Withdrawn painting at arts festival spurs discussion of race and representation
Controversial painting prompts June 7 public forum
ABBEY: In The Red at the August Wilson Center
Dance work with live music honoring Abbey Lincoln concludes premiere run
Love is warm, spicy chickpeas
My most memorable college years were spent living in a tiny apartment in Oakland with four other women whom I adored. We shared everything and managed to do so with relative grace. This was most notable in our galley-style kitchen: just 5 feet long and 3 feet deep, in which two or three of us…
My Old Roommate Jane
Your dad trained you for the end of the world. Skinning deer by the age of ten to feed your family because the government was tainting your meat. Catching dinner for years with the knife he gave you before he died in 2011. You can hike up Chesterfield with ease. Telling me that it is…
U.S. survey shows transgender individuals in Pennsylvania face disproportionate discrimination
Transgender people in the state face more than double the unemployment and poverty rates of the average Pennsylvanian.
Listen Up! May 31 Issue
We’ve always wanted to insert little computer chips and speakers into City Paper, so that when you open it, music from artists featured in the paper plays while you read about them (like a big old greeting card). But that’s just not realistic. This is the second-best thing: a Spotify playlist featuring music from tomorrow’s…
MP3 Monday: Soy Sos Extended Ensemble
Each week, we post a song from a local artist online for free. This week, it’s a track from ABBEY: In The Red, the new multidisciplinary dance performance from Staycee Pearl Dance Project and Soy Sos. “Driva Man” is an Abbey Lincoln classic, revived in a stirring performance here with Soy Sos Extended Ensemble and…
Future brings Nobody Safe Tour to KeyBank Pavilion in Burgettstown
Photos from the Nobody Safe Tour with Future, A$AP Ferg, Migos and Tory Lanez
Pittsburgh City Paper staffers win 10 Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, including best-in-show
City Paper staffers win 10 Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania.
Clo-pening with Rafael Vencio
After 18 months at the restaurant incubator Smallman Galley, Rafael Vencio has gained valuable experience and perspective. Vencio shares his journey running his restaurant Aubergine Bistro and gives us a peek into what may be coming next.
Last chance to vote for artwork in the Sprout Fund’s ‘Belonging’ community art project
Pittsburgh City Paper artists amongst the finalists in the Sproud Fund’s “Belonging” community art project.
Pennsylvania Senate to vote on bill to arm school teachers and staff
The legislation passed by the Senate Education Committee last month would allow teachers and staff to carry firearms in schools.
Chuck
In the 1970s, New Jersey heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner was the pride of Bayonne; they called him the “Bayonne Bleeder.” In 1975, he even booked a title bout with Muhammad Ali, and went 15 rounds. The scrappy working-class pugilist was reputedly the inspiration for Sylvester Stallone’s iconic Rocky Balboa. And now Wepner gets another go…
The Wedding Plan
Jerusalem bride-to-be Michal (Noa Kooler) is all set to get married. She and the groom are sampling options for the wedding feast, when he tells her he’s changed his mind. Michal is stunned — and disappointed: After all, she’s already well into her 30s, and finding suitable mates in her Orthodox Jewish community isn’t that…
Gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango led an effort on health-care reform, but is silent on GOP health-care plan
North Hills Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango is an expert on health-care reform, but hasn’t share opinions on the American Health Care Act
Pittsburgh-based theater troupe seeks funding for overseas artist
“Angelmakers: Songs for Female Serial Killers” would premiere here in October
D.C. rapper Wale brings The Shine Tour to Stage AE
A night with Wale.
Lynn Cullen Live 05/25/17
Video Archive Spicer doesn’t get to visit Pope. Comfortable cows are productive cows. Kim Everett lays out the risk in Harrisburg and the capital for Planned Parenthood. Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
Cheap Seats: Grading the Pittsburgh Pirates through their first 40 games
As anyone who’s ever been a student knows, report cards are issued quarterly. As the Pirates pass the 40-game mark, it’s time to issue their first grades of the year. This is not the type of report that Mom will be sticking up on the refrigerator with an OBX magnet. This class has had its…
Pittsburgh City Paper Booze Battles: Spork vs. Apteka
Each week, we order the same cocktail at two different bars for a friendly head-to-head battle. Go to the bars, taste both drinks and tell us what you like about each by tagging @pghcitypaper on Twitter or Instagram and using #CPBoozeBattles. If you want to be a part of Booze Battles, send an email to…
Using human hair and other unconventional materials, Sonya Clark explores family, cultural resilience and the slave trade
OATHS AND EPITHETS — WORK BY SONYA CLARK continues through Aug. 19. Contemporary Craft, 2100 Smallman St., Strip District. 412-261-7003 or contemporarycraft.org Oaths and Epithets — Works by Sonya Clark, an exhibit at Contemporary Craft, communicates massive ideas and complicated concepts through simple, direct works possessed of quiet strength and subtle majesty. It’s an unsettling…
Chateau D’Esclans Whispering Angel Rosé 2016
This wine is the one that made me into an unrepentant fan of rosé. Crisp, with grapefruit notes and light minerality, this blushy pink wine is dry enough to drink with dinner, or to enjoy as a nice after-work aperitif. I plan to drink it just as much this summer as I did last. Recommended…
The state of American magazines and more at Creative Nonfiction’s Writers’ Conference
CREATIVE NONFICTION WRITERS’ CONFERENCE Fri., May 26, and Sat., May 27. $125-385 (May 26 keynote only: $7-15). Point Park University, Downtown. Complete schedule is at creativenonfiction.org. Magazine stands are harder to find these days, but apparently magazines are doing OK: By some metrics, their audience keeps growing, with digital gaining ground but print still popular.…
Wheel and Wedge opens a new artisanal cheese shop in Lawrenceville
A long-time staple at the Farmers Market Cooperative of East Liberty, cheesemonger Wheel and Wedge recently opened a new retail location at the Engine House 25 Wines tasting room, in Lawrenceville. The new space offers cheeses and meats from right here in Pennsylvania — such as Strip Distict’s Parma Sausage — and as far away…
Violet at Front Porch Theatricals
VIOLET continues through May 28. Front Porch Theatricals at the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side. $24-35. frontporchpgh.com There’s no other way to say this: Front Porch Theatricals’ production of Violet is one of the most magnificent evenings I’ve ever spent inside a theater. The show, with music by Jeanine Tesori and…
Everything, Everything
“If I went outside, I’d die.” That’s the bummer that sets up Everything, Everything, Stella Meghie’s teen romance, adapted from Nicola Yoon’s young-adult novel. Eighteen-year-old Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) hasn’t been outside her hermetically sealed home for 17 years; she has Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), and is mortally vulnerable to everyday pathogens. The only people she…
The loss of Pittsburgh’s residency requirement for police officers could have a big impact on improved police-community relations
If you’re a Pittsburgh Police officer, I’m imagining that May 22 was a pretty good day for you. After three years of appeals, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that officers don’t have to live within city limits. A labor arbitration panel made the same ruling in 2014. The City of Pittsburgh appealed, and eventually that…
Pittsburgh stakeholders disagree on how to fund affordable-housing programs
Jayvan Tarver has lived in his two-bedroom house in Garfield for 27 years. Even though Tarver rents the house on Hillcrest Street, he considers it his home. Over the years, he’s replaced its basement door and done some rehab on the back porch. Tarver, 64, was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. He’s since recovered, but…
Ironbound at City Theatre
IRONBOUND continues through June 4. City Theatre, 1300 Bingham St., South Side. $15-59. 412-431-2489 or citytheatrecompany.org Remember Solidarność? Those heady days when a Polish labor union, abetted by a Polish pope, led to the literal collapse of the Berlin Wall and the figurative one of the Soviet Union? And what happened to those spirited Poles…
Pittsburgh nonprofits working to reduce transmission of HIV
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s most recent data, 2,830 people in Allegheny County were living with HIV/AIDS in 2015. That year, the county saw 145 new HIV diagnoses and 57 new AIDS cases. But the fight to end the epidemic is getting a hand from AIDS Free Pittsburgh, a local nonprofit managed by…
KG Dynasty premieres its debut showcase
KG DYNASTY presents INFINITY: A DANCE SHOWCASE 6:30 p.m., Fri., May 26, and 6:30 p.m. Sat., May 27. Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave., East Liberty. $20-25. 412-295-9977 or kelly-strayhorn.org “I was initially against it,” says KG Dynasty director Gabriel “KG” Ash, by phone from Los Angeles. The “it” is Pittsburgh-based KG Dynasty’s first-ever mainstage dance showcase,…
A Conversation with Jim Breuer
JIM BREUER 7 p.m. Sat., May 27. Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall, 510 E. 10th Ave., Munhall. $27-47. All ages. 412-462-3444 or carnegieofhomestead.com Comedian Jim Breuer may be best known from Saturday Night Live or the stoner classic Half Baked. But lately he’s more excited about baseball. For the past few seasons he’s been doing…
ABBEY: In the Red honors the legacy of jazz great Abbey Lincoln
STAYCEE PEARL DANCE PROJECT AND SOY SOS present ABBEY: IN THE RED 7 p.m. Thu., May 25; 8 p.m., Fri., May 26; and 8 p.m. Sat., May 27. August Wilson Center, 980 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $15-25. 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org A lot can be learned from STAYCEE PEARL dance project (SPdp) works about the eclectic tastes…
Documentaries on jazz legends John Coltrane and Lee Morgan
The main challenge in producing a documentary on jazz artists is choosing the best way to frame the story. How should a director discuss an artist’s life and music? Does the straight biography or the artist’s mythology take precedence in the narrative? When discussing the music, a technical approach can lose casual fans, while metaphors…
Backyard Bioluminescence
Read the full version here.
Baltimore’s Wildhoney hits Pittsburgh with a new record and a poppier sound.
Wildhoney with Hearken and The Bird Hour 7 p.m. Sun., May 28. Mr. Roboto Project, 5106 Penn Ave., Bloomfield. $6. 412-345-1059 or therobotoproject.com Wildhoney is a band from Baltimore that makes guitar-pop music drenched in chorus pedals and saccharine fuzz. It’s sweet and sticky, like cotton candy on a hot day, and just as persistent.…
Savage Love
I have two female sex partners who want to be breath-play-dominated. I know the practice is dangerous, and I employ the rules of consent and communication a pro-Dom escort friend taught me. But is there a legal release document we could sign that protects consenting adults in the event of an accident or death? Ruminating…
Pittsburgh’s Spectres having success doing more with less
The Spectres Record-Release Show with Jiant Eagle, Franny Moon and Second Ladies 8 p.m. Sat., May 27. Howlers, 4509 Liberty Ave., Bloomfield. $5. 412-682-0320 or howlerspittsburgh.com The Spectres are a rock ’n’ roll two-piece that fuses a doo-wop sound with garage sensibilities and the ability to make all eight of their limbs count. Dan Spagnolo…
Short List: May 25-June 1
Sat., May 27 – Burlesque Vice calls SuicideGirls Blackheart Burlesque “comic-con meets burlesque nerd orgy.” The troupe itself offers “geek fantasy spectacular” and founder Missy Suicide’s characterization of traditional burlesque merged with cosplay. Any way you label it, Blackheart Burlesque is on its biggest U.S. tour ever: 63 cities in not many more days. On…
The Colombian Spot, on the South Side, offers the fare of this South American country
The Colombian Spot 2019 E. Carson St., South Side. 412-381-9000 Hours: Tue.-Thu. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Prices: Appetizers $2-7; salads and arepas $7-11; entrees $6-16 Liquor: BYOB Pittsburgh may not presently have a particularly rich Latin culture, but that doesn’t mean it’s a desert of Central and South…
The Nonino family is distilling tradition
“My mama was a pioneer of being a woman in a field of men. Could you imagine in the ’70s, she was the one that opened the field, not only [for] distillers but also wine producers?” says Elisabetta Nonino with obvious pride. Invited to speak at Grapperia in early May by the Pittsburgh Chapter of…
Critics’ Picks, May 25-31
[ELECTRONIC] + THU., MAY 25 Professional synth-pop wizards Good Great Fine OK are bringing their dreamy, danceable tunes to Cattivo tonight. Only one adjective of their name actually describes their music, and it’s not good, fine or OK. The latest EP, III, builds off the group’s past work collaborating with artists like The Chainsmokers and…
The Bandwagon Jumper’s Guide to Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey
I’ve never been much of a fan of professional hockey, although I do watch playoff hockey a bit. This year, for some reason, I find myself more interested than usual. I think the turning point was finding myself in really good seats at PPG Paints Arena the night the Penguins clinched the first-round series over…
Substitute Cool Whip for Sweet-Tooth Cravings
Remember as a kid when your grandma used to top a bowl of cherry Jell-O with Cool Whip and it was considered a treat? These days, I use the trademarked, artificial whipped topping in dishes that once held underrated vanilla ice cream. I’m working on self-acceptance, using the mantra “My body doesn’t determine my self-worth,”…
This week in Pittsburgh Sports History
A look back at events that you’ve either forgotten about or never heard of in the first place. May 28, 1956 Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Dale Long sets a major-league record for the most home runs in consecutive games when he launches his eighth in as many games in front of 31,000 fans at Forbes…
New Releases
Serpentine criminal hymnal Self-released serpentine.bandcamp.com Serpentine’s criminal hymnal is a mystical journey through classic rock, spooky storytelling and headbang-inducing riffs. The band describes the album as a “sigil for self-transformation, drawn in audible range-vibrations,” and it certainly evokes that description. The ritualistic album carries somber, minor chords in high-energy psych-punk compositions. It feels larger than…
Lynn Cullen Live 05/24/17
Video Archive RIP Roxcy Bolton, founder of first rape treatment center. Trump’s damage has been done. Meeting at the FCC ends in a journalist being pinned. Audio Only Archive Stream or download the last 5 shows on the MP3 downloads page.
