search found Eliseo Art Silva, a Los Angeles-based artist who created the ceiling murals showing flora and legendary creatures from the Philippines.

So in 2015, they came to a compromise.

They would create a task force consisting of two members each of the three big Filipino-American organizations: The Filipino-American Association of Pittsburgh, the Philippine-American Medical

“IN THE END, IT MADE A STRONGER ORGANIZATION, A STRONGER GROUP, A STRONGER CONVICTION IN THE DESIGN.” And then there were the politics.

There were disagreements over the best way to represent the diversity of the Philippines, a 7,100-island archipelago where more than 170 languages are spoken. And there were arguments about who should be officially in charge of the project.

Then, around 2012, the project came to a complete halt for several years. It looked like the idea of a Philippine Nationality Room might be abandoned entirely, and the money raised returned to donors.

But no one wanted that to happen.

Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the PAPAGP. Together, they worked for the next three years to make the Philippine Nationality Room a reality.

Bulseco says the conflicts and delays ended up making the final product better.

“You have to fight off personal views of what you think the room should be, or you always get those people who want to be the leader, the person in front,” says Bulseco. “But in the end, it made a stronger organization, a stronger group, a stronger conviction in the design.”

Jaime Abola, another member of the Philippine Nationality Room Task Force, says many young people don’t know the Philippines used to be an American colony, and the room is a reminder of that history.

“Most of us in this task force are old,” Abola says. “We’re retired people. We wanted to see this in our lifetime. We started the project in 1998, so that’s 20 years of raising money, and we were not going to wait for another 10 or 20 years.”

Abola and others on the task force say they’ve heard it’s not uncommon for heritage communities to run into issues and infighting while creating their Nationality Rooms. But Abola says he’s concerned about what the contentious, drawn-out process means for his community.

“To be honest with you, the Nationality Room project caused a really serious split within our community,” Abola says. “It’s going to take a long number of years of healing.”

But is it possible it’s all been worth it?

“Oh, having seen the room, of course it is,” he says.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HE PITTSBURGH region recently

received an F rating from the American Air Association and is usually in the top 10 worst U.S. cities for air quality, despite the appearance that the air quality is improving.

Now, a new study estimates that poor air quality is having significant and fatal effects.

According to a collaborative report from the American Thoracic Society and New York University’s Marron Institute for Urban Management, the Pittsburgh region had the fourth most air-pollution related deaths of any metro area in the country.

In 2017, the Pittsburgh region, which includes Allegheny County, all of its bordering counties, and Fayette County, suffered 232 deaths related to air pollution, according to the study’s estimates. This was the most of any region outside of California.

For Matthew Mehalik, director of airquality group Breathe Project, this study is another clarion call for more steps to be taken to reduce Southwestern Pennsylvania’s air pollution.

“It is more ongoing evidence that we have a serious air quality problem,” says

Mehalik. “And people that pretend we don’t aren’t doing anyone any favors.”

The study looked at air-quality data from hundreds of U.S. counties, focusing on particulate matter and ozone pollution. It estimated the annual number of deaths, serious illnesses, and missed work days caused by air pollution by using past Environmental Protection Agency studies. This data was used to estimate the likelihood of fatal conditions like heart attacks, lung cancer, and severe asthma attacks, given the levels of air pollution in the region.

The Los Angeles metro area, with a population of 13 million, led the nation in estimated air-pollution deaths at 1,322. But LA had almost the identical amount of air-pollutions deaths percapita as Pittsburgh, at about one for every 10,000 residents.

According to census figures, about 4.65 million people in LA commute to work in a car alone, compared to about 875,000 in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has around 163 solo car commuters per square mile, while LA as about 960 solo car commuters per square mile. In short, LA has almost six times as many cars per square mile spouting air pollution into

its region.

The study showed that particulate matter pollution is much more likely to affect Pittsburghers’ health than ozone.

The study also shows Pittsburgh’s air pollution levels improving slightly from 2010 to 2017, but the ozone ranking improving much faster compared to the particulate matter ranking. Though Pittsburgh’s 2017 particulate matter deaths were about one-third of what they were in 2010.

Mehalek says 60 percent of Pittsburgh’s air pollution comes from industrial sources. He cites the Clairton Coke Works, which has a history of air-quality violations, but also the Cheswick power plant and the Irving Works and Edgar Thomson Works steel facilities. He adds that policies to lower emissions from mobile sources, like cars, buses and trucks, are also necessary to get Pittsburgh into a healthy air quality range.

Without that, he says it will be harder to continue Pittsburgh’s economic rebound.

“We need strong enforcement, and we need the entities that are responsible to clean up their act,” says Mehalek. “As a public health issue, an environmental justice issues, and a future economic viability issue.”

Follow senior writer Ryan Deto on Twitter @RyanDeto

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THIS WEEK ONLINE AT PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

PHOTO ESSAYS FROM PITTSBURGH’S PRIDE PARADES Our photographers captured the scenes at the People’s Pride Parade and the Pittsburgh Pride Equality March.

JENSORENSEN

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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CP PHOTO: ABBIE ADAMS

.JUST JAGGIN’ .

A NAP A DAY KEEPS THE PEOPLE AWAY

BY JOSH OSWALD // JOSWALD@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

M

Y SON recently finished pre-

kindergarten where he has spent every work week for almost his entire life. While we are very proud of his stick-to-itiveness (not that he had much of choice in the matter), I have reason to believe he didn’t make the most of his time there. A couple of days before his final trip to school, he bragged to me “Nah nah, nah nah nah, I don’t have to take naps anymore!”

Marty doesn’t realize how good he had it, and that worries me. Napping is basically built into my side of the family’s genes. My mother actually wore out a spot on her couch where her napping head — sometimes a bit sweaty, sometimes not, always satisfied — spent many pleasurable weekend afternoons recovering from a tough morning of drinking coffee, smoking a handful of Merits and watching TV. Pops lulled himself to sleep with golf on TV in a La-Z-Boy that had been repaired so many times it had its own CARFAX report.

Maybe Marty will inherit his mother’s fervor for being awake the entire day, because if he decides he wants to carry on my good name and embrace the napping lifestyle, he is bound to face some challenges. There will be naysayers. For the sake of my argument, let’s call my naysayer “Emily.” She gave me

business for napping before we were married with kids and continues to this day. I expect her to frown upon this predisposition until my last bowl of tapioca and final round of bingo. That’s just good marriage-ing.

Through the years, I’ve pretty much broken her will to object with my dogged persistence, so I’ve earned Saturday and Sunday naps. But sometimes, if the situation is a little dicey, if the kids are misbehaving, I’ll have to go upstairs unannounced, pretending to just be going to the bathroom. Next they’ll hear of me, I’m drooling on pillows and flailing around with my signature restless leg syndrome.

I just hope if Marty is going to be a napper that he finds out sooner rather than later, so I can impart the wisdom I have gained through years of covert operations. While at work, your car can function as a rolling campsite. Just make sure you move it to another company’s parking lot or a local state park to avoid lookie-loos. Tired at a family gathering?

This is Pittsburgh, there is always a basement. If you are spotted en route, tell them you are using the downstairs bathroom. No one wants to engage in that conversation. And, finally, always remember: If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

Follow digital media manager Josh Oswald on Twitter @gentlemenRich

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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.RESTAURANT REVIEW.

RIBS N BREAD

BY MAGGIE WEAVER MWEAVER@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

S

EVEN MONTHS AGO, Ribs N Bread

quietly arrived onto Pittsburgh’s barbecue scene. In the midst of a booming demand for barbecue in the city, owner and pit master Rander “Randy” Thompson, who founded the small, take-out only joint with his wife Becky, announced the grand opening of the Oakland restaurant through a single Facebook post.

Randy is the brain behind the restaurant’s South Carolinian flavors. He brings recipes from his grandmother and uncle to the pit — the restaurant’s mustard sauce, a South Carolina-style staple, is one of his grandmother’s specialties.

RIBS N BREAD 4707 Centre Ave., Oakland. ribsnbread.weebly.com

South Carolina-style barbecue can be mapped by sauce, though a vinegar base is echoed all over the state. Vinegar makes for a tangy sauce that carries more of a bite than the molasses-based Kansas City-style and more body than a Texas-style brine, or “mop sauce.”

A thin, simple vinegar and pepper sauce is tied to the Northern region of South Carolina, the sweeter mustard sauce popular toward the middle (an area known as the “mustard belt”). Light to heavy tomato sauces pop up to fill the gaps, but mustard sauce is the state’s claim to fame.

At Ribs N Bread, Thompson features three sauces: mustard, red, and house (a blend of the two). Diners have a choice of which sauce goes where, though most customers stick to the same outline — mustard sauce on the chicken and red on

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

The ‘Wingit’ meal, which includes six chicken wings and a choice of sides such as cole slaw and greens

the ribs.

As I chatted with Becky about the high-tech smokers, which are all in-house behind the counter, and smoking times (“low and slow,” meaning hours upon hours), Randy prepared my order: a combo platter of ribs and chicken, six wings, collard greens, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. Not one to ignore pretested methods (and Becky’s recommen-

dations), I followed suit, adding in the house blend to Randy’s smoked wings.

Randy brings a certain artistry to prep. His knife glided easily through a half rack, meat falling off the bone. He painted the ribs like a canvas with a deep, tomato-y sauce, the chicken then slathered by its mustard counterpart. As Becky puts it, Randy “is in it to the bone — the pork bone.”

FAVORITE FEATURES:

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Local products

Bread

Late-night BBQ

Ribs N Bread focuses on featuring local products to their guests. Look out for that Red Ribbon soda in the cooler.

Like most barbecue spots, Ribs N Bread serves slices of white bread with their meals. As a friend puts it, “It’s like having a little cake with some barbecue sauce.” Dip it, make a sandwich, or just eat it. It’s the best barbecue side you could have.

According to Becky, most of their service happens after 10 p.m. They’re open late most days of the week, so next time, ditch the midnight McDonald’s for something better.

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

“Don’t bite your fingers off,” were Randy’s parting words of advice, and good ones at that (I actually might have, if not for the warning). Each meat was done perfectly, not one piece too dry. The sauces carried distinct flavors, but when mixed together on the wings, made a winning marriage of sour and sweet.

Sides held their own against the smoked spread, though the cornbread was the clear star. The slice was thick as cake with a bit of cinnamon sprinkled in. It was fluffy, a little doughy, and filled with warm spice.

Randy spends his days at the smoker, sometimes waking up at 6 a.m. to start the first rack of ribs. He’s been honing his craft for decades, starting in the kitchen with his grandmother. As Becky says, “You can taste the commitment.”

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Follow staff writer Maggie Weaver on Twitter @magweav

Thai & Burmese Specialties!

DINING OUT

Pad Thai

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

SPONSORED LISTINGS FROM CITY PAPER ’S FINE ADVERTISERS

Noodle

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED RESTAURANT

4770 Liberty Ave 412.904.1640

THE CAFÉ CARNEGIE

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4400 FORBES AVE., OAKLAND 412-622-3225 THECAFECARNEGIE.COM An excellent dining experience from James Beard Semi-Finalist, Sonja Finn featuring a locally-focused menu, full service dining, and espresso and wine bar.

BAJA BAR & GRILL

EIGHTY ACRES

1366 OLD FREEPORT ROAD, FOX CHAPEL 412-963-0640, WWW.BAJABARGRILL.COM The Baja Bar & Grill is the perfect destination any time of the year for dancing to live bands and taking in great entertainment every weekend.

In addition, there’s good food along with amazing views of the Allegheny River and the Fox Chapel Marina.

1910 NEW TEXAS ROAD, MONROEVILLE/PLUM 724-519-7304 / EIGHTYACRESKITCHEN.COM Eighty Acres Kitchen & Bar offers a refined, modern approach to contemporary American cuisine with a strong emphasis on local, farm-totable products.

BEA’S TACO TOWN

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.

633 SMITHFIELD STREET, DOWNTOWN 412-471-8361, WWW.BEATAQUERIA.COM Authentic Mexican cuisine in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh! Bea Taco Town offers tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadillas, and much more all with traditional recipes. Slow cooked meats and fresh vegetables prepared daily will have you coming back to try it all.

CARMELLA’S PLATES & PINTS 1908 EAST CARSON STREET, SOUTHSIDE 412-918-1215, CARMELLASPLATESANDPINTS.COM Featuring an upscale ambiance, Carmella’s is located in the heart of South Side, serving a variety of refined comfort cuisine for dinner and brunch. The décor features a lodge-like feel with a wood beamed cathedral ceiling, stained glass and open fireplace. A local purveyor delivers fresh ingredients daily, which are crafted into unique and inventive meals, served alongside a curated cocktail list and comprehensive wine selection.

COLONY CAFE 1125 PENN AVE., STRIP DISTRICT 412-586-4850 / COLONYCAFEPGH.COM Whether stopping in for a weekday lunch, an afternoon latte or after-work drinks with friends, Colony Cafe offers delicious house-made bistro fare in a stylish Downtown space.

ELIZA HOT METAL BISTRO

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.

MERCURIO’S ARTISAN GELATO AND NEAPOLITAN PIZZA 5523 WALNUT ST., SHADYSIDE 412-621-6220 / MERCURIOSGELATOPIZZA.COM Authentic Neapolitan pizza, artisan gelato, and an inviting atmosphere are just a small part of what helps create your experience

at Mercurio’s Gelato and Pizza in Pittsburgh.

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

PAD THAI NOODLE 4770 LIBERTY AVE, BLOOMFIELD 412-904-1640 PADTHAINOODLEPITTSBURGH.COM This new café in Bloomfield features Thai and Burmese specialties.

Standards like Pad Thai and Coconut Curry Noodle are sure to please. But don’t miss out on the Ono Kyowsway featuring egg noodle sautéed with coconut chicken, cilantro and curry sauce.

SUPERIOR MOTORS 1211 BRADDOCK AVE., BRADDOCK 412-271-1022 / SUPERIORMOTORS15104.COM Thoughtfully prepared food, drawing inspiration from Braddock, its people, its history, and its perseverance.

The cuisine best represents the eclectic style which has become a trademark of Chef Kevin Sousa. Fine dining in an old Chevy dealership with an eclectic, farm-to-table menu and a community focus.

TOTOPO MEXICAN KITCHEN AND BAR 660 WASHINGTON ROAD, MT. LEBANON 412-668-0773 / TOTOPOMEX.COM Totopo is a vibrant celebration of the culture and cuisine of Mexico, with a focus on the diverse foods served in the country. From Oaxacan tamales enveloped in banana leaves to the savory fish tacos of Baja California, you will experience the authentic flavor and freshness in every bite. They also feature a cocktail menu of tequila-based drinks to pair the perfect margarita with your meal.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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412 Brewery welcomes you to our newest taproom on Pgh’s historic Northside.

Dog-Friendly taproom with outdoor seating, firepits, games and more!

847 WESTERN AVENUE

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ANGELIA’S CRAFT PIZZA & BEER

CP PHOTO: MAGGIE WEAVER

The Mai Tai-ger Woods is Back and Lime in the Coconut

.ON THE ROCKS.

18 beer rotating tap list Daily food and drink specials New Thursday craft draft happy hours

FAT-WASHED SPIRITS

angeliasitaliangrille.com

BY MAGGIE WEAVER // MWEAVER@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

D

“

UCK FAT-WASHED bourbon”

is not an appetizing term.

I cringed the first time I heard it, imagining an industrial sized blender full of duck fat and bourbon served smoothie-style. In reality, this is far from what’s involved in the world of fat-washed spirits.

The fat-washing process adds flavor to a spirit akin to an infusion (but with a little more science involved). Anything can be used to wash a spirit, from animal fats and nut oil to an entire grilled cheese.

Combine the two for a multi-day infusion, which leaves behind a fully-flavored, almost entirely new spirit behind. (If a two-to-three day wait seems impossible, a freezer speeds the process up.)

Aside from flavor, fat-washed spirits have other unique characteristics. Alcohol binds to fat, which takes away the harsher elements of, for example, a rye whiskey.

Washing adds a barely detectable texture, giving spirits a subtle thickness.

Alex Dando, lead bartender at The Commoner Downtown, has peppered fatwashed spirits throughout the bar menu.

His cocktail list is full of strange combinations like cake batter-washed Campari and peanut butter-washed bourbon.

Many of his cocktails are based on classics. Dando takes a Mai Tai and turns it into the “Mai Tai-Ger Woods is Back,” a drink using almond washed wray (an over-proofed rum), for a smooth kick. Or he’ll wash a rum with coconut oil for a

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“Malibu you can feel good about.”

Duck fat comes into play around Thanksgiving in Dando’s Turducken cocktail. He washes Wild Turkey bourbon with the duck fat for a sweet smokiness.

The batched cocktail, made with apple brandy, apple cider, maple syrup, and lemon, is then milk washed. Milk washing is a pre-refrigeration technique, similar to fat-washing, using a high citrus punch and boiling milk to clarify the starting batch. The finished product is a clear, non-perishable drink, with no bourbon burn.

THE COMMONER 620 William Penn Place, Downtown. thecommonerpgh.com

At the hotel’s seasonal rooftop bar, Dando washes Grey Goose in coconut fat and pairs it with sake, pineapple, vanilla, and coconut-berry Red Bull to make the “Lime in the Coconut.” Despite its long list of ingredients and tricky methods, the cocktail tastes simple. There’s no burn from the vodka and the coconut hits on the finish of each sip.

Every now-and-then, Dando says, a guest has a “what the f***” moment over his out-of-the-box concoctions. He calls fat-washing a “gateway drug” out of comfort zones and into inventive, exciting cocktails. An avocado oil-washed gin might sound crazy, but trust your bartender.

They know what they’re doing.

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.FOR THE WEEK OF JUNE 13

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CANCER (June 21-July 22): My dear Cancerian, your soul is so rich and complicated, so many-splendored and mysterious, so fertile and generous. I’m amazed you can hold all the poignant marvels you contain.

Isn’t it sometimes a struggle for you to avoid spilling over? Like a river at high tide during heavy rains? And yet every so often there come moments when you go blank; when your dense, luxuriant wonders go missing. That’s OK! It’s all part of the Great Mystery. You need these fallow phases. And I suspect that the present time might be such a time. If so, here’s a fragment of a poem by Cecilia Woloch to temporarily use as your motto: “I have nothing to offer you now save my own wild emptiness.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): America’s premier eventologist is Leo-born Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith. When she was going through a hard time in 1991, she resolved to buoy her spirits by creating cheerful, splashy new holidays. Since then she has filled the calendar with over 1,900 new occasions to celebrate. What a perfect way to express her radiant Leo energy!

National Splurge Day on June 18 is one of Adrienne’s favorites: a time for revelers to be extra kind and generous to themselves. That’s a happy coincidence, because my analysis of the astrological omens suggests that this is a perfect activity for you to emphasize during the coming weeks.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” Virgo poet Mary Oliver made that statement. It was perfectly reasonable for her, given her occupation, although a similar declaration might sound outlandish coming from a non-poet. Nonetheless, I’ll counsel you to inhabit that frame of mind at least part-time for the next two weeks. I think you’ll benefit in numerous ways from ingesting more than your minimum daily dose of beauty, wonder, enchantment, and astonishment.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher Michel Foucault articulated a unique definition of “criticism.” He said that it doesn’t dish out judgments or hand down sentences. Rather, it invigorates things by encouraging them, by identifying dormant

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In the 1960s, Gemini musician Brian Wilson began writing and recording bestselling songs with his band the Beach Boys. A seminal moment in his development happened while he was listening to his car radio in August 1963. A tune he had never heard before came on: “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes. Wilson was so excited he pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and stopped driving so he could devote his full attention to what he considered a shockingly beautiful work of art. “I started analyzing all the guitars, pianos, bass, drums, and percussion,” he told The New York Times. “Once I got all those learned, I knew how to produce records.” I suspect a pivotal moment like this could unfold for you in the coming weeks, Gemini. Be alert! potentials and hidden beauty. Paraphrasing and quoting Foucault, I’ll tell you that this alternate type of criticism ignites useful fires and sings to the grass as it grows. It looks for the lightning of possible storms, and coaxes codes from the sea foam.

I hope you’ll practice this kind of “criticism” in the coming weeks, Libra — a criticism that doesn’t squelch enthusiasm and punish mistakes, but instead champions the life spirit and helps it ripen.

to unleash the full power of your intuition. You must harness the wisdom of your body, and the information it reveals to you via physical sensations. You will benefit from remembering at least some of your nightly dreams, and inviting them to play on your consciousness throughout the day.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

For the sake of your emotional and spiritual health, you may need to temporarily withdraw or retreat from one or more of your alliances.

But I recommend that you don’t do anything drastic or dramatic. Refrain from harsh words and sudden breaks. For now, seal yourself away from influences that are stirring up confusion so you can concentrate on reconnecting with your own deepest truths. Once you’ve done that for a while, you’ll be primed to find helpful clues about where to go next in managing your alliances.

Help may be hovering nearby, but in an unrecognizable guise. Rumpled but rich opportunities will appear at the peripheries, though you may not immediately recognize their value. A mess that you might prefer to avoid looking at could be harboring a very healthy kind of trouble. My advice to you, therefore, is to drop your expectations. Be receptive to possibilities that have not been on your radar. Be willing to learn lessons you have neglected or disdained in the past.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): As much as I love logic and champion rational thinking, I’m granting you a temporary exemption from their supremacy. To understand what’s transpiring in the coming weeks, and to respond with intelligence, you will have to transcend logic and reason. They will simply not be sufficient guides as you wrestle and dance with the Great Riddle that will be visiting. You will need

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I’ve got a list of dos and don’ts for you. Do play and have fun more than usual. But don’t indulge in naïve assumptions and infantile emotions that interfere with your ability to see the world as it really is. Do take aggressive action to heal any sense of abandonment you’re still carrying from the old days. But don’t poison yourself with feelings of blame toward the people who abandoned you. Do unleash

wild flights of fantasy and marvelous speculations about seemingly impossible futures that maybe aren’t so impossible. But don’t get so fixated on wild fantasies and marvelous speculations that you neglect to embrace the subtle joys that are actually available to you right now.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “At times, so many memories trample my heart that it becomes impossible to know just what I’m feeling and why,” writes Piscean poet Mark Nepo. While that experience is familiar to everyone, it’s especially common for you Pisceans.

That’s the bad news. But here’s the good news: in the coming weeks, your heart is unlikely to be trampled by your memories. Hence, you will have an excellent chance to know exactly what you’re feeling and why. The weight of the past will at least partially dissolve and you’ll be freer than usual to understand what’s true for you right now, without having to sort through confusing signals about who you used to be.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): We may not have to travel to other planets to find alien life. Instead of launching expensive missions to other planets, we could look for exotic creatures here on earth. Astrobiologist Mary Beth Wilhelm is doing just that. Her search has taken her to Chile’s Atacama Desert, whose terrain has resemblances to Mars. She’s looking for organisms like those that might have once thrived on the Red Planet. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to use this idea as a metaphor for your own life. Consider the possibility that you’ve been looking far and wide for an answer or resource that is actually close at hand.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Philosopher Martin Buber believed that some stories have the power to heal. That’s why he said we should actively seek out stories that have the power to heal. Buber’s disabled grandfather once told Buber a story about an adored teacher who loved to dance. As the grandfather told the story, he got so excited that he rose from his chair to imitate the teacher, and suddenly began to hop and dance around in the way his teacher did.

From that time on, the grandfather was cured of his disability. What I wish for you in the coming weeks is that you will find stories like that.

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

Pittsburgh’s lone liberal talkshow host for 30+ years Listen live every weekday at 10 a.m. at lynncullen.pghcitypaper.com PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

— — — — — — at SPACE Gallery

.ART . .

SECRET SLIDES

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

HEN GRAPHIC DESIGNER Brett

Yasko asked the local arts community to participate in a new group photography exhibit, now on view at SPACE Gallery, the theme was simple: secret.

“That was it: one word,” says Renee Rosensteel, one of the 87 featured artists (and an occasional CP freelancer).

The theme also defined the show overall, from its conception to its soft opening on May 31 in advance of its Three River Arts Festival debut. The artists had no idea who else was showing and were instructed not to talk about the exhibit. Even the title, — — — — — —, a series of em dashes, was designed to offer no clues as to what would be displayed.

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

And, of course, there’s the exhibit itself, an astonishingly diverse collection of 1,921 photos. Each artist snapped through a roll of 35mm film (some used regular cameras, while others, like artist Kristen Letts Kovak, used point-and-shoot disposables), and handed it off to Yasko, undeveloped. The images would not be revealed until the show opened, meaning the artists would first see their images at the same time as the audience.

The photos are also not labeled in a traditional way (in lieu of signage, a monitor flashes each set of photos with the artist’s name digitally scribbled over them), creating something “almost like a scavenger hunt,” says participating artist Jennifer Baron.

“I guess the whole thing is just about not knowing on a bunch of different levels,” says Yasko.

He sees the project as a truly democratic experience, especially in the way the work is presented.

Strips of photos from each roll are lined up along the walls of the gallery, giving each artist equal space.

In another room, a projector runs a large slide show of the photos, giving time for each one to exist on its own.

“When you look at the work as a whole, your eyes just sort of blur, because it can be a little overwhelming to see thousands of these photographs,” says Yasko. “If you spend time with it, you’ll go into these select shots and see how remarkable those photos are.”

Yasko sees the show as a follow-up to his previous experimental project, a 2016 exhibit featuring 250 individual portraits of the late artist, John Riegert.

PHOTO: BRETT YASKO

The undeveloped film from the exhibit

In a somewhat haunting turn, Riegert, who had agreed to be in the show before he died by suicide in November 2018, is featured through a roll of film discovered in the artist’s house following his death.

“I wasn’t sure if he had intended it for this project,” says Yasko. “But there it was, all alone by his chair.”

—————— Continues through Sun., Aug. 4.

SPACE Gallery, 812 Liberty Ave., Downtown.

Free. spacepittsburgh.org

Unlike the Riegert show, for which Yasko reached out to Pittsburgh artists representing various skill levels and mediums, the current one was more selective, as he chose people he saw as “really good” photographers, or artists who also use photography in their work.

While many agreed, others declined.

“A lot of people said no because they weren’t going to be able to edit it or Photoshop it or crop it or color adjust it,” says Yasko. “They were giving up basically all the control beyond framing the shot in the camera.”

The project presented a lot of challenges for the chosen artists, including Rosensteel, who, prior to this, had not

shot with 35mm film in 20 years.

“It was one of those things like, ‘Wow, this could be really cool, or it could be really bad,’” she says. “But I knew [Yasko’s] reputation and worked with him in ‘The John Show.’ I knew that whatever he did was going to be really good, so I trusted him.”

Each artist took a different approach in depicting what the term “secret” meant to them. Rosensteel bought a 1960s Russian toy camera and shot an old, gutted sewing machine, in which she placed various items and “different little slivers of things I never really talked about before.” Lori Hepner used an old underwater film camera to create a secret message with both text and gestures, leaving it up to the viewer to decode it.

While Yasko hesitates to express his hopes for the show, he’s more than grateful that the artists he worked with agreed to go along for the ride.

“I really see this show as primarily for these 87 people who participated,” says Yasko. “That experience of them just walking in and just seeing something for the first time that’s their work, and hearing their voice. For me, that’s really what’s most important about this project.”

•

Follow senior writer Amanda Waltz on Twitter @AWaltzCP PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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PHOTO: GIGI GATEWOOD

A Letter Compiled From All Letters

.DANCE.

TO THE LETTER

BY STEVE SUCATO // CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

CHANGING landscape of human correspondence and communication has provided fertile material for dance makers in recent years. Locally, The Pillow Projects’ Paper Memory (2010) and CorningWorks’ Parallel Lives (2014) were but a few that addressed such issues.

Now dancer/choreographer Maree ReMalia, New York multimedia artist Gigi Gatewood, and Washington, D.C. dancer Lillian Cho bring a unique take on the topic in A Letter Compiled From All Letters, June 13-15 at New Hazlett Theater.

As the director of the hour-long dance-theater work, ReMalia is a familiar face on the Pittsburgh dance scene as a performer or producing works for her project-based company, merrygogo.

Born in South Korea and raised in Medina, Ohio, ReMalia’s dance career HE

has, like the communication mediums A Letter Compiled From All Letters touches on, shifted over her career. She began as a ballet dancer apprenticing with Richmond Ballet and Southern Ballet Theatre in the mid to late 1990s but then switched to dancing and choreographing in modern and contemporary dance forms including Ohad Naharin’s “Gaga” movement language.

A LETTER COMPILED FROM ALL LETTERS 8 p.m. Thu., June 13–Sat., June 15. New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. $15-25. newhazletttheater.org

“The philosophy behind those practices was so different than ballet and was liberating,” says ReMalia. “They invited dancers to value and find their

own voice.”

Since then, ReMalia has done that.

As of late, she says her focus has been in meshing her voice with others and valuing what those collaborations can bring.

A Letter Compiled From All Letters is an example of such collaborations across artistic disciplines. In addition to working with creative team members — Natalia Gomez who envisioned the work’s mobile, wooden set, costume designer Emily Vallozzi, and lighting designer Forrest Trimble — the performers in the seven-member cast have also collaborated in other ways including David Bernabo who developed the work’s video projection design with Gatewood and contributed original music. Moriah Ella Mason created original text and Joseph Hall (N.Y.) and Jil Stifel will vocalize during the performance.

An adjunct dance teacher at Point

Follow featured contributing writer Steve Sucato on Twitter @ssucato

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Park University, ReMalia has lived and/or worked in Ohio, New York, Washington, D.C., and most recently Vermont. Those experiences plus her 15-year, sometimes long-distance relationship with partner Isaac Kriley have also played a role in ReMalia’s thought process in choreographing A Letter Compiled From All Letters that considers connections and communication in a digital age and what the trio of creators see as “the blurring of what is actual versus virtual.” Part of their creative research for the work involved having friends and acquaintances write and send them letters to compare and contrast with our ubiquitous digital communication methods. And while that research informed the work, ReMalia says the piece does not pass judgment on the various communication forms, but is more an acknowledgment of how things have changed in their lifetimes.

•

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Ulric Joseph in front of his Best of Show winning oil painting, “Target Practice”

.ART . .

BEST OF SHOW

BY LISA CUNNINGHAM // LCUNNING@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

U

LRIC JOSEPH is the Best of Show

winner in the 2019 Juried Visual Art Exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, the first year the North Side artist has submitted any piece to the competition. But, he says, his best artwork was rejected.

“I applied with three pieces,” says Joseph. “Two got accepted, and there’s a reason for that.”

The winning artwork, “Target Practice,” is a 6-by-4-foot oil painting of a young Black boy, hoodie thrown over his shoulder, rock in his hand, ready to throw. Only, with the movement in the piece and the perspective, one is made to wonder if the boy is really the intended target.

This year’s Juried Visual Art Exhibition’s theme is “Remember Me” and includes 51 pieces by 39 regional artists.

The submissions include a variety of media focusing on concepts of memory, including paintings, fiber art, photographs, and sculpture.

Joseph’s second painting, “I Miss You So Much,” shows a Black woman crouched down on her knees before a small lit candle, hands folded in prayer below her face.

“My work tends to be a little more on the political side,” says Joseph, “so it tends to kind of rub people the wrong way sometimes.”

His piece that was not accepted, “The Scream,” focuses on police violence.

Joseph said he wasn’t surprised that it didn’t get chosen. It shows a shouting

Black man, fists clenched, veins popping out of his skin as he stands behind yellow police tape reading, “CAUTION DO NOT CROSS POLICE.” Joseph says when the piece was included in a show in Baltimore, he received a lot of “bad remarks” about his depiction of police. Still, he says, he’s honored to have two works in the Pittsburgh exhibition.

JURIED VISUAL ART EXHIBITION Through Sun., June 16. Trust Arts Education Center, 805 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Free. trustarts.org

Joseph, originally from Trinidad, is a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and drives 500 miles back and forth each week from his home on the North Side. He’s a father of four, has lived in Pittsburgh for six years, and his wife is the one who encouraged him to apply.

At the opening night of the exhibition, he looked around the room at the large group of visitors, most dressed in business clothes.

“These are the people you want to reach out to,” Joseph says. “Not the laymen, the people who can affect change.

I decided just a few years ago to try to infuse a little bit of meaning into some of my work, and I think it is a good accolade because it shows that people are getting it.”

•

Follow editor-in-chief Lisa Cunningham on Twitter @trashyleesuh

LANDMARKS PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER - A program of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Foundation

JOIN US AT THE LANDMARKS PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER FOR ONGOING WORKSHOPS AS WE CONTINUE PROGRAMMING ON ARCHITECTURE, HISTORY, DESIGN, URBAN PLANNING, AND OTHER TOPICS RELATED TO HOW CITIES FUNCTION AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION AS A TOOL OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.

THURSDAY, JUNE 20 • 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM LECTURE: THE SKINNY ON THE SKINNY BUILDING PRESENTER: MARK HOUSER PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE COLUMNIST Learn the surprising hidden history of Pittsburgh’s “skinny building” at Forbes and Wood, including the inspirational role its creator played in the struggle for civil rights.

Plus the first great Mt. Washington billboard battle and more forgotten stories and colorful characters from Pittsburgh’s fascinating past.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER: Mark Houser is a frequent Pittsburgh Magazine contributor who writes and speaks about the city’s history. You can find more stories at his website, HouserTalks.com.

THIS LECTURE IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. RSVPS ARE APPRECIATED: MARYLU@PHLF.ORGOR 412-471-5808 EXT. 527.

744 REBECCA AVENUE

WILKINSBURG, PA 15221

412-471-5808

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

19

The 412 is Pittsburgh City Paper ’s new music section where you can get local band/musician updates and fun, random tidbits of information all in one.

QUESTIONS ABOUT PHONES ANDROID, IPHONE, OR OTHER? Meredith & Nick: iPhone.

WHAT APP DO YOU USE THE MOST? Meredith: Instagram/Facebook.

Nick: Google Maps.

CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

WOULD YOU RATHER TEXT OR CALL SOMEONE? Meredith: Text, but it depends on the situation.

Nick: Call.

HOW MUCH TIME A DAY DO YOU SPEND ON YOUR DEVICE? Meredith: A few hours.

Nick: Sometimes eight or more when I fall asleep on it.

QUESTION ABOUT READING WHAT’S THE BEST BOOK YOU’VE EVER READ? J: I thought La Noia by Alberto Moravia was very well written.

QUESTIONS ABOUT VIDEO GAMES PLAYSTATION OR XBOX? Meredith: PlayStation.

Nick: Xbox.

HAVE YOU TRIED VR? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGY? Meredith: Yep, for Beat Saber. I thought it was pretty neat.

Nick: No; I don’t really have an opinion.

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Suavity’s Mouthpiece

.MUSIC.

THE

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HE TREK FROM Pittsburgh

to Greensburg takes less than an hour, but when Suavity’s Mouthpiece band member J. Trafford relocated from the ‘Burgh to his hometown in 2014, it caused the band to go on a hiatus.

“I had to move out of the city for personal reasons,” says Trafford, “and that sort of puts a damper on things when you’re trying to coordinate something and one person’s not living in the city.”

For the past few years Trafford and the rest of Suavity’s Mouthpiece — Meredith Bigatel (bass), Nicholas Bigatel (guitar), and Brian Zalewski (drums) — either worked on their own projects or joined other bands. However, 2018 marked a monumental occasion for the group: its 10-year anniversary.

“It seemed liked the time was right [to reconvene],” says Trafford. “[We] missed doing that sort of work together.”

Last August, Suavity’s Mouthpiece played its first live show together since the reunion at Howlers, which coincided with the release of Support Your Local Library (via Seer Records), a 14-track compilation album featuring popular and previously out-of-print songs.

“Seer Records was willing to put out the compilation retrospective to add to

the anniversary,” says Trafford. “It was all sort of a right time kind of thing.”

Since the reunion show, Suavity’s Mouthpiece has been doing a lot more live work than prior to the hiatus, but on June 14, the group drops “Nerdflesh,” its first studio release in five years.

True to the band’s experimental roots, “Nerdflesh” is a layered, genre-bending track floating between folk and art-pop.

The song has an old fashioned, Europeanfolk sound to it, thanks to the minimal production, stomping rhythm, and acoustic instrumentation.

J. TRAFFORD OF SUAVITY’S MOUTHPIECE OPENING FOR LUCY SPRAGGAN Mon., Jun 17. 8 p.m. Club Cafe, 56 12th St., South Side. $12. clubcafelive.com

“[‘Nerdflesh’] is based around a Russian instrument called a balalaika.

It’s like a Russian mandolin; it has three strings,” says Trafford. “So, I played that on the recording, and it’s based around that. It was an interesting way for us to get started on something new.” (The song will be performed on guitar for

upcoming performances.)

Trafford purchased the balalaika a few years ago, and it had just been sitting around his house. “Nerdflesh” is the first melody he wrote using the instrument.

The group will also be releasing remixes of “Nerdflesh” by their favorite Pittsburgh producers — including Swampwalk (Anna Hale), Brian Howe (from Greywalker, Sikes and The New Violence), and another to be announced — throughout this summer. In August, the remixes and original single mix will be collected on a physical CD release with additional new material that will not be available otherwise.

“We’re working on more than just this, but [“Nerdflesh”] is the first thing that came together,” says Trafford.

Still engaged in projects other than Suavity’s Mouthpiece, June is a busy month for the rest of the band. Trafford will be performing solo sets at Club Cafe with Cooking Vinyl Records artist Lucy Spraggan (June 17) and at a songwriterin-session series at the new venue You Are Here 406 in Jeannette (June 27) to promote the new single. The next time Suavity’s Mouthpiece will perform as a whole band is during the 2019 Deutschtown Music Festival. •

Follow staff writer Jordan Snowden on Twitter @snowden_jordan

.STAGE.

THE MAGIC TOUCH

BY SARAH CONNOR INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

ATCHING WORLD-RENOWNED

illusionist Billy Kidd perform at Liberty Magic is like watching a one-woman play, a stand-up comedy show, and a magic show all in one.

Before pursuing magic, the Londonbased performer spent most of her life immersed in acting, theater, and dance, developing her stage presence and comfort in front of an audience. Kidd keeps the audience intrigued not just magic, but her comedic chops as well.

Liberty Magic, a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, opened its doors this February and has been welcoming magicians to town since. Kidd is the venue’s third headliner, after Eric Jones and Lee Terbosic, and has been featured on TV shows such as the Discovery Channel’s Breaking Magic, BBC’s Now You See It, and the CW’s Masters of Illusion.

In the 70 minutes Kidd spends on stage for Bridging the Gap, she performs

PHOTO: GRACE WONG

Billy Kidd performs at Liberty Magic.

BILLY KIDD’S BRIDGING THE GAP Through Sun., June 23. Liberty Magic, 811 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $40-65. trustarts.org

traditional card tricks but also dabbles in mindreading and other complex forms of magic.

The first trick Kidd performed kicked the evening off with a bang — literally.

Kidd blew up a balloon, one that clearly did not have anything inside it, and then promptly popped it with a needle to reveal a half-full bottle of red wine in her hand, right where the balloon was a

split second prior.

Kidd put on an embarrassed face and said, “Oh, this is gonna be for me for later ’cause I’ve got issues,” rousing laughter from the audience.

Not only did Kidd keep the audience laughing, but she also brought many of them on stage to assist her with her magic.

Just after her balloon-popping trick, Kidd announced that for her next bit, she would need help from a “good-looking, strong, sexy man,” after which she selected a gentleman sitting in the second row of the theater. Once he was on stage, Kidd asked, “Now, could you please help me find a good-looking, strong, sexy man?”

Kidd performed some card tricks and then moved on to more interactive tricks, including one where she took a guest’s jacket, stabbed a hole in it with a knife, and then returned it to him completely unscathed.

Bridging the Gap is entertaining and well worth the ticket price. For magic fans and newcomers alike, Liberty Magic offers a 1920s speakeasy atmosphere, reminiscent to magic venues of L.A. and Vegas. V.I.P tickets allow guests access to an intimate meeting with the magician and fewer than 20 other guests.

This also offers a Q&A session and a small performance.

•

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

21

.LITERATURE.

FUTURE DAYS

BY REGE BEHE CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

N

OPEN: - SUNDAY TUESDAY ____________________________

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EAL STEPHENSON has explored

cryptography, linguistics, space travel, and other complex ideas in his books and writing. He’s penned articles or consulted on geoengineering, numerical analysis, atrocity prevention, and transmedia projects. Fall; or, Dodge in Hell, (William Morrow), Stephenson’s mammoth new novel (883 pages), involves parallel worlds, consciousness after death, cryonics, and myriad other speculative themes.

But the Seattle-based writer, who appears June 17 at Carnegie Library Lecture Hall in Oakland as a guest of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, has one Luddite-like tendency: He doesn’t read his email.

“There’s this asymmetry that kicks in where people are reading your stuff and sending you personal communications,” says Stephenson, noting his selfdescription as a “sociomediapath.”

“It doesn’t scale beyond a certain point. I can easily spend every working hour just reading and responding to incoming communications from individual people, and that would mean never writing another book. I assume that the majority of people who are sending those communications would prefer that I keep writing books.

That’s why I don’t read and respond to incoming email.”

Fall … starts with the death of Richard “Dodge” Forthrast (who appeared in a previous Stephenson novel, Reamde), a billionaire owner of a gaming company, during a routine medical procedure. His will directs that his body be stored by a cryonics company, and Dodge’s brain is scanned, uploaded, and stored in the cloud until it can be revived.

When Forthrast’s brain regains consciousness, it starts to fashion a version of an afterlife, known as Bitspace, populated by digital souls. Residents of Earth — increasingly called Meatspace — become addicted to events in the parallel world in the same way the internet and social media command attention. The companies who own such sites track every move.

“They don’t know what you’re

Neal Stephenson

NEAL STEPHENSON PITTSBURGH ARTS & LECTURES 7 p.m., Mon., June 17. Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland. $40 (includes hardback copy of Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. 412-622-8866 or pittsburghlectures.org

thinking, but they can make a pretty good guess based on where your mouse hovers,” he says. “Even if you don’t click on something, they know what you thought about clicking on. They know which items you looked at for a while and what you looked past. And all of that information can be used to craft an experience on to that social media site that is tuned to make you want to stay there and click more and see more.

There’s a feedback loop that gets going that can be very powerful.”

Stephenson, whose previous works include Cryptonomicon, the threevolume Baroque Cycle (winner of the Locus SF Award), and Hugo Awardwinner Seveneves, had finished a section of the novel about a cataclysmic hoax prior to the 2016 election cycle. Then the idea of fake news took hold. “I thought I was being very forward-leaning and clever,” Stephenson says, “and then, of course, I was overtaken by events.”

That passage had to be re-written lest it seem that he was mimicking reality.

“There are a number of other science fiction writers in the last few years who are saying similar things,” Stephenson says. “Here we thought we were way out in front of things, writing a wild, crazy, speculative future, and we’re actually lagging behind. I had to re-work that

Follow featured contributor Rege Behe on Twitter @RegeBehe_exPTR

section pretty extensively because it seemed obvious.”

One element of Stephenson’s work that might not seem obvious is his penchant for writing strong female characters, especially in his last three novels: Reamde, Seveneves, and Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. But when asked if there’s a strain of feminism running through his work, Stephenson demurs.

“I think that people automatically start to put up defenses against any book or work of art they sense has an ax to grind or a specific message,” he says.

“I try to avoid being overt in that way. So, to me, it’s just a reflection of the reality I see around me, and the people I know in my life. I’m certainly not setting out to make a statement that way. It’s just a question of seeing reality fully and then to depict it.”

•

BETWEEN THE LINES Poets Angele Ellis and Paola Corso will read Sat., June 15 at a benefit for the Friendship Community Group. There will also be a raffle, refreshments, and books and other items for sale.

4 Clarendon Place, Friendship.

Search “Reading to Benefit Friendship” on Facebook.

Don’t miss the 9th annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens Bank June 20 – 23, 2019! This year’s fest will feature Patti LaBelle, WAR, Charles Lloyd, and the indomitable Stanley Clarke Band. “Young Lions” like Joey Defrancesco, Warren Wolf and Christian Sands will be performing as well.

Versatile, homegrown actress, Tamara Tunie, (Law & Order SVU) will be singing in the multi-purpose jazz studio as well.

PIJF will also have a kick-off party called the Taste of Jazz which features chef samplings from downtown restaurants, DJ Nate the Phat Barber, and internationally renowned jazz musicians. The festival will also include the Black Women Rock Coalition”s Tribute to Betty Davis with special guest Nona Hendryx. Food trucks, Jam Sessions, Jazz Education Programs, Artists Talks, a Bacardi Bar and a live art installation will make this an unforgettable weekend for young and old alike.

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.STAGE.

MARJORIE PRIME

BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A

T FIRST GLANCE, sci-fi and theater

might seem like a bad match.

One is built for intimacy and vulnerability, the other for elaborate production and flamboyant artifice (there are exceptions, of course). But the past two decades have seen a shift in popular science fiction, from using technological advances to tell otherworldly stories, to mining our own relationships with technology to tell human stories. It’s in these kinds of stories that theater and sci-fi don’t just work well together, they actually uproot and rewrite traditions in both formats with surprising and poignant results. Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prizenominated play Marjorie Prime — which closes out Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 2018-2019 season — is one of the best examples of this innovative storytelling.

Directed by PPT artistic director Marya Sea Kaminski, Marjorie Prime opens in a chic living room in the year 2062. The furniture isn’t particularly futuristic looking, but the space is minimally dressed, cold, and a little too clean. It turns out the mega-rich of 2019 and the middle class of 2062 have similar tastes in interior decorating.

There are good looking lamps, spotless counters, and windows that look out onto plants and trees. It’s difficult to explain, but the sight of healthy green leaves foregrounded by the antiseptic

PHOTO: MICHAEL HENNINGER

Ben Blazer and Jill Tanner in Marjorie Prime

kitchen is incredibly creepy. The tension between organic life and unnatural sterility is everywhere in Marjorie Prime.

MARJORIE PRIME Continues through Sun., June 30.

O’Reilly Theater, 621 Penn Ave., Downtown. $30-80. ppt.org

The plot follows a family dealing with the imminent death of its matriarch, Marjorie (Jill Tanner). She’s staying with her daughter Tess (Daina Michelle Griffith) and son-in-law Jon (Nathan

LET S GET ’

S CIAL

Hinton). Marjorie has a non-human companion too, an artificially intelligent hologram (or “prime”) of her late husband Walter (Ben Blazer). There’s a stiffness to Walter that can only be described as 1950s suburban husband-meets-robot, which is what he is. Tess is half-bemused but mostly weirded out by AI Walter, particularly the potential sexual implications of their relationship since her mother chose such a young version of Walt to bring to life. But this is more or less palliative care, and there are more important things to worry about.

Setting the story in 2062 has a point-

edly eerie effect as the characters don’t seem much more comfortable hanging with artificial versions of dead loved ones compared to now. A constant for human life is yearning to keep the dead alive and inevitably being disappointed when we find ways to do so. That’s not exactly untrodden territory, but Marjorie Prime illuminates it with odd, profound, funny, disturbing ideas that feel new.

The nakedness of the performers’ faces and voices on stage renders the artifice of the primes all the more disturbing, making it all the more difficult to trust that what you’re seeing is real.

•

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27

SEVEN DAYS OF CONCERTS TANK AND THE BANGAS FRIDAY, JUNE 14

After winning NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Concert Contest — beating the other 6,000 entries — Tank and the Bangas seemingly blew up overnight. Ask around and there’s a good chance someone you know has seen the YouTube video (clocked in at over 8 million views) or has at least heard of the fiery, New-Orleans based five-piece group that combines soul, deft hip-hop, deep-groove R&B, and subtle jazz.

Since then, Tank and the Bangas has signed a major-label contract with Verve Records, released its sophomore album Green Balloon, and become a name synonymous with lively and bewitching performances. See what all the fuss is about at Three Rivers Art Festival. 7:30-9 p.m. Dollar Bank Main Stage, Point State Park, 601 Commonwealth Place, Downtown. Free. traf.trustarts.org PHOTO: ALEX MARKS

Tank and the Bangas

FULL LIST ONLINE pghcitypaper.com

THURSDAY JUNE 13

POP

REGGAE

ACOUSTIC

THE BLEEPY THINGS. Wolfie’s Pub. 8 p.m. Downtown.

THE WAILERS. Roxian Theatre.

8 p.m. McKees Rocks.

SHELLEY DUFF, CRAIG ARLET. Il Pizzaiolo-Warrendale.

7 p.m. Warrendale.

JAZZ

FOLK

ROGER HUMPHRIES. Enix Brewing. 7 p.m. Homestead.

STEVE IPPOLITO’S ELECTRIC SAMBA BAND. Wallace’s Whiskey Room. 7 p.m. East Liberty.

LOU STELLUTE TRIO. Kingfly Spirits. 7 p.m. Strip District.

WILDER MAKER. Howlers. 8 p.m. Bloomfield.

SECOND TO SAFETY. Mr. Roboto Project. 7 p.m. Bloomfield.

CHURCH OF MISERY. Cattivo.

7 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ELKHOUND, SIX DEMON BAG, BANANAFISH. Club Cafe. 8 p.m.

South Side.

CALL ME BRONCO, SIX SPEED KILL (ALBUM RELEASE). Gooski’s.

8 p.m. Polish Hill.

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

WE THE HEATHENS. 222 Ormsby.

8 p.m. Mount Oliver.

RICK MATT. Il Pizzaiolo Cucina Napoletana. 8 p.m. Warrendale.

SWEATY ALREADY STRING BAND. Wolfie’s Pub. 5 p.m. Downtown.

INDIE/ALTERNATIVE STANDARD BROADCAST, SNOWDONIA. Mr. Smalls Theatre.

7 p.m. Millvale.

ELECTRONIC

BLUES

COVERS

HIP HOP

THE CONTENDERS. Cioppino Restaurant & Cigar Bar. 7 p.m. Strip District.

RDGLDGRN. The Smiling Moose.

7 p.m. South Side.

DELTA STRUTS. NOLA On The Square. 8 p.m. Downtown.

COVERS JEAN MARC. Southern Tier Brewing Co. 5 p.m. North Side.

ROCK

28

FIRE AND GRACE AND ASH. Ace Hotel. 8 p.m. East Liberty.

THE CLINT HOOVER JAZZ TRIO. Bier’s Pub. 7 p.m. North Side.

RIDGEMONT HIGH ‘80S COVERS. Cioppino Restaurant & Cigar Bar. 7 p.m. Strip District.

FRIDAY JUNE 14

DJS DJ SAMUEL ANDRES (THE WARM UP).

The Goldmark.

7 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ACOUSTIC DARYL SHAWN. Backstage Bar. 5 p.m. Downtown.

THE RUST PROJECT. Il Pizzaiolo Cucina Napoletana.

7 p.m. Glenshaw.

JAZZ

FOLK/BLUEGRASS

JESSICA LEE, MARK STRICTLAND. Sugar & Smoke. 6 p.m. Bloomfield.

DUSTBOWL REVIVAL. Thunderbird Café & Music Hall.

8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ALEC FALCONER (HOUSE).

Spirit. 9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

PITTSBURGH PLAYS MCCARTNEY. Jergel’s. 8 p.m. Warrendale.

NO QUARTER (LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE). Hard Rock Cafe.

10 p.m. Station Square.

HIP HOP/R&B

ROCK/METAL

THE BILL HENRY BAND. August Wilson African American Cultural Center. 8 p.m. Downtown.

SERPENT LORD. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 8 p.m. Millvale.

WAMO SUMMER JAM. Stage AE. 6 p.m. North Side.

SATURDAY JUNE 15 JAZZ RML JAZZ TRIO. Refucilo Winery.

2 p.m. North Side.

ROCK

CROSS CURRENTS TRIO. Cioppino Restaurant & Cigar Bar. 7 p.m. Strip District.

DAUGHTERS. Rex Theater. 7 p.m. South Side.

ADAM BLEIL. NOLA On The Square. 8 p.m. Downtown.

JIM DONOVAN & SUN KING WARRIORS (BENEFIT CONCERT).

Enix Brewing. 6 p.m. Homestead.

COVERS

WRECK LOOSE. Liveburghstudio.

7 p.m. Glenshaw.

VOICE OF ADDICTION, CROOKED COBRAS. Gooski’s.

7 p.m. Polish Hill.

JON MUELLER, MIKE SHIFLET. The Government Center.

8 p.m. North Side.

THECAUSE. Enix Brewing. 8 p.m. Homestead.

BON JOURNEY. Crafthouse Stage & Grill.

9 p.m. Whitehall.

COUNTRY HONKY-TONK JUKEBOX. Allegheny Elks Lodge #339.

7 p.m. North Side.

NULLUM, HURTPIECE. Preserving Hardcore. 8 p.m. New Kensington.

ELECTRONIC DETOUR (RESIDENTS NIGHT).

Hot Mass. 12 a.m. Downtown.

POP CHASE ATLANTIC. Rex Theater. 6 p.m. South Side.

FOLK VANCE GILBERT. Club Cafe. 7 p.m. South Side.

MULTI-GENRE CREATIVE LIFE SUPPORT RECORDS SUMMER SHOWCASE. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 7 p.m. Millvale.

SUNDAY JUNE 16 HIP HOP GHOST-NOTE. Thunderbird Café & Music Hall. 8 p.m. Lawrenceville.

ROCK/METAL VISTA. Smiling Moose.

6:30 p.m. South Side.

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Too Many Zooz

TOO MANY ZOOZ FRIDAY, JUNE 14

Instead of trying to mold their music to fit a genre, Too Many Zooz made its own. Brasshouse, a style branded by the band’s drummer David “King of Sludge” Parks, is described as “high energy musical conversation” by trumpet player Matt Doe, adding “it’s about many different feelings and sounds and emotions.” Formed as a busking trio in 2014, Too Many Zooz mixes elements of jazz, EDM, house, and Cuban and Caribbean music, and has gained fans such as Beyoncé, who asked the group to perform with her at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards. 6-7 p.m. Three Rivers Art Festival. Dollar Bank Main Stage, Point State Park, 601 Commonwealth Place, Downtown. Free. traf.trustarts.org

FURY, DIZTORT. Preserving Hardcore. 6 p.m. New Kensington.

AWAKE AT LAST. Mr. Smalls Theatre. 6:30 p.m. Millvale.

FOLK LUCY SPRAGGAN. Club Cafe.

8 p.m. South Side.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19

IDENTITY X (CD RELEASE).

Jergel’s. 7 p.m. Warrendale.

TUESDAY JUNE 18

JAZZ

JAZZ

ROCK

RAP

BENNY BENACK II & III. Wolfie’s Pub. 7 p.m. Downtown.

OCEAN ALLEY. Spirit.

9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

MC CHRIS. Smiling Moose. 7 p.m. South Side.

BLUES

BLUES

COUNTRY

SAMANTHA FISH. Moondog’s Pub. 7 p.m. Blawnox.

THE NIGHT SKY. Wolfie’s Pub. 5 p.m. Downtown.

MONDAY JUNE 17

JAZZ

KRISTIAN BUSH (OF SUGARLAND).

Carnegie Library Music Hall.

8 p.m. Homestead.

KEVIN HOWARD. Katz Plaza. 5 p.m. Downtown.

ROCK/METAL

ROCK/METAL

ALTERNATIVE/INDIE

GEOFF TATE. Jergel’s.

8 p.m. Warrendale.

I THE VICTOR. Smiling Moose.

6:30 p.m. South Side.

MYSTIC BRAVES. Club Cafe.

8 p.m. South Side.

THE ARKADIAN. Howlers. 8 p.m. Bloomfield.

DISCOVERIES, GLASS IDOLS. Gooski’s. 9 p.m. Polish Hill.

FOLK

BLUES

THE MILK CARTON KIDS. Mr. Smalls Theatre.

8 p.m. Millvale.

JIMMY ADLER. Wolfie’s Pub. 6 p.m. Downtown.

NORAH JONES. Heinz Hall. 8 p.m. Downtown.

ROGER HUMPHRIES. City of Asylum.

7 p.m. North Side.

CALEB KOPTA. Arsenal Bowl.

9 p.m. Lawrenceville.

SCOTT MULVAHILL. Club Cafe.

8 p.m. South Side.

ESSENTIAL MACHINE. Churchview Farm.

6 p.m. Baldwin.

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

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PHOTO: NEWMAN-SCHMIDT STUDIOS

1953 Alcoa Building

.ARCHITECTURE.

IMAGINING THE MODERN

BY CHARLES ROSENBLUM //CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

A

FEW PAGES in from the cover of

the new book, Imagining the .Modern, there is a great close-up construction photo of the Civic Arena.

You can see the ambitious steel superstructure rising from concrete footings, in enough detail to see dimpled expanses of rivets holding the plates together, but far enough away that the familiar Gulf and Koppers buildings loom

inquisitively in the distance. Though the book contains various ruminations on the loss of the Lower Hill, this photo is not one of them.

Funny thing is, the Civic Arena image looks a lot like an adjacent picture of another ambitious public structure whose in-process steel frame is visible.

Except that this is one of the old Exposition buildings, near the Point, by

IMAGINING THE MODERN RELEASE RECEPTION 6 p.m. Thu., June 13. IKM Inc, Suite #2200, 11 Stanwix St., Downtown. preservationpgh.org

30

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

renowned architect Daniel Burnham.

The visible portion of steel frame here is coming down, not going up, demolished for the coming of Point State Park.

The heartless excision of the old and the unduly optimistic construction of the new were part of the same campaign during Pittsburgh’s post-war Renaissance, the subject of the book Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance.

Imagining the Modern, the exhibit, was shown at the Heinz Architectural Center in 2015-16. As part of the

examination of Pittsburgh’s great postWorld War II destruction and rebuilding, the exhibit organizers analyzed and diagrammed the areas of the city — the Point, the Lower Hill, East Liberty, Oakland, and the North Side — that had been most drastically rebuilt, or at least had plans for such. The organizers retrieved a rich cache of period brochures and newspapers. They gathered enough quality architectural photographs for a stand-alone exhibition. They taught studios to architectural students in the exhibitions space and conducted several

PHOTO: TEENIE HARRIS

Lynette May, Gerri Walker, Shirley Jenkins, and Alberts Thompson hitting golf balls at Washington Plaza putting field with Civic Arena in the background, 1969

open discussions with invited guests, in which I was pleased to find a place.

The book, published by Monacelli Press, was authored by Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and Rami el Samahy, with additional essayists and contributors.

On Thu., June 13, Preservation Pittsburgh hosts a book release reception at the suitably modern 11 Stanwix Street, a former Westinghouse office building.

I expected to feel that the next engagement with the Pittsburgh Renaissance would feel like a constantly looping gif of, say, the Immaculate Reception, one of those defining events through whose repetition we define our municipal identity.

But one of the many differences between sports and architecture is that while we use sports to reassert uncritical superiority, the meaning of architecture changes every time we look at it, if we are being thoughtful. And the authors of Imagining the Modern certainly are.

Their catalogue includes some dutifully scholarly essays and then diverges into some less-conventional reprints of oddly utopian period brochures and a flurry of contemporary newspaper articles, similar to the exhibit, though the newspapers are a tighter fit here.

Interviews with relevant figures, while expected of the exhibit catalog genre, provide surprises here. Tasso Katselas, designer of iconic buildings, is lucid and opinionated into his 90s. We see some more obscure entries from his portfolio.

The less well-known Troy West surprises with recollection and documents of

grass-roots planning in the Hill and the corresponding progressive megastructure designs. These should inform the sadly conventional Penguins-led project that is going on now.

There is rigorous research and analysis here from an eminently qualified team. (I am pleased to be quoted as part of a salon discussion, but that doesn’t weigh notably in the book’s achievements.) Imagining the Modern is a musthave for Pittsburghers and Modernists in architecture, landscape, and planning more broadly. But that doesn’t mean the project is the last word. Rigorous and circumspect though they are, the authors are often cheerier about Pittsburgh’s Renaissance-era architectural legacy than I would ever be, even though they also directly acknowledge the hubris of the era.

I’d argue that for every artful Simonds and Simonds landscape, there is a crappy Gateway Center building adjacent.

For every materially and structurally expressive U.S. Steel building and its soaring lobby, there is a horrible, rust encrusted street level plaza, and an even worse Crosstown Boulevard right behind.

Renaissance-era Pittsburgh had many quality ingredients, but it could never quite get them all going at once.

Maybe the authors needed to like this work more than I do to make such an admirable catalog. With this renewed cycle though the topic, I am more convinced by their analysis and scholarship than by the frequently arrogant, invariably flawed, often dull architecture that they document.

•

Follow contributing writer Charles Rosenblum on Twitter @CharlzR PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

31

PHOTO: HOUSE OF SPEAKEASY

Poetry to the People tour will give out free books outside of Carnegie Library-Main.

.LITERATURE.

ONE FOR THE BOOKS

BY HANNAH LYNN // HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

O

N S AT. , J U N E 1 5 , visitors to

Carnegie Library’s main branch will find collections of books to borrow not only inside the building but outside of it. The Poetry to the People tour is a multi-city book truck road trip — beginning in New York and ending in New Orleans — that brings free books and poetry readings to every stop.

The project is run by House of Speakeasy and Narrative 4, two New York-based organizations. House of Speakeasy hosts readings with renowned authors and provides literary tools to underserved communities, while Narrative 4 facilitates story exchanges (a genre of group writing exercise).

“There are plenty of places in New York that don’t have access to books, but there are many more places in parts of the country that need a delivery system for books,” says Paul Morris, strategic director at House of Speakeasy.

For every city on the tour, Poetry to the People will work with local literary organizations to host readings and other events. In Pittsburgh, there will be readings by poets Rickey Laurentiis and Jenny Johnson, as well as local teen poets. All the stops on the tour will feature teen poets reading alongside

more established ones.

“Part of our mission on this trip is to highlight local organizations that are already doing great work in the community,” says Rob Spillman, one of the founders of Narrative 4.

POETRY TO THE PEOPLE TOUR 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., June 15.

Carnegie Library-Main, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. poetrytothepeople.org

The Pittsburgh event is hosted in conjunction with Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures.

Spillman adds that, while the book truck will feature all kinds of books, including those by authors featured on the tour, they chose to focus on poetry for its accessibility.

“We’re bringing all sorts of books, but the events are mainly poetry specific because it’s the easiest to engage with particularly teen writers,” he says.

“Poetry seems very vital and urgent right now, and it’s just like a gateway to engage on a storytelling level.”

The tour features major cities as well as small but thriving literary communities, like Floyd County, Ky., and Arnaudville,

La. They also take suggestions for places they may have overlooked. After Pittsburgh, the team originally planned to go straight to Floyd County, Ind. before someone suggested Columbus, Ohio.

Prior to this tour, the book truck’s longest trip had been three or four hours, but that will change after the1,800-mile trip. The hope is that the journey will serve as a test run for future endeavors outside New York.

“The way we look at the book truck, it opens doors for people to access literature and ideas,” says Morris. “We’re using it as a tool to engage communities while giving away books.”

The team hopes to not only give away free books, but to create a sense of community and belonging for teenagers, for overlooked communities, and for anyone who feels they need their voice to be heard.

“There are a lot of people who don’t feel like they have a place or a platform on which to speak or share their stories, or they feel disconnected,” says Erin Cox, executive producer at House of Speakeasy. “And we’ve found that when we’re able to do these kinds of programs, people can say, ‘Oh that’s me too, I can relate to that.’”

Follow staff writer Hannah Lynn on Twitter @hanfranny

32

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33

.ART . .

BACKSTAGE

BY LISSA BRENNAN CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NAME: Sean Beauford, Bloomfield TITLE: Manager of Teen Programs, Carnegie Museum of Art TELL ME ABOUT THE PROGRAMS AND THE WORK THEY INVOLVE. One is the Youth Art Initiative, a group of 10 students that meets weekly. They could be visiting different departments, learning about different jobs, touring galleries, brainstorming ideas, planning what they’ve come up with, and just getting comfortable with each other, building relationships. They held an event three weeks ago with four musicians and a DJ, so needed to schedule sound checks, get contracts, coordinate on things like decorations, catering, audio technicians, security.

There are three internships this summer, geared toward creating opportunities and awareness for minority students and to hopefully impact the diversity of museum staffs in the future.

I’ll be the liaison between them and the staff, helping them figure things out for themselves and empowering them to take advantage of the opportunity.

WHAT GOT YOU INTO THIS WORK? I started independently curating exhibitions and installations with projects at Wood Street Galleries, 707 [Penn Gallery], August Wilson [African American Cultural] Center. Not having a formal art background led me to a lot of different collaborations, some with schools.

There were projects sometimes for one day, sometimes over the course of six months. I developed a rapport of working with youth and being good at that led to me working here — my approach to curating, the audience I was attracting, who I was, being relatable.

WHAT DREW YOU TO GALLERIES TO BEGIN WITH? I had a group of friends who were really creative people, but their events would usually be in a bar or a club. I wanted to give them an opportunity to showcase their work. I enjoy spending time in galleries, and I used to go to the Downtown Gallery Crawl; I’d rather spend my Friday night there than on the South Side.

My real inspiration was community engagement. I was going to spaces and

34

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

Sean Beauford

not seeing people that I identified with in these spaces, so I wanted to bring my community into them.

WHAT DO PEOPLE NEED TO FEEL A SPACE IS FOR THEM? It starts with letting people see themselves; inviting them personally and having a program they identify with or relate with. Having intentional introductions, then letting the program run as it normally would, helps.

DO YOU HAVE A HIGHLIGHT AT CMOA? The teen event because it was all their idea. Throughout the year I tried to get them to understand they could do what

they wanted, they didn’t have to wait for permission. I think that was the first time they realized they could create their own … their own anything.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO? A youth advisory board and teens having even more input. Giving teens participating in programs the chance to consider all the youth that visit, not just them, so they can focus on how to make the museum better and more approachable for all teens.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE WORK OF ART HERE? For me personally, a 2017 work of Kerry

James Marshall, “Untitled (Gallery).” It’s a picture of a Black woman standing in front of a picture of a Black woman in a gallery, she’s posing in it. He’s being intentional in putting Black figures in museums and institutions, reflecting that representation.

For visitors in general, I really like things that people engage with, that without any context they enjoy, like Dan Graham’s 1991 “Heart Pavilion.”

People take pictures in front of it, they go inside, they interact. It’s not something that you walk past, or stop and look for 10 seconds then move on. It’s something that involves you. I want art to do that.

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.MUSIC.

SONGS FOR PITTSBURGH

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

V

ISUAL ALBUMS — a mix some-

where between a full-length music video and a movie — are not a new phenomenon. The Beatles did it with Hard Day’s Night, and Pink Floyd with The Wall. But more recent versions, most obviously Beyoncé’s Lemonade in 2016, renewed interest in the medium at a time when sitting down and listening to a record start-to-finish has become less common.

Pittsburgh psychedelic-folk artist Andrew Kruske is using the format with his new release Songs for Pittsburgh, an audiovisual, psychedelic experience set to his new album and featuring footage of a stroll through Squirrel Hill.

“I wanted to make an audiovisual project that was a cohesive half hour of audio inseparable from its visual counterpoint, which would resist the modern habit of consuming a disjointed, algorithmically made playlist of decontextualized singles,” says Kruske.

“I think visual albums provide a unique opportunity [to restore] that experience of sitting down and experiencing a full musical project.”

This may be because musically, Kruske has always been drawn to the full-album releases of bands and musicians from

the 1960s and 1970s, like The Incredible String Band, Van Morrison, and Donovan.

“I just really liked albums that had a really solid concept and would flow together from song to song,” says Kruske.

“Then as I was getting more into ’60s music and culture I started to see liquid lights shows like they do at The Fillmore or at Grateful Dead Shows and I was like, ‘How do they do that?’”

SONGS FOR PITTSBURGH Available Fri., June 14 via Chameleon Treat’s Facebook or Andrew Kruske’s Vimeo

Accompanied by electronic music and avant-garde theatre performances, liquid-light shows, which involve passing light from a projector through different color liquids, have been adapted for psychedelic or rock performances. Kruske got his hands on an overhead projector and a few glass clock faces and began making liquid-light projections.

Sharing many sonic qualities with albums by The Microphones/Mount Eerie, Broken Social Scene, and Animal Collective, as well as a range of classic psych-folk records, Sounds of Pittsburgh

takes the viewer through Kruske’s typical day in the city, filtered through a psychedelic lens. A Michigan native, Kruske wanted the video to be his own subjective experience about a place he has come to love, not a commentary on budding development or how the city is changing.

“A message about a city rising from the ashes is overplayed and, in a way, freezes it in its development,” says Kruske.

When Kruske started Sounds for Pittsburgh, he lived right by Schenley Park (he now lives one block from Forbes Avenue). Many of the shots were taken there, and the longest song on the project is named after the park. The project took about two years to complete.

Right now, most of the songs don’t have titles. They’ll have to soon enough, though, as Kruske plans on putting the album on Spotify, where Songs for Pittsburgh will break down into about 10 songs — four transition tracks and six traditional songs.

Until then, Sounds of Pittsburgh will only be available on Chameleon Treat’s Facebook page (Kruske makes up one half of the band, but Sounds of Pittsburgh is entirely his own), or on Kruske’s Vimeo.

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BIG LITTLE LIES

BY HANNAH LYNN HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

.FILM.

SILENT SUCCESS

BY AMANDA WALTZ AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T PHOTO: JENNIFER CLASEN/HBO

Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep in Big Little Lies season two

Season two of Big Little Lies is like a surprise dessert at the end of a heavy dinner: you’re too full, but it’s there, so you’re gonna eat it.

The new season opens back in Monterey, Calif., after a summer of stress, relaxation, anxiety, grief, vacation, and new wigs for the five women involved in the death of Celeste’s (Nicole Kidman) husband. Celeste’s mother-in-law (Meryl Streep) is in town to help with everyone’s grief and to cope with her own, but she also has an agenda. She seemingly doesn’t know her son was a monster (see: season one) but knows there are secrets surrounding his death.

BIG LITTLE In under an LIES airs hour, Streep Sundays delivered an on HBO. instantly iconic performance, most notably when she lets out a terrifying and feral grief-scream (you will see it as gifs for years to come.) Reese Witherspoon and Kidman are still standouts, playing to their strengths as sassy and sad, respectively.

The first season of BLL wrapped up nicely, matching the ending of the book it was based on

by Liane Moriarty, and it’s a shame that the desire for redundant content (and money) always wins out over creative satisfaction.

It’s unclear what new conflicts the women will get themselves embroiled in, but from the first episode, it’ll obviously be a fun ride. I would watch Meryl Streep scream for hours. • 36

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

HROUGHOUT PITTSBURGH, there

are bridges, museums, theaters, and other monuments named after famous locals, whose contributions made indelible marks on everything from sports to science to the arts. So, you would think Lois Weber, a Pittsburgh native who went on to make hundreds of silent films and became a key figure in the founding of Hollywood, would have her own memorial.

After decades in near obscurity, Weber will finally receive her due on June 13 when the Heinz History Center presents a special dedication ceremony and night of programming.

Lois Weber: Film Pioneer will celebrate Weber’s 140th birthday with the unveiling of a historical marker outside the Carnegie Library of PittsburghAllegheny branch. The commemoration continues at the Heinz History Center with a conversation between actress, filmmaker, and Turner Classic Movies host, Illeana Douglas, and Shelley Stamp, a California-based film historian and professor who wrote the book Lois Weber in Early Hollywood.

Heinz History Center curator, Lauren Uhl, learned about Weber a few years ago while doing research on the local film industry. “I’ve always been interested in who was from Pittsburgh that made history in Hollywood,” says Uhl. “Here was this incredibly accomplished famous woman from Pittsburgh — how come nobody’s ever heard of her?”

Born on Federal Street in Allegheny City (now known as Pittsburgh’s North Side) in 1879, Weber became one of the country’s first female film directors, often working as a team with her husband, Phillips Smalley. In a career that spanned a quarter of a century and included founding her own production company in Los Angeles, Weber wrote, directed, produced, and performed in more than 200 films, many of which no longer exist.

One of her surviving films, the 1913 release Suspense, will screen during the event. The 10-minute long story about a woman and her child being terrorized in their own home has stood the test of time, even screening at the Museum of Modern Art in 2013. The

PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Lois Weber

film has also been cited for helping to lay the groundwork for the modern thriller and horror genres.

“There’s a lot in it that talks about her as a filmmaker — the angles, the cuts, the way she’s doing things,” says Uhl.

LOIS WEBER: FILM PIONEER 7 p.m. Thu., June 13. Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St., Strip District. $20. heinzhistorycenter.org

Since the 1970s, Weber and other early women filmmakers have slowly made their way back into the public consciousness, including in the 2018 DVD/ Blu-ray box set, Pioneers: First Female Filmmakers, which was executive produced by Douglas and curated by Stamp.

Weber’s career has become more defined by the moralist films she made addressing a variety of controversial social issues, including capital punishment in The People vs. John Doe (1916), drug abuse in Hop, the Devil’s Brew (1916), and poverty and wage equity in Shoes (1916).

Uhl believes these films were heavily influenced by Weber’s upbringing in Pittsburgh, where she was encouraged to pursue music as a talented pianist, and practice missionary work by her devout evangelical Christian family.

“Unlike some other celebrities who may have incidentally been born here … she really was formed here,” says Uhl, adding how Weber’s religious and artistic backgrounds were “very much reflected in her films” and “inform the filmmaker that she becomes.”

However, these films also complicate Weber’s legacy, especially the two that explore women’s reproductive issues.

While The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1917) is a decidedly pro-birth control tale inspired by Margaret Sanger, the film that came before it, Where Are My Children? (1916), has been viewed as an anti-abortion film that some critics see as supporting eugenics. (Sanger supported eugenics.)

Even so, Uhl believes that Weber’s main goal with these films was to engage people in civil discussions.

“Whether or not you agree with her evangelical point of view, she was making films that she felt had a point,” says Uhl. “She felt that these were important topics to be discussed civilly.”

Uhl hopes the marker and Heinz History Center event serve as an adequate tribute to Weber, who she sees as an important figure in both film and women’s history.

“I’m anxious to reintroduce her to her own hometown, let alone the greater world,” says Uhl.

•

.MUSIC.

A NEW VISION

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T

HERE’S SOMETHING that the underground dance music scene in Pittsburgh has been wishing for: a reoccurring go-to spot for quality underground music. Dissolv and FluxCapacitor are giving Pittsburgh exactly that with re:vision, a new weekly dance night at Cattivo.

“We’re looking forward to bringing something different to Pittsburgh that Pittsburgh has never seen before and make it on a global scale,” says re:vision partner Justin Sheppard.

For re:vision, the downstairs of Cattivo has been transformed into a subterranean electric jungle. While the upstairs will carry on as normal, Sheppard explained that they wanted to bring an underground feel to the room design.

“We’re completely renovating and transforming the downstairs to our own vision,” he says. “[There will be]

re:vision setting up at Cattivo

RE:VISION 8 p.m. - 2 a.m. Every Friday at Cattivo. 146 44th St., Lawrenceville. revisionpgh.com

a multitude of sound designs, special effects, and room aesthetics … A very big special effect, full stage sound, and light set up. It is not going to be for the faint of heart.”

More of what not to expect: popular and hit radio tunes. re:vision is not using the term “underground music” lightly. The DJs won’t play anything heard in the mainstream music scene or the commercial EDM genre, but will play everything from house, deep

house, and tech house to progressive and techno.

“I guarantee that you will move and shake and dance just the same to all of it,” says Sheppard.

Currently, the only other weekly spots to hear underground dance music are after-hours places like Tilden and Hot Mass, both located Downtown. However, those venues don’t open until midnight or later.

“Dissolv has worked with them,”

says Sheppard, “and their niche is their niche. [Re:vision] is happy to provide the ‘early show’ from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., for people that come and have a blast and then head out to whatever their choice is.”

Re:vision is the collective vision of Sheppard, a Pittsburgh native who spent many years as a resident at Club Space in Miami; Keith Patrick, who founded Flux-Capacitor 19 years ago; Dissolv co-owners Nick Somma and Kris Verderber; and Stephanie Novakowski, who handled marketing and promotions at Dissolv since’s its creation and is now re:vision’s promotions director.

Both Dissolv and Flux-Capacitor have worked on bringing the best underground dance and electronic music to Pittsburgh.

For the grand opening on June 7, Sheppard, Patrick (K Patrick), Somma (Polterheist), Verderber (Bird), and Novakowski (Stefania) were the DJs. Every Friday will offer something different, like the July 12 edition with special guest Black Machine.

“Rest assured we will be making it fun every single week,” says Sheppard.

“We’ll be adding, revising, improving, and chilling every single night that we’re there.”

•

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37

.ART . .

PITTSBURGH TIME CAPSULE

BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

F YOU HAVE something pressing to

say to the Pittsburghers of 2120, here’s your chance. Now through Sun., June 16, artist Toby Fraley will be accepting messages for Pittsburgh Time Capsule, a video booth stationed at Gateway Center Artist Market. The video messages can take on any subject and be as serious or silly as the submitter chooses, as long as it’s under 60 seconds. Once they’re all collected, one capsule will be stored at the Mayor’s Office and the other at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, slated to open in the summer of 2120.

PITTSBURGH TIME CAPSULE Gateway Center Artist Market, Downtown.

12-9 p.m. every day through Sun., June 16

Thoughtful public art projects that toy with futurism and technology are nothing new for Fraley. He may be best known in Pittsburgh for Fraley’s Robot Repair, an abandoned storefront at the airport packed with Jetsons-inspired tools and half completed projects.

Pittsburgh City Paper spoke with Fraley about his thinking behind the project and what it says about an uncertain future.

HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO RESTRICT THE VIDEOS TO ONE MINUTE? It felt like a good round number. I timed it a couple times for myself and I just felt like this was about it. Two [minutes] gets long. [With 60 seconds], you need to get it off your chest and you have time to get it done.

ARE YOU GOING TO SUBMIT SOMETHING? I’m probably going to do the first and last entries.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’LL SAY? I’ve got a vague idea. There’s an option when you’re standing in line, there’s a

CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

Toby Fraley

little iPad for you to fill out, first and last name, and if you want it to be sealed for a century, or if you allow the video for a promotional reel after the event. I’m going to be one of the people that has it sealed forever. It’s going to be something personal that’s just between me and the time capsule.

HOW DID YOU FIRST COME TO THIS IDEA? I’m really interested in history. I always thought that it’d be kind of interesting to have something that we opened up today — words of wisdom from a generation before us. Just to hear what was important to them at the time. I’m sure that whatever we’re telling people that we think is important now, it will have no meaning a hundred years from now.

A hundred years from now, they might hear about the Steelers and they’re like, “Football? How did it mean so much to these people?” Trying to relate to the past, some things will hold

true and some things won’t, and I think it’ll be interesting to hear how that pans out in a century.

HOW DO PEOPLE SUBMIT? I built a booth. It’s about the size of a minivan. You walk into it and it’s a very simple operation … It’s sort of like a vintage photo booth. You push a button and some lights will turn on to light the area and there’s a little stool there and you sit there. A countdown clock will tell you how many seconds you have left.

WHAT WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN IF YOU OPENED A TIME CAPSULE FROM 1919?

I’d like to hear what they think is next after you’re off this planet. What are their feelings? Because I’m sure that changes through millennia, like what you think the afterlife is.

WHAT GUIDANCE DO YOU GIVE? I’m purposely leaving this as open-ended

Follow managing editor Alex Gordon on Twitter @shmalexgordon

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

as possible because I want what’s important to the average everyday person. In a hundred years, it’s going to be easy to find the quotes from sports stars of today and politicians of today, but we aren’t going to know what was important to the guy who worked at the pretzel store at the mall. I just want everyone’s little take on what’s meaningful to them right now.

THIS IS A LITTLE MORBID. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT THE WORLD MIGHT LOOK LIKE A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW, AND IF THERE WILL BE ANYONE TO EVEN OPEN IT? I think that about that daily. I don’t think it’s dark at all. I think it’s incredibly important and I am actually a little worried about what the world is going to be like a hundred years from now.

I’m hoping I get some messages left in the machine specifically about that.

And I hope it doesn’t pan out the way I fear.

•

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412-653-2695 or ticketfly.com. With special guests The Mænsion and Jags Like These.

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SAT., JUNE 29 CONVICTIONS + EARTH GROANS 6 P.M. SMILING MOOSE SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $12 - 15.

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8 P.M. BYHAM THEATER DOWNTOWN. $25 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

6:30 P.M. REX THEATER SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $22.5 - 25. 412-381-1681 or greyareaprod.com. With special guests Billy Raffoul and Caleb Kopta.

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7 P.M. NORTH PARK ALLISON PARK 18 and up. 50 alleghenycounty.us/parks

SUN., JUNE 30 THE 39 STEPS 2 P.M. GLADYS G DAVIS THEATRE MORGANTOWN. $11 - 21. ticketmaster.com

MON., JULY 1 CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE 7 P.M. CARNEGIE SCIENCE CENTER NORTH SHORE. Free event. 412-237-3400 or carnegiesciencecenter.org.

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39

SEVEN DAYS OF ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

ERN ART: JESSICA ALP

BROWN

Su ^ Fri., June 14: Su

THURSDAY JUNE 13 ART Don’t forget to check out Remember Me, the 2019 Juried Visual Art Exhibition at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Located on the fourth floor of the Trust Arts Education Center, the show boasts 52 works by 39 artists working in various media. With its collection of large sculptures constructed

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

from repurposed materials, delicate ceramics, abstract paintings, collages, and more, the show is described as “unabashedly sentimental, a moving survey of how art can explore the basis of humanness.” Continues through Sat., June 15. 12-8 p.m. 805 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Free. traf.trustarts.org

FUNDRAISER Even the hippest of neighborhoods needs a little boost sometimes, which is why Lawrenceville Corporation is once again

+ J.A.B

hosting its annual fundraising benefit, the 2019 Community Catalyst Celebration.

Held at the Roberto Clemente Museum, the event includes food and craft drinks from Lawrenceville restaurants and breweries, including, Banh Mi & Ti, Driftwood Oven, Roundabout Brewery, and more. There’s also complimentary vino from Engine House 25 Wines and a raffle for items from various women-owned Lawrenceville businesses. 5:30-8 p.m.

3339 Penn Ave., Lawrenceville. $25.

Free for LC members. lvpgh.com

LECTURE Ophthalmology and art intersect in surprising and compelling ways at Dr. José-Alain Sahel’s lecture, “The Art of Sight,” at Carnegie Museum of Art. As the director of the UPMC Eye Center, Dr. Sahel is intimately familiar in the way anatomical strengths and struggles in eyesight affect the way we interact with art. At this lecture, he’ll discuss how famous artists’ work changed as their eyesight got worse, and the methods used by Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre

CP PHOTO: LISA CUNNINGHAM

^ Thu., June 13: Marlene Boas’ “Assassination of the Innocents” at Remember Me

to increase accessibility for guests who are blind or low-sighted. 6:30 p.m.

4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free with registration. cmoa.org

FRIDAY JUNE 14 FILM Keep Pride Month going with Celebration of Queer Cinema with Reel Q at Row House Cinema. The lineup of LGBTQ films includes ’90s films Watermelon Woman, about a black lesbian working in a video store while making a documentary, and But I’m a Cheerleader, about a high school girl sent to conversion therapy camp. The week also features more recent films such as Rafiki, banned in 2018 in the film’s setting of Kenya for its portrayal of lesbian romance, and Call Me By Your Name, the dreamy drama set during an Italian summer (for one special showing, admission comes with a free peach). Continues through Thu., June 20. Times vary. 4115 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $8-10. rowhousecinema.com

ART UnSmoke Systems Artspace hosts an opening reception for its latest exhibit, SuSu + J.A.B, a show from two

contemporary, Pittsburgh-based women artists. Inspired by the featured artists’ friendship and their mutual admiration for each other’s practices, the show features a selection of works by Su Su, a Chinese-born painter who describes her works as depicting “the tension between globalization and our environment through narrative deconstruction, spontaneity, abstraction, and surrealism,” and Jessica Alpern Brown, known for her distinctive silhouettes and images made from cut paper. Continues through Sun., June 30. 6-9 p.m. 1137 Braddock Ave., Braddock. Free. unsmokeartspace.com

SATURDAY JUNE 15 KIDS Pittsburgh comedian and mentalhealth advocate Gab Bonesso shared in her Pittsburgh City Paper column last week that the question kids ask her the most when she tours the country is, “Is it OK to be gay?” The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is one local organization helping to spread messages of selfacceptance and kindness to kids 5-yearsold and younger. At Drag Queen Story Hour, kids get to sing, dance, and hear a story promoting literacy and CONTINUES ON PG. 42

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

41

CALENDAR, CONTINUED FROM PG. 41

TOP 5

LOCAL CONCERTS TO SEE THIS WEEK AT THREE RIVERS ART FESTIVAL

BY JORDAN SNOWDEN JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

The Funky Fly Project

With so many great musicians and artists performing at Three Rivers Arts Festival, how can you choose which ones to see?

With a little help from a friend.

BYRON NASH A prolific guitarist mixing rock, blues, and acoustic though riffs and loops.

4 P.M. SAT., JUNE 15 Acoustic Stage

THE FUNKY FLY PROJECT Funk and jazz with a youthful energy.

12 P.M. SUN., JUNE 16 Dollar Bank Main Stage

JORDAN MONTGOMERY Lyricism of old hip hop meets beats and bass of modern day.

1 P.M. SUN., JUNE 16 Stanwix Stage

JUSTIN FABUS Country music with a steel city backdrop.

2 P.M. SUN., JUNE 16 Dollar Bank Main Stage

SLOWDANGER A sonic movement and visual experience though body and song.

4 P.M. SUN., JUNE 16 Dollar Bank Main Stage

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PGHCITYPAPER.COM

^ Wed., June 19: Intimacy Games

gender expression. The program has been expanded this month for Pride, held every Saturday at a different Carnegie Library location across the city. 2 p.m. 400 Brownsville Road, Knoxville. carnegielibrary.org

LIT Young-adult author Padma Venkatraman will stop by Alphabet City to promote her new novel The Bridge Home about homeless children in Chennai, India, as part of City Of Asylum’s Youth Author Series.

This is the fourth work from Venkatraman, an oceanographer who was born in India and now resides in Rhode Island. She also penned the YA fiction titles Climbing the Stairs, Island’s End, and A Time to Dance.

Venkatraman will read from her novel and participate in a discussion moderated by writer and critic Julie Azzam.

3-4:15 p.m. 40 W. North Ave., North Side.

Free. alphabetcity.org

BEER If there’s one bad thing about Pittsburgh breweries, it’s the distance between them. Beers of the Burgh solves this distance dilemma by bringing together

local breweries on the lawn of Carrie Furnace. For one day only, you can grab a draft from Grist House Brewery before walking a few steps to Brew Gentlemen or Butler Brew Works. 3 p.m.

Carrie Furnace Blvd., Swissvale. $49-65. beersoftheburgh.com

COMEDY Getting beat up by Ice Cube in Next Friday was probably not the most rewarding character for comedian Michael Blackson (no, not his real name), but it did help raise the profile for his standup career. The Ghanaian comic came up in the 1990s with appearances on ComicView and Def Comedy Jam and has gone on to make memorable cameos on 30 Rock, The Mo’Nique Show and Chappelle’s Show. Even if his name doesn’t ring a bell, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Blackson somewhere. Pull up his set from the rebooted Arsenio Hall Show then head down to the Improv for one of his four shows this weekend. 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Also 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on Sun., June 16. 166 E. Bridge St., Homestead. $45. improv.com/pittsburgh

SUNDAY JUNE 16 STAGE The classic comedy by Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, hits the stage at Little Lake Theater. The play follows two bumbling young men, Jack Worthing (Stephen Ray) and Algernon Moncrieff (Connor McNelis), as they pursue a courtship of two women, Gwendolen Fairfax (Ashley Harmon) and Cecily Cardew (Mairead Roddy). The British play serves as a satire of late 19th-century society, premiering in 1895. Little Lake Theater Company recommends this production for guests age 8 and older. 2 p.m. 500 Lakeside Drive, Canonsburg. Tickets start at $19. littlelake.org

DANCE When last year’s Dance Battles at Three Rivers Arts Festival got rained out from its outdoor venue, they moved it to the platform of a T station. The venue was such a hit that they’re bringing it back this year, with TRAF Dance Battles 4 - 1v1 Breaking

& 1v1 All Styles at the Gateway T Station.

The event, with music by DJ Inception, includes a first place prize of $200 and $50 for second place in each dance category.

3 p.m. Stanwix St., Downtown.

LIT The Vegetarian’s Guide to Eating Meat

by Marissa Landrigan chronicles the difficulties of trying to eat ethically at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to confirm sourcing and even the best intentioned food producers can have a negative effect on climate change.

It’s a funny, personal, thoughtful look at a complex subject. Hear Landrigan discuss the book at the inaugural event from the new Pittsburgh science writers group, Appalachian Science Communicators, at White Whale Bookstore. 7 p.m. 4754 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. Free. whitewhalebookstore.com

MONDAY JUNE 17 SCREEN Join documentarian Billy Jackson for a discussion and screening of his film Wendell Grimke Freeland: A Quiet Soldier in the Fight for Civil Rights at Alphabet City. The film examines the life of Freeland, who was a leader in the Civil Rights movement in Pittsburgh, as well as an attorney, activist, and one of the Tuskegee Airmen. The film and Q&A are presented as part of the ongoing Sembène Film and Arts Festival. 7 p.m. 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free. alphabetcity.org

TUESDAY JUNE 18 TREES Spend a few hours tending to the trees of Lawrenceville at VOOM! with Tree Pittsburgh, put on by Pittsburgh Jewish Federation’s Volunteer Center. Attendees

ART

PHOTO: BIG WORLD CINEMA

^ Fri., June 14: Rafiki

will make their way up Butler Street from 40th-46th, then grab a few drinks with their new friends after the work’s done. 5:30 p.m. 40th St. and Butler St., Lawrenceville. jewishpgh.org

WEDNESDAY JUNE 19 FOOD As Pittsburgh’s restaurant scene grows, sustainability has become a more prevalent

way to keep diners engaged. At Good Taste, No Waste, local industry professionals who are making waves on the food scene discuss the importance of maintaining sustainable practices.

The panel, moderated by Melissa McCart (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) includes Keyla Cook (Casa Brazil), Sonja Finn (Dinette), Pete Kurzweg (Hidden Harbor, Independent Brewing, Lorelei’s), and Denele Hughson (Grow Pittsburgh).

6-8 p.m. Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman St., Strip District. Free. sustainablerestaurants.org

City of Play, a local organization that coordinates recreational events and activities for people of all ages, will cater to an older crowd with Intimacy Games at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Designed for people 18 and older of all abilities, the event invites guests to develop social skills through fun workshops that incorporate dance, sports, martial arts, and theater. All the workshops will take place within the galleries to encourage new ways of emotional and physical interaction. If you can’t make it, there’s another one on Fri., June 21. 10-12 p.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free with registration. cmoa.org •

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Propel Schools, a network of 13 public charter schools, has issued a request for proposals to artists and art programs to deliver classes as part of our CreativeArts program.

Full and part-time proposals will be considered. The deadline is June 28. For more information, visit www. propelschools.org and see “Contracting Opportunities” in the “Contact Us” dropdown menu or enter https:// bit.ly/2WR5qTF in your browser.

Highmark Inc. seeks Manager, Data Science in Pittsburgh, PA to design, execute, & synthesize point analytics & robotic process automation to support specific bus. questions, prgrm, or initiatives. Specific duties incl.: identifying current bus. processes, prgrms & initiatives, & using collected info. to identify how analytical solutions could ensure more effective & efficient process; & driving data analysis & using advanced modeling/machine learning techniques to deliver bus. insight & intelligence.

Apply at https://careers. highmarkhealth.org, using keyword J145814.

HELP WANTED iMinds Technology Systems Inc has openings for the position Senior Mulesoft Integration Developer with Bachelor’s degree In Computer Science, Engineering(any),Technology or related and 5 yrs of exp to provide solutions for technical issues & ensure that the delivered solution meets the technical specifications & design requirements. Design, develop, support & implement clustering using Mule Soft Stack. Design and develop high quality APIs/Integrations. Coding Mule Flows, M Unit tests, and creating templates in Anypoint Studio.Building ESB interfaces using MuleSoft Anypoint platform. Creating SAP PAR files, Modifying standard PAR files & working on SAP Portal administration. Work on complex custom WebDynpro development. Develop and deploy Restful web services using Mule ESB. Implement application design using SAP Net Weaver/ SAP ABAP and Java Web Technologies, etc. Customize and extend SAP Fiori Apps using Net Weaver Gateway. Implement Continuous integration and Continuous deployment using Maven, Jenkins and MuleSoft. Must be Certified MuleSoft Integration Processional. Work location is Pittsburgh, PA with required travel to client locations throughout the USA. Please mail resumes to 1145 Bower Hill Road, Suite 102, Pittsburgh, PA 15243 (or) e-mail: daria@imindsinc.com

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

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IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-6622. In re petition of Annamarie Bangert for change of name to Annamarie Koda. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 9th day of July, 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

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-5781. In re petition of Richard Wayne Dickson, Jr. for change of name to Richard Wayne Banks.

To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 2nd day of July, 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

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD19-7378. In re petition of Osama Abbasi for change of name to Osama Al-Abbasi. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 2nd day of July, 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

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-6883, In re petition of Rachel Briner parent and legal guardian of Jacob Thomas Grady, for change of name to Jacob Thomas Briner.

To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 18th day of July, 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

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-6048.

In re petition of Brittnay Lashaun Cowan for change of name to Brittany Lashaun Cowan To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the filing of said petition and fixed the 29th day of June, 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

NOW HIRING!

Pittsburgh City Paper advertising department is seeking a Senior Account Executive. In this role, you will identify and develop new business opportunities; keep and grow existing client relationships; offer solutions that help clients achieve their business goals, close business and meet set sales targets.

3+ years of sales experience in the Pittsburgh Market required.

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FREE ENTERTAINMENT ALL SUMMER LONG

CLOWN WORLD

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY // WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

LIVE WEDNESDAYS IN ACROSS 1. Award for those that think inside the box?

5. “Jeopardy!” contestant Boettcher who knocked out James Holzhauer 9. FiveThirtyEight fodder 13. Carabiners and ropes, for a climber, e.g.

14. Like a troll, maybe 15. Sustainability subj.

16. Large things sold at Clown World?

19. Man cave spot 20. Safe spots 21. Weak at the knees 22. Red curly-haired “Peanuts” character 24. Bother 25. Sell a head covering second hand at Clown World?

31. Unprocessed oats 33. Penguin lookalikes 34. Big deal 35. Headscratching problem?

36. Kinda cool and kinda pretentious 37. Hebrides island 38. 2019 Women’s World Cup favorite 39. Way off in the distance 40. Comes down hard?

41. Be an early adopter of a prop at Clown World?

44. ___ Wilson (2018 WNBA Rookie of the Year) 45. Tough nut to crack 48. Guarantee will happen 51. Take a hike 53. Cross-shaped letter 54. Encouragement for the indecisive at Clown World?

57. “Never Have I ___” (sleepover game) 58. Press kit?

59. Nice girlfriend 60. Starts a family, say 61. “In Pursuit of Flavor” author ___ Lewis 62. X-Men telepath ___ Grey

10. Recreational drug sold in doses 11. Blabbed 12. Side man?

17. Showed talent 18. Green meanies 23. “Or ___ what?”

24. Covered with tattoos 26. TV actress Paulson 27. Rather strange 28. Alarm setting 29. Quaint poem 30. Whizzes 31. Drinking sound 32. Breads and cakes do it 36. Old Spice rival 37. Bollywood costume 39. Comice

alternative 40. Makes a noise of support for Clown World?

42. Horse operas 43. State capital between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks 46. Obsession 47. “Horae Canonicae” poet 48. Duck of crosswords 49. Gutter’s spot 50. Squeezed (out) 51. “I hear ya, dog” 52. Shortly 55. Projectile at Clown World 56. Mil. rank

MARKET SQUARE Every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

May 15 - August 7

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

DOWN 1. Sheet music letters 2. Sid who created the game Civilization 3. Bach opus about the Virgin Mary 4. Abbr. in a sign-off 5. Genre for Lil Uzi Vert or XXXTentacion 6. Earth inheritors, of the Bible 7. Large number 8. Insect with a slender waist 9. Flies in the face of

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER JUNE 12-19, 2019

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PEEPSHOW A sex and social justice column

BY JESSIE SAGE // PEEPSHOWCAST@GMAIL.COM

G

ROWING UP in the 1980s in

California, my earliest memories of learning about sex were in relation to the AIDS crisis. As a child, I remember being told how HIV is transmitted, what sort of sex puts you at greater risk, and how to protect yourself against it.

While all of this information was shared with me in a rather matterof-fact tone that didn’t include the intense moralizing that many folks encountered during their sex education, the fear of HIV was still palpable.

And for me, this wasn’t just abstract.

When I was in my 20s, I found out that a very close family member had tested positive for HIV. In the early aughts, when this happened, it still felt like a death sentence despite the fact that HIV medications and treatments were becoming more effective.

Moreover, HIV diagnoses were still intensely stigmatized.

Fortunately, California was leading the way both in efforts to provide effective HIV treatment to those with positive diagnoses, and to destigmatize testing and the use of preventative medications like PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), a daily medication that can reduce the chances of becoming infected with HIV by 90 percent.

And these campaigns were highly effective — so effective that in 2015, UPMC physician John Mellors called

For more information about resources, testing sites, and access to PrEP, visit aidsfreepittsburgh.org. Questions about PrEP can be texted to 412-773-1120.

together a meeting in Pittsburgh of health care providers and community service organizers to discuss how to improve treatment locally. Richard Smith, Project Director of HIV/AIDS at Jewish Healthcare Foundation, recounts, “Individuals in Pittsburgh got together to talk about what was happening in San Francisco, because at the time it had a significant drop in HIV diagnoses and were doing cutting edge work around PrEP.” Sue Steele, program coordinator of the HIV/AIDS program at Jewish Healthcare Foundation, says, “We thought that Allegheny County would be a great place to create a similar pro-

gram that could disseminate to other smaller cities.”

She explains, “Pittsburgh’s HIV rates had been stable for 10 years, we have a low migration rate, and we have a lot of good support systems, community organization, and community-based health care.”

On World AIDS Day in 2015, AIDS Free Pittsburgh launched as a collective initiative of healthcare institutions and community-based organizations to support those living with HIV/AIDS, and those in high-risk communities.

Following the example of San Francisco and New York, the organization set three goals: to increase access to PrEP, to

routinize and destigmatize HIV testing, and to put in place a rapid linkage to care for those diagnosed.

One of the major successes of these efforts has been the increased information about and access to PrEP. Dr. Ken Ho, chair of the PrEP subcommittee of AIDS Free Pittsburgh, says, “We’ve developed multiple programs to make PrEP more accessible in Pittsburgh.” He goes on, “My hope is that our efforts will translate to a continued decline in HIV infections.” These efforts have included putting together PrEP toolkits for providers, hosting informational happy hours for pharmacists, and multi-pronged advertising and media campaigns to chip away at the stigma associated with HIV. And while this work is centralized on HIV prevention and care, it has larger implications for the community. Ho comments, “I think this will intimately reduce stigma against not only people living with HIV, but also people who are at risk of HIV. I hope we will uncover opportunities to have honest conversations about sex, wellness, and health with each other.”

I know that access to this information and community-based efforts to have open and honest conversations about sexual health and wellness would have made my experience less scary, and I am very grateful that Pittsburgh is leading these efforts.

•

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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