Pittsburgh Current. Feb. 24, 2021. Volume 4, Issue 6

INSIDE:

PIT TSBURGH DANCE PIONEER STAYCEE PEARL NEEDS A KIDNEY VOL. 4 ISSUE 6

Feb. 24, 2021 - March 3, 2021

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CHAINED TO A N O U T B R E A K

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In fewer than 14 days, the Allegheny County Jail has reported 88 new cases of COVID-19. What does that say about the county's testing and isolation procedures?

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2 | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics By: Larry J. Schweiger Free Shipping Paperback $29.95 or purchase an eBook for $19.00 (Read the first 25 pages for free)

There is only one earth and our world is undergoing dramatic changes brought on by the climate crisis and other human-induced ecological disruptions. The world's top scientists studying these threats and the forces behind them have been warning us for decades to end the use of fossil fuels or face catastrophic consequences. Their long-ignored warnings have become more dire.

Larry Schweiger has long been on the front line of efforts to enact rational clean energy and climate policies and has witnessed efforts to undermine our democratic system that has been rigged leaving America hoodwinked and held hostage to dirty fuels.

Climate Crisis and Corrupt Politics pulls back the curtain on the central role of big oil, coal, and gas interests in American politics through the flow of money to fabricated entities for independent SuperPAC expenditures for mass deception through distorted advertising. Larry wrote this urgent message aimed at parents, grandparents and young adults who care about their children forced to live on the ragged edge of an unprecedented climate crisis. This book is especially for leaders who understand that we must act now with a "Green New Deal" scale response. Together, we must confront and overcome the many toxic money influences, reverse a failing democracy and retake the reins of government to enact policies that secure our shared future and the future of life on earth.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 3

STAFF Publisher/Editor: Charlie Deitch Charlie@pittsburghcurrent.com

contents

Advisory Board Chairman: Robert Malkin Robert@pittsburghcurrent.com

Vol. IV Iss. 6 Feb. 24, 2020

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor At Large: Brittany Hailer Brittany@pittsburghcurrent.com Music Writer: Margaret Welsh Margaret@pittsburghcurrent.com Visuals Editor: Jake Mysliwczyk Jake@pittsburghcurrent.com Sr. Contributing Writer: Jody DiPerna Jody@pittsburghcurrent.com Education Writer: Mary Niederberger Mary@pittsburghcurrent.com Social Justice Columnist: Jessica Semler jessica@pittsburghcurrent.com

Outbreak at the AcJ 6 | 88 Cases in two weeks 8 | Life in Isolation 10 | Questionable Care Music 12 | Record Reviews Opinion 14 | Dancer needs new kid- ney toxlivel EXTRA 16 | Matthew Walllenstein 17 | Savage Love 18 | Parting Shot

Environmental Columnist: Larry Schweiger info@pittsburghcurrent.com Contributing Writers: Atiya Irvin Mitchell, Dan Savage, Larry Schweiger, Matthew Wallenstein, Caitlyn Hunter, Nick Eustis, info@pittsburghcurrent.com Logo Design: Mark Addison TO ADVERTISE :

Senior Account Executive: Andrea James andrea@pittsburghcurrent.com Charlie Deitch charlie@pittsburghcurrent.com

The Fine Print The contents of the Pittsburgh Current are © 2021 by Pittsburgh Current, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication shall be duplicated or reprinted without the express-written consent of Pittsburgh Current LLC. One copy per person. The Pittsburgh Current is published twice monthly beginning August 2018.

The opinions contained in columns and letters to the editors represent the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Pittsburgh Current ownership, management and staff. The Pittsburgh Current is an independently owned and operated print and online media company produced in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood, 1665 Broadway Ave., Pittsburgh, PA., 15216. 412-204-7248.

Email us or don’t: info@pittsburghcurrent.com.

4 | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

CORO N AV I R U S C ASES A R E AT AN ALL-TIM E H I G H S O R EMEM BE R . . . . .

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 5

NEWS

JAIL OUTBREAK

ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL SEES 88 NEW CASES OF COVID-19 IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT THE COUNTY’S TESTING PRACTICES?

BY BRITTANY HAILER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MANAGING EDITOR

A

n outbreak of COVID-19 at the Allegheny County Jail has resulted in 88 new cases in less than 14 days.

That number may grow because there are currently 54 test results outstanding, according to the ACJ website.

On Feb 17, an internal email sent from Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper notified ACJ employees that 30 incarcerated persons and eight employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Previously, on Feb. 13, Harper reported that four employees and 33 incarcerated persons were infected. Then on Feb. 24, the Current obtained another internal email anouncing that another 14 inmates had been infected.

The 10-day increase between February 7-17, accounts for more than 25 percent of the jail’s total cases reported since March 2020.

As COVID-19 cases and new variants continue to crop up in the community, the ACJ also does not universally test incarcerated persons upon entry or exit of the facility, despite the success of similar programs at other facilities.

While the jail updates it’s COVID-19 dashboard periodically, these numbers may

BRITTANY@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

O U T B R E A K AT THE ACJ not accurately reflect the number of infections because they are based on selective and inconsistent testing practices according to dozens of incarcerated persons and ACJ employee testimony.

What’s more, some Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board members acknowledged that journalists are able to obtain information that Harper has not provided to the committee since the beginning of the pandemic.

The ACJ went on complete lockdown in response to the pandemic in March 2020. Since then, employees, activists, politicians and incarcerated individuals have questioned the jail administration’s handling of the pandemic. And while there were few cases at the jail in spring 2020, the situation has dramatically worsened since October.

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The lack of consistent testing makes it difficult to tell if those released from the ACJ have been tested before they return home.

Neither the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), the jail administration, or Allegheny Health Network (AHN) provided the rate of COVID-19 infection of the released population from the Allegheny County Jail. Nor did they provide data on how many community members may have been infected by a contact who either works at the ACJ or has been released from the facility. It’s unclear if that information had been tracked.

The contract with AHN provides for the in-house management of jail medical services and the provision of specialized medical services, according to county Spokesperson Amie Downs. AHN did not return a request for comment.

But nowhere in jail’s COVID policies, obtained by the Pittsburgh Current, does it state that AHN is responsible for setting the testing policies or practices. In the jail’s testing policies and procedures, there is no mention of AHN as a primary decision maker or provider.

And, in the jail’s contract with AHN there is no men-

tion of COVID-19, testing, or practices related to mitigating the virus.

ACHD, ACJ and AHN also did not provide an infection rate of asymptomatic incarcerated persons or staff.

Downs wrote in an email, “The facility is complying with the recommendations of the CDC, [Pennsylvania Department of Health], Pennsylvania -Department of Corrections] and Health Department as it relates to all of its policies and procedures relevant to COVID and doing so under the direction of its medical provider, AHN. The lack of information about the possible release of infected individuals from the ACJ is troubling because it indicates that formerly incarcerated people could be spreading the virus unknowingly in the community upon release In June, University of Chicago researchers discovered that nearly 16% of Illinois COVID-19 cases were linked to spread from the Cook County Jail. A study by the Prison Policy Initiative found that COVID-19 caseloads grew more quickly in counties with more people incarcerated. Nationally half a million cases were linked to mass incarceration in three months, according to the

NEWS

Protesters demonstrated outside of the ASJ this past summer, to take issue with the county’s treatment of incarcerated indivcuals. (Current photo by Jake Mysliwczyk)

study.

Why the jail doesn’t routinely test In May 2020, the Allegheny County’s Jail Oversight Board voted down a motion that would have directed the jail to test all inmates for COVID-19. In addition, Allegheny County Council public safety committee voted down a proposal in June 2020 that would have mandated COVID-19 testing for all staff and occupants at the Allegheny County Jail.

At that time, the committee suggested it would be better to leave testing practices to the jail.

According to the ACJ website, the facility tests “when appropriate.” The jail also tests incarcerated persons before they are transferred to another facility, as the state requires it.

The jail website also reads, “Additional testing of inmates is done in consultation with the Allegheny County Health Department.”

In the May 2020 Jail Oversight Board meeting, President Judge for the 5th Judicial District of Pennsylvania (Allegheny County), and chair of the board, Kim Berkeley Clark, asked Dr. Earl J. Brink, chief epidemiologist for ACHD, “Other

County jails and State facilities throughout the country have conducted mass testing on inmates and staff. To your knowledge, is there any reason why Allegheny County could not or should not conduct testing on all inmates and all staff?”

To which Brink responded, “We consulted with the Pennsylvania Department of Health Liaison for Corrections about this approach, testing only symptomatic individuals…we have agreed that doing the partial testing does not inform both public health practices.

And one test is not going to….to be enough to ensure

proper isolation quarantine. It only informs you at that moment; and repeat tests would, therefore, be required to continue this assurance.”

In spring 2020, Jodi Lynch, who was a nurse practitioner at ACJ at the time, testified in district court case United States v Brett Wells, that Deputy Warden for Healthcare Services Laura Williams overruled Lynch’s decision to test symptomatic incarcerated persons. Despite being in charge of healthcare decisions at the jail, Williams has no medical training and is trained as a mental health counselor.

During questioning, Lynch was asked if she thought it would be more helpful to have “more broad testing.” Lynch answered, “Yes. It would because, as you mentioned before, there are those who are asymptomatic and they could be spreading it throughout, which could, you know, further complicate things.”

Lynch was asked if she was ever denied requests to test incarcerated persons at the ACJ. Lynch said yes. She testified that Williams decided that a person should not have been tested because of when they entered the ACJ. “They didn’t feel coming in at the end of February (2020) warranted her getting tested,” Lynch said.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 7

NEWS

'THEY'RE LEAVING THEM UP THERE TO DIE.'

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LIVE ON THE COVID-19 ISOLATION UNIT AT THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL

BY BRITTANY HAILER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MANAGING EDITOR

T

errell Leonard uses his body heat to warm the water in his cup. Huddled under a blanket, he brings the cup close. He can see his breath.

Leonard is COVID-19 positive and incarcerated in the Allegheny County Jail.

Leonard believes he contracted COVID-19 while he was on 2D, a housing unit, or pod, at the jail. He alleges that a correctional officer who worked his pod tested positive a couple days before he began experiencing symptoms on Jan 28th. Jail staff did not test him until Feb 8th. Leonard was transferred to 7D once positive.

7D is a housing unit within the jail that houses COVID positive incarcerated persons, negative incarcerated persons, and incarcerated persons waiting to be transferred to somewhere else within the ACJ. At any given time there can be as many as 40 incarcerated persons housed on this unit. However, other housing units will be designated as “isolation” if there are COVID positive cases.

According to jail quarantine policy obtained by the Pittsburgh Current, when an incarcerated person tests positive for COVID-19 they are transferred to 7D.

BRITTANY@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

O U T B R E A K AT THE ACJ When Leonard tells his mother, Viveca Jones, about warming his cup, she cries.

She can’t sleep. A Chaplain for the Department of Corrections for four years, Jones has worked to ensure that incarcerated persons are treated with dignity and respect.

She worked at State Correctional Institute Greene, visiting and praying with men on death row. “They were so protective of me,” she said.

When she retired because of rheumatoid arthritis, the men waiting to die told her it was OK to go. They’d miss her, but she was hurting. It was time to retire. She needed to spend time with family.

Now, Jones paces her home in Natrona Heights while her son “freezes.”

She called Warden Orlando Harper, and asked why Leonard wasn’t receiving medications like tylenol and

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ibuprofen. Jones wanted to know why the doctor hadn’t visited him, yet. Jones says that a nurse comes to see her son twice a day to take his temperature. She says the day after she called the warden, the doctor finally came to see her son.

Dr. William Johnjulio of Allegheny Health Network confirmed that COVID-19 symptoms at the jail are managed through acetaminophen. “Treatment and medications are indicated based on the individualized assessment of the patient and determinations made by the clinician. For those patients who have been symptomatic, many have had mild symptom presentation. To manage common symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever, medications such as acetaminophen are administered,” he wrote.

Jones said she told the warden that her son was cold. She said the heat wasn’t working in the jail. She told Harper about the cup of water and how her son had to warm it with his chest and hands so he’d have something to soothe his throat. At least give my son a second blanket, Jones pleaded.

And then, Chaplain Jones told Warden Harper this: “I am going to pray for you

because you’re going to need it when your turn comes.

You’re also going to need mercy one day. We all need it one day.”

Jones and Leonard say that those infected with the virus are not provided special commissary–like hot drinks or soup–while symptomatic with the virus. Incarcerated persons have to pay for things like orange juice or tea. Leonard tried to buy orange juice for the vitamin C, but the jail didn’t have any in stock. So he purchased tea.

Which he had to heat up with his hands.

Harper wrote in response to The Current that incarcerated persons are still able to receive commissary when positive for COVID19.“There is no additional diet consideration. Some have been ordered bottled water to monitor their fluid intake,” he wrote. Harper denies that incarcerated persons do not have access to hot water in the jail.

Jones and Leonard also allege that incarcerated persons must buy their own cleaning products if they want to disinfect their cell. Jones worries that incarcerated persons will get re-infected because her son has not witnessed a cleaning procedure and because she says the jail is so

NEWS poorly ventilated.

According to ACJ policy, when the positive incarcerated person is transferred out of the cell to 7D, they carry all for their property, including unwashed blankets and their mattress into quarantine. Once on 7D, COVID positive incarcerated persons leave their cells, walk to the shower area under supervision of jail staff, shower together for 15 minutes, then walk back to their cell.

All incarcerated persons on quarantine should shower three times a week, according to policy. Incarcerated persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 shower on opposite days of incarcerated persons who tested negative.

The Pittsburgh Current obtained dozens of sworn court declarations and independent interviews by incarcerated persons at the ACJ during the COVID-19 pandemic. A declaration is a written statement submitted to a court. The writer swears ‘under penalty of perjury’ that the contents are true–acknowledging that they may be prosecuted for perjury if they lie in their statement.

According to a sworn statement by an incarcerated person at the ACJ, “While on 7D we were forced to wear the same soiled clothes for days. We rarely had a shower, and we weren’t given enough soap to wash ourselves, even though we often had to throw out trash with our bare hands. The

conditions were horrible on 7D. We weren’t allowed to call our friends or family. We weren’t allowed to send or receive mail. We were denied commissary and access to the law box. Deputy Chief of Healthcare Services Laura Williams did not wear all the proper PPE when she visited with infected people on pod 7D. Although, I had tested negative for COVID-19, Deputy Chief Williams told me that I would stay on the pod with all the infected people no matter what.”

Devon Mims-Carter says that he, too, contracted COVID-19 from a correctional officer. He lost his sense of taste and smell. He was moved to quarantine with other positive incarcer-

ated persons. Mims-Carter says that incarcerated persons who are currently quarantined are being released back to the public while COVID positive. But he also says he was denied showers.

“They put us in quarantine–but they didn’t let us in the showers for four days,” Mims-Carter said, “They didn’t let us wash our clothes, they didn’t let us wash our blankets. They didn’t let me get a new mask.”

According to Leonard, “There were many inmates like myself who were scared to report our symptoms or ask to be tested because we had heard how badly infected inmates were treated on 7D. Our fears about 7D were

proven true after many of us were transferred to that pod…To date, no one from ACJ or the Allegheny Health Department has asked me who I have been in contact with even though I tested positive for COVID-19. I fear for my health and life if I remain at ACJ.” Jones continues to worry for her son’s well being. She feels Leonard will be infected again due to lack of testing and social distancing at the jail.

“The warden needs to be addressed,” she said, “What he’s doing there is torture.

And they’re not telling anybody who is sick. And they’re leaving them up there to die.”

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 9

NEWS

QUESTIONABLE CARE

INCARCERATED MAN AT ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL: “HE THEN SAID I WAS ‘DELUSIONAL’ FOR THINKING I COULD CATCH COVID-19”

BY BRITTANY HAILER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MANAGING EDITOR

A

n outbreak of COVID-19 at the Allegheny County Jail has resulted in 88 new cases in less than 10 days.

That number may grow even larger because there are 54 test results outstanding, according to the ACJ website.

While cases mount and information about testing is murky, inmates have very specific stories about how jail staff and administrators handle COVID mitigation efforts and testing.

The Pittsburgh Current obtained dozens of sworn court declarations and independent interviews by incarcerated persons at the ACJ during the COVID-19 pandemic. A declaration is a written statement submitted to a court. The writer swears ‘under penalty of perjury’ that the contents are true–acknowledging that they may be prosecuted for perjury if they lie in their statement.

The following accounts are based on information from the sworn declarations.

Even when housing pods within the ACJ are on quarantine, whether because of the intake process or due to a COVID-19 outbreak, many people still come on and off the pods, including correctional officers, healthcare staff, jail administrators, pod

BRITTANY@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

O U T B R E A K AT THE ACJ workers, and even quarantined incarcerated persons.

Incarcerated persons and employees maintain that the jail’s use of the word “quarantine” doesn’t mean “no-contact.” Incarcerated persons leave their cells to shower. They leave their cells for arraignments or to make phone calls. They are entitled to one hour of recreation. Jail employees hand-deliver food and medicine to individuals who are known positive cases, and, possibly, those who are asymptomatic.

In February 2021, one witness testified, “There were many inmate workers who shared a cell with non-inmate workers. There are many inmate workers who because of their job, must travel throughout the jail, visit different hallways and housing pods, congregate areas, rooms, and other loca-

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tions outside of the pods they reside on, and often come into close contact with other incarcerated individuals, ACJ employees, and contractors at the jail. ACJ has put inmate workers in the same cell as non-workers. Even if the non-worker is quarantined or kept locked in his cell for 23 hours a day, his cellmate might visit different locations outside the pod and encounter other individuals before returning to the cell they share.”

This same witness reported that as recently as this month, inmates were not routinely tested at the ACJ. Even the cellmates of persons who were known positive cases were not tested. At least a dozen incarcerated persons also testified they were refused requests for tests for COVID-19. Multiple incarcerated persons at the ACJ allege that they were denied tests despite exhibiting symptoms such as fever, coughing, and body aches.

In April 2020, one incarcerated person began coughing, and sneezing but continued to work throughout the jail, passing out meal trays and toilet paper through cell doors. Shortly thereafter, his cellmate began exhibiting symptoms, too. Both requested medical attention and COVID-19 tests and both

men were denied, according to court documents.

According to another man incarcerated in April 2020, “My cellmate had a high fever and was suffering extreme shortness of breath those days we were locked in together.

She was eventually taken to the infirmary. No further precautions were taken for those who were confined on the pod or otherwise had interaction with either myself or my cellmate. I remain double-celled, as another person was moved right into my cell. The cell was not cleaned prior to her moving in. My new cellmate has a colostomy bag and serious medical conditions. I was never tested for Covid-19.”

One man reported that he asked a mental health provider in November 2020 if he could be tested for COVID-19. He had fever and body aches and couldn’t stop coughing. Would the provider please tell medical and get him a test? The man had been requesting a test for days from officers who refused.

“He told me, ‘You look pretty fine to me,’ He then said I was “delusional” for thinking I could catch COVID-19. He diagnosed me with anxiety and prescribed a mental health medication, Remeron,” the individual reported. He later tested posi-

NEWS tive for COVID-19.

In another case, a 74-yearold man fell and broke his hip and wasn’t given an COVID test until he was transferred to Allegheny General Hospital. He’d been housed at the ACJ for months. His test came back positive after he was transferred out of the ACJ and to a public hospital.

According to the incarcerated person who discovered the man who fell, the elderly are especially vulnerable and neglected within the ACJ. Those who are older and most at-risk never leave their cells “I feel bad for the old people who have been in these homes in hospice— you’re tucked away from the world. No one can find you and contact you. This was a real reality check for me,” he said.

This incident also calls into question the accuracy of COVID-19 information being reported by the ACJ. On the jail’s COVID-19 dashboard, under the header, “Number of COVID-19 Related Hospitalizations,” the number is listed as zero and has been so since last year. However, Warden Harper confirmed in an email that two incarcerated persons have been transferred to a hospital.

“Both individuals were monitored for an appropriate period of time and returned to the jail. Both individuals have fully recovered from COVID-19,” he wrote.

In a sworn statement, an incarcerated person told Deputy Laura Williams, “Since you transferred these inmates who were around infected people and moved them to our pod, how does that affect us? That’s not sanitary or safe.”

This incarcerated person says he told Williams that he knew that people can have COVID-19 and not have a fever.

“I said that taking our temperatures is not able to identify infected people who are asymptomatic. Deputy Williams became visibly upset,” he said.

According to him, Williams said, “We’re waiting to solve that issue because we’re not sure if they have the virus or not.”

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PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 11

MUSIC CURRENT REVIEWS

BY MARGARET WELSH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MUSIC WRITER

MARGARET@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

a quick victory lap, creating a satisfying tension between lurching, soupy rhymes and triumphant beats.

There’s a winningly DIY aesthetic to the record (the cover art appears to have been made in MS paint) which fits it’s brand of raw power. A one point Lars considers that maybe he’s a nihilist. Could be -- Lars’ words clearly emerge directly from his gut and he's nothing if not emotionally credible -- so I have no reason to disbelieve him. But there’s no chintzy half-baked philosophy here, no half measures. To paraphrase Lars, this record is a RollsRoyce, bitch, not a Schwinn.

Invader Lars Fuck You Pay Me Invaderlars.bandcamp. com On what is perhaps my favorite local release of the year so far -- and certainly a favorite of the last several months -- Invader Lars comes out swinging, proclaiming within seconds, “I don't need you, I don’t trust shit,” from there constructing a series of shadowy, winding sonic structures. It’s kalidoscoptic, but as much as Fuck You Pay Me sparkles, the tones are highly saturated. It’s not a bad trip, but it’s not a particularly flowery psychedelic experience, either.

Lars spits righteous rage at cops, at white people who drop the n-word, at the passive black squares posted on Instagram, at all manner of haters and fakers. “You should be afraid, understand I’m afraid of me,” he warns on the feverish “Mr. Majestic.” “Dark voice comes to my ear when I’m contemplating/Why y’all live in a nation that could care less about me?/ I hate society, kiss my ass or start dying/Y’all said ‘Black Lives Matter,’ y’all practice lyin.’”

On “Burn,” his punchy, slightly sea-sick flow bumps up against the edges of a dense collage of elegant vintage samples, and in places he melds with them, ultimately fuzzing into chaos. “Casino” takes

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Ole Flannel The sunny day at the end oleflannel.bandcamp.com Ole Flannel is a lo-fi, one-person project. The sunny day at the end is home-recorded music meant to sound pleasantly worn.

It’s also a loose concept album, following one particular character through their day-to-day, and chronicling a “theoretical (but not all that hard to imagine) end to life as we know it.” The apocalyptic vibes are undeniable -one can imagine the protagonist driving on deserted highways, past bombed-out shopping malls and through scoached fields. But it’s all pretty, you know, chill: As seems plenty clear now,

living at the end of the world can feel quite mundane.

This is a spacious collection of meandering, organic-feeling indie-folk-pop. It buzzes in and out of clarity -- at its more solidified moments, like opener “Courts,” Ole Flannel talk-sings in a loopy, seesaw pattern, describing various unsavory characters.

Other tracks sound a great deal like early Kurt Vile: loose guitar noodling, slacker vocals.

The centerpiece of the record is, however, “Driving across PA letting stations bleed together as the world crumbles,” a 20-plus minute sound collage inspired by a drive from Pittsburgh to Philly “without a working CD player or aux cord.” Made from a mix of original sounds and samples, the track moves from radio station to radio station, sound to sound, music style to music style, creating a dreamy and strange approximation of that long crossstate slog.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 13

OPINION

KEEP THE DANCE GOING

PITTSBURGH DANCE PIONEER STAYCEEE PEARL IS SEARCHING FORA DONOR FOR A LIFE-SAVING KIDNEY TRANSPLANT

BY CAITLYN HUBTER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

I was smoking a cigarette on the stoop of my dorm building when this white woman hurriedly walked past me, stopped, turned to me, looked at my legs and pointed saying “you, my dear should be a dancer.”

At first I was stunned by her words as smoking was probably the last inclination that I was in any way shape or form, athletic. But, the woman wouldn’t have it. She instructed me to follow her to her office and it was then she introduced me to Alvin Ailey. On the screen before me dancers, a spectrum of melanated wonder leaped and folded onto the stage. Their fluid movements were mesmerizing. The way they took up space as the spotlight shown on the shadows of their skin was pure magic.

The woman, who would later become my dance instructor turned to me, and said “that could be you.”

As a young Black woman I grew up in a world where I learned that there were few spaces reserved for me. Even as a child going to see the Nutcracker ballet every Christmas with my mother I knew that Anna would always be played by a petite white girl and the nutcracker, a heroic white man, would always swoop in to save her. The one time I got to see the Rockettes in middle school, the women doing the

Staycee Pearl

can can were again, all white.

When the woman who eventually became my college dance instructor called me out for having dancing legs that day I was surprised not just because of the randomness of the situation, but because she had saw that a Black girl, like me, could be a dancer in spite of a white dominated field. She saw raw and pure potential where many instructors would have dismissed me.

Dance, for me, not only became a form of self-expression, but a means of escape. It was a place where I felt safe and authentic where I wasn’t judged

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for how I moved, but encouraged to move more. The dance floor was a place where I could let go. Shake off the nastiness of the world around me. It was a place where I could take up space and as much space as I wanted...all I had to do was let my feet take me there.

I know my story is not unique. And that is a sad and hard truth. In the ways that my mother and father have encouraged my creativity and artistic expression, many Black children are not given that same opportunity to grow and thrive.

We need more Black role

models who are willing to plant the seeds of wonder into us. We need more people in the world to look at a limp plant like me, see the wondrous possibilities, and nurture us to our greatest potentials. We need more people like Staycee Pearl.

For those who don’t know Madame Staycee Pearl allow me to familiarize you.

Staycee Pearl received her initial training at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center 25 years ago. She relocated to Pittsburgh and served as the artistic director of Xpressions Contemporary Dance Company for six

OPINION years. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with honors in Studio Arts/Africana Studies. After their 2010 debut at the Kelly Strayhorn Theatre, Staycee Pearl and her husband/ artistic collaborator Herman Pearl created the organization PearlArts which is the creative parent organization for STAYCEE PEARL dance project and Soy Sos (SPdp&SS) and Tuff Sound Recording that works with the Greater Pittsburgh community to lead educational workshops that blend the literature of Octavia Butler with dance, engages with personal identity with Blackness, and connection music and emotional expression through movement. Pearl was honored with an August Wilson Center Artistic Fellowship in 2011/2012 and her work as a choreographer has been supported constantly by the Heinz Endowments and The Pittsburgh Foundation since 2001.

Most importantly, her and her husband’s work have created unapologetic spaces for Black dancers. They have showed us why and how culture matters. They have nurtured in Pittsburgh something that we have so desperately needed: more artistic expression from marginalized identities.

But there is something that you don’t know about Staycee Pearl: she is in desperate need of a new kidney.

What you don’t know is that while dancing with Alvin Ailey she was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, a genetic kidney disease. With the

How You Can Help: *Learn more about becoming a living donor www.upmc.com/services/transplant/kidney-pancreas/living-donor

If you choose to sign up to begin the process of seeing if you can become a donor, you can register here. www.livingdonorreg.upmc.com

If you do sign up, please select “Donation to specific individual” and fill out the information including the name, “Staycee Pearl”

help of holistic medicine she defied this diagnosis and by the time she did need a kidney transplant, she was only on the waiting list for six months...for a cadaver’s kidney.

A cadaver’s kidney on average only has a shelf life of 10 years. In those 10 years while Pearl worked as an artistic director, mentored promising artists from marginalized identities, and taught our children a confidence in self expression her invisible disease raged on.

And she asked for nothing.

For the past four years while hosting and choreographing events for the Three Rivers Arts Festival and the August Wilson Center, Staycee Pearl has been waiting for a new kidney all while on dialysis.

In dialysis your blood is cleaned throughout your body.

In some cases, the doctor may use a soft plastic tube to join

an artery and a vein under your skin. In others, a catheter, a small tube, is inserted into a large vein in your neck. At worst, a tube is placed within your stomach to make an access point. In either way extra fluid and waste products are drawn out of your blood, filtered, and re-pumped into you.

Imagine doing this. Every day.

For four years. Every minute of that day just hoping for some semblance of salvation.

In 2019, of the 39,718 transplants performed in the United States only 6,755 were Black.

This is a harrowing statistic.

According to Scientific American Black patients, like Pearl, will also spend an average of 2.5 months longer waiting for a transplant. Honestly, Pearl doesn’t seem to have that kind of time.

In an email a friend forwards

me, I see Pearl’s face staring back at me. The way her head tilts slightly and her arm raised commands my attention. “Dear friends,” the email states, “If you know me, you probably know how hard it is for me to talk about this. You also might be hearing about this for the first time. I never wanted to be defined as a person living with kidney disease, but the truth is that I’ve been waiting for a kidney for over four years, and I need to find a living kidney donor. I’ve had a transplant kidney for over 20 years. It was a cadaver kidney. They’re not supposed to last that long.”

A woman who has a cadaver kidney should not be forced to wait 14 years longer than its shelf life. In a world where there are over 100, 000 names nationally waiting for a living donor, Pearl’s is just one adrift in this catalog. And this is perhaps what is most heartbreaking. A woman who gave so much to our community is forced to send an emailing hoping that someone might see her words and help. A woman who has dedicated a career to uplifting those around her needs to be uplifted too. Malcolm X famously said “The most disrespected, neglected, and unprotected person in America is the Black woman.” Let us not neglect another Black woman.

Let us share her story and hope that someone kind and thoughtless enough will help, after all, we all are only as strong as our community. And Staycee Pearl is without a doubt is what makes us Pittsburgh strong.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | 15

ESSAY

HOLIDAY

BY MATTHEW WALLENSTEIN - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

S

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

ome days she thought I was chasing hell, tugging it like a diseased stray, tugging it into everything. But it was more like this weight of unresolved things hanging from my neck, making me topple sometimes. But for this day, for these hours -- like most of the days and hours with her -that stray was scratching on someone else’s door. I felt no weight at all. Living seemed more like an act of ablution.

We went in through the basement. Water dripped loudly and it was dark. Broken pipes and the bent metal of door frames recurved from shadows into other shadows.

On the ground in the light of our flashlights we saw the tops of beer cans, used roman candles, barrels and chunks of insulation that I mistook for dead animals. There were circular holes in the floor the size of hubcaps.

It was a large room but portions of it were sectioned off like stables. These were filled with pieces of porcelain and colored glass that sat in piles. I stepped on the piles of glass. It felt like crunching seashells under my feet. V picked a few pieces out, put them in the pocket of her coat.

We went up the curving hall to the second floor, ducked under a collapsed section of roof. We walked around for a while, saw the smoke stacks, the mangled cars, went out to where the fire had burned down part of the building.

Trees grew between the freestanding brick walls. There was snow on everything.

When we came out of the basement we heard a horn and a train came down the tracks towards us. We walked along the rails next to it heading in the opposite direction. It was only a few feet between the tracks we were walking on and the train. It had been moving very quickly but started to slow. By the time we were almost back to my car, the train reached a complete stop. I climbed up a short ladder, walked across, and dropped off the other side. V followed and did the same.

Not far from us, right next to the train track, there was a deer's body. Being that it was winter and cold it was hard to tell how long it had been there. Pieces of its legs had been eaten away by something but not in large portions. Snow had collected and sat on its bloated stomach. Its mouth was open. Its gums were very red and all the teeth were missing. Its tongue was still intact and pointed half frozen like an arrow to the building we had just been in.

I took a picture of it with her Polaroid camera. I bent down and got closer to its head and took a couple more.

I stood up and walked over to V and the car. We got in.

I put the Polaroids on the dashboard. Their pictures were just starting to appear. I turned the key and rolled the

16 | FEBRUARY 24, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

heat dial up. She laughed and showed me the picture she had just taken of me crouching down putting the camera right in the deer’s face. We headed back to her house.

I sat on the bed. She was pretending to be a stripper.

We had just sort of slipped into doing this that week; these improvised roll-playing episodes, without plan or proposition. She was wearing a beanie and hoop earrings, a combination I have a weakness for, and she was wearing the sort of underwear I also have a weakness for. I had bought her the underwear the day before. She was almost too good at feigning resigned disinterest. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to win her over, in the end I did. We started kissing, started in.

I watched her breasts press against the bed. I told her I loved her.

She got dressed up in an evening gown. It was the one she wore when she went to the casino with her boss. I

wore sweatpants. We drove out to the railroad tracks. We were looking for a good spot to shoot off the fireworks.

She ripped her dress climbing up a hill. It was getting very close to midnight. We planned to kiss at midnight.

I said I knew a good spot to shoot the fireworks off, a cliff by the water not far from there. We started running. Right when we reached the cliff she said it was 12. I kissed her. She used a lot of bottom lip, I liked her bottom lip, it was very thick.

I set up the fireworks and she handed me a lighter. My hands were cold. I untaped the fuses and lit them. They burst overhead and ashes fell down on us like slow rain.

She was laughing.

We were by the tower I had climbed one night a few months back to throw a watermelon off. It had exploded when it hit the ground. We ate the burst chunks like animals. It had tasted sweet.

After the fireworks we walked back to the car, then drove to her house again.

I was shirtless in sweatpants and she was dressed like an heiress. We slowdanced to a couple old songs.

The floorboards creaked under our feet. Then she changed into another dress and we danced to Madonna and Robyn.

When she fell asleep she snored. I liked it. I liked that it meant she was able to sleep and I liked the sound of it. I lay there a while while she snored. My dog was snoring too. I was getting pushed off the side of the bed but I didn’t mind so much, it happened every time I slept there.

Savage Love

SAVAGE LOVE

Love | sex | relationships

BY DAN SAVAGE MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I know you and other sexperts benefits to a person who 1. has say that kinks are ingrained and a history of trauma and 2. has not something you can get rid an interest in kink—by making of, but mine have all vanished! them feel in control of their own Ever since I started on antidebodies (even if they’re tempopressants my relationship with rarily ceding that control)—not my body and how it reacts to everyone who’s kinky can point pain, both physical and mental, to a traumatic event at the root has completely changed. I used of their kinks. to love getting bit and spanked And kinky people shouldn’t and beat black and blue, but have to cite trauma to justify the now all that just hurts. I used pleasure they find in getting bit, to love getting humiliated and spanked, beaten, bruised, bound, spit on, commanded to do dirty etc. things, but none of that holds “It’s become an oft-repeated much appeal anywhere. So what narrative of many a wellness gives? Were these even kinks in think piece that BDSM and the first place if they could vanfreaky fetishes are actually okay ish so easily with one little pill? because they help people deal Or were these coping mechawith their traumatic past,” as the nisms for emotional problems writer, comedian, and self-deI no longer have? I know my scribed “Leatherdyke Muppet” libido is suppressed due to the Chingy Nea wrote in a recent meds. Did my kinks just follow essay about the creeping patholmy libido out the door? ogizing of kink. “What gets The Missing Kink you off is not inherently born of trauma or sign of dysfunction, Antidepressants showed your nor does it require suffering kinks the door at the same time to validate it. Being turned they showed your libido the on by weird fucked up things door. you want to do with another Zooming out for a second: consenting adult is acceptable While some people find that simply because it’s hot and sexy consensual BDSM helps them and fun.” cope with trauma and/or process Okay, TMK, back to your their emotional problems— question: Antidepressants—one or work through the kind of little pill that can relieve mental traumas that create emotional anguish and disappear a libido problems—many people into at the same time—can’t cure BDSM have no significant kinks but they can suppress history of sexual trauma, TMK, them. I mean, think about it… or whatever trauma(s) they may if you’re not horny right now have suffered, sexual or otherbecause of the antidepressants… wise, didn’t create or shape their you’re not going to be horny for kinks. And while consensual the things that get you off when BDSM can provide therapeutic you are horny… because you’re

not horny… because the antidepressants. If you miss your libido—and if you miss all the hot and sexy and fun and fucked up things you used to enjoy with other consenting adults— work with your doctor to find a different med that relieves your depression without tanking your libido, TMK, or a different dosage of the med you’re currently on that provides you with emotional benefits without depriving you of your libido and the kinks that come bundled with it.

Follow Chingy Nea on Twitter @TheGayChingy.

I'm a longtime reader who appreciates the candor and insight you've offered since, what, the 1990s! Yeesh. With that in mind, I have a piece of advice I'd like to share with your readers. I'm a 56-year-old gay man. From my 20s though my 40s, I was as sexually active as often as it was possible for me to be. I loved sex and sought had it every chance I got. It made me feel alive! Then just as I was about to enter my 50s, I started to have erection problems. I could still come, but a spongy dick is ego-deflating.

Not wanting to accept what was going on, I talked to my doctor about it. I've tried Levitra, Cialis and now Viagra, as well as a

host of cock rings. Not much of anything seems to help. I miss my sex life, and I miss the confidence that came with it. I didn't expect this, nor did I plan for it.

It’s a lonely feeling.

That's why I think it's important for your readers to understand the following: Have all the sex you want and that you can while you can so long as you’re not hurting anyone or putting anyone at risk! Do this as often as you want to. Don't put those sexual fantasies on the back burner. Don't stay in a relationship that stifles you sexually! You owe it to yourself to experience what you want to experience today. Don’t take tomorrow for granted as tomorrow might have something else in store for you.

Guy's Hard Off Seems Terminal Good advice—don’t screw tomorrow what you can screw today—and I’m glad you didn’t pass on any of the opportunities that came your way back when you could still “obtain and maintain” a fully erect cock. But I worry you may be passing on all the sexual opportunities that are still available to you. Even if the rock-hard erections of your youth and early-middle-age are gone forever, GHOST, you can still give and receive pleasure.

You can suck a cock, you can get your ass fucked, you can fist and be fisted. And not every gay dude into daddies wants to be plowed by his hot daddy. Lots of gay guys wanna be orally serviced by hot daddies and lots of gay guys love having their holes eaten and stretched with big toys and fists. You can be a good, giving, and game partner and still have tons hot and fulfilling sex without ever taking your pulling your dick out.

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PA R T I N G S H OT

PITTSBURGH CURRENT PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

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