City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
Award winning writers Patrick Rosal and David Wright Faladé join us in virtual conversation to celebrate the launch of their new works, Faladé’s novel Black Cloud Rising and Rosal’s poetry collection The Last Thing.
Cole Arthur Riley is a Pittsburgh raised writer and creator of Black Liturgies (@blackliturgies), daily spiritual reflections on Instagram. Cole joins City of Asylum to read from her debut collection, This Here Flesh, which weaves stories from three generations of her family to discover the “necessary rituals” that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.
Joined by bassist Eli Namay, the trio is inspired by sounds of Near Eastern music, free-jazz, and world roots. They create sounds that cross genres and do not exist in typical musical spaces. Their goal is to share rich audience experiences that reach deeper into the nuance of life and listening in the 21st century global culture.
This is a virtual-only event hosted via City of Asylum @ Home. A poetic and raw coming-of-age memoir about Blackness, masculinity, and addiction, Punch Me Up to the Gods is... more →
The Mendelssohn Choir invites you to Alphabet City to explore the rich traditions of global choral music with local artists. Participants will learn about specific cultural song traditions, and have the opportunity to sing songs from within those traditions. It’s an interactive concert like no other! And no singing experience required.
Join the musicians of the Off Minor Jazz Series as they showcase some of Gryce's best known pieces along with some rare gems.
The #notwhite collective in-Dialogue series features conversations with BIPOC, AALANA, indigenous and immigrant artists and arts administrators. March’s conversation features Bekezela Mguni & Erin Perry.
In person tickets for this event are SOLD OUT but you can still join in virtually!
Storytelling is a tradition that spans across cultures, countries, and centuries. Storytelling traditions span across cultures, countries, and centuries. Stories bring us together to experience joy, wonderment, and intrigue—and they allow us to build deeper empathy and understanding.
They visit Pittsburgh to play their newest album, Were We Where We Were (March 2022) featuring primarily original compositions from Michael Formanek. This is an evening of jazz masters at work.
Film historian and writer Wil Haygood visits City of Asylum to discuss his newest book “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World. Wil is joined in conversation by Pittsburgh filmmaker and activist Emmai Alaquiva.
Chuck Smith is a long-time, active August Wilson director, a resident director at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where he’s supervised and directed Wilson plays (including Gem of the Ocean, which just closed) and, during his free time, a regular director at the West coast Black Theatre Troupe in Sarasota. He seems to know just about everyone in the Wilsonian theater universe. We’ll have a good time talking!
Join the staff writers from Sampsonia Way Magazine for a launch party celebrating the magazine’s new website and its newest series: “The Everyday Pandemic.”
In person tickets for this concert are sold out. You can still register to watch the live-streamed concert via City of Asylum @ Home.
This sumptuous English-language ‘50s piece recounts the mid-life years of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop (play by Mirando Otto, Lord of the Rings), when she left America to live and write in Rio de Janiero. In Brazil Bishop would also fall in love with well-off architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Initial hostilities between the pair make way for a complicated yet long-lasting love affair that dramatically alters Bishop’s relationship to the world around her.
Please note this program is in person only.
A live reading and conversation with translator and poet Yasmine Seale, the first female translator to release The Thousand and One Nights in English.
August Wilson House celebrates America’s greatest playwright with substantial insider interviews, with leading August Wilson actors, directors and artists, national and regional. Featuring Ron OJ Parson is working now on his 30th August Wilson production, sometimes as an actor but mainly a director, where he is just one-and-a-half shows short of completing his 10-play Cycle. His long journey allowed him to persuade Chicago’s Court Theatre to consider Wilson a classic, along with other Black playwrights. He says, “I like to bring August into the room.”
Founded by Violinist/Composer Gwen Laster in 2015, New MUSE 4tet is an improvising string quartet offering 20th and 21st century new works and original compositions as a vehicle for social activism. Their "Black Lives Matter Suite" continues to draw great audiences and critical acclaim.
The concert celebrates the release of their newest album "Blue Lotus".
Michael Weiss is one of the great journeymen in Jazz and has played and recorded with many of the music's masters. He joins the Off Minor Jazz series to present a program of original music along with original arrangements from his latest album, Persistence.
The #notwhite collective in-Dialogue series features conversations with BIPOC, AALANA, indigenous and immigrant artists and arts administrators. April’s program features artists Marika Constantino & DS Kinsel.
Pittsburgh Opera and City of Asylum are partnering together to explore the rich traditions of global operatic music and present an evening of Spanish-language poetry + song.
In her new book, "Healing," former oncology nurse Theresa Brown vividly chronicles her journey from the mammogram appointment that would change her life to her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Despite years working in oncology and hospice, Brown is constantly surprised by the lack of compassion she experiences during her treatment. And she can’t help reflecting on her time caring for patients. Did she treat them with the dignity and respect that she now craves? What could she have done to make other people’s suffering even a little bit easier?
August Wilson House celebrates America’s greatest playwright with substantial insider interviews, with leading August Wilson actors, directors and artists, national and regional. Hosted and moderated by Chris Rawson, veteran Pittsburgh Post-Gazette theater critic who chronicled Wilson’s career and became a friend. The goal is to capture the memories, anecdotes and insights of those who know Wilson’s epic American Century Cycle from the inside.
The in-person event is sold out! You can still tune in online.
Kinetic celebrates multiculturalism, wisdom, and unity, blending global folk traditions and contemporary jazz.
Listen, sing, and dance with the group as they perform music blending Ghanaian folk songs with original music from their new release 'Dances of Lake Volta'. This special concert will highlight the genius of folk songs from Ghana, and also premiere some brand new songs.
The collaborative trio of Jason Stein, Damon Smith, and Adam Shead feature a fluid music making process of spontaneous composition that is as rhythmically driving as it is melodically complex.
This is a must-see evening for contemporary jazz fans and anyone curious in the improvisation process.
This session of Global Choral Traditions is postponed. New date to be announced soon.
Kawa is a gorgeously cinematic drama from New Zealand that tells a transcendent tale of bravery, love, family and pride. Based on the semi-autobiographical novel Nights in the Gardens of Spain by Witi Ihimaera.
August Wilson House celebrates America’s greatest playwright with substantial insider interviews, with leading August Wilson actors, directors and artists, national and regional. Hosted and moderated by Chris Rawson, veteran Pittsburgh Post-Gazette theater critic who chronicled Wilson’s career and became a friend. The goal is to capture the memories, anecdotes and insights of those who know Wilson’s epic American Century Cycle from the inside.
Please note: this program has been postponed. New date will be announced soon.
Kinship celebrates tribal and familial connections between different cultures and individuals, and shares messages of global unity. The music combines folkloric traditions from all four artists’ homes, while simultaneously feeling out the spaces between various traditions. All with a jazzy and improvised twist.
Featuring collaborations with poets Vasyl Makhno (Ukraine), Gazmend Kapllani (Albania), Madhu Raghavendra (India), and Pamela Sánchez (Venezuela)
