Kathleen George: Mirth

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Writer, theatre professor, and Northsider Kathleen George makes her City of Asylum debut to celebrate the launch of her new novel, Mirth.
Kathleen George is the author of ten novels: a series of thrillers set in Pittsburgh; a novel about the Johnstown Flood, The Johnstown Girls; a novel about Lena Horne and jazz, The Blues Walked In; and most recently, Mirth. Kathy has also written a collection of short stories (The Man in the Buick), edited a collection of short fiction (Pittsburgh Noir), and contributed to many scholarly theatrical books and articles. She is a professor of theatre and writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Fadi Kattan on Food and Community

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

How powerful is food, really? Can it bring people together in times of joy and strife? What’s the role of food in diasporic communities? What stories can be told through food?
Franco-Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan ponders these topics and more in what’s sure to be an engrossing evening of contemplation, exploration, and celebration. 

Mai Khôi & The Dissidents

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

City of Asylum artist-in-residence Mai Khôi presents a concert of brand-new music composed in collaboration with Pittsburgh-based pianist Mark Micchelli. 
Khôi founded Mai Khôi and the Dissidents in Vietnam in 2017 as a vehicle to perform her genre-busting songs protesting government censorship and police violence. The band performed secretly at underground shows in Hanoi until threats from the Vietnamese government forced the band to change their name, then ultimately dissolve. Following Khôi's exile to the United States, she reformed the band with local Pittsburgh musicians while continuing the group's radical mission. 

Workshop: Warping the Canon: Poems of Formal Confinement & Escape

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

This workshop is designed for teens and young adults, and will be led by Jazz Poetry Month performers Gaia Rajan and Rho Bloom-Wang. The workshop will focus on poems of formal confinement and escape, exploring the ways queer people and people of color negotiate their relationship to established forms by warping them into something of their own.

Workshop: Jazz Masterclass

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

This workshop, led by renowned saxophonist Mihály Borbély, is for anyone interested in jazz and the making of jazz. Mihály will discuss his Hungarian, Central, and Eastern European cultural and musical identity, providing an intimate and exclusive presentation of his experience as a versatile multireedist musician. 

Reel Q Reel Stories: Instructions for Survival

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema presented in partnership with Reel Q, Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ+ Film Festival. August’s screening presents "Instructions for Survival," a 2021 documentary directed by Yana Ugrekhelidze.

Celebrating the Music & Resilience of Manganiyar Musicians with Shalini R. Ayyagari

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

This program presents a combination reading and musical performance with author and ethnomusicologist, Shalini R. Ayyagari. In Shalani’s book, Musical Resilience: Performing Patronage in the Indian Thar Desert, she shows how professional low-caste musicians from the Thar Desert borderland of Rajasthan, India have skillfully reinvented their cultural and economic value in postcolonial India

Free Association Reading Series: Inga Schmidt, Romella Kitchens, Derek Maiolo, & Chauna Craig

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

The Free Association Reading Series returns for its first installment of 2024! This series features a collection of intimate readings from local authors, sharing established and forthcoming works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Each month’s writers are invited by Free Association founders and friends of City of Asylum, Pat Hart and Marc Nieson. The duo’s... more →

Alla Boara: Dynamic Italian Folk Music

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

After performing at Alphabet City in November 2022 in their trio configuration, Alla Boara returns with their full group in all its glory– six talented musicians bringing recognition and new life to Italy's diverse history of regional folk music.

Reel Q: Out of Uganda

Alphabet City 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Presented in partnership with one of the oldest LGBTQ+ film festivals in the world, Reel Stories is a free monthly film series dedicated to showcasing international queer cinema. Our February Reel Q screening presents Out of Uganda.