“As with Joyce’s Dublin, place isn’t simply geographical–it is inherent in the working-class culture in which characters live. The tension remains across stories because it is, at root, based in economics and class status.”
“Every time he saw another building in Pittsburgh being spray washed to remove the decades of soot… he would think of their legacies being slowly erased.”
The more of Wilson’s plays I read, the more I appreciated The Piano Lesson for its stark symbols and robust characters: Boy Willie and his determination to buy the land his ancestors had slaved on; Berniece, resolved to keep the piano and build a life for her daughter in Pittsburgh; Sutter’s ghost haunting the house, the family, the instrument, from the top of the stairs.
"Baseball is poetry in motion." This phrase, one I use a lot, though it might elicit an arched eyebrow from those unfamiliar with the nuances of either pursuit, perfectly encapsulates the grace with which Clemente played the game. His elegant movements in right field, his powerful swing glorified in stanzas, and his laser-like throws from the outfield demonstrated an athletic artistry that few players have matched.
For starters, we need to talk about suicide. We need to not be afraid to say the word “suicide,” because the word “suicide” will not kill anyone. We need to clean up societal problems that increase the likelihood of suicide, not just push the responsibility for prevention onto the mental health profession. We need to worry less if a homeless person wants to live by choice under a bridge and more about the social bridges of connection, kinship, and community collapsing all around us.
Saunders grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District and attended Saturday art classes at the very museum that houses his first major retrospective exhibition.
Frick’s rapidly growing art collection soon filled Clayton’s sumptuous interiors. Around 1895, his enhanced status at the Carnegie Company and developing acumen as an art collector led to an explosion of painting purchases. Frick was truly becoming a collector.
Pittsburgh is one city made of hundreds of distinct enclaves. Variation is richness, diversity is beauty. - A photo essay by Karen Lillis.
Native culture is not static — it’s a living, evolving part of everyday life for Pittsburgh’s “urban Natives.”
We love it because it's authentic, not handed out by some bank or corporation -- a giveaway fit for nothing greater than cleaning the car. Cope's Towel is bigger than that. It is a part of our history and Pittsburghers love nothing more than hometown history.
The story of the Hill District is one of the vibrant Black culture that fueled Wilson’s career. It’s also a story of redevelopment initiatives that harmed the conditions in which that cultural richness could flourish.
She was motivated to get involved locally and feels her time at Carnegie Mellon in the School of Architecture paved the way. “The city was my campus.”