News Around the Neighborhood
Neighborhood Mixer
Little Neighbor, Big Accomplishment!
Congratulations to neighbor and ballerina Margot Teh, who performed in the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s performance of The Nutcracker this past December. Margot has been dancing with the PBT since she was four years old. After many rehearsals, Margot performed as both a toy soldier and a bumblebee in 13 performances. Great job, Margot!
House History + AWCC 50th Projects Update
Submitted by Nick Smerker
The Neighborhood History section of alleghenywest.org has been online for just the last few months and has already garnered a fair bit of traffic. With more expected to come from visitors who learned about the resource during the Christmas Tours, it would be great to keep things growing.
To that end, if you have a researched house history from Carol Peterson and haven’t yet dropped it off at the AWCC office (806 Western Avenue), please do so soon! We’ve heard from a few folks who have these documents and have been meaning to drop them off…for several months running…so it would be great to have them for scanning by Pitt.
In addition, the AWCC 50 Year Timeline project is still moving forward. Doris and Greg have been mining the council office for useful materials and editing has begun on video interviews recorded in the last few months. We’d still love having more voices in the mix, though so if you’d like to participate in an interview, please let us know.
If you have any questions about this or want to get involved just email webmaster@alleghenywest.org or call (814) 777-0097.
Remember to Share Your News
The Allegheny West Gazette accepts appropriate content from neighbors for publication by the first of the month. If you have news of neighborhood events or updates, or if you would simply like to thank or honor a neighbor, please send relevant information (including photos, if applicable) to gazette@alleghenywest.org. Thank you!
Bowling at the Elks Lodge
Polish your bowling ball and get your satin jacket on – Allegheny West Bowling resumes on Wednesday, January 11th, beginning at 7:30 pm. Bowl with your neighbors every Wednesday throughout the winter on the second floor of the Elks Lodge at 400 Cedar Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Then, stick around for Banjo night performances on the first floor. We hope to see you there!
Jazz Concert at City Books
Join City Books on Saturday, January 14 from 7:00-8:30 pm
The Kyle Simpson Jazz Collective
Hear Kyle on trumpet, along with Paul Thompson on bass and Alex Ayers on keyboard. Kyle calls these guys his “dream team,” so you can be sure it is going to be a terrific night of jazz music. For a sneak preview, listen to “Allegheny Commons Stroll.”
Kyle Simpson, composer, trumpet player, and bandleader, is a graduate from Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI and The University of Montana in Missoula, MT. His composition teachers were Fred Sturm at Lawrence and Charles Nichols at The University of Montana. Simpson has written many works for large jazz groups, chamber jazz groups, solo trumpet, synthesized electronic music, Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble. His compositions have been featured at the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival in Missoula, where he also performed with Lew Soloff and Paquito D’Rivera. Other compositions have been featured at the Fête de la Musique Ile d’Yeu, France(2011), Uzmah Upbeat Croatia (2014), Charlotte New Music Festival (2013), Ostrava Days Czech Republic (2011), and The Henry Mancini Institute(2006), Los Angeles. Simpson’s music has been described as, “lively with rhythmic vitality” and also, “lyrical with a brooding elegance.”
A former Northside resident, Simpson currently lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA where he is an Assistant Professor teaching instrumental music at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. He is also presently in the DMA program in composition at West Virginia University studying with Dr. Joseph Dangerfield and Dr. Sarana Chou.
Check out Kyle’s website for more information.
Free Tickets for Northsiders: Tomorrow’s Parties and Real Magic
Presented by The Andy Warhol Museum and the New Hazlett Theater
January 10 and 11 at 8PM
Northside friends of the New Hazlett, we have a limited number of complimentary tickets available to two exciting upcoming performances, Tomorrow’s Parties and Real Magic, and we’re making them available to you!
Only a limited number of free tickets are available online, so reserve your seats today.
Tomorrow’s Parties
January 10 | 8PM
On a makeshift fairground stage, two performers speculate about what tomorrow might bring—from utopian and dystopian visions to science fiction scenarios, political nightmares, and absurd fantasies. A playful, poignant, and delirious look at futures both possible and impossible, Tomorrow’s Parties is a dramatic take on the Anthropocene.
One of NextPittsburgh’s 10 Pittsburgh Events Not to Miss in January!
This performance is co-presented with The Andy Warhol Museum, the New Hazlett Theater and Carnegie Nexus as part of the series Strange Times: Earth in the Age of the Human. Media sponsors for Strange Times: WYEP 91.3 and 90.5 WESA.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-tickets-to-tomorrows-parties-tickets-30893144226″] Get Your Tickets Today [/ebor_button]
Real Magic
January 11 | 8PM
Real Magic creates a world of absurd disconnection, struggle and comical repetition. Real Magic takes the audience on a hallucinatory journey, creating a compelling performance about optimism, individual agency and the desire for change.
Real Magic was commissioned by The Spalding Gray Consortium: Performance Space 122, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum and On the Boards.
[ebor_button style=”pumpkin” url=”https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-tickets-to-real-magic-tickets-30893925563″] Get Your Tickets Today [/ebor_button]
Locally-shot Films and International Writers in January
The New Year is about to begin – and, with it, the formal opening of Alphabet City. The bookstore will be open and we will be adding new technologies and features each week, with the grand opening of Casellula @ Alphabet City later in the month.
2017 will open on January 5th with the next film in the Sembène Film & Art Festival: Chico & Rita. This animated film moves from Havana in its pre-Fidel days of big spenders to New York in the heyday of jazz and Paris when foreign musicians were hot. Roger Ebert wrote about it: “It’s entertaining to watch, and I enjoyed the way they slipped in such real-life figures as Dizzy Gillespie beside the fictional leads.The music is terrific. Idania Valdes dubs Rita’s sensuous, smoky singing voice, and the film is essentially constructed as a musical.”
Suzanne Rivecca will be a visiting writer-in-residence at City of Asylum in January (yes, we are fast-becoming known as the Miami of the North, with our balmy weather!). On January 10th, she will be reading from her latest work, which she will be finishing during her residency. Suzanne was nominated by Jill Bialosky, poet and editor at W.W. Norton, who is on our Advisory Board. Her “Death is Not an Option” is a highly praised short story collection.
Did you know Pittsburgh’s very own Randy Gilson (of Randyland) is in a film? To celebrate, we are hosting a double screening of Pursuing Happiness – a documentary featuring one of our favorite Northside neighbors – on Saturday, January 14th and then again on Sunday, January 15th.
[ebor_button style=”pomegranate” url=”http://www.alphabetcity.org”] View the Schedule at alphabetcity.org for All January Events [/ebor_button]
We’re in the Book
The most recent installment of the popular travel guide 1000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Shultz, that is. You can get your copy here – and look for Allegheny West on page 229 while you’re discovering all of the other interesting options across the US and Canada!
AWCC Membership Meeting Agenda – December 13, 2016
Calvary United Methodist Church, 971 Beech Ave
Tuesday, December 13th at 7:30 pm
- Visitors
- Councilwoman Harris’s Office
- Mayor’s Community Outreach
- Zone One Police
- Parks Conservancy
- New Neighbors
- Minutes
- Treasurer’s Report
- Welcome to the New Board / Thank You to the Previous Board
- Ways and Means: Christmas Tour
- Early Report
- Five Year Plan with Calvary
- Housing and Planning
- Film Guidelines
- Western Avenue
- Light of Life
- Buhl Grant Meeting
- Western During Galveston
- Green Space: Parklet
- Membership Events
- Bowling Starts in January
- History Project Update
- Property: 806 Western Avenue Improvements
- Friends
- Committee Q&A