March 30, 2022 - Pittsburgh City Paper

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Nick Ackman and partner Jill Krznaric

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FIRSTSHOT

BY PAM SMITH .

A scene from Pittsburgh Opera’s dress rehearsal of Carmen, now playing at The Benedum Center through Sun., April 3.

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MARCH 30-APRIL 6, 2022 VOLUME 31 + ISSUE 13 Editor-In-Chief LISA CUNNINGHAM Director of Operations KEVIN SHEPHERD A&E Editor AMANDA WALTZ News Reporter JORDANA ROSENFELD Arts & Culture Writer DANI JANAE Photographer/Videographer JARED WICKERHAM Editorial Designer LUCY CHEN Graphic Designer JEFF SCHRECKENGOST Digital Editorial Coordinator HANNAH KINNEY-KOBRE Marketing + Sponsorships Manager ZACK DURKIN Sales Representatives OWEN GABBEY, MARIA STILLITANO Circulation Manager JEFF ENGBARTH Featured Contributors REGE BEHE, MIKE CANTON, LYNN CULLEN, TERENEH IDIA Interns TIA BAILEY, PAM SMITH National Advertising Representative VMG ADVERTISING 1.888.278.9866 OR 1.212.475.2529 Publisher EAGLE MEDIA CORP.

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COVER PHOTO: PAM SMITH READ THE STORY ON PAGE 4

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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NEWS

PERMANENT INK New tattoo art museum showcases rare artifacts alongside live tattooing

BY JORDANA ROSENFELD // JORDANA@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

W

HEN YOU ENTER t h e Pittsburgh Tattoo Art Museum, in the first case to the left, there is a display of personal sketches

by Lew Alberts, one of the most important figures in the history of American tattooing. Better known as “Lew the Jew,” Alberts (born Kurzman), who tattooed in New York City in the early 1900s, influenced subsequent generations of tattoo artists, and contributed to the design of the motorized tattoo gun in use today.

The sketches, various tattoo designs in the traditional American style, are clearly done on the back of Alberts’ mail, including documents about his war veteran status and letters from his synagogue in Yiddish.

“Other tattooers would write to him, and he’d correspond with them and send them designs, you know?" Pittsburgh Tattoo Art Museum owner Nick Ackman tells Pittsburgh City Paper as he tattoos a customer at the back of his newly-opened museum earlier this month. "But when he sent them designs, he would just cut up his mail and draw shit on the back and send it back to them.”

As far as collectors know, there are only two sets of Alberts’ personal drawings in existence. Tattoo-artist-turnedfashion-mogul Ed Hardy owns one, and the other lives in Shadyside in Pittsburgh’s newest museum.

The Pittsburgh Tattoo Art Museum, open now on Walnut Street in Shadyside, pulls its exhibits from Ackman’s impressive collection of tattoo antiques that includes stencils, sketches, equipment, archival photos, and a traveling kit made from a hollowed-out record player once used by carnival tattooists. A self-taught curator, Ackman’s approach considers the way the history of tattoo art connects with many other parts of American history and culture. He hopes that even people who would never consider getting a tattoo will

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still come to the museum and find something that interests them.

“I tried to gear it to where it’s interesting for people that have absolutely no interest in getting a tattoo whatsoever but are interested in things like American history or folk art or military history or anything that can go along with tattooing,” Ackman says.

Ackman and his partner Jill Krznaric run the museum by donation, and tattoo clients in the back of the shop. Ackman says he wanted to be able to offer visitors

WHAT ARE AMERICAN TRADITONAL TATTOOS?

A

MERICAN TRADITIONAL, also called “Old School,” is a tattooing style featuring bold black lines and highly saturated solid blocks of mostly primary colors. The designs are usually relatively simple and two-dimensional. Unlike more realistic styles, American Traditional tattoos are supposed to look like drawings. Because American Traditional was so ubiquitous for so long, according to the website Tatt Mag (tattmag. com), it didn’t even need a name until much later when new styles began to develop.

— Jordana Rosenfeld

the opportunity to see tattoos in-progress.

Donations to the museum will be put to use restoring and preserving artifacts of tattoo history.

Calling tattooing “the greatest American folk art,” Ackman tells City Paper that the visual culture of traditional American tattooing is a mix of “images from other American things, advertising, magazines, fruit crate labels, anything with cool images [tattooists] could steal from, they would take those images.”

“All of its imagery is this dialogue of all of these things that are so important to the people in any group or place that are doing those tattoos,” Ackman says. “If

CP PHOTO: PAM SMITH

Tattoo Art Museum

you analyze the designs off of any sheet, you can tell what the wants and the needs of the people of that place and time are, because it’s sex and religion and death and adventure … It’s kind of the same themes that we use today, too.”

Ackman says his love of collecting both items and the stories behind them comes from his childhood.

“When I was a little kid, my great aunt was a hoarder. But she wasn’t a hoarder of, like, trash and shit, her whole house was full of things, and she had them all up on shelves and all over her house and everything,” he says. “And when I was a kid, I’d walk into her house and I’d say, ‘Where’d you get that?’ or ‘Where’d you get this?’ and she had a story to tell me

THE PITTSBURGH TATTOO ART MUSEUM 413A Walnut St., Shadyside. pittsburghtattooartmuseum.com and instagram.com/pittsburghtattooartmuseum 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

For tattoos, contact the museum to schedule.

ON TATTOOING IN PITTSBURGH

J

ILL KRZNARIC started tattooing in McKeesport in 2001. Compared to other places she’s tattooed, she says the Pittsburgh tattoo community seems to have an uncommon camaraderie.

“I was in Houston, and we had a tattoo dy talked shop across the street, and nobody to each other,” she says. an, Both Krzniack and Nick Ackman, who run the Pittsburgh Tattoo Art ally Museum together, are especially excited for other local tattooers to visit the museum. nted “There are a lot of really talented ays, people around here,” Krznaric says, “and there’s a lot of people thatt have me.” been tattooing here for a long time.”

— Jordana Rosenfeld

behind every object that was on her shelf.

Her house was kind of curated, in a way, and I thought it was really interesting.”

Curation, Ackman says, is what distinguishes a museum from a collection.

“I’ve been to a lot of places that are described as tattoo museums, and some of the ones I’ve been to don’t have really great labeling,” Ackman says. “I think that’s more of a collection, not a museum.”

He says that as he developed his displays for the museum, he observed how other, more traditional, museums approach labeling and context.

Throughout the Pittsburgh Tattoo Art Museum are labeled artifacts identifying the objects. Tattoo artwork is labeled by the artists’ names, if known, as well as a likely decade of origin.

The “curatorial stuff has mostly been out of my own interest over time, but [I’m] trying to do my best to figure it out the right way,” Ackman says.

“Once you become a collector, then people want to see your collection, but you don’t want all those people coming to your house … so the museum is the best solution to be able to present your

CP PHOTOS: PAM SMITH

Pittsburgh Tattoo Art Museum owner Nick Ackman and partner Jill Krznaric

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Tattoo Art Musuem

collection to people,” Ackman explains.

The museum’s first exhibit focuses on each of the seven books of tattoo art and memorabilia Ackman has published through his company, Blue Letter Books, which aims to “preserve the great craft of tattooing through books,” according to its website. He started Blue Letter Books in 2009 and has since published books of work by and about Lew Alberts, Milton Zeis, and Percy Waters, among others.

The cases currently on display at the museum represent “far less than a tenth” of Ackman’s complete collection. He says his collection has grown over the years largely through relationships with other tattoo artists and memorabilia collectors who have given or sold him pieces of their collections.

Exciting additions to his collection sometimes come to Ackman more or less by surprise, although he knows where to look. The rare Alberts sketches on display unexpectedly came to Ackman in a box of unsorted papers he bought that once belonged to legendary tattoo artist Walter Cleveland.

Ackman (who is not Jewish) says that when he “saw the Jewish stuff on the back and everything, I thought, ‘Wow, that’d be cool if these are actually Lew Alberts’ drawings!’ But I thought there’s no way they could be all that kind of stuff.” He posted some pictures to a tattoo history

group online and, he says, tattoo historian Carmen Nyssen reached out right away to confirm Ackman’s sketches looked just like others she had studied. Later, he noticed Alberts’ name and address on the back of one of the sketches.

Ackman and Krznaric were both established tattoo artists when they met online about six years ago. Ackman was in Washington state at the time and Krznaric was in Texas. They both moved to Cannonsburg, Pa. where Krznaric began tattooing at Old Soul Tattoo and Ackman commuted to a tattoo shop in Morgantown, W. Va. Now they live in Bellevue.

Although the museum has been a dream of Ackman’s for many years, it only began coming to fruition about ten months ago, he says. Krznaric says she came across a local antique shop that was going out of business and selling all of their display cases, which were, themselves, locally made antiques. After securing the shelves, they set about finding a space for the museum. Krznaric says the Shadyside location was only the second place they visited, and they’re very happy with it.

Ackman says people he worked with 15 years ago have been writing him, surprised that he finally got it together.

“Whenever I met some of Nick’s friends, they told me it might take him 10 years,” Krznaric says, “but he always does what he says he’s gonna do.”

Follow news reporter Jordana Rosenfeld on Twitter @rosenfeldjb

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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Portraits of Suzanne Werder and Kirsten Ervin from Drawn Together

ART

BECOMING VISIBLE

BY LISA CUNNINGHAM // LCUNNING@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

T’S BEEN SAID that once women reach a certain age, they become invisible. Not just to the male gaze, but to peers, to bosses, to people walking down the street. Middle-aged women are stereotypically the mothers, the caretakers, the people behind the lens, not the ones in front of it. But a new art exhibition by two Pittsburgh women is centering the artists’ likenesses, ensuring that they — and every freckle, roll, and laugh line that comes with aging — are seen.

Kirsten Ervin, 54, and Suzanne Werder, 44, spent the entirety of January 2022 taking turns modeling as the

other created artwork from her poses.

About half of the portraits were created during live sessions in Ervin’s home in Lawrenceville, the rest from selfies the two of them texted each other at random, spontaneous moments. Each artist will present 31 of their portraits at Drawn Together: A Coming of Middle Age Story in 62 Portraits, on view from April 2-24 at Braddock’s UnSmoke Systems Artspace.

“You know, women my size are often not represented in art or anywhere,” says Werder. “So this is a neat opportunity to be seen and to see, and to reveal the other person’s beauty to the world as well.”

DRAWN TOGETHER: A COMING OF MIDDLE AGE STORY IN 62 PORTRAITS 6 p.m. Sat., April 2. Continues through April 24. UnSmoke Systems Artspace.

1137 Braddock Ave., Braddock. Free. unsmokeartspace.com

The pair first met years ago “drawing naked people” during a figure drawing class. “We were kind of the bad kids and we would end up making the model laugh,” says Werder. “And got in trouble a lot,” Ervin finishes her sentence. The

silliness shared between the two women continues even now, both often cracking each other up, Werder moving her hands in flamboyant gestures.

While they say the other participants in the nude figure drawing classes where they first met were “wonderful,” the classes were also very male-dominated, and, over time, Ervin says the people they painted went from “all types of bodies and sizes” to thinner women in their 20s being chosen as the models.

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GRAND OPENING IN MAY

OUR MISSION: Loving-Kindness, True Community and Real Healing for your Spiritual Liberation.

(Sneha means loving-kindness in Sanskrit.)

5432 BUTLER STREET • PGH, PA 15201

www.snehacollective.com PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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BECOMING VISIBLE, CONTINUED FROM PG. 8

ahead of time that they would not set out to make the artwork flattering, but true to themselves. Ervin, drawn impeccably with Werder’s colored pencils, lounges on blankets and pillows as she gazes off into the distance, her oversized sweater folded in thick layers that are illustrated with such detail, one could mistake the image for a photograph at a distance. In Werder, Ervin captures her plus-sized beauty with brilliant blues and purples, incorporating mixed-media pieces into her portraits. In one, Werder stretches her arms out across the back of a couch, her relaxed body drawn to fill the frame, as if in an invitation to come closer.

There is also plenty of joy, found everywhere from ridiculous facial expressions to “bed head,” as seen in a set of portraits done from bedroom selfies, sent to each other first thing in the morning.

“Joy is infused in everything whenever Kristen and I get together. Just the joy bubbles over, and this project is also about that,” says Werder. “And joy often gets a bad rap and it is seen as being frivolous.

We see it as being necessary. We see it as a weapon against, you know, the angst of life. And boy, I sure needed it.”

While the two collaborated on several other projects years prior, Ervin came up with the idea for Drawn Together as a way to help Werder get back to making art after the pandemic hit her hard. They say they both deal with depression, and artwork is a way that helps.

“It was also really cool being seen too, being on the other side of the drawing board,” says Werder. “And it’s also cool

CP PHOTO: LISA CUNNINGHAM

Drawn Together artists Suzanne Werder and Kirsten Ervin

being represented in art. People our age, you know, women our age.”

It’s a two-way street, Ervin says, for middle-aged and younger women to recognize each other, but in the art world, she says older women, and older folks in general, are continuing to get ignored.

“I’ve talked and I’ve heard it from women of color, I’ve heard it from white women. I’ve heard it also from men too, though,” Ervin says. “I mean, I saw with

my parents, who were both professional artists, when my dad hit his 60s, he was basically shoved out of his job because he was too old and then really, really treated like he didn’t have it anymore.”

Ervin says the art world has an “obsession with emerging artists,” which she says is being defined as only pertaining to those who are young.

“And that’s complete bullshit, right?” she says. “I think the wonderful thing

is that. in the last few years, there has been a welcoming of more visibility for Black and Brown artists, but that needs to expand further. If you think about intersectionality, that also includes age, it also includes income level, it also includes educational level.”

Ervin, who, like Werder, is white, says she has heard from many folks in private, both white and Black, about ageism in the art scene. “They won’t talk about it publicly, that they felt like, ‘I’ve stopped making art because I only see it as a thing for the young, no one’s interested in me anymore.’”

“I also once taught a self-portrait class and everybody who signed up for my classes was a middle-aged woman,” Werder adds, “and I unexpectedly had to do a lot of therapy with my students before they could even jump into things because they’re not the ‘hot 20 year olds’ that our society peddles as the only form of beauty, which is not true.”

Werder and Ervin are both self-taught, despite both coming from “intense art families,” and say this project helped them grow, both in terms of their artwork and their friendship.

“Just by being ourselves, this is feminist art,” says Werder.

This is reflected in how the women are portrayed at ease in the portraits, even more so in their live drawings than in the ones taken from photographs. When the women were able to draw each other in person, they say they laughed and talked together through the process.

“The freedom to be yourself,” says Ervin, “is really freeing.”

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

GARY JURYSTA MEMORIAL ART EXHIBITION

“The act of painting is about finding visual form in an idea that might otherwise not find expression.”

- Gary Jurysta Receipient of Master Visual Artist Award in 2013

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PHOTO: SOPHIA HUR

Soccer Mommy

MUSIC

CHANGING COLOR

BY DANI JANAE // DANIJANAE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

S

OPHIE ALLISON, aka Soccer Mommy, is currently on tour throughout the U.S. in support of her 2020 album Color Theory. Originally hailing from Nashville, the young singersongwriter (her 2018 album Clean came out when she was just 20 years old) has built a reputation as a self-described “chill but kinda sad” voice of indie rock.

She recently announced her forthcoming album Forever — set to drop on June 24 — with the release of a new single, “Shotgun.”

SOCCER MOMMY WITH PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE 7 p.m. Sat., April 2. Mr. Smalls Theatre.

400 Lincoln Ave., Millvale. $22. All ages. opusoneproductions.com

Soccer Mommy and her band will take the stage for an all-ages show at Mr. Smalls Theatre on Sat., April 2 with Peel Dream Magazine. Ahead of the show, Pittsburgh City Paper spoke to the artist about being back on the road.

Now that it’s been out for a little bit, how has your relationship to Color Theory changed?

I mean, I think just in general, with every record, I kind of go through phases where we recorded it, and we get it mixed, and I’m really excited about it. Then right around the time it’s released, I start to get tired of it. It kind of comes in waves.

Right around the time we started touring, it became the perfect time because I was excited about it again. It actually ended up being really fun, getting to play those songs again.

What are you looking forward to in regard to being back on the road?

It’s just been really nice playing shows again and just working with the guys in the band and playing with them. And it’s also just nice to be traveling again, I miss traveling in general. I love getting to see the little bits of the city every night. So yeah, it’s been great.

Do you see growth in yourself as an artist? How have things changed from Clean to Color Theory?

Yeah, certainly. I mean, I think for one thing, just like writing, I feel like between every record, I hope to see a lot of growth.

And if I’m not seeing the growth that’s probably a bad thing. There’s stuff you learn, you know, you work and you start realizing things you did on the last record that you didn’t like. I think this tour and live show has grown so much. When you’re not making much money and stuff, people have other stuff to do, you can’t try to provide people with a serious career.

So that’s definitely grown a huge amount since Clean. And you know, we’ve added an extra member since Clean as well. So definitely the live sound is way more what I would want it to be.

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Follow arts & culture writer Dani Janae on Twitter @figwidow PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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APRIL #CPBOOKCLUB B SELECTION: Another Appalachia byy Neema Avashia

N

EEMA AVASHIA is many thingss — a teacher, a writer, a queerr p e rs o n , a ch i l d o f I n d ia n immigrants. Her latest book looks at another facet of her identity, that of an Appalachian. Released in March by West Virginia University Press, Another Appalachia sets out to paint a less white, more representative portrait of the region through Avashia and her family, providing “lyric and narrative explorations of foodways, religion, sports, standards of beauty, social media, gun culture, and more.”

Grab a copy of Another Appalachia at shop. riverstonebookstore.com and join the conversation during the April Pittsburgh City Paper Book Club.

LIT

REACHING NIRVANA

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide.

W

HAT DRIVES SOMEONE to tattoo on their body the name of a boy they barely knew? For author Candace Jane Opper, it could be boiled down to unresolved grief, and the trauma left from the death of a classmate in her adolescence, one that would stick with her well into her adulthood.

Certain and Impossible Events (2021, Kore Press), a memoir by Opper, and the March Pittsburgh City Paper Book Club selection, examines the complex, unanswered questions surrounding death by suicide. Set in 1994, the 166-page book “orbits” the death of a 14-year-old boy who killed himself a week after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s own death by suicide shook the world and became a defining moment of the angst-ridden, youthobsessed 1990s.

Opper says she spent over two decades obsessing over the late boy, whom she calls “Brett” out of respect to his family. The memoir’s matter-of-fact prose reflects the cold, objective nature with which the incident was handled (the book’s opening line simply reads, “You killed yourself on a wraparound deck I’d only seen from the street”), as Opper and her fellow classmates were left to figure the loss out on their own.

Throughout, Opper examines why the event stuck with her. She admits to having a massive crush on Brett, a fellow member of her school band, but the book goes far deeper, looking at the implications of

death by suicide, especially for someone so young, and how discussions around the issue have changed since the 1990s.

As Opper points out, Cobain’s death contributed to a larger acknowledgment of the issue, and she recalls how MTV News closed out a report about Cobain with the suicide prevention hotline, possibly exposing many young viewers to the resource for the first time.

While Opper immerses the reader in her suburban Connecticut youth, the work reads as more than a nostalgia trip.

Even the focus on Cobain, whose death has inspired more than its fair share of tabloid speculation and intimate documentaries, pulls its weight as being inextricably linked to the circumstances surrounding Brett’s own demise, and indicative of the culture at the time.

As expected, Certain and Impossible Events never comes to an easy conclusion, but confronts a collective fascination with and fear of suicide that persists even as the discourse around mental health treatment has become less stigmatized. The author’s willingness to bare her soul at the risk of seeming overly consumed also calls into question the depth of parasocial relationships and how they shape us. How is getting a tattoo of Cobain’s visage or song lyrics, something surely many people have done, any different from Opper’s own memorial tattoo for Brett? As far as the book is concerned, not much.

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Follow a&e editor Amanda Waltz on Twitter @AWaltzCP

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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The 2020 Pgh Opera Fashion Show: Roses and Thorns

FASHION

FASHION THEATER

BY DANI JANAE // DANIJANAE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

I

N RECENT YEARS, Pittsburgh has become a more fashion-forward city. Many designers across the region are providing Pittsburghers with unique hand-sewn or hand-painted wares. Shops and boutiques are bringing in big name designers. A city that was once ridiculed for its fashion is having a moment.

One of the shop owners who has been bringing eclectic clothing into Pittsburgh for over 35 years is Richard Parsakian, owner of Shadyside’s Eons Fashion Antique, which specializes in vintage clothing and accessories. Now, he’s taking his clothing from the store to the runway after being approached by his friend Christopher Hahn, director of the Pittsburgh Opera, to collaborate on the company’s annual fashion show. Diva Dreams and Fashion Queens, returning to the Pittsburgh Opera’s Blitz Opera Factory space in the Strip District

on Mon., April 4 after a year off due to the pandemic, will feature models all outfitted by Parsakian, with hair and makeup done by Studio Booth.

PITTSBURGH OPERA'S

DIVA DREAMS AND FASHION QUEENS 6:30 p.m. Mon., April 4. Blitz Opera Factory.

2425 Liberty Ave., Strip District. $45-175. pittsburghopera.org/diva

Diva Dreams and Fashion Queens aims to be a unique event showcasing the breadth of the Eons Fashion collection.

Hahn says that the fashion show started about eight years ago, and came from an idea he had to blend the drama of opera and fashion together.

“It’s something that I dreamed up because I’m always on the lookout for ways

to bring new people to what we do and to explore the boundaries of what we do,” he says. “And there’s something that’s very dramatic about fashion, and the same can be said about theater costumes.”

Hahn says this year’s goal was to interweave opera fashion with vintage pieces from Eons to create a one-of-a-kind look.

To add to the drama of the evening, the models will walk to operatic music.

Collaborating with Parsakian was a bit of a no-brainer, according to Hahn. Since Parsakian has so many connections in the theater community, the drag community, and the arts community, he says it wouldn’t be difficult to find models to walk the show and, of course, find clothes and accessories that wow.

“We talked about how to characterize this combination of the opera diva idea and the drag diva or contemporary fashion diva, or the popular culture diva,” says Hahn.

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CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

Richard Parsakian

For Parsakian, this isn’t his first time organizing a show of such scale. He collaborated with The Andy Warhol Museum back in 2004 to put on a fashion show that was in conjunction with an exhibit on the Kennedy assassination. After being brought on by Hahn to provide the clothes for this year’s Opera Fashion Show, Parsakian got to work on combing through his extensive collection.

“My philosophy for working is that all of these models are friends of mine.

They’re dancers, actors, you know, people that are, they have a presence on stage,” says Parsakina. “I just went back and forth and found items that fit each person. Also, this is a very sort of nonbinary show. I blur the definition of what is clothing for males and females. I just sort of throw those definitions out.”

Parsakian says he’s positive that this show is on a scale that Pittsburgh has never seen before; instead of a fashion show, he calls it “fashion theater.” And while he says he hates the word “diverse,” he says he’s working with a wide variety of models who do showcase the diversity of what fashion can be.

He adds that he is passionate about matching certain models with designers who reflect their own history and story.

With that in mind, he dressed one of his Black models in a Black designer named Willi Smith, who died of AIDS at the height of his career.

“So I essentially teach what I call ‘the children,’ that this is part of your history and part of your culture, and you’re representing something on your body that goes beyond just fashion,” he says.

Hahn says that he is most excited about the mix of people that this kind of event will draw. The Opera tends to attract long-time supporters, but he’s optimistic the fashion show element will bring in a younger, more eclectic crowd, especially with Parsakian at the helm. He also says that there is a high level of production value associated with the event, so this isn’t just a standard fashion show, it’s an experience.

Attendees of the event can expect to have their preconceived notions redefined, according to Hahn.

“Come ready to be surprised,” he says. “Come ready to explore boundaries, set assumptions aside, and to be amazed by what talented individuals brought together can cook up to entertain the community.”

Parsakian says a wide variety of designers will be showcased, including Thierry Mugler, who recently passed away, Alexander McQueen, Scott Barrie, and more, as well as a dress that was worn by actress Audrey Hepburn, and a shirt with a Keith Haring design on it.

“Christopher Hahn has done a really excellent job in redefining what opera is all about,” says Parsakian. “He is really embracing new contemporary opera.”

Follow arts & culture writer Dani Janae on Twitter @figwidow

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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THEATER

PRESERVING PARADISE

BY JORDANA ROSENFELD JORDANA@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

P

....ARADISE BLUE, the latest resonant production from City Theatre, follows five people who live and/or work at the Paradise Club, a jazz spot in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood.

While set in 1949 Detroit, the production — being staged now through Sun., April 3 — has deep connections to Pittsburgh. It’s part of playwright Dominique Morriseau’s Detroit Project, a three-play cycle about Black life in that city inspired by August Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh Cycle, which spans every decade of the 20th century.

Morisseau has a masterful ability to embody historical moments with stories so deeply embedded in their historical and cultural context that exposition hardly registers as such, and City Theatre’s production of Paradise Blue, directed by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Kent Gash, meets her gift with deep care for the play’s historic context.

Blue, played by Rafael Jordan, owns the Paradise Club. A gifted trumpeter like his father, Blue is haunted by the trauma of a violent childhood as he struggles to survive the ongoing trauma of being Black in a country founded on anti-Blackness.

PARADISE BLUE Continues through Sun., April 3.

City Theatre. 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $20-45. citytheatrecompany.org

In 1949, when Paradise Blue is set, Black Bottom, a predominantly Black neighborhood on Detroit’s near east side, was “the city’s major African-American community of Black-owned businesses, social institutions, and nightclubs, nationally famous for its music scene in Paradise Valley … Businesses included ten restaurants, eight grocers, 17 physicians, and six drugstores,” according to the Detroit Historical Society. Paradise Valley was a neighborhood adjacent to Black Bottom.

Bad things were brewing, however, for Black Bottom at that time. Albert Cobo, the real-life Detroit mayor whose urban renewal policies razed several blocks of

PHOTO: KRISTI JAN HOOVER

Paradise Blue at City Theatre

Black Bottom, destroying and displacing a thriving Black community, won the 1949 mayoral election running what The Michigan Chronicle characterized as “one of the most vicious campaigns of racebaiting and playing upon the prejudices of all segments of the Detroit population.”

Black Bottom was demolished by the city in the 1950s to build an urban redevelopment project and a freeway.

Within this context of impending gentrification, Blue, the Paradise Club owner, is facing pressure from the city of Detroit to sell his club, which is right in the middle of a stretch of other jazz clubs. If he decides to sell, we’re told, the other clubs will likely follow suit.

Blue quietly recognizes the potential sale as an opportunity to run away from the club, a proxy for his past. Blue takes his anger out on those around him including Pumpkin, his poetry-loving girlfriend and innkeeper, played by Melva Graham, and P-Sam and Corn, two musicians he pays to accompany him.

P-Sam, the Paradise Club percussionist played by Monteze Freeland (one of City Theatre’s co-artistic directors), sees the writing on the wall and maneuvers

with increasing desperation to improve his circumstances. Corn, a pianist played with great empathy by Pittsburgh theater legend Wali Jamal, tries to keep the peace.

Into this pressure-cooker saunters Silver, played by the luminous Eunice Woods, a gorgeous widow with a big wad of cash and a murky past.

Freeland, Jamal, and Woods are standouts in a very strong cast, impeccably clothed by Susan Tsu on a set designed

by Edward E. Haynes Jr. that balances the abstract and the concrete and makes exciting use of neon.

City Theatre’s production invites comparison between the forces driving this Detroit story of gentrification and displacement of Black communities and Pittsburgh’s past.

“The muscle of Paradise Blue lives in the fabric of cities like Pittsburgh that have struggled to hold firm to the cultural identity of the global majority navigating the wrath of gentrification,” says Freeland.

“Bringing this story to life on stage gives voice to many who battle to claim neighborhoods that carry the history and pride of their people.”

Pittsburgh once had its own thriving

Follow news reporter Jordana Rosenfeld on Twitter @rosenfeldjb

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jazz scene in the Hill District. “The parallel between the destruction of Detroit’s and Pittsburgh’s jazz scenes is too blatant to ignore,” writes marketing intern Meg Knorr for the City Theatre blog in a post about the history of the Hill District, “which is one of the reasons Paradise Blue was chosen for City Theatre’s 2021–2022 subscription season.”

Something else about the performance felt too blatant to ignore, which was the way the dynamic of being a white person in an almost entirely white audience watching a play about Black people navigating a racist world felt like such a normal Pittsburgh experience.

Pittsburgh’s very white theater audiences are inextricable from the city’s intense residential segregation and persistently poor quality of life for Black women, in particular, which are themselves inextricable from mid-century redevelopment projects, like Cobo’s, that devastated the Hill District, East Liberty, and the North Side.

City Theatre’s Paradise Blue, then, can be seen as a confluence of the legacies of urban redevelopment policies in both Detroit and Pittsburgh.

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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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SEVEN DAYS IN PITTSBURGH

IRL / IN REAL LIFE EVENT VIRTUAL / STREAMING OR ONLINE-ONLY EVENT HYBRID / MIX OF IN REAL LIFE AND ONLINE EVENT

PHOTO: JASON SNYDER

^ Quantum Theatre’s Plano

THU., MARCH 31 ART • IRL Head to the opening reception for GLARE, a new group exhibition at the Brew House Association. The show features work by seven artists from the gallery’s latest Distillery Artists-in-Residence program, a year-long studio residency designed to help with professional development. The Brew House says that, for GLARE, the artists “recontextualize remnants of found and recycled material into artworks that elevate light and appreciate the sticky nature of nostalgia.” 6-9 p.m. Continues through May 14. 711 South 21st St., South Side. Free. brewhousearts.org/gallery

COMEDY • IRL Join Arcade Comedy Theater for a night of competition, laughs, and music during Bracket Night, an interactive comedy game show aiming to crown the Best Female Vocalist of our lifetimes. Arcade Comedy’s panel of experts will “delight and persuade the audience” to help them decide which of the 16 female vocalists should be crowned No. 1. The field of contenders includes Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Taylor Swift, and many more. Attend for the laughs and help narrow down which singer you think should be named to the

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top spot. 7:30 p.m. Arcade Comedy Theater. 943 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $12. arcadecomedytheater.com

FRI., APRIL 1 STAGE • HYBRID Alumni Theater Company presents The Lost Boy’s | Long Way Home, a live music showcase exploring love, heartbreak, and pain. Featuring music by Maliq Cunningham and James Perry, the production shares the story of each individual’s journey through life, focusing on how they overcame challenges and became the men they are today. Their stories will be joined together through music that will make you dance, shout, and maybe even cry. This performance will be showcased at the Bill Nunn Black Box Theater to a live audience and also livestreamed. 7 p.m.

6601 Hamilton Ave., Homewood. $15. alumnitheatercompany.org

ART • IRL Lange Studio, a new gallery from photographer and artist George Lange, will officially open during the April Unblurred: First Fridays Penn Avenue gallery crawl.

The event includes the debut of 40 Day News Break, a project described as being “inspired by Lange’s New Year’s resolution

to take a break from the news.” The exhibition will feature newspaper collage works Lange did in collaboration with his wife and creative partner, Stephanie. These works were previously only posted on social media and will be presented as prints for the first time. 6-9 p.m. 5427 Penn Ave., Garfield. Free. georgelange.com

FILM • IRL Become inspired and amazed by the outdoors at Venture Outdoors’ Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour. Captivating films varying from “exploring remote landscapes” to “adrenaline-fueled action sports” will be presented during the fest at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. The thought-provoking adventure and environmental clips are sure to excite audiences, as well as leave them stunned at the visuals. From standing on the peaks of the mountains to skiing down them, come prepared to witness plenty of adventures. 7-10 p.m.

Continues on Sat., April 2. 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty. $25. kelly-strayhorn.org

SAT., APRIL 2 STAGE • IRL Quantum Theatre will transform the former TechShop makerspace in Bakery

Square into a stage for its latest production Plano. Written by Will Arbery and inspired by Anton Chekhov, the show follows sisters, Genevieve, Anne, and Isabel, and the men who “occupy all too much of the oxygen-rich atmosphere around them in astroturf-lined suburbia.”

Directed by Adil Mansoor, the show promises a domestic drama and comedy with “flashes of absurdity that ring true.”

2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Continues through April 24. 192 Bakery Square Blvd., Larimer. $38-50. quantumtheatre.com/plano

MUSIC • IRL Soul Stage returns with a night of music by some of Pittsburgh’s brightest, featuring Treble NLS and JM the Poet, as well as a set by DJ Femi. JM the Poet, originally from South Carolina, has been based in Pittsburgh making music for a few years now and, along with Treble NLS, is a teaching artist and performer with 1Hood Media. Treble NLS comes with a clear message, “Never Lose Sight,” and wows audiences with his flow. DJ Femi is a talented artist who started her DJ career 15 years ago, and has shown no signs of slowing down since. The three will come together at the Greer Cabaret Theater and share a stage for the first time together. 8 p.m. 655 Penn Ave., Downtown. Free. trustarts.org

PHOTO: GEORGE LAND PHOTOGRAPHY

^ “News Break #26” by Stephanie Lange and George Land from 40 Days News Break

FEST • IRL Go back in time and surround yourself with all things retro during the Vintage Pittsburgh fair at the Heinz History Center. The festival, in partnership with Neighborhood Flea, will feature dozens of vendors selling all kinds of vintage goods, from clothing to records to home décor.

Shop from sellers including The Pickled Chef, Ada’s Vintage, Keystone Crystals, and more. The cost of the event is included in museum admission, so stick around after attending and check out the museum for a full day of history and vintage goodies. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 1212 Smallman St., Downtown. $9-18. heinzhistorycenter.org

SUN., APRIL 3 KIDS • IRL Looking for a purrfect Sunday? Gather up the kids and head to the Byham Theater for Pete the Cat. The 50-minute show follows Pete, a cat who gets caught “rocking out after bedtime,” and gets sent by a catcatcher to live with a no-nonsense family to learn some manners. Pete, who brings adventure wherever he goes, gets the whole family to rock with him, aside from Jimmy, an uptight second grader. But Pete and Jimmy go on an adventure that’s fun for the whole family. 2 p.m. Continues on Sun., April 3.

101 Sixth St., Downtown. $12. trustarts.org

MON., APRIL 4 TALK • VIRTUAL The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for African American Poetry & Poetics returns with its spring program, Black Study on Intimacy. The first online event, “Black Sound as Liberation Technology” asks, “What is the connection between Black

sounds and improvisations?” Resident poets, musicians, and writers Taylor Johnson, Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother), and Anaïs Duplan will discuss this question and how music, poetry, and other sounds can be used as tools for Black liberation.

Other events in the series include a virtual cartooning workshop and a talk curated by Diana Khoi Nguyen. 6:30 p.m. Continues through Thu., April 7. Free. caapp.pitt.edu

TUE., APRIL 5 STAGE • IRL Do you have a reality TV lover in your life?

The Bachelor Live On Stage at the Benedum Center is for ultimate fans of the hit dating show, even down to the host, former Bachelor contestant and Bachelorette lead Becca Kufrin. This is a night for those who love the romance, love (or loathe) the drama, and can’t wait to see who walks away with a rose. 8 p.m. 237 Seventh St., Downtown. $40-$125. trustarts.org

WED., APRIL 6

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ART • IRL The space above Bar Marco will host Mountains are Mountains, a new show by artist Brent Nakamoto focusing on his experience as a Japanese-American artist.

Originally from Santa Clara, Calif., Nakamoto now lives in Pittsburgh and has previously shown at various local galleries, including as part of the 2020 exhibition Weight of Things Leftover at Brew House. He has also shown in New York and Missouri, and as far as India. See his latest show during an opening reception in the second floor of Union Hall. 6-9 p.m. Continues through July 2. 2216 Penn Ave., Strip District. Free. instagram.com/unionhallpgh

NOW OPEN & SERVING THE GREATER PITTSBURGH AREA Call today: 844-939-3317 recoverycentersofamerica.com

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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ACROSS 1. Remaining 5. Public square 10. Mule breaker?

14. T.A.’s employer 15. Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem mathematician Leonhard 16. Some DDH beers 17. Appetizer #1 20. Esio Trot author 21. Rip apart with one’s teeth 22. Heavy load 23. Princess with pronounced buns 25. Speech at a wake 27. Appetizer #2 32. Game with Skip cards 33. The Merry Widow composer Franz 34. Wheel handler 38. 40-Across leftover 40. Cuban, e.g.

42. Bigelow competitor 43. Judaic holy book 45. Force units in physics 47. Fruity glass of red 48. Main course 51. “I don’t see anyone else behind you!”

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topping 60. Fill completely 62. Dessert 66. First name of the world’s richest man 67. Loadbearing girder 68. Crossword color 69. Musical written in “tick, tick ... BOOM!” 70. Atlanta campus 71. End of fight decisions

DOWN 1. Medicine Nobelist Montagnier 2. Oklahoma city 3. Brackets elite group 4. Gordon Ramsay or Guy Fieri, e.g.

5. Uni-ball product 6. Item in a chest 7. YA author Gratz 8. Epsilon’s follower 9. Out of bed 10. “Hard pass” 11. Kavanaugh’s bench mate 12. Enter data again 13. Procedural with the theme song Baba O’Riley 18. Related to a hipbone 19. Drinks, and drinks, and drinks, as cheap beer 24. Smart ___ 26. Exam with scores

ranging from 120-180 27. Utter failure 28. Golden rule preposition 29. “Believe you me!”

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by Buddy Rich or Gene Krupa 36. Ansari of Master of None 37. Hawaiian coffee 39. Chuck D’s first word on Bring The Noise 41. Staycation’s goal 44. Water, chemically and phonetically 46. Leg cramp 49. Small of Of

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OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENT

THE BOARD OF PUBLIC EDUCATION of the SCHOOL DISTRICT OF PITTSBURGH

ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Sealed proposals shall be deposited at the Administration Building, Bellefield Entrance Lobby, 341 South Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15213, on April 12, 2022, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for:

PGH. CARRICK AND WESTINGHOUSE • CTE Air Conditioning • Mechanical (HVAC) and Electrical Primes Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on March 23, 2022, at Modern Reproductions (412-488-7700), 127 McKean Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 between 9:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. The cost of the Project Manual Documents is non-refundable. Project details and dates are described in each project manual.

We are an equal rights and opportunity school district.

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This Request for Proposal may be obtained from the District’s web page at: https://www.pghschools.org/domain/239.

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One (1) original and five (5) copies of the proposal, including any attachments and cover letter, must be prepared and submitted as described in the RFP by 5:00PM EST on Monday, April 18, 2022.

The District reserves the right to reject any or all RFPs. Paula B. Castleberry Minority/Women Business Department Email: pcastleberry1@pghschools.org We are an equal rights and opportunity school district.

PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER MARCH 30 - APRIL 6, 2022

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