News Around the Neighborhood
PHLF: Downtown Walking Tour of Fourth Avenue Historic District
Thursday, October 11
6:00 pm to 7:15 pm
$20.00 per person
This is an in-person tour and is limited to 20 participants.
(Tickets will not be available after October 10.)
Click here to purchase a ticket.
The Fourth Avenue Historic District encompasses a remarkable variety of buildings. From a Greek Revival building of 1836 to cast-iron-front structures of the 1870s and 1880s, to a majestic quartet of early-20th-century skyscrapers, the district includes distinguished structures designed by more than a dozen eminent Pittsburgh architects.
The tour focuses on the portion of the area once known as “Pittsburgh’s Wall Street” for its concentration of buildings that served the financial and investment industries. We also will see how old buildings are being re-purposed for contemporary uses and explore PPG Place—the postmodernist “cathedral of commerce” that brings full circle the fascinating story of this narrow but mightily impressive street.
Queerness and the Natural World
Presented with Autumn House Press
Queer Nature
Tuesday, October 11
7:00 pm
Queer Nature is a groundbreaking anthology of more than 200 LGBTQIA+ poets writing about nature. Tuesday’s program, presented with Pittsburgh publisher Autumn House Press, features readings from 10 contributing poets and a discussion with the collection’s editor Michael Walsh.
In the collection and in the evening’s readings, you will find love poems, meditations on queer bodies, laments for the world we are destroying, poems of survival, and calls for environmental justice.
The 200 poets represent gifted and renowned contemporary artists situated next to masterful queer poets of the past including Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Frank O’Hara, Audre Lorde, Thom Gunn, Adrienne Rich, and more.
The anthology is a beautiful expansion to the canon of nature poetry and a loving field guide to life right now. We hope you’ll join our moving and celebratory evening.
About your visit: The in-house restaurant 40 North will be closed but a cash bar will be available.
CCAC Professional Development Noncredit Courses for October 2022
From our contact at CCAC:
Any course offered through CCAC’s Community Training and Development can be taken at our CCAC campuses and centers, or completed as an In-Agency Training.
If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (412) 237-6587 or at cmajewski@ccac.edu
Pistons in the Park
Join the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Special Events Saturday, September 10th from 12:00 – 4:00 pm in Allegheny Commons Park West for Pistons in the Park! This FREE cruise-in style car show features dash plaques and t-shirts to the first 100 cars to arrive. New for this year are 10 custom-made, city-themed trophy categories including “Mayor’s Choice”, “Northside’s Finest Ride” and “Pittsburgh Pothole Proof”! There is no cost to register for a chance to win and the full list of categories can be found on our website at https://pittsburghpa.gov/events/pistons-cruise or on the FB event page https://fb.me/e/5hoN8LAQD.
PHLF: Allegheny County to Light Iconic Three Sisters Bridges
A rendering of the proposed LED light installation on the three Sister Bridges by Allegheny County.
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced this week, that the county will spend $6 million to light the iconic Sister Bridges that straddle the Allegheny River, connecting Downtown Pittsburgh to the neighborhoods on its North Side.
The three bridges — Rachel Carson, Andy Warhol and Roberto Clemente— all of them landmarks listed in the National Register of Historic Places, will be adorned with programmable LED lights, an installation that is expected to be completed in December 2023.
Our organization was involved in efforts to help light landmark bridges for years, starting with the Smithfield Street Bridge, the Roberto Clemente Bridge, and the Hot Metal Bridge. We commend Allegheny County for this initiative which will greatly enhance the beauty of our city’s bridges and architectural landscape.
Click here to read more about the project.
NY Times Best Selling Author Ingrid Rojas Contreras in Discussion
Live Reading:
Ingrid Rojas Contreras & Elaine Castillo
Tuesday, August 23
7:00 pm
A grandfather who was said to move clouds with his mind…his daughter who lost her memory in a childhood accident and began to see and hear the dead…and his daugter’s daughter, Ingrid, who lost her memory in an accident at twenty-three and unlike her mother, returned with no supernatural gifts… NY Times best selling author Ingrid Rojas Contreras dives into her own family history in her new memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, and explores the meaning of inheritance, healing, and the power of story.
Joined in conversation by Elaine Castillo, whose new collection of essays, How to Read Now, delves into the politics and ethics of reading and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories.
About your visit: The in-house restaurant 40 North will be closed but a cash bar will be available.
ReelAbilities, ReelFun
ReelAbilities tickets are now on sale!
Now that everything is live, let’s take a look at some highlights:
- Our diverse lineup showcases 4 feature films and 24 short films
- That represent over a dozen disabilities
- With 2 virtual offerings for folks who want to fest from home
- If you attend in-person, you’ll hear 5 visiting filmmakers chat it up in Q&A’s
- And YOU can chat it up during our first ever ReelTalk, led by a local cinematographer
- And support local artists living with disabilities at the ReelAbilities Art Exhibit
- Before ending the night at one of our famous ReelAbilities after-parties with drinks and treats!
We have All Festival passes for movie lovers who want a deal. Early Bird discounts end on 9/2!
PHLF: A Video Tribute to David McCullough
We were saddened to learn of the death of the popular American historian David McCullough on August 8, 2022. Some years ago, our organization had the pleasure of recording an interview with Mr. McCullough about his thoughts on historic preservation, significant historic architecture, and his hometown Pittsburgh.
In this mini-documentary titled, A Story Town: Reflections on Pittsburgh, we present an excerpt of Mr. McCullough’s reflections as a tribute to this great American writer and historian.
PHLF: Downtown Walking Tour of Bridges and Shores
Thursday, August 11
6:00 pm to 7:15 pm
$20.00 per person
This is an in-person tour and is limited to 20 participants.
(Tickets will not be available after .)
Click here to purchase a ticket.
You will receive a ticket with a QR Code by e-mail. Please PRINT and bring it with you for the tour.
Pittsburgh is a city of bridges: hundreds of them span our waterways, valleys, and ravines. Bridges offer changing vistas of the natural and manmade features of the cityscape, and in Pittsburgh, these works of artful engineering are a source of civic pride. This tour takes us on a loop bounded by the north and south shores of the Allegheny River and by two of the Three Sisters bridges that cross it. Taking in public art and historic buildings along with bridges and the river, this tour reveals the dynamic relationship between humans and nature that characterizes much of Pittsburgh.
Tour Meeting Point: Outside the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, 107 Sixth Street, Downtown
Tour Ending Point: 107 Sixth Street
Please arrive 10 minutes before the start time in order to ensure that the tour gets underway on time. Dress for the weather (PHLF tours proceed rain or shine!), and wear comfortable shoes. By purchasing a ticket for this tour, you acknowledge that you are physically able to undertake the tour, assume all personal risk during the tour, consent to being photographed during the tour, and permit PHLF to use your image in our communications.
This tour is handicap accessible. Please notify us of your needs 2 Business Days in advance of the tour.
Heat of the Moment
Story Club PGH Story Slam:
Heat of the Moment
Tuesday, August 16
7:00 pm
Join City of Asylum and Story Club Pittsburgh for a monthly nonfiction storytelling series, mixing the spontaneity of an open mic with the experience of live theater. Organized and hosted by the former producers of The Moth Pittsburgh.
Every show has both spontaneous tellers and featured performers, all taking the stage to share stories based on a theme. August’s theme is Heat of the Moment. We skip September for LitFest and return in October with the theme of Bump in the Night. Sign up to be in the audience for the August program at the links above. October links are coming soon!
Calling all story lovers!
Featured performers are curated for each show, provide drafts of their stories (on the set theme), work with our producers to refine their tales, and are paid. To be considered to be a featured performer for August or October, email a written or mp3 version of your story to kelly@storyclubpgh.com by August 7 (for the August 16 show). Learn more here.
There will be a few open-mic spots at the show and tellers will then be chosen randomly at showtime. Come prepared with a 5-8 minute story on our theme, if that’s your thing, or just come prepared to listen!