City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
Jazz Legacy Fellow and Pittsburgh legend Roger Humphries takes to the stage with the RH Factor for a collaborative, community-driven performance highlighting the true spirit of jazz.
Poet Yona Harvey and scholar Tahira J. Walker explore what it means to be a Black woman living in a city deemed most unlivable for them. The pair will discuss their respective works and the intersection of history, community, marginalization, and resistance. In conversation with Damon Young.
What are we missing when we limit the literary canon to American works? In this reading and discussion, City of Asylum Writers-in-Residence share the books and writers from their home countries—Algeria, Egypt, Haiti, and Ukraine—that made an impact on their respective literary scenes and that all US readers should add to their lists.
Writer-in-Residence Volodymyr Rafeyenko has supplied a 600-word essay in Ukrainian to be translated by Mark Andryczyk, Dominique Hoffman, and Halyna Hryn. In this program, Mark, Dominique, and Halyna go head-to-head to defend their revealed translations. Who will come out on top?
Anne Carson, one of the most celebrated classicists of our times, will participate in staged readings from her works "Cassandra Float Can" (based on Aeschylus’s "Cassandra") and "Antigonick" (based on Sophokles’s "Antigone").
A dynamic discussion that will traverse hybrid and experimental poetic forms as well as the art, broadly speaking, of translation. Moderated by Michelle Gil-Montero.
Zhang Yueran’s translated novel "Women, Seated" has become an undeniable hit among American audiences. But what does it take to bring Chinese literature to the US? In conversation with Anderson Tepper, editor Han Zhang and translator Jeremy Tiang will discuss the translation process and the importance of translated literature in America.
City of Asylum welcomes Deaf storytellers and poets KJ Johnstein, Val Wojton, Mj Shahen, NuNu Davis, and Lisa McBee for performances in American Sign Language (ASL) and Visual Vernacular (VV).
2006 Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai returns to City of Asylum to share her triumphant, deeply romantic, newly Booker Prize–shortlisted novel, “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” in conversation with Anderson Tepper.
Philadelphia, Detroit, and Pittsburgh are three of the most important cities in jazz, each churning out an astounding number of jazz masters. Guitarist Randy Napoleon (Detroit), bassist Jeff Pedraz (Philadelphia), and drummer Thomas Wendt (Pittsburgh) come together in this concert to celebrate the storied jazz legacies of their hometowns.
A reading and celebration of short fiction honoring 45 years of the Drue Heinz Prize, one of the most significant short fiction awards in the nation, with current and alumni prizewinners.
Lou Stellute, Antonio Croes, Ava Lintz, and George Heid III take the stage for a set of jazz standards mixed in with a musically inventive, funky, free, and improvisational performance!
Is it an address, a favorite place, or a loved one? This November, come ready to share (or judge!) stories exploring all the many things we call Home.
Paul Thompson, John Shannon, Dan Wilson, Glenn Zaleski, and David Throckmorton pay tribute to 20-time Grammy award–winning guitarist (and longtime inspiration) Pat Metheny.
We welcome back our partners at Reel Q this fall for an international film screening!
“The Atlantic” staff writer George Packer shares his new work of fiction, “The Emergency,” in conversation with writer, critic, and performance poet Adriana E. Ramírez.
