Pittsburgh Current, Feb. 3, 2021, Volume 4, Issue 4

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INSIDE:

THE HUMP! HAS RETURNED. DAN SAVAGE ON HIS AMATUER PORN FEST VOL. 4 ISSUE 4

Feb. 3, 2021 - Feb. 9, 2021

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T H A N KS FO R N OT H I N G EMPLOYEES SAY ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL'S COVID-19 POLICIES DON'T MAKE THEM FEEL VERY ESSENTIAL

SUPPORT THE PITTSBURGH CURRENT AND THE FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM

We are an influence-free, Independent alternative print and online news company in Pittsburgh Pa. As we’ve been reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak, we’ve seen firsthand the dramatic effect it’s having on businesses around southwestern Pennsylvania. This is especially true for small businesses like ours. While we remain steadfastly committed to reporting on the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak through the latest information and features, we need your help. Support independent journalism through a sustaining or one-time donation to the Pittsburgh Current. 80% of all donations go toward paying our staff and content creators, 20% will help keep the lights on. And 100 percent of it will ensure this city continues to have an alternative, independent voice.

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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 3, 2020 | 3

STAFF Publisher/Editor: Charlie Deitch Charlie@pittsburghcurrent.com Advisory Board Chairman: Robert Malkin Robert@pittsburghcurrent.com

contents Vol. IV Iss. 4 Feb. 3, 2020

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor At Large: Brittany Hailer Brittany@pittsburghcurrent.com

NEWS 6 | ACJ Employees

Music Editor: Margaret Welsh Margaret@pittsburghcurrent.com

OPINION 08 | Larry Schweiger

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

Arts 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 17 |

Grist from the Mill Karen Young Sojouner Calyx HUMP Festival

EXTRA 18 | Matthew Walllenstein 20 | Savage Love 21 | Parting Shot

Environmental Columnist: Larry Schweiger info@pittsburghcurrent.com Contributing Writers: Jody DiPerna, Atiya Irvin Mitchell, Dan Savage, Larry Schweiger, Brittany Hailer, Matthew Wallenstein, Caitlyn Junter, Aryanna Hunter, Nick Eustis, Jessie Sage, Mary Niederberger info@pittsburghcurrent.com Logo Design: Mark Addison

PITTSBURGH CURRENT COVER PHOTO: JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

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

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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.

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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 . . . . .

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NEWS

THANKS FOR NOTHING

EMPLOYEES SAY ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL'S COVID-19 POLICIES DON'T MAKE THEM FEEL VERY ESSENTIAL

I

n the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Allegheny County Jail administration put a large sign on the front of the building to thank employees for all they do.

“A big thank you to everyone working at the County Jail,” The sign read. “Thank you for your dedication and tireless work. You’re essential and we’re grateful.”

“What a bunch of bullshit,” an employee told me earlier this year on the condition that they not be named. “If you really want to thank me, give me a mask and gloves.”

That was in April. But if employees believed they weren't treated like essential workers then, administrative policies of the past nine months have continued to fail to provide proper mitigation efforts of COVID-19. In December 2020, the COVID-19 positivity rate for ACJ staff was 68 percent--nearly twice the rate in Allegheny County, which was 37 percent. Across the state of Pennsylvania, the rate was 15 percent.

By mid-December, due to infections and quarantines, staffing levels hit what

BY CHARLIE DEITCH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDITOR

CHARLIE@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

several ACJ employees told the Pittsburgh Current at the time were “critically low.”

“Hell, it might be quicker to tell you who did come to work today then who didn’t,” one employee said in December. Each day employees would get emails from the jail administration looking for employees to cover shifts. According to emails obtained by the Current, some shifts were short-staffed more than three dozen corrections officers. One word used by several sources to describe the situation was “shitshow.”

To be fair, COVID-19 has taken its toll on many workplaces. But it’s not just the short shifts that have bothered corrections officers, they say the jail’s policies during the pandemic have been solidly anti-worker. Employees have talked about a consistent lack of PPE, large amounts of forced overtime, no hazard pay and no paid time off for forced quarantines, even when the employee came in contact with COVID-19 while at work.

Last Month, an online petition sought support for hazard pay for employees.

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The page read: “The Corrections Officers at the ACJ received no hazard pay raises. We’ve weathered over 113,000 hours of overtime since the pandemic started in March.

We’ve been forced to work with less staff, inadequate PPE, and multiple forced unpaid quarantines. We’ve risked our health coming to work every day. Let’s tell Rich Fitzgerald and County Council it’s time to recognize our dedication with a hazard bonus.”

At January’s Jail Oversight Board meeting, board members again asked Warden Orlando Harper about hazard pay. His response on the issue, like a lot of questions he’s asked at these meetings, was to not give a response citing the jail’s collective bargaining agreement.

“I can not discuss union because it’s negotiated business pertaining to the hazard pay as I stated before. I can not talk about the hazard pay because that’s under the collective bargaining agreement. I’m still going to stick to my statement from before,” Harper said.

During the board’s public comment period, several questions were submitted

regarding the issue.

“Why does the jail board and Warden Harper continue refusing to answer why jail officers and medical staff aren’t receiving hazard pay from the CARES Act? For the last three meetings you have actively avoided asking and answering this question. What happened to the money and what is the justification for not giving it to us? The county has the audacity to buy two vinyl banners that tell us we’re essential and appreciated and yet we take our staffing to a minimum due to the pandemic and have gone almost an entire year working in this environment without receiving hazard pay.”

In Jan., Allegheny County Councilors Bethany Hallam and Olivia Bennett introduced legislation that would provide hazard pay to ACJ employees. However, that measure was voted down in a 6-4 vote. Sam DeMarco, Robert Macey, John Palmieri, Nicholas Futules, and Paul Zavarella voted no.

Members Thomas Baker, Tom Duerr and Paul Klein abstained without explanation. According to Allegheny County Rules of Council (Article 2, Rule

NEWS

0.7), “A council member may abstain from voting only when the abstention is accompanied by an explanation.”

Council President Patrick Catena and member DeWitt Walton were absent.

“It’s important to fight for workers at the same time we’re fighting for all vulnerable populations,” Hallam said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Jaclyn Kurin, an attorney at the Abolitionist Law Center says that the ACJ had staffing and safety issues before the pandemic.

But now, “with increased

staffing shortages due to exposure and quarantine, and the administration's refusal to adequately test people at the jail, these unconstitutional shortcomings will cost lives.”

Making a case that working at the jail is a hazardous undertaking during the COVID-19 pandemic, is relatively easy. The large number of infected, or possibly infected, employees increased last November when some employees attended a party and a wedding in the same weekend.

After that, the virus was brought into the jail and a large number of incarcerat-

ed folks and employees either got sick or were forced into mandatory quarantine.

But Kurin says she believes the number is underreported because of other ACJ policies that hurt employees who come forward.

For example, if an employee is forced to quarantine, they must use up all of their available leave if they want to continue to be paid, even if they were exposed to the virus at work.

“Even if the CO was exposed to Covid at work, ACJ will initially use the officer's vacation or sick leave for the days he or she is quarantined,” Kurin said,

“COs must then negotiate a cumbersome and for some inscrutable process for getting reimbursed for the quarantined days. Many COs have been quarantined several times because ACJ still fails to implement basic CDC guidance at the jail. Those COs have reported that due to the repeated quarantines they didn't receive a paycheck for the two-week period.”

While this is the policy at the ACJ, it’s not the same at other county agencies.

At the JOB meeting, County Sheriff Bill Mullen said that if Allegheny County Sheriff deputies are exposed at work, they are paid for the time that they are forced to quarantine.

This same protocol applies to Allegheny County Police.

“With the Allegheny County Council 6-4 vote against providing COs with hazard pay,” Kurin said.

“COs are presented with an unfair and unsafe choice of deciding whether to work while possibly infected or being unable to provide for their families.”

Jail Oversight Board meetings are open to the public and are held at 4 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. The board meets this afternoon. Topics on the agenda include Warden Orlando Harper’s Feb. 2021 report and the ACJ healthcare staff vacancies.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 7

OPINION

PROFILES IN COURAGE: T

BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTS

INFO@PITTSBURG

T

hroughout American history, we have operated under a flawed perception of leadership, equating courageous leaders to white males. The theory goes that women, the fairer sex, are not strong enough to lead during turbulent times. Recent events and actions have debunked this misogynistic notion of bravery by at least three female leaders. While numerous others in and out of government, have stood up, these plucky women were undeterred by real dangers to their lives, loss of position, or the pain of corrosive rhetoric. Each, in their way, acted courageously in the face of extreme threats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi America is fortunate to have Nancy Pelosi as speaker during the most turbulent time in 150 years. For Pelosi, a devoted grandmother, it is all about the children. She has extraordinary toughness to withstand hostile and dangerous opponents in our fragile democracy. Few have been demonized as much by Fox, Trump, and so many right-wing extremists as has Pelosi. The subject of scores of nasty memes, she keeps going forward despite the threats from within Congress, even with members who try to bring guns to the floor.

When Trump foolishly tweeted the above photo of Speaker Pelosi chastising him over his Putin-inspired retreat from Syria, Trump called it “Nervous Nancy’s unhinged meltdown.” Most saw something else. We saw a strong woman standing up for America’s

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

interests to a roomful of men.

Soon, #PelosiOwnsTrump was trending on Twitter.

I worked on climate legislation with Pelosi in 2009. Despite cutting several deals to move a climate bill, the House ended up eighteen votes short in the remaining hours of consideration when Pelosi went on the floor to whip remaining votes. Pelosi was tough. Two Democratic lawmakers were overheard complaining that they had to vote for the bill if they ever hoped for a leadership position. With Pelosi’s unwavering leadership, the American Clean Energy and Security Act passed the House on June 26th in a tight vote of 219-212. As

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chair of the Green Group, I called Speaker Pelosi the next morning.

She thanked me for calling, adding, "I am already being attacked for my heavy hand, but I don’t care, I did that for my grandchildren."

Pelosi’s consistent and robust leadership intimidates Trump and GOP lawmakers. Fearing the loss of dominance to a strong woman, Republicans continue to create anti-Pelosi memes. Fox News was a big part of the Republican chorus demonizing Pelosi. They tried to tie Democrats like Connor Lamb in swing districts to the “radical, liberal, and socialist” Pelosi. To overcome their efforts, Connor promised that he would

not vote for Speaker Pelosi.

Trump’s attacks on Pelosi have had more profound and dangerous consequences. Trump-inspired insurrectionists overrunning Capitol police went through the capitol calling Pelosi’s name. Wearing full military gear, one was carrying zip ties for her capture. Richard Barnett, a 60-year-old white nationalist from Arkansas, armed with a high-voltage stun stick, posed for photos with his feet on Pelosi's desk. In a recent hearing, Chief Federal Judge Beryl Howell called Barnett's behavior “brazen, entitled, and dangerous,” and labeled him as “one of the stars of this assault.” Another terrorist was threatening to kill Pelosi. Cleve-

THREE WOMEN OF STEEL

OPINION

SBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

GHCURRENT.COM

land Meredith Jr., is facing felony charges of making interstate threats and two misdemeanor gun possession charges. Arrested on January 7th, Meredith brought multiple guns and a “shit ton” of ammunition to Washington. At a rally, QAnon-aligned Marjorie Greene suggested that Speaker Pelosi committed treason, and the penalty for treason is death.

Newly uncovered Facebook posts, freshly elected Congresswoman Greene expressed support for the murder of Pelosi. Greene tried to carry a gun to the floor.

Despite these alarming threats on her life, Speaker Pelosi continues undaunted to confront the many unprecedented challenges we face in America. Nancy Pelosi deserves our praise as a profile in courage.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Trump's pandemic strategy shifted the hard work to the governors. Instead of urging mask-wearing, social distancing, and supporting the closing-down of high-risk venues during peak outbreaks, he criticized many governors who followed CDC’s guidelines. Several Governors folded under Trump’s criticism and reopened. Governor Gretchen Witmer was not one of them. Early on, when Michigan had 3,788 deaths and more than 41,000 infections mostly in the Detroit metro area, Whitmer responded by extending her stay-at-home mandate. She hung tough, fol-

lowing the best advice from our nation’s top health scientists.

Trump knew that Michigan was in play and fired up gun-toting protesters to target Governor Whitmer’s lockdown. The socalled "American Patriot Rally" was organized by the Michigan United for Liberty. Trumpsters rallied in the Lansing capitol building, some heavily armed, and all urged Michigan's liberation. Few demonstrators were wearing masks or socially distancing. Michigan had a terrible open-carry law that extends to public buildings, so some gun-toters were allowed into the capitol overlooking lawmakers on the floor.

This event did not yield the results they wanted, so several protestors hatched a plan to kidnap the Governor and perhaps kill her.

Fortunately, the FBI was monitoring their activities and foiled a bold plan and kidnapping attempt.

After six men were arrested on federal charges and another seven on state charges, Trump repeated his dangerous tweets that instigated the attempted kidnapping.

"Governor Whitmer — open up your state, open up your schools, and open up your churches!"

Trump also claimed in a tweet.

Whitmer "has done a terrible job."

Whitmer did not hold back and sharply criticized Trump's 'appalling' response to the threat on her life. Recently, one of six men federally charged with a plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer pleaded guilty. Ty Garbin, 25, signed a plea agreement in federal

court to the sole charge against him -- kidnapping conspiracy. He has agreed to cooperate. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer put Michigan's people's health first and deserves credit for being unflappable in the face of personal danger.

Liz Cheney Ignoring Trump’s role in the January 6th insurrection, one hundred and ninety-seven republican house members, mostly male, voted against impeachment. Most voted out of fear of a Trump backlash. Only ten out of 211 republicans in the House dared to vote for truth. All but five republican senators, again mostly male, challenged the longstanding legality of a former officeholder's impeachment. They fear Trumpsters.

Wyoming is the reddest of the red states. In the 2020 elections, Trump carried Wyoming by 40 points, having garnered more than seventy percent of the vote.

Liz Cheney’svote to impeach was very courageous. Risking her leadership and re-election, Cheney stated, "On January 6th, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes. This insurrection caused injury, death, and destruction in the most sacred space in our Republic. Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this

mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.

None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution. I will vote to impeach the President."

Cheney’s courage stands in contrast to the Trumpification of the Republican Party that ignores lawmakers who incited the deadly coup but call for Cheney to step down. Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida violated the Reagan rule about criticizing fellow Republicans when he traveled to Wyoming calling for Liz Cheney to resign. Another Trumpster, Wyoming state senator Anthony Bouchard will primary Cheney. A recall petition has picked up twenty-five thousand signatures in the first few days. Cheney responded, “I’m not going anywhere. This is a vote of conscience. It’s one where there are different views in our conference. But our nation is facing an unprecedented — since the Civil War — constitutional crisis...” A well-known conservative daughter of former Vice President and the third-highest ranking GOP leader in the House, Liz Cheney is a profile in courage. Cheney’s courageous stand is a reminder that integrity and commitment to our democracy come in various political persuasions.

In a democracy that has been badly damaged by cowards, these three women stand out as great leaders.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 9

ARTS

PITTSBURGH PLAYWRIGHTS THEATR

BY CELINE ROBERTS - PITTSBURGH C

INFO@PITTSBURG

W

hile cold weather and a globally devastating virus may be keeping us inside and apart, the creatives of the world are still bringing us together through the collective experience of the arts. Many theater companies have elected to make their seasons available virtually, including Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company which is hosting its 17th season online. On January 31, PPTCO premiered the second production of its season, “Grist From the Mill: 1902.”

The show is available for viewing through the end of February.

“Grist From the Mill: 1902” is the first of a threepart series set in the steel mills of Southwestern Pennsylvania. It is written, directed and performed by Lissa Brennan. Brennan originally premiered the piece live on the Carnegie Stage in January 2020 with her theatre company, Dog & Pony Show Theatricals.

She planned to continue the series in summer and fall

Lissa Brennan

installments, while another of her works, “Hoard”, commissioned by Off the Wall Theatre, completed it’s scheduled run in Pittsburgh and then New York City. Those plans were dashed by the pandemic,

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but Mark Clayton Southers, the executive director of PPTCO, saw an opportunity to adapt “Grist” into a filmed show. The new format was born of necessity, but it did allow Brennan to explore possibilities not

available from the stage.

Brennan describes “Grist” as a “murder ballad,” a tradition of storytelling that comes from folklore originating in Germany, Scandinavia, Iceland and the British Isles. These tales

ARTS

RE PRESENTS 'GRIST FROM THE MILL'

CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER GHCURRENT.COM

are exemplified not only by the subject but by repeating phrases and foreboding language that help the listener mark the progress of the story and become emotionally invested in the rising action.

Brennan’s performance of the play’s sole stage character, “the conjurer,” is captivating. The camera work is direct, placing Brennan in the center of every shot as she weaves the tale of “the boy,” an immigrant steelworker, and “the girl,” the daughter and sister of steelworkers, falling in love and almost as quickly, into tragedy. Brennan’s focus on delivery and connection with the audience makes the show feel intimate, as though it’s a campfire tale and we’re all waiting in the dark for her next word.

“The show was designed to be performed in small spaces and to foster a lot of connection with the audience,” says Brennan. “I wanted that to transfer to the filmed show.”

The death of love isn’t the only murder present in

Grist From the Mill: 1902 Available online via Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company through February 28. (www.pghplaywrights.org)

“Grist,” which doesn’t shy away from commentary on the incredible death toll created by the rise of industrial U.S. mMonoliths like the Central Pacific Railroad, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and the steel mills of Pennsylvania don’t only serve as markers of ‘progress,’ but also as the unmarked headstones of many unprotected workers who died making them real.

With the freedom to take the viewer off the stage and into the streets through filmed production, Brennan and director of photography PJ Gaynard shot “Grist” in neighborhoods and indus-

trial sites around Pittsburgh.

With the help of Rivers of Steel, the group that maintains the Carrie Furnace and other industrial sites, Brennan and Gaynard were able to gain access to film in places where the events from “Grist” could have happened. The crumbling beauty of the Carrie Furnace makes for some stunning scenes and the surprising entrance of a train highlights a poignant transition even more steeped in the story and native landscape.

“The places themselves are alive. They are entities in and of themselves,” says Brennan.

There are no currently set dates for the release of the next two plays in the series, 1943 and 1977. Brennan hopes to release 1943, which will focus on women in the mills during WWII, as a recorded performance as well. COVID-19 hasn’t only affected the theater industry’s ability to produce a live show, it’s had a very personal impact on Brennan’s ability to write one.

Brennan contracted COVID-19 in the winter of 2020 and has been dealing with the complications of becoming a “longhauler;” someone who experiences lasting symptoms long after the initial illness. Though her symptoms don’t affect her ability to perform, her writing process has had to change.

“I have entire pages written in my head, but getting them on the page is difficult,” says Brennan. “But it’s encouraging to have a project and I can’t wait to be able to do it in front of a live audience.”

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 11

ARTS

AUTHOR KAREN RUSSELL EXAMINES THE TIM

BY JODY DIPERNA - PITTSBURGH

INFO@PITTSBURG

K

aren Russell is one of the most inventive, immersive writers of our time. In her eight short-story collection, “Orange World,” she excavates layers upon layers of life articulated in the universe, but just out of our reach. And she takes her reader to extraordinary places as she inspects what it means to be alive in this time, and what it means to be human at all times. She plays with the intersection of the natural world and human foibles in wholly original tales that feel both sacred and fleshy.

Karen Russell is doing a virtual reading and talk through Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures on February 22.

Tickets are $15 and student passes are available for $10.

"The thing I love about a story is the whole cosmos goes as fast as your eye across the paper. You really have time, you can live a lifetime in half an hour, but you can also loiter a little bit. You have the opportunity to think and feel outside the tiny kingdom of your own concern, your own consciousness," Russell said of her own ability to dawdle on the edges and in the margins to create little worlds.

“Orange World” (Vintage Contemporaries, 2019) is

Karen Russell

Russell's third story collection. Her debut novel, "Swamplandia!" (2011) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and in 2013 she received a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant.'

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The anthropocene and the clash of humans and nature runs underneath all of this collection. Of course, humans are part of the natural world, but the stories pick at all the ways that we stand in

contradiction and resistance to nature, and all the unforeseen consequences thereof.

"We are nature, but we can wall ourselves off, induce a kind of amnesia about that with heating and air condi-

ARTS

ME WE'RE LIVING IN WITH 'ORANGE WORLD' CURRENT SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR

GHCURRENT.COM

tioning. I love the innovations -- I want to marry my space heater," Russell said via telephone from her home in Oregon. Despite her love of her space heater and all of the creature comforts, it is clear to her that we've not been the best stewards of the planet and that bill is coming due.

In the story, '”The Tornado Auction,” Russell writes of a man who loves to raise tornadoes. The concerns of a nice home life and quotidian amenities are nothing compared to the compulsion he has to cultivate tornadoes. He can't sleep or feel at peace without the shriek of the tornado filling him up.

"I think I'm sometimes a bit of a kid in my approach. These stories that literalize these things that are kind of invisible to us -- or we shove it to the periphery. We're talking about climate change and we're all aware that we're making this incredibly destructive weather," Russell said. She was also drawn to the real world wail of the tornado itself.

"I was just thinking about people have storms -- storms inside of them. You see what happens when they affect that bad weather into the external universe and community. It was almost like inhabiting a

big metaphor -- making it the world of the story, really treating it very specifically and literally to see what that might yield -- what that would show you that you could experience in this new register."

She creates worlds where a Joshua Tree longs for love and connection, a warthogish devil roaming the suburbs craving mother's milk, and elegies for a future underwater Miami. Several stories deal with the liminal space of death. In ”Bog Girl: A Romance,” a high school boy falls head over heels in love with 2,000 year old corpse; in “The Prospectors,”two women meet up with a lodgeful of dead men at WPA project in the mountains; and the undead roam a Croatian Island, circa 1620 in “Black Corfu.”

"We have all kinds of binaries that we try to impose.

Life and death, growth and decay, and the process is a lot muddier than we make it out to be," Russell explained.

"Even the distinction between realism and fantasy -- I get asked a lot about what draws me to these fantastical scenarios. And I want to say, you know, you lay flat on your bed for eight hours and you lived in a phantasmagoria. And then

you woke up and had a waffle."

Reimagining the world around us is one of most wellworn tools in Russell's toolbox as she follows the gleam of her own mind, as she put it. But no matter how imaginative or fantastical the set up, there is always real emotional honesty and truth. In “The Bad Graft,” she writes, "They could still see the children they had been: their own Popsicle-red smiles haunting them," and the reader has a feel for these two young people piled into their car together, off to make their way in

the world.

"Hopefully the emotional world of the story rings true to the people. I try to remember that in even the more goofy or wild setting. If that's all it is, I don't think readers are going to care very much," she said.

"We're having this conversation across time zones and as we're talking, we're both accessing in this whirling simultaneity, the imaginary future, pieces of our past. It is just wild. It is so wild that I don't even know sometimes if these premises do it justice."

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 13

ARTS

PRIME STAGE THEATRE OPENS 2021 WITH 'SOJOURNER'

BY NICK EUSTIS - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTOR

T

he name “Sojourner Truth” is one familiar to many from American history class, but few could tell you much about her. As Black History Month begins, it is important to look back and pay homage to those who laid the first building blocks toward equality, and Prime Stage Theatre is doing just that.

For their first production of 2021, Prime Stage will be presenting Richard LaMonte Pierce’s “Sojourner,” directed by Linda Haston and starring Delana Flowers in the title role. The play is something of a full circle moment for Prime Stage.

“The first play we ever did was called ‘A Woman Called Truth,’ about Sojourner Truth, around 26 years ago,” said Wayne Brinda, artistic director for Prime Stage.

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Swartekill, New York. Born into slavery, she escaped to freedom with her infant daughter Sophia in 1826, but had to leave her other children behind. After gaining her freedom, she learned that her son Peter had been sold by her former owner. She took the issue to court and won, after months of legal proceedings.

“She went to court and demanded that she be allowed to get her children away from an owner that wanted to take them away from her,” said director Linda Haston. “She sought that in court, which was unheard of at the time.”

After changing her name to Sojourner Truth in 1843, she spoke in favor of women’s rights, helped

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recruit black troops to the Union Army during the Civil War, and even attempted to secure land grants for former slaves during Reconstruction.

“People know the name, but they don’t know her journey,” said Haston. “She was beyond her time as a black woman, and a pioneer for women’s rights.”

The play is set up as Sojourner reflecting on her life in her eighties, recounting several instances from her life to a journalist. Haston wanted to be sure people got an authentic impression of Truth, and sought to avoid stereotypes that are typically associated with her. The most persistent of these inaccuracies is that she spoke in a Southern dialect.

“She did not speak the colloquial language that most black slaves spoke at that time. Up until she was ten years old, she only spoke Dutch, and from there on out, she always had an accent,” said Haston. “I wanted to do the authentic Sojourner Truth, and I wanted her to have that accent throughout.”

Truth’s most well-known speech, titled “Ain’t I A Woman?”, is featured prominently in the play, but it will not be the version of the speech seen most commonly. That speech was revised after it was originally delivered into a version with a Southern dialect, which is the most common rendering of the speech seen today. The original speech, however, was transcribed by a friend of Truth’s who was in

14 | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

Delana Flowers as Sojourner Truth (Photo: Laura Slovesko)

the audience, and it is this version that will be shown on stage.

“We’re doing the actual one she delivered, not the one that was revised,” said Brinda.

To ensure the authenticity of Truth’s characterization, Brinda and Haston conferenced with Descendants of the Truth, a group consisting of Sojourner Truth’s descendants. They confirmed Truth spoke with a Dutch accent, as well as that she stood six feet tall even into her old age, contradicting another common depiction of Truth as hunched over.

“I felt like I owed him the help, because he was trying to do justice and due diligence by my ancestors,” said Cory Mcliechey, president of Descendants of the Truth.

The play is part of Prime Stage’s “Prime Online” program, focusing on one-person shows centered on historical figures. The film of “Sojourner” will also be provided to schools around the Pittsburgh region, so that students can watch and discuss the play even in virtual classrooms. It is Brinda’s hope that the play will spur informed classroom discussions that help students better understand history, race, and Sojourner Truth herself.

“We’re changing people’s misconceptions and showing the truth about Sojourner Truth,” said Brinda. “That’s where the strength is: in her.”

“Sojourner” will be available online February 12 through 26.

For tickets and more information, visit primestage.com.

ARTS PITTSBURGH TRIO CALYX CELEBRATES THE RELEASE OF AN EXPLOSIVE AND LONG-AWAITED FULL-LENGTH RECORD

BY ETHAN GORDON - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTOR

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

The first time Caitlin Bender, Jon Ahn, and Garett Cassidy met, it would be another five years before they started playing together in Calyx.

In 2008, Ahn and Cassidy were set to play a string of shows with an old band, starting in Alabama, when suddenly the opening act they were joining with there broke up. “Instead of telling us that they broke up and couldn’t do the tour, some of them decided to just start another band in two weeks and do the tour with us. That band included Caitlin,” says Cassidy.

In 2013, Bender moved north to Pittsburgh and put together Calyx with her old tourmates. Since then, Calyx has been a mainstay at DIY venues across the country, and has released a string of solid EPs and singles. Their very first full-length album, Stay Gone, is the culmination of seven years of touring, songwriting, and working together.

“I was always like, ‘we only have to record three songs at a time, put them on a tape, and go.’ [Jon and Garett] said that we can’t keep doing that,” says Bender with a laugh.

After hearing Cassidy's tight drum work, Ahn’s anchoring basslines, and Bender’s lovely and elliptical lyrics, it’s clear that the album is an early contender for the most explosive and engaging punk record of 2021.

After playing everywhere

the south so much, but there’s the small town vibe of being happy with everything that you’re born with,” Bender says. “Leslie’s a real person, and she was so super pleasant. She just wanted different things in life and was really satisfied with what she was.”

When not playing with Calyx, Cassidy and Ahn spend time in the hardcore band Edhoculi. “Garett and I have been playing together since 2007, so we just know each other pretty well musically,” says Ahn. “Bender comes up with a skeleton of a song and she presents it to Garett and [me] and then we’re like, ‘Okay cool. Now let’s break it down and make it fucking nuts.’”

Like many live bands, COVID-19 has taken a toll on the group. While Calyx hopes to play shows in support of the album, the trio hasn’t even been able to practhe album jumps easily between from Florida to California in tice for the time being. Considerinfectious pop-tinged tunes like 2019, the trio settled into Philaing how important performance delphia's Big Mama studio early “Pacific Light Wave” and more is to the group, it’s no wonder involved storytelling on tracks last February to work on Stay the title Stay Gone comes from like “Leslie Plain and Strong” and touring.

Gone with Evan Bernard of The “Money Blood.”

Superweaks. The sessions were “We were playing in this “Leslie,” with its sharp two quickly both intense and exciting, warehouse that [someone] had minute runtime and insightful as ten to sixteen hour days beturned into this DIY space,” says portrayal of an entire life, is one came commonplace.

Bender. “Afterwards it was hot of the album’s strongest songs.

“When you’re gonna spend and I took a walk to get some air.

With lines like “Leslie was born the time and the money and do I was standing on this edge of a in the place she wants to die, grey construction sight zone, this no the whole process, you want to skies only mean cooler weather, be with someone who’s stoked man’s land. I was just looking out keeps her food separated on her to work with you, and who’s a at the sparkling lights, and I was plate, Spain was fine but Missisfan of your band, so going into thinking about how many people sippi's finer,” Bender captures that was easy because we knew would think so many parts of tour Evan,” says Ahn. “Evan was just a slice of life that’s common to life would be hell, and how much small communities across the our fucking rock.”

I like it. country.

Those committed studio “I’m gonna start crying cause I “It happens all across the coun- miss it. I remember thinking, just, sessions brought us the best possible version of Stay Gone, as try, so I’ve always found it fasci- I just wanna stay gone.” nating that it gets clumped in with

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 15

16 | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

ARTS THE HUMP! MUST GO ON

DAN SAVAGE RETURNS WITH A VIRTUAL EDITION OF HIS ANNIAL AMATEUR PORN FEST

BY NICK EUSTIS - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTOR

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

F

ilm festivals are some of the most prominent casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic. As long as crowds cannot gather safely, large scale events simply cannot occur in a typical fashion.

That is why some have made the decision to move completely virtual, and Dan Savage’s HUMP! Film Festival is no exception. The 2021 HUMP! Film Festival will be streaming virtually for its second year due to the constraints of the pandemic.

HUMP! began in 2005, as an idea spawned by “Savage Love” author and LGBTQ activist Dan Savage and his coworkers at The Stranger, a local Seattle newspaper.

They were curious as to how amateur porn makers would respond when channeled into an “old school” format.

“Some of my coworkers and I joked about doing a call for submissions for an amateur porn film festival,” said Savage. “The publisher of the paper at the time wouldn’t let us, because he didn’t think anyone would make porn in Seattle, to be screened in Seattle, for a Seattle audience.”

Eventually, his editor relented, and Savage put out a call for submissions, asking for amateur pornographic films, five minutes in length or less. To the surprise of all, more than 30 individual films were submitted.

“We got so much great stuff

that we booked a theater, so the question became, ‘Would people come and sit in a movie theater in the dark next to strangers and watch porn the way their grandparents used to?’” said Savage.

“Those first screenings sold out right away.”

The success of the inaugural HUMP! festival led to it becoming an annual event in Seattle and, with its popularity steadily rising, touring to West Coast cities like Portland and Vancouver, and eventually nationwide.

It was in the middle of the 2020 nationwide HUMP! tour that the pandemic initially took hold in America, forcing a shift online if the festival was to continue. Savage made sure to confer with all filmmakers on the tour to ensure they would be comfortable with their work being available digitally, as the festival had been exclusively in-person to protect the privacy of the creators.

“It was part of the appeal of HUMP!,” said Savage. “You can only see these movies at HUMP!... and if you wanted to be in HUMP!, you didn’t have to worry about your porn living forever on the internet.”

While two films decided to drop out due to this development, the vast majority overwhelmingly supported the shift to virtual.

Savage credits this shift in our collective mentality since HUMP! began over 15 years ago to how easy modern technology has made it to produce, as well as consume, pornography.

“Everyone’s carrying a porn production studio around in their

pocket and most everyone is using it,” said Savage. “The feeling of risk is less acute than it was then.”

Still unable to tour, Savage decided the virtual format would go on a second time for 2021.

“This year, as the pandemic continues to rage, we wanted to give people something to look forward to in their homes. We wanted to bring HUMP! to them,” said Savage. “We wanted to give people who wanted to make HUMP! films a reason to have some fun at home with the people in their pod, so we did it all online this year.”

The film submissions are curated by a small jury, consisting of employees from The Stranger and HUMP! itself. The films are whittled down to 20-25 selections from as many as 200 submissions.

“We look at quality first, is it a good film? Is it interesting doing what it’s trying to do? Does it make a statement? We also look at representation and diversity,” said Savage.

While the input of all jury members is taken into consideration, Savage ultimately makes the final decision on the film lineup.

“I’m the final say, I’m the RuPaul of HUMP!,” said Savage.

This year, 23 films are featured as part of the virtual festival.

The choices run the gamut from raunchy to funny, uncomfortable to stirring. One of these selections is a film entitled “Mes Chéris,” which is part porn, part documentary.

“It’s a film by a trans man who’s about to have top surgery to remove his breasts,” said Savage. “It’s incredibly moving. It’s a

loving farewell to his breasts.”

Also among the selections are films with material that may make some uncomfortable.

“There’s a film called ‘Lengua,’ which is a straight couple having sex in the kitchen. It’s super creative, for some people really challenging, but beautifully shot,” said Savage.

This sometimes challenging nature, according to Savage, is one of the greatest aspects of HUMP!, as he knows most people do not seek out pornography that does not turn them on. Viewing porn featuring bodies and sex acts that are not what one would ordinarily seek out reveals a surprising commonality to films that are themselves very different.

“About halfway through, people start to see what’s the same in every film,” said Savage. “The vulnerability, desire, passion, sense of humor, and that all of that matters much more, and is much greater, than the differences.”

Despite the challenges entailed in creating a virtual film festival, Savage is excited to bring HUMP! to audiences virtually once again, and is happy that people are passionate enough to contribute even in the craziest of times.

“We’re really psyched that people brought it, this year of all years,” said Savage. “I think people needed the escape.”

Dan Savage’s HUMP! Film Festival will be available online January 30 through March 6. For tickets and more information, visit humpfilmfest.com.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 17

ESSAY

OF YOUTH AND VITAMIN C

BY MATTHEW WALLENSTEIN - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

I

was looking to move in somewhere. P was my best friend. He was in college and living in a house with four other people. One of which was the girl he had just broken it off with after a couple years. I had been staying there a week. I slept in his bed with him.

We would stay up, draw, go out and skateboard sometimes.

Our band played a show a few weeks earlier and P met a girl there. He had been talking to her since then on his computer and through text.

One night, it got to be about 3 a.m. and he asked me if he should have her over. I thought it was a good idea so he told her to drive up to the house.

The three of us lay in bed together. Once they started making out I turned over and pretended to be asleep. The making out went on for a long time. I realized I had to pee pretty bad.

They kept on with the kissing. "Goddamn," I thought, can they just get to it so I can go downstairs to the bathroom.

When he started going

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

down on her I realized I was really going to be there a while.

This activity became loud for a number of reasons. It kept on and on. Say what you want about P, I thought, but he works hard at making people happy. So they finally got down to the activity and I was about ready to just get up and piss out the window or something. All I could do was hope for an end. As soon as that end came I got up and left the room.

Pissing after holding it a long time may be the greatest of God’s gifts, I thought.

I went back up, climbed over them and lay down again, pressed between the wall and the girl.

Sunrise came. As soon as the front door closed behind the girl, P turned to me smiling.

“I knew you were awake,” he said.

“Thank you for that.”

“I was going to tag you in,” he said.

“I just wanted to pee.”

A month later his ex-girlfriend moved out and I took her room. It was on the first floor.

There were a few others

18 | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

living there.

P had his room on the third floor. The bathroom was on the first floor. P didn’t like coming all the way down the stairs in the middle of the night so he would use gallon jugs.

He’d wait till a few filled up before dumping them out of his window or going out to the back yard to pour them. It would separate after a while, the way oil sits on water.

One time I helped him by carrying one down.

The handle broke off and its contents got all over me. The stink was overwhelming.

The house was a duplex. Each side had five bedrooms. The way the place was set up, P’s window sat above the room of a girl who lived on the other side of the house. He told me that she went to school with him. When she would see him she would complain to him that someone who lived on our side of the house kept dumping pee out of their window and she could smell it every time she opened her window. A few times her window had been open when the jugs were

poured out and the urine had all gone into her room, covered her floor and rug and clothes and furniture. P was frustrated with her, explained to me that he always told her off, told her she was the one in the wrong.

Our bathroom was off our kitchen. One afternoon I was eating some Oreos while P was in the bathroom. He was peeing but the door was open so he could keep our conversation going. I threw an orange at his head.

It bounced off of him and landed in the toilet.

He laughed and flushed.

Somehow the orange went down without clogging it. We went about our day and both just forgot about it.

The next morning I woke up late. I got ready for work as quickly as I could. I knew I wouldn’t get there on time. I opened the door to the basement, flipped the switch on, and walked down the steps to get my bike. There was about 6 inches of very dark, very smelly water covering the floor. I didn’t want to deal with it, I was already late for work. I

ESSAY

figured I would get out of there and someone else would eventually find it and figure it out.

I didn’t have a phone in those days and I didn’t have the landlord’s number anyway.

I jumped from the step I was on and landed on the washing machine.

There was a broom nearby which I used to unlock and open the door. I climbed over a few more things, grabbed my bike, got riding.

That night when I got back to the house my roommate J told me the whole situation. I acted

shocked to learn that a pipe had burst and the basement had flooded.

The landlord, in perhaps the only responsible act I heard of them ever doing, had gotten someone to pump out the water.

When the plumber took a look around there had been an orange stuck In

one of the pipes. That was evidently the cause of the whole mess. J said one of my other roommates had told the plumber that it must have been from the people on the other side of the house. He’d said that no one living on our side even ate fruit, in fact.

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 19

SAVAGE LOVE Savage Love Love | sex | relationships

BY DAN SAVAGE MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

I'm a 30-year-old straight woman in a three-year relationship with my live-in partner, who is also 30. I love him and he loves me and he wants to make a life with me. However, in this pandemic, the stress is so great that I have lost all desire to have sex. I don't want anyone touching me right now, not even myself. I feel like I'm in survival mode. I lost the career I love and I’m working four different jobs to make up for it. I have also been coming to terms in therapy with a sexual trauma I suffered, which is making me want to be touched even less.

He's been extremely

patient, and says that we can work through it, but I'm really worried that this is the death knell for our relationship. I'm really trying to figure out ways to get myself back in good working order, Dan, but honestly I'm just trying to survive every day right now. Help?

Witty Acronym Here First, you’re not alone.

So many people have seen their libidos tank in response to the overlapping stresses of lockdowns and job losses that sex researcher are talking about (and documenting) a “pandemic sex recession.”

So what can you do?

20 | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | PITTSBURGH CURRENT

You have a long, hard slog in front of you, personally and professionally, and you need to carve out enough time and space for yourself to you get through this. And to do that you’re not just gonna need to reset your partner’s expectations for the duration of the pandemic and/or until you’re back on your feet again professionally and emotionally, you’re going to need to take his yes for an answer. If he tells you he’s willing to tough/rub it out until you’re less stressed out, less overworked, and less overwhelmed, and he’s not being passive aggressive about your lack of desire, then you should take him at his word. If he’s not trying to make you feel bad about the sex you aren’t having right now, WAH, don’t make yourself feel bad about it.

There’s no guarantee your relationship will survive this (the pandemic), that (your crushing workload), or the other thing (the trauma you’re working through in therapy). Any one of those things or some other thing could wind up being the death knell for your relationship. But the only way to find out if your desire for your partner will kick back

into gear post-pandemic, post-career-crisis, and post-coming-to-termswith-past-sexual-trauma is to hang in there, WAH, and reassess once your past those posts. Will you two still be together once you’re out of survival mode? Survive and find out. Good luck.

I'm a 34-year-old straight woman dating a 32-year-old straight man.

When we first met, we had both recently relocated to our hometown and were living with our parents. When we first started dating, things were great, however, the sex wasn't mind-blowing.

Foreplay was limited and he always jumped out of bed afterward. I thought this was probably due to the fact that while we had privacy, we were having sex at my parent's house which isn’t particularly sexy. We finally moved in together nine months ago and now it feels like we've been married for decades. He almost always turns my sexual advances down.

And when we do have sex, it lasts about five minutes and I do all of the work and get ZERO satisfaction out of it. He will hold my hand on the couch but if I ask him to cuddle he acts like I am

SAVAGE LOVE asking for a huge favor.

I’ve explained to him I need to feel wanted and to have some kind of intimacy in this relationship.

And yet, despite the multiple conversations about how sexually, physically, and emotionally unsatisfied I am, he has put in little effort. Otherwise, our relationship is great.

We have fun together, I love him, I want to be with him, and we’ve talked about marriage and kids, but I also can’t live this way for the rest of my life. What can I expect from a man who is emotionally and physically unavailable?

Intimate Needs That Involve Making A Team Effort A lifetime of frustration.

You wanna make the sex and physical intimacy work because so much else is working—it sounds like pretty much everything else is working—but you can’t make the sex and intimacy work if he’s not willing to work on it. And even if he was willing to work on it, INTIMATE, even if he was willing to make an effort sexually, there’s no guarantee that working on it will actually work. Some couples work on this shit for

decades and get nowhere.

Opening the relationship up might make it possible for you to have him and sexual satisfaction too—by getting sexual satisfaction elsewhere— but opening up a relationship also requires effort, INTIMATE, and effort clearly isn’t his thing. DTMFA. My fiancé and I (both male) have been together for six years. I am fully out but he is only out to his close friends and his mom. The rest of his family doesn't know.

His co-workers don't know. I've met his family and co-workers who don't know and played the “friend” and “roommate” and it kills me but he still won’t budge. It's also not like homosexuality is taboo in his family.

He has a gay uncle and his uncle and his partner are invited to family holidays and welcomed with open arms. Is it even worth continuing this relationship?

Feeling Insecure About Needlessly Closeted Engagement

Your fiancé has to choose: he can have you or he can have his closet but he can’t have both.

It’s not about telling him what to do, FIANCE, it’s

about setting boundaries around what you’re willing to do. And for the last six years you let him drag you back into the closet—you were willing to pretend to be his friend or his roommate— but you’re not willing to do that anymore. If he wants to have a life with you, he can choose to come out. If he’s not willing to come out, he’ll have to learn to live without you.

I wanted to say something about WEASS, the man with the HIV-positive boyfriend who was reluctant to disclose his status to a new sex partner. As someone who’s been HIV-positive and undetectable for almost 18 years, Dan, I’ve gone through a few different iterations of dealing with (or not) and disclosing my status (or not). But starting about ten years ago it just seemed easier on my conscience to disclose my +/U status to my partners—that is, HIV-positive but undetectable and therefore not capable of infecting anyone. Even after nearly a decade of PrEP and decades of HIV education, my status still generates negative reactions ranging from guys

declaring me “not clean” to guys accusing me of trying to spread the virus (which I literally can’t do) to guys rebuffing me in kinder ways. Even people on PrEP have gone from DTF to “no thanks” when I’ve disclosed. So based on my experiences, Dan, I don’t think that every potential hookup out there would react in an informed and rational way, not even guys on PrEP. Undetectable Poz Fellow Relieved Over Not Telling Any Lies The man WEASS and his HIV-positive boyfriend were thinking about having a threesome might react negatively to the disclosure—that’s why I advised WEASS to sound this guy out before looping his BF into the conversation. If the guy reacts badly, WEASS can spare his boyfriend the grief. But if the guy reacts like an informed and rational gay grownup, UPFRONTAL, then WEASS should loop his boyfriend in. mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. www.savagelovecast. com

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 21

PA R T I N G S H OT

PITTSBURGH CURRENT PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | FEBRUARY 3, 2020 | 22