Pittsburgh Current. Sept. 22, 2020. Volume 3, Issue 32 by pittsburghcurrent

INSIDE:

ARTS ORGANIZATIONS STILL ADAPTING TO PANDEMIC

VOL. 3 ISSUE 32

Sept. 22, 2020 - Sept. 28, 2020

PGHCURRENT

WRESTLING WITH A PANDEMIC P I T T S B U R G H ' S I N D Y W R E S T L I N G S C E N E FA C E S U N C E R TA I N T I M E S T H A N K S T O C O V I D - 1 9 BY TOM LETURGEY/P. 6

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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. Even before canceling events and staying at home became the new normal, media companies like ours were struggling to keep things going. But we, like others, have found a way because people depend on our product, they like what they do and we feel that appreciation every day. We announced last week that we were temporarily halting our twice-monthly print publication and focusing on our online digital edition because people aren’t going outside, and the businesses where we distribute are all closed. The good news in all of this is that our digital edition will now be coming out weekly instead of bi-monthly. So beginning March 24, you’ll be able to get the Current every Tuesday (to make sure you get it delivered to your inbox, fill out our email signup on our homepage). We are a small team with a big mission and we’re stubborn enough to know that with your help we will get through this. The Current, like many small businesses, is at a crossroads. We plan on doing our part to get you the information you need to make it through this crisis, but we need your support to make sure we’re also able to report on the next one. You can donate by clicking the popup on our homepage or clicking donate below.

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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.

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

Music Editor: Margaret Welsh Margaret@pittsburghcurrent.com Visuals Editor: Jake Mysliwczyk Jake@pittsburghcurrent.com Sr. Contributing Writer: Jody DiPerna Jody@pittsburghcurrent.com Social Justice Columnist: Jessica Semler jessica@pittsburghcurrent.com

contents

Vol. III Iss. XXXII Sept. 22, 2020

Contributing Photographer: Ed Thompson 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

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

The Fine Print The contents of the Pittsburgh Current are © 2020 by Pittsburgh Current, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication shall be duplicated or reprinted without the express-written consent of Pittsburgh Current LLC. One copy per person. The Pittsburgh Current is published twice monthly beginning August 2018. The opinions contained in columns and letters to the editors represent the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Pittsburgh Current ownership, management and staff. The Pittsburgh Current is an independently owned and operated print and online media company produced in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood, 1665 Broadway Ave., Pittsburgh, PA., 15216. 412-204-7248. Email us or don’t: info@pittsburghcurrent.com.

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PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 | 5

NEWS

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NEWS

WRESTLING WITH A PANDEMIC PITTSBURGH'S INDY WRESTLING SCENE HAS TAKEN A HIT FROM COVID-19

ike most forms of live entertainment, professional wrestling in and around Pittsburgh has been extremely sparse since March 16, when COVID-19 forced the shut-down of, well, pretty much everything. At this point, most promotions in Western Pennsylvania haven’t held events in close to seven months. Independent wrestling in Western Pennsylvania has flourished for years, with well-established federations running regular shows with great crowds. Pittsburgh’s KSWA, Elizabeth-based IWC, West Newton’s RWA, and Connellsville’s RYSE Wrestling are three of the leading promotions in the region. Locally, only IWC has dipped its toes in competitive waters with wrestling cards at the Wild Things ballpark in Washington, PA and socially distanced drive-in experiences in Fayette County. Despite a larger capcity at the venue, crowds have been held to just a couple of hundred people. Restrictions in Alleghe-

BY TOM LETURGEY - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

Left: Laura Loveless making her entrance during an Ohio Championship Wrestling Card. (Photo: Mallory Lynde) Above: Referee Bobby Piskor at an outdoor IWC show, "Back in Business" at the Brownsville Drive-in on Sept. 19. (Photo Cpurtesy IWC)

ny County continue to nix any events with crowds large enough to make an event profitable.. For the promoters, professional wrestling has come to a standstill. Many wrestlers have been forced to look at alternative side-hustles to make ends meet, while others need to

consider full-time work. It’s interesting to note that all wrestlers appear to be thriving, despite the shutdown. One of those athletes who has been working nearly exclusively as a wrestler is Sam Polinksy, who goes by the ringname Sam Adonis. The

Monroeville native, who made headlines a few years ago as a “Pro-Trump bad guy” while wrestling in Mexico, is a now a delivery driver. “It would have broken me if I didn’t sign on at Amazon,” he recently told the Current via email. Always on the go, Polinsky had been piloting Mexican-infused “WrestleRex” cards at the Rex Theater on the South Side. (COVID-19 has also left entertainment venues with an uncertain future.) A full-time professional wrestler since 2012, Polinsky had also been wrestling locally and was flying all over the country as was “one of the busiest unsigned talents on Earth before COVID 19,” he says. Polinsky moved to Mt. Washington “with the love of my life” and has managed to stay frontand-center in the professional wrestling world. In August, he sat down with wrestling legend Chris Jericho for an episode of his popular “Talk Is Jer-

PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 | 7

NEWS

PA G E 7

icho” podcast. Polinsky says that in many states, professional wrestling is picking back up and he’s starting to travel again. “My best days are ahead of me,” he adds. Laura Loveless is best known for her time in RYSE, which runs events in Connellsville, Fayette County. She is one of the region’s most sought-after wrestlers. During the day, Laura has worked in Human Resources for nearly six years. Before COVID-19, she was preparing to attend an exclusive wrestling seminar in Chicago, but that will have to wait. Since then, Loveless has looked at other ways to improve her already-impressive social media brand outreach and digital marketing plan. “I’ve been revamping my YouTube page and all of my social media outlets in general,” she wrote in a recent email. The lack of wrestling has not really affected her financial situation. “If anything, the situation taught me to adapt and overcome the limitations COVID imposed on the wrestling industry,” she says. “It’s made me appreciate treating wrestling as an actual business.” Loveless hopes that independent wrestlers don’t

SAM ADONIS. (PHOTO: H O WA R D K E R N AT S )

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get discouraged during this down time. “I hope they explore all the opportunities of digital mediums; I hope they still work out and practice. I hope they never forget their craft,” she says. “Things will get better, but we have to put in the effort first if we want to see the changes happen.” Bobby Piskor has worn several hats during his wrestling career (referee/ wrestler/booker).. For 11 years, Piskor has served as a Secretary for an Allegheny County District Magistrate. The day job has given him the flexibility to work evenings and weekends on his in-ring craft. “Before pandemic, I finished a memoir on my professional wrestling career, as I competed in my last scheduled bout in January,” he wrote last week. Earlier this year, he finished a memoir about his friend, trainer and mentor, Devil Bhudakahn. Bhudakhan (real name James Fawcett), a local wrestling mainstay beginning in the 1990s, committed suicide in 2007. The book serves as a tribute to Piskor’s friend. “It has gained a lot of positive feedback and opened up a conversation about the effects of suicide. People began sharing stories, and experiences with each other. My goal

was to allow people who may have [thoughts of suicide] speak up and seek out help. As for the future of independent wrestling, Piskor is hopeful. “Selfishly, I want things to go back to the way things were,” he says. “Realistically, I know that they will not be anytime soon.” One of the region’s most unique wrestlers and professionals is Max Petrunya. He is a former KSWA Heavyweight Champion and current IWC wrestler known throughout Western Pennsylvania and beyond as “The Gavel” David Lawless. For a decade, Petrunya (www.maxpetrunyapc.com) has been a licensed attorney, who at one time worked for a well-known local personal injury firm dealing with medical malpractice and nursing home abuse. He went out on his own more than a year ago. Never one to lean on wrestling earnings to pay the bills, Petrunya is busier than ever. “I have had the opportunity to work on cases against the NFL and NCAA for football players suffering from traumatic brain injury from repetitive head trauma,” he says. He’s worked on a number of civil rights cases and counseled professional wrestlers and musicians re-

NEWS

garding entertainment law and contracts. “This time has given me a greater appreciation for what we do as (wrestling) performers and how valuable our shows are to our fans. I am very blessed to be able, both physically and mentally, to still be able to provide entertainment and my brand to the fans.” Lawless says he’s looking forward to getting back to a booked schedule and “offering fans a much-deserved break from everything else going on in the world.” Derek Widziszewski is one of the region’s most colorful and passionate independent professional wrestling promoters. Known as “Dr. Feelbad” to his fans and locker room colleagues, the man behind West Newton’s RWA Wrestling is just as energized about his promotion’s brand as he was when it was launched nearly a dozen years ago. “It’s been a crazy year,” he said recently. The last RWA event was March 7, a mere nine days before the Commonwealth was locked down. One of Western Pennsylvania’s most consistent federations, RWA lost a minimum of nine shows because of COVID-19. Business had been booming for RWA. The

West Newton gymnasium where he runs monthly events had regularly been packed by fans. “[A crowd of] 200 in attendance was a bad night,” he said. The venue’s capacity is 300, and two recent shows were sold out. A very passionate promoter, Widziszewki says that he has become “far more political” in his personal discussions. He notes that like professional wrestling, the game of politics fields an array of “good guys” and “bad guys.” Widziszewski runs a successful promotion, but it’s not enough to be his only job. “I don’t half-ass anything,” he says. He works as a home-care professional with two clients, and is employed by a Brownsville-area pizzeria. The fiscal rewards from wrestling go back into running the business. He also notes that no one in his immediate family was out of work during the pandemic. As far as the future, Dr. Feelbad offers a hopeful prognosis that indoor shows can resume by January. He says the RWA’s upcoming 12th anniversary event should be an all-out celebration. “I truly miss the fans,” he says. “We are working very hard to come back at 100 percent.”

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NEWS

PA G E 7

CAN SCHOOLS CREATE EQUITABLE SYSTEMS FOR EVERY STUDENT? THE PA. DEPT. OF ED NOW HAS AN APP FOR THAT

he state Department of Education today launched an “Equitable Practices Hub” that is aimed at getting school districts to perform a deep analysis of equity practices and make the changes needed to ensure that academics, discipline and extracurricular activities are available to all students on an equal basis. “We’ve made it a one-stop shop for LEAs (Local Education Agencies) to find out where they are in the equity journey,” said Nikole Hollins-Sims, special advisor around equity to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. For some districts, using the hub will be a start, Hollins-Sims said. “Others may be halfway through and others further along in the journey. This hub is essentially a guidepost.” The department’s goal for equity is that “every student has access to the educational resources and rigor they need, when they need it, across race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, family background and/or family income,” according to a press release announcing its launch. The hub holds resources such as best practices, models and guidance, but it first asks schools and districts to take a deep look into their data and practices and how they affect students, particularly those in marginalized communities or vulnerable groups including minorities, students with disabilities, English language

BY MARY NIEDERBERGER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDUCATION WRITER MARY@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

learners and those living in poverty. The education department asks each district or school to use the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium — Criteria for an Equitable School Tool before using the resources in the hub. Hollins-Sims called it an ”equity audit.” The tool asks educators to answer a number of questions about equity in their district,

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forcing them to take a hard look at some sensitive issues. It starts by asking if a school system has a specific plan for educational equity but then moves on to questions about the distribution of highly qualified teachers throughout the system and whether there are policies to ensure that no students are excluded from extra or co-curricular activities because of

race, language, gender, gender identity, socioeconomics, disability or transportation issues. It questions if interpreters are available within a school system for all of the languages present in the school community And, it asks districts to review enrollments of students in special education, gifted programs and advanced courses to ensure there is not a dispro-

NEWS portionate representation of one racial or ethnic group, language or gender identity. Traditionally, minorities have had far lower enrollments in gifted programs and advanced courses. It also asks if data is regularly collected, disaggregated and analyzed by such areas as standardized test scores, student discipline, bullying and harassment and participation in school activities and honors. There is a school climate review as well which asks such questions as whether programs, speakers and curriculum in the school district represent the diversity that exists in the system, if bulletin board postings and other materials show students of diverse backgrounds Educators are also asked to review discipline practices and data to determine if they are carried out equitably among the various populations of students. In Allegheny County, Leanna Lawson, program director for training and consultation at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, is the point person for school districts who need help finding resources. Lawson served on committees that helped to develop the hub, which was two and a half years in the making. Lawson said in the coming weeks she will work to ensure that all school districts in the county know about the hub and its purpose. Following that she will encourage any educators who might need technical support or training, such as data analysis, to reach out to the AIU, Both Lawson and Hollins-Sims noted there are no quick fixes to equity issues. “This work is literally paradigm-shifting,” Hollins-Sims

said. Lawon suggests districts start by focusing on pieces of their equity work and creating momentum and change rather than trying to fix an entire system. The hub was launched at this time because all of its components were ready, Hollins-Sims said. But it is timely given the racial discord in the nation and the COVID-19 pandemic which is creating equity issues in education as students are kept from their classrooms and many of the services they normally receive and as families live through the trauma of isolation, job loss and possible health issues related to the virus. “Our populations who have been marginalized in the past are experiencing this pandemic at much higher rates of trauma,” said Dana Milakovic, mental health and alcohol and other drugs specialist for the department of education. “There’s resources (in the hub) on how to engage with families. How to do check-ins with families. How to support families with the traumas that are existing,” she said. The equity hub is an outgrowth of the Pennsylvania Equity and Inclusion Toolkit the department provided in April 2017 to help districts react to incidents of discrimination. Hollins-Sims said the hope is that the equity hub will help prevent incidents of discrimination. “So the environment is such that we hopefully wouldn’t have this happen again,” she said. She said the hub will become a “living breathing” resource and more strategies will be added as they are developed. PITTSBURGH CURRENT | SEPTEMBER 22, 2020 | 11

OPINION

THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY, DARK MONEY, AND TRUMP’S COURT BY LARRY J. SCHWEIGER - PITTSBURGH CURRENT COLUMNIST

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

The Federalist Society, Dark Money, and Trump’s Court By: Larry J. Schweiger Since taking office, Trump has appointed two Supreme Court justices – Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – as well as nearly 200 other judges with lifetime appointments to lower federal courts. According to the Pew Research Center, 24% of the Federal Judicial positions are now filled with Trump appointees. Trump is now seeking to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most influential justice in our lifetime whose last wish expressed to her granddaughter, “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.” Have you no decency? It is disgusting and tawdry that within 24 hours of Ginsburg’s death, Trump announced he would appoint a woman and urged Republicans to fill the vacancy. Chants of "Fill that seat! Fill that seat!" broke out during Trump's campaign rally in Fayetteville on Saturday. Just minutes after Ginsburg’s death, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged a floor vote on an appointment. McConnell is a hypocrite. He refused to even consider highly qualified moderate Merrick Garland, nominated by Barrack Obama eleven months before the 2016 election saying the voters should decide in November. Now that the table has turned, he has flipped and is committing to a hasty confirmation vote in the face of a Presidential election for a life-

Ruth Bader Ginsberg is sworn in as an Asssociate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993. (Smithsonian)

time appointment to the highest court in the land. Within moments of Justice Ginsburg’s death, embattled Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) launched a fundraising effort off the vacancy. Other Republican senators led by Lindsey Graham are flipflopping on their 2016 pledge not to vote for a Supreme Court Justice in an election year. Barack Obama, responding to Trump’s decision to nominate Ginsburg’s replacement,

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issued a statement: “Four and a half years ago, when Republicans refused to hold a hearing or an up-or-down vote on Merrick Garland, they invented the principle that the Senate shouldn’t fill an open seat on the Supreme Court before a new president was sworn in. A basic principle of the law––and of everyday fairness––is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment. The rule of law,

the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle. As votes are already being cast in this election, Republican Senators are now called to apply that standard. The questions before the Court now and in the coming years––with decisions that will determine whether or not our economy is fair, our society is just, women are treated equally, our planet survives, and our democracy endures––are too

OPINION consequential to future generations for courts to be filled through anything less than an unimpeachable process.” Drawing from the Federal Judicial Center data, as of July 7, there were 792 active judges serving across the three main tiers of the federal court system: the Supreme Court, 13 regional appeals courts, and 91 district courts governed by Article III of the U.S. Constitution. In a single term, Trump, an unindicted co-conspirator and unquestionably the most lawless president in American history, has appointed 194 judges, or 24% of the total. Mitch McConnell, freed from the filibuster rules, has been jamming as many appointments as possible. Trump and McConnell moved at an unprecedented pace in appointing and confirming federal judges, especially powerful federal appellate judges. Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, observed, “They seem to have no higher priority.” While ignoring the American Bar Association’s ratings and recommendations, which have been the bipartisan gold standard for many decades, Trump picks judicial candidates screened by the Federalist Society to favor corporate interests. So much for equal justice under the law. Behind the curtain, the Federalist Society has been identifying candidates with strong corporate leanings, and they coach nominees on what to say, what not to say and how to say it. Whitehouse has been tracking the Federalist Society's influence in judicial appointments and warns, “nearly 90% of Trump’s appellate judges,

and both his Supreme Court justices, are members of the so-called Federalist Society.” Of the eight current members of the Supreme Court, five including Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito, are current or former members of the organization. Whitehouse adds: “What’s really weird is that through this Federalist Society vehicle, big special interests are picking federal judges.” Senator Whitehouse warns: “Within the Federalist Society, is an operation funded by dark money and designed to remake our judiciary on behalf of a distinct group of very wealthy anonymous funders. In 2017, the Federalist Society took $5.5 million via an entity called DonorsTrust.” DonorsTrust has as its sole purpose to launder mega-rich donors and fossil fuel corporations' identities so that voters don’t know who the real backers of the Federalist Society and other right-wing groups are. Whitehouse calls it “an identity removal machine for big donors” adding, “(t) hrough the hard work of investigators, journalists, and researchers, we have learned that the Koch brothers are among the largest, if not the largest, contributors to DonorsTrust. The Federalist Society’s total annual budget is about $20 million, so this $5.5 million in funding laundered through DonorsTrust provides more than a quarter of its entire budget.” In perhaps one the worst court decisions, the Federalist Society justices on the Supreme Court struck down the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 designed to keep dark

money from corrupting our government. In the January 21, 2010 decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court embraced two flawed theories including that “money” equals “free speech” and that “corporations” are “people” in the meaning of the constitution. The justices knew this travesty would dramatically shift the center of power in American governance to the wealthy and corporations. The People for the American Way point out that “the Court’s watershed ruling is the logical expression of an activist pro-corporatist jurisprudence that has been bubbling up for many decades on the Court but has gained tremendous momentum over the last generation. Since the Rehnquist Court, there have been at least five justices—and sometimes more—that tilt hard to the right when it comes to a direct showdown between corporate power and the public interest. During the Roberts Court, this trend has continued and intensified and in the days ahead the Supreme Court will make decisions on Obamacare and the climate crisis affecting all of our lives. One of the highly effective political stratagems that Republicans have repeatedly used while campaigning with their evangelical and catholic base is to suggest that they must vote for Republicans to get judicial appointments that will end abortions. We now know that the judicial appointments are all about corporate power and control. Koch Industries, several other Koch-network foundations and trusts, and nearly a dozen wholly anonymous donors have each given over $100,000 to the Federalist

Society. Tax documents from 2014, uncovered by the New York Times, show a donation of more than $2 million from the Mercer family, the secretive donors who helped start Breibart News and bankrolled the Trump campaign. These donors are not concerned with abortion. While there may be some incidental overlap, their goal in getting judges who will be favorable to their interests. The influence does not stop with the Judiciary, it is part of a multipronged, multitiered strategy of a handful of mega-wealthy special interests to control our government. Make no mistake about the influence of dark money, the darkest “toxic money” flows from fossil-fuel interests into the coffers of compromised Republicans who will be quick to vote for each Federalist Society’s candidates nominated to the bench. The situation may be bleak, but we must not give up or fall into despair. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life is a reminder that courage and mental toughness can come even in frail packages. A friend from Portland, Oregon, Bruce Lindner, said it best in a post, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg led a life of constantly swimming upstream. Everything from institutionalized sexism, misogyny, ignorance, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and for her final curtain, five bouts with various types of cancer. Five. Throughout it all, never did she throw up her hands and say; ‘That’s it, I’m so screwed.’ or ‘My life was nice while it lasted.’ To the contrary, she never, EVER complained. Instead, she fought. Because she knew the ultimate beneficiaries of her battles weren’t just herself. They were us.”

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ARTS

ARTS ORGANIZATIONS STILL DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY IN PANDEMIC

t is no secret that COVID-19 has left a massive imprint on the world of art. The arenas of live music, theaters, art museums, all lay empty into the summer, as the future of the pandemic remained unclear. Major events were either cancelled or moved to the virtual sphere, like the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Even now, museums are at significantly reduced capacity, and live performances are still cancelled indefinitely. In response to these unprecedented circumstances, artists and organizations in Pittsburgh have had to take new and different approaches to keep doing the crafts they love.

Drive-In Arts Fest While almost every art form has been restricted in some way due to COVID-19, none has been dealt with more harshly than live theaters and venues. They were among the first institutions shut down when the pandemic hit, and are cursed to be the last to reopen. “Our bread and butter, which is to get together in a shared space, shoulder

BY NICK EUSTIS - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

Scarlet Fairweather

to shoulder with strangers, breathing the same air for two hours, is about the worst thing you can prescribe in the era of COVID,” said James McNeel, managing director for City Theatre. When the pandemic hit, uncertainty about the future forced organizations like City Theatre to plan for multiple potential futures, from best case scenario to worst. “There was still optimism that we would be able to return to indoor performances in the fall, but

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when there was the spike in the summer around July 4, and the county put in stricter guidelines, it was obvious that wouldn’t be a possibility,” said McNeel. It became clear that a new approach would be the only way to salvage the season. Inspired by the renaissance of drive-in movie theaters since the pandemic began, City Theatre began looking for places to stage drive-in performances. They found a willing partner in the Hazelwood Green, the site of a former steel mill along the

Monongahela River, currently being redeveloped. Since the drive-in format is not necessarily conducive to City Theatre’s usual domain of plays and musicals, they also had to pivot in terms of content. “We thought that we should celebrate what’s lost right now in Pittsburgh, and that’s art across all disciplines. That’s where the Drive-In Arts Festival idea came in,” said McNeel. Drive-In Arts Festival consists of twelve nights of programming that began September 10 and ends Sunday, Sept. 27. The lineup includes a diverse array of Pittsburgh talent, including singer-songwriter INEZ, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, magician Lee Terbosic, and the Drinking Partners podcast for a night of comedy. Kicking off the festival’s first night was a performance by local folk duo The Living Street. Their first public performance since rising cases of COVID-19 cut their last tour short in March, band members Nick Guckert and Edward Angelo were thrilled to be in front of a live crowd again, despite

ARTS the unorthodox arrangement. “It was the coolest show ever,” said Angelo. “Instead of clapping, you just heard horns beeping and saw lights flashing.” “After every song, we just felt this roar of horns. Sounded like we were in traffic, but it was a super unique and new experience,” said Guckert. City Theatre has also reconfigured the show they were originally planning to open the season with for the drive-in format. Chicago-based multi-media company Manuel Cinema are presenting their rendition of the classic tale, Frankenstein. The performance will feature a live orchestra and unexpected film techniques to bring Mary Shelley’s story to the drive-in screen. The show will run September 30 through October 18. After Frankenstein concludes, City Theatre hopes to take to the virtual world for winter content, but acknowledges that beyond this winter, the only attitude one can have is “wait and see.” “What we’ve learned from the pandemic is that the virus is in control, and we have to be willing to adapt and be flexible to move forward,” said McNeel. Despite the uncertainty,

McNeel feels fulfilled and happy that he is able to help provide an escape for audiences and artists alike, even temporarily. “Nationally, there are maybe five theaters in the entire country that are producing or presenting anything before a live audience, and City Theatre is one of them,” said McNeel. “To be able to find another way to do our work and do it safely, just in terms of our morale and sense of focus, has been transformative.”

Pittsburgh Drag Artists Drag performances, like the rest of the performing arts, have been almost entirely put on hold since the pandemic began, and with good reason. Drag shows often feature large, rowdy crowds, tiny stages, and lots of one dollar bills, none of which are conducive to preventing the spread of COVID-19. Drag performer Alora Chateaux felt this impact first hand. Chateaux hosted a “Once we went into quarantine, I was supposed to have a drag bingo at Element that Tuesday, and it wasn’t going to happen, obviously,” said Chateaux. “I thought, ‘I was scheduled to get into drag

anyway, so why not try a virtual bingo.’” Part of Chateaux’s motivation to move online was the fact that pandemic restrictions had cut drag fans off from their community. “My mind just went to people who weren’t used to living by themselves, weren’t used to being secluded, especially in the LGBTQ community,” said Chateaux. “I really thought a lot about that, because one of the nicest parts about live performance and drag is creating a community.” Starting in mid-March, Chateaux hosted 13 weeks of Tuesday night drag bingo via Facebook Live. For this first round of shows, she decided to raise money for charity, collecting over $7,500 to donate to Feeding America and Black Lives Matter. Chateaux took a month and a half break before returning to regular virtual bingo, this time to support herself. Her decision to return online coincided with the loss of her day job in late July. “I had already planned to start [drag bingo] again at the end of July, and right at the end of July, I lost my job,” said Chateaux. Chateaux was one of the first Pittsburgh queens to take her show digital, and many others have since

followed suit. Scarlet Fairweather, “the soccer mom of Pittsburgh drag,” in her words, has been organizing a monthly virtual drag show since May. Fairweather encourages performers of all stripes, from Pittsburgh and elsewhere, to send in video performances that she broadcasts during the show. She also provides a way for viewers to virtually tip the performers. “It’s no holds barred, everyone gets to do what they want to do, and we’ve been able to bring in people from outside of Pittsburgh that really fit in with what the city stands for in drag,” said Fairweather. For Fairweather, like Chateaux, the shift online has helped her stay in touch with the drag family she used to see in person. “While it’s not as lucrative, it’s still a way to get in touch with our art form, in touch with our friends, our fans, our drag family, and it gets people being creative on the fly,” said Fairweather. “That’s what a lot of us miss, is being able to make and create and deliver it to people.” Mia Moore is another Pittsburgh queen making the leap to digital content. Moore is currently working to organize a competition for performers of color, hosted via Zoom.

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ARTS “Myself, Morrigana Regina, and True T Studios are putting together a five week PoC competition that is inclusive of the drag, burlesque, and ballroom scenes here in Pittsburgh,” said Moore. The competition will include challenges that test skills used by drag performers, burlesque artists, and ball queens. The goal of the competition is to find the performer who is the most well-rounded, the best overall entertainer. “The competition is to bring the communities together,” said Moore. “The PoC performers, especially in the queer community, don’t get highlighted. We don’t get the accolades or the recognition that a lot of other performers get.” In addition to bringing performers and artists together, these digital shows bring together communities of drag fans who would not be able to attend an in-person event. “I’ve found doing the online shows get you connected to people that maybe don’t like going to bars, or don’t go to bars because they can’t be around alcohol,” said Fairweather. “Being from out of state, I can now sell tickets to my fans from North Car-

olina. They can still attend and comment and see me perform, which is something I’ve been missing being up here,” said Moore. All this considered, for many Pittsburgh queens, digital drag is here to stay, even once it becomes safe enough for live drag shows to resume. And as long as the pandemic continues, online will be the only safe place for queens to prance.

BOOM Concepts Visual art, like the performing arts, has been significantly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. Galleries and arts festivals, where painters and sculptors would make the majority of their sales, have moved online, restricted audience size, or closed. BOOM Concepts, a creative hub that provides workspace and resources to artists from marginalized communities, has had to find ways to continue supporting artists of color while maintaining a safe environment. “One of the things BOOM Concepts has had to do is identify what part of our services and programs have been essential, and how to drill into that as the way toward success and survival,” said D.S. Kinsel, co-founder of BOOM Concepts. “We want to continue to be art-

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ist centered, see what folks are needing, and how folks are responding.” One key move BOOM has made is to invest significantly in public art. Being outside means viewers can social distance, allowing people to enjoy art safely. “We are continuing to expand our portfolio specifically around public art projects,” said Kinsel. To this end, BOOM has extended a pre-existing curatorship with mural space Sidewall, lengthening it another year to the end of 2021. “It’s been a really great partnership,” said Kinsel. “We appreciate folks... supporting it, and giving us positive feedback about how it’s been a nice piece of the pandemic.” Currently on display at Sidewall’s Bloomfield space is the work of Miles Saal, a hip-hop and visual artist who died in November 2017 at the age of 21. BOOM and Sidewall worked with Saal’s parents to curate his work for this project. BOOM also recently partnered with Rivers of Steel, a nonprofit that showcases Western Pennsylvanian artistry through the region’s industrial heritage. “We recently finished a project at the Carrie Fur-

nace with Rivers of Steel.” said Kinsel. “We have twelve all-black artists working on a 100 foot wall with the theme of ‘Black on Black Love.’” The multi-generational, interdisciplinary group of artists used a variety of artistic techniques, including graffiti and wheatpasting, to transform the 100 foot long wall, as well as a building interior. In addition to creating work to enjoy in the present, Kinsel is looking to the future. In the next couple months, BOOM hopes to be able to snapshot this incredibly unique moment in Pittsburgh’s history through the lens of a small group of artists. “We’re doing a small collection with three or four artists at BOOM Concepts that will specifically be documenting this moment in time, the uniqueness of being an artist, being a community member, and experiencing the pandemic, responses to being introduced to a new virus, and how shutdown has affected people,” said Kinsel.

1Hood While BOOM Concepts has invested in physical works of public art, 1Hood Media has moved its programming largely online,

ARTS

Treble NLS on the Pittsburgh Current Podcast in September 2019. (Current Photo by Jake Mysliwczyk)

and created several new programs to address the issues facing the Black community. “The first thing we started was Town Hall Tuesdays,” said Treble NLS, an artist with 1Hood. “We realized that black people were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, so what we tried to do was get them the information that they need to properly take care of themselves, keep them up to date with everything that’s going on.”

In addition to keeping the community informed about the pandemic, 1Hood has also worked to keep the community informed on the state of the political system, and what they need to know going into this year’s presidential election. “Then, we started doing One Hour Power,” said Treble. “We’ve been trying to get people involved and informed about the election, and making sure people know what they can

do.” Another new program is “This Week in White Supremacy,” a weekly podcast about the state of white supremacy in America. “It’s a podcast that was supposed to be started years ago, but we felt like now was the perfect time to do it,” said Treble. Treble has also been hosting a virtual event called Next Level Slam, a virtual jam poetry session on the last Sunday of every

month. 1Hood’s artists have also collaborated with other arts organizations in the city to create virtual content centered on the Black experience. In August, members Jasmine Green, Jacquea Mae, and Naomi Allen organized a Zoom webinar titled “Flowers While We’re Still Living,” hosted through the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council’s Women in the Arts Network. “We delved into a bunch of different topics, like racism, mental health, grief, and loss, and how all of these things connect to the Black identity,” said Green. “It felt like I could be in that space, and I felt safer in that space than I have had it taken place more publicly. Going off the response we got during the event and afterward, a lot of other people felt the same way.” For Green, knowing that organizations like 1Hood are continuing to work to benefit their communities gives her hope that, even as the nightmare of COVID-19 drags on, artists will continue to find new and creative ways to speak truth to power. “It’s helped me stay hopeful...just knowing they’re still fighting as strong as they’ve ever been, and that gives me strength to keep going,” said Green.

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SAVAGE LOVE Savage Love Love | sex | relationships BY DAN SAVAGE MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET Married guy here. I’m 33, the wife is 31. Our fifth anniversary is next month but we’ve been together for almost eight years. We’ve recently both come out to each other as bi. She tried to tell me a long time ago whereas I came to the realization only recently. We’re both interested in new sexual encounters and this weekend we met up with a male escort. It was my first sexual experience with a man and the first sexual encounter between my wife and another man in eight years… and we found it lacking. It was too short, and too impersonal. Is this how it usually goes with escorts? Should we have been more upfront with our interests ahead of time? We don’t want to keep spending the money if we’re not getting the experience we want. We need to stay fairly discreet for most of these encounters due to our careers. Appreciate any input. Basking In Confusion Over Underwhelming, Pitifully Lackluster Experience P.S. A shoutout to my amazing wife for going from learning I’m bi to fucking another dude with me three months later! Some sex workers love their jobs, some don’t; some sex workers are good at their jobs, some aren’t. Sometimes a sex worker doesn’t click with a particular client for some ephemeral, hard-to-define reason; sometimes a client gives off a bad vibe—or a bad odor—and the sex worker bails or hurries things along not because they’re a shitty sex worker, BICOUPLE, but because their client is shitty or smells shitty. But here’s the thing, BICOUPLE:

no sex worker can read minds. You tell me you’re wondering if you should’ve been “more upfront with [your] interests ahead of time.” If you left something important out when you made the booking, well, that could’ve been the problem. No sex worker likes having things sprung on them. A sex worker who doesn’t do kink is going to feel very uncomfortable if there’s a bunch of bondage gear laid out when they arrive; even a sex worker who does kink is going to feel uncomfortable if kink wasn’t discussed in advance. Similarly, BICOUPLE, if you didn’t explain to your sex worker that there were two of you, your sex worker might’ve felt uncomfortable when they arrived. If you weren’t clear about your wants and your sex worker didn’t ask or you couldn’t articulate them after he asked, you put your sex worker in the position of having to guess. And your sex worker may have guessed wrong—some clients prefer sex that’s athletic, impersonal, or aggressive. And if your sex worker had a bad experience with a husband who got upset when his wife seemed a little too into him, he may have erred on the side of maintaining some emotional distance even as you got physically close. If what you wanted—if what you were most interested in—was a more intimate and connected experience, then you weren’t just expecting sexual labor from the sex worker you hired, BICOUPLE, but his emotional labor too. While affection and intimacy can certainly be faked, we don’t typically expect

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a strong emotional connection when we’re hooking up with a stranger. Being sexually intimate can build that connection, BICOUPLE, but it can take time and a few meetings to get there. To avoid winding up in bed with another sex worker you don’t click with, I would advise you to take the time—and spend the money—to make a real connection. By which I mean: Go on a date. Find a sex worker you’re interested in and make a date—for dinner. Pay them for their time, pay for their meal, and if you click, BICOUPLE, if you feel like you could connect, book them for a sex date. Straight male here, divorced four years ago, just entering my fifties. I recently expanded my dating app parameters to see everyone in my area. I wanted to check out the competition and possibly give myself a little ego boost. I have a gay male friend who is in his forties. Mr. Forties has a boyfriend of two years who is in his twenties. They are great together—they vacation together, they quarantined together, Mr. Twenties and Mr. Forties worked on redecorating a home together, etc. The problem is I spotted Mr. Forties on several dating apps. It would have been perfectly acceptable for him to say, “none of your business,” when I asked him why. Instead he told me they were old profiles, implying they pre-dated Mr. Twenties. He lists pets on his profiles that he adopted a few months ago. I have a sore spot about this behavior because my ex-wife started “auditioning” my replacement before we filed divorce papers. I really don’t like being lied to. What do I do? Confront Mr. Forties? Mind my own business and hope Mr. Forties doesn’t crush Mr. Twenties by cheating? Help! Fumbled Into Fraught Terrain Involving Expanded Search Maybe Mr. Forties and Mr. Twenties have an open relationship. Maybe they have a closed relationship but

both regard flirting on dating apps as harmless. Maybe Mr. Forties was charged with finding a very special guest star for a threesome. Or maybe Mr. Forties has profiles on dating apps for the exact same reason you expanded the parameters on your profiles, FIFTIES: for the ego boost. If it was any of the above—if there was an innocent explanation—why did Mr. Forties go with, “Those were old profiles,” instead of, “We sometimes have threesomes”? Well, in my experience, FIFTIES, some straight people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the kind of non-monogamy practiced by most gay male couples. Hell, some closed-minded gay people have a hard time with it. I can imagine a scenario where Mr. Forties was honest with people in the past and got a bad reaction and consequently no longer feels safe—much less obligated—to share the details of his sex life with straight or gay friends. So he gave you the answer a lot of straight people and some gay people prefer to hear when they ask pointed questions of partnered friends they assumed to be monogamous: “Of course I’m not sleeping around! Those were old profiles! My monogamous boyfriend would never want me to shove my monogamous dick down his throat while some other dude non-monogamously rearranges his guts! Heavens! We’re far too busy redecorating our lovely home to arrange threesomes! Which we’re totally not interested in having!” Look, FIFTIES, you put a question to Mr. Forties that he wasn’t obligated to answer at all, much less answer truthfully. So what do you do now? What you should’ve done when you first stumbled over Mr. Forties’ dating profiles: You do nothing. You drop it. The issue you shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place? You don’t bring it up again. Even if Mr. Forties is auditioning replacements for Mr. Twenties—even if he lied to you for a selfish, self-serving reason—it’s still none of your business.

ESSAY THE RESIDENTS OF MAIN STREET BY MATTHEW WALLENSTEIN - PITTSBURGH CURRENT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

INFO@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

e were maybe 18 when A fell skateboarding. After he had his accident a few of us stayed at the hospital. Some stayed to all hours of the night or slept in the hall, flipped coins in the cafeteria, waited, waited. We watched his family get the bad news, then the good news, then the bad news. After they removed some skull and part of his swelling brain some of us talked to him, went to his hospital room, then to his house when he got out. I didn’t go to his house but B would bring him places I was and I would talk to him. The scales of his affect had become lopsided. He always sounded sarcastic in every interaction. Whether he was or wasn’t, no one knew. He also lost a good deal of his understanding of time. He would call his friends at 3 a.m. asking to play video games or go to the movies. There is an etiquette we learn as children from getting sent to time-out for laughing in church, or from the bromides in funeral speeches, or the soft lies of remembering out loud. We glean the idea of good taste. But I still remember, years before the accident, the time a group of us were waiting outside Market Basket for T to get off his shift. A crouched between a couple cars and pulled his pants down to his ankles. He strained his face and let something fall onto a Dunkin’ Donuts napkin. It smelled awful. He walked across the parking lot carrying it and everyone followed him and watched as he threw

it against the window of the condemned department store. It splattered like mud. Everyone laughed. If there is remembering, I always think it should be honest to the real why’s and who’s of the thing. Last I heard, A was in an assisted living place off Main Street in the town I grew up in. When I was young there were a lot of people who wandered Main Street. Many were from halfway houses, assisted living spots, living under bridges, former residents of the state hospital. We had names or nicknames for many of them. I liked listening to them talk, the ones that talked. They were as much a part of downtown as the buildings. One showed me a guitar filled with the pull tabs of aluminum cans, He also wrapped plastic around the strings way up on the neck. It raddled and sounded like old nonsense when he played. He had a bathrobe on, and these shiny leather women’s boots that went to his knees. He wore a leopard print towel on his head. He said the guitar was worth $500 with the alterations he had made. He kept trying to sell it to me. I declined and just sat there in front of the state house with him and listened to his stories, watched him smoke cigarettes. I like the way he smoked his cigarettes. Most of the stories walked in and out of plausibility and sense. There was the guy at the bagel place who would sit with me and tell me about his cure for cancer. There was the one who paced the same ten feet on the

same corner all day, every day. He wore a beret and looked like my friend’s dad. There was the one, Cathy, I have written of before who I really liked. She was older, there was a fragility and goodness to her. She deteriorated more and more as time went. There was one kid I went to highschool with who ended up kidnapping my friend's cat. He would call him and taunt him about it. One day my friend found the cat nailed to a tree near his house. Last I heard the cat-napper was down on main street with a sign that said bring me to Africa. I heard he was

living under the bridge down by the community college, but I don’t know for sure. When I was young, even very young, I assumed I would end up being one of them if I didn’t die before it happened. I think a lot of it was luck that kept me from ending up under those bridges, that I’m writing my stories down instead of telling them to teenagers near Bicentennial square. It wasn’t anything I ever romanticized, it’s just the truth of it. The fat lady isn’t singing yet but I have made it this far, so have some of the others I grew up with, but not all of them.

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PA R T I N G S H OT

PITTSBURGH CURRENT PHOTO BY JAKE MYSLIWCZYK

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