INSIDE:
JM THE POET RELEASES DEBUT FULL-LENGTH, 'DEJA VU' VOL. 3 ISSUE 30
Sept. 8, 2020 - Sept. 14, 2020
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MONTHS AFTER GEORGE FLOYD AND BREONNA TAYLOR, BLACK CITIZENS ARE STILL LOSING THEIR LIVES AT THE HANDS OF POLICE. WE NEED BLACK HEROES NOW MORE THAN EVER. B Y C A I T LY N H U N T E R / PA G E 4
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STAFF Publisher/Editor: Charlie Deitch Charlie@pittsburghcurrent.com
contents
Associate Publisher: Bethany Ruhe Bethany@pittsburghcurrent.com
Vol. III Iss. XXX Sept.8, 2020
Advisory Board Chairman: Robert Malkin Robert@pittsburghcurrent.com
NEWS 4 | Putting up the Signal 8 | Paul Abel
EDITORIAL
Music Editor: Margaret Welsh Margaret@pittsburghcurrent.com
OPINION 10 | Larry Schweiger
Visuals Editor: Jake Mysliwczyk Jake@pittsburghcurrent.com
Music 12 | JM the Poet
Social Justice Columnist: Jessica Semler jessica@pittsburghcurrent.com
EXTRA 14 | Matthew Wallenstein 16 | Parting Shot
Contributing Photographer: Ed Thompson info@pittsburghcurrent.com Contributing Writers: Jody DiPerna, Justin Vellucci, Atiya Irvin Mitchell, Dan Savage, Larry Schweiger, Brittany Hailer, Brian Conway, Matthew Wallenstein, Emerson Andrews, Eric Boyd, Caitlyn Junter, Aryanna Hunter info@pittsburghcurrent.com Logo Design: Mark Addison TO ADVERTISE :
Senior Account Executive: Andrea James andrea@pittsburghcurrent.com
The Fine Print
Bethany Ruhe Bethany@pittsburghcurrent.com
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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PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 3
NEWS PUTTING UP THE SIGNAL WHAT PITTSBURGH AND AMERICA NEED MOST ARE MORE BLACK HEROES
BY CAITLYN HUNTER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
wo weeks ago was supposed to be a normal Monday... I woke up, made my usual latté, took a bite out of my lemon-thyme glazed donut, and mused over how wonderful my white boyfriend is. I turn to social media, look for something to inspire me, instead of remind me of the ways in which I as a Black woman constantly feel vulnerable, and then like a firestorm of murder hornets, in the span of seconds I see of the error of my mistake in checking my Instagram feed: Alone I watch as a Black man walks away from police towards his car. He pulls up his pants, perhaps still reeling from adrenaline, opens the door and a police officer grabs his white shirt. Before he can even enter the car safely, before he can tell his children who are sitting in the back seat that everything will be ok, before he can tell the police he was just trying to stop two women fighting, before the police can even identify their “assailant,” another Black man is read as a threat and his justice for being a good samaritan equates to seven shots fired into his back at close range. I watch the video fifteen times from different threads of friends who think they are helping by sharing the video without pro-
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Above:: Dannielle Brown. Right: Black Lives Matter Protesters. (Current Photos: Ed Thompson)
viding a proper trigger warning. Again and again I continue to be forced to witness Black violence that has historically been fetishized. In lynchings, white mobs would castrate, dismember, and pluck body parts of victims as souvenirs. Now, we have videos, photographs, and live feeds. The souvenirs continue and we continue to be traumatized by it. Thankfully this man survived.
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He survived in spite of police brutality. He survived a system that was designed for him to die. His name is Jacob Blake. A few evenings later I watched another video from Kenosha. A man walks calmly onto the paved blackened streets, wearing a green shirt, his trucker hat turned backwards as if he’s hunting for pheasants. A crowd of protesters disperse as you see people
run towards the shooter, now an identifiable white man, where skateboarders try to disarm him. They swarm kicking him to the ground, but it’s no use. He shoots another in the stomach. Another in the face. People run and the cops around them look onwards. One hands him a bottle of water, another salutes him. This man, who has taken the life of two people on camera, is allowed to leave the scene and at the time, is regarded as a hero. In 1889, a Black grocer named Thomas Moss defended his right to own a grocery store that sold solely to the Black community. When his white store rival William Barrett rallied other men in the community to shut him down, Barrett and his men were met with a melee of bullets from three Black men whose heroism tried to protect their community. Four days later, the men came back, now deputized by the police department, and not only lynched Thomas Moss and his colleagues, but burned down the store. 131 years later, Kyle Rittenhouse proved that white men still can enact violence under the guise and support of martial law. In the span of a week, I once again felt helpless. Like most people of color, I am fluent in the language of violence. I don’t need to contextualize it, I live it and this life at times, can be
NEWS
PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 5
NEWS exhausting. No matter how much I marched, no matter how much I argued or screamed I am unable to escape the fact that Black people in this country continue to suffer. Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain’s murderers still have not been arrested. Black children, like Jacob Blake’s still witness violence in relation to the color of their skin. Every day I am reminded that history will continue to repeat itself, and I struggle in the revelation that nothing has changed. Racism in this country is the true invisible pandemic and when people argue that “all lives matter” the narrative can’t be farther from the truth. It had been days of crying. Days of panic attacks and fear of leaving my apartment. Days of trying to maintain some modicum of normalcy where the Coronavirus has taught many of us how to sit in fear alone. Being Black is a growing pain that cannot ever fully be articulated. When you see someone get shot, when you hear a Black woman cry for the son she cannot get back, when you post something about race and Black joy on social media as a form of self-expression only to be applauded by white friends and allies, it can all be exhausting. Instead, we look for heroes. On the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. telling us that he had a dream, the days before were living proof that his dream is far from realized. When people try to use his methodology of nonviolence, they tend to overlook the very fact that he too was shot publicly. They tend to forget how we as a nation publicly mourned
Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther (Photo: Disney Films)
because of another fallen hero. The moment that I decided to go to the march in Washington I didn’t think about the risk of COVID-19. I thought about Kenosha. I thought about the anger, the fear, and hurt welling up inside of me. When my mother pleaded for me to reconsider my only response was “this is something I have to do. If I don’t go, I will regret it for the rest of my life.” As I stood in the crowds of thousands I listened as the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others spoke about their loved ones, the ones who we call our fallen heroes. I stood in a sea of solidarity. In a beautiful mosaic of
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Blackness I walked and marched with a family of strangers who all cried out Black Lives Matter. The day was not one of unrest. It was a reminder of why people like me fight in the best ways that we know how. It reminded me that not all fights take place in the streets, they first take place in our hearts. On the bus ride back to Pittsburgh feeling reinvigorated, a notification came across my phone: Chadwick Boseman, age 43, dead after his battle with colon cancer. And again, the pain seeps in. If you are anything like me, you probably rewatched Black Panther. You shed a tear at the moment where T’Challa dies and then miraculously comes
back to life to save his country. But there is no coming back. We have lost another Black hero. A man who taught us that you could be Jackie Robinson, you could be James Brown, you could save the world all while being uncompromising in your Black identity. What made Black Panther so successful was that it showed us the power of Blackness that instances of police brutality, lives spent in impoverished communities, experiences of systemic racism, and unparalleled incarceration rates often try to overshadow. It gave children an opportunity to see themselves as leaders, as saviors, and most importantly as having worth and
equality among gods and giants. Now, in the death of Chadwick Boseman I ask who now will be our Avenger? In Pittsburgh, I’ve been fortunate to witness heroism take on so many forms. Last week I watched a video of a Duquesne University student struggling on campus. She holds her chest, her hand clenched over her heart and kneeling on the ground she hunches over grasping to find her breath. Mother and activist Dannielle Brown walks over to her. Sits with her and asks her questions. As others around them scream for campus police to help, Brown calmly asks the student if she has allergies, gives her water, and puts her hand on the girl’s shoulder to comfort her. Moments later police arrive holding batons behind their backs and upon realizing that this student is not an affiliated activist, decided to help her. Brown did not help this student as a publicity stunt. She did it because she is a mother and saw someone in need. Despite now being on Day 68 of her hunger strike this was a woman who put a child’s needs above her own and rushed in when someone needed saving. This Labor Day I watched through social media as activist Nique Craft fell under the microscope. In the span of a 30-second video you watch them take a drink of a white woman’s beer as other activists look on and comment. They finish the beer and walk away and then you see another protester knocking off a glass and it crashes to the ground.
The video has since garnered international attention where the title of a Daily Mail video says “BLM Protesters Harass Diners in Pittsburgh Restaurant.” What you don’t see is that moments prior Craft was being attacked by three white men who screamed a slew of racial epithets at them and other marshals. You don’t hear the white male patron calling them and other activists disgusting, an embarrassment, and finally asking them “what would MLK do?” According to Nique “I'm not that kind of person. I hate that 10 seconds of me on film. And now I’m getting chastised for drinking this poor white lady’s beer. She offered it. She even said ‘go ahead, drink my beer. I will buy you another one.’ And I was like ‘Sick, but I got to go.’” While many know Nique by their long silvery white braids, their love of Hamms beer, their loud rally cry, and their impromptu activist yoga sessions, what you don’t know about are the countless death and rape related threats made against Nique for simply trying to be an advocate for their community. They insist on being seen and heard, something which many authorities in Pittsburgh seek to vilify. Tactics like these exemplify the ways in which the narratives around Black lives are circulated and often lost in translation. While we all know of Rosa Parks, very few of us know of Claudette Colvin who was the first Black woman to be arrested for refusing her bus seat to a white woman mostly because she was dark skinned and pregnant. We all know of Malcolm X
and MLK but few of us know of Ella Jo Baker, the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. What other Black heroic narratives have been altered or erased? In a time where many question what is the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement, I want to remind you to look for heroes. Look at the people in your community who fight to make the world a bit safer. Look to the people with bullhorns and picket signs. Look to your neighbors and friends, because just existing while Black is its own heroic endeavor. Remember the people who hold book drives giving out free children’s books of people of color as main characters. The people who tirelessly walk among Black communities registering people to vote. The people who serve you drinks and meals when you want some semblance of normalcy. The people who build playgrounds to create more moments of Black joy. Celebrate the teachers and nurses who leave their homes despite the risks of infection. We all have our heroes. For me, it is my great-grandfather who was born into slavery only to be freed and move to Pittsburgh to make a better life for his family. It is my grandfather who was the first Black machinist in the Homestead Steel Mill. It is my grandmother who was one of the first Black female bank managers in Pittsburgh. It is my father who was the first Black student to attend my former high school. It is my mother who has been the first Black woman to be a dean, a college president, and countless other
NEWS firsts. It is my best friend who stood up for the people of color in her company and argued for a Diversity and Inclusion committee where Juneteenth is now a recognized company holiday. It is the countless people in and out of my life who have helped me find some comfort and pride in my own construction of Black identity. I often wonder who will be the heroes of my future. My godchild is named Justice; a name that holds so much weight for all of those who’ve fallen because of a lack of it. Since the pandemic we Facetime regularly playing games of peek-a-boo, as I watch this beautiful child grow before my eyes through a screen. Her name, her very existence is tantamount to possibility. Between each textured curl on her head, there is change waiting to spring into action. In a time where I often am emotionally and mentally struggling, I look forward to her phone calls. This time is no different as on the screen before me Justice is wearing the green onesie I bought her that says Little Neighbor. I ask her “Justice, how are you doing?” She smiles, saliva gurgling between newly formed baby teeth, and says “good” as she claps proud of herself in the ways most toddlers are wont to do. In her smile I see a future. There is hope, and pure unabashed joy. In her, I am reminded that not all heroes need to wear capes or a mask. Sometimes they are the people who remind us that not every day will be so tough. Without Justice, there can be no peace.
PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 7
NEWS
PA G E 7
PITTSBURGH COP WITH TROUBLED PAST ARRESTS BYSTANDER AFTER 'HE CAME UP AND DECIDED TO BE DISRESPECTFUL TO ME'
A police officer with a history of both on-duty and off-duty run-ins with the public arrested a bystander outside the Squirrel Hill Market Sunday after he told Abel that the officer's "Thin Blue Line" facemask, was disrespectful to the American Flag According to video of the incident and an eyewitness at the scene, Abel told the man to leave the area. The man, who was going to the market, asked what he did wrong and why he had to leave, Abel took him into custody, even pulling his Taser on the young man, who continued to ask what he had done wrong. Abel has a history of high-profile on- and off-duty incidents, including being fired and charged criminally for pistol-whipping and accidentally shooting a man while Abel was off-duty and drinking on the South Side in 2008. A man allegedly punched Abel outside a bar. Abel pursued the man, hit him with his gun, and accidentally discharged his weapon, shooting the man in the hand. Turns out, though, it wasn't even the man who bumped into Abel. Abel
BY CHARLIE DEITCH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDITOR CHARLIE@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM
Officer Paul Abel.
was acquitted after the judge essentially ruled that a cop, even one who had been drinking, is never off-duty. However, the city paid close to $45,000 in a civil settlement. Abel got his job back. During Sunday's incident. Abel turns the man around and when he tells Abel that he did nothing wrong, the officer pulls the Taser.
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"You know what, dude? The city gives me this," Abel says as he pulls the stun gun and levels it at the man's chest who is an arm's length away. Pittsburgh Police Officer Paul Abel addresses a crowd of onlookers after he detains a bystander outside the Squirrel Hill Market Sunday afternoon.
The man replies: "No, no, no, please stop. Please don't do that." Abel then shrieks at the man: "Then, turn around and put your hands behind your back, now! Now!. The man continues to tell Abel. "I have not done anything." Abel replies: "I told you to go away and you didn't want
NEWS to listen." "But go away for what reason? Did I commit a crime?" the man asks. Abel replies: "Did I tell you to give me your ID?" "But give it for what reason? All I said is that it's disrespectful to have that certain mask on." Replies Abel: "And then I told you to walk away, didn't I?" The pair continue the back and forth and bystanders continue to ask the Abel what the man did to warrant arrest and search. Abel told the crowd: "He came up and decided to be disrespectful to me." Many in the crowd pointed out that being disrespectful wasn't a crime. Pittsburgh Police issued a statement about the incident stating that Abel was working an approved off-duty assignment and that the man was blocking the exit to the market, "preventing other  customers from leaving, including a blind couple." According to the statement, an employee at the Squirrel Hill Market asked the man to move and said the man "became agitated and raised his voice," and tried to engage the officer further about the flag, and continued to refuse to move. The officer asked for his identification several times so he could cite him, but the man refused each time and continued to block the exit and shout profanities
at the officer." The statement said the man "tried to engage the officer further about the flag, and continued to refuse to move. The officer asked for his identification several times so he could cite him, but the man refused each time and continued to block the exit and shout profanities at the officer. At this point the officer moved to physically arrest the male, who resisted, knocking the officer’s body-worn camera into the street in the process. The male continued to resist arrest so the officer told him he would use his Taser if he did not comply. At that point, the man complied and put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed." Police said Abel's subsequent search of the man's backpack turned up, "marijuana, THC edibles, and drug paraphernalia and did not have a medical marijuana card. Charges include "Resisting Arrest, Defiant Trespass, Disorderly Conduct, and narcotics-related charges." The Pittsburgh Current asked about the appropriateness of Abel wearing his mask while in uniform. No response was given. In the videos, the man constantly questions why he's being arrested. Alex Osgood of Regent Square witnessed the altercation and told the Pittsburgh Current earlier today that it did not appear that the man was blocking people
from moving on the sidewalk and that to him it didn't look like the man did anything except question Abel's choice in facemasks. "[Abel] was really, really aggressive, not just to [the man] but to the bystanders as well," Osgood says. "The only reason [Abel] gave for the arrest was that he was being disrespectful. This was way over the line if you ask me. The fact that he's still employed is crazy to me. This is an officer who was previously fired from the force and somehow gets his job back through arbitration. That shows the power of the police union and that these reforms that [Mayor Bill] Peduto has out there aren't going to cut it." Osgood says, even if the police statement is accurate, the worse thing that the man did was holding up the exit to a farmer's market. "At that moment, Officer Abel had a choice to try and deescalate the situation, but instead he opted to cite him." Osgood says it's a pattern of Pittsburgh police to choose "escalation over de-escalation" in a lot of situations. De-escalation of a situation has never been one of Abel's strongest qualities. In addition to the South Side incident, Abel was accused of improperly detaining and searching a man in 2019. In 2008, also around the time of his South Side inci-
dent, Abel's wife testified at a custody hearing centering around Abel's stepchildren, that her husband forced her to use false claims of alleged sexual abuse against the children's grandparents, who were seeking some level of custody at the time. Abel's wife made the allegations in a request for a protection from abuse order. The order was never granted because Abel's wife didn't show up for the hearing. According to the Post-Gazette at the time, the grandparents' attorney testified about the allegations at a public hearing of the Citizens Police Review Board into other incidents involving Abel. The grandmother of the children at the time said Officer Abel 'was a bomb waiting to go off." Also in 2008, Joseph Stubenrauch of Allentown claimed Abel "beat him up at his home as paramedics tried to treat his father, who was having heart problems." According to the P-G, Stubenrauch's father didn't want to be taken to the hospital and at one point, Abel wanted to use his taser on the elderly man. The man told Abel not to use the taser and the man was beaten and arrested. At the time, the Allegheny County Jail refused to take the man until he had been treated at a hospital for his injuries.
PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 9
OPINION SCIENTIFIC TYRANNY AND THE COMING DARK AGES BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST
T
rump retweeted a post claiming: "This week the CDC quietly updated the Covid number to admit that only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid. That’s 9,210 deaths. The other 94% had 2 to 3 other serious illnesses and the overwhelming majority were of very advanced age." Trump’s inaccurate characterization of the 190,000 COVID deaths has since been pulled down but not before it spread wildly across Trump-land. Increasingly, well-intended Americans, bombarded by false information, are struggling to separate pseudo-science from the real thing. The CDC report actually suggested that only 6% of the deaths caused by COVID-19 didn't have any complications or underlying chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease. They did not experience the far-too-common medical complications from COVID such as heart damage, kidney failure, or sepsis. COVID-19 still caused the other 94% of deaths. Many chronic and otherwise manageable conditions and unexplained complications can make COVID-19 suddenly deadly to many. A recent article in Live Science clarifies the matter as COVID is occurring across America with a vengeance. "When you look at the number of excess deaths this year in comparison with previous years, it's staggering," Dr. William Hanage, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University's School of Public Health, told Live Science. That's an estimated 228,200 additional
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deaths in the United States, according to the Weinberger Lab at the University of California, San Francisco. Our society, as advanced as it seems, is not very scientifically literate. Few today have even a rudimentary understanding of scientific principles, let alone a solid grasp of the many complex issues facing the planet's inhabitants. In an increasingly globally interlocking world, there is an ever-widening information gap between what scientists in their
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respective disciplines know and what the public understands and is willing to accept. Science seeks to help us understand how things on earth work as a means for solving the many challenges we face. Far too many Americans generally do not appreciate the complicated issues like climate change or health risks like COVID-19. They care little about how the world works and are ill-informed about scientific subjects. A few years ago, a documentary film
discovered that most new Harvard graduates interviewed could not correctly explain why summers are warmer than winter. This is not just a Harvard problem. In our 21st century society, many have moved away from meaningful connections to nature. They have little comprehension of the natural world. Few can accurately name the common trees in their neighborhood. Fewer can identify common wildflowers or local native bird
OPINION species. This lack of knowledge about the natural world makes even the most basic science education extremely difficult. In Earth Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues, Calvin DeWitt tells of the Hanunoo tribe of the Philippine Islands. Researchers discovered that the average adult in the tribe could identify 1,600 different native species of plants and wildlife. They also knew how to use these species for food, construction, crafts, and medicines, and they knew where to find them. Similar studies with other indigenous people have produced similar findings. Unlike indigenous people, modern civilization has nearly disconnected from its vital roots in nature. Another part of the challenge is in science communication. Peer-reviewed science is found in journals that sit behind expensive paywalls, and science in its raw form is hard for most to digest. Academic institutions reward scientists for publishing in peer-reviewed journals while often discouraging them from publishing more readable pieces in the popular press. Many Americans do not understand the importance of specific scientific processes, including the scientific method, and fail to ask the right questions: Was the conclusion from a controlled study? Were the results statistically significant? Is this speculation, theory, or published credible science? Was the study published in a peer-reviewed journal? Have other studies confirmed the findings? There has been a deliberate effort to trash science when it conflicts with political agendas.
In 2005, Chris Mooney wrote a prescient book entitled The Republican War on Science detailing how, for some years, the Republican Party has deliberately fostered "flagrant misrepresentations (that) goes far beyond mere dishonesty. It demonstrates a gross disregard for the welfare of the American public…" That effort has culminated in a rejection of science as many Trumpsters (a large subset of registered Republicans) choose to believe about COVID-19 or the climate crisis whatever fits their often-baseless political narrative. They are not interested in the facts of the matter or the underlying scientific evidence. They believe Trump’s every tweet and utterance. Far too many would rather bury their head in the proverbial sand ignoring the dangers of COVID-19 or the growing destruction caused by the climate crisis that is currently amplifying record-breaking, sweltering heat and extensive forest fires across the American West. There may be little hope of disabusing his true believers who persist in not wearing masks, social distancing, or taking other recommended precautionary measures. Still, we should endure by bearing witness to the impacts of COVID-19 and the climate crisis. We must speak the truth by correcting inaccuracies, fact-checking, and posting correct information in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and dangerous lies. It can be draining, but we must stand up. Masks are not political statements, so whether Trumpsters believe in science-based guidance or not is irrelevant. Facts are stubborn. A virus cannot be swept away with political nonsense. Should society irrationally
abandon authoritative science and turn once again to superstitions and myths, hen America will drift into the tyranny that created the Dark Ages. Truth is a cornerstone of any ethical system, and it can be lost in the cacophony of divisive noise. In all matters of significance--material, relational, spiritual, or otherwise--we must seek to discover and embrace truth, regardless of where it may lead. In good conscience, we must seek truth by pursuing available science to understand the threats to all living things. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said it best: “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.” However, scientific truths can be hard to accept and even harder to address. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence of the climate crisis and the pandemic, politicians are vehemently challenging both threats because they force change in our thinking and daily behavior in fundamental ways. Any policymaker who has not discovered the truth about climate change or the pandemic has not sought the truth. Willful blindness is a matter of placing political expediency over ethical leadership. We often take certain things for granted in life. For me, it was the difference between personal opinions and scientifically verifiable facts. I never thought I would have to march with thousands of others to defend the very notion of science itself. Yet on May 15, 2017, upon hearing that President Trump was cutting NOAA’s climate science funding and replacing EPA’s science advisory group with his hacks, we marched for science. A Ben Franklin impersonator appropriately led our march in Philadelphia. Franklin was one of
America's first scientists. Among his scientific advancements, Franklin charted the powerful Gulf Stream enabling ships sailing for Europe to cut their travel time significantly. Franklin also launched the American Philosophical Society in 1743 to pursue “philosophical experiments that let light into the nature of things, tend to increase the power of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences or pleasures of life.” Franklin understood that the advancement of science and the application of knowledge would greatly benefit society. He also believed that curiosity and experimentation would lead to a better understanding of the nature of things. In a modern social system, as in Franklin's day, science-based decision-making has been central to nearly every societal advancement. We all depend upon science to provide critical answers to the most vexing health and environmental threats. Science and innovation will underpin the winning nations in the future as it has in the past. Can we afford to lose our scientific edge and ignore or discount climate scientists and health professionals' warnings? Can we tolerate textbooks that avoid well established but objectionable scientific conclusions about climate change? Do we sit quietly by when leading scientists and innovators are verbally attacked? When a highly vocal chorus of ill-informed Trumpsters repeatedly reject fundamental truths and pursue myths and alternative facts concocted by those who obfuscate, we must ask, perhaps we are a society encountering the very boundaries of human enlightenment. I, for one, certainly hope not, but that is no longer a given.
PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 11
OPINION
JM THE POET EXPLORE'S LIFE'S CYCLICAL BY MARGARET WELSH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT MUSIC EDITOR
MARGARET@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM
W
hen JM the Poet (a.k.a. Jay Manning) first got into music, it was lyrics that hit him the hardest. Outkast was an early favorite -- his mom would play their records around the house -- and, later, Tupac, Lil Wayne, “basics that got me into hip hop and really got me into lyricism.” But it wasn’t just the words that he was interested in. It was the elements of universality in the stories that were being told. “A lot of times [people] are telling the same types of stories over and over,” just expressing things in different ways, he says. “So I picked a lot of that stuff up growing up.” Given that, it makes sense that JM ended up studying storytelling via a degree in broadcast journalism, or that he now works as a photographer for PublicSource. And it's no surprise that he tells his own stories through music. On August 25, he released his first full-length record, Deja Vu, on Pittsburgh-based label Driving While Black. It’s a memoir of sorts, documenting the ups and downs of the four years since JM moved from Columbia, South Carolina to Pittsburgh. As a teenager, he set up a
JM The Poet. (Photo Courtesy of Dylan Rosgon)
makeshift garage studio for him and his friends. But around the time of his post-college move, he says, “I was on the verge of quitting music, hip hop, all that.” he says. “The first half of [Deja Vu] deals with how I first moved to Pittsburgh and had a good career, got a job fresh out of college, had my girl, we were engaged, everything was good,” he says. “I was having a lot of fun but
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I feel like I lost myself. And I was starting to lose that artistry side. I was losing my passion for making music.” The album’s second track, “Get Up, Get Right,” reflects that time of internal conflict: “I’m splitting in my mind, I need to make a decision,” he raps, his urgent tone tensing against the chill looping beat. “Doubt my vision/Go for that promotion/ Your
family needs your attention.” Then one day he got on stage at an open-mic event put on by hip hop-focused art and activism collective 1Hood. He eventually joined up, and now works with them as a teaching artist. Working with 1Hood, he says, “really sparked my want for music and hip hop, my passion for it. Being around so many people who are just as passionate, and
NATURE ON DEJA VU more passionate about it than me. And not only in the sense of making music, but actually having a message … and really making music as an MC and as an artist.” Through 1Hood he met Jordan Montogomery, the rapper and entrepreneur behind Driving While Black, who is featured on Deja Vu, along with fellow DWB artist Livefromthecity. Even as JM became more connected to his art, life got harder: he lost his job and things with his fiance fell apart. Towards the middle of the record, “Insomniac,” the record’s most obvious nod to Andre 3000 and Big Boi, one feels JM hitting a fevered edge, again contrasting the stress of his mental state with a playful groove. That gives way to “Hate,” a raw-nerved spoken-word track that brings to mind elements of Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered, followed by the relationship post-mortem “Intentions.” “Sometimes you can do as good as you can do, and sometimes it's not meant to be,” JM explains. “Thats’ a song that represents more than a breakup, it's like everything, it can happen with anything.”
NEWS
After that comes “Beautiful,” which the rapper describes as the record’s reset, “where you’re kind of finding self-love again, which is a big thing I had to do. That was a huge process for me.” These days, JM likes to say that he “deja vus” his dreams, turning his visions into reality. “The concept of [deja vu] is when you experience something in life that feels like it was a dream, or you experience something that reminds you of a dream,” he says. “That concept of having dreams become reality is what [the album] is built on.” Which all ties back to the cyclical, universal nature of stories. We all have ups and downs, time spent dreaming, time spent achieving, and everything in between. “Change always happens,” JM continues. “No matter how high you get, all it takes is one change and that high isn’t meant to be any more. “Again, the concept of deja vu: Things have happened before and they’ll happen again. It’s a repeat, you gain and you lose and you reset yourself, you gain again and you lose again and you reset yourself again. It's a whole process of growth, loss and restructuring.” PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 13
ESSAY LOVE, BATTERIES, SCRAP BY MATTHEW WALLENSTEIN - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER
INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM
Sometimes they get mad at you because you don’t love them back. Sometimes you love them but you’ve got too many hang-ups, stupid things, baggage that ties itself to you and you’re still dragging around. Once in a while you fall for something that hurts you, leads you around like you’re a street dog and they really have something. Sometimes neither of you loves the other but you both look good without a shirt on. There are a lot of ways romance can go. I was running through it in my head while I got out of bed and pulled on some sweatpants. I usually woke up with something upsetting me, that day like many others it was the heart. I grabbed a banana and chewed on it while I crossed the street. I was walking over to the garage where Dave lived so we could lift weights. It was a good thing to eat up time with, to distract myself, and he had this big mirror behind the weight rack I liked flexing in front of. The lot in front of his place was filled with old beaters, cars that Dave, Jay and Big Dirty worked on for people, or that were left there and given up on. Jack was there standing next to his truck. Jay was bent over looking under the hood, and there was another guy I didn’t recognize over there too. A woman sat in her car nearby looking bored. While I was
walking by Big Dirty he leaned in to me. “Some guy is going to buy Jack’s truck,” he said. “You guys must be so happy.” Jack was a friend of ours. He bought a truck, a clunker with a lot of problems, with the intention of fixing it up. He didn’t know a thing about cars, though. He wanted to learn about car repair by doing it. It amounted to beating a dead horse, Big Dirty, Jay, Jack, they all dumped hours into it. They got it to run periodically, but I think they were all glad to see it go. I went inside. Dave and I worked out, made jokes, talked about the truck. When we were done I went back out front. Jay was there working on something else. He told me Jack and the buyer had left together 45 minutes before and he had no idea where they went. Later on, I got the whole story from Jack. Jack tried to sell it, put an ad up. No one bought it. He put another ad up. No one bought it. He tried again to sell it. Finally he got a bite from Craigslist. The guy got ahold of him via text from his girlfriend's phone. He said he didn’t have a phone of his own so he had to set up times in advance to call Jack. He wanted to buy it to collect scrap metal with. After a few calls the guy came
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Matthew Walenstein
to check out the truck. Jack arranged it so he had four hours before he had to be at class. He figured that would be plenty of time to get done with the truck. The buyer and his girlfriend showed up. He was in the passenger seat. They were wearing old pajamas. He got out. Jack greeted him. The guy had a thick Pittsburgh accent. The guy looked at the truck: the rusted out floors, the dents, the seats with their tears and yellow creases. He wanted it. They agreed on a price. “Well, let’s head over to the
notary,” Jack said. “Okay, I know a notary close by. We can go there.” “Where is that?” “Close by. I’ll give you directions. You can drive us there.” “Okay,” Jack said. “I don’t have too much time but that’s fine, we can just get this thing done.” “It’s just a couple miles.” They got into Jack’s car and headed out of Braddock. They crossed the bridge towards Homestead. There was some getting lost, some miles then some more miles. It was over a
ESSAY half hour when they finally got there. They got out and went in. Jack explained why they were there and pulled out the papers, pulled out his drivers license. The buyer pulled his out. It didn’t take long for the notary to tell them the sale couldn’t happen because the buyers license wasn’t valid. But after enough arguing and sweettalking by the buyer to cave the resolve of the notary, and eventually it was done. Jack checked his watch as they got back into his car and headed back to where the truck was. “Is that your girlfriend? She seems nice,” Jack was making conversation as they went along. “Man you got a girl?” The buyer asked him. “No.” “Yeah, well, shit. She’s a bitch, man.” “Huh.” “Man, fuck. She is annoying as hell. A real bitch. She’s always complaining n’at.” “But it does seem like she helps you out, right? She drove you over here and lets you use her phone.” “Yeah. We were homeless back in Ohio, she got a place here and I moved in. But fuck dude. The truth of it is I can’t stand her.” “Hm.” Jack got back to the lot. They went to his truck. The buyer's girlfriend was still there waiting for him. Jack handed him the keys and he got in and went to start it and it was dead. Flat dead. They opened the hood and propped it up. That
was about the time I came by to lift weights with Dave. “Can you drive me over to get a new battery?” the buyer said. “We have to go quick, I am running very behind on my day.” “Let’s go then.” “I’ll bring you over to the AutoZone it isn’t too far,” Jack said. “No, I know a guy. He has a junkyard it will be way cheaper. AutoZone, that shit’ll be like hundred dollars, my buddy’ll do it for like twenty or thirty. I don’t have a job, I don’t have much money to spend on this stuff. It’s close by.” “Okay. Let’s go. Come on.” They got into Jack’s car again. They crossed the bridge again. They got lost again. It was almost 40 minutes this time before they pulled into a spot in front of the junkyard. “Come oooooon in,” the buyer said. They walked over. A little bell made a sound when they opened the door. The buyer and the guy working said their hellos. The worker was rubbing his hands with a rag. He nodded at Jack and said something under his breath. “Whatchu need?” He said turning to the buyer. Then before he answered he turned back toward Jack and said, “you stay here.” He opened a door and the two of them disappeared through it. The clock on the wall ticked away. Jack leaned on the counter. The hands moved across the clock face.
Jack rubbed his chin, slapped his hands on his thighs, sighed. He went and sat in a chair in the corner. Time kept going, he could see it move around on that clock. He looked at his watch as if it would have better news for him. He waited, waited. He just wanted to be done with the whole thing, he wanted to be back at school. His afternoon had been swallowed by inactivity. He thought about just leaving, he had the guys money, he could just go. The clock kept on. He thought more about leaving. Finally the door opened. They came back in. The buyer was carrying the battery. The worker scratched his balls. “Okay, twenty-eight dollars.” The buyer handed his card over. It was swiped. It was declined. It was tried again. It was declined. Jack looked over at the clock. The buyer pulled out another one. Swiped, declined. Another. Declined. It was like those handkerchiefs clowns pulled out of their pockets, the cards just kept coming and kept being declined. Jack gave up, reached into his pocket, pulled out the bills the buyer had given him for the truck and took thirty from it. On the drive back to Braddock the buyer complained more about his girlfriend. He talked about being homeless in Ohio. He complained about his girl some more, and some more after that. They got back to the lot. Jay and Big Dirty did what they needed to do to the truck
and the guy left in it. The truck jolted and bucked along. It was someone else's issue now. A few days later Jack got a text message from the buyer's girlfriend’s phone. He started sending Jack pictures of the truck with its back filled up with scrap metal. He got another a few days later telling him the buyer’s neighbor smashed one of the windows out, but not to worry it was running great. Each time Jack gave very short responses. The guy kept texting, saying he wanted to call Jack, sending more pictures of it hauling scrap. Jack sort of felt bad for him, it seemed like he was just looking for a friend. Around Thanksgiving he got a text from the same number. This time it was the buyer's girlfriend. She explained that they had been in a high-speed chase running from the police and the truck had flipped over. They both ended up in the hospital and the buyer had gone to jail. Jack said he hoped everyone was okay. She then said that, by the way, this was the girlfriend of the guy who bought the truck from him. Why she told him the story -- if she thought they were friends, if she was looking for money -he didn’t know. He never heard from either one of them again. She was out there loving him and he was out there crashing scrap metal trucks. When women and men get together they are either boring as hell or make a mess of things. At least these two weren’t boring. Who knows.
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PA R T I N G S H OT
PITTSBURGH CURRENT PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 | 16
