March 13, 2019 - Pittsburgh City Paper by Pittsburgh City Paper

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Local women comics sound off on the boys’ club of Pittsburgh comedy

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

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Celebrating Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s History Month

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MARCH 13-20, 2019 VOLUME 28 + ISSUE 11 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 Designer JEFF SCHRECKENGOST Marketing and Promotions Coordinator CONNOR MARSHMAN Senior Sales Representative BLAKE LEWIS Sales Representatives KAITLIN OLIVER, NICK PAGANO Office Coordinator MAGGIE WEAVER 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 JANINE FAUST, XIOLA JENSEN, JARED MURPHY 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 MURPHY

A historical marker celebrating NAACP organizer Daisy E. Lampkin in the Hill District

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COVER ILLUSTRATION: TERESA ROBERTS LOGAN RE A D T H E S TORY ON PAG E 6

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

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THE BIG STORY

STOP TELLING

WOMEN (COMEDIANS) TO SMILE BY CP STAFF // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

R Real comments made to local female comedians including artist Teresa Logan, who is both a cartoonist and a stand-up comic

ECENTLY, PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER columnist and local stand-up veteran Gab Bonesso

came to us with a story about the struggles faced by women in the Pittsburgh comedy scene. Her motivation to pursue it came from the outrage over Pittsburgh Improv hosting a semi-secret show earlier this year for Louis C.K., the popular comedian who, in 2017, conﬁrmed allegations that he forced multiple women to watch him masturbate. Bonesso and local comedian Cassi Bruno were two of the women who decided to speak out against the appearance in City Paper and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It breaks my heart that his shows are sold-out and that people want to hear from a misogynist, victim-blamer,” Bonesso told City Paper in January. “I thought in Pittsburgh ‘hate has no place here.’ I guess I was wrong.” Bruno also noted at the time that C.K. wasn’t the only questionable booking from the Improv. Earlier in January, the Improv hosted comedian T.J. Miller, who has been accused of violent sexual assault, and was arrested last year for calling in a false bomb threat. After the articles appeared, both women say they faced online harassment for speaking out. The event has since led to other local women recounting their own experiences of being harassed by men in the Pittsburgh comedy scene in a private Facebook page, which the women thought was a safe space to share their stories. Bonesso says someone took screenshots of the private discussions and shared them with the accused. To try and understand this issue, City Paper hosted a roundtable of local female comedians, all at different points in their careers and representing the improv, stand-up, and burlesque scenes. They discussed being preyed upon, sexually harassed or assaulted, or blackballed by men in local comedy, including podcast and radio hosts, venue owners, and organizers of major comedy festivals and events. They believe the scene is dominated by a boys’ club that often shuts women out, a belief supported by local showcases featuring one token woman and the prevalence of events with no women at all. The women came forward even as they expressed fears of being harassed or retaliated against for telling us their stories. For their protection, we made the decision to retract any names that were mentioned during the roundtable. The following discussion has been edited for space and clarity. CONTINUES ON PG. 8

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

STOP TELLING WOMEN COMEDIANS TO SMILE, CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

OUR ROUNDTABLE PANEL:

CP: I heard there were some issues with the last comedy showcase some of you performed at Brillobox. GAB: There were two men in particular. It felt like they came not to just watch the show, but to watch us. One man didn’t even stay for the show. CASSI: I was in the corner the whole time. I was doing the music. This guy walked in and he had loose ﬁtting pants on. He just had his hand in his pocket and … would nott stop staring at me.

GAB BONESSO 40, comedian, actress, writer, anti-bully/mental health advocate, producer of Pittsburgh’s “longest running underground comedy showcase” at Brillobox

gabbonesso.com

“

I never wanted to do stand-up. I wanted to be an actress. I went to school for theater. I was graduating from Duquesne and I was meeting with my advisors and they’re, like, ‘You know what? You’re a character actress, so you’re not going to get any work. You’re never going to be the lead.’ Then, one advisor suggested, ‘Why don’t you try standup comedy?’

”

GAB: This man who was in the audience at another Brillo show I did, before the show ame your friend on was like, “Hi, I just became Facebook,” and then he kept going up to o take you out.” me being like, “I want to on’t do this. I And I’m like, “Please don’t n the middle don’t want to date.” In of my show, he would yell out stuff. Then he messaged me on Facebook. hree months … And then he waits three and comes to a show at Brillo and does it all over again. I literally ran away from him. ion I could tell That’s one of a million you. With the situation with that guy, how many times do I have to tell you no? That’s why I run. ht, or freeze. TRACEY: It’s fight, flight, You flew. ne a man GAB: You can imagine being like, “Well, what did he do st asked that’s wrong? He just you out.”

CP: Have you ever been in a situation where d you felt you had to do certain favors or act a certain way in ig? order to get a gig?

CASSI BRUNO 24, stand-up comedian, writer

cassibruno.com

“

I always liked comedy and stand-up when I was a kid. I always liked Sarah Silverman. I used to memorize jokes and tell them to people and pretend that I made it up. I would do stand-up for my friends’ parents because I wanted them to pay attention to me.

”

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CASSI: When I started, I was 21 and I would go out all the time and everybody was a lot older than me. I wass trying nd I had to be their friends, and h older several situations with guys that I would say, “You’re ould see too old for me.” But I would them at every open mic and ike, “Am they would always be like, I still too old for you? Are you old enough for me?” They would al drunk and ﬂirt with me and be real

corner me. I didn’t want to start anything because I wanted to do comedy, so I was just trying to be cute and laugh it off. I think subjecting myself to like, having to do that, because I’m not usually the type of person to be that way. I was new. I didn’t want to blow up my spot. I just think having to strip yourself of your dignity to put yourself in situations like that where it’s not explicitly sexual harassment but still dehumanizing, you have to sit there and act like a child and act like you re happy that men are paying attention you’re to you.

TRACEY: And smile and look pretty. “Why aren’t you smiling?” GAB: It’s so sad how, even with us, sexism is ingrained. I’ve made excuses for men, “Oh he was drunk, he was this, he was that.” Within my ﬁrst two years of comedy, there was an older man who worked with me, was promoting me, helping my career … and one night we were doing a show at Club Cafe, and I was working the soundboard, and he came up behind me and he literally stuck his hand down the back of my pants and put his ﬁnger in my vagina, and I freaked out. He was so drunk and he was doing cocaine that night and I made excuses for him, and I continued to work with him. He doesn’t live in Pittsburgh anymore, so I haven’t had to work with him, but when all the stuff came out about Trump, I got so triggered. “Oh my God, I had that happen to me and I kept that man in my life.” He’s still on my Instagram, he’s still on my Twitter feed. When I see that story, “Grab ‘em by the pussy,” and then having been grabbed, I was messed up. And I hate that I would even give him a pass, “He was drunk, he was doing cocaine.” ARLA: That’s why I started doing comedy in burlesque and the burlesque scene because I don’t have to deal with that. TRACEY: People understand consent there. ARLA: The troupe that I’m in, it’s a queer troupe, the Velvet Hearts, and they found me useful and adopted me, and I feel safer. I’ve been verbally harassed a lot, but I haven’t been groped, fortunately.

CP: Do you think there are more women in Pittsburgh comedy than when you started? TRACEY: Thanks to Gab, there are definitely more women. You create so many opportunities. GAB: When I started at the Funny Bone, it was me and two other guys, and the two guys were Black and I was a woman, and we never got any gigs. We were always told we weren’t funny, and what we needed to work on. We left and went to Club Cafe. I purposely try to hide from the scene. Even doing this roundtable, I was freaking terrified because I try to just be “Gab who does Brillobox and does her own thing, and I’m not bothering you and I’m not trying to take your piece of the pie, I just have my little quirky thing over here, and I do the kids things so don’t get mad at me because I’m helping little kids.” And I took care of my mother for nine years so I hid and did that because the amount of harassment I got in my first three years doing stand-up … Men from the Funny Bone would go on my

website, call me a dyke, tell me how ugly I am, tell me that I’m not funny, tell me that the only people who come to my shows are lesbians, that the only following I have are lesbians. TRACEY: Like that’s a bad thing! GAB: Even the owner of the Funny Bone came on and trashed me. It was madness. I’ve had male comedians take my name and buy a domain like gabbonesso.org and then write horrible things about me because I didn’t have the money to have it ripped down. These are the reasons I have become this isolated little person who, when women ﬁnd me and they’re like, “Can I do standup?” and I’m like, “Yeah, come on!”

“I PURPOSELY TRY TO HIDE FROM THE SCENE. EVEN DOING THIS ROUNDTABLE, I WAS FREAKING TERRIFIED.”

TRACEY STEELE 59, comedian, vocalist, “Silica Flynt” variety/burlesque performer

facebook.com/traceysmcc give me a mic and a spotlight, “If I’llyoupretty anything. y much do any ”

But the joke is I’m Willy Wonka. The joke is I do the Island of Misfit Toy comedy. The joke is I’m the person for the weirdos, if you’re fringe and not a real comedian. Like [one local male comedian] said to me, “I’ve won best comedian three times, and your style doesn’t fit with what I book.” But you book a comedy club, so my style is never going to be invited to a comedy club? So that’s a gaslit narrative, that he’s the gatekeeper of comedy. That’s not real. ARLA: I took stand-up classes and as soon as I graduated, I was like, “Oh, I can do anything.” They had the first stand-up competition for the Pittsburgh Comedy Festival, and I was like, “I’m doing that, no question.” And then I go to Arcade and [that same male comedian] comes in and is just like, “Oh, so this is kind of like an open mic. It doesn’t really matter.” And I’m sitting there like, “We’re competing.” GAB: Three years ago, my mother died, I needed something to throw myself into. I got signed by Misra Records to do a comedy album. I was told that I was going to have to do a bunch of interviews and promote the album. [During one interview] the hosts were already very drunk by my time. At the end of the interview, one guy was like, “Hey do you want to hang out and smoke?”

ARLA WHITE 33, comedian, singer, burlesque performer and marketing manager for burlesque variety troupe Velvet Hearts, sponsorship coordinator for Fierce! Queer Performing Arts Festival

facebook.com/ velvetheartspittsburgh Sarah Silverman, Kathy Griffin, “andI loved then seeing Amy Schumer, it’s like, ‘You’re saying the things I’m thinking. You can do this.’ Why not me? ”

CONTINUES ON PG. 10

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

STOP TELLING WOMEN, CONTINUED FROM PG. 9

MEET THIS WEEK’S COVER ARTIST:

Teresa Roberts Logan is a cartoonist and longtime professional stand-up comic. Comedy credits include HBO, The Comedy Channel, A&E, and opening for Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen DeGeneres. Her webcomic Laughing Redhead Comics can be found at GoComics and her website is LaughingRedhead.com. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @LaughingRedhead.

Being a woman in comedy, you deal with a lot of sexism, from club owners, managers, comics, and more … but you also meet along the way some great people (men and women) who believe in you and your approach to your craft, and they become lifelong friends. I’ve met some total creeps along the way in comedy, and I’ve met some of the best people ever, too. It takes strength to hang in there. I’m serious about comedy, and I love it. There’s nothing like it, so … I won’t let the jerkweeds bring me down.

“

”

So we were hanging out and at ﬁrst he was like, “I didn’t know how pretty you were.” And then he’s like, “Can I kiss you? Do you want to make out?” And I was like, “No.” So then we’re hanging out a little bit more … and we’re sitting on the me couch, and he’s like, “So you wanna come ike, over here and make out?” And I’m like, “No, I don’t.” He said it again one more time, and then I’m like, “I gotta go,” y and as I’m walking out, he literally pushed me up against the door and kissed me and I pushed e him off and went “No,” and he went, “Really, no?” What was concerning me at ooking the time was he was booking l] and so [a local comedy festival] I just went to a friend off mine who runs the festival and was like, ppened “Look, this is what happened m just to me. I’m a veteran. I’m o do concerned he is going to this to younger women and ted use his power if they wanted to get into the festival, and iend the guy who was my friend was, like, “I hear you, but he nd other than does a really good job, and this story, we wouldn’t have grounds e to to ﬁre him, so you’re going to have come out publicly with this.” My album was just dropping. I’m like “I don’t have time for this.” I made my album because my mother had just died and then right before I was recording it my brother overdosed. I was just not in the headspace to deal with any of this. If I didn’t come out when the other guy put his hand in my vagina, I’m certainly not going to come out when this guy just kissed me. But I really do look back with a lot of regret on all of this, and I do feel that people do count on me to stand up, and I do feel badly that these incidents happened and you didn’t know.

CP: I have heard that the improv scene is a lot less toxic than the stand-up scene. Can you speak to that? TRACEY: The improv community is very isolated because it’s all mostly white straight people. They really do not get sexual orientation, gender identity stuff. They don’t get queer people. They march in the pride parade, but their idea of being inclusive during pride week is to bring in a drag queen as a headliner. ARLA: Get a king! Get a person of color!

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“I REALLY DO LOOK BACK WITH A LOT OF REGRET ON ALL OF THIS.” CASSI: I’ve heard people in the improv community … and people in standup say, “Well, there’s not a lot of Black people or people of color that come to these shows. I don’t know why. It’s not like we tell them they can’t.” Why don’t you think a little more about it?

know. Here, everyone read this about white male privilege. There’s white female privilege too, but at least I know I’ve got it.

TRACEY: Every old guy in improv has come to me to have a serious talk about, “Why do people think I’m creepy?”

CP: I have spoken to men who used to be in the comedy scene who have told me that they felt bullied. Do you think it would be good if these men spoke up as well and it wasn’t just you guys carrying the burden?

CASSI: They never have to think about it their entire lives and then … GAB: It’s her job! Make a woman explain it to you. TRACEY: I am always the one who has to take one for the team and have the hard talk with whoever it is. … They really f’n don’t get it. I want to pass out copies of white fragility to everybody I

GAB: Even a white woman doesn’t have a lot of privilege in comedy.

ARLA: Oh yeah, that would help. But it can’t be they, like, taking it over like, “We thought of this.”

LANDMARKS PRESERVATION RESOURCE CENTER GAB: Like [a local male comedian] capitalizing on the oppression of women while oppressing women in his real life. This is the guy who’s defending feminism in Pittsburgh, but we’re just loud, angry bitches. CASSI: All of my male comedian friends have all said to me at one point, “We hate him too, he’s annoying, you don’t have to worry.” But you don’t have people making you think, “Should I have not worn this? Are people staring at my boobs when I’m trying to tell this joke?” or “Are you going to follow me to my car later?” You don’t have that same experience. It’s harder for me to just ignore that when it’s like, a culture of oppression. GAB: Even the guys who say, “But we’re allies, right? We’ve never made you feel uncomfortable.” And they don’t, but … they, like, want us to mother them. There are so many roles a woman can take on, so if [you’re] not going to sexually harass people, then I need to mother you and give you stage time and take care of you.

CP: Do you think venues having womenonly nights is a novelty? TRACEY: A token. GAB: Like the “Ladies of laughter comedy night!” I remember once, we were on stage, and I was like, “We’re a freak show.

Come right up and see four women who are actually funny!” So I try to have bills that are mostly all women and we just don’t talk about it. We’re just like, a comedy show. TRACEY: Why do we need to state it? If we’re mainstreaming ourselves, then we need to stop focusing on the fact that we are assigned female at birth.

CP: If you don’t have an all-female show, we have the token woman. GAB: And that’s where Arla probably gets screwed because there’s one woman, one Black person. If they have you, you’re taking two spots so you can’t be on the show. Or if they have you, they’re still going to have to have a man. It’s so sick and gross. I look at bills and there’s the one woman, there’s the one Black guy; there’s the one woman, oh, one gay person! Wow! Someone opened up and actually let someone in the community on this show. Like, it’s just disgusting.

- 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, MARCH 21 • 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM WORKSHOP: INSTALLING AND REPAIRING MOLDINGS PRESENTER: REGIS WILL • VESTA HOME SERVICES Join us for a demonstration workshop on installing or repairing moldings on your house. We will discuss when to miter and when to cope, or even what a cope is. We’ll also discuss interior moldings from baseboard to crown as well as door and window castings. Participants will also learn about exterior moldings and some of the terms for many of the shapes we see in our architecture. ABOUT THE PRESENTER: Regis Will is a woodworker, craftsman, and owner of Vesta Home Services, a consulting ﬁrm on house restoration and Do-it-Yourself projects. He blogs about his work at The New Yinzer Workshop.

CP: Do you think there’s a way to go about making comedy more equitable and more representable? ARLA: Getting the little guys together and doing your own thing. GAB: More women producers. More women producers.

•

THIS WORKSHOP IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. RSVPS ARE APPRECIATED: MARYLU@PHLF.ORG OR 412-471-5808 EXT. 527. 744 REBECCA AVENUE

WILKINSBURG, PA 15221

412-471-5808

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

It’s hard to capture a perfect picture of our “performers” at Arcade, as we have such a mixture of shows that are produced by us, as well as also presented by us. One easy statistic for me to count was our Improv Program … I counted 49/110 improvisers being women, so about 45 percent of 13 improv teams, eight are coached by men, five by women. And while we have a larger number of faculty than any given term, our January Academy term had 10 classes, five taught by men, five by women. It is important to us that not only are women represented as artists and community members but also seen in both artistic and management roles of leadership.

Abby Fudor, creative director and marketing & management, Arcade Comedy Theater

.COMEDY. When Arcade was pretty young, there were already starting to be stories breaking about abuses of power at other comedy theaters nationwide, ranging from harassment to assault, and in nearly all of them, the theaters had missed pretty glaring opportunities to protect their performers, and I never wanted that to be us. In a lot of those cases, the organizations were swearing to do better in the future, but we had the chance to learn from their mistakes rather than making our own. I’m a policy wonk, so I believe in the power of clearly defined expectations and procedures; first, I think it’s somewhat preventative in that it sends a message about what behavior isn’t welcome in our house. Second, when a crisis does arrive, it provides a road map of how to address it. I think policies are important because, in absence of instructions, scared people default to doing nothing. I’m proud that our policy leaves room for Arcade to still be a comedy theater and a social setting while setting up protections for women (and people in other protected classes) to get help if they’re being harmed. As for the larger question of why it’s important to make comedy spaces that are safe for women and other people that don’t fit the usual picture of a comedian, well, setting morality aside, it’s because uniformity is boring, and boredom is anathema to comedy.

Liz Labacz, performer, teacher, and board member, Arcade Comedy Theater

WHAT FUNNY WOMEN WANT P BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

ITTSBURGH CITY PAPER reached out to a dozen local al venues asking, ittsburgh comedy among other things, what they’re doing to make the Pittsburgh scene more inclusive. Thankfully, women leaders from the Arcade y to reply. Comedy Theater and Steel City Improv Theater were happy

Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.

We have a harassment policy, which boils down to don’t make anyone feel uncomfortable. The type of long-form improv that we teach is about focusing on your scene partner and building them up, so that seems to help with the general attitude. The SCIT first started in 2010, and it personally took me almost three years to recognize with my own ingrained misogyny. For example, in our very early years, we had a teacher who I found out was harassing several women in the community. Instead of firing him on the spot (which would have ABSOLUTELY happened now), I had a heart to heart with him, spent time helping him, blah blah blah. He was later fired. And that wasn’t an isolated incident. We had another teacher (no longer with the SCIT) who would take up my time with the “are women funny?” B.S. Then I put up with way too much (again with the ingrained misogyny), now I shut it down. I’m not only responsible for myself, but I’m responsible for the performers, and that’s just not what we do here. There’s now a zero tolerance policy; we just don’t put up with it anymore. These guys are certainly still out there, but not at the SCIT. We’ve worked very hard to get this community to where it is today. After that, I put some rules in place: Our house team committee must be at least 25 percent women, teachers and coaches cannot date current students – things like that. What I tried to do was zero in on possible abuses of power and get rid of them. We also have SCIT town hall meetings, and I make myself available to have casual chats with the performers here, especially the women. We also have a show called Lady Business that brings together the women of this community. We’re stronger together. At the SCIT, we punch up, focus on our scene partner and we listen. I think that these three tenants have made our community stronger, but it can always do better.

Kasey Daley, artistic director of Steel City Improv Theater 12

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

CP PHOTO: RYAN DETO

St. Patrick’s Church in the Strip District

.NEWS.

IRISH ROOTS

How to celebrate Pittsburgh’s Irish history without drinking green beer BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

HIS WEEK, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Pittsburgh Penguins fans can treat themselves to German-style American beer in a cup emblazoned with shamrocks and a penguin dressed as a leprechaun. Let’s be honest, it’s not the best way to celebrate the region’s Irish heritage.

Luckily, Pittsburgh has plenty of relatively easy ways to celebrate being Irish, all while avoiding stereotypes and mass marketing. The Pittsburgh region is ﬁlled with Irish descendants. According to 2017 census ﬁgures, more than 470,000 people in the Pittsburgh region report Irish or Scotch-Irish

ancestry, second only to German. Carlow University professor Peter Gilmore teaches a course on Irish-American history and has written on Irish immigrants in Western Pennsylvania. He says the Irish had a profound inﬂuence on Pittsburgh’s religion, politics, and labor rights. CONTINUES ON PG. 16

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

IRISH ROOTS, CONTINUED FROM PG. 14

Take the region’s home rule charters. The concept of home rule, which empowers constituents to self-govern, first gained popularity in Ireland as a way to combat their British colonizers. In the mid- to late-1800s, Gilmore says the “home rule movement was the big movement in Ireland” and the Irish living in the U.S. had “conscious identification with solidarity with the Irish movement.” In 1922, the Pennsylvania Constitution was amended to allow the legislature to grant municipalities home rule. Obviously reading Allegheny County’s home rule charter isn’t an ideal way to spend a holiday, so here are some of Gilmore’s recommendations on where to learn and honor Pittsburgh’s specific Irish history.

MINGO CREEK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

561 MINGO CHURCH ROAD, FINLEYVILLE One of the ﬁrst times Irish immigrants started recognizing their political power was the Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising that occurred in Southwestern Pennsylvania over opposition to a tax on whiskey. Many Presbyterian Irish from the Ulster region, aka Scotch-Irish, produced whiskey on their farms and hated the tax. Gilmore says whiskey was a huge part of early Irish immigrants’ lives. “Everybody who was Irish drank whiskey, though Presbyterian people look at me weird when I tell them that they drank whiskey morning, noon, and night,” says Gilmore. As a result of the tax, Irish-Americans started supporting Thomas Jefferson, who won the Western Pennsylvania delegation of the Electoral College, narrowly winning the presidency of 1800. Jefferson then repealed the tax. The Mingo Creek church in Washington County is described as the cradle of the Whiskey Rebellion, where Scotch-Irish farmers organized protests against the tax. Several rebels who died in skirmishes over the tax are buried in the adjoining cemetery.

ST. PATRICK’S CHURCH

1711 LIBERTY AVE., STRIP DISTRICT Catholicism in Pittsburgh started with Irish Catholics. St. Patrick’s Church in the Strip District was the city’s ﬁrst Catholic denomination, starting in 1808. Gilmore says Irish Catholics immigrated to Pitts-

burgh to ﬁnish work on the Pennsylvania Canal, which went directly past St. Patrick’s Church. “It was not just convenient for those working on the canal, but it made it easy to get there,” says Gilmore. A church stands in the same spot today, and allegedly there is a chunk of the famed Blarney Stone somewhere in its mast. A quaint courtyard is attached to the church, complete with a statue of St. Patrick.

CARLOW UNIVERSITY 3333 FIFTH AVE., OAKLAND

Irish immigrants also had a substantial humanitarian presence in early Pittsburgh. Gilmore says the Sisters of Mercy arrived in Pittsburgh in 1843 to teach and minister to the recent inﬂux of poor Irish immigrants. Their efforts ramped up in the creation of Mercy Hospital and Our Lady of Mercy Academy. The academy eventually became Mount Mercy College in 1929, until it was renamed Carlow University in 1969. The Sisters of Mercy originally came to Pittsburgh from County Carlow, Ireland. Gilmore says St. Patrick’s Day revelers can honor the work of the Sisters of Mercy by visiting a statue of Frances Warde, one of the original sisters. The statue is located in the Hospitality Garden near Antonian Hall.

HOMESTEAD PUMP HOUSE 880 E. WATERFRONT AVE., MUHALL

According the Gilmore, early Irish immigrants were a big part of Pittsburgh’s labor movement. He says most of the leadership of the famous Homestead Strike, generally considered a watershed moment for Pittsburgh labor rights, was Irish. At the preserved Pump House, which sits at the location of the old steel mill site, people can learn about union leader Hugh O’Donnell and former Homestead burgess and steelworker John McLuckie. GILMORE SAYS Pittsburgh’s Irish history

tells a compelling story of how immigrants organized through labor, religion, and politics to shape what Pittsburgh is today, while facing vehement antiIrish sentiments. So, if you really want to celebrate being Irish in Pittsburgh: organize labor and grassroots movements at churches that build enough political power to combat anti-immigrant hysteria.

Follow senior writer Ryan Deto on Twitter @RyanDeto

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OAKLAND STUDENTS WALK OUT AS PART OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S STRIKE Pittsburgh women also went on strike for gender equality and a voice for women of all backgrounds

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.NEWS.

PERIOD PIECE BY HANNAH LYNN HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

EOPLE HAVE A difficult time talking about periods. This is obvious from the language used to describe it publicly, like a bathroom sign indicating where to dispose of “feminine hygiene products” or a drug store aisle indicating the location of “feminine care products.” It’s most often seen as a women’s problem that should be dealt with discreetly. Nonprofit organization SisterFriend formed in 2015 with the goal of centering menstruation as a healthcare issue and providing menstrual hygiene products like pads and tampons to low-income and homeless people who otherwise might not be able to afford them. “It’s a really simple thing that we can tackle,” says SisterFriend founder, Tamara Abney. “But it’s so important because it plays on someone’s physical health, but it also plays on their mental health — the dignity that you have for yourself.” Last year, SisterFriend began a partnership with Pittsburgh Public Schools to provide menstrual hygiene products to four schools. Tight budgets limit the supply of products available to schools, and Abney notes that teachers and nurses sometimes buy them out of their own pockets. The SisterFriend kits include 10 pads, giving students enough supply to last several days (tampons are not given out at

PHOTO: TAMARA ABNEY

Tamara Abney founded menstrual health organization SisterFriend in 2015

schools as they can be more difﬁcult to use). Abney also says students can take as many kits as they want since they could be for a family member or friend in need. “A lot of students may not have the resources at home to buy menstrual hygiene products, so they’re really relying on the school to provide those for them,” says Abney. “It’s embarrassing to have to go back on a daily basis to ask for more and more.” In addition to schools, SisterFriend also partners with several local homeless

shelters and have a goal of expanding to correctional facilities. Menstrual hygiene products are not covered under federal assistance programs, like SNAP or WIC. The products are also not eligible for purchase with HSA (Health Savings Account) or FSA (Flexible Savings Account) dollars. Pennsylvania does not tax menstrual products, but 36 states do. “Maybe they’re not high on the priority list for a family on public assistance that has to think about, ‘Am I feeding my kids or keeping the lights on, or am

I buying these pads and tampons?’” says Abney. The idea that menstrual hygiene products are not seen as a necessity and a vital healthcare tool also creates a gap in access for homeless and incarcerated people who menstruate. “There’s no reason why pads and tampons shouldn’t be one of the number one things that are donated to a homeless shelter,” says Abney. “They get food, they get toiletries. They probably have a ton of hotel shampoos.” Abney hopes that with the increasing number of women elected into ofﬁce and the heightened cultural awareness around menstrual health, laws and policies will begin to change. She notes that women in the ﬁeld refer to 2015, the year of SisterFriend’s founding, as “the year of the period.” It was the year Instagram caught heat for removing a photo on poet Rupi Kaur’s account of a woman bleeding through her pants. It was the year musician Kiran Gandhi made headlines for running a marathon while free-bleeding. It was the year Donald Trump referred to Megyn Kelly as having “blood coming out of her wherever.” Four years later, there’s been progress, but more needs to change. At the 2019 Academy Awards, the Best Documentary Short award went to Period. End of Sentence, which highlights the lack of menstrual hygiene access in India. It was an exuberant win, but Abney hopes the focus on the need for menstrual health access internationally doesn’t take away from the situation in the U.S. “I think [the movie] was really cool, but I would also like more attention to the plight of menstrual hygiene in the U.S,” she says. “I think that’s why sometimes we don’t think about it here in the United States because we always think it’s some other country’s issue.”

•

Follow staff writer Hannah Lynn on Twitter @hanfranny

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BE SMARTER THAN ME IF YOU CHEAT ON YOUR TAXES BY JOSH OSWALD // JOSWALD@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

O BE FAIR, I didn’t cheat on my taxes; my “accountant” cheated on my taxes. And it wasn’t cheating in the way that our president does; it was just a couple of white lies that might get you a slightly better refund. Or at least that’s what I thought it was going to be. When your friend says he has an accountant who “gets great refunds, and you don’t even have to meet with him,” along with a smorgasbord of other redflag descriptions, do not collect $200, do not pass go, and head directly to your nearest H&R Block clutching your rosary. But I was 27, living in New York City, and getting paid journalism money. It’s expensive there, if you haven’t heard. So, I rolled the dice and sent this black hat money man my W-2 and a check for around $200. I felt like Danny Ocean about to execute the perfect crime. Soon, I would be swimming in the IRS equivalent of Andy Garcia’s riches. I waited. I hadn’t heard anything from the tax man. So, I figured everything went swimmingly. I periodically checked the IRS website to see what my refund would be, but no data was showing up. The issue had to be something wrong with the IRS website and not with the sneaky man I never met. Right? Right?! As the reality of the situation began to catch up with me, I called his office to see if my taxes had been filed. The receptionist assured me that they had been filed. I was skeptical but figured there wasn’t much I could do but wait and see. Finally, my tax refund arrived. And, oh, did it arrive — to the tune of around

$3,000! See, sometimes good things do happen to bad people. I’m not going to tell you my salary, but rest assured it was not nearly high enough to get a $3,000 refund. The money had been spent, probably on boring things like debt and late-night McDonald’s runs. I was living a life on the lam until I found a letter in my mailbox that informed me I was being audited. I did the first thing any hardened criminal would do: I called an adult. My best friend’s dad is a CPA, and examined my return. He called to ask about all of the deductions I had taken. “So, how far do you drive your car every day?” he asked. I thought he was kidding. Only masochists have cars in New York. “It says here that you spend this many dollars on laundering your uniform for work.” Unless by “uniform” he meant my wardrobe of short-sleeve Van Heusen button downs, my tax man had made up some really bold lies. Turns out this guy claimed I drove like 400 miles to work every day and a host of other idiotic claims that would raise the red flags of even the greenest IRS agent. To make a long story short, my friend’s dad filed an appropriate tax statement; I got put on a payment plan by the IRS; my friend who recommended the tax preparer got busted too (good, right?) And two years later, two IRS investigators, who found me through a bitchy Yahoo review I wrote about the tax preparer, bought me donuts at a local Dunkin’ while grilling me for two hours about this guy. This wasn’t his first offense, and this time he went to jail. Now, he’s a business development manager for the Red Cross.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

.RESTAURANT REVIEW.

AHT OF THIS WORLD BY MAGGIE WEAVER MWEAVER@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

ANDWICHES HAVE ALWAYS been an integral part of Pittsburgh cuisine, thanks to Joe Primanti and his Strip District cart. Primanti started wheeling out his slaw-topped goods in the 1930s, beginning the city’s decade-long sandwich obsession. Today, the love affair is crowned by a modest food truck that slaps together some of the city’s best. The Pittsburgh Sandwich Society has a strong fan base, and for a good reason. Sandwich groupies have been tracking down the truck since 2016. It’s led by chef Michael Carney and coowner Erin Andrzejewski, who churn out food regularly listed in the high ranks of city sammies, most notably their take on the famed In-N-Out burger (the “in-n-aht burger”). Take Aht!, Carney and Andrzejewski’s grab-n-go spot in Lawrenceville, opened in May 2018, overtaking the space once occupied by Kaleidoscope Cafe. The truck is still active, but Take Aht! provides a consistent, stationary lunch service catering to larger orders and delivery services. The menu at Take Aht! mirrors its mobile counterpart, adding a few onlocation specials now and then. A mix of sandwiches appear on the bill, including classics like a grilled chicken club or a veggie burger, and twists on Nashville hot chicken (PGH hot chicken). When I arrived at Take Aht!, the building was still decorated with a labyrinth of murals from Kaleidoscope. Two sandwiches made the cut — the in-n-aht and the chopped cheese — along with a side of shoestring fries.

CP PHOTO: MAGGIE WEAVER

In-n-aht burger with fries at Take Aht! The Pittsburgh Sandwich Society

TAKE AHT! THE PITTSBURGH SANDWICH SOCIETY 108 43rd St., Lawrenceville. 412-224-2188 or pghsandwichsociety.com

The moment I unboxed my burger, I knew my in-n-aht was something worth swooning over. It was the made-for-tv

version of a sandwich, camera-ready to star in a drive-through ad. Ingredients were fresh and crispy; the double patty elevated with a tang of onion jam and thick pickles. The Society nailed its butter toasted bread, a smart boundary to keep soggy buns at bay. Chopped cheese, contrary to my assumption, was not a cheesesteak but more of a cheeseburger-sub married to

FAVORITE FEATURES:

Pittsburghuese

Brunch

Winston’s Crunchy Society

The Pittsburgh Sandwich Society leans heavily into Pittsburghuese, laying on the accent when they’re parked “dahntahn” or “sold aht.”

Keep an eye out for the society’s delicious brunch creations, like a breakfast burrito or egg and pork belly sammie.

Walking your dog? Not a problem. In addition to a people-friendly menu, the society offers a dog-friendly menu! Treat your pooch to a peanut butter and milk bone sandwich, topped off with some bark-b-q.

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

a deli-style hoagie. The minced hamburger bonded with melted American cheese and lightened with the shaved iceberg, thick tomatoes, and a spicy pepper spread that topped it. Sides are not to be overlooked. Fries matched my main dishes perfectly: thin, crispy, and doused with salt. They were the type of fry that starts out crispy, collapses in the middle, and ends with a crunch. Nothing fancy, just a simple partner for simple sandwiches. The Pittsburgh Sandwich Society truck is still rolling down city streets, hitting breweries and festivals. But thankfully, Take Aht! gives the city constant access to a sandwich ﬁx which — trust me on this — after one bite of the in-n-aht, you’ll be craving it daily.

•

Follow staff writer Maggie Weaver on Twitter @magweav

CP PHOTO: RYAN DETO

Fernet, scotch, and apple cider cocktail at Apteka

.ON THE ROCKS.

FEELING MINTY BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T. PATRICK’S DAY is right around the corner, so mint-ﬂavored things are everywhere. I know it doesn’t make any sense: Irish cuisine rarely calls for mint. But mint persists everywhere anyway, likely because it’s green like shamrocks (but also like every other plant). In that vein, I implore Pittsburghers to lean into the mint madness, but this time with some Italian booze that has no connection to Ireland. The mint-ﬂavor connection is just a mass-marketing scheme that is taking advantage of false scarcity anyway. Fernet is an Italian liqueur that is popular all around the world, but particularly in Europe, South America, and San Francisco. It’s hardly scarce. Recently, fernet has been popping up at several bars in Pittsburgh. It is enjoyed on its own as a digestif after a meal, mixed into cocktails, or even combined with sodas. The Italian libation is made up of several different herbs and tastes bitter but refreshing. The base liqueur is made from grapes; herbs like chamomile and saffron are included, but it’s unclear exactly what ingredients make up the entire formula. Popular conjecture says peppermint oil makes an appearance and that would be hard to disprove. Fernet packs a minty wallop, which means it’s a perfect beverage to refresh your spirits on those cold, gloomy, latewinter Pittsburgh days. Here are some great spots to enjoy some.

ALLEGHENY WINE MIXER The Upper Lawrenceville wine bar specializes in well, wine, but patrons have really taken to a new fernet-based cocktail called Good Dog Carl. It’s combination of rye whiskey, fernet, and Pedro Ximénez sherry, topped off with an orange peel. The fernet isn’t overpowered as this beverage provides plenty of mint up front, followed by sherry sweetness and a kick of peppery rye.

APTEKA Whiskey and fernet seem to be a popular pair, because this Bloomfield vegan restaurant also combines the two spirits. Apetka’s cocktails are typically heavy on the herbs and their fernet cocktail follows that theme. This version combines fernet with scotch and apple cider. It’s drinkable, sweet, and the scotch shines through with the fernet as minty complement.

POULET BLEU No cocktail necessary here. The French joint in Lower Lawrenceville offers a wide array of digestifs, with fernet available for sample. Drink it alone in a digestif cup to experience the full consortium of ﬂavors fernet has to offer. Tip: It’s even more enjoyable when consumed after Poulet Bleu’s chocolate soufﬂé, a gluttonous, alcoholic version of the classic mint-chocolate combination.

•

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

DINING OUT

CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

SPONSORED LISTINGS FROM CITY PAPER ’S FINE ADVERTISERS

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED RESTAURANT

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

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330 N. SHORE DRIVE, NORTH SIDE (412-500-7530) AND 244 W BRIDGE ST., HOMESTEAD (412-462-6400) / BARLOUIE.COM We’re your neighborhood bar, where you can kick back and be the real you, with the help of an amazing staff, great music, handcrafted martinisand cocktails, local and regional drafts, incredible wines and a huge selection of bar bites, snacks, burgers, flatbreads and sandwiches. Come in after work, before the game, late night at night, or any time you need a quick bite or a night out with friends. Bar Louie. Less obligations. More libations.

BROAD STREET BISTRO

1025 BROAD ST., NORTH VERSAILLES 412-829-2911 / BROADSTBISTRO.COM Broad Street Bistro is a neighborhood restaurant offering daily specials. ALL food is prepared fresh and made to order. It is family friendly with a special kids’ menu.

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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.

FULL PINT WILD SIDE TAP ROOM

5310 BUTLER ST., LAWRENCEVILLE 412-408-3083 / FULLPINTBREWING.COM Full Pint Wild Side Taproom is Full Pint Brewing company’s Lawrenceville location and features a full service bar, huge sandwiches and half-priced happy hour. Open 4 p.m.-midnight, Mon.-Fri., and noon–midnight on Saturday. Check us out on Facebook for upcoming shows and events.

MERCURIO’S ARTISAN GELATO AND NEAPOLITAN PIZZA

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.

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.

COLONY CAFE

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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.

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.

SAGA HIBACHI

201 SOUTH HILLS VILLAGE MALL, BETHEL PARK 412-835-8888 / SAGAHIBACHI.COM Saga in the South Hills is now under new management. Stop in for exciting table-side preparations and the famous shrimp sauce. Or sit in the sushi-bar area for the freshest sushi experience, with both traditional preparations and contemporary variations.

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. We also feature a cocktail menu of tequila-based drinks to pair the perfect margarita with your meal.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

PHOTO: MORGAN ROSE FREE

Sidewalk series and dyed silk

.ART . .

USED AND REUSED BY HANNAH LYNN // HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

HEN HENRY DAVID THOREAU wrote in his journal “… see things as they, grand and beautiful,” he was referencing the greatness of nature. In his lifetime, cities hadn’t yet evolved to their current extent, but if they had, he might come to see them as nature too. Artist Morgan Rose Free’s exhibit, Things As They Are, part of a residency at Bunker Projects, combines observations about nature and urban life into sculpture, ceramic, and textile works. As visitors enter the gallery, they are ﬁrst greeted

by “Standing in the Sky,” a flock of small towers made up of reflective discs seeming to float above each other. The underside of each disc has a photo of the sky, taken by Free, so that when looked from a bird’s eye view, the sky is reflected in the disc above it. “When we move through the world, a lot of time we are looking down at our phone,” says Free. “[It’s] taking that space we’re looking down into and reminding us that there’s something to look up to as well.” Another series of works in the exhibit features faux sidewalk panels affixed with ceramic pieces

THINGS AS THEY ARE BY MORGAN ROSE FREE

Runs through Fri., March 29. Bunker Projects, 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. bunkerprojects.org

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

modeled after trash. Free used papier-mâché, coffee grinds, and cat litter to mimic the appearance of sidewalk cement and modeled the ceramic pieces after waste she found and collected around the city. There is a ceramic soda can tab, a milk carton seal, a plastic drink lid and straw, and other pieces of singleuse plastic or otherwise un-recycled waste. Free ampliﬁes the trash, enlarging and mounting it on the wall, as a means of signifying its value. It’s not that trash is sacred or special, but the pieces bring attention to the fact that these items were designed, bought, and discarded. “These objects that we just throw away, somebody designed that, somebody used that,” says Free. “They have their own kind of histories.”

When blown up, some of the objects, like the obvious shape of six-pack rings, are more recognizable than others. A crushed Solo cup is more abstract and requires looking closely to understand the ridges. A green Starbucks drink stirrer/ plug, which appears as litter on one of the sidewalk panels, is also replicated in ceramic; when enlarged, it looks like a musical instrument. Free’s home-base is Montreal, but the work was inspired by her fourmonth residency in Pittsburgh, all of the trash and found items collected by exploring the streets on foot. One was a large and crooked rusted pipe on the side of the road, which she lugged back without a speciﬁc use in mind. Eventually, she wrapped it in a piece of silk she’d brought with her and it colored the fabric, like industrial tie-dye. “I wanted to take these things that we think of as ugly and try [to] ignore, and elevate them to this status as an art object to try and make us do a double take,” says Free. Along with the sculptural works, Free made a zine (available for sale at the exhibit) of photos taken mostly during her time in Pittsburgh, capturing notable mundanities like clouds, sidewalk cracks, and yard signs.

PHOTO: MORGAN ROSE FREE

Standing in the Sky

The Bunker Projects residency program invites artists to live and work in the same space as the gallery, with sleeping arrangements and studio space upstairs and kitchen/bathroom spaces adjoining the gallery. Two artists are

usually in residence at the same time. On April 5, after the closing of Things As They Are, Bunker Projects will open with works by Padyn Humble, an artistin-residence from Missoula, Mont. His sculptural works explore notions of

masculinity and queerness, with colorful and kitschy pieces playing on tropes of cowboys and the Wild West. The gallery will host an artist’s talk with Free on March 17 and the exhibit runs through March 29.

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WHAT IS, I’M SORRY? BY RYAN DETO RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT FROM PENNSYLVANIA CABLE NETWORK

The Pennsylvania gubernatorial debate in 2018 was a disaster. It was hosted by longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, and he went on a long rant about the Catholic Church, interrupted the candidates several times, and opined way too much. It was the race’s only debate, the only option for Pennsylvanians to see Gov. Tom Wolf go face-to-face with challenger Scott Wagner about the problems afflicting our commonwealth. So, as I am prone to do, I dragged Trebek on Twitter, which even got me quoted in the Washington Post. The debate story became exclusively about how terrible a job Trebek did. I still think the debate sucked, but I am here to apologize to Trebek. On March 6, Trebek announced in a video that he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The survival rate is only 9 percent. I am sorry because Trebek took a risk with upending the standard for a political debate, apologized later for his performance, and maybe I should have focused more on Wagner’s outlandish statements. It was just a debate, and Wagner had no real chance at winning the election anyway. I am also sorry out of a longtime love of Jeopardy! and the hours of enjoyment Trebek’s quick wit has given me. Above all else, I am apologetic out of sorrow. I know Trebek, who is in his late 70s, would have to retire eventually, but I will miss him. Cancer sucks. It took my grandfather at 62, and I don’t want Trebek to have to go through that pain. Sorry, Alex. Here’s to your quick recovery. • 26

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PHOTO: ALLYSON RIGGS

Aidy Bryant plays a fictionalized Lindy West in Shrill

.FILM.

TAKE A SHRILL PILL BY HANNAH LYNN // HLYNN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

HE WORST PART about being a woman is having a body. It’s difficult, even for the most conventionally beautiful women, to scroll through Instagram or look at a magazine and think “I’m completely satisfied with my body and feel no pressure whatsoever to change it. I feel free, and not locked in a flesh prison.” Though, of course, it’s more difficult for fat or plus-sized women to walk through the world, with friends, family, and strangers constantly giving advice on how they can lose weight, get healthier, or be prettier. Writer Lindy West made a name for herself, at least in part, due to her influential writing on fat acceptance and body positivity, starting with her work at the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger (where she had some public feuds with editorial director Dan Savage). Now, her 2016 memoir Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman has been adapted into a Hulu original series, starring Aidy Bryant as a young woman managing work and dating while also trying to navigate a world that wants to shrink her body. Annie Easton (Bryant) is a twentysomething trying to make it as a writer while toiling away as assistant calendar editor for The Weekly Thorn, a fictional alt-weekly in Portland. She desperately pitches stories her overly bitchy editor

Gabe (a Dan Savage surrogate played by John Cameron Mitchell) hates. She lives with her loyal best friend Fran (Lolly Adefope) and sleeps with/dates Ryan (Luka Jones), a mostly terrible but sometimes sweet dirtbag Fran calls “an ignorant bag of expired meat.”

SHRILL

Starring Aidy Bryant. Streaming on Hulu Fri., March 15.

The series begins with Annie realizing she’s pregnant, which she thought was impossible since she took Plan B, until a pharmacist informs her the pill is ineffective for women over 175 pounds. It’s one of the many ways, intentional or not, that the world is simply not built to accept people of a certain size. When Annie makes a joke in a coffee shop, a stranger compares her to Rosie O’Donnell, though they neither look nor act alike. Her mom buys her an unappetizing diet meal plan. Her boy toy Ryan asks Annie to leave out the backdoor so his roommates won’t see her. But the worst comments come from Gabe, who implies she would work better if she lost weight and gets excited when she has an online troll who calls her a pig and tells her to die. In the real story, West published a piece on The

Stranger’s website titled “Hello, I Am Fat” (Annie writes a piece with the same headline) in retort to rude comments Savage made in his column Savage Love about fat people. The two have supposedly made nice since, but the heartless, two-dimensional depiction of Gabe might say otherwise. Rude comments aside, Annie’s world is generally sunny, literally and figuratively. It was fun watching TV’s optimistic version of an alt-weekly. The biggest inaccuracy is how bright and open The Weekly Thorn office is. The Pittsburgh City Paper office, for example, gets next to no sunlight and has roughly three functioning light bulbs. There also seems to be no indication of a struggling print industry, which, in 2019, is a bit laughable. But then again, Annie reviews food at a strip club, which CP has done. Bryant herself is one of the most likable people to appear onscreen, whether it’s Shrill or her home-base of SNL. She’s fun, funny, and instantly feels like a friend. Annie’s problems are solved a little too easily, and generally, the show could have sharper teeth. Aside from all the bullshit Annie deals with, the show mostly feels like a hug. When Annie attends a “Fat Babe Pool Party,” it’s a pure and invigorating celebration. I’ve never seen that many bodies like that, on TV, in swimsuits, having a great time.

•

.LITERATURE.

ART OF WAR BY REGE BEHE CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

INCE THE TURN of the 21st century, Don Winslow has worked tirelessly to complete a trilogy of novels. Starting with Power of the Dog (2005) through The Cartel (2015) and The Border (2019), Winslow has devoted endless hours to chronicling drug wars in Mexico and the United States’ War on Drugs. The trilogy’s main character Art Keller — a Vietnam veteran and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agent — has been Winslow’s companion for almost 20 years. “I had a few months where I was ﬁnished with Art,” says Winslow, noting that the character has come back to him due to a recent surge of publicity, including a featured interview on CBS’ Sunday Morning. On March 7, FX announced it had acquired Winslow’s trilogy for a TV series. “So, I’m not really rid of Art. It’s been an odd kind of transition, and a little bit harder than I thought. It’s ‘gosh, what now?’ It’s a very mixed kind of feeling. There’s satisfaction that I completed the cycle, but I’ve spent more time with Art than anyone, with the exception of my wife and son, than any actual person in my life,” he says. Winslow is also the author of highly praised crime novels including The Winter of Frankie Machine and The Dawn Patrol. But the books featuring

PHOTO: ROBERT GALLAGHER

Don Winslow

Keller are the equivalent of The Godfather film trilogy — Winslow is documenting an era in American history. The novels are gargantuan (The Border is 716 pages) but never exhausting, told with keen storytelling and some of the best characters in contemporary fiction. “My job as a novelist is to bring readers into a world they wouldn’t otherwise go, or show it to them from a different perspective,” Winslow says. “The technique I use is to see the experiences through the characters’ eyes. I don’t write in the first person, but I do write from those characters’ points of view very often. “I wanted to get beneath the head-

BATTLE OF THE

BOOKS

lines that have become labels,” he adds. “The heroin epidemic or the opioid epidemic, whatever you want to call it. … I read this morning that in 2017, the last year for comprehensive ﬁgures that we have, that a person died of an overdose in America every 11 minutes. So while we’re having this conversation, someone will overdose.” When Winslow wrote Power of the Dog, lawyers for his publisher made him fact-check the novel and he was able to document that 90 percent of that story was fact-based. Winslow isn’t sure if that percentage holds through the series, but he’s certain that one of the undercurrents

of his books is unassailable: The War on Drugs has had unintended consequences. “We’ve spent a trillion dollars on the War on Drugs,” he says. “We spend about 88 billion dollars per year, and that money has to go somewhere. And where it goes is into courts, lawyers, prisons, cops, equipment, all kinds of things. In some ways, the War on Drugs is as much an industry as drug trafficking itself.” Despite the grim (and sometimes gruesome) stories, Winslow thinks the War on Drugs isn’t completely hopeless. “A lot of groups ask me to speak to them, and I meet a lot of people across the political spectrum,” Winslow says. “There seems to be a groundswell change of public opinion on drug issues and criminal reform issues. I use the word groundswell very selectively, because it’s definitely coming from the bottom up. It’s coming from precinct captains in big-city police departments, it’s coming from cities, it’s coming from states. … I think there is a lot to be concerned about, there’s a lot to be angry about. If anything, I’ve been too vocal on these things. But there’s definitely a reason for hope.”

•

BETWEEN THE LINES Vicki Delany, author of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, will visit Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont on March 14 to promote her new book, A Scandal in Scarlet. A resident of Prince Edward County in Ontario, Canada, Delany is the author of more than 30 novels, including police procedurals, Gothic mysteries, and quaint cozies. 7 p.m. 412-828-4877 or mysterylovers.com

Follow featured contributor Rege Behe on Twitter @RegeBehe_exPTR

AFTER HOURS Friday, April 5

CLP – Main (Oakland) [ 6:30 – 10 PM

21+ event

Drink Tickets • Lite Bites Crafts • Games • Activities & More! Buy tickets today! carnegielibrary.org/afterhours PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

PHOTO: SOPHROZINE PHOTOGRAPHY

DJ Femi

.MUSIC.

RISKY BUSINESS BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

N THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, every single

decision and opportunity, small or large, can completely change an artist’s career. Bria Thomas, aka DJ Femi, took a risk in December when she quit all of her part-time jobs to fully pursue music. At the time, the choice made sense. Thomas had a tour lined up with Jonny Goood, known for his time as Lady Gaga’s bassist. But the Goood Music Tour ended up getting canceled. So when Thomas was scrolling through Instagram and saw that Makin’ It Magazine was taking submissions for a sponsored meet-and-greet opportunity at South by Southwest (SXSW), a festival/conference geared towards the music and film industry, she didn’t take it seriously. “I was like, ‘alright cool, whatever, I’ll just submit this stupid application,’” says Thomas. “The next thing you know, my manager [Chrisarah Johnson] and I got a notification that I was one of the DJs that got selected.” Thomas was then asked to post the flyer provided by Makin’ It Magazine announcing her selection on Instagram.

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

The print magazine, which spotlights rising talent, tastemakers, and executives in urban music, wanted to gauge the reaction each of the 70-plus “Meet The DJs” participants received on social media. Based on the interaction Thomas got, she was then one of four DJs chosen to perform in an all-female showcase.

“IT FEELS LIKE MY DREAMS ARE FINALLY COMING TRUE.” “It feels like my dreams are ﬁnally coming true,” says Thomas. “Like all my hard work is ﬁnally paying off. I’ve been doing all these stepping stones and legwork since day one, and now I actually have a team behind me, people who support me. Feels like I’m at the

top right now, but I know I can go so much higher.” Every year, big names in music and ﬁlm from all over the globe head to the conference and festival in Austin, Texas to network, perform, and discover the latest in news and innovations. “If I do SXSW right, it could potentially change my life,” says Thomas. “Just the opportunity to get down there and network with industry people, and other people like me, and just make different connections with different people around the world, could really beneﬁt my career.” All of Thomas’ income is from DJing gigs around Pittsburgh, which she says is a dream, but extremely hard. To assist with the expenses of the week-long stay and trip, Thomas created a GoFundMe. Her goal was $3,000 so she and her manager can attend. “If we don’t make the whole [amount] we will still be in pretty good shape, but the $3,000 will help it be more of a comfortable trip.” As of Monday afternoon, Thomas raised $1,840, and was in Austin. SXSW takes places March 8-17.

•

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

.STAGE.

BACKSTAGE BY LISSA BRENNAN CPCONTRIBUTORS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NAME: T.J. Parker-Young, Homestead WORK: Patron Services Associate, Quantum Theatre RECENT PROJECTS: Inside Passage; Chatterton; The Gun Show

WHAT DO YOU DO? Take care of the patron’s experience at a show, everything from the moment that you drive on to the space to when you leave. QUANTUM PRODUCES IN A NEW LOCATION EACH SHOW, TYPICALLY SPACES NOT TRADITIONALLY USED FOR THEATER. HOW IS THIS JOB DIFFERENT WITH THIS COMPANY? Every site is a restart with its own challenges and complications; how to create the most comfortable patron experience within the limitations of the space. I look at the capabilities of the site, and every possible aspect has to be thought out every time we move a show. SO NOT JUST THE ANSWERS CHANGE FROM SHOW TO SHOW, BUT THE QUESTIONS? Absolutely. With The Gun Show, we didn’t worry about power or bathrooms and barely about parking. It was easy and there was a lot I could take off my plate. For Chatterton, I had to worry about plates because one of the questions was, “How do we serve dinner to 120 people within 30 minutes?” The show moved through Trinity Cathedral — chapel, cathedral, banquet hall, choir hall, various rooms, with patrons in three different groups on three different paths that sometimes intersected. And a three-course dinner in the middle. Each of the seven weeks, there was a different chef, ﬁguring out how their service goes and integrating our team. Timing was huge. YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE TO BE WELL FAMILIARIZED WITH THE PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE SPACE. WHAT ABOUT THE SHOW ITSELF? I have to intersect with the work because I have to answer questions about the work. The house manager and I are the faces there for every show,

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

CP PHOTO: JARED MURPHY

T.J. Parker-Young at the Homewood Library

QUANTUM THEATRE PRESENTS THE GUN SHOW GATHERING

6 p.m. Wed., March 20. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free. Reservations recommended. surveymonkey.com/r/QTBYGCS

so we are the ones to ﬁeld questions. I have to understand that there might be subject matter that’s sensitive to the patrons. The Gun Show discussed suicide, robbery, violence. We don’t know what experience someone enters the room with. We had to be aware that we touch on sensitive topics and that people might say, “OK, I need to step outside.” I posted myself to be there to intersect, have conversation with them, see what they need. AND YOU LED THE POST-SHOW DISCUSSION AS WELL? I conducted a 15-minute conversation

after each show, collecting patrons’ stories. The show put everyone in an emotional space to be open to talking about things. We wanted to kickstart that conversation. We’re preparing for a larger event with an open forum. IS THERE ROOM FOR YOUR PERSPECTIVE OR DO YOU NEED TO KEEP YOURSELF OUT? At times, I shared my own stories to get the room primed or because we had time and I wanted to make myself as vulnerable as everyone else in the room. But my opinions are mine; I don’t want them to color anyone else’s experience.

For the most part, I have to put me on the back burner. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR JOB? Creating an environment for patrons to enjoy themselves, whatever that looks like. WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE PART? I think it’s great that I get to explore the city with this company. I’m experiencing things for the ﬁrst time. I get to learn so much about places and systems that I wouldn’t otherwise; I’m entrenched in them. I’ve met amazing people, and after they’ve seen you twice, they treat you like their friend. Plus I’ve seen what theater in the city can look like. As an artist, for me, that’s super important. It’s helped me get a grasp on what the theater scene looks like. I wouldn’t get this in Texas.

•

.MUSIC.

SUPPORT SYSTEM BY JORDAN SNOWDEN JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NEW, NON-PROFIT arm of Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale wants .to offer local musicians a hand. Mike Speranzo and Liz Berlin, the owners and operators of Mr. Smalls, created Creative.Life.Support (CLS) in 1997 as a way to assist musicians of all ages with their career paths through summer camps, educational music programs, internship opportunities, and more. And now, Speranzo and Berlin are extending the project by adding a record label portion called Creative.Life. Support Records. “The record label portion was kind of a natural extension,” says Berlin. “We’ve been kind of functioning as an informal record label for all these years. The last couple years have been solidifying, and we just secured international digital distribution for all of [our] releases through [Symphonic Distribution].” CLS grew symbiotically with Mr. Smalls. Working with friends who didn’t have enough money to fund their projects themselves, Speranzo and Berlin offered to pay. “[They weren’t] necessarily good business decisions,” says Berlin. “But we wanted to help our friends record music; we wanted to teach kids about the music industry. So, with all of those things we just started calling it [CLS], and then over time we started developing it into concrete programs.”

“WE WANTED TO HELP OUR FRIENDS RECORD MUSIC.” One program, We Rock Workshop, works in conjunction with the Department of Human Services to help adolescents in foster care write, record, and perform original music. Every student leaves with a CD of the song they collaborated on or produced. Along with distribution rights, Speranzo and Berlin recently purchased United

CP FILE PHOTO: HEATHER MULL

Mr. Small’s Mike Speranzo and Liz Berlin

ability to get to the point where they have a demo, or have a record, and sort of assist them on that to where we can help them get their journey going.” Speranzo and Berlin (best known for her time with Rusted Root), aren’t doing this for renown, but because they feel indebted to the Pittsburgh music scene. “This is just a way we can give back,” says Speranzo. “My hopes are that we can help bands believe in their art and that they will be better people because of that. All we want to do is try and help all the artists that we can to achieve a sense of fulﬁllment with their music. The most important thing is that artists feel like they have a place, not necessarily that they monetize.” On March 16, CLS Records ofﬁcially kicks off with an inaugural launch party at Mr. Smalls. The worldwide digital release of Social Justice Disco’s album Songs to Fight Fascists By, a band featuring Berlin and Phat Man Dee on the CLS Records roaster, takes place the day before, and is the highlight of the celebration. The evening also features live performances from multiple groups spanning diverse genres. “Look at it more as a music festival,” says Berlin. “Come for the whole experience.”

•

CREATIVE.LIFE.SUPPORT RECORDS LABEL LAUNCH PARTY

5 p.m.-12 a.m. Sat., March 16. Mr. Smalls Theatre, 400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $10-15. creativelifesupport.com

Methodist Church across the street from Mr. Smalls, which is slowly being converted into a label headquarters. “The idea is to create a community center for all the people that are working with CLS,” says Speranzo. “[We] bring them to a central location so we can work on their demos, work on their albums, and further their pursuits.” The building is already in operation, and the pair recently bought a large recording console and tape machines, but construction is still in progress. Since all the funding for CLS comes from Speranzo and Berlin, renovating and purchasing equipment happen when they have money to spare. Speranzo and Berlin don’t plan to make any income from the project. “It’s not a normal label relationship, where it’s all long-term, or [has] longterm residuals on their stuff,” says Speranzo. “It’s more to be an assistance label, to take bands that don’t have the PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

PHOTO: GAVIN BATTY

Mumford & Sons

.MUSIC.

MUM’S NOT THE WORD BY JORDAN SNOWDEN // JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

UMFORD & SONS returns to

Pittsburgh on Thursday with .new music, a new stage, and a whole lot of love in their hearts. The last time the four-member British group released a full studio album was 2015. That record, Wilder Mind, received much criticism for the band’s move from folk to arena-shaking rock. But that didn’t stop Mumford & Sons from again shifting their sound on their fourth studio album, Delta, which dropped in November and hit number one on Billboard shortly after. The newest album is pop-leaning, but the themes encompassing Delta are true to Mumford & Sons’ origin. Songs deal with love, loss, and sacriﬁce. Ahead of their Pittsburgh tour stop, Pittsburgh City Paper chatted with banjoist and lead guitarist, Winston Marshall, about fans, the tour, and Delta. YOU’RE CURRENTLY ON THE BIGGEST TOUR THAT MUMFORD AND SONS HAS DONE TO DATE, HOW HAS IT BEEN GOING SO FAR? It has been quite lovely. Thank you. We started in autumn, and I guess the big

difference is that we are touring with a stage in the middle of the room as opposed to at one end, which means that the audience is all around us … above us, below us, behind us, in front of us, and it’s kind of like a different sport, really. It’s not something I was used to. So, you’re getting a different Mumford & Sons in 2019.

MUMFORD & SONS WITH CAT POWER

Thu., March 14. 7:30 p.m. PPG Paints Arena, 1001 Fifth Ave., Downtown. $42.50-99.50. ppgpaintsarena.com

I’M SURE. I READ THAT YOU GUYS SPENT THE MAJORITY OF 2018 WORKING ON THE NEW ALBUM, DELTA. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE PERFORMING IT IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE FINALLY? It feels, on the one hand, a huge relief because it’s been so long. And on the other hand, very pleasurable. We’re pleased to play the new songs; we’ve been writing for so long now that it’s very exciting for us. And actually, we haven’t worked

out all of them from the last show yet so every tour, every gig, there’s new stuff. Playing songs that we haven’t played very often keeps you on your toes. WHAT SONGS HAVE YOU BEEN THROWING BACK INTO THE MIX? We try to get a healthy combo of songs from all our albums. That’s because we’re very proud of each of our albums. We’ve got an array of people coming; we want to show off all our [music]. We want people to enjoy the night, but it also makes for a good mix, a good variety. DO YOU HAVE CERTAIN GO-TO SONGS THAT YOU ALWAYS PLAY? We deﬁnitely almost always play the hits, the songs that have been radio singles, because people like that shit, and we’re lucky to have had songs that resonate, and we won’t take that for granted. And we’re proud of those songs as well, so we’ll always try and play those ones. SO THERE WAS SOME APPREHENSION BEFORE RELEASING DELTA BECAUSE IT’S MORE EXPERIMENTAL THAN YOUR

Follow staff writer Jordan Snowden on Twitter @snowden_jordan

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

PREVIOUS WORK. WHAT DID IT FEEL LIKE WHEN THE ALBUM WENT NUMBER ONE ON BILLBOARD? It’s not even something I necessarily think is an achievement that is in someone’s hands. When I say it’s remarkable, I don’t mean we’re remarkable, what I mean is that it’s just amazing that it happened. When people buy the album the ﬁrst week, they haven’t heard the album. They don’t know what it sounds like. They’re fans, they buy it because they’re excited to hear it, based on the previous stuff [we’ve] done. That’s what it is; it’s the best convincement, involved with a lot of good people. DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY TO YOUR PITTSBURGH FANS? We’ve had a couple wonderful shows in Pittsburgh. It’s pretty special that we get to come back so many times. I’m very grateful. Thank you to the people of Pittsburgh. We’re lucky boys.

•

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the complete interview online at pghcitypaper.com

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.FASHION.

WORLD OF COLOR

South Rift Valley I have seen OMWA: Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya artist, Tale Leah, wear four different layers — a skirt, over a dress, with a shuka (vibrantly-printed fabric) as an apron and a shuka draped over the shoulders. Each garment a different color and pattern, all coming together elegantly. Working with OMWA and The Beading Wolves of the Oneida Indian Nation, I have had to unlearn my ideas of the meaning of colors. In the United States, we sometimes believe that our response to color is “hard-wired,” but our reactions are more socialized than inherit. What would it mean to gain a multicolor language in the same way many are multilingual? Let’s look at the three basic colors — black, white, and red.

shades of white (ivory, eggshell, cream, pearl), there’s a dearth of language for describing the varieties of the color black. But anyone who has tried to match black clothing knows that there is an endless range of shades, despite a lack of words to describe them. Black, for the Maasai in Kenya and fashionistas the world over, is an important color. The word for black in Kimaasai, the Maasai language, is narok. Narok is also one of a dual non-anthropomorphic nongendered creator entity in their traditional spirituality. Narok as a god is benevolent and has strong healing powers. To that end, black has restorative powers and is worn for strength. It was also one of the ﬁrst seed beads made by the Maasai, hence it is key to their design language as well as their heritage. This is in contrast to the idea of black as a color of mourning, sadness, bad omen, or negativity.

BLACK

WHITE

Black is the absence of light. However, in discussing her book, The Secret Lives of Color on the wonderful design podcast 99% Invisible, the author Kassia St. Clair notes that while we have many words for the various iterations and

The color white in parts of Asia is the sign of death and mourning. Think of the “color leaving your cheeks” if you’re sick. Contrast this with the traditional meaning for the Maasai, which is health. White is the color of milk, traditionally

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key to the Maasai diet so closely linked to cows. This is key to their culture as their most valued possession, their wealth. In terms of fashion and design, the white beads, made from bone or shell, paired with the black bead, was key to establishing the iconic black and white pattern of the Maasai beaded jewelry.

RED To many, red is the color of passion and love. To the Maasai, the color red is nado. Nado is also the name of the second part of the dual creator entity. Passionate Nado may test you or make things just a bit more difﬁcult. Maybe this pairs with our idea of red as seduction — red lips, red dress? But it doesn’t end there, red is the most iconic color for the Maasai. Red is the color of the cow’s blood, also key to Maasai culture. It is essential to life. So as you consider colors, take a look around the world to discover other meanings, histories, and heritages. In a connected world, we can have multiple color languages similar to our multilingual human language. It opens up so many exciting possibilities in style and substance.

Follow featured contributor Tereneh Idia on Twitter @Tereneh152XX

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Isn’t the Bronx dangerous? You smoke cigarettes? You’re a homosexual? — Robyn and Sharon settle into a pleasant cohabiting routine. They each have fractured relationships with their children; neither has much luck getting them on the phone and even when Sharon ﬁnally does, her son is brief and aloof. She’s not what you might call worldly, mistaking her son’s short-haired girlfriend for a lesbian, or “homosexual,” a word she pronounces with discomfort and several extra syllables. Thus Robyn embraces the role of tutor, friend, and mischievous coconspirator, aka she buys a record player and gets Sharon stoned. Before long, they cook up a nefarious scheme which sees Robyn unhappily returning to her roots and Sharon getting a little too comfortable with the rush of bad behavior.

.STAGE.

THE ROOMMATE BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

T’S SUMMERTIME at a big old house

in Iowa City when Sharon’s new roommate arrives. Robyn is a chill hippie from the Bronx, white and bohemian, with boxes full of flowy, flowery getups, and weed. Sharon is polite, friendly, and reserved, and though Black and originally from Illinois, she’s settled comfortably into the Iowa lifestyle. Her house is very clean and gets plenty of sunlight. She does not listen to music and, though there’s a cute new yoga studio in town, she has no plans to go. Robyn and Sharon’s dynamic starts The Roommate off in familiar, though charming, territory. But City Theatre’s production — written by Jen Silverman, directed by Reginald L. Douglas, running through March 24 — overcomes the broader clichés thanks to the powerful performances from its two leads. Tamara Tunie and Laurie Klatscher, who both appeared in Pittsburgh Public Theater’s The Tempest last month, are reunited here and showcase an easy, entertaining chemistry. Tunie has years of stage, film, and television experience under her belt (probably best known as medical examiner Melinda Warner on Law and Order: SVU) and that pedigree is clear in her portrayal of Sharon. The character is

THE ROOMMATE

Continues through March 24. City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $29. citytheatrecompany.org

PHOTO: KRISTI JAN HOOVER

Tamara Tunie and Laurie Klatscher in The Roommate

complex: a mix of saccharin niceties and repressed anger and sadness which Tunie navigates deftly. Klatscher is all-in as the whip-smart, cunning, funny New

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It’s a classic, predictable role reversal, and like many of the devices in The Roommate, not particularly innovative. The differences between East Coast and Midwest folks, the liberating effects of dancing, and the power of good weed are all well-trodden in terms of stories about mid-life crises and the loneliness of parenthood. But it doesn’t matter. The characters are so vivid and lived-in, the acting so powerful, the script so funny and lively, the play doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel in its plot. The innovation happens elsewhere.

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.PODCAST.

TRUE DETECTIVES BY ALEX GORDON ALEXGORDON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

N ITS FIRST EPISODE, Kromatic Media’s Mared and Karen displays all the markings of a popular true crime podcast. Two women — college freshmen at West Virginia University in 1970 — go missing after hitchhiking home from a movie on a Sunday night. Their bodies are later discovered outside of Morgantown, but their heads are never found. The story checks a lot of boxes: grizzly murder, prurient undertones, distinct location, hitchhiking. But as the series develops, it becomes clear that the scope of the podcast is much bigger. It’s about the unparalleled violence and crime rates of the 1970s, about psychopathy and the nature of evil, and ﬁnally, about the meaning of true crime’s resurgence in popular culture. While at times it’s horriﬁc and upsetting — the “Parade of Horribles” episode is a straight-up nightmare — the show is head and shoulders above most of its true-crime contemporaries. There are other podcasts with twists and turns and intrigue and mystery, but none that navigate them as deeply and insightfully as Mared and Karen. Pittsburgh City Paper spoke to host Kendall Perkinson, and contributors/ authors Sarah Gibbons and Geoff Fuller about the show.

Listen to Mared and Karen at kromatic.media and keep an eye out for Perkinson and Gibbons’ new show this spring.

THIS STORY IS REALLY DARK. HOW DO YOU GET AWAY, OR UNWIND, FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH? Kendall: No one has ever asked us that before. There have been a couple people who have been surprised by how we try to joke a little bit in the podcast. You can hear laughter occasionally. I think that being able to remove yourself; that helps with the psychological component for me. Sarah: I think deﬁnitely the gallows

PHOTO: KROMATIC MEDIA

The search/discovery party outside Morgantown, circa 1970

humor helps. But I also kind of cut out some of the darker shows that I’ve been watching on Netﬂix, because it was too much. I switched to really stupid movies to lighten things up, because it’s been constant, for years now, that we’ve been focused on this. WHERE DOES THE STORY STAND NOW? Geoff: Sarah and I have been working on a book on the co-ed murders, same story but with a lot more detail. WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU THE MOST IN PEOPLE’S REACTIONS TO THE PODCAST? Sarah: I was surprised by how many people lived in Morgantown their entire lives and had never heard of the story. I THINK ONE OF THE MORE INNOVATIVE DECISIONS ON THE SHOW IS THE USE OF LOCAL MORGANTOWN

MUSIC. HOW’D YOU COME TO THAT DECISION? Kendall: It’s a local story, so that seemed appropriate. Also there were practical considerations. When you start picking music from bands that have no interest in providing it for free, then you start dealing with copyright and royalties. But all these bands are people in the DIY community in Morgantown. They support each other, they support the arts and projects like this. That was personally one of the best things I got out of it. Realizing just how cool that part of Morgantown is, how willing people are to help out. IT FEELS LIKE YOU’RE SITTING IN THE BAR AND SOMEONE’S TELLING YOU THIS STORY AND THE BAND’S PLAYING ON STAGE. IT REALLY PUTS YOU IN THE PLACE. Kendall: We actually had a show during fundraising for Mared and Karen. One of

the things we donated was tickets to a rock show and we actually got to see the people who played on the podcast up on the stage. At least a couple of them actually narrated, like “OK, so in this part, it’s this song and this is what’s going on in the podcast.” I LISTENED TO IT ON A ROAD TRIP TO NEW YORK, AND EVEN THOUGH I WAS GOING THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF MORGANTOWN, THESE BACKROADS IN SOUTHWEST PA. WERE EERILY SIMILAR TO YOUR DESCRIPTIONS OF APPALACHIA AND MORGANTOWN. I THINK THAT’S WHAT I WAS DRAWN TO. PITTSBURGH IS SO CLOSE AND IT HANGS OVER MANY ASPECTS OF THE STORY. Kendall: That opening monologue to the ﬁrst episode really seemed to be something that was pointed out to by people. It really sets the scene, the creepy aspect of Appalachia.

•

Follow managing editor Alex Gordon on Twitter @shmalexgordon PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

PHOTO: ANA ARMENGOD

A piece from the Gifted Egg Project

.ART . .

HUMANLEATHER GOODS BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

NA ARMENGOD’S journey to Pittsburgh wasn’t easy. The artist, .who works under the name Ana Humanleather, was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, an epicenter for Mexico’s drug cartels. As a result, she moved around a lot before settling in Braddock. But in 2015, her life as a student at Pittsburgh Filmmakers was disrupted when she was deported for what she cites as a paperwork issue after marrying her husband, an American citizen. Undeterred, she returned at the end of 2016 and secured a permanent visa.

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Now living in Braddock again, she works as an illustrator, ﬁlmmaker, and as a lead vocalist for the punk group De Rodillas. Armengod spoke with Pittsburgh City Paper about her process and what drives her work. YOU WORK IN A NUMBER OF MEDIUMS. YOU ALSO WORK WITH EGGS AS A PALATE? The Gifted Egg Project started because I wanted to make something that was not to be kept. The whole point is that

it’s an exercise in letting go. So I make these drawings, which take me anywhere between six and 12 hours to make, on an eggshell, and they’re so small and delicate, and I give them to someone as a gift. And when I present it as a gift, I ask for them to break it, and the reaction is always the same — people don’t want to break it. It’s almost as if it’s painful to go through. HOW DOES YOUR APPROACH TO FILM DIFFER FROM YOUR OTHER WORK? My preferred method of ﬁlm is [to]

shoot on Super 8mm. Most of the things that I do, which are experimental, are horror. But it’s my ideas of horror. My short ﬁlms are a guy who keeps his wife prisoner, and he’s the one who hurts her, and this idea of the person that you love being the person that hurts you. Another one is a woman who thinks that she has the devil inside of her and she gives herself a coat hanger abortion, so that’s another idea that terriﬁes me, which is people having decisions over your body and the [number] of women that die

PHOTO: ANA ARMENGOD

Bound Love

instagram.com/humanleather vimeo.com/anahumanleather derodillas.bandcamp.com

because of not having accessibility to legal abortions or any kind of medicine. JUST LOOKING AT YOUR WORK, IT’S DARK, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE THERE’S A LOT OF NATURALISM IN TERMS OF THE IMAGERY AND MATERIALS. I grew up in a city by the beach. My parents had a lot of money before I was born and then they lost everything because Mexico went through the worst economic depression since the 1930s. What created this economic depression had a lot to do with the NARCOS, especially where I’m from, which is Sinaloa, which is where the cartels come from. So I grew up in a house that was in absolute poverty, but also had the accessibility to education and books from ﬂoor to ceiling. Culture was very pushed on me, but it was also a very humble life … I was surrounded by nature. It was my everyday life, and it was what made me happy. CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME IDEA OF WHAT LIFE IS LIKE FOR YOU AS AN IMMIGRANT? It’s very scary to know that if you make a wrong turn in any direction you can still lose the things that you work hard towards. That’s what happened when I was deported. I was attending school and I had things going on in my life and those things were gone. … It’s not like someone gives you warning that you’re going to get deported. You don’t have time to pick up your things. It just happens. When I was deported, I was coming back and

visiting my parents in Mexico and I was stopped in an airport and that was it. There were no goodbyes. Before you can see anything else, you’re just handcuffed and off you go. WHAT DO YOU HOPE AUDIENCES EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR WORK? I want to put a voice into the things that I feel don’t have a voice. Last summer, along with Katie Krulock, who is a photographer from Pittsburgh, we had a show in Braddock at [UnSmoke Systems] … I suffer from pancreatitis. I was 22 when I was diagnosed. I, for a long time, was in and out of hospitals. There are a lot of things that go into my everyday life that have to do with being sick and it’s very exhausting and you have to continue. My piece for the show was creating this room that imitated the room that I was hospitalized in at UPMC, and it had a bed and it had my gown and it had my hospitalization papers. So it was a really dark room that you had to go in … and then you could hear my voice speaking and see one of my projections … Peoples’ reactions, it was very hard to be there, because really they could feel themselves be isolated in the same way that I felt isolated being hospitalized, and what I was going through emotionally, and how hard it was. So, to me, my art and what I want to do with my art is to really have people put themselves in my shoes and just see outside of their everyday life and realize that there is a whole world out there that is experiencing many, many things, and many of those things are not pretty.

•

Follow senior writer Amanda Waltz on Twitter @AWaltzCP PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

.FOR THE WEEK OF MARCH 14.

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementoes from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used to be and don’t want to be any more; or if you got in the mood to set ablaze symbols of questionable ideas you used to believe in but can’t afford to believe in any more. If you don’t want to spend $1,600+ on a flamethrower, just close your eyes for ten minutes and visualize yourself performing acts of creative destruction like those I mentioned.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus aphorist Olivia Dresher writes that she would like to be “a force of nature,” but “not causing any suffering.” The way I interpret her longing is that she wants to be wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure — all the while without inflicting any hurt or damage on herself or anyone else. In accordance with your astrological omens, Taurus, that’s a state I encourage you to embody in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling extra smart — which I suspect you will — you could go even further. You may be able to heal yourself and others with your wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure energy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In some major cities, the buttons you push at a crosswalk don’t actually work to make the traffic light turn green faster. The same is true about the “Close Door” buttons in many elevators. Pushing them doesn’t have any effect on the door. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer says these buttons are like placebos that give you “the illusion of control.” I bring this phenomenon to your attention, Gemini, in hope of inspiring you to scout around for comparable things in your life. Is there any situation where you imagine you have power or influence, but probably don’t? If so, now is an excellent time to find out — and remedy that problem.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Philip Boit was born and raised in Kenya, where it never snows except on the very top of Mount Kenya. Yet he represented his country in the cross-country skiing events at the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. How did he do

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

In 2014, NASA managed to place its MAVEN spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million. Soon thereafter, the Indian government put its own vehicle, the Mangalyaan, into orbit around the Red Planet. It spent $74 million. As you plan your own big project, Pisces, I recommend you emulate the Mangalyaan rather than the MAVEN. I suspect you can do great things — maybe even your personal equivalent of sending a spacecraft to Mars — on a relatively modest budget. it? He trained up north in snowy Finland. Meanwhile, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong competed for Ghana in the slalom in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since there was no snow in his homeland, he practiced his skills in the French Alps. These two are your role models for the coming months, Cancerian. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’ll have the potential to achieve success in tasks and activities that may not seem like a natural fit.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the process of casting for his movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher considered selecting A-list actress Scarlett Johansson to play the heroine. But ultimately he decided she was too sexy and radiant. He wanted a pale, thin, tougher-looking actress, whom he found in Rooney Mara. I suspect that in a somewhat similar way, you may be perceived as being too much something for a role you would actually perform quite well. But in my astrological opinion, you’re not at all too much. In fact, you’re just right. Is there anything you can do — with full integrity — to adjust how people see you and understand you without diluting your brightness and strength?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1993, an English gardener named Eric Lawes used his metal detector to look for a hammer that his farmer friend had lost in a field. Instead of the hammer, he found the unexpected: a buried box containing 15,234 old Roman silver and gold worth more than four million dollars

today. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect that you, too, will soon discover something different from what you’re searching for. Like the treasure Lawes located, it might even be more valuable than what you thought you wanted.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover,” wrote author James Baldwin. “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” To fully endorse that statement, I’d need to add two adverbs. My version would be, “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to kindly and compassionately make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend that you Libras enthusiastically adopt that mission during the coming weeks. With tenderness and care, help those you care about to become aware of what they’ve been missing — and ask for the same from them toward you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): For thousands of generations, our early ancestors were able to get some of the food they needed through a practice known as persistence hunting. They usually couldn’t run as fast as the animals they chased. But they had a distinct advantage: they could keep moving relentlessly until their prey grew exhausted. In part that’s because they had far less hair than the animals, and thus could cool off better. I propose that we adopt this theme as a metaphor for your life in the coming

weeks and months. You won’t need to be extra fast or super ferocious or impossibly clever to get what you want. All you have to do is be persistent and dogged and disciplined.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Wompsi’kuk Skeesucks Brooke is a Native American woman of the Mohegan tribe. According to her description of Mohegan naming traditions, and reported by author Elisabeth Pearson Waugaman, “Children receive names that are descriptive. They may be given new names at adolescence, and again as they go through life according to what their life experiences and accomplishments are.” She concludes that names “change as the individual changes.” If you have been thinking about transforming the way you express and present yourself, you might want to consider such a shift. 2019 will be a favorable time to at least add a new nickname or title. And I suspect you’ll have maximum inspiration to do so in the coming weeks.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): For many of us, smell is our most neglected sense. We see, hear, taste, and feel with vividness and eagerness, but allow our olfactory powers to go underused. In accordance with astrological omens, I hope you will compensate for that dearth in the coming weeks. There is subtle information you can obtain — and in my opinion, need quite strongly — that will come your way only with the help of your nose. Trust the guidance provided by scent.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb says humans come in three types: fragile, robust, or anti-fragile. Those who are fragile work hard to shield themselves from life’s messiness. The downside? They are deprived of experiences that might spur them to grow smarter. As for robust people, Taleb believes they are firm in the face of messiness. They remain who they are even when they’re disrupted. The potential problem? They may be too strong to surrender to necessary transformations. If you’re the third type, anti-fragile, you engage with the messiness and use it as motivation to become more creative and resilient. The downside? None. In accordance with the astrological omens, Aquarius, I urge you to adopt the anti-fragile approach in the coming weeks.

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

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EARLY WARNINGS SPONSORED UPCOMING EVENTS FROM CITY PAPER’S FINE ADVERTISERS

DIVE INTO A GREAT JOB! AGES 16+ EARN $11-$13/HR PLUS BONUSES AS A LIFEGUARD AT ANY ALLEGHENY COUNTY POOL

WED., MARCH 27 PAWS UP AKC RALLY OBEDIENCE CLASS 7:15 P.M. SOUTH PARK HOME ECONOMICS BUILDING SOUTH PARK. $100-120 (registration required). 412-350-4636 or pawsupdogtrain.com.

THU., MARCH 28 ALEX DI LEO 6:30 P.M. SMILING MOOSE UPSTAIRS SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $10-12. 412-431-4668 or ticketfly.com.

THU., MARCH 28 BLIND MELON FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT ALLEGHENYCOUNTY.US/LIFEGUARD

7:30 P.M. CRAFTHOUSE SOUTH HILLS. $32-35. 412-653-2695 or ticketfly.com. With special guest Silver Screen.

THU., MARCH 28 BLIND MELON

THU., MARCH 28 SOUND SERIES: MDOU MOCTAR 8 P.M. ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM NORTH SIDE. $12-15. 412-237-8300 or warhol.org.

THU., MARCH 28 STABBING WESTWARD 8 P.M. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE WARRENDALE. $25-38. 724-799-8333 or ticketfly.com.

FRI., MARCH 29 SPORTS MONSTER ADULT SOCCER 6:30 P.M. BOYCE PARK SOCCER FIELDS BOYCE PARK. Over-19 event. $59-699 (registration required). 412-350-2455 or pittsburgh.sportsmonster.net.

FRI., MARCH 29 LEO 7 P.M. BYHAM THEATER DOWNTOWN. $12. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

FRI., MARCH 29 IMAGINATION JOURNEY 8 P.M. THE PALACE THEATRE GREENSBURG. $20-70. 724-836-8000 or thepalacetheatre.org

FRI., MARCH 29 TEN: PEARL JAM TRIBUTE 8 P.M. JERGEL’S RHYTHM GRILLE WARRENDALE. $15-30. 724-799-8333 or ticketfly.com.

BOYCE • NORTH • SETTLERS CABIN • SOUTH

CRAFTHOUSE SOUTH HILLS

SAT., MARCH 30 SOCCER SHOTS 9:20 A.M. BOYCE PARK SOCCER FIELDS BOYCE PARK. Ages 2-8. $110-120 (registration required). 412-350-2455 or soccershots. org/pittsburgh.

SUN., MARCH 31 RICKY SKAGGS & KENTUCKY THUNDER 3:30 P.M. THE PALACE THEATRE GREENSBURG. $38-90. 724-836-8000 or thepalacetheatre.org

MUSICAL MURDER MYSTERY DINNER AT HARTWOOD ACRES

SAT., MARCH 30 FREE DEK HOCKEY CLINIC

SUN., MARCH 31 TWIZTID

10 A.M. SETTLERS CABIN PARK DEK HOCKEY RINK SETTLERS CABIN PARK. Ages 4-6. Free event (registration required). 412-350-4636 or alleghenycounty.us/parkprograms.

7 P.M. FOXTAIL SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $20-25. 412-651-4713 or ticketfly.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 6-9:30 PM DINNER & DESERT INCLUDED! LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE

MON., APRIL 1 CDG SPORTS MOUNTAIN BIKING

$60 FOR COUNTY RESIDENTS $75 FOR NON-RESIDENTS

SAT., MARCH 30 L.L. BEAN NATURE HIKE 1 P.M. NORTH PARK L.L BEAN TRAILER NORTH PARK. Over-8 event. Free event (registration required). Llbean.com/pittsburgh.

SAT., MARCH 30 AETHERE 6:30 P.M. SMILING MOOSE SOUTH SIDE. All-ages event. $10-12. 412-431-4668 or ticketfly.com. With special guest Riparian.

SUN., MARCH 31 ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER 2 p.m. BYHAM THEATER Downtown. $12. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

5:15 P.M. NORTH PARK PIE TRAYNOR FIELD NORTH PARK. Ages 6-16. $100-125. Alleghenycounty.us/parkprograms.

TUE., APRIL 2 CHERRY POOLS 6:30 P.M. SMILING MOOSE UPSTAIRS SOUTH SIDE. 412-431-4668. All-ages event. $13-15. 412-431-4668 or ticketfly.com. With special guests Tillie & Hear Tonight.

TUE., APRIL 2 KENIA 5 P.M. BACKSTAGE BAR AT THEATER SQUARE DOWNTOWN. Free event. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.

FOR UPCOMING ALLEGHENY COUNTY PARKS EVENTS, LOG ONTO WWW.ALLEGHENYPARKS.COM

CALENDAR MARCH 14-20

PHOTO: ASH KINGSTON

^ Wed., March 20: serpentwithfeet

THURSDAY MARCH 14 STAGE

Pittsburgh Classic Players brings playwright David Auburn’s Proof to the Spartan Community Center of Hazelwood. The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play tells the story of a woman struggling with love and legacy as she follows in the footsteps of her late father, a math genius with a serious mental illness. Debuting in 2000, the work was adapted into a 2005 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony

PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Hopkins. The Pittsburgh Classic Players production is directed by Jonathan Visser and features local artists Chris Cattell, David Maslow, Alison Weisgall, and Harper York. Continues through March 30. 134 E. Elizabeth St., Hazelwood. $25. pghclassics.com

It’s safe to assume that the event will include some mention of Schatz’s play The Burdens, a dark comedy running from April 6–May 12 at City Theatre. A Q&A will follow. 6 p.m. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free. Registration required. pittsburghlectures.org

LECTURE

FUNDRAISER

City Theatre playwright Matt Schatz stops by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Oakland) for a special Made Local event presented by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. Schatz, a writer and a composer whose play Love Trapezoid won the Kleban Prize in Musical Theatre, will discuss his work and process with director Marc Masterson.

When Life’sWork of Western PA was founded around a century ago, it was originally called The Industrial League. The nonprofit was founded by the National Council of Jewish Women to advocate for women’s right to employment. During the Depression, it helped find employment for immigrants and veterans. Decades (and

another name change) later, Life’sWork remains committed to helping anyone with barriers to employment find work. The Life’sWork Spring Gala 2019 at Rivers Casino helps ensure that the work can continue. There will be hors d’oeuvres, live music, cocktails, and presentations honoring the nonprofit’s work. 6 p.m. 777 Casino Drive, North Side. $50. lifesworkpa.org

POETRY

Three years ago, sam sax’s debut book of poetry, madness, was selected by Terrance Hayes as the 2016 National Poetry Series Competition winner. In the collection, sax explores the relationships between desire, addiction, and the history of mental health

PHOTO: MATT BUCHHOLZ/ALTERNATE HISTORIES

^ Sun., March 17: Bag It Up! Pittsburgh Artists Seconds Sale

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is hosting an Incarceration Reform lecture and panel discussion. Author Anthony Ray Hinton will be on hand to share his story of spending 30 years on death row before being set free because of a wrongful conviction. Hinton will also be signing copies of his book The Sun Does Shine after the event. 6-8 p.m. 250 N. Highland Ave., East Liberty. Free. pts.edu

while confronting and questioning the static categories of sanity, heterosexuality, masculinity, normality, and physical health. The poet reads from madness at City of Asylum. Known for being a highly energetic poetry-slam champ, this is a chance to get fully immersed in sax’s words. As Hayes put it, “[sax] is addicted to feeling.” 7-9 p.m. 40 W. North Ave., North Side. Free with registration. cityofasylum.org

SATURDAY

STAGE

Glitter Box Theater had made a name for itself lately as a go-to for unconventional performances, so it might be surprising to hear it’s staging a well-known play by Oscar Wilde. So how will they take a satirical farce like The Importance of Being Earnest and make it even more slapstick and offbeat? Each of the three acts in Wilde Gone Wilde will be directed by someone new, and each will be performed by a different set of actors. Are you sick to death of cleverness? Oh please, Mr. Wilde. Not yet. 7:30 p.m. Also Fri., March 15. $5-10. Glitter Box Theater, 460 Melwood Ave., Oakland. theglitterboxtheater.com

MARCH 16 ART ^ Sat., March 16: Candlight Concert

FRIDAY

MARCH 15 EVENT

The United States has the highest level of incarceration in the world. According to

the World Prison Brief, America incarcerates 655 of every 100,000 people living in the U.S. This is even higher than El Salvador, where crime and violence are so prevalent that thousands of migrants flee the Central American country every year. To educate people on the realities of America’s criminaljustice system, the Metro-Urban Institute at

On the first and third Saturday of the month, Mattress Factory visitors can not only see art but also make it themselves in the museum’s ARTLab. Taking place 14 p.m., drop-ins of all ages are welcome at any point. For the March 16 edition, the interactive program includes Pittsburghbased multimedia artist Jenna Houston. The lens-based artist who uses installation, photo, and video to investigate the overlap of gender with chronic illness, will assist the exploration of collage and CONTINUES ON PG. 42

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

CALENDAR, CONTINUED FROM PG. 41

7 DAYS

OF CONCERTS BY JORDAN SNOWDEN JSNOWDEN@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

PHOTO: FRANK MADDOCKS

Gary Clark Jr.

THURSDAY Octave Cat, Chalk Dinosaur 7 p.m. Club Cafe, South Side. clubcafelive.com

FRIDAY Crooked Cobras 10 p.m. Gooski’s, Polish Hill. facebook.com/CrookedCobras

SATURDAY

PHOTO: LAST YEAR’S RUNWAY, A SONG OF THRONES, COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH OPERA

DJ Aesthetics, Sierra Sellers, Benji., Slim Tha Dj 9 p.m. Community Forge, Wilkinsburg. forge.community

SUNDAY Wynchester, The Anonymous Chronicles, Living with Monsters 7 p.m. Cattivo, Lawrenceville. cattivopgh.com

MONDAY We Three 6 p.m. Jergels, Warrendale. jergels.com

TUESDAY Winded, Jorts Season, Indigo Baloch, Tap Shorts 7 p.m. The Mr. Roboto Project, Bloomfield. therobotoproject.com

WEDNESDAY Gary Clark Jr. 8 p.m. Benedum Center, Downtown. trustarts.org

FULL CONCERT LISTINGS ONLINE

AT PGHCITYPAPER.COM 42

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^ Mon., March 18: Bohemian Nights

cyanotypes. 1-4 p.m. 505 Jacksonia St., North Side. Free with museum admission. mattress.org

Pittsburgh artists came up with the idea for Bag it Up! Pittsburgh Artists Seconds Sale. For $20, you get a bag and from there, it’s free rein! Stuff it full of seconds from favorite local artists like Alternate Histories, Strawberryluna, garbella, and more. 11 a.m. Ace Hotel Pittsburgh. 120 S. Whitfield St., East Liberty. $20. Search “Bag it Up! Pittsburgh Artists Seconds Sale” on Facebook.

MUSIC

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Eve (not really a thing) with three Pittsburgh staples at Club Cafe. First, Standard Broadcast brings catchy, clean pop, as heard on “The Break” from their 2018 self-titled EP. Then one of the city’s most idiosyncratic punksomething groups, Suavity’s Mouthpiece, returns to the stage with its original lineup after a few years of featuring frontman J. Trafford (they reportedly have new music on the way, by the way). Finally, Sikes and the New Madness deliver live instruments and hip hop on the heels of the 2018 record Modern Modesty (start with “Nosedive,” featuring a nice chopped up sample of The Remains’ “Don’t Look Back”). 6 p.m. 56 S. 12th St., South Side. $8. 21 and over. clubcafelive.com

CANDLELIGHT

The Pittsburgh Historical Music Society Orchestra continues its mission of preserving 18th- and 19th-century music with its third annual Candlelight Concert. Bring the whole family to experience early American life during an evening at the Woodville Plantation, a historic site interpreting the time period between 1780 and 1820 that documents the lives of the three families who resided there, the Nevilles, the Cowans, and the

MONDAY

MARCH 18 FASHION

Wrenshalls. Enjoy live music or retire to the Neville House parlour for hors d’oeuvres, sweets, and libations. Period dress is encouraged but not required. 7 p.m. 1375 Washington Pike, Bridgeville. $25. woodvilleplantation.org

The Pittsburgh Opera is partnering with Larrimor’s for an unforgettable fashion experience: Bohemian Nights. Models walk the runway in tribute to Puccini’s La bohème, an opera centered around the young bohemians of the 1840s. The show celebrates these artistic spirits through fashion. 6:30 p.m. 2425 Liberty Ave., Strip District. $45-175. pittsburghopera.org

SUNDAY

TUESDAY

MARKET

COMMUNITY

PHOTO: HOLLIS RAFKIN

^ Thu., March 14: sam sax

MARCH 17 Cleaning out inventory isn’t easy, especially for artists. Where do you put unwanted but still usable artwork? That’s how three

MARCH 19

The Community Engagement Center in Homewood welcomes guest Cathy Albisa, co-founder of the National Economic &

^ Wed., March 20: Claudia Rankine

Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), for a talk titled Economic Human Rights: It’s Time for a New Social Contract. Presented by the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Sociology, the event is part of NESRI’s nation wide call for a New Social Contract that would defend our economy, democracy, and climate from threats posed by greed-based development that prioritizes economic growth over the public good. Learn how the initiative connects with struggles for human rights, democracy, and racial and economic justice in Pittsburgh. 6-8:30 p.m. 622 N. Homewood Ave., Homewood. sociology.pitt.edu

ART

Avenging feminist vandal sounds like a dream job — though Beverly Semmes is more commonly referred to as an “artist.” Using media ranging from sculpture to film and performance, Semmes examines the complexities of the female body and representation, reshaping conventional sexual content into fun, fantastical, solemn, or powerful statements. She will talk about her work, including her ongoing Feminist Responsibility Project, at the Kresge Theatre as part of the Carnegie

Mellon School of Art’s spring lecture series. The event is organized in collaboration with Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie International, 57th Edition, 2018. 6:30 p.m. 5000 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Free and open to the public. art.cmu.edu

LECTURE

One of radio’s most familiar voices is coming to the PNC Theatre at Pittsburgh Playhouse. Award-winning journalist Melissa Block, former host of All Things Considered and current special correspondent at NPR, is being featured in Point Park University’s Media Innovators Speaker Series. She will discuss her work covering both national and international stories, as well as her time spent reporting on critical issues, such as gun violence and opioid addiction. 7 p.m. 350 Forbes Ave., Downtown. $35. pittsburghplayhouse.com

MUSIC

Despite popular opinion, most bands should technically have at least four bassists, if not more. But apparently, the only group to get that memo is BASSCHAMBER, bringing a night of Deep Bass with a Bit of Treble to Joe Negri Auditorium. The great

Pittsburgh vocalist Tania Grubbs will be joined by five basses (the standup kind), as well as Tony Grey on bass guitar (the horizontal kind), and jazz staple James Johnson III on drums. Beer provided by Enix Brewery; the band provides the “unusual arrangements” of tracks from Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, Seals & Croft, Vince Mendoza, and more. 7 p.m. 200 Cowan St., Mount Washington. Pay what you wish. chambermusicpittsburgh.org

WEDNESDAY MARCH 20 LECTURE

Writers have the opportunity to work with Claudia Rankine when she visits the Kelly Strayhorn Theater for an open interactive workshop co-presented with the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics. The African-American poet, essayist, playwright, and author secured her place as one of today’s most notable literary figures. Now the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University,

Rankine has published five collections of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric, and received the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. 7 p.m. 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty. kelly-strayhorn.org Tickets are no longer available for this event. To be added to a waiting list contact Micha McGee at Micha@Kelly-Strayhorn.org

MUSIC

Listening to Josiah Wise, who goes by serpentwithfeet, the gospel music ties of his childhood are apparent in his hummable melodies and chilling trembling vocals. But what Wise sings about — heartache, isolation, sexual desire, and queerness — is found nowhere in the genre he grew up with, a problem he struggled with during his youth. soil, Wise’s debut album, straddles the lines between gospel, R&B, and electronica, while he addresses the love languages used when referring to how men and women interact, specifically queer Black men. His tour supporting the album makes a stop at The Warhol Theater. 8 p.m. 117 Sandusky St., North Side. $15-$18. warhol.org •

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 13-20, 2019

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IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-19-2731, In re petition of Nikolas Delahanty parent and legal guardian of Amirlan Delahanty, for change of name to Susan Amirlan Delahanty. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the ďŹ ling of said petition and ďŹ xed the 26th day of March, 2019, at 9:45 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for

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PEEPSHOW A sex and social justice column BY JESSIE SAGE // PEEPSHOWCAST@GMAIL.COM

NE OF THE most remarkable things about sexual desire and pleasure is how much they are deeply tied to context. The same sexual act that is really exciting with one partner may be undesirable or even unsafe with another. This can also be true at different points within the same relationship. Similarly, completely undesirable things, even terrifying or reprehensible things, can become deeply erotic in the context of sexual fantasy or play. Some examples of this are when a sex-positive feminist gets off on being called a “dirty slut,” or when a powerful CEO likes to be beaten into submission and taunted about his worthlessness. Both of the above examples point to a contradiction between one’s sense of self – one’s identity – and one’s desires. Yet these conﬂicts can cut even deeper; they can be a conﬂict between what one believes to be ethically right, and what one wants to experience in the context of sex. Consensual nonconsent, albeit controversial, is a good example of this. To talk about what this looks like in practice, I sat down with my friend Celeste (last name has been omitted for professional reasons), who has just written a PhD dissertation on kink sexuality. Celeste’s research came out of a deeply personal place.

TW: this column is about fantasies of being abducted.

IN CONSENSUAL NON-CONSENT FANTASIES, CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING She says, “I am someone who has always had kinky fantasies.” Celeste has erotic fantasies about being abducted. She recognizes that abduction in and of itself is not desirable and says, “I don’t actually want to be abducted from my house, I know that is traumatizing, I would never consent to that.” And yet at a kink festival, she not only consented to it, but orchestrated it in advance. “I wrote on a form what

I wanted from the abduction fantasy and while I was walking with my partner, two other people put a bag over my head, took me off to a tent, and tied me down,” she says. “When I opened my eyes everyone else around me was doing different sexual acts: my partner was giving another man a blowjob, a woman was being ﬁsted until she squirted. I couldn’t engage.” Celeste explains that the appeal of this particular fantasy was to play with

the experience of visual pleasure and frustration. What she also wanted was to be able to forfeit control. “Sometimes I like abduction play because I like surprise,” she says. “How often do I get to feel surprised in a way that is sexy and fun? Left to my own devices, I will obsessively work all the time.” (Celeste and I have this in common.) Indeed, Celeste described being forcibly pulled from the lure of work as “delightful.” But here, context is important. “I wouldn’t want to do any of these things with anyone whom I wasn’t completely comfortable with,” she says. It is because she trusts the people involved that she was able to transform something that would otherwise be horrifying into something she described as “one of the best sexual experiences of my life.” Practices such as these are often harshly criticized. Celeste points out the hypocrisy of this by reflecting on horror films. She says, “Adults watch horror movies, and we don’t want the things in the movie to happen, but the feelings of things being scary or gross, that is a fun feeling.” “No one ever says that everyone who watches a horror film is traumatized,” she says. “No one pathologizes that, but the second sexuality is involved, it is a different story.”

•

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 YOUR FRIENDS? ASK JESSIE! EMAIL INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM. QUESTIONS MAY BE CONSIDERED FOR AN UPCOMING COLUMN.

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