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SEPT. 1-8, 2021 VOLUME 30 + ISSUE 35 Editor-In-Chief LISA CUNNINGHAM Director of Advertising JASMINE HUGHES Director of Operations KEVIN SHEPHERD Managing Editor RYAN DETO A&E Editor AMANDA WALTZ Staff Writers DANI JANAE, KIMBERLY ROONEY 냖㵸蔻 Photographer/Videographer JARED WICKERHAM Editorial Designer LUCY CHEN Graphic Designer JEFF SCHRECKENGOST Digital Marketing Coordinator DARYA KHARABI Sales Representatives ZACK DURKIN, OWEN GABBEY, HANNAH MORAN-FUNWELA Circulation Manager JEFF ENGBARTH Featured Contributors REGE BEHE, MIKE CANTON, LYNN CULLEN, TERENEH IDIA Intern KAYCEE ORWIG National Advertising Representative VMG ADVERTISING 1.888.278.9866 OR 1.212.475.2529 Publisher EAGLE MEDIA CORP.

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3:23 PM

THE BIG STORY

T N E S S I D G IN R MANUFACTU BY KIMBERLY ROONEY

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CP PHOTO: KAYCEE ORWIG

Parent Dominic Odom poses outside of Sewickley Academy.

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ARLIER THIS YEAR, Critical Race Theory got its moment in the right-wing media spotlight. Critical Race Theory, often abbreviated as CRT, is an academic framework dating back to the 1980s at Harvard University that seeks to understand how racial hierarchies continue to exist, but that’s not how right-wing media presented it. Videos on platforms such as PragerU, a conservative media company initially funded by fracking billionaires, decried Critical Race Theory as un-American and focused on the alleged harm it does to children’s perceptions of themselves.

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CONTINUES ON PG. 5

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CP PHOTO: KAYCEE ORWIG

Sewickley Academy

Now, much of right-wing media has moved on to protesting mask mandates in schools and criticizing the U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal, but the focus on Critical Race Theory still lingers in local school districts and has the potential to shape the education system for years or decades to come. In the Pittsburgh area, private schools such as Sewickley Academy and public school districts such as Fox Chapel, Gateway, and Mars Area are seeing pushes from parents and school board members to ban CRT. While these small-scale, local campaigns attempt to make anti-CRT actions appear non-partisan and organic — born from individual reflection and necessity — many of the people leading these campaigns have ties to Republican elected officials and cite or reference right-wing media sources. Those involved in Pittsburgh’s anti-CRT campaigns have been congressional staffers to Republican elected officials like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), and involved in previous attack ads against local Democrats like Conor Lamb. One even attended the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. These connections indicate that the anti-CRT pushes in the Pittsburgh area, like those in other regions across the country, while having some connections to parents of school children, appear to be mostly driven by right-wing officials and media rather than the organic desire of concerned parents.

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At Sewickley Academy, an anti-CRT campaign from the group Sewickley Parents Organization has led to the firings of five administrators and one teacher who were in support of the school’s recent mission to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice measures. Two more teachers have since left the school, as well as many minority families. “We’re seeing it as a movement and instead of ‘take back your country,’ it’s ‘take back our school,’” says Dominic Odom, a representative of Concerned Sewickley Parents, which formed in response to the firings of the five Sewickley Academy faculty and administrators. “But the problem is, it’s not your school. There are 500 other constituents in the school. So five, or six, or 10 individuals had the hubris to believe that they could, in turn, determine what the

other constituents would receive as part of their education.” Odom’s son is in seventh grade at Sewickley Academy and has attended the school since he was in second grade. While Odom says he and his son have faced incidents of anti-Black racial bias before at Sewickley Academy, Odom says “there was a sense that progress was occurring,” and that the former head of school Kolia O’Connor’s EnVision 2024 plan, which called for diversity and equity measures when it was introduced in 2019, indicated an interest on the part of the school to continue that progress. In April 2021, however, parents at Sewickley Academy received an email about the plan. Two months later, the Sewickley Parents Organization sent out an anonymous letter asking for support in

IN AN EMAIL TO PIT TSBURGH CITY PAPER, SHE C ALLS CRITICAL RACE THEORY RAC IST ITSELF ...

their mission to keep “politics and activism out of education,” including “eliminat[ing] the adoption of any form of critical race theory, implied or otherwise.” Despite the parents organization’s claims of being “non-political,” their antiCRT advocacy led to the departure and replacement of O’Connor less than a month later. Ashley Birtwell began as the interim head of school effective June 25, and less than one month later on July 21, she fired the five administrators and one teacher, three of whom were Black. Sewickley Academy is now facing a civil rights lawsuit from former director of admissions and financial aid Douglas Leek, who is Black, alleging racial discrimination. Stephen Nesmith is one of many Sewickley Academy alumni who are upset about the school’s actions. Nesmith attended Sewickley Academy from 1994-98 and made a YouTube video and several Facebook posts in response, during which he expressed his disgust, disappointment, and anger with the events that unfolded. While Nesmith remembers his years at Sewickley Academy fondly, he also recognizes the longstanding issues that Sewickley Academy has with race. “The foundation for the academy is on a strong Republican, white foundation, and they are old fashioned. They are old school,” Nesmith says. “I think the Academy has this perception of how they see themselves. And they’re not progressive. They’re not changing. … If they were, and diversity was something that was important … then we wouldn’t be in this situation now.” Nesmith still maintains hope that the school will improve and better serve its minority students and families, but he also implores white community members to speak up on the issue and notes that their silence and complicity can be just as harmful as those who go out of their way to speak up and act. The anti-CRT advocacy at Sewickley Academy is not unique in the area, though, and barely concealed ties to right-wing

IDUALS V IV D IN 10 R O , IX “SO FIVE, OR S E THAT V IE L E B O T IS R HAD THE HUB AT THE H W E IN M R E T E .D THEY COULD .. D RECEIVE L U O W S T N E U T OTHER CONSTIT EDUCATION.” IR E H T F O T R AS PA

officials, organizations, and media are a common thread among the people calling for bans of Critical Race Theory throughout the region. Sewickley Parents Organization does not contain any identifying information for its members, which Odom finds “very interesting and quite contradictory” as the letter is “full of racial animus, and definitely anti-Black.” But the language of the letter mimics rhetoric found in rightwing media, such as framing children’s “academic excellence” as mutually exclusive with “‘social justice concepts.” Sewickley Academy is an independent, private school, giving parents — referred to by Odom as “stakeholders” — more influence over the school’s actions. But at public school districts, parents such as those at Quaker Valley School District, in which Sewickley Academy is located, are also rallying against CRT. The Quaker Valley Parents and Community group cites Sewickley Parents Organization directly on its website, as well as right-wing media organizations such as PragerU and the Heritage Foundation, both of which receive funding from fracking billionaires who invest heavily in conservative media. The Koch family, which made its money in the fracking and oil refining industries and actively opposes climate change legislation, funds conservative platforms and organizations such as The Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Council. The latter two held a webinar attacking Critical Race Theory in December 2020 — then also referred to as critical theory. All antiCRT pushes in the Pittsburgh region have occurred in 2021.

In several cases in Pittsburgh-area school districts, the individuals leading the charge against Critical Race Theory are members of local school boards who also have ties to Republican ofﬁcials and organizations, and many cite similar, if nearly identical talking points, to those pushed by conservative media groups. In Gateway School District in Monroeville, school board member Mary Beth Cirucci organized a meeting for community members opposed to CRT directly before an Aug. 10 school board meeting. During the school board meeting, she acknowledged that the divide over Critical Race Theory is a political issue while also stating her belief that schools should provide curricula “free of any political or ideological agenda.” Cirucci’s two children and one foster child have attended Gateway High School. In an email to Pittsburgh City Paper, she calls Critical Race Theory racist itself, based on an excerpt from Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe by Voddie T. Baucham, who has collaborated with the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation. Cirucci says that CRT “teaches children to be victims not Over-comers” and that it “judges people collectively not individually,” which she, similar to PragerU talking points, calls “racist” and a threat to meritocracy due to its focus on “equity not equality.” According to the National Society of High School Scholars, equality gives everyone the same resources and opportunities while equity takes into consideration individuals’ speciﬁc needs. Cirucci did not mention, however, that she is the executive administrator

PHOTO: STEPHEN NESMITH

Stephen Nesmith

for Republican State Rep. Bob Brooks and in charge of constituent outreach for the conservative lawmaker, whose district lies just outside of Gateways boundaries. Cirucci has obfuscated her affiliation with elected Republican officials before, including when she appeared in a conservative super PAC’s attack ad against Conor Lamb in 2018. Presenting herself as an independently concerned constituent, she makes no mention of working for then-Republican State Rep. Eli Evankovich. In other school districts, people with similar connections are trying to join school boards. In Fox Chapel Area School District, Greg Dolan is running for a spot on the school board, and while his website lists his experience as a middle and high school teacher with a “background in school finances and education policy,” it does not mention that he was a congressional staffer to Republicans in 2011-15, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-W.V.). Dolan lists this information on his LinkedIn page. Dolan, like Cirucci, has also portrayed himself as a concerned parent in right-wing media, although he announced in his newsletter that his school-aged child will attend

the Catholic school where he teaches, rather than the public schools in the Fox Chapel school district. He appeared on a July 7 Fox News segment and was introduced only as a father of two running for school board. Similar omissions of afﬁliations with Republican ofﬁcials are common across anti-CRT coverage. Other leaders in local anti-CRT campaigns also have ties to additional rightwing actions and organizations, despite attempts to rhetorically frame anti-CRT measures as non-partisan concerns for children’s education and emotional well-being. In Clarion County, about 90 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh, school board member Gary Sproul worked on — and succeeded in passing — changes to the Philosophy of Education/Mission Statement of the Clarion-Limestone School District. The changes ban “Social Justice and unsubstantiated theories of any kind, including but not limited to Holocaust Denial Theory, 9/11 Theory, The 1610 Project, and Critical Race Theory,” referring incorrectly to the 1619 Project, which reframes U.S. history through the lens of slavery and Black Americans’ contributions. Sproul did not respond to a request for comment. CONTINUES ON PG. 8

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MANUFACTURING DISSENT, CONTINUED FROM PG. 7

CP PHOTO: KAYCEE ORWIG

Mars Area High School

Sproul also went to the Capitol for the Jan. 6 insurrection to support the rightwing conspiracy theory that the 2020 election results were tampered with to undermine former President Donald Trump. Sproul described the experience as “fun” to Explore Clarion, which also used Sproul’s photographs of people entering and occupying the Capitol. At least one of Sproul’s children attended Clarion-Limestone High School, but the youngest of Sproul’s children graduated high school more than 10 years ago.

Finally, Mars Area School District school board member Dayle Ferguson, who introduced a proposal that unanimously passed banning Critical Race Theory, has similar ties to right-wing activity. The ban, which passed several days before Sproul’s measure in Clarion-Limestone, is part of a “patriotism amendment,” framing Critical Race Theory in a light similar to right-wing media platforms. Ferguson’s youngest child graduated high school in 2019, but it is unclear whether they attended the local public school.

Ferguson is also the vice president of the Republican Women of Butler County, which shares “election truther” articles as well as anti-Joe Biden, anti-lockdown posts, and content from Turning Point USA, a conservative nonproﬁt that targets high school and college-age people and is afﬁliated with the Koch family and the American Legislative Exchange Council. The Facebook page shared anti-CRT content as far back as April 2021, claiming the Biden administration “want[s] to rewrite American history!”

GANIZATION R O S T N E R A P SEWICKLEY IFYING T N E ID Y N A IN TA DOES NOT CON RS, WHICH E B M E M S IT R FO INFORMATION G AND IN T S E R E T IN Y R VE ODOM FINDS “ TORY” IC D A R T N O C E QUIT

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.NEWS.

ELECTRIC AVENUE BY RYAN DETO // RYANDETO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

FTER SOME CONFUSION about

Pittsburgh’s policy over e-bikes, the Port Authority of Allegheny County has announced a pilot program to allow the electric-assist bikes on light-rail cars and the Monongahela Incline, beginning Wed., Sept. 1. E-bikes, which are the size of pedal-powered bikes but contain a small electric engine to boost riders, have always been permitted on the front racks attached to Port Authority buses. Port Authority now joins several other public transit agencies across the country in permitting e-bikes on transit vehicles. In an interview with Pittsburgh City Paper, Port Authority CEO Katherine Kelleman said the updated policy allows

for e-bikes on all light-rail cars south of Downtown Pittsburgh’s First Avenue Station (aka all stations outside of Downtown and the North Side) in perpetuity, as well as a six-month pilot program allowing e-bikes on light-rail cars north of First Avenue Station and on the Monongahela Incline. This pilot policy does not apply to the Duquesne Incline, which is run by a private company, not the Port Authority. Gas-power bikes or other gaspowered vehicles are still prohibited on Port Authority vehicles. Kelleman is a supporter of e-bikes and says they can be a real solution to Pittsburgh’s multimodal mobility aspirations.

She says the pilot program part of the e-bike policy is to allow the authority to test out e-bikes on transit vehicles traveling through conﬁned areas that don’t allow for easy exits, like light-rail cars traveling through underground tunnels or up a hillside on the incline. “We can live with e-bikes south of First Avenue,” says Kelleman. “But in the tunnels and the incline, there is still some heartburn.” Port Authority’s announcement comes after riders were left uncertain over the authority’s policy for e-bikes. In July, Port Authority tweeted that e-bikes were allowed anywhere on transit vehicles that allowed regular bikes. But last week, the CONTINUES ON PG. 12

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authority apparently reversed course to say that e-bikes were not allowed on light-rail cars and the Incline, citing concerns over lithium-ion batteries catching fire. (On rare occasions, e-bike batteries have caught on fire.) The August announcement said the original July policy was communicated in error. Advocacy group Bike Pittsburgh then sent a letter to the Port Authority, asking them to reconsider the e-bike ban. Bike Pittsburgh director Scott Bricker says the group is happy to see e-bikes will be allowed on transit. “We’re grateful that the Port Authority heard us, took a step back, and then took a reasoned approach to this policy,” says Bricker. “Allowing e-bikes onboard will be especially helpful for residents in our hilly neighborhoods to better connect to transit and get where they need to go without needing to use a car.” If no incidents occur during the sixmonth pilot, Port Authority will allow e-bikes on all light-rail cars and the Monongahela Incline permanently. One e-bike rider who will benefit from this policy is South Hills resident Ernest Jackson. He is retired and rides his e-bike two miles from his home to Library Station about twice a week, where he takes lightrail into Pittsburgh to visit his brother on the North Side or shop in the Strip District. Jackson says having e-bikes on transit fits in line with Pittsburgh and Port Authority’s goals of multimodal transit, where people use different non-car mobility options to get around. He says that allowing e-bikes on public transit is also important for attracting the growing number of e-bike riders in Pittsburgh to ditch their cars and ride public transit instead.

“If Pittsburgh wants to be attractive to the community that is growing, they are kicking them in the ankle as far as not allowing e-bikes on transit,” says Jackson. Aaron Stein, co-founder of Kindred Cycles in the Strip District, agrees, and says his bike shop has seen a large increase in e-bike sales over the last year. “It has continually become a bigger part of business and grown to be 30% of our bike sales in dollars sold,” says Stein. Stein has also heard about the rare problem of e-bike batteries catching ﬁre, but says he has never experienced this himself or received a customer complaint. He says stories about batteries igniting are usually related to people vandalizing the engines, or bikes that are charging or are overcharged. (There are some instances of idle e-bike batteries igniting, but that is more rare.) Kelleman says her agency spoke to other transit agencies about how to approach the e-bike policy. Transit agencies in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and other cities allow e-bikes onto light-rail and other transit vehicles. She understands that people are not going to be charging e-bikes while on board, so she says it’s worth a pilot to test out how they work on transit. She is grateful to be able to work with partners like Bike Pittsburgh on the pilot, and says it ﬁts into Port Authority’s goals to get more people to ride transit, and less people to use cars in Allegheny County. “I really appreciated the opportunity to get this right. These are a game changer for our topography,” says Kelleman, referencing e-bikes’ ability to climb hills. “An e-bike can totally connect you to [many of Pittsburgh’s] walkable neighborhoods. Freedom is not having to own a car, and we want to be supportive of those other options.”

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“ALLOWING E-BIKES ONBOARD WILL BE ESPECIALLY HELPFUL FOR RESIDENTS IN OUR HILLY NEIGHBORHOODS TO BETTER CONNECT TO TRANSIT ... WITHOUT NEEDING TO USE A CAR.” Follow managing editor Ryan Deto on Twitter @RyanDeto

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VIRTUAL POETRY BOOK LAUNCH I Was a Bell by M. Soledad Caballero with guests. 7-8:30 p.m. Fri., Sept. 10. Free. Zoom link provided with required registration. whitewhalebookstore.com/events

PHOTO: CARLY MASIROFF

M. Soledad Caballero.

.LITERATURE.

FINDING HOME BY DANI JANAE // DANIJANAE@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

ALLING AMERICA HOME comes with

its own host of terrors for immigrants, especially those ﬂeeing their countries of origin. From being referred to with often derogatory terminology to having to assimilate to appear as truly “American,” being an immigrant in the U.S. can be a fraught experience. In her new poetry collection, I Was A Bell, M. Soledad Caballero explores the ways in which our bodies remember the past and the present, and what we lose or gain in the process of this remembering. The book, published by Red Hen Press (redhenpress.org), spans from her childhood in Chile, to becoming a resident of the Midwest, then to her cancer diagnosis as an adult. I Was A Bell weaves together these points of migration and illness, as well as the violence that comes along with growing up in the aftermath of a coup. In one of the poems, “Immigration Ofﬁce, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1985,” the

“WE WERE A SIGN OF SOMETHING/ STILL BURIED BUT PULSING OUTWARD/FROM OKLAHOMA TO TEXAS TO OTHER/BORDERS, LEGAL, ILLEGAL, THE THINGS/THAT HAPPENED IN BETWEEN.” reader learns about terms like “stowaway” that were used to describe immigrants who “came by water.” The poem reads: “We were a sign of something/still buried but pulsing outward/from Oklahoma to Texas to other/borders, legal, illegal, the things/that happened in between.” Caballero wrote most of the book splitting time between her homes in Pittsburgh

and Meadville, where she is a professor at Allegheny College. She also spent some time in Chile during a sabbatical in 2017. She has been a professor at Allegheny for almost 20 years and has spent part of her time in Pittsburgh for the past 12 years. The early poems in the book are about the 1973 Chilean coup, where President Salvador Allende was deposed. The poems recount

stories of torture and disappearances of citizens of Chile who were taken away in black vans, “their bodies not just/a story.” Caballero says she wrote these poems, in part, to document the horrors of the coup, but also to interrogate how people are capable of, and how they justify, violence. Caballero’s family left Chile in 1980, and much of the book deals with this ﬂight, or, perhaps, displacement from their home. “We were supposed to go back and then we didn’t, and then we never talked about it. It was just that specter, that haunting and I just felt, like, well, how would I put it together for myself now as an adult?” she says. In addition to the demeaning language used to categorize immigrants, the poems also dive into the topic of Caballero’s use of Spanish as a language spoken in childhood, and then reclaimed in adulthood. “Spanish, as I was growing up, was always like an intimate, private language, like in my own family, that’s how it was. CONTINUES ON PG. 14

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My parents were very keen on making sure we did know English,” she explains. “They didn’t want our not knowing English to interfere with our success, you know, with that triumphalist immigrant stuff.” Caballero says she has written poetry since she was a child, and her mother used to read her poetry in Spanish, which she would recite back to her mother. She did an honors thesis in poetry for undergrad, but found that, as she shifted to getting her Ph.D. in literature, her poetry took a back seat. It wasn’t until she was diagnosed with and treated for cancer that the desire to work on her own writing returned. “I got cancer in 2015 and I was sick and in treatment most of 2016,” says Caballero. “I had a cancer that was ‘curable.’ It was stage two, but it was a hard year. I realized, why am I putting this off? Why am I not doing this? So I think I’m motivated by the perception I had, that maybe this was the second chance to try this, to really devote myself to it.” The poem “What You Are Doing Is Living” deals with the material facts of cancer, but in a stunning, precise way. Caballero uses the English language and the language of a cancer diagnosis and breathes life into them: “Too much life. That is/what the doctor says. Many routes of muscles, blood/to dance with, invade. So many ways to make mountains/of death.” Here, the use of words like “dance” does not diminish the severity of what the language is trying to convey, but only adds to the threatening nature of what she is describing. In her own words, Caballero describes a similar motivation to why she wrote the poems about Chile and the coup. “I think the body knows things and has a whole understanding of its history, that if we’re not paying attention, produces more hurt, produces more violence, in a way,” she says. “I wanted to understand that, how is it that my body produced this cancer?” In addition to the heavier subject matter, there are also love poems, to her husband and to her niece, scattered in the collection. In a book that deals with violence and illness, these love poems serve as an anchor of relief for the reader. With the book set to release on Tue., Sept. 7, Caballero says she is looking forward to reading in the company of other poets, speciﬁcally at her upcoming virtual book launch hosted by White Whale Bookstore. It was set to happen in person, but has moved online, so readers can attend even if they aren’t in Pittsburgh. “I’m looking forward to seeing if the book connects with people,” she says.

M. Soledad Caballero, I Was A Bell

“I THINK THE BODY KNOWS THINGS AND HAS A WHOLE UNDERSTANDING OF ITS HISTORY, THAT IF WE’RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION, PRODUCES MORE HURT, PRODUCES MORE VIOLENCE...”

•

Follow staff writer Dani Janae on Twitter @figwidow

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.STAGE.

STAGE WRONG BY AMANDA WALTZ AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM

REENSBURG OFFERS FEW OUTLETS

for kids and teens who have caught the acting bug. That’s why Leona “Leo” Liotta considered themself fortunate enough to attend Stage Right!, a tuitionbased, nonproﬁt performing arts school and professional theater company located in the small Western Pennsylvania city. “Anything else like that was in Pittsburgh an hour away,” says Liotta, now a junior at Chatham University studying arts management and music. They say they were able to take classes, which can cost hundreds of dollars per semester, for free because their father was employed by the school as part of the janitorial staff. They were even allowed to stay on as a work study student after their father changed jobs. Between 2014 to 2019, from the time they were 13 to 19 years old, Liotta attended the school, saying that they made close friends and developed valuable skills. It wasn’t until after they left the school, and began working in the Pittsburgh theater community, that Liotta says they realized something was very wrong at Stage Right!. Now 21, Liotta has become the de facto face of Stage Right Survivors, a group of students, parents, former staff, and others who have come forward to expose what they claim are long-standing abuses at the school, which accepts students ages 3 to 18. The group recently launched a website where visitors can scroll through testimony after testimony detailing accusations of bullying, misconduct, manipulation, and retaliation, all of which they say was either perpetrated or encouraged by the school’s leadership, namely artistic director Anthony Marino. Included among the contributions is a video by Liotta speaking about what they experienced. They say they felt compelled to come forward after ﬁnding out that other, and more recent Stage Right! students were going through similar, or worse experiences at the hands of Marino and others. “I really felt like I had to come out and say something, especially because I personally feel comfortable disclosing my name and former relationship to the studio, and there were a lot of people who were not

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CP PHOTO: JARED WICKERHAM

Leona “Leo” Liotta of the Stage Right Survivors

in a position to do that,” says Liotta, referring to the many testimonies that were contributed anonymously. The stories that unfold tell of Stage Right Survivors being bullied to the point of panic attacks, surveilled by fellow students, or made the subject of offensive name calling or jokes, among other things. However, not long after the group launched their website, another website called Stage Right Supporters appeared

with its own version of events, countering the Survivors and offering glowing accounts of the school and its staff. Some of the posts directly address allegations made against Marino, or argue that Stage Right! staff never acted inappropriately towards students. Over 25 Supporter testimonies have been submitted between Aug. 12 and 18, compared to the 70 Survivor stories that have been posted since early August.

To anyone on the sidelines, it appears the school has become a battleground with everyone choosing either Team Survivor or Team Supporter. Not only that, but police have become involved thanks to a state law that requires any alleged abuse against minors be reported. Pittsburgh City Paper reached out to Stage Right! by email and phone for comment, and the school responded with a statement reading, “On behalf of the

... THEY STAYED ON BECAUSE THEY WERE YOUNG AND DID NOT KNOW ANY BETTER, ADDING THAT THEY AND THEIR CLASSMATES ASSUMED THE WAY MARINO AND STAGE RIGHT! STAFF TREATED THEM WAS FINE BECAUSE THEY WERE TOLD “THIS IS JUST THE WAY THAT THEATER IS.” Stage Right! Board of Directors, the safety and well-being of our participants is our top priority. We take these allegations seriously and are conducting an investigation to ensure that we can safely provide this creative outlet for more than 300 children in our community.” Marino is listed on the school’s website as being on the board, along with several other members. City Paper also reached out to Marino directly for comment, but did not hear back by press time. As Survivor testimonies pour in, investigators at the Greensburg Police Department have become involved, as many of the accounts concern minors, and Pa. state law requires that anyone designated as a mandated reporter — which includes school teachers and staff, health care providers, and law enforcement — report when they suspect a child or young teen might be endangered. Failure to do so could result in being charged with a third-degree misdemeanor, bringing a much more serious bent to what some might dismiss as squabbling between dissatisﬁed stage parents and pompous theater instructors. The law, enacted in 2015, was brought on by the case of Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State University assistant football coach who, in 2012, was found guilty of 45 counts of sexual abuse against young boys committed between 1994 and 2009. Many believe Sandusky was able to get away with the abuse for so long because Penn State school ofﬁcials failed to report suspected incidents to the police. Despite what the law’s origins may suggest, none of the Stage Right Survivor allegations concern sexual abuse. At the root of the Stage Right! situation, however, are those who believe that, as kids, they were victimized by adults they trusted. Liotta claims students were deliberately pitted against one another and that those who displeased Marino or the other instructors would be ostracized, confronted, or denied participation in shows.

At the time, Liotta says they stayed on because they were young and did not know any better, adding that they and their classmates assumed the way Marino and Stage Right! staff treated them was ﬁne because they were told, “This is just the way that theater is.” “The mentality was, ‘Well, if the artistic director yelled at you, it was because you did something wrong,’ so it was always the fault of the student,” says Liotta. “It was just this vacuum of children who didn’t know any better about how they should be treated.” That view changed when Liotta began working in the theater program at Chatham and with the Riverfront Theater Company, a community group that puts on productions in Aspinwall’s Riverfront Park. Liotta explains how they were surprised that members of Riverfront cared about their welfare and that everyone treated each other with kindness and respect. This is in stark contrast to Stage Right!, where Liotta claims they were forced to perform through asthma attacks at the risk of being thrown out of a show. “I talked to the director and I was, like, ‘Hey, I have an asthma attack every time I do this number, can I stay off stage for it?’ and he went, ‘Um, yeah, or just don’t have asthma,’ and just walked away,” says Liotta. “I was 14 years old and didn’t know what to do so I just did the number and dealt with it.” Liotta and Bryan Bass-Riley, the father of a former Stage Right! student, both say Marino also cultivated an environment where students were told to keep things secret, which led to many parents being in the dark about what was happening to their children. Liotta claims that Marino had a habit of pulling kids into private meetings where anything that was discussed was just between them. “We joked, ‘Oh, it’s the elbow pull,’ because literally, he would grab students by the elbow and pull them into another CONTINUES ON PG. 18

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STAGE WRONG, CONTINUED FROM PG. 17

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room to have a discussion with them,” says Liotta. Both Liotta and Bass-Riley say this also happened during traveling shows, when Marino would drive students off campus to perform Books Come Alive “library shows,” described as short stage adaptations of children’s books, or musical shows as part of The Sensations troupe. “The mantra was ‘what happens in the library show car, stays in the library show car,’” says Liotta. It was there that Marino apparently felt free to make inappropriate comments, such as joking about Liotta’s sexuality (at the time they had come out as a lesbian) when they were a minor, which they say made them uncomfortable. They believe Marino would use these private moments to push students into divulging sensitive things about themselves or their home lives under the guise of conﬁdentiality, only to use it against them later. “He would ﬁnd out what was wrong at home and then use it as a guilt trip,” says Liotta. “If you weren’t doing something that he wanted you to commit to, he would say, ‘Well, I supported you through all these different things that you’re going through, so it’s only fair that you also support me,’ and whatever it was he wanted you to do.” Bass-Riley adds that, in the three and a half years that his daughter, who is now 17, attended the school, she got along with the staff and fellow students and had a generally positive experience. Bass-Riley acknowledges that, while there was the typical “teenage drama stuff” one might expect, things began to go badly last summer during the COVID-19 pandemic, when tensions formed between his daughter and Marino’s daughter, who he says also attended the school. According to Bass-Riley, things came to a head after an incident last year involving his daughter and other Stage Right! students during a casual get together at a friend’s house, when a conversation was secretly recorded and that recording eventually made it into the hands of Marino.

“They got into a candid, and what they thought was a private conversation, about their negative experiences and feelings about things that had happened,” says Bass-Riley, “and what they didn’t know was that one of the kids who was there was recording them.” While Bass-Riley admits that he is not sure about the speciﬁcs of what occurred, he does know that the audio recording got back to Marino. Bass-Riley claims that Marino then went to the Stage Right! board of directors, and using the audio recording as evidence, insisted that three of the students be expelled, among them Bass-Riley’s daughter. The allegation becomes more serious considering Pennsylvania Wiretap Law makes it illegal to record audio conversations without the consent of all parties involved, even in some instances when the conversation is in public. From there, Bass-Riley says he and the families of the two other kids up for expulsion had a meeting with the Stage Right! board, who asked the students to submit statements about what happened. He says the board ultimately decided that no expulsions would take place, but also that no action would be taken against Marino, which Bass-Riley says he and other families saw as “not satisfactory.” “We made the decision that our daughter was not going back, and honestly, at that point, our daughter had lost her interest in musical theater, which was sad,” he says. “She just was so hurt by the experience.” Greensburg Detective Sergeant Charles Irvin says the department is looking into the Stage Right Survivor stories on a caseby-case basis as they are being phoned into the state’s juvenile welfare ChildLine by mandated reporters. At the time of interview, he says he had at least 10 Stage Right! cases sitting on his desk alone. “What I found that is happening is that people who have been involved in this organization who learned about the existence of this website, they’ve gone on and reviewed the website, and when they see

SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2021

something concerning to them and they think to themselves, ‘Well, I’m a mandated reporter, this has come to my attention, I have to report it,’” says Irvin. He says that sometimes multiple, separate mandated reporters have also called in about the same Survivor post, which only complicates things further. Irvin says the department takes any accusations of child endangerment seriously, and that every new Stage Right! report results in a new investigation. He says the cases that have been reviewed so far have involved “perceived bullying.” While he says bullying can indeed be “traumatic to a child” and “problematic,” it unfortunately falls outside the purview of what the department can actually pursue, such as allegations of physical or sexual assault. In addition, he says many of the Survivor stories were either submitted anonymously or concern incidents that happened 10 or more years ago, making them difﬁcult to investigate. “I follow up as best I can,” he says. “But if my only contact is someone who saw an anonymous post on a website and they have no basis of knowledge and none of the alleged victims comes forward to actually be a victim … You see what I’m saying?” He encourages anyone who feels victimized by Stage Right! staff to come directly to the police department and ﬁle a report

as opposed to posting their accusation online, where it will either sit unaddressed or possibly end up being called in anyway by a mandated reporter. However, based on what Irvin has seen so far, “right at this moment, there’s no one in danger” at Stage Right!. Stage Right Supporter posts seem to back up some of Irvin’s current ﬁndings. One Supporter testimony by former student William Beddick, who says they attended Stage Right! from 2007 through 2018, calls the school a “safe space,” and that Marino “continues to uplift students and their identities in the company so everyone can have a comfortable environment.” Another post by self-described current student Emily Vohs says of Stage Right!, “I have never trusted a group of adults more than the staff of Stage Right!. They care about nothing more than the well-being of their students. I have NEVER been put in an inappropriate situation or made to feel uncomfortable by any of the staff.” Liotta and Bass-Riley both say the goal of Stage Right Survivors is not to shut down the school, which they believe has had a positive impact on many young people, but to ultimately remove and replace the people who have made it a toxic place. “It is overall an organization that can do a lot of good, it just also has done a lot of harm because of the people who are employed,” says Liotta.

•

“IT IS OVERALL AN ORGANIZATION THAT CAN DO A LOT OF GOOD, IT JUST ALSO HAS DONE A LOT OF HARM BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE EMPLOYED.”

PITTSBURGH

FESTIVAL PGHIRISHFEST.ORG

THE LOTS AT SANDCASTLE #PGHIRISHFEST

Gaelic Storm • David Nihill • Corned Beef & Curry Brother Angus • The Bow Tides • Rory Makem Eileen Ivers • Dennis Doyle • Donnie Irish Bastard Bearded Irishmen • The Wild Geese Enda Reilly • Sean Finnerty

Follow a&e editor Amanda Waltz on Twitter @AWaltzCP PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER SEPTEMBER 1-8, 2021

SEVEN DAYS IN PITTSBURGH

IRL

IN REAL LIFE EVENT

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

PHOTO: COURTESY OF CMOA

^ “Idol of the Hares” by Jessi Reaves, part of Wild Life at CMOA

THU., SEPT. 2 STAGE • HYBRID The Pittsburgh New Works Festival is now underway, and will present Program A of its Main Stage section over multiple days. The program features three new plays that tackle politics, history, and unrequited love affairs. All are available either in person at Duquesne University’s Genesius Theater or online through video on demand. The festival will continue throughout Sept. 26 with nine more new plays from playwrights in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, and beyond. 8 p.m. Program A continues through Sun., Sept. 5. 1225 Seitz St., Uptown. $12. pittsburghnewworks.org

FESTIVAL • IRL Interested in eating great food and learning some Pittsburgh history? At the Pittsburgh Soul Food Fest, locals can honor the rich history of African-American cuisine while supporting Black businesses in the Steel City. With a historical recap of Pittsburgh’s Black Wall Street, live music, a soul food festival BBQ contest, and a kids’ fun zone, there will be plenty to do

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for the whole family. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Continues through Sun., Sept. 5. Market Square., Downtown. Free. facebook.com/ASoulfulTasteOfTheBurgh

FRI. SEPT. 3 ART • IRL

Marching Band, Rebel Diaz, Afro Yaqui Music Collective, and Big Blitz. The typical potluck is canceled, but there will be four food vendors serving pizza, burgers and veggie burgers, vegan Trinidadian food, and Brazilian cuisine. 4 p.m. Vietnam Veterans Pavilion Driveway in Schenley Park, Oakland. Free. pittonkatonk.org

Carnegie Museum of Art showcases the work of the late Elizabeth Murray and New York-based sculptor Jessi Reaves in its new Wild Life exhibition. Murray’s art, which spans from the 1960s to the early 2000s, is presented alongside Reaves’ sculptures from the last seven years. Although Reaves and Murray are years apart from one another, the installation highlights each of the artists’ similar themes. Continues through Jan. 9, 2022. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Included with museum admission. cmoa.org

PARTY • IRL

MUSIC • IRL

SAT., SEPT. 4

Pittonkatonk returns to celebrate a variety of experimental and boundaryless music for its May Day Brass BBQ. The music festival welcomes everyone to enjoy local, national, and international bands, including Son Rompe Pera, Detroit Party

Thunderbird Cafe is here to prove that disco does not, in fact, suck. Gimme Gimme Disco, a traveling dance party inspired by the music of Swedish pop group ABBA, returns to the venue to play hits from the ’70s and ’80s by The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Cher, and more. Disco attire is encouraged, so be sure to wear your coolest flares and highest platform shoes. 8 p.m. 4023 Butler St., Lawrenceville. $15-25. gimmegimmedisco.com

CONVENTION • IRL The creators of Sci-Fi Valley Con present the inaugural Momento Con, featuring celebrity guests, live panels, and more.

Taking place in the David L Lawrence Convention Center, the “comic con”-style event includes an extensive selection of vendors and artists, and welcomes cosplayers who want to embody their favorite characters for the day. Fans of CW’s Supernatural will also get to see the cast reunite less than a year after the finale of the 15-season show. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Continues through Sun., Sept. 5. 1000 Fort Duquesne Blvd., Downtown. General admission $30, reserved seating tickets start at $40. momentocon.com

SUN., SEPT. 5 FILM • IRL Head to the Tull Family Theatre for a free screening of Fly Boys: Western Pennsylvania’s Tuskegee Airmen, produced by WQED. The documentary follows the Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of Black soldiers who successfully completed training to enter the Army Air Corps. Included are stories from a few of the 40 Tuskegee Airmen from Western Pa. A dinner on the theater lawn will follow. 12 p.m. 418 Walnut St., Sewickley. Free with registration. thetullfamilytheater.org

Saturday, September 4, 2021 GATES OPEN AT 1:00 PM

MONROEVILLE COMMUNITY PARK WEST TALL TREES AMPHITHEATER Free Admission • Free Parking • Suggested Donation: $5.00

CP PHOTO: ANNIE BREWER

PROCEEDS WILL BENEFIT THE Monroeville Animal Shelter & Community Food Pantries

^ Pittonkatonk

MUSIC • IRL If you love live music and also want to support a good cause, head to the Allegheny County Music Festival at Hartwood Acres. Every year, the festival serves as a benefit for the Allegheny County Music Festival Fund, described as providing “life-enriching items and opportunities” for children and youth receiving services through the Department of Human Services and the Juvenile Section of the Family Division of the Court of Common Pleas. The Commonheart headlines, followed by performances from FunkyFly Project, Meeting of Important People, and Sierra Sellers. 5 p.m. 4000 Middle Road, Allison Park. $20 suggested donations per car. alleghenycounty.us

MON., SEPT. 6 FOOD • IRL The Heinz Field Kickoff and Rib Festival wraps up with BBQ and Blues Monday, a day full of live music, food, rides, and more. Celebrate the start of a new football season with a street party on Art Rooney Avenue and a Gatorade Junior Training Camp, featuring sporty activities for kids. The Jimmy Adler Band, Norman Nardini, and Billy Price will play free concerts throughout the afternoon, with an appearance by Steelers mascot, Steely McBeam. 12-7 p.m. 100 Art Rooney Ave., North Side. Free. Tickets required for Gatorade Junior Training Camp. heinzfield.com/ribfest

TUE., SEPT. 7 LIT • VIRTUAL White Whale hosts the launch of children’s book The Midnight Brigade by Adam Borba. The Midnight Brigade follows Carl Chesterfield, a kid haunted by the suspicion that monsters are taking over his hometown of Pittsburgh. Carl finds a flyer for a monster-hunting group called The Midnight Brigade, and soon his world begins to open up. Borba is joined by Brad Montague, creator of the web series Kid President and co-author of The Circles All Around Us. This event will take place over Zoom. 7-8:30 p.m. Free or pay what you can. whitewhalebookstore.com/events

WED., SEPT. 8 FILM • IRL ReelAbilities Pittsburgh opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art with a screening of Crutch, a 2020 documentary about Bill Shannon, a renowned, Pittsburgh-based artist, breakdancer, and skate punk who uses crutches because of a degenerative hip condition. The festival continues with other award-winning films that promote the stories and artistic expressions of those living with disabilities. 7 p.m. Continues through Sun., Sept. 12. 4400 Forbes Ave., Oakland. $15-150. filmpittsburgh.org

Afro-American Music Institute Youth Jazz Ensemble 2:00 pm

Tubby Daniels with vocalist Anita Levels 3:30 pm

John Shannon Trio with Thomas Wendt and Tony DePaolis 5:00 pm

Pgh All Stars Jazz Extravaganza 6:30 pm

Featuring Food Trucks • Greenhouse Winery and Craft Brewery • Vendor and Craft MarketPlace Bring your blankets, chairs and friends and spend the day with us! For More Info: www.MonroevilleJazz.org Hosted By:

Presenting Sponsors:

High Note Sponsors:

This event will follow and enforce all current CDC and local COVID guidelines to ensure the safety of our audience and community. PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER SEPTEMBER 1-8, 2021

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ACROSS 1. Stir up 7. Animal magnetism 11. Chapter introduction? 14. Tending to ride brooms and make brews with newts 15. ___ Moseley Braun (first Black female Senator) 16. Slitherer on Egyptian sand 17. With 26-Across, Bùshì suoyou de chá 19. Org. that seeks funding for field trips 20. “I give ___ year” 21. Contact lens care brand 22. Car boost 24. Unused to 26. See 17-Across 30. Heir apparent 32. No longer drinking 33. Metro bar 34. Comprehend 35. Thurman who surely is due for a new movie or something so us crossworders can have a new clue 36. Program to, as a Nest 37. La lluvia 41. Catch unawares 42. Black History Month, in the UK 43. Spot to get your tires changed 44. Wynonna ___ 45. Bioinformatics

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stuff 46. Dolphins group 50. Oki 53. Skeletons Fighting Over a Hanged Man painter James 54. Weirdo 55. Makes bird noises 57. It’s worth a point in the World Cup 58. Furry scarf 59. Born 63. Flier of myth 64. Sounded impressed 65. Took out the yacht 66. ___ to the West Wind (Shelley) 67. Smudgy mark 68. Buyeverything events

DOWN 1. Store overhead? 2. Fan of the team that just won the championship, say 3. Capital originally called Bytown 4. Orlando sch. 5. Like most Airbnb rentals 6. Reader, I married him speaker 7. It’s bad in Brest 8. Table scrap 9. Rotten singer? 10. With 52-Down, ingredient in soaps and vegetable oils 11. Seles rival 12. Tartu resident

13. Zero emission org. 15. Game played with a rope 18. Stake for a hand 23. Go “grrr” at 25. Lemony meringue dessert 27. Let in 28. Country where polo was likely invented 29. Key sometimes pressed alongside an F-key 31. “When can we expect you?,” briefly 35. Open a tube of Tom’s of Maine 36. Powder room? 37. It’s often served with satay sauce 38. Title for a duchess 39. Island in the Inner Hebrides

40. Bottle numbers that typically come 15, 30, or 50 41. Sign of inactivity 45. Hip-hopper with the 1996 hit Let Me Clear My Throat 46. Any second now 47. Razor-sharp 48. “That much is clear” 49. They’re on the soles of your boots 51. Multimillionaire, say 52. See 10-Down 56. Greyhound racing venues, briefly 58. “Cool story, ___” 60. Seventeenth letter 61. Batting cage protection 62. Where your buds might hang out LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

ESTATE NOTICE

NAME CHANGE

MASSAGE

DORAZIO, DOROTHY, A, DECEASED OF PITTSBURGH, PA

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-21-9921, In re petition of Michelle Worry parents and legal guardian of Kadynn Buchleitner for change of name to Kadynn Worry To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the ﬁling of said petition and ﬁxed the 28th day of September 2021, at 9:30 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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Dorazio, Dorothy, A, deceased of Pittsburgh, PA No. 022105080 of 2021 Cynthia L. Antolik, Co-Executor, 2121 Elk Creek Road, Waterford PA 16441, and Susan R. Ketchum, Co-Executor, 120 Elatan Drive, Pittsburgh PA, 15243 or to the Law Ofﬁce Grant M. Yochim, Esq., 24 Main St. E., P.O. Box 87, Girard, PA 16417

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ESTATE NOTICE ROSEN, DOROTHY, DECEASED OF O’HARA TOWNSHIP, PA Dorothy Rosen, aka Dorothy Lane Rosen, aka Dorothy Layne Rosen, deceased of O’Hara Township, PA No. 022105712 of 2021 Noreen R. Levine 10679 Boca Woods Lane, Boca Raton, FL, 33428 Or to Gusty A.E. Sunseri & Associates, P.C. Attorneys 1290 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh, PA, 15238

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NAME CHANGE

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-21-7169. In re petition of Jennifer Dawn Wasky for change of name to Jennifer Dawn Metzger. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the ﬁling of said petition and ﬁxed the 8thday of September, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., as the time and the Motions Room, City-County Building, Pittsburgh, PA, as the place for a hearing, when and where all persons may show cause, if any they have, why said name should not be changed as prayed for

IN The Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania: No. GD-21-9921, In re petition of Cristin Barnaba parents and legal guardian of Neriah Leighanne Rowe for change of name to Neriah Leighanne Barnaba. To all persons interested: Notice is hereby given that an order of said Court authorized the ﬁling of said petition and ﬁxed the 27th day of September 2021, at 9:30 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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We offer full-time seasonal employees health benefits on the 1st of the month following 60 days of employment, paid time off, 403(b) retirement plan, and paid holidays. VISIT WESTMORELANDCA.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION! PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER SEPTEMBER 1-8, 2021

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING LOCAL JOURNALISM

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Sarah Vernau Sarah Wiggin Scott Bricker Sean Bailey Sean Collier Sean Mahan Sean ODonnell Selene Wartell Shanna Carrick Shannon Kelly Sharee Stout Shawn Cooke Shawn Melvin Sherri Suppa Shirlie Mae Choe Siena Kane Slava Starikov Smitha Prasadh Stacey Campbell Stacey Federoff Stephanie Sedor Stephanie Wein Stephen Riccardi Stephen Wagner Steve Felix Steve Holz Steven Haines Steven Thomas Stuart Strickland Sue D’Nihm Susan Caplan Susan Hawkins Susan Jackson Susan Rogers Susan Smith Susan Speicher Suzanne Kafantaris Sylvain Goyette Taia Pandolfi Tammy Schuey Tara Spence Tara Zeigler Ted Schroeder Tereneh Idia Terry Bicehouse Terry Peters Thomas Bartnik Timons Esaias Tina Shackleford Todd Derr Tom Samuel Toni Haraldsen Tracy Certo Tracy Travaglio Travis Hefner Trenton Tabor Trevor Baumel Trey Mason Tyler Bickford Tyler Gellasch Uwe Stender Valerie Moore Vicki Cunningham Virginia Alvino Young Will Bernstein Will Halim Will Simmons William Doran William Fulmer William J Schoy IV William Lovas William Maruca William O’Driscoll Yonatan Bisk Zack Tanner

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