Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Year in Review
Sunday, December 31st, 2017Facts and the Stories We Tell
Friday, December 23rd, 2011“We develop the capacity to influence the stories we tell ourselves, so that they empower rather than undermine us.”
Tony Schwartz
Today I heard a wonderful story on NPR’s Tell Me More about an exhibit for the work of Charles “Teenie” Harris, a great visual story-teller. Thanks to some help from the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Tey Stiteler, I got to check out a photo of Albert Mills, who was the first African-American detective in Pittsburgh. Mills later retired to the Syracuse-area and I knew him from my previous job.
Here is a photo Stiteler found.
A Tale from the Hood
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Walter Hood gives the 2011 Warner Selgiman Lecture at Syracuse University
Designer, architect, artist and urbanist Walter Hood described some of nationwide design projects and the agrarian roots in modern day urbanism yesterday at SU’s School of Architecture.
Below is an excerpt form his talk, which focuses on the “Find the Rivers” project Hood did in Pittsburgh, PA. The “Rivers” geographic location is the setting for many of the plays by August Wilson called the Hill District.
Hood, who is based in Oakland CA, was in town for the 2011 Werner Seligman lecture.
The Book of August
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011When it comes to an accurate portrait of African American life, site August Wilson’s cycle of plays examining the 20th century is a gift that keeps on giving.
This month Syracuse Stage produced Wilson’s Radio Golf.
Radio, set in 1990s Pittsburgh, revolves around Harmond Wilks (played by Richard Brooks) as he attempts to redevelop a blighted Pittsburgh neighborhood and parlay that venture into a run for mayor. At the climax of the play the audience is left with a sense that change is coming, but not without a struggle, or a fight.
A “Talk Back” forum was held by the stage and the actors talked about the genius of Wilson and how his work always fosters further examination.
Leland Gantt (Radio’s Sterling) said that the actors were on a journey to excavate the truth in Wilson’s work (the last he produced before he passed in 2005).
During a celebration of August Wilson’s work at Syracuse University in 2006, Dramaturg Kyle Bass, said it best: “Wilson gave us back to us.”
Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Radio’s Elder Joseph Barlow), who appeared in Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Syracuse Stage in 2009, described interpreting Wilson’s work on stage like eavesdropping on a conversation or peering thru a peephole at a family discussion. He said Wilson was able to avoid stereotypes by being true to the characters. “You know the truth when you hear it,” he said.