PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2024
CELEBRATING 30+ YEARS
Editor-in-Chief ALI TRACHTA
Director of Operations KEVIN SHEPHERD
A&E Editor AMANDA WALTZ
News Editor COLIN WILLIAMS
Sta Writer RACHEL WILKINSON
Photographer MARS JOHNSON
Audience Engagement Specialist STACY ROUNDS
Editorial Designer JEFF SCHRECKENGOST
Graphic Designer SAM SCHAFFER
Senior Advertising Representative CODY WALTERS
Advertising Representatives
ALEISHA STARKEY, JACOB VILCEK
Junior Advertising Representative
T’YANNA MCINTYRE
Marketing Coordinator CANDACE DAVIS
Digital Coordinator DEBI JOHNSON
Circulation Manager JEFF ENGBARTH
Contributors KAHMEELA ADAMS-FRIEDSON, REGE BEHE, LYNN CULLEN, MEG ST-ESPRIT, MATT PETRAS, JORDANA ROSENFELD, JORDAN SNOWDEN
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WE THE PEOPLE OF PITTSBURGH
Pittsburgh is known as many things: a union town, a tech darling, an “eds and meds” mecca, a haven for pierogi obsessives. But maybe Pittsburgh’s real treasure is, as they say, the friends we make along the way. It’s the people — our neighbors — who embody the true spirit of this place. The ones who want our hometown to be the best it can be, and who do the work to make that happen.
Our annual People of the Year issue and subsequent celebration (on Jan. 9, 2025 at the Greer Cabaret Theater — come join us!) pay homage to some of those folks making an impact.
This year’s class inducts movers and shakers from all corners of our community, such as Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl and Staycee Pearl, partners in life and work who are magnifying Black art from their studio in Braddock, and Nik Forsberg of Fet-Fisk, whose pop-up turned brick-and-mortar restaurant is receiving well-deserved national attention. We’re also honoring nurses who are carving a path for other healthcare workers, young activists risking their futures, and many others.
We hope you read about this year’s award winners and feel proud that these are the sort of hardworking, problem-solving people Pittsburgh produces. Cheers to the honorees, who are rightfully the toast of the town.
-Ali Trachta Editor-in-Chief
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PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: LABOR
BY COLIN WILLIAMS // CWILLIAMS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
"Pittsburgh is a union town,” people love to say. But when the rubber meets the road, unionizing can be a long and difficult process, as some local workers have found.
That difficulty didn’t slow down the nurses at West Penn Hospital, run by Allegheny Health Network. After Service Employees International Union nurses at Allegheny General Hospital, their sister hospital on the North Side, notched a major victory with a new three-year contract last fall, West Penn’s nurses began their push for a better working environment.
“We were on the back of AGH’s historical accomplishments that they made with their contract, and we really wanted to push further than that,” West Penn nurse Kari Xander tells Pittsburgh City Paper “We’re trying to fix the vicious cycle of problems in healthcare.”
The SEIU emerged recently as a force in local nursing. Xander says discussions with the union had begun before COVID — but the pandemic forcing everyone onto Zoom made the actual organizing and bargaining process much more difficult. Still, the SEIU nurses managed to sign their first contract with the hospital. Their newest
West Penn nurses are raising the bar for healthcare workers in Pittsburgh
one marks significant upgrades over the first one, and may have helped set precedents for other nurses seeking redress in other health systems such as Western Psych and Allegheny Valley.
“One of our major accomplishments was that we were able to establish really significant pay raises for everyone,” Xander says of the new contract. “We were really facing a loss of just burnout, and we weren’t able to retain our experienced nurses, which has a really significant trickle-down effect. So what was really important to us is that we not only be able to recruit nurses by increasing our starting rate, but that we also were able to … keep our experienced nurses at the bedside.”
The union also secured an agreement for better staffing ratios and to give nurses with 20 years or more of experience additional incentives to stay on the job. Xander and the approximately 650 nurses covered by the new contract say they hope this is the start of more and better organizing throughout Pittsburgh’s important healthcare industry.
“We would love for Pittsburgh to become even more of a union town, especially in healthcare,” she says. “UPMC has thousands more nurses than we do, you know? And I can only imagine, if all of the nurses kind of joined in with our efforts, what we would be able to do.”
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
West Penn Nurses pose for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
“I WISH MORE PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD ABORTION IN THE CONTEXT OF BODILY AUTONOMY AND NOT JUST A PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL HEALTH ISSUE,”
Alecia Ott of Auto(nomous) Body Shop is bringing reproductive health to the streets
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON Alecia Ott poses for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
Whether you’re dancing to house music at ellyfish or perusing the Bloomfield Saturday Market, chances are the Auto nomous Body Shop is nearby. Since she fixed up her 5 Chevrolet Astro last year, Alecia Ott has been meeting Pittsburghers where they are, and supporting their reproductive health.
The Auto nomous Body Shop was founded to meet multiple needs in Pittsburgh — to provide easy access to resources like emergency contraception, Narcan, condoms, and pregnancy tests, but also to open conversations across communities about reproductive justice.
“I wish more people understood abortion in the context of bodily autonomy and not just a private individual health issue,” Ott tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “That would help people understand the connections to other issues like trans healthcare and police violence — this is why the reproductive justice framework is so important.”
She wants Pittsburghers to take their reproductive rights into their own hands, and think about abortion access as a community responsibility. “Abortion access belongs to the people, not courts and not the medical system. But it re uires people power to facilitate.”
Since last November, the Auto nomous Body Shop has attended over 5 events across the city, including Allegheny County Health Department resource fairs. They’ve distributed an estimated ,000 packages of emergency contraception, and hundreds of pregnancy tests, condoms, and Narcan. Ott, who also works a -5 job, says this project wouldn’t be possible without volunteers.
“The response has been super positive, and we’ve received a lot of community support and interest from people who want to get involved — we have a list of almost 00 volunteers,” she says.
Unsurprisingly, that list grew significantly after the 202 election. Ott says she appreciates the public’s instinct to get involved, but urges people to consider how to sustain their volunteer work in the long term.
“I think people were feeling a ton of despair after the election and we want to acknowledge that, but also we are ultimately interested in long term and steady community building,” Ott says.
The energy is palpable when the van visits Pittsburgh’s college campuses, with students lined up to take pictures, ask uestions, and pick up supplies. The van team now consists of many local college students, with whom Ott says she enjoys collaborating.
“I really feel grateful for their ideas and energy, and I want to give space to young van volunteers to create the kinds of events and programs that they want to be at,” she says. “And ultimately I think it’s a positive re ection on the work, because if young people don’t want to engage with your project, that’s a bad sign.”
Ott fre uently collaborates with groups like Black iberation Autonomous Collective and Black Anarchist Community Council, AIDS ree Pittsburgh, and Prevention Point Pittsburgh. “I feel like right now mutual aid groups in Pittsburgh are deepening relationships with each other, whether they are official nonprofits or not,” she remarks.
She says one of her favorite parts of this project is witnessing communities taking care of each other. “It makes me feel really nice when older folks are getting supplies for their neighbors, or when people who can’t get pregnant are picking up Plan B, or people who don’t use drugs are getting Narcan,” she says.
“It just drives home that people are beginning to get into a less individualistic mindset and understand that we are all connected.” •
FPEOPLE OF THE YEAR: PERFORMING ARTS
Herman "Soy Sos" Pearl and Staycee Pearl bring Black-focused arts to Braddock and the world
BY KAHMEELA ADAMS-FRIEDSON // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
or over 20 years, Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl and Staycee Pearl, the dynamic married duo behind PearlArts, have collaborated to blend sound design and dance. Under their visionary leadership, their organization has championed Black arts in Pittsburgh, producing and touring numerous works described as probing themes of “personal expression, race, freedom, and gender to immerse audiences in unforgettable experiences.”
In 2024, the pair started to usher PearlArts into a new era. To better unify the organization’s dance and sound components, they recently rebranded as PearlArts Movement & Sound. They also started work on a new studio in Braddock.
Although the organization creates space for everyone, uplifting Black femme artists, in particular, is always at the forefront. “It’s always a mission to be as universal with the story as possible, even though we’re telling our stories,” Stacyee tells Pittsburgh
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Herman “Soy Sos” Pearl and Staycee Pearl pose for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
City Paper. “We’re not saying, ‘Oh, but this is our story,’ you know. It is our story, and you need to be part of it. It’s actually your story, too.”
Herman, a Pittsburgh-born creative, found his passion for sound at a young age with a tape recorder. Staycee, a native of New Haven, Conn., started as a young gymnast, but pivoted to dance. The two first met in New ork, when Herman called Stacyee’s house looking for her then-boyfriend, who was also in the music scene. The call didn’t last long. The two then met through a mutual friend in Pittsburgh.
Herman describes his aesthetic as heavily in uenced by Jamaican dub, deep jazz, and soul. “And I like noise. So all of that goes into everything I do,” he tells City Paper
Stacyee, a dancer with a rich history of training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Dance Theater of Harlem, integrates various styles of dance and movement to tell compelling stories on stage.
“IT’S ALWAYS A MISSION TO BE AS UNIVERSAL WITH THE STORY AS POSSIBLE, EVEN THOUGH WE’RE TELLING OUR STORIES.”
The pair tells the vibrant stories and history of Black culture through workshops, residencies, and original productions. Those productions include sum of y’all, the latest movementbased multimedia work from PearlArts, described as being focused on the “impermanence of community and the erasure of historically Black spaces over time.”
“We started thinking about relationships within our communities and how we expand and then come back together and then reach out in the world and how we reform in different spaces and what they look like and what they feel like and how much of that we retain,” Stacyee explains.
The work will play first for New ork City audiences in January 2025, followed by a performance at Kelly Strayhorn Theater in spring 2026.
The new year will also see the grand opening of the new PearlArts studio in Braddock. The space, described in a release as being designed to “house a variety of artistic programs, from dance and music to multimedia experimentation,” will serve as a hub for local and touring artists, offering a platform for creative exploration and community engagement. It’s slated to open in spring 2025, which will coincide with the local premiere of sum of y'all
“It’s like four individual cells that are all interconnected. There’s a main movement studio, there’s a secondary movement studio, and there’s a dual recording suite with two separate recording rooms,” Herman says.
PearlArts Movement & Sound is not just an organization but a culmination of Stacyee and Herman’s life’s work. Their joint venture reminds us of the power of art to connect, inspire, and transform. •
“IT WAS LIKE COALITION BUILDING 101.”
BPEOPLE OF THE YEAR: POLITICS
City Councilmember Barb Warwick fights to make Pittsburgh “an affordable place to live but also an easier place to get around.”
BY RACHEL WILKINSON // RACHEL WILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
efore she became a Pittsburgh City Councilmember, Barb Warwick (D-5) saw the impact of getting involved on a local level.
A working mother of four, Warwick moved to the our Mile un section of Greenfield in 20 . Soon after, the city announced plans for the Mon-Oakland Connector, a system of driverless shuttles decried by residents. Warwick joined neighborhood organizations and Pittsburghers for Public Transit, and successfully fought to stop the project and redirect funds toward long-standing community needs like ood protection for The un.
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Barb Warwick poses for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
“It was like Coalition Building 101,” Warwick says.
Seven years later, when Corey O’Connor vacated the District 5 council seat, Warwick was deeply engaged with the district’s nine neighborhoods that span Squirrel Hill South to New Homestead.
“I got together with my neighbors and [said], there’s a lot of development that’s happening in Hazelwood,” she recalls. “We need to make sure that whoever is in [that] seat really is focused on these areas.”
Becoming a model for grassroots, bottom-up politics, Warwick won in a landslide, then was reelected for a full four-year term last November. Wrapping up her second year in office, she still marvels at what can be achieved locally, with her projects ranging from big-budget asks, like an intersection redesign, to keeping Serpentine Dr. closed to cars at the behest of constituents.
On the City Council, “technically, we’re legislators,” Warwick says. “But at this local level, you really are there as a connection between your constituents and the city. And that’s been the one thing that is so eye-opening to me is how much you can really help people.”
Especially gratifying was reallocating money previously budgeted for the Mon-Oakland Connector, which instead went toward recreation center improvements and updates to Hazelwood’s Lewis Park — “something that people want,” Warwick says.
A self-described playground proponent, Warwick says being a former teacher and a parent inform her politics. Walking her kids to school and being a bike commuter spurred her advocacy for traffic calming, an issue she’s helped bring to the fore with Vision Zero, an initiative that aims to end pedestrian deaths
The future of the city, Warwick believes, depends on “making it an affordable place to live but also an easier place to get around.” She views POGOH, Pittsburgh’s bikeshare program, as a generational investment.
“My oldest kids are 12,” Warwick says. “If, over the next four years, we could get those e-bikes within a five-minute walk of every house in Pittsburgh, then that will radically change how they get around, and when they make that decision [of], do I get a driver’s license?”
The national political climate will soon put a magnifying glass on local government, she says, as “the safeguards for our most vulnerable people just got a lot smaller.”
“Whether that’s our unhoused folks or our children, people living in low-income communities, whether it’s our trans community, our seniors who are living on fixed incomes, or protections for immigrants, [all] those just got much tighter,” Warwick says. “So now the decisions that are made at the local, city level are going to have a major impact.” •
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: MUSIC
Viscous Blade is melding metal genres in the Steel City
BY COLIN WILLIAMS // CWILLIAMS@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
The Steel City is, literally and figuratively, a metal town, and Vicious Blade is one of its strongest local alloys, combining the blistering speed of thrash with the ferocity of black metal. Nationally, this has put them firmly on the radar of extreme music fans everywhere. ocally, it’s put Vicious Blade at the top of their class.
“EACH RELEASE WE HAVE DONE, THE MUSIC HAS GOTTEN MORE AND MORE HEAVIER AND MORE EXTREME,”
“Every member of Vicious Blade has been around for uite some time in the scene,” vocalist Clarissa Badini, who also performs with international act Castrator, tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “I was very fortunate to grow up in the scene around bands like Derk ta and ady Beast.”
As Pittsburgh’s next generation of metal bands comes into its own, Vicious Blade serves as a bridge between the old school and younger heshers. The band’s debut P, Relentless Force , released via Cleveland’s edefining Darkness ecords earlier this fall, has something for everyone willing to brave music’s far edge, including neckbreaking solos on tracks like “Mistress of Death” and callbacks to 0s thrash on ass-beater “ orged Steel.” The album has already started appearing on year-end best lists for its seamless blend of classic and contemporary.
“Each release we have done, the music has gotten more and more heavier and more extreme,” Badini says. “So I think that was kind of the goal with this album — we really wanted it to be super intense.”
Badini’s dynamic, harsh vocals help bind together the four instrumentalists’ searing delivery. The five-piece will take Relentless Force and their prior catalogue to big festivals next year including Decibel’s Metal Beer est and Northwest Terror est in Seattle.
Badini says that, in the meantime, the band is working on a music video. In short, Vicious Blade won’t be laying down their weapons anytime soon.
“We’re also … planning some mini-runs regionally,” she says. “So we’re going to try to do that, get out there and play some shows in 2025, and hopefully just start the writing process all over again. •
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2024
PHOTO COURTESY OF VICIOUS BLADE
To call Emmai Alaquiva a multihyphenate would be an understatement. The multidisciplinary artist, photographer, and musician now primarily represents the local filmmaking scene as a documentarian whose works cover urgent issues in Pittsburgh and beyond.
It’s a pursuit that has resulted in four Emmy wins and being featured on Good Morning America, and in Forbes Magazine and The New York Times.
And it all started at Waffle Wopp, an East Liberty-based media project led by Carnegie Mellon University students that focused on teens.
“I began filming small vignettes in order to capture the essence of our students and naturally fell in love with that branch of storytelling,” Alaquiva tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “Ever since I picked up the camera, I never looked back and always had a constant love affair with telling stories through the lens.”
The Wilkinsburg native started in music with his rap group, Pensoulzinakup, and, in 2011, created an arts education program called Hip-Hop On Lock. As a photographer, he’s captured images of subjects ranging from local figures like activist Leon Ford and former mayor Bill Peduto, to music heavyweight Pharrell Williams and lifestyle maven Martha Stewart. He also currently represents over 175,000 creative professionals across the commonwealth as the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts vice chair.
While he calls music his “first creative passion,” he became “fascinated by the power of visual narratives to amplify emotions and tell stories in a way that transcends words.” That fascination has spun into films and other visual media focused on issues affecting Black Americans.
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: VISUAL ART
Emmai Alaquiva uses his film and photography projects to highlight serious issues in Pittsburgh and beyond
BY AMANDA WALTZ // AWALTZ@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
In 2022, he combined film and photography for OPTICVOICES: Mama’s Boys, an August Wilson African American Cultural Center exhibition highlighting mothers who lost sons to systemic violence. More recently, he shed light on a serious health crisis affecting Black women with The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality . Alaquiva says the latter, which features narration by Academy Award-winning actor Viola Davis, is “set to go on an exciting international film festival tour.”
“Every subject I choose to cover is born out of a commitment to amplify voices and shed light on injustices that have been systematically silenced,” says Alaquiva. “These issues, whether they’re about police violence or the crisis of Black infant mortality, are not just statistics or headlines — they are stories of lives, communities, and legacies disrupted or erased by structural inequities.”
He says his next documentary project will cover Dr. Freddie Fu, a revered orthopaedic surgeon at UPMC who passed away in 2021. Alaquiva will also direct his first feature narrative film this coming summer.
Regardless of the project, Alaquiva wants his work, including his film, to have a positive impact.
“Every frame, every story is an opportunity to confront uncomfortable truths and to honor those who have been overlooked,” he says. “I see myself as a cinematic poet; my pen is a camera and my work is about using art and advocacy to build bridges between awareness and action — and to remind the world of the humanity that lies at the heart of change." •
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Emmai Alaquiva poses for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
After its much-anticipated opening in March, Fet-Fisk was quickly met with national accolades.
BY RACHEL WILKINSON
PEOPLE
OF THE YEAR 2024
“I DON’T GO HALF IN ON ANYTHING, I GO 150% IN ON ONE THING.”
The Nordic eatery — whose name means “greasy/fat fish” in Swedish — caught the attention of the New York Times , which listed it as one of 50 best restaurants in America. In November, Eater recognized it as one of the best new restaurants of 2024, calling Fet-Fisk’s signature pickled mackerel “a textural dream.” Owner, chef, and James Beard Award Semifinalist Nik Forsberg tells Pittsburgh City Paper that while the runaway success “feels great,” he wears it lightly. Forsberg gives massive credit to his team, including cofounder and creative director Sarah LaPonte, and the city of Pittsburgh for “accepting our weird, Nordic-inspired menu and loving it.”
On a weekend night, the homey but modern Bloomfield spot — which took over former mainstay Lombardozzi’s Restaurant — is packed, serving tested favorites like scallop crudo and whole grilled branzino alongside a recently debuted celery root gnocchi in broth, a comforting, flavorful dish using all parts of the vegetable that Forsberg calls a “celery-bration.”
“It’s nice we’ve been able to consistently impress people that are coming in with the expectations that we’re a nationally acclaimed restaurant,” he says of the recent rush, but “it’s no secret buzz dies down … and we do want to be a neighborhood drinking and eating spot at the end of the day.”
Fet-Fisk began as a pop-up in 2019, hosting biweekly communal dinners. The restaurant recently remembered the project’s “scrappy DIY ethos,” which included hand-drawn maps for diners, a lot of improvisation, and seafood dishes rarely seen on a Pittsburgh menu. Dinners feature sustainably-sourced meat and local, seasonal produce — an outgrowth of Forsberg’s previous stint as an organic farmer and commitment to Appalachian agriculture.
Forsberg says taking a headlong dive into farming is characteristic of his approach to the service industry. “Something about the way I am, I like to stay occupied. I like to work on projects with my friends, which [Fet-Fisk] is an extreme example of,” he says. “I don’t go half in on anything, I go 150% in on one thing.”
The plan to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant was always in the works, but when Forsberg and the Fet-Fisk team saw Lombardozzi’s, “everything that we had been working on up until that point just finally clicked in,” he says. Though “we had big shoes to fill … it felt kind of perfect, because there was so much history in the space.”
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR:
LaPonte recently penned an Instagram birthday tribute to Forsberg praising him as the heart of the operation and someone who “is never not thinking about how to make what he does, better.” Among other examples, he took a wine pairing course, drained “25-year-old [Mountain Dew] lines and pulled [them] through a maze of floorboards,” and did a large chunk of the restoration work on the Lombardozzi’s building. He will even jump in to polish the silver on short-staffed nights.
Forsberg admits that even with his hands full in the kitchen, he’s trying to learn more about front-of-house operations and dip into Fet-Fisk’s reservation software. He’s also now a known figure around town — spotted at the bank and the grocery store — something that “brightens [his] day,” but that he didn’t anticipate (and please don’t compare him to The Bear).
“My MO is definitely more, bury my nose in my work,” Forsberg says. “[But] it’s nice that people recognize me and appreciate … what we’ve set out to do. I get a real kick out of serving people and creating a beautiful night.” •
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Nik Forsberg poses for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
“THE U.S. DOES HAVE A HISTORY OF STUDENT MOVEMENTS ENGENDERING VERY LARGE-SCALE CHANGE.”
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: ACTIVISM
Students for Justice in Palestine brings the Gaza crisis to Pittsburgh
BY RACHEL WILKINSON // RACHEL WILKINSON@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
Students for Justice in Palestine set out to advocate for full and equal Palestinian rights, raise awareness of and protest Israeli occupation, valorize Palestinian art and literature, and promote justice and peace. This year, the organization’s University of Pittsburgh chapter (SJP at Pitt), has seen more forward movement than they have in a decade. Though SJP at Pitt was founded about 15 years ago, “the transformation from the early 2000s as opposed to now is like night and day,” its membership says.
Since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli military operations in Gaza have reportedly killed over 44,000 people, displaced millions of Palestinians, bombarded hospitals, universities, and civilian property, and caused starvation, to the dismay of many Pittsburghers.
“I think I, and I’m sure everybody, has been fully shifted and radicalized by what we’ve been seeing,” says one student. “I think watching what’s been happening has probably impacted everybody’s lives in some way.”
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON
Members of the SJP set o green and red smoke sticks while leading a march of hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters downtown on March 2, 2024.
The shift has reignited SJP’s advocacy, and taken it many directions, ranging from what the organization calls unlearning — holding public rallies, educational events, and film screenings that center Palestinian perspectives — to walkouts and banner drops. The group also called for Pitt's financial divestment (or divestiture) from all Israel-related businesses and funds, a decades-old tactic once used to protest apartheid South Africa.
“We try to challenge narratives,” SJP tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “There’s been no reason for the average American to dig deeper … We try to educate people [about] what Palestinians are asking us to do, especially now that they are facing genocide .” SJP members (who spoke on the condition of anonymity) say their activism comes at a high personal cost. In June, pro-Palestine groups including SJP established a Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the Cathedral of Learning, what SJP calls “the very forefront” of its actions this year, “because it was a very visible public display of support for divestiture, for advocating for Palestinian human rights.”
The encampment resulted in a tense standoff with police, and in criminal charges, including nine felonies, against 20 people, according to SJP. For the students, it also raised broader questions about the limits of free speech and activism, particularly during Pitt’s Year of Discourse and Dialogue.
“It’s been very clear to us that there’s been a manifest sharpening of contradictions,” SJP says.
The group views itself in the lineage of other student activist
movements, including anti-Vietnam War protests, and after activists at Pitt, where, in 1969, students from the Black Action Society led a pivotal sit-in at the university computer center. (The protest — which took place on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and nine months after his assassination — led to the creation of the university’s Department of Africana Studies, recruitment of more Black faculty and students, and was praised by Pitt administration on its 50th anniversary.)
“The U.S. does have a history of student movements engendering very large-scale change,” an SJP member says.
Members also see the pro-Palestine movement as intersectional, supported by labor unions, LGBTQ and transgender rights activists, and young college students, among others.
“Because half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18, I think students specifically see ourselves in the people of Palestine,” says one SJP member. “And I wouldn’t even say it’s isolated to youth or to students … I think a lot of people see themselves in Palestinians, a lot of people who don’t have the greatest hope in our institutions, and I think that’s what keeps people in this movement going.”
“I think we have so much that we can learn from Palestinians in the way that we conduct ourselves, the way that we carry ourselves, the way that we continue through obstacle after obstacle, in our advocacy for them, in making sure that the word Palestine, the word Palestinian, is not erased from history,” SJP says. •
“MOST
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: LITERATURE
Michael Wurster has spent the last five decades boosting local writers as part of the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange BY JESS SIMMS // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
CP PHOTO: MARS JOHNSON Michael Wurster poses for a portrait at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
Pittsburgh is a poetry city just like it’s a jazz city,” Michael Wurster says, but that hasn’t always been the case. The Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange, the organization Wurster cofounded and has led for the past 50 years, is partly to thank for solidifying that identity.
Founded in 1974 by Wurster, Dieter Weslowski, Lloyd Johnson, Vic Coccimiglio, and JW Jansen, the PPE aimed to cultivate an appreciation for the art form and bridge the gap between established poets and those in the broader community.
Fifty years after its founding, the PPE remains a valuable source of learning and community for the city’s poets. In addition to workshops, PPE supports a monthly open mic at the South Side Presbyterian Church, curates a quarterly reading series at Bantha Tea House, and has published several anthologies, most recently 50: Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange 1974-2024, a collection celebrating the group’s recent milestone.
Other reading series originated or are closely connected to PPE, including the Hemingway summer reading series, currently codirected by PPE member Joan Bauer.
Wurster was a poet long before he helped to start the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange. As the son of a jazz singer, he grew up surrounded by creative people and learned to love reading at an early age.
“Most poets, when they’re very young, they realize that they’re in a world which is either completely evil or completely nuts,” Wurster says. In his case, growing up in a dysfunctional family sent him seeking a creative outlet. At 14, Wurster landed his first publications — a pair of holiday stories published by the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star in 1954. As a teenager he worked with his high school’s literary magazine, something he continued in college when he served as the poetry editor for The Hornbook at Dickinson College.
In the mid-‘60s, Wurster moved to Pittsburgh and got involved with the city’s jazz scene. His attention shifted to poetry in the 1970s, but his love for other art forms never faded. As he says, “Part of practicing for me is movies and jazz … Jazz music has influenced my poetry in terms of rhythm. Film has influenced by poetry in terms of image and moving from one image to another.”
He has been prolific in that practice and estimates that he’s written over 800 poem's “...That I claim are good poems, which means there are about 2,000 others that will probably never see the light of day,” he adds.
He produced four collections, the most recent of which, Even Then, was released in 2019 by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Wurster also contributed to the development of local poets as an educator. He taught poetry at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for 17 years, and served as the director of poetry programs at Lion Walk Performing Arts Center, the Rider Cultural Center, and the South Side’s Carson Street Gallery.
Now 84, Wurster, in addition to running the PPE, continues to write and read his poetry. His upcoming readings include an early Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange reunion on April 19, 2025 with fellow cofounder Dieter Weslowski and long-time PPE member Mary Tisera. •
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PEOPLE OF THE YEAR: BUSINESS
BY MAIA WILLIAMS // INFO@PGHCITYPAPER.COM
PHOTO COURTESY OF KHAMIL BAILEY
Khamil Bailey, founder and executive director of the Greenwood Plan, has built her career around advancing entrepreneurship for minorities in Pittsburgh. As a community curator, she leads the nonprofit organization in its mission to advance economic justice for Black communities.
The Greenwood Plan’s current direction, Bailey says, is rooted in the vision she, along with founder and board president, Samantha Black, established upon its founding in 2021: removing the fear of failure in entrepreneurship while encouraging business growth. “We wanted to make it so that people were not afraid of entrepreneurship and felt like they could approach entrepreneurship with a spirit of exploration,” she tells Pittsburgh City Paper
“We wanted to make sure that Black entrepreneurs had the ability and the encouragement to go into entrepreneurship and pursue it at the highest level that they chose.”
In 2024, the Greenwood Plan continued to make strides in pushing Pittsburgh’s Black business sector forward.
Bailey says owning the Pitt Building on Smithfield St. has created the biggest impact this year. “That would be the biggest accomplishment of 2024, actualizing what we have planned with owning the building and putting Black-owned businesses and organizations in that building in downtown Pittsburgh,” she says.
The Pitt Building serves as a hub for Black-owned businesses and organizations, with two tenants already leasing space.
For Bailey, her work affirms a belief she has held for years: that Pittsburgh’s Black business community is filled with talent, but faces systemic barriers. “I’ve always felt that Pittsburgh’s Black business community did not get a fair shake, and I feel like there were a lot of barriers placed in front of Black entrepreneurs,” she continues. “I always felt like Pittsburgh had talent in its Black communities. Through this work, I’ve just been affirmed in that thought.” Bailey says she has seen many talented entrepreneurs, innovative ideas, and remarkable creativity within the city.
Stepping into 2025, Bailey is focused on growth — not just for the Greenwood Plan but for the businesses it supports. One of her primary goals is to attract more Black-owned businesses to downtown Pittsburgh, increasing foot traffic and visibility for the entrepreneurs the Greenwood Plan serves.
Internally, she is also prioritizing capacity-building within the organization by expanding their team. “In 2025, my goal is to bring on more staff to help build the capacity even more.” She continues, “It’s also to be a great leader for the staff that we have.”
Bailey’s passion for her work stems from a deep desire to see communities thrive. “With all the work that I do, the goal is to make sure that folks can take care of themselves and their neighbors,” she says. •
PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2024
Thursday • January 9th • 6-9 PM Greer Cabaret Theater 655 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA
Join us on at the Greer Cabaret Theater for a celebration of 10 extraordinary Pittsburghers who are making our city shine brighter. Their inspiring stories motivate us all to be better neighbors and more engaged community members.
Let’s come together to honor this year’s outstanding individuals in activism, creativity, politics, and beyond. Your ticket includes: An open bar of Bacardi products A delicious spread of food, catered by Culinare
The evening will feature a special ceremony to celebrate our People of the Year, hosted by Kiki from WAMO!
Purchase Tickets Below:
PUBLIC NOTICE
MARKET PLACE
OPEN WAITING LIST FOR SECTION 8 HUD PROPERTIES Wesley Plaza Properties has an open waiting list to apply for the Section 8 program. For more information on how to apply please contact us at 412-626-6111
ESTATE NOTICE
ESTATE OF CISLO, NANCY, J, A/K/A IF NECESSARY
CISLO, NANCY JEAN DECEASED OF DRAVOSBURG, PA No. 022405348 of 2024.
Susan Marie Cislo
Extr. Or to Ian Petrulli, Esq Attorneys. 12239 US Route 30, North Huntingdon, PA, 15642
FINANCIAL
SAVE BIG on HOME INSURANCE! Compare 20 A-rated insurances companies. Get a quote within minutes. Average savings of $444/year! Call 844712-6153! (M-F 8am-8pm Central) (AAN CAN)
FINANCIAL
SAVE YOUR HOME! Are you behind paying your MORTGAGE? Denied a Loan Modification? Is the bank threatening foreclosure? CALL Homeowners Relief Line NOW for Help 1-855-4395853 Mon-Fri 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Sat: 8:00 am to 1:00 pm(all times Pacific) (AAN CAN)
Now Hiring
Let Pittsburgh City Paper help you hire! Every month, over 400,000 people visit pghcitypaper.com for news, entertainment, and job listings.
New jobs are posted every Sunday online and in our Tuesday City Pigeon e-newsletter.
Contact T’yanna McIntyre at tmcintyre@pghcitypaper.com to advertise your job listing in City Paper.
LEGAL
Need Help with Family Law? Can’t Afford a $5000 Retainer? Low Cost Legal Services- Pay As You Go- As low as $750-$1500Get Legal Help Now! Call 1-844-821-8249 Mon-Fri 7am to 4pm PCT (AAN CAN) https://www.familycourtdirect. com/?network=1
STUDY SMOKERS WANTED
The University of Pittsburgh’s Alcohol & Smoking Research Lab is looking for people to participate in a research project. You must:
• Currently smoke cigarettes
• Be 18-49 years old, in good health, and speak fluent English
• Be right handed, willing to not smoke before two sessions, and to fill out questionnaires
Earn up to $260 for participating in this study. For more information, call (412) 407-5029
PUBLIC NOTICE
CCTV FOR THE SR 0376 A69 – BATHTUB IMPROVEMENT PROJECT ALLEGHENY COUNTY
JOHNSON, MIRMIRAN AND THOMPSON, INC. (JMT) has been subcontracted by CDM Smith through an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, District 11-0 (Department) to perform CCTV drainage pipe inspection, dye testing, and MPT services at various locations on SR 0376 Westbound in the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA. The inspection is anticipated to be scheduled between January 6, 2025 and February 28, 2025. JMT will require the services of a Contractor to provide the necessary equipment for CCTV inspection, dye testing, inlet/ manhole debris removal, and tra ic control services.
The Contractor must make available the following equipment in good working order along with properly trained, competent, equipment operators. The contractor’s record of past performance will be considered during the selection.
The equipment includes but is not limited to the following:
• Jet/Vac Truck and necessary equipment to remove debris from subsurface units.
• Equipment to remove inlet/manhole tops.
• NASSCO PACP compliant CCTV inspection equipment.
• Flow bypassing and light cleaning.
• Sonde to locate line.
• Tra ic control equipment (signs, placards, channelizing devices, arrow panels, crash truck, etc.)
JMT will receive electronic bids from qualified Contractors until 1:00 PM; December 6, 2024. Questions should be directed to Ryan Murphy at 412-375-5113 or Rmurphy@jmt.com. Bids are to emailed.
JMT will award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, provided experience and record of past performance is satisfactory to the Department. JMT and the Department reserve the right to reject any or all bids deemed not in conformance with the bid requirements.
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 Tuesday, January 21, 2025, until 2:00 P.M., local prevailing time for:
PITTSBURGH CARMALT PREK-8
• Ground Floor Piping Modifications
• Mechanical Primes
PITTSBURGH VARIOUS LOCATIONS
• Replace Pool Filtration System
• Plumbing and Electrical Primes
PITTSBURGH BRASHEAR HIGH SCHOOL
• Chiller Plant Renovations
• Mechanical, Electrical, and Abatement Primes
Project Manual and Drawings will be available for purchase on Monday, December 09, 2024, 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.
GIFT BOXES
ACROSS
Went like hell
5. “Leave me alone, fly”
9. Tape players from the ‘80s
13. Concluding word 14. Alaska PD channel 16. Met audition piece 17. Building block 18. Floppy disk storage units 19. Out to lunch 20. The Idiot author
23. Favor one side
24. Big name in grills
25. Guest column, often 27. Can-do 30. TE stats
31. Take things the wrong way
32. “Spill it”
35. Seafood from Long Island
39. Island whose capital is St. George’s
40. The Bridge of San Luis
41. Letters on a Banana Boat bottle
44. Chopping things
45. Vomit
46. One whose natural partner is a Libra
48. ___ Draven (the Crow)
50. “I’m gonna have to think about this”
57. Firmly opposed
58. Words to live by
59. Impressed crowd sounds
60. Shooting match?
61. Mononymic musician whose last name is Chryssomallis
62. “So much this meme”
63. Lively
64. His number 24 was retired by both the Mets and Giants
65. Miss on a loch
DOWN
1. Egomaniac’s love
2. Hunter’s target
3. Brand with Cinnamon Churro and Chocolatey Chip Banana flavors
4. Divining rod, with an insect name
5. Hummus company
6. “Father of the string quartet”
7. Not duped by 8. Poems about heroic deeds
9. French horn part
10. Penguin Sidney
11. Gambled
12. Party animal-men?
15. I’m, in Oaxaca
21. It chose “brain rot” as the 2024 Word of the Year: Abbr.
22. Water holders
25. Royal circle
26. Fool on the Hill, for short
27. Alter ego
28. Give a little
29. Singer Jackson
32. Top spot
33. Unaccompanied 34. Was a successful petroleum geologist
36. Wipe out
37. Cartoony shriek
38. Flour that is
flavored with caraway
41. Garden variety lunches?
42. Agreement before the wedding
43. More in shape
45. Grammable thing
47. Charles’ daughter on A Man on the Inside
48. Piano key wood
49. Caddyshack director
51. Like those in the out crowd
52. Big test
53. WNBA star ___ Charles
54. Mirai maker
55. Electrical units
56. Puts into service
Many Americans are fortunate to have dental coverage for their entire working life, throughemployer-provided benefits. When those benefits end with retirement, paying dental bills out-of-pocket can come as a shock, leading people to put off or even go without care.
Simply put — without dental insurance, there may be an important gap in your healthcare coverage.
When you’re comparing plans ...
Look for coverage that helps pay for major services. Some plans may limit the number of procedures — or pay for preventive care only.
Look for coverage with no deductibles. Some plans may require you to pay hundreds out of pocket before benefits are paid.
Shop for coverage with no annual maximum on cash benefits. Some plans have annual maximums of $1,000.
Medicare doesn’t pay for dental care.1
That’s right. As good as Medicare is, it was never meant to cover everything. That means if you want protection, you need to purchase individual insurance.
Early detection can prevent small problems from becoming expensive ones. The best way to prevent large dental bills is preventive care. The American Dental Association recommends checkups twice a year.
Previous dental work can wear out.
Even if you’ve had quality dental work in the past, you shouldn’t take your dental health for granted. In fact, your odds of having a dental problem only go up as you age.2
Treatment is expensive — especially the services people over 50 often need.
Consider these national average costs of treatment ... $222 for a checkup ... $190 for a filling ... $1,213 for a crown.3 Unexpected bills like this can be a real burden, especially if you’re on a fixed income.
