News Around the Neighborhood
Letter from the President – April 2021
April is the cruelest…
Too easy
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on, in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back, in the middle of March.
Robert Frost
from Two Tramps in Mud Time (1926)
The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.
Mark Twain
April is here, after March flew by. It started with some snow that stuck around for a day or so. As I write this, it’s five days later and 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
April is a month of renewal and growth. The crocuses are fading away, but the daffodils are up and the forsythia is blooming. For the gardeners among you, I note that Calvary UM Church is having its annual plant sale. They have both ornamental and vegetable plants for sale, but you must order by April 18. Delivery is in May, right around Mother’s Day (which I’m told is the magic date for safe planting). The sale flyer is being distributed in one of our e-Newsletters, courtesy of Linda Ehrlich. I believe Emmanuel Episcopal Church also has an annual plant sale, and as soon as I get details on that, I’ll spread the word like fine manure.
Speaking of which, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy just held its “What the Muck” cleanup event for Lake Elizabeth in the Allegheny Commons. As most of you know, that area has been be-fowled by the flock of geese that congregate there like politicians around your e-mail inbox in election season. Walking through the sidewalks near Lake Elizabeth is like dancing between the raindrops, but with a lot more downside. To combat this menace, the Allegheny Commons Initiative (chaired by our own Mariana Whitmer), along with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, Northside Leadership Conference, and the City of Pittsburgh, is hiring a crew from the US Department of Agriculture. I’m sure we’ll get an update on the geese situation at the next AWCC membership meeting. Until then, stay vigilant and wipe your feet.
By the way, that next AWCC virtual membership meeting will be at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, April 13. It will be an exciting evening of geese stories from the PPC’s Erin Tobin, true crime reports from Zone One’s Officer Michael Burford, and general civic engagement on a scale not seen since last month. I hope to see you then. Zoom meeting details are published in this very issue of the Gazette.
One last note before I go: April is also the time of year when we take nominations for Allegheny West’s Neighbor of the Year. I’m sure you know a neighbor who has gone to great lengths to make Allegheny West a better place to live and work. I’ll be soliciting names at the membership meeting, but please don’t be shy about sending an e-mail or slipping a note through the mail slot at 806 Western Avenue.
I hope you have a wonderful April.
Bob Griewahn
President, AWCC
AWCC Informational Meeting – April 13, 2021
Via Zoom (details)
Tuesday, April 13 at 7:30 pm
- 7:30 – Gather, Say Hello, Meet New Neighbors
- 7:35 – Update: City of Pittsburgh Zone 1 Police (Officer Burford)
- 7:40 – Update: City of Pittsburgh, Mayor’s Office (Leah Friedman)
- 7:45 – Update: Councilman Wilson’s Office (Sally Stadelman/Mohammed Burny/Faith Mudd)
- 7:50 – Update: Representative Wheatley’s Office (Thomas Graham)
- 7:55 – Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy (Erin Tobin)
- 8:05 – Treasurer’s Report (A Bryan)
- 8:10 – Executive Committee Reports
- President (Bob Griewahn) – Committee Actions
- Property (Fran Barbush)
- Past President (Ann Gilligan) – Mayoral Roundtable
- 8:25 – Ways & Means (John DeSantis) – Tours
- 8:30 – Film Committee (Carol Gomrick)
- 8:45 – Conclude
Calvary Church Women’s Spring Flower Sale
Speaking of cleaning up the neighborhood, it’s time for the fifth annual Calvary United Methodist Women’s Club plant sale. There’s no better way to beat the COVID blues than to spruce up your garden, and it’s a safe way to get outside. All proceeds benefit CUMW’s local ministries, like Daily Bread. Please contact Linda Ehrlich at laehrlich927@aol.com for an order form and more information.
Orders are due on April 18, so act quickly!! Pick up will be in the Calvary Church parking lot on Friday, May 7 from 1:00-6:00 and Saturday, May 8 from 9:00-11:00.
Memorial Tree Planting
Submitted by Fran Barbush
In the past, we have planted trees in memoriam of departed neighbors and friends of the neighborhood. We recently learned of the passing of our long-time neighbor, Mrs. Patricia Rooney. She was a champion and fundraiser for the Allegheny Commons, and a positive spokesperson for the North Side. We also learned of the death of Greta Coleman. Her husband, Moe, and she were neighbors for many years. Moe passed away last year. We did not purchase any trees last year, due to the pandemic. If you would like to make contributions toward memorial trees, you can prepare a check and make it out to AWCC, and put it through the mail slot at 806 Western Avenue; or contact treasurer@alleghenywest.org.
Thank you for your consideration – and thanks to all those who have already donated!
Reminder: Street Sweeping Begins This Month
PHLF: Live Virtual Architecture Tour – Grant Street
Thurssday, April 15
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Fee: $5
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference. Click here to purchase a ticket and RSVP.
(You will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 1:00 pm on the day of the tour. Don’t see the e-mail? Please be sure to check your spam or junk folders. Log-in 15 minutes before the tour’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time.)
This tour covers the northern half of a street that the American Planning Association designated one of America’s Ten Great Streets in 2012. From the quintessentially Modernist U.S. Steel Tower to the elegant Beaux-Arts Pennsylvanian (formerly Union Station), and with glorious Art Deco gems in between, this part of Grant Street is populated by outstanding civic and corporate buildings. Examples of adaptive re-use of historic buildings in this corridor demonstrate the economic value of historic preservation. Tour participants also will learn of the wide influence—sometimes explicit, other times less so—of businessman, philanthropist, politician, art collector, and Pittsburgh native Andrew W. Mellon on this important street.
Community Event: East Egg Hunt
Our neighborhood is doing an Egg Hunt this Saturday, April 3 at 10:00am – details are in the attached flyer. Please feel free to share and invite the residents of your neighborhood if you’d like.Thank you,-Doug.Douglas KamperPresidentEast Allegheny Community Council
PHLF: Virtual Tour of Point Breeze
Live, Virtual Architecture Tour: Western Shadyside
Wednesday, March 31
6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Fee: $7.50
Described as “Chateau Country” by PHLF’s co-founder Jamie Van Trump, Point Breeze was once home to Pittsburgh industrialists of great wealth: Andrew Carnegie, H.J. Heinz, George Westinghouse, and Henry Clay Frick, among others. Only Frick’s grand home, “Clayton,” survives, as part of The Frick Pittsburgh, but there is still much to see and explore in this large, residential city neighborhood.
The tour will amble among Point Breeze’s lovely streets and include the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (originally the home of Durbin Horne, son of Joseph Horne); Pittsburgh New Church; nearby main street shops; and Engine House No. 16, now the home of Fireman Creative.
This live virtual tour will be held via Zoom Conference.
Click here to purchase a ticket for your household and you will receive an e-mail with a link to Zoom at 9:00 am on the day of the tour. Don’t see an e-mail? Please check your Junk/Spam folders. Login 15 minutes before the tour’s scheduled start to ensure that it begins on time. Please disregard the QR code in the confirmation you receive. Our link to the Zoom connection is your entry to the tour.
Imbolo Mbue: Live Reading & Conversation
How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
Live Reading & Conversation
Wednesday, March 24
7:00 pm
Imbolo Mbue will discuss her creative process in a live conversation and audience Q&A, moderated by Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University specializing in trans-national West African farmers.
Growing up in Limbe, Cameroon, a seaside town with an oil refinery, Imbolo Mbue witnessed firsthand life under a dictatorship and was fascinated by the people who rose up against corporate greed and systems of injustice. Profoundly moving, How Beautiful We Were delivers the same storytelling mastery that brought her so many fans and such critical acclaim.
In October 2017, Imbolo visited City of Asylum to read from her debut novel Behold the Dreamers. Her powerful reading stuck with our staff these past few years—Imbolo was warm and engaging yet frank and challenging in her descriptions of the difficulties facing immigrants in this country. We knew we wanted to revisit that program in May of last year with a broadcast as a Staff Favorites selection. We are just as excited to welcome her back now in a live conversation about her new book.
How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold on to its ancestral land. Told from the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom, this gorgeous novel is destined to become a classic.
Raphael Cormack: Live Reading & Conversation
Midnight in Cairo by Raphael Cormack
Live Reading and Conversation
Sunday, March 21
5:00 pm
Join us for a live reading and conversation with award-winning author, Raphael Cormack. He’s joined by moderator Adham Hafetz, a contemporary theater director in Egypt, who will be debuting some performance clips throughout the program.
Our Bookstore Manager, Lesley Rains, considered Midnight in Cairo to be one of her favorite books of 2020—one that brought her much joy in the early, confusing days of the pandemic. She says:
“Midnight in Cairo is a rich and lively portrait of Cairo during the 1920s. When we think of the Roaring ’20s, we often think of New York, London, and Paris. Cormack rightly reminds us to explore the thriving urban centers of non-western cities. Thanks to his impressive research and sharp writing, we now have a portrait of previously overlooked women who were both talented artists and successful businesswomen. Midnight in Cairo brims with life and will leave you wanting to know even more.”