City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
This program welcomes poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy for a reading and conversation surrounding her essay collection, "Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden." "Soil" is a seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as Camille tends her garden to reflect her heritage.
To live is to tell stories. Embracing that truth, Story Club Pittsburgh (created by the former producers of The Moth Pittsburgh), organizes and hosts a monthly nonfiction storytelling series at City of Asylum. The theme for August 2023 is Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow.
This program is the finale of three concerts in the “History of Cuban Music'' series, curated and arranged by Hugo Cruz, and performed by Hugo Cruz and Caminos. This third concert will feature Afro-Cuban music traditions from the Yoruba and Abakuá cultures, and the Spanish-influenced Cuban genres of punto guajiro, bulerias, tanguillo, rumba, and seguidilla.
This program presents award-winning journalist Prachi Gupta’s debut memoir, "They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us." Prachi’s debut is a probing, heartfelt exploration of the psychological harm caused by the model minority myth, and what it takes to break free from its constraints.
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.
In support of his project “Four for Mingus,'' AJ Johnson presents the last in a series of four concerts dedicated to visionary musician Charles Mingus. This final concert will spotlight Charles Mingus’ tributes to Duke Ellington, creating a unique homage to both of these major figures in the history of jazz.
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
Fan favorite jazz series Off Minor returns this September with an ode to Buddy DeFranco.
This program, presented in partnership with RealTime Arts and Jewish Family and Community Services (JFCS), welcomes a panel of resettlement experts and former refugees to explore the challenges unaccompanied minors face in their journey to find a new home, in preparation for a series of visits throughout Pittsburgh from Little Amal.
Utilizing a unique blend of global folk traditions and contemporary jazz, Kinetic’s performance efforts celebrate multiculturalism, wisdom, and unity.
Mathew Tembo returns this fall as part of his U.S. tour! Themed "Reggae-Afro," this tour is aimed at highlighting the impact that reggae has had on his Afropop style from Zambia.
In an exciting return to the Alphabet City stage, Thumbscrew (Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek, and Mary Halvorson) debut a program of original compositions, developed and rehearsed over the course of their 5th biennial residency at City of Asylum.
Story Club Pittsburgh (created by the former producers of The Moth Pittsburgh), organizes and hosts a monthly nonfiction storytelling series at City of Asylum. The theme for September 2023 is Back to School.
In this program, retired UE Director of International Affairs Robin Alexander presents a reading and conversation surrounding her new e-book International Solidarity in Action (ISIA).
Featuring quarterly visits from authors writing books for elementary-aged children, the Alphabet City Kids series continues this month with Marika Maijala, sharing her newly translated book "Rosie Runs."
Rachel Aviv discusses her book "Strangers to Ourselves," which illuminates the startling connections between diagnosis and identity.
This workshop, led by memoirist and medical professional Theresa Brown, R.N., will guide participants through a process of breaking down medical documents & rearranging the given words, thus allowing them to examine the interplay between a medicalized and a personal understanding of their bodymind’s experience.
Each year we gather at Alphabet City to honor an international writer or artist who shares our mission to promote and honor creative freedom for all. This year we honor Booker Prize winning poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright, Ben Okri.
All sharing stories in the theme of Lost & Found in Translation, the program features eight high school students who traveled abroad (Ecuador, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain) this past summer through the World Affairs Council’s global Travel Scholars program.
This program presents a conversation between two female Sudanese writers, Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela and City of Asylum writer-in-residence Rania Mamoun.
This panel offers conversations with artists who focus on translating the work of Indigenous creators. The panelists include Mathilde Magga, Arthur Malcolm Dixon, and Wendy Call.
This delightful panel introduces four authors, two from Brazil and two from Pittsburgh, writing queer contemporary young adult (YA) literature.
This panel presents a moderated conversation between three distinguished women in the literary field, Ebru Ojen, Yu Miri, and Marit Kapla, as they discuss what goes into writing the experiences of women and what it’s like to have those experiences be translated into different languages.
This workshop offers a Masterclass in literature with author Marit Kapla. Marit will discuss how she wrote her book Osebol, which has been translated into four languages including Spanish, its most recent translation.
This program features a stop on author K Patrick’s limited United States book tour, promoting their new book Mrs. S—a sensual slightly obsessive sapphic romance set against the backdrop of an all-girls boarding school.
In this reading, we welcome acclaimed Zimbabwean author Novuyo Rosa Tshuma to discuss her latest novel, Digging Stars.
This special program presents a jazz concert featuring Mat Maneri (performing with the ASH Quartet). The jazz set is followed by a jazz and poetry collaboration with poet Denver Butson and four poets from our partnership with the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, Busisiwe Mahlangu, Saba Hamzah, Yashika Graham, and Tammy Lai-Ming Ho.
The talented minds of our very own writers-in-residence and some of the writers from the University of Iowa’s International Writers Program come together for a one night only collaboration featuring readings and performances, across genres.
In this program, we welcome back the #notwhite collective as they express the hybridized and multifaceted aspects of self-defined liberation. They will be celebrating their recently released book A Future Artefact of the Global Majority: a book that catalogs the #notwhite collective’s journey, vision, members, and work spanning their first six years— 2016–2022.
Following along with our ongoing Alphabet City Kids series, this youth centered program offers story time with Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winning author/illustrator Jack Wong, as he celebrates the release of his new picture book The Words We Share. The story hour will be followed by an engagement activity and a Q&A with Jack.
