News Around the Neighborhood
Alleys, Axles & Ales 2018
Neighbor-to-Neighbor
Submitted by Ritsu Shimizu
All of our AW residents are cognizant of observing the Design Guidelines for the Allegheny West Historic District, enforced by the City’s Historic Review Commission. Perhaps what I am going to share with you might not be anything new, but it still strikes me how closely some people adhere to these guidelines. Here are the examples:
- My new neighbor, Mr. Greg Kobulnicky, used the very old historically authentic mortars, a special order, of course, in restoration of his apartment building in the back of his residence. In fact, his mason even conferred with me (behind Greg’s back), saying, ”This old stuff wasn’t as strong as new one.”
- Our AWCC Housing and Planning Committee Chair, Mr. Timothy Zinn, brought new life into my half-moon shaped, 147 year-old, third-floor attic window by using the Abatron products and also old glazing for window glass. Probably no one would notice if replaced by a window company’s product because of the location. Tim said pointing the restored window, “Here this window will live for another 100 years.”
Both of them carry out their work with scrupulous attention.
Young Neighbor Hits the Airwaves
Tune in to the Saturday Light Brigade on 88.3 FM, on February 24th from 10:00 – 10:30 am to hear your neighbor, Amelia Beer, playing the violin. Eight-year-old Amelia will be featured with two fellow Northside students from the Givi School of Music, alongside their teacher. The girls will be playing fiddle music, and will be interviewed about their music instruction. The broadcast can also be downloaded at slbradio.org.
Disclaimer: This is, in fact, shameless promotion of the editor’s daughter, but several neighbors have asked where they can hear her play, so I figured I’d share!
Free Tickets for Northsiders: Apart From Me
Part of the CSA Performance Series
February 8th at 8:00 pm
Using a combination of touch sensors, soundscapes and wearable fabric sculptures, artists H. Gene Thompson, Arvid Tomayko, Anna Azizzy, and Ru Emmons create a language around the push and pull of human connection.
The performers activate their environment with embedded sensors that control the soundscape, taking the audience on an abstract journey of language through touch and separation.
You’re Invited
Thanks to the generous support of the Buhl Foundation, Northside residents and workers are invited to attend this performance for free. A limited number of tickets are available online, so reserve your seat today.
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ReelQ Returns to Alphabet City!
The Last Match
(La Partida)
Monday, February 19th
7:00 pm
ReelQ is back with a screening of The Last Match (La Partida), the first in a series of films they will be presenting here at Alphabet City in 2018!
Rey lives with his girlfriend, son and grandmother in a poor Cuban neighborhood. At night, Rey rents his body to foreign tourists. By day, he does the only thing that interests him in life: playing soccer.
When Rey begins to develop a romantic relationship with his teammate Yosvani, he is forced to keep this affair a secret or jeopardize a possible pro-soccer career that would allow him to escape poverty and prostitution. In this hostile environment—and in secret—Rey and Yosvani will begin a love story, for which they will have to fight against all odds.
This film is for mature audiences only and includes scenes with nudity and sexual situations.
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The Border is in His Blood
Francisco Cantú
Saturday, February 17th
3:30 pm
Author José Ángel N. will read from his memoir, the valiant story of a man living the American dream — illegally.
“”A devastating narrative of the very real human effects of depersonalized policy.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Pushcart Prize-winning writer Francisco Cantú served as an agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012, working in the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Parts of Francisco’s story were included in Best American Essays and were the focus of an episode of This American Life.
In bestowing a 2017 Whiting Award upon him, the judges called his writing “an urgent moral report [that] shows us just how much there is to learn about this contested land…seldom does a writer of such depth and passion come along to explore the place he calls home.”
Francisco’s new memoir The Line Becomes a River interlaces his haunting personal experiences with ruminations on the nature of borderlines, grappling at once with some of the largest political and social questions facing America today and the intimate stories of the hopeful and desperate who set out on a perilous crossing that many will not survive.
Francisco challenges us to hear, absorb, and question the politics, policies, and ingrained ideas of borders that not only derail countless migrants’ lives and tear apart their families but do violence to the humanity of us all.
At this moment of rhetoric and fury around the border, a voice like Francisco’s feels essential and urgent.
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A Memoir Shining a Light on Undocumented Immigrants Living in the Shadows
José Ángel N.
Monday, January 15th
8:00 pm
Author José Ángel N. will read from his memoir, the valiant story of a man living the American dream — illegally.
“With great eloquence and pathos, N. draws on his daily life and references philosophers from Socrates to Kant to describe the netherworld of the undocumented.” — Booklist
Arriving in the 1990s with a 9th grade education, N. traveled to Chicago where he found access to ESL and GED classes. He eventually attended college and graduate school and became a professional translator.
Despite having a well-paying job, N. was isolated by a lack of official legal documentation. Travel concerns made big promotions out of reach. Vacation time was spent hiding at home, pretending that he was on a long-planned trip. The simple act of purchasing his girlfriend a beer at a Cubs baseball game caused embarrassment and shame when N. couldn’t produce a valid ID. A frustrating contradiction, N. lived in a luxury high-rise condo but couldn’t fully live the American dream. He did, however, find solace in the one gift America gave him – his education.
N’s story represents the triumph of education over adversity. He debunks the stereotype that undocumented immigrants are freeloaders, uninterested in education or opportunity for advancement. With bravery and honesty, he details the constraints, deceptions and humiliations that characterize alien life “amid the shadows.”
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Art in Context at The Warhol
Border Crossings
Friday, January 5th
7:00 pm
In a complex and contentious era of border closures, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and isolationism, what role do artists play in maintaining the free exchange of ideas across cultural boundaries?
Artists, scholars, and community members come together to consider creative expression in relation to timely political and social concerns. Explore shifting perspectives on historic and contemporary immigrant and refugee experiences in Pittsburgh and beyond.
Panel participants include Betty Cruz (Founder of Change Agency), Tuhin Das (ICORN writer-in-residence at City of Asylum), Anne Madarasz (Director of the Curatorial Division, Chief Historian and Director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Heinz History Center), Grant Oliphant (President of The Heinz Endowments) and John Righetti (President of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society).
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Save the Date: One Northside Celebration
Music + Food + Community
Thursday, January 25th
5:30-8:00 pm
Heinz Field
Join us for a community gathering to celebrate and share progress of the One Northside initiative.
Formal invitation with RSVP & details to follow.
Passive Train Control Cabinets in Allegheny Commons
Hello,
As many of you may have noticed, Norfolk Southern has been working in Allegheny Commons near the Soldier’s Monument installing some cabinets. Please see some of the images attached (credit Jerry Green) and read the following information I received from Norfolk Southern regarding the work:
In 2008, following an incident in California between a commuter train and a freight train in which 25 people lost their lives, the U.S. Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which called for the development and implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC). The purpose of PTC is to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, unauthorized incursions by trains into sections of track where maintenance is being performed, and the movement of a train through a main line switch left in the wrong position. PTC is generally required to be installed on main lines that are used to transport passengers or toxic-by-inhalation (TIH) materials by December 31, 2018, and to be fully implemented by December 31, 2020. Interestingly, when the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was passed, PTC technology did not exist, and over the past nearly ten years NS has spent $1.4 billion to develop, construct and implement PTC on 40 percent of its 20,000 mile network, including the rail lines through Allegheny Commons, which carry both TIH material and Amtrak passengers. The work within Allegheny Commons includes the installation of two aluminum signal cabinets in the vicinity of the former pedestrian bridge. Ultimately, these two cabinets will be relocated as part of the replacement of the pedestrian bridge, which is being funded by Norfolk Southern and PennDOT. Additionally, the large signal bridge and cases adjacent to North Avenue/Brighton Road will be removed.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you and happy holidays all!
Erin Tobin
Community Outreach Coordinator
