City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
Jazz Poetry 2023 welcomes the master of rhythm, James Brandon Lewis, back to City of Asylum to kick off this festival of life. Accompanying James and his quartet in this overture are poets Terrance Hayes, George Abraham, and Cynthia Dewi Oka.
This workshop for music educators and musicians is led by Jazz Poetry Month musician Elina Duni. Subject matter will focus on the art of making music and the ways it can be adapted to suit mood or theme.
City of Asylum welcomes critically acclaimed Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni, who shares the stage with poets Mj Shahen, Yalie Saweda Kamara, and Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko
We welcome back Elina Duni her second night of Jazz Poetry. She is joined by poets Ben Okri and Jorge Olivera Castillo, whose fresh performances serve to reshape and reimagine this compelling refrain.
The fourth night of Jazz Poetry presents a refreshing and lively collection of performances. Brazilian-American singer-songwriter Alexia Bomtempo, literary trailblazer Eileen Myles, Chicana poet and activist Rachelle Escamilla, and writer-in-residence Olena Boryshpolets supply a night of emphatic verse and sound.
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.
In this program, we welcome renowned Hungarian saxophonist Mihály Borbély. He is joined by accomplished poets Ariana Benson, Gaia Rajan, and City of Asylum writer-in-residence Rania Mamoun.
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.
Mihály Borbély returns for a second night of Jazz Poetry. He shares the stage with advocate and activist poets Cameron Awkward-Rich,Tabassam Shah, and City of Asylum writer-in-residence Anouar Rahmani.
The final week of Jazz Poetry Month begins with a deep breath, a respite ushered in by the Dyer Rosenbloom Kitamura Trio. They share the stage with acclaimed poets Sumita Chakraborty, Rosebud Ben-Oni, and Poet Laureate of Allegheny County, Doralee Brooks.
Violist Melanie Dyer returns for her second night of Jazz Poetry, this time amid the ranks of WeFreeStrings. The sextet is joined by poets Desiree C. Bailey and Roy G. Guzmán.
Our Jazz Poetry Finale welcomes artists who bring the spirit of this festival into the future: the Hip Hop Orchestra and our 2023 Youth Poet Laureates and Ambassadors, Rho Bloom-Wang, Aja Lynn, Jade Davis, and Audrey Alling.
This program welcomes author Andrey Kurkov, whose books are often full of black humor and are mostly set in post-Soviet reality. This is the third installment of our Ukrainian Artist Series.
Join us for a conversation on intersecting marginalized identities in Appalachia with Lambda Literary Award Finalist Neema Avashia, author of "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place," and Namita Dwarkanath, a University of Pittsburgh law student and prior advocate for gender-based violence prevention.
