15 minute read
SUMMER LEE
A Q & A with State Rep. Summer Lee
This Pittsburgh community organizer is hoping to make the jump from state representative to congresswoman.
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By Harrison Cann
Lee is running for U.S. representative in the 12th Congressional District, which includes part of the Mon Valley.
STATE REP. Summer Lee is looking to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle – and, in the process, to become the first Black woman from Pennsylvania elected to Congress. Lee faces a handful of opponents in the new 12th Congressional District Democratic primary but is confident her progressive résumé and people-driven campaign will push her over the top.
With the May 17 primary election fast approaching, City & State spoke with Lee on the growing progressive movement in Western Pennsylvania, Doyle’s legacy, and what she can bring to the table.
This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
You have had a lot of experience in organizing and activism. What was the catalyst that made you want to run for public office?
We just came off of organizing around our school system. We had a whole bunch of things really going badly and a lot of parents and students and family members who just felt like we didn’t have any power to make changes to that. We did a campaign, however, and I think that really turned the tide. It showed our community that if we come up with a plan, we find our own people, and we run them, then we can actually start to change the trajectory of things. We saw that success with the school board – it was incredibly empowering. And then, we were trying to figure out: What can we do next? How can we find more folks – particularly Black folks – to run for office? That was when the opportunity presented itself to me. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to elevate some of my lived experiences and the lived experiences of my neighbors and my family members in my community.
You’re trying to make the jump from state representative to U.S. representative. What have you learned from your time in Harrisburg and your previous campaigns that’s guiding you on your congressional run?
I’ve learned that there’s a different way to do politics. I learned up close and personal that we don’t have to accept that this is just the way that things go and this is just the way that people move in the political space. We are going to have to really do some introspection about the complicity – how our political system has shaped – where it’s gotten to, and the ways in which we have kind of contributed to the lack of productivity. Just on the state level, we have one of the least productive legislatures in the country.
What does it mean to you to be one of the faces of the progressive movement in western Pennsylvania and to get endorsements from national names like Bernie Sanders?
It’s an honor and it’s definitely a huge responsibility … When we see a (U.S. Sen.) Bernie Sanders or an (U.S. Rep.) Ayanna Pressley or Justice Democrats who are throwing down with us in this race, I think it’s because they recognize how powerful of a thing we’re building here. They see our area has been leading on this in so many ways that we’ve been creating a blueprint. I think that invigorates us and really encourages us and creates momentum in our region.
Can you speak on U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle’s legacy in Congress and what kind of mindset you would bring to Washington if elected?
Congressman Doyle is somebody who has served for 26 years. He’s a very well-known figure and, in many parts of the region, he is very present. He isn’t like a lot of Congress folks who have more of a national presence than a local one. He was at the picnics and the events ... And we’ve seen him move. We’ve seen a lot of officials that last long, where they kind of start to get left behind by their district. Where they started 20 or 30 years ago is not where the district is now, and they’ve been unable to reflect that. Congressman Doyle has been able to do that and keep his finger on the pulse of where his district is going.
I’ll offer a different perspective, too. I’m a Black woman from the Mon Valley. I grew up in a diverse, working-class community with a single mom. I’ve worked minimum wage jobs and have taken on hundreds of thousands of dollars of loan debt to get an education that was supposed to be that ticket out. These are conditions that we’ve lived in generationally, as someone who has lived without health insurance and as someone who has grown up in a community that has some of the worst air quality in the nation. That perspective and that experience are just going to be different and inform the way that I do my politics.
What are your thoughts on Democratic candidate Steve Irwin’s campaign admitting it submitted forged petition signatures? Why didn’t you call on him to drop out of the race?
It’s not about calling for someone to drop out so much as it is calling for accountability. I think that as politicians, as people in politics, we will make mistakes … But I think the mark of a good politician is not in not making mistakes but in how we own up to it. How do we implement accountability mechanisms when we’re dealing with this? It was really discouraging that (Irwin) himself didn’t speak up. There was no ownership over how this could happen and there was no apology to the hundreds of people whose names were forged for him to be able to get on the ballot. That was disappointing and discouraging because as a candidate in the campaign that really brags about how wealthy he is, how ready his campaign is and how he’s the only one who’s day-one ready, he wasn’t able to get on the ballot without having to resort to these sort of tactics. ■
The 2022 Above & Beyond Awards
Scenes from our celebration of outstanding women in Pennsylvania
(Left to right) Diane Reott, Holly Kinser, Rachael Choplick, Jessica Cosmé and Kara Fox of Bellevue Strategies, LLC. Above & Beyond honorees pose with their awards at City & State PA’s inaugural awards program last month at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Philadelphia.
By Justin Sweitzer
CITY & STATE’S inaugural Above & Beyond Awards brought hundreds of people to Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse in Philadelphia to honor 40 women in politics, business, media, education and other sectors who have made major contributions across Pennsylvania.
The event featured keynote speaker Philadelphia City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart, an Above & Beyond honoree who commended all of the awardees for their perseverance and hard work.
“Every woman that is getting an award tonight has had to fight really hard to get here,” Rhynhart said. “I’m sure every woman in this room has had many moments where they have been told that they’re not qualified enough, or it’s not their turn, or they
Zarinah Lomax (left) and Stephanie Sun (right) pose with a copy of the magazine.
(L to R) Sarah Miller, Samantha Apgar, Susan Gobreski, Carol Kuniholm, Pat Beatty and Melissa Wright
The Giant Company’s senior vice president Glennis Harris delivered a message of empowerment.
Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams spoke to a crowd of about 250. (Left to right) Job Itzkowitz, Molly Eichel, Jane Roh, Joe Corrigan, Frank Iannuzzi and Bobby Yerkov were in attendance.
Hundreds gathered last month at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse for City & State PA’s Above & Beyond awards event.
should just be quiet about something. I just want to celebrate the fact that all of us are here because we rejected that notion, and we said: ‘We’re going to chart our own courses here.’”
She stressed the need for more women to hold positions of power and may have even hinted at her interest in Philadelphia’s 2023 mayoral race. “Pennsylvania has never had a woman governor or a woman senator. Philadelphia has never had a woman mayor. And this needs to change,” she said.
The event also featured speeches from Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams, House Democratic Leader Joanna McClinton, state Sen. Maria Collett and Glennis Harris, the senior vice president of customer experience at The Giant Company. ■
Four of a kind
This quartet of Pittsburghers is committed to improving the city via media, art and activism.
By Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
THE CITY OF Pittsburgh is a place where change-makers seem nearly as ubiquitous as bridges. Exhibit A: The following four Pittsburghers, each of whom is improving the city through tried and true methods as well as via innovative, unorthodox means. Whether using media and broadcasting, art and literature or social media, this foursome, comprised of both natives and transplants, warrants attention now – and will command it in the future.
A welcome change
Even though Natalie Bencivenga is a respected advice columnist, journalist, media consultant and contributor to “Pittsburgh Today Live,” KDKA-TV’s morning show, a career in media wasn’t always in her plans. After completing her studies in philosophy and biology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007, she was all set to attend the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. Finding that she wasn’t ready to give up her dream of doing something creative with her life, she deferred her acceptance and spent a year getting a hands-on crash course in all things media.
Even as that one year stretched into years spent building her career as a writer, Bencivenga didn’t completely quit her academic pursuits: In her free time, she’d complete her master’s degree in social work at the University of Pittsburgh
March 21, 2022 City & State Pennsylvania
15 A nationally digitally syndicated advice columnist, Natalie Bencivenga calls herself a “socially conscious” journalist.
– Natalie Bencivenga
BEN PETCHEL in 2013. “That was a really interesting experience – working in so many of the communities of Pittsburgh in a different way than I’d ever experienced them – and really understanding that community in a different context,” Bencivenga said. “I feel like, as a journalist, having a master’s in social work is actually a huge benefit because it grounds you. And I look at journalism as a form of social work.”
Her graduate work ultimately led to a six-year stint overseeing the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s SEEN section, which covers the city’s social life. Over the years, she’s also hosted BROADcast, a Golden Quill-winning podcast, contributed to publications like The Huffington Post, CosmoGirl and SheKnows.com, and consulted for nonprofits such as the Women and Girls Foundation and The Steadman Philippon Research Institute.
Currently, she spends her time writing her advice column, “Ask Natalie,” contributing to Earth Day Pittsburgh, Table Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper, working as a media consultant and running her own production company, Benci Productions, LLC. “Pittsburgh is an interesting place because I feel like it’s more of a big town than a small city in the sense that I find as though it’s a place where you can make a big impact without having to be a big person,” Bencivenga said. “And I like to try to be a tiny, teeny, tiny little force for good, in my own way to help towards that goal for Pittsburgh.”
State of the dissemination
After spending most of his childhood in Chicago, Illinois, Jasiri X moved to the Pittsburgh area with his family when he was 14 years old. When he first arrived in Monroeville, a small borough just outside of Pittsburgh, he recalls being shocked and angered by the prevalence of racism in the area. But since fighting would have provoked his mother’s ire, he immersed himself in activism to challenge the injustice he was seeing.He’s been fighting – in a mom-approved way – ever since by participating in protests seeking justice for individuals like Michael Brown and Antwon Rose who have been killed in police shootings, releasing socially conscious music, campaigning for justice-oriented political candidates, and by becoming a co-founder and the CEO of 1Hood. “We were young, we came from hip hop – we wanted to use the culture to begin to do some things in the community,” Jasiri X said.
Jasiri X helped start 1Hood, a collective of activists and artists devoted to addressing community violence, in 2006. In 2010, 1Hood Media began focusing on helping young people to analyze media and use art to raise awareness about social justice. In recent years, 1Hood Media has broadened its reach via online content such as a weekly online show titled, “This Week in White
Jasiri X became nationally recognized in 2006 after he formed the anti-violence group 1Hood.
Supremacy.” Furthermore, the organization has remained committed to creating accessible educational programming like “Ask A Black Doctor,” and the “What Black Pittsburgh Needs to Know” town halls, both of which were created during the pandemic. One of the organization’s newest projects is BlackPittsburgh.org, an online news website dedicated to telling stories of Black Pittsburghers of the past and present. “The work that we do every day at 1Hood is what keeps me here; you know, Pittsburgh touts itself as America’s most livable city” – even though, he stressed, it “clearly is not ‘most livable’ for Black people – so our call is to make Pittsburgh livable for everybody, not just a select few.”
The art of her matter
Vanessa German can’t remember a time in her life when she hasn’t seen herself first and foremost as an artist. Entirely self-taught, German says she has always known that making art would be a central part of whatever path she chose to take in life – including spending 20 years in Pittsburgh. “What kept me” in the city, she explained, was the ability to buy the ideal home for her needs: “I could live and work in the same space, and I could grow,”
German’s work, which includes sculpture and photography, frequently centers around subjects such as gun violence, poverty, injustice, and often incorporates her poetry and personal experiences. Her body of work has not gone unnoticed: she’s been honored with the Jacob Lawrence Award, Ronald H. Brown Community Leadership award and the Duquesne Light Leadership Award, and has been featured at the Smithsonian. Additionally, German has performed her poetry at the inaugurations of former Mayor Bill Peduto and the recently elected Mayor Ed Gainey. Although she isn’t a Pittsburgh native, during her two decades in the city, she has created multiple exhibitions, has had her work featured in numerous collections, and, before a fire destroyed it, German hosted ARTHouse, which offered a community studio space for children, neighbors and artists alike.
German currently spends most of her
Critically acclaimed writer Damon Young has been featured in magazines and newspapers all across the U.S.
A self-taught artist, Vanessa German is a visual storyteller who uses sculpture, photography and more.
EMMAI ALAQUIVA; POPSCREENSHOT/WIKIPEDIA COMMONS; ALLEN PHILLIPS/WADSWORTH ATHENEUM MUSEUM OF ART, COURTESY OF KASMIN, NEW YORK time traveling to host nomadic galleries around the country, but her artwork and contributions continue to be prominently featured around the city. “I figured out a way to make my life sustainable,” German said, “not only my life, but my soul – I love art. I’m going to just share what I love.”
Young and restless
Damon Young is a born-and-raised Pittsburgher. He is also the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of Very Smart Brothas, a popular blog that hosts columns about politics, satire, popular culture and the Black experience. Young was one of the blog’s most prominent voices for more than a decade until he announced his departure in March 2021. “If I had to rely on Pittsburgh, I would have left Pittsburgh,” Young, who has contributed to GQ, The New York Times, Slate, Essence and The Huffington Post, explained to Pittsburgh City Paper in a 2019 interview. “Since I don’t have to rely on Pittsburgh, I get to stay in Pittsburgh.”
In between writing columns that were hailed for being as witty as they could be poignant, Young penned “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,” a 2019 bestselling memoir that chronicled his life and critiques of racism in America through essays. In 2020, Young’s memoir was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor and nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and was longlisted for the PEN America Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award. “I’m not this MFA or this academic. I didn’t come through a New York Times or New Yorker pipeline or whatever,” Young said, according to a 2019 Inverse interview. “I started a blog … Now I’ve written” for national publications, he added, “but I wasn’t brought up and groomed that way. Since I haven’t been, it would be fraudulent for me to try to be less accessible just because … that’s just not me.“
Despite having left Very Smart Brothas, Young appears to have no intention of ceasing sharing his views with the world from his hometown. Since January, he’s joined The Washington Post Magazine as a columnist and announced a new socially conscious podcast examining class, gender and race titled, “Stuck with Damon Young.” ■
