ARTS LET'S PLAY PINBALL

PWPL members name their favorite places and machines

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

Allison Thrower, North Side-Observatory Hill

FAVORITE GAME:

“

The Walking Dead. It was the first game that taught me about the importance of aim and flipper manipulation, and it’s always a challenge — to this day I’m chasing a high score. Also, my husband and I played it on our first date.”

FAVORITE PLACE TO PLAY:

“Any yinzer bar with a two-plus game lineup.”

Abigail Hutchko, Burgettstown, W.

Va.

FAVORITE GAMES:

“ Police Force . I love how silly the theme is and it always makes me laugh and is usually cheap to play.” confidence needed to tackle open pinball tournaments. very new at everything, but everybody in the league was very welcoming, very friendly,” she says.

Organizers make the league more inclusive in other ways, including charging just $20 to play for the whole season, and fostering a flexible schedule. “If you miss a week, it doesn’t goddamn matter,” says Burfield. “They put you in the finals as you stand.”

The league also accepts members of various ages, from people who played in the 1980s, to young kids. “According to official rules, if you want to be able to play, you have to know when it’s your turn, you have to be able to sign the paper,” says Replogle, adding that they have had competitors as young as three years old.

“ Frontier . First game I really got kinda good at. I love cowboys, and the crickets always make people giggle while playing. The chaos of noises actually helps me play better.”

“Cirqus Voltaire. First game I ever completed a wizard mode. The art is punchy and beautiful, and the theme is very unique.”

FAVORITE PLACES TO PLAY:

“Kickback. Modern cafe and BYOB, more easily accessible to where I live and the best place for league play.”

“Pins Mechanical. Super modern, cocktails are fantastic, and games are well kept and well updated. Has allowed my generation to find the love of old arcade machines again.”

Schmitz says she kept coming back to the women’s league because “it was a really welcoming group of people” who did not judge her for her lack of experience.

“I didn’t really know how to play, I was

Still, she acknowledges that, at any age, good sportsmanship applies, even if it concerns your own child.

”My 4-year-old wants to play but she doesn’t like to let other people pick games, so she’s still not allowed,” Replogle laughs. •

Looking for your favorite machine?

PWPL player Nikki Burfield recommends using pinballmap.com, a website that claims to cover 8,614 locations and 34,708 machines, including 992 machines around Pittsburgh. •

Outside Outside Steam Steam

CAMP AT TREE PITTSBURGH CAMP AT TREE PITTSBURGH

TREE PLANTING ART & JOURNALING

SCIENCE PROJECTS

NATURE WALKS STAND UP PADDLEBOARDING SCANME!

June 26-30 or july 10-14

Autism Society of Pgh

SPEAK is the region’s premier extended school year and summer recreation program for students ages 5-21 with autism. We provide social and educational instruction to ensure a smooth transition into the upcoming school year. SPEAK will be held from June 29th - July 28th at Saint Therese of Lisieux School. www.autismpittsburgh.org/ SPEAK

Camp Fitch

Camp Fitch’s century-old classic sleep-away summer camp provides kids, ages 6-17, with a holistically safe, val ues-driven community where they discover friendship and achieve ment. Kids feel like they belong among the camp’s carefully vetted, committed and caring staff, who create transformative experiences on the shore of Lake Erie. North Springfield, Pa., 814-922-3219, www.campfitchymca.org

Camp Invention

Spark your child’s creativity and confidence with our new Camp Invention® program, Wonder! Children in grades K-6 will team up and take on fun, hands-on STEM challenges. They’ll build their own mini skate park, turn a robot into a stuffie and more! Visit invent.org/local to secure your spot!

Dragon’s Den

Dragon’s Den offers six weeks of exciting, educational, and adventurous summer camps each year! Our camps are in-person and run five days a week, from 9:004:00, with pre- and aftercare available. Each weekly camp is designed around a theme, covering STEM topics, multicultural diver sity, mental resilience, creative problem solving, physical fitness, and meeting challenges. www.dragonsdenpgh.org/our-programs/ continues on page 14 continued from page 13

Gaynor’s Cooking School

Our summer camp cooking and baking programs are for ages 6-18 and promise to be a fun and delicious experience for all! By starting early not only do we hope they will develop a passion for good

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healthy food, but also discover a lifelong joy of cooking.These camps are week long and are divided into different age groups.

Address: 309 E Carson St, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. www.gaynorsschoolofcooking.com or call 412-325-2703

Pittsburgh

Botanic Garden

Enjoy 4 days of fun and exploration in the various habitats of Pittsburgh Bo - tanic Garden! Ecosystems investigated include the Lotus Pond, Dogwood Meadow, Allegheny Plateau Woodlands, and Carbon Cycle: An Earth Art Exhibit. Kids will have fun pond dipping, bird watching, insect collecting, tree identification, nature journaling and time for free play. www.pittsburghbotanicgarden.org/camps

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Each summer, Pittsburgh Center ented, experienced teachers, summer art camps are perfect place for budding artists to explore their creativity and create new masterpieces!

Tree Pittsburgh

Each day of STEAM Outside Camp will have a different theme, allowing campers to learn about the insects, birds and mammals that trees support, how trees keep our rivers clean, trees and climate change, and more. Campers will explore the urban forest through journaling, art, science projects, nature walks, tree planting, and paddle-boarding. Participants will also have the chance to meet Tree Pittsburgh’s staff www.treepittsburgh. org/summer-camp

BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

HELEN CAMPBELL has strong feelings about the current effort to ban LGBTQ books from library shelves, as parenting groups and state legislatures have swept in to attack everything from youth-focused trans narratives to drag story times.

“When you remove the stories of our LGBTQIA+ individuals from the shelves of libraries and schools, you are making a statement to the queer community that your story doesn’t matter, you don’t exist here,” she tells Pittsburgh City Paper

As if by fate, Campbell had already started countering this movement years ago by developing Stories Like Me, a book shop aimed at confirming the experiences of children and teens who identify as LGBTQ, as well as those who are neurodivergent or have a disability. And that’s only scratching the surface.

Stories Like Me

4381 Murray Ave., Greenfield. storieslikeme.com

“We have books that reflect diverse family structures, race, ethnicity, traditions, and so much more,” says Campbell. “Books that include poverty and being unhoused, books that include foster children, books that have stories where the leads are on the autism spectrum.”

The concept has now taken on a brickand-mortar store in Greenfield. Stories Like Me had a soft opening in November 2022, followed by a big grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 25.

Stories Like Me customers will find a large selection of books, from board and picture books for little ones, to graphic novels and young adult titles. Campbell says the shop features a “permanent Pride table” as well as temporary displays based on “what we’re celebrating or highlighting,” such as Women’s History Month.

In the short time since its debut, Campbell says the response to the store has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“We have people who are so grateful we’re here,” Campbell continues. “We have people who tear up when they see books that reflect their life experiences for the first time. We have everyone from tweens looking for books about identity, to adults who love a YA novel, to parents looking to have a diverse bookshelf at home. We have folks who make specific requests regarding race, ethnicity, family structure, and it’s our mission to be able to find stories for everyone.”

The idea for Stories Like Me first took root during a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training in 2017, where Campbell says she “learned of the importance of books” and “over the course of the next few years figured out how to make a difference through books.”

“It was a combination of personal journey and education” she adds.

She then called her children, Elsie Campbell and Imogen Campbell Hendricks, who were both at college at the time. They suggested that she “open a store in which DEI was the focus and where all families and kids could see themselves in stories.”

Campbell says Elsie and Imogen now serve as co-owners who are “invested in the business both financially and with their time.”

“I’m the majority owner but they’re both in the business,” she adds.

For a certified project manager who worked in the education nonprofit space for many years, the venture was fairly new territory for Campbell.

“The only time I worked directly with books was as a summer job when I was 17 at a library book supply company in my small town in the north of England,” Campbell says. “I loved it.”

Campbell stressed that the “criteria for opening the space was quite specific.” settling on Greenfield.

“When this space became available, I met with my architect and we looked at the possibilities,” she says. “It was a wonderful neighborhood, with lots of families. The entrance was already accessible and I could make large restrooms as part of the remodel. It was easy to arrive by bus, and has an apartment above to help with the economics.”

Campbell then generated interest in the upcoming business by hosting pop-ups at places like the Alternate Histories Studio, which is also located in Greenfield.

Now that Stories Like Me has settled into a permanent location, its existence defies the current movement to remove certain books from shelves. While librar-

“I wanted a place that would be in the city, accessible by public transportation, and not in the immediate vicinity of any other indie bookstores, and that would be a safe and comfortable place for anyone using a mobility device,” she says.

She worked with Bridgeway Capital, a local firm that offers flexible loans and other assistance to help small businesses, who suggested she buy a space instead of renting. Campbell looked at properties in a variety of neighborhoods, including Point Breeze, Wilkinsburg, Larimer, Homewood, and Homestead, before ies struggle to withstand the growing tide of ignorance and bigotry, independent booksellers like Stories Like Me can at least fill the gap by offering a place where readers of all ages can feel seen.

Of the book bans, Campbell says, “This is unconscionable and we, along with many other indie bookstores, are committed to keeping books on our shelves that will act as mirrors and windows for the queer community. We are a safe space, we are queer owned, and will stand against any attempts to erase the stories of marginalized people.” •