Season 1
Season Trailer
Show Notes
Welcome to the Secret Pittsburgh podcast! During the Fall 2023 semester, Dr. Elise Ryan’s course traveled across Pittsburgh to uncover stories of Pittsburgh’s places and people. Over the course of ten episodes, we explore the buried streams of Pittsburgh and the public art they inspire; Carrie Blast Furnaces' industrial past and creative present; August Wilson’s childhood home and the Pittsburgh neighborhood that inspired him; Rodef Shalom’s role in the development of Reformed Judaism in the US and the synagogue’s partnership with the Violins of Hope exhibit; and Quantum Theater’s production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and the company’s commitment to place-based theater. Join us! Series Thumbnail Image Credit Pittsburgh view from incline © Derek Cashman, used under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en Trailer Episode Works Cited FrankyBoomer. “Jazz Loop.wav” creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ freesound.org/people/FrankyBoomer/sounds/261100/ Williams, James (publishes under manychefsbroth). “Car—Pulling Away.” creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ freesound.org/people/manychefsbroth/sounds/151876/
Transcript
Episode 1
Show Notes
Henderson, Ryan. Rivers of Steel, 18 Feb. 2021, riversofsteel.com/black-workers-at-carrie/. Paine, Kirsten L. Carrie Clark: She Who Lit the Fire, Rivers of Steel, 9 Mar. 2023, riversofsteel.com/carrie-clark-she…wMDA0MjIx*_up*MQ. Roth, Mark. “Homestead Works: Steel Lives in Its Stories.” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 30 July 2006,www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/2…s/200607300258. Serrin, William. “A CHAPTER OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY CLOSES WITH THE HOMESTEAD STEEL WORKS.” The New York Times, 27 July 1986, www.nytimes.com/1986/07/27/us/a-c…-steel-works.html. Simon, Ed. An Alternative History of Pittsburgh. Belt Publishing, 2021. “The Strike at Homestead Mill.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi…ike-homestead-mill/.
Transcript
Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh. In the past 15 weeks, we've traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh's people and places. Join us as we explore the Carrie Blast Furnaces. I'm Maggie Ciesinski, let's go. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh or seen images of the city? If you have, then you know it's almost inescapable to see or hear something related to the Steelers. Signs, jerseys, graffiti, everywhere you turn, these colors ring out. Walking around the streets of Pittsburgh, black and gold seem almost essential to the very being that a Pittsburgher carries with them. Why then is the seemingly trivial aspect of the city so important to so many? Sure, football is great, as any Pittsburgh resident would tell you, but what makes this team inspire 300, 000 people? The main drive for this is community and a sense of belonging. The second you put on a jersey or show your support, you are enveloped by the outreached hands of Pittsburgh. You do not have to worry about being alone. As this city is with you when you wear black and gold. Steelers football is a show of grit and hard work. Football is a grueling sport and any fan will tell you that the Steelers will fight tooth and nail to obtain victory. This fight is also translated off of the field with the organization supporting many charities and bridging the gap of social injustice. Steeler Nation is at the heart of Pittsburgh and exemplifies many of the values that Pittsburgh was built on. The Steelers get their name from the mill workers of the past who helped to build a city from the ground up, despite all kinds of injustices at that time. These people came from all corners of the globe with one common goal, make steel. Surprisingly, this grueling task brought about the airs of the community within the mill. "This is what Pittsburghers were like." We spoke with Keith Klaus, a Pittsburgh native and former steelworker. Today, Keith is a tour guide with Rivers of Steel, and he gave us some insight and stories of life in the mill. "They were very, uh, provincial. Yes, because we were made fun of by the rest of the country. Rust Belt, you know, hated that term. But from that came a maybe different sense of pride. Okay, I'll show you. And this is the way we were. We were very proud of what we were." These men were brothers, putting in extreme hours for little pay just to keep their families afloat. This common task brought about lifelong friendships and formed bonds that brought people from the lowest points in their lives to new heights. However, these bonds were formed at the cost of the intense hardships endured by the laborers of this time, which fused many like the steel they were producing. This homage from the past doesn't end with the Steeler's name, however. Do you know where the Steeler's logo comes from? If you're not familiar with it, take a second to find it. This emblem comes from a union pin of these steelworkers. The three diamonds floating among the abyss of white within the emblem represents the three elements needed to make steel. Yellow for coal, orange for iron ore, and blue for steel scrap. Each is essential in the process, just as each player is essential for a team's success. Coming from a union pin, these elements are more than just raw materials. They are the fight for better working conditions. The fight for fair pay. The fight for African American workers to be recognized as equal to white workers of the same caliber. So while the Steelers may just be a football team to you, to many, they represent the hard work, community, and grit it takes to make it in this world. They embody the values of the people who came before them and spawned a city in their wake. And this is where we begin our story of the true Steelers, the heart of this city. So what was it like to work in a steel mill in the late 1800s or early 1900s? You may have a faint idea, but what these workers went through is foreign to many. Place yourself in early Pittsburgh, and imagine you are a 30 something year old male. You moved to Pittsburgh two months ago, not out of want, but necessity. You're afraid that your wife and two children would suffer from your lack of steady income, so you decide to make a change. North. You will go north and get a factory job, you thought. With this, you will send money back to your family so they can keep food on the table. You meet a nice gentleman who begins to talk to you about his mill job. He says that he works at Carrie Blast Furnace and makes 10 dollars a week. This is twice as much as you made working the land in the South. Next week, you begin your journey as a steelworker. As you trudge down the hill toward Carrie you hear the piercing sound of the mill whistle. Almost time for a shift change. You take one step over the tracks that carry carts full of hot iron to the Homestead Mill, where it will become steel. You suddenly realize that the cart is on its way toward you, and you jolt back, nearly missing the six ton apparatus. This is one of multiple near death experiences you will have this day. You climb the stairs to your job location and see the night crew, covered in soot and looking tired as ever. You listen and hear Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Spanish. The mills have created a place for immigrant workers, exploitative or helpful to the new citizens. This is for you to decide. Through these dialects, you hear talks of striking. Your coworkers are fed up with the working conditions and little pay. They talk of holding the lines at the Homestead Mill, using violence to get their point across. You know better than to engage with this talk. As you know, the newly implemented mill police will have you fired on the spot. Or worse. You clock in using your paper time punch and swap the battered man in your place after you put on the wool apron that covers barely more than your clothes. Your job is to keep the iron flowing down the narrow track headed for collection. The iron flows from the furnace at nearly 3, 000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you push it using the narrow metal rod that weighs nearly 50 pounds, you can feel the heat singe the hair on your face. Your shoulders burn from the weight of the rod. After food and rent You're sending back only 5 dollars a week. The cycle continues. Fast forward, you've finally managed to save enough money to get a train ticket for your wife and two children for Pittsburgh. You're excited for the first time since coming here, and can't wait to see your family after two long years. This is your new life, you think to yourself, as you lace up your boots, back to the mill. For nearly a century, for thousands of workers and their families, this was life at Carrie Blast Furnace. The Iron Mill began operation in 1884, built by brothers H. C. and W. C. Frownes it was christened with champagne and a first fire by their cousin, Cary Clark, the mill's namesake. The iron forged at Carrie supplied the surrounding steel mills, including the Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock and the Homestead Works across the Monongahela River. Both owned by steel baron Andrew Carnegie. In an effort to maximize profits and minimize spending across his mills, Carnegie and his partners purchased it in 1898. They incorporated Carrie and those who worked there into the larger Homestead works. From then until Carrie's closing, iron traveled the Monongahela River straight to Homestead, where mill workers turned it into the steel that built America's cars, buildings, and appliances. Then the war's tanks, planes, submarines, and arms. And finally, the rust that coated the people and communities left abandoned by its closing. Operating seven days a week, for 24 hours a day, the Carrie Blast Furnace produced massive amounts of iron. Men worked 12 hour shifts, as it was less expensive for Carnegie. The grueling labor paid off for Carnegie, and Carrie broke multiple world records for the amount of iron produced in a single day throughout its operation. The company saw prosperity for its bottom line. While the World Wars brought Europe to its knees, they brought Carrie and U. S. steel glory and fortune. Allied forces were buying up Pittsburgh made steel for the war effort. The desperation brought by the war proved good for supply and demand. Pittsburgh mill workers who had not been drafted or enlisted continue on in their labor. For many of the Polish and Eastern European immigrants with family on the front, their work in Pittsburgh became a vendetta. At this peak in production, 20, 000 people were employed at Homestead Works, and throughout its century of existence. It produced more than 200 million tons of steel. But this monstrous scale of production did not come without cost. And where Carnegie and U. S. Steel could cut financial costs, they paid instead in labor exploitation. The history of labor across the mills is long and violent, ringing back to the earliest days of the Carnegie Steel Company. One instance is held in Pittsburgh as the bloody reminder of what the unions cost. In 1892, the price of steel was dropping. Which meant Carnegie was losing money. Carnegie and his partners wouldn't stand for it. And the solution of one partner, Henry Clay Frick, was to lower wages. After all, steel that sells for less had to be produced for less. At the news of lowering wages, 3, 000 of Homestead's 3, 800 workers took to the picket line while Frick readied for war. He called in the Pinkerton Detective Agency, a private police force known for striking down labor unions. 300 of these armed men arrived at the banks of the Homestead Mill and were met by hordes of strikers. The battle that ensued lasted for 12 hours. In the end, the Pinkertons retreated, but it was hardly a victory for the Union. Frick asked the governor to call in the Pennsylvania National Guard, and 8, 500 troops were sent to Homestead to put down the strikers and send scab laborers to work. Nearly a dozen people were killed in the Battle of Homestead. Defeats at Union efforts back decades in all of Carnegie's mills. Even despite the bloodshed, Carnegie got his way, and the price for producing steel dropped. Remembering the Battle of Homestead, Carnegie wrote to a friend that, quote, "It's fading, as all events do, and we are at work selling steel at one pound for half a penny." In the decades that followed, talk of unionizing was taboo at Cary and at Homestead. Carnegie and U. S. Steel continue to profit off of exploited laborers. Ask for a higher wage? There's ten men who would do your job for half the pay. Injured on the job and can no longer work? You've been replaced. Try to unionize? Not around Frick's mounted police force. Not until federal and state legislation passed did U. S. Steel begin recognizing workers rights and their unions. Worker safety, fair pay, paid time off, proper breaks, pensions, each were an essential demand of the unions and each significantly contributed to the lives of the mill workers. Barney Terrell is a researcher and tour guide with Rivers of Steel. We spoke with him about unions and the changes they brought to steel workers. "Yeah, I think, I think the biggest, the biggest changes for my money were two things. One, uh, wages, of course, uh, went up, uh, and in some cases you were, you know, you would make, that was a good middle class lifestyle, uh, but two, I think there was a lot more emphasis on safety, especially after 1919, 1920 with the great strike in 1919. So I think with the union, especially in the thirties, You start to see, again, a lot more emphasis on, a lot more emphasis on higher pay, a lot more emphasis on just better, uh, also benefits. Things like pensions, insurance, stuff like that. That again, those fraternal organizations earlier were doing." Now that it was U. S. Steel's responsibility to take care of their employees, the company prioritized worker safety like never before. Where an injured worker would have once been ushered out with a few weeks pay, now brightly colored posters warned of injury and encouraged caution. Unions did not solve every problem in the mill, but with their shared voice, the interests of Carey's and Homestead's workers became more recognized than ever before. Unions. Striking. Better working conditions. This all drove forward the idea of a better working life. But for what workers? All workers? Well, as many of you can guess, unions made exceptions in their progress. Many immigrants and workers of color were excluded from these groups, and denied the benefits that union membership afforded. Among the groups affected by this, African Americans were hit the hardest. See, while there was so much diversity in these mills, and many would describe them as the cliché melting pot, racism and discrimination were all too common in the workplace. African Americans, if they could get a job in the mill, were placed in the most dangerous and unpleasant positions. Management placed many black workers away from the steel side of production and instead toward iron production at the Carrie Blast Furnace, as these jobs were usually dirtier and riskier. If these workers were able to persevere through this, they would have taken countless racist comments and the feeling of being an outsider within a place that should have welcomed them. As if tensions were not high enough among black workers and others at the mill, management had some gas to throw on the fire for themselves. As it turns out, African American workers were frequently used by management to break strikes. When a strike occurred, they would bring in black workers to take the place of those on strike. This allowed the company to continue functioning and hold out on unions for longer, forcing union workers to give up and return to work due to lost wages. Once the workers returned, these black strike breakers would be fired and the mill would return to normal. This increased tensions between black workers and union workers, as black workers were essentially taking their jobs and undermining the union. It wasn't until the early 1900s when they were allowed to take part in union groups, and even then, it was only permitted by white workers to prevent black workers from breaking their strikes. One man came along and changed everything for black workers, fighting oppression without even recognizing it. That man is John Hughey. John Hughey worked at Carrie Blast Furnace from 1947 to 1982. It made an astonishing impact, not just on this place, but on working life in general. Once employed at Carrie Blast Furnace, John was quickly placed in a position that was less than enjoyable due to the racism in the mills. John quickly realized that the vast majority working these less desirable jobs were African Americans. They were given very little protective equipment and asked to do extremely dangerous jobs that were often involved being exposed to harmful chemicals and nearly 3, 000 degree molten iron. He also realized that almost all of the skilled workers, whose job quality was much better than the furnace jobs that black workers were subject to, were white. Another anomaly he noted was the job bidding system at the mill. He saw that many people were denied bids for higher positions due to their race, despite their seniority within the company. John noted these injustices and did what he thought was right and fought for better conditions. Shortly after beginning work at Carrie John Hughey became a union grievance officer, being one of the first African Americans to hold this position of power. This made him a pioneer in itself, and he would go even further. John would go on to become the head grievance officer and would use this position to bring about change within the mill. Firstly, he helped all Carrie workers by securing better heat gear and protective equipment. He also pushed for better benefits for steel workers, such as eye and dental care. He led a strike to obtain better pensions for his workers. Importantly, he was able to obtain a job bidding system that was solely based on merit, abolishing the practices of the past based on racism. This was revolutionary. At the time, John didn't realize the civil implications of his work. Looking back, he realized how pivotal his time at Carrie was. Overall, John Hughey was able to obtain better working conditions for all workers at Carrie. He especially enhanced the lives of black laborers, such as squashing oppression, and get the recognition deserved. This not only affected mill workers, but resonated in other sectors of labor, and solidified the values that have remained till today. John Huey is an unsung hero from Pittsburgh, and his story must be heard. With the 1970s, the American steel industry began to shatter. Steel production was being sourced overseas for lower prices than could be offered in Pittsburgh. Suddenly, the massive Homestead Works was simply too big to sustain, and little by little, it fell apart. Layoffs occurred gradually over the next two decades. The mill that had brought together workers from across continents, oceans, dialects, and races crumbled, leaving them and their families standing in the ashes. In the years that followed, the mills along the Mon Valley closed one by one, and with them, Pittsburgh's jobs diminished. The Homestead Works and Carrie Blast Furnaces closed their doors in 1986. It's amidst this shudder that Pittsburgh's own Steelers finally find victory. In 1975, for the first time in franchise history, the Steelers won the National Championship title. Then they do it again a year later. In six years, the scrappy, "lovable losers" of Western Pennsylvania won four Super Bowl titles even as their city's industry was in collapse. After all, the team is not named for Carnegie's ruthless business practices or the flames that once lit up the mills. It wasn't even named for the plates of hard steel now rusting decades later. The team was instead named for the people who worked there, whose grit and desperation led them to unspeakably difficult and dangerous labor, whose strength forged skyscrapers and weapons of war. "The guys that worked there, they had the stories. I was fortunate to go up to a local tavern called Amel's and sit there with these guys. And it's a Pittsburgh tradition, you throw your five dollars in the middle of the table and they keep the pitchers of beer coming while you're talking. And maybe these guys would be kind of uptight the first pitcher but after a while they loosened up and then the stories started. And many of the times the stories would begin with, uh, glancing over either shoulder and then hunching down and saying, I really shouldn't tell you this, but, and you would discover something new every time. These guys are fantastic to be around." Pittsburgh's devotion to her team stems from that sense of self recognition. As the rest of the country saw Pittsburgh fall to its knees, how did Pittsburgh see itself? What did the rusting have to root for? The scrappy, gritty, tough as nails city mill workers turned their faith largely to the organization that had taken their name. Because as the mills were failing, and unemployment in Allegheny and Beaver Counties were at an all time high, the Pittsburgh Steelers were football's reigning champions, but not without a long, hard road. The Steelers knew years of failing and being disregarded, something a mill worker would have recognized all too well. It takes a kind of faith to believe in a team that has been through such ups and downs. But as Ed Simon recalls in his book, An Alternative History of Pittsburgh, "It's easy for some to condescend this sort of faith, but that's to miss the point of religion, the binding together of desperate people." Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story from the Carrie Blast Furnace. We hope you're inspired to visit this place and find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all of the episodes produced with Secret Pittsburgh. You can find show notes and a transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. My name is Maggie Ciesinski. Diego Cuevas served as audio editor. Jennifer Ponce Cori and Nickolas Kelly wrote and researched this episode and performed interviews. See yinz later!
Episode 2
Show Notes
When we visited Frick Park, we learned that sewage flows through Nine Mile Run, one of the main streams in Frick. This episode explores the mystery of how sewage ended up in this stream and almost every other waterway in Pittsburgh, including our rivers. We meet with staff from UpstreamPGH and the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory in our journey to find out history, impact, and community solutions in relation to sewage in Pittsburgh waterways. Written Sources Allegheny County Sanitary Authority. History Timeline. n.d. Web. 17 November 2023. www.alcosan.org/about-us/history/history-timeline. —. Wastewater Treatment. n.d. Web. 17 November 2023. www.alcosan.org/what-we-do/wastewater-treatment. American Rivers. What Makes a River Different Colors. 2023. Web. 17 November 2023. www.americanrivers.org/what-makes-a-…erent-colors/. Bain, Dan, Emily Elliott and Becky Forgrave. How does stream burial affect water runoff? Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach, 2022. 12 November 2023. www.water.pitt.edu/sites/default/f…ve_Briefing.pdf. Birdy, Aaron. Personal Interview Hunter Bash. 9 November 2023. Guy, Megan. Personal Interview Hunter Bash. 16 November 2023. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. Frick Park. 2023. Web. 17 November 2023. pittsburghparks.org/explore-your-pa…rks/frick-park/. Sewer Equipment Company of America. Sanitary vs. Combined Sewer Systems. 2023. Web. 17 November 2023. sewerequipment.com/sanitary-vs-com…-sewer-systems/. Audio Credits cookies+policy. "Bright Cinematic Boom (Slow Reverb)." 2021. freesound.org/people/cookies+policy/sounds/555243/. Eelke. "Analog Camera click shutter." 2019. freesound.org/people/Eelke/sounds/462827/. Mark Wilson X. "Drowning." 2023. freemusicarchive.org/music/mark-wil…ds/drowning-1/. mrrap4food. "Toilet Flushing." 2019. freesound.org/people/mrrap4food/sounds/470621/. Puddle of Infinity. "Young And Old Know Love." n.d. YouTube Creator Studio Library. Setuniman. "thoughtful moment 0_19c." 2011. freesound.org/people/Setuniman/sounds/136658/. Straget. "The rain falls against the parasol." 2020. freesound.org/people/straget/sounds/531947/. yanvince and comusal. "magnificent." 2023. youtu.be/m7HcGCbzB00?si=F2xCgeJtdTZuArBn.
Transcript
Hunter Bash: Picture yourself in the nature of Frick, Pittsburgh’s biggest historic park. Perhaps you’ve found Fern Hollow Creek paralleling your trail, winding through the nature enhanced with public art. Then you arrive at the point where Fern Hollow loses its name as it connects with Nine Mile Run. You step off the trail to connect with nature, entering the shallow parts of the stream to explore. Then someone comes by and says: “don’t touch the water. There’s sewage in there.” Hunter: Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh! In the past 15 weeks, we’ve traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh’s people and places. Join us now as we explore Nine Mile Run and the buried streams of Pittsburgh. I’m Hunter Bash. Kevin Collins: And I’m Kevin Collins. Hunter: Let’s go! Hunter: Okay, so, some background. Our class went down to Frick park to learn a little more about Nine Mile Run, one of many Pittsburgh waterways, and the public art surrounding it. The stream is a secret place, after all, even to me, a native Pittsburgher. I had never even heard of Nine Mile Run before this class. So when we got up to the stream we wanted to get a closer look, enjoy the water, I got real close with the mic for some sound effects, and I honestly didn’t even hear exactly what the guy said, do you remember what he told us? Kevin: Uh, he came up and he said ‘stay out of the water, it's basically sewage.’ Hunter: Yea, so our professor passed on the message and after hearing that, I started to wonder, ‘why would there be sewage in the water?’ My first thought is like, ‘well, maybe there are some answers upstream.’ Hunter: So you, me, and Veronica get back on the trail— Kevin: Right Hunter: —and followed the stream backwards. And, as we were walking, we passed these like, big sewer grates. Kevin: Ah, right I remember those. Hunter: They were like these concrete tubes with like, a manhole cover, and I remember seeing the first one and thinking ‘hmm, that’s strange’ and I just kept walking but then we encountered a couple more and I was like, ‘ok I gotta stop and take a picture of these.’ So, we keep walking along, glancing at Nine Mile Run as we walk by. Um, but at some point the trail starts going uphill and a fence begins that separates the trail from the stream. And I remember looking down at the stream at this point and we all noticed the color. Hunter: It was this fluorescent, sickening green. Kevin: And cloudy. [..] Hunter: My first thought was algae, which information from the organization American Rivers confirms. Algae can change the color of waterways, and algae growth can be increased by soil or pollution runoff. Kevin: So maybe runoff is the answer. Hunter: Right, maybe. So, alright, enough distractions. We get to the end of the trail and it just, kinda turns into this parking lot and leads into this regular city road. But the stream, it doesn’t end. I mean obviously, it’s gotta flow from somewhere. But it’s coming out of this big tunnel. Kevin: It’s buried. Hunter: Exactly. And with the stream buried, so too is the mysterious origin of sewage in the water. […] Kevin: So, what…did we give up? Hunter: Well, no, but there was another layer now. Many, actually. I had so many questions. Why was the stream buried? Was it buried in sewage pipes or separate? If it was separate, how did sewage end up in it? I really wanted to get to the bottom of why Nine Mile Run—and other streams like it—are buried. I thought this might bring me closer to finding out how the sewage got there in the first place. Hunter: This— Brought me in contact with Megan Guy. Megan Guy: Uh, my name is Megan Guy. I use she/her pronouns. Um, I am the Outreach Coordinator for the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory. Hunter: Megan told us that the Pittsburgh Collaboratory for Water Research, Education, and Outreach– Megan: Uh, most folks call us the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory. Hunter: Aims to connect people in the community to research and to resources to conduct their own research. They work a lot with UpstreamPGH, an organization that does restorative work for the Nine Mile Run watershed. After learning a bit about the organizations, I asked Megan about the history behind stream burial. Megan: Stream burial, it happens across the United States. This isn’t uncommon. Um, it’s something that is really prevalent in urban areas, especially. Hunter: And if you know one thing about Pittsburgh history, it’s– Megan: Steel. Steel, steel. At that time they were really trying to, like, build communities around the steel mills. You needed more development, you needed more houses, you needed more grocery stores, and so, a lot of what they ended up doing was putting a stream into a channel to make sure that they could build to help with the growing population. Kevin: So it was sort of a side effect, or, a necessity for building the industrial city that we have? Hunter: Yes. Pittsburgh was once just like the rest of Eastern PA: a whole lot of forest. But once it really had its industrial boom…well, you can’t really build the foundation for a house if there’s a stream running across the ground. Aaron Birdy: When Pittsburgh was early on in the development, there were about 33 above-ground streams within the city proper— Hunter: This is Aaron Birdy, the Plan, Build manager at UpstreamPGH, that organization I mentioned earlier. He told me that urban development wasn’t the only reason for stream burial in Pittsburgh. Aaron: As more and more areas were developed, those streams became the natural sewers for the developed areas, so all the sewage would go into the local stream down to the Monongahela River. Kevin: But what about neighborhoods downstream? Were these streams like, actual sources of water for people? Hunter: At the time, yes. And that presented some huge issues. Aaron: In the early 1900s the Typhoid Fever deaths [in] Pittsburgh were like, through the roof. Hunter: Burying the streams, he said— Aaron: —was kind of done as a way to bury the problem and so that people couldn’t interact with the stream, use it to drink, bathe, any of that. Kevin: So, burying the streams…avoided the problem? They didn’t actually stop dumping sewage into them? Hunter: Yup. And what this means is that, though infrastructure has certainly improved over the years, letting sewage flow into streams is something we’ve been doing in Pittsburgh for a very long time. […] Kevin: So, are we still just dumping all our sewage into these buried streams? Hunter: Not exactly. We’ve since added a sewage system into the buried fray. But I was still left wondering about how that sewage system ended up mixing with city streams. I asked Megan about the impact of stream burial. Megan: Streams are a completely vital part of an ecosystem. Like, they’re, it’s not just the water that’s flowing in like, one super confined area. There’s this whole network of water underneath that stream where the water can connect to the ground water and feed into like, you know, supporting the vegetation and, you know, supporting other habitats alongside of the stream. Hunter: And Aaron explained how those natural impacts extend to urban environments. Aaron: Yea so when you kinda take a natural system and you start to culvert all of the individual little braided streams and put them into pipes, so you’re taking what normally was a forest or a wetland, turning it into paved surfaces or housing, you’re increasing that impervious surface— Hunter: —a surface that can’t absorb any water. Aaron: You’re taking, basically something that could absorb most of the rain that falls on it and making that, like, the quickest route possible to get from that source to the local sewer. Hunter: So, then rainfall becomes a new problem to deal with. Kevin: What does he mean it goes to the sewer? Aren’t sewers like, buried under houses and buildings? How does rainwater make it into the sewers? Hunter: So, this brings us closer to some pretty big stuff. You know how city roads have those storm grates on them? Kevin: Yea, like the ones at corners and in alleys? Hunter: Exactly. Have you ever wondered where stormwater goes once it goes down those? Kevin: I don’t know. I guess I never thought of it. Hunter: Out of sight, out of mind. Kevin: Wait, so are you saying those flow into the sewers? Hunter: Bingo. Hunter: Pittsburgh doesn’t have two separate systems for handling stormwater and sewage. So it all just…runs together Kevin: And then, what, it just all goes right into the rivers? Hunter: Well, not always. […] Hunter: Ok, so to begin to answer your question in detail, I have to tell you a bit about how Pittsburgh homes receive and dispose of their water. So, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, or PWSA, pulls water out of the Allegheny River, treats it, and sends it to homes. People use the water, it goes down the drain, and enters the sewage network. As I hinted to before, Pittsburgh has what is called a Combined Sewer System. Megan: When you have combined sewer systems, stormwater is also going into that same pipe that your sewage and other, uh, discharge from your homes and businesses is going to. That pipe is all going to one place. Kevin: Where…where’s that? Hunter: That one place is the ALCOSAN wastewater treatment plant. That’s the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, ALCOSAN. They bring in all the sewage from the entire city, get the water all cleaned up and dump it back into the Ohio River. And the water that they dump into the river is actually cleaner than what’s already there. So, ALCOSAN got started with their work in April of 1959, diverting sewage out of the waterways. This works just fine, most of the time. Kevin: Why only most of the time? Hunter: It becomes an issue of capacity. Combined Sewer Systems were banned in 1940, but obviously Pittsburgh was building infrastructure for sewage long before 1940. What this means for us now is that when it rains, ALCOSAN can’t keep up with the rain coming in through those storm grates on the streets…and the sewage that is coming in just as fast as it always does. Kevin: So it overflows. Hunter: Exactly. And we really don’t want that stuff coming back up the pipes and into our homes, so we have what are called Combined Sewer Overflows, or CSOs. They’re honestly really simple to understand, uh, and if you want to see how they work we have a really good image in the show notes, but, basically, a CSO is a simple pipe structure that diverts sewage overflow out into the nearest river or buried stream. But this, of course, means that sewage ends up dumped into our waterways. Megan: So for example, like in Nine Mile Run there is a Combined Sewer Overflow to have a release point for that wastewater. Hunter: Into Nine Mile Run? Megan: Yea, yea. Hunter: So, those are the sewage grates we saw when we were walking along Nine Mile Run, that’s how sewage got into the stream, that’s it. That’s our mystery solved. Kevin: Wait, but I gotta go back to buried streams for a second. Cause it seems like buried streams means more rainwater flows into the sewage systems, which in turn causes more sewage to end up in buried streams. Hunter: That’s exactly right. Before streams were buried, runoff had a natural path to get to the rivers, but now it has to share space with the sewage system. And that means that, with our current infrastructure, every time it rains more than one tenth of an inch, sewage ends up in our waterways. Kevin: So, what, can anything be done to fix it? Hunter: Yes, and actually, there is progress already underway. […] Aaron: Their current plan’s to build um, a network of deep tunnels to catch the overflow. It’s supposed to reduce that from 9 billion to less than 2 billion a year. Hunter: That’s 9 billion gallons of sewage entering waterways, down to 2. Aaron described ALCOSAN’s plan to cut down on sewage entering waterways by building these, sort of, storage tanks that can hold excess sewage until the treatment facility can catch up. It’s really great news that the large companies and infrastructure of Pittsburgh are behind fixing the problem. But Megan also pointed out that community effort in this fight is extremely important and very much alive. Megan: There are so many passionate people about water in our region. People are really looking to implement change for the better and these like, passionate groups of people are really starting to come together and say hey, I really wanna make a positive change for my community and I know you do too so maybe let’s work together. Hunter: She goes on to mention the really great work being done by organizations like UpstreamPGH, where Aaron works. Aaron: We worked to plant, um, over fifteen hundred trees in the watershed, install thousands of rain barrels on people’s homes, um, to try and, again, manage the rain where it falls and ‘slow the flow.’ Hunter: Aaron described these small contributions made by regular people like you and me. Rain barrels, rain gardens, anything that can catch rainwater and keep it out of the sewage system cuts down on overflow into rivers and streams. He assured us these individual efforts continue to support the restorative work that he and his organization do to manage the stream in Frick Park. Aaron: Post-restoration I think the stream has kind of created a sense of, um, space down there that invites people to get close to it, enjoy it, take pictures, um. I think the impact, you know, in the park has really been polishing, you know, something that needed some love, so um. I think that that was, you know, an amazing, um, transformation for that part of the park but we realized that, you know, the work that we did in Frick Park, maintaining that is really dependent on how the water is managed upstream. The key has always been to work with communities and work with the municipalities because that’s where the water is draining from, you know, that’s where we can make an impact. Hunter: And both Aaron and Megan left us with some hopeful notes that remind us the power of individual effort. Aaron: You can make an impact even just at your house. You can make an impact through planting a tree. Megan: No matter how small it might seem, having like, hundreds of people do one small thing adds up to a big difference. […] Hunter: Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of Nine Mile Run. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. I’m Hunter Bash. Kevin: And I’m Kevin Collins. Hunter: This episode was edited by Veronica Close and written and researched by Hunter Bash and Kevin Collins. We would like to thank Aaron Birdy from UpstreamPGH and Megan Guy from the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory for agreeing to interview with us. Please tune-in to all the episodes our class has produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript and more episodes at secretpittsburgh.org. See yinz later!
Episode 3
Show Notes
Our podcast episode, focusing on the Violins of Hope exhibition and the Rodef Shalom Mosaic Exhibition, traces the devastation of the Holocaust and the anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish population of Pittsburgh during the Tree of Life shooting. We explore the impact such tragedies had on the Jewish community. Works Cited 42955_Freqman_Hoochie_Violin_Variation. freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/42955/ Fackler, Guido. “Cultural Behavior and the Invention of Traditions: Music and Musical Practices in the Early Concentration Camps, 1933-6/7.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 45, no. 3, 2010, pp. 601-627. www.jstor.org/stable/20753617 Gilman, Sander L. “Einstein’s Violin: Jews and the Performance of Identity.” Modern Judaism, vol. 25, no. 3, 2005, pp. 219-236. www.jstor.org/stable/3526854 Khristi, Barbara. Personal Interview. 3 Nov 2023. Kosta T – Informality. freemusicarchive.org/music/Kosta_T/…_-_informality Rosen, Sandra. Personal Interview. 3 Nov 2023. Sad-Violin-Music-Piano-Violin-Saddest-Song-No-Copyright-Music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfFZl2Fho7I Savfk-At-The-Kitchen-Table-Freestockmusic. www.free-stock-music.com/savfk-at-the…n-table.html Scott Holmes Music – Deep Ident. freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Ho…thinker-ident/ Serge Quadrado Transition – FMA Podcast Suggestion. freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-qu…st-suggestion/
Transcript
Shelby Thayer [00:00]: When our site visits for this project were scheduled, and we planned to visit Rodef Shalom synagogue, there was no war in Israel and Palestine. Our site visit plans were changed to reflect this reality. Our exploration and podcast on this site involves its history and continued importance for members of Pittsburgh's Jewish community and to everyone in the Pittsburgh community. Shelby Thayer [00:30]: Forced relocation, losing family and friends, and the erasure of culture during the Holocaust left an everlasting impact on Jewish communities. Even today, anti semitic acts are still committed against the community. A temple in Pittsburgh, Tree of Life, was attacked in 2018 and 11 Jewish lives were lost. While it may seem impossible, through all of this, the community still finds hope. Music and Art have given Jewish people a way to stay connected through all of the attacks and destruction that have been committed against them. Shelby Thayer [01:10]: Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh, and the past 15 weeks we've traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh's people and places. Join us as we explore Rhodope Shalom and the Violins of Hope exhibit. I'm Shelby Thayer, let's go! Shelby Thayer [01:36]: Violins of Hope is a traveling exhibition that focuses on the recovery of violins, violas and other musical instruments from the Holocaust and the end of World War II. The Violins of Hope exhibition is currently on view in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Posner Hall in Carnegie Mellon University until November 21st. But what is the specific connection between Jewish people and violins? This question can be answered by taking a closer look at the purpose of violins in Jewish culture. Shelby Thayer [02:05]: The importance of music within the Jewish faith stretches back to anti-Semitic tracts in Europe that rejected Jewish people’s relationship with music. According to historian Sander Gilman, in the writings of Shakespeare, the stereotypical Jewish character in The Merchant of Venice was “denied any special relationship to Western [civilized] music.”. This beginning of antisemitism from the works of Shakespeare, the belief that Jewish people lacked Western civility because they did not have a special bond with music, was carried over in the writings of Richard Wagner's 1850 essay entitled "Judaism in Music". According to Wagner, the Jewish people lacked innate musicality as the artistic bent of Jewish people was focused on needless luxury. From the writings of Wagner, Jewish musicians, such as Giacomo Meyerbeer, entered the forefront of artistic creation to "show that they too could contribute to European high culture". By the 1930s, Jewish men were encouraged to learn and play the violin to push back against the increasing anti semitism in Europe, and to show that they too were a significant producer of high culture. Shelby Thayer [03:10]: When Nazis took over Germany in 1933, the connection between music - especially the violin - and Jewish practitioners was integral to Jewish identity. By being connected to the violin, Jewish men could illustrate their "moral quality", as society believed that music was an integral part of one's respectability. Within the concentration camps, Jewish people cultivated a unique form of resistance - resistance through music. Guido Fackler writes that even in 1933, music was used as a method to ridicule prisoners, with Nazi leaders at the camps performing satirical welcoming songs to the inmates. The violence of concentration camps was not only through the attacking of inmates' physical bodies, but also through the attacking of music and other aspects of the Jewish identity. In the Columbia-Haus concentration camp, Jewish prisoners were forced to establish amateur music ensembles to play on behalf of Nazi commanders in order to "suppress the screams” of those being tortured. Even during such ridicule, the Jewish people still played music for other inmates within their bunks during the night. Instead of allowing the Nazis to completely take over music for their own purposes, the Jewish musicians held within the camps helped their fellow inmates to cope with life in the camps. By playing the violin, they reminded prisoners that there were ethical, humane, artistic and aesthetic values beyond the life threatening and terrifying camp environment. Shelby Thayer [04:47]: Violin music gave prisoners an opportunity to hold on to their culture and humanity throughout their time in the camps. The Nazis did everything in their power to eliminate Jewish culture and identity. Both playing traditional songs and hearing them throughout the camps reminded prisoners of their homes and who they were. The music gave prisoners a chance to mentally escape from the camps and have moments of hope. These moments gave many prisoners a sense of strength, and the ability to continue on and hope of freedom in the future. Shelby Thayer [05:19]: The love for violin was a great unifier in concentration camps. Prisoners would use violin music as an escape from the reality. We had a conversation about this with Barbara Khristie, a volunteer who works as a tour guide at the violence of Hope exhibit. During this discussion, she played music by one of her former students, Daniel Orsen. The title of this collection is Wagner's Nightmare, and contains a variety of pieces that Wagner would have wanted to stop Jewish violinists from playing during the Holocaust. Barbara Khristie [05:49]: The fact that these instruments survived that have survived through horribleness. And the fact that their history has been passed on to us gives us hope. They gave hope for the moments that they were listened to or performed upon in the terrible circumstances. I doubt very much if I told you about Eric Weininger. He was first he was sent to Dachau. He was a violinist. Not splendid but definitely good. And his violin I probably didn't tell you this either. His violin he was able to hold on to. So many instruments were confiscated. So picture if you will, a march of prisoners going into Dachau. And the fence next to them has prisoners pressed up against it to your Eric Weininger, you're carrying your violin and a Nazi comes up and tries to confiscate it from you. You toss it over the fence and somebody catches it over there. Now there's a Nazi coming to confiscate it from there so they toss it back over. Somehow, I don't know if this happened for Eric Weininger, I know it happened. He was able to keep his violin and he liked to start up musical ensembles. But the Nazis weren't giving this any they have in other places, given you know, yeah, okay, we’ll listen, but they didn't there. So where he was able to take people to perform and to listen, was a latrine that was not in use. Latrine, the fancy word for toilet. So imagine being in a latrine. And you get to hear this music. Shelby Thayer [07:52]: Songs played during the Holocaust connect many people back to the hardships that Jewish people survived during the war. Music has a unique ability to transport the listener to another time or place. Music allows you to link emotions and memories to a specific tune. This connection has the power to stay with you through your lifetime and even evoke similar feelings in other listeners from a different time and place. Barbara Khristie [08:19]: You're going to hear what was being spoken and sung back then the same voice and you can picture where they work, what they were enduring, and how they were escaping. Shelby Thayer [08:46]: Playing the violin also gave Jewish people an opportunity to fight back from outside the concentration camps. In talking with Sandra Rosen, a board director for Violins of Hope we learned of the story of Moetleschlein. He was a 12 year old boy whose family was murdered by Nazis in his home, leaving him the only survivor. Moetleschlein then traveled with a resistance group that worked against the Nazis. Sandra Rosen [09:14]: He was a wonderful violinist. His name is Moetleschlein. His violin is at Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust Museum in Israel. He was an orphan because the Nazis killed his mother and his father and his sister. And he found refuge with a group of partisans who were living in the woods and doing what they could to undermine the Nazis as they advanced on communities. He was with Uncle Misha's partisans group. He went out into the town every day to play the violin, with the hopes that somebody would throw him some coins or some scraps of food that he could bring back to the partisans. And one day while he's playing, he gets tapped on the shoulder. And he gets recruited by a Nazi soldier telling him, come with me, I'm going to give you some better clothes, and you're going to come every day, and you're going to play at the Nazi Social Club. And so every day he goes, and he plays at the Nazi Social Club, and they provide him with some food, which he can take back. And on one of these days, he happens to find a room that is unoccupied. It is empty, it has some barrels, there are cracks in the walls, if either of you are a Pittsburgher, you know what a basement in Pittsburgh looks like, so you know, in my mind, that's what this looked like. And he tells Uncle Misha, and they devise a plan. And every day thereafter, when Motele leaves the club, he leaves his violin and a barrel in there. And he brings the empty case back to the woods, and they put explosive powder, gunpowder, into the violin case, he takes it back to the Nazi club, and he takes the powder and he very carefully puts it into the cracks in the walls. And he does this day after day. The violin stays there, at night, the explosive powder comes until one day he comes back to Uncle Misha and they says they're going to have a big meeting, and they're going to be lots of soldiers here tomorrow. So tomorrow comes he takes the last amount of powder with him and fills the crack, takes the violin upstairs and he plays. And at the end of the day, he goes downstairs. He takes his violin and puts it in case this time, sets the explosives on fire and runs to get out of there. Instead of taking the regular path back into the woods, he goes across a waterway with the violin held above his head. Uncle Misha and the partisans are there to pull him out just as the building explodes. And he turns around and he says that was for my mother. That was for my father. And that was for my sister. So that's the resistance on the part of a 12 year old child who lost everything and at least had an opportunity to get some revenge. Shelby Thayer [13:03]: While the Holocaust has ended, anti-semitic beliefs have not been eliminated. In 2018, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh saw a horrific shooting fueled by these anti-semitic beliefs. In an effort to remember the lives lost during the attack. Susan Ribnick founded a mosaic exhibit that is currently inside the Rodef Shalom congregation titled "From Darkness to Light: Mosaics Inspired by Tragedy; working in tandem with Violins of Hope. Mosaics from 36 artists around the world comprise the exhibition. Two of the pieces directly quote a handwritten note left by a sixth grader Cooper D. at the memorial for victims of the shooting. Drawing on a verse from the Jewish Bible, the note reads, "Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream. Let peace fill the earth as water fills the seas''. This expression of hope left behind by a sixth grader at the time of the attacks illustrates the Jewish faith. Even in times of such devastation, hope permeates. In one of the mosaics that appears at Rodef Shalom, the artist intersects the deep grief from lives lost in the shooting with an expression of hope. Susan Ribnick’s mosaic "Dedication Panel" uses the tiles as interconnecting roots for leaves, which name the 11 people killed in the attack. The top of the mosaic - colored brown - emphasizes rot, death, and destruction. Moving down the piece, the color changes becoming a yellow green, a light green, and then a dark green, changing from the brown of autumn - when the shooting occurred - to the dark green of summer as a reminder of the depths of tragedy that unfurl but shows that as time passes, grief can grow to represent hope. Shelby Thayer [13:49]: The death and destruction that continually attacks the Jewish community cannot be forgotten. But it's also important to emphasize the hope that can grow. Playing beautiful music and creating meaningful art allows resistance to continue within the community. Music and art are just some of the avenues that have allowed Jewish people to show strength through all of their hardships. Shelby Thayer [15:18]: Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of Rodef Shalom and the Violins of Hope exhibit. We hope you're inspired to visit these places and find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all the episodes we've produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secret pittsburgh.org I'm Shelby Thayer. Nehal Chakraborty served as an audio editor and Alyssa Carnevali wrote and researched this episode. See yinz later! Transcribed by https://otter.ai, Edited by Shelby Thayer, Corrections offered by Sandra Rosen
Episode 4
Show Notes
In this episode, Zoya discusses the life of August Wilson and his works, which have had a lasting effect on audiences and theater. Wilson’s philosophy and accomplishments are explored, as Zoya delves into the impact of the Hill District on August Wilson's plays. Works Cited August Wilson House, augustwilsonhouse.org. “August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand ~ August Wilson’s 10-Play Cycle: Scenes and Synopses.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 23 Dec. 2020, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmaster…d-on-which-i-stand- scenes-and-synposes-of-august-wilsons-10-play-cycle/3701/. Bill Moyers, “August Wilson’s America: A Conversation with Bill Moyers,” American Theatre 7.6 (1989): 14. Bogumil, Mary L. Understanding August Wilson. The University of South Carolina Press, 2011. Dial, Thomas. Personal Interview. 3rd November 2023. Dyer, Ervin. Personal Interview. 7th November 2023. “Find Any Sound You Like.” Freesound, freesound.org/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023. freesound.org/people/FrankyBoomer/sounds/261100/ freesound.org/people/camel7695/sounds/577085/ freesound.org/people/Migfus20/sounds/559850/ The Hill District (Pittsburgh, PA), a story aaregistry.org/story/the-hill-district-pittsburgh/ Zach Cene, “August Wilson House,” Hill District Digital History, accessed October 26, 2023, hillhistory.org/items/show/15.
Transcript
Zoya: Hello! Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh! In the past 15 weeks, we’ve traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh’s people and places. I’m Zoya and in this episode, “August Wilson: From Bedford Avenue to Broadway,” we will explore the story of the famous playwright August Wilson. August Wilson was an American playwright known for his influence on theater that has resonated across generations. Honored with two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, his groundbreaking contributions not only earned him a place in theater history but also worldwide admiration and acclaim. Born on April 27, 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was the fourth child of six children. His mother, Daisy Wilson, worked as a cleaning woman, while his father, a German baker, remained estranged from the family, offering little to no emotional or financial support. He was raised instead by his step-father, David Bedford. Our class took a tour of the August Wilson House with Dr. Ervin Dyer, allowing us to see what it was like for Wilson as a child of a poor family in the Hill District. Dr. Dyer: Yes so, the family lived here in two rooms. Wilson and his five other siblings lived here. They slept in this room. They would sleep on pallets in the night and roll them up and put them in a corner during the day. This became a living space. The family struggled economically. Hence living in the rear of the building, it would have been cheaper to live here. And also at the time that he lived here, the house was quite dilapidated. There’s a story that Mr. Wilson had a high school friend who lived in the upper part of the hill, known as Sugar Top, which was for more middle class and wealthy families. And the friend told his mother, I’m going down to visit Wilson, my friend August. And his mother said, no I don’t want you to go there, because I don’t like that part of town. And the story goes that when he got here, he was so traumatized by the condition of the house that he left. And so while the home is restored and you see it in a pristine condition today, it’s important to know that when Mr. Wilson grew up here, it was a different experience because of the family’s struggle with economics and finances. Nevertheless, Mr. Wilson believed in such a thing as sort of cultural wealth and spiritual wealth, right? And he considered this to be a sacred space for him because he was introduced to the concepts of sacred, spiritual, and cultural wealth in this house. Through the stories his mother told him about how she persevered, about how her family persevered, about the people in the community and their struggles with oppression against racism and other obstacles. And so he felt a lot of pride in that. And he felt like those stories that she gave him gave him the spirit and the strength and he wanted to share those stories through this place. So the people that you see in this place are reflecting of the people that he felt their stories should be told. So he’s having to give them voice. And so he got that right here in these two rooms. Zoya: Wilson spent the first 13 years of his life living at 1727 Bedford Avenue in the heart of the Hill District of Pittsburgh. It was a two bedroom home he shared with his five siblings and mother. A Jewish family managed a mom-and-pop store in the front, while two Italian brothers repaired shoes and watches next door. August Wilson came of age within a community that intertwined the stories of Jewish, Italian, and Black residents. However, the landscape of the Hill District transformed post-1968, evolving into a predominantly Black neighborhood. Given August Wilson’s contribution to the Hill District and his childhood home, it seemed essential for us to explore the history and its promising future. We had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Ervin Dyer, an acclaimed news journalist and storyteller known for his coverage of African American life and culture. Dr. Dyer collaborates with the August Wilson House as a board member to foster a deeper connection to Wilson’s legacy and purpose in the community. Given his expertise, Dr. Ervin Dyer was able to give us a brief history of the Bedford home, originally a farmhouse built in the 1800s, and the reconstruction that took place spanning over a decade. Dr. Dyer: When it was built, that area of the Hill district was very rural, and it was considered like farm land. So it was a farmhouse. And then there were additions made to the house as the Hill community began to develop, and immigrants poured in from the American South and from communities overseas. The Hill grew and became very crowded. So the additions were made to the house to create living spaces for people. So it became a store and then it rented out space for people to live in. But August Wilson lived in the house in the 1940s, the mid 1940s. The property had become very dilapidated. I remember living in the Hill and walking past August Wilson’s house and seeing it be dilapidated and thinking to myself how wonderful it would be to have this structure redeveloped as part of Mr. Wilson’s legacy, because I knew who he was and I knew that this was his home. Although many people in the community had no idea that this house that was falling down belonged to him. And I lived in the Hill. I remembered walking past his house when it was falling down, wishing, thinking, hoping that one day it would come back and now it’s back. And I’m a part of the work of putting his legacy out into the community. It’s just a phenomenal sense to have seen that happen. Zoya: It was within those walls of 1727 Bedford Avenue, where Wilson was shaped by the resilience of his family and his mother’s teachings. It was within his community, where he drew inspiration. It was also there where Wilson faced discrimination and challenges. August Wilson’s life took a turn in 1960 when, facing false accusations of plagiarism, he dropped out of high school. Undeterred, he assumed control of his education, at the Pittsburgh Public Library. Dr. Dyer gave our class a tour of the August Wilson House and shared this story. Dr. Dyer: He started much of his early education in Catholic school, because his mother was domestic with the church, right? And she could get tuition for her kids that was less expensive than what others had to pay, and some of it was free. So she sent her kids to Catholic school, but Mr. Wilson hated that experience. He was an outsider, for a lot of reasons, because he was mixed race. And because of his economic situation, he found it difficult finding out where he fit in. He did well in school, but he didn’t really like it. Zoya: Although he did not enjoy highschool, it’s undeniable that August Wilson was a fantastic writer, even in 9th grade. Dr. Dyer: So yeah, he wrote a paper on Napoleon and the paper was so good, the teacher thought he had plagiarized it. And Mr. Wilson, being a teenager, and being sort of, finding that indignant to think that someone would think that he would cheat and plagiarize a paper, dropped out of school. He was in the ninth grade. So, what he would do, initially, is he would go back to the school every morning to the basketball court and play basketball, hoping that one of the teachers would ask him to come back into the building and restart school. They never did. And because his mother was such a stickler for education, he could not come back home. So he went to the library and began to educate himself in the Carnegie Library, where he read books. And he read books. And he read books. And he read books. And Mr. Wilson graduated from the Carnegie Public Library. Zoya: During the late 60s Wilson pursued his artistic interests with the formation of Pittsburgh’s Centre Avenue Poets Theatre Workshop and co-founded the Black Horizon Theatre Company, a volunteer troupe. In 1973, he wrote the play “Recycle,” drawing on the personal experiences of a troubled marriage. Dr. Dyer shared with our class how poetry influenced his writing and plays as well. Dr. Dyer: His first identification as a writer was as a poet. He wrote a lot about his family, his failed romances. And sometimes it was very obtuse and thick, right? In 1969 at the University of Pittsburgh, there was a group formed called the Black Action Society. And one of the things they created was a newsletter. And they had some contributions from August Wilson. And the editor told me this story that they read his work, and it was so dark and so thick and so heavy, they didn’t quite know what to do with it and they pondered whether to use it. They eventually decided to use one piece—and for their benefit, now their collection of newsletters has this original August Wilson poetry as part of their archive. But I went back and read it, and it takes you a while to read. He was influenced by the Black Power Movement, the Black Arts Movement, and so he wanted poetry to express those views and to reflect those views. And um, yeah, it could be very thick sometimes. But he did write about his romances, mostly they failed. He was a lovesick poet. But a lot of writers talk about his poetic influence showing up in how he constructs dialogue in his plays. And so the structure did not go to waste. He found a way to use it. Zoya: The turning point in Wilson’s career arrived in 1982 when an early draft of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was accepted for production at the O’Neill Workshop. This marked the end of his anonymity, thanks in part to the guidance of Lloyd Richards, an actor and director who became Wilson’s mentor. Thus began the rise of a playwright whose work would profoundly impact American theater and culture. The more he wrote, the more people had to say regarding his work. August Wilson faced criticism for both his topics and themes, as well as his defiance against the established norms of white American dramas. People believed no more could be done in regards to racial equality. In a review of Wilson’s play, Robert Brustein stated that his storylines were, “monotonous, limited, and locked in a perception of victimization.” This criticism indirectly states that Wilson’s focus on African-American experience was narrowing the scope of his work. Wilson advocated for increased visibility of Black playwrights. He was against the system that predominantly showcased plays deemed worthy by white audiences. He emphasized the need for a broader and more inclusive recognition of diverse narratives within the African-American community. He disapproved of the practice of Black actors taking on traditionally white roles, arguing that the African American’s voices were rarely heard on stage. In “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” August Wilson showcased his perspectives on fame concerning African Americans. In regards to the work that attracted white audiences and the often insincere appreciation that accompanied it. This work not only ironically marked the beginning of his success in the industry but also set the stage for these themes throughout his Century Cycle of plays. In the play, Ma Rainey, an up and coming musician, navigates the challenges of the music industry in the 1920s. Conflict arises as the band members hold conflicting views on the interpretation of the blues, coupled with concerns about exploitation from white producers and the management of the recording studio. In the words of Wilson’s sister, “How does a Black man become a successful American without sacrificing his real culture and the richness of his identity?” In the play, Ma Rainey conveys that her worth to the producers is reduced to her voice, and she feels used by those in control. She feels as if she’s being treated like a commodity. “They don’t care about me. All they want is my voice,” Ma Rainey says. “They ain’t got what they wanted yet. As soon as they get my voice down on them recording machines, then it’s just like I be some whore and they roll over and put their pants on. Ain’t got no use for me then. I know what I’m talking about. You watch.” Following the idea behind “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” August Wilson decided to develop the Century Cycle, also known as The Pittsburgh Cycle: a collection of ten plays about the African American experience. Each play stands alone as an independent work yet they are all connected. Wilson’s strategy of composing a play for each decade of the 20th century serves as a deliberate narrative device, highlighting a long journey with little to no progress. A notable play from the cycle is “Two Trains Running,” which takes place in Pittsburgh in 1969. Two Trains Running revolves around the theme of capitalism, and the connection among hard work, rightful compensation, fate, luck, and identity. A clear example of rightful compensation is shown through the character Hambone. He paints a fence and his employer, Lutz, states that if he paints it well, then he will get a ham. Hambone paints the fence perfectly. It even stands the test of time, since he was asking for a ham for nearly a decade. This interaction symbolizes broken promises and the exploitation of African Americans by white society. This story resonates with real-life instances, as shared by Dr. Dyer as he recounts a similar situation in Wilson’s mother’s life. Dr. Dyer: She was a person herself of high moral character. She listened to the radio, and one day on the radio, she won a washing machine. When she went to go retrieve the washing machine, because she was an African American woman, the gentleman tried to give her a second hand machine. She did not take it. So, she had six children, and she refused a washing machine because she was not going to take anybody’s second hand goods. She felt that was beneath her dignity and she was not being treated as an equal. So the strength of her character was something that she passed on to Mr. Wilson through how she lived and the stories she told. Everything he learned about the value of culture as being foundational to people understanding who they were was learned at this kitchen table with his mother. Zoya: Wilson himself stated that the play revolves around two fundamental ideas: cultural assimilation and cultural separation. These were the two trains running. He wanted to portray a character that neither of these paths proved useful. Instead, the character had to construct a new path—a metaphorical railroad—to reach their destination. This narrative draws inspiration from Wilson’s own upbringing, reflecting the transformations he witnessed in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, where the sense of community was disrupted by the appearance of progress. As this episode comes to an end we encourage you to check out our second episode, “The Hill’s Hidden Histories and Lasting Legacies,” where we will delve into the history of the Hill District, the effect it had on Wilson’s life, and the August Wilson House as it is today. Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of the August Wilson House and his legacy. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune-in to all the episodes we’ve produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. This episode was hosted and written by me, Zoya Arebamen, and my group members Mazin Al Ghanami and Lauren Myers who served as the audio editors, and Kelsey Shuck who also wrote and researched this episode. Thanks for listening!
Episode 5
Show Notes
This episode is about the Quantum Theatre’s performance of _The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk_, a musical production of Marc and Bella Chagall’s lives together. Together we’ll explore how the Quantum Theatre used the Jewish space of Rodef Shalom in order to tell the Chagall's love story. Works Cited Acclivity. “WeddingBells1.mp3.” Freesound, 25 September, 2006. freesound.org/s/23090/ Avajoliec. “Small crowd cheering whistling and clapping.” Freesound, 24 February, 2022. freesound.org/s/621392/ Bacruz666. “Gasp.” Freesound, 2 April, 2016. freesound.org/s/341908/ Beman87. “Ambience street NY firetruck.” Freesound, 15 August, 2012. freesound.org/s/163142/ Boos, Karla. “Secret Pittsburgh.” Interview by Taya Hoetzlein-Sirman, Catie Gable, Simona Matiyevsky. November 3, 2023. Breviceps. “Concert Pitch / Orchestra tuning.” Freesound, 27 February, 2023. freesound.org/s/677124/ Buzzelli, Michael. “To Me, You Are Beautiful - a Review of ‘The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.’” ’Burgh Vivant, 30 Oct. 2023, burghvivant.org/2023/10/30/to-me-…overs-of-vitebsk/ Edelhanie. “Birds and dove flying.” Freesound, 28 October, 2021. freesound.org/s/594656/ Eqavox. “Sizzling.wav.” Freesound, 11 April, 2023. freesound.org/s/683522/ Felin_quinol. “Cricket Sound.” Pixabay, 26 June 2022, pixabay.com/sound-effects/cricket-sound-113945/ FillMat. “Crowd/Mob/Riot Noise (Voices Only) - 14 people, 2 minutes HENRY VI.” Freesound, 16 March, 2017. freesound.org/s/384401/ Fischer, Carol Anne. Quantum Theatre: A Language for the Voices of Contemporary Theatre. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2004. GirlWithSoundRecorder. “Village Soundscape.” Freesound, 20 March, 2023. freesound.org/s/679474/ Jacobs, Jacob, and Sholom Secunda. Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn. In MuseScore4. Uploaded by harmonika.cz. 1 December 2023. musescore.com/user/2809151/score…01?share=copy_link Jamieson, Daniel, and Kneehigh. The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk. United Kingdom, Oberon Books, 2017. Jamieson, Daniel and Ian Ross. Directed and Choreographed by Gustavo Zajac. Music Direction by Douglas Levine. “The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk.” Quantum Theatre, 30 Oct. 2023, www.quantumtheatre.com/vitebsk/. Kevp888. “220625-02_FR_Applause.wav.” Freesound, 17 November, 2022. freesound.org/s/659794/ Lewis, Michael J. "Whatever Happened to Marc Chagall?" Commentary, October 2008 pp. 36–37 Marcalexander8. “Take Your Seats.m4a.” Freesound, 2 May, 2020. freesound.org/s/516158/ “Marc Chagall.” Elliott Gallery, 11 Sept. 2023, www.elliottgallery.com/marc-chagall/. “Marc Chagall. I and the Village. 1911 | Moma.” MOMA, MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2019, www.moma.org/collection/works/78984. “Marc Chagall: Paintings, Biography, and Quotes.” The Fiddler, 1913 by Marc Chagall, www.marcchagall.net/the-fiddler.jsp. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023. Nathanson, Moshe. Hava Nagila. In MuseScore4. Uploaded by Rui.c.scousa.5. 1 December, 2023. musescore.com/user/172232/scores…51?share=copy_link Nesrality. “The Lonely Instrument Series - Fiddle -Played by Andy Leftwich.” Pixabay, 2 January 2022, pixabay.com/music/solo-classica…ndy-leftwich-13355/ Program for Daniel Jamieson and Ian Ross’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk at Rodef Shalom, Pittsburgh, PA. Quantum Theatre, 2023. Robinhood76. “00193 birds before storm.wav.” Freesound, 14 July, 2008. freesound.org/s/57170/Tangjingyuan. “Baby2.wav.” Freesound, 7 January, 2023. freesound.org/s/668663/ TheFlyFishingFilmmaker. “Bluegrass Fiddle Ending.wav.” Freesound, 24 February, 2022. freesound.org/s/621592/
Transcript
Announcer [mechanized voice]: Ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you please take your seats at this time as the program will begin momentarily. Thank you. Catie: Set the scene… in 2023 Pittsburgh isn't black or white at all. Color is everywhere. The shining gold bridges and the deep red rests that clings to them. The blue lights on the river and the purple sheen of the skyline at night, the air… [sniff]... smelling like fried perogies and a broken sewage line? Or at least that's how Marc Chagall might perceive it with his breathtaking painter's eye. But he doesn't live in Pittsburgh and 2023. In fact, he and his lover Bella lived far away a long time ago, in a small Belarusan town in the early 20th century. It was Quantum Theater that brought them to Pittsburgh today, through their production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk staged in Rodef Shalom. Welcome to secret Pittsburgh. In the past 15 weeks, we've traveled across the city, learning the story of Pittsburgh's people in places. Join us today as we explore Quantum Theatre’s production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk. I'm Catie. Taya: I'm Taya Simona: and I'm Simona. Catie: Let's go. Today we're going to discuss site-specific productions and how they can tell stories. So what if you had to fit your whole life into a 90 minute performance? How would you do it? What would you focus on? Where would you hold it? What kind of story would it be–an action story? a thriller? a comedy? Taya (airily): I think my life would be a coming of age story and I was sitting right here at Pitt in the cathedral. Catie (unimpressed): Really? Simona (deadpan): Mine would be a tragedy. Set in a graveyard. [cricket chirps] Catie: Well, anyways, for Marc and Bella Chagall, and the Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, it was a love story. [applause, whistling] Catie: Okay, calm down, calm down. It wasn't all sunshine and roses for them. Marc and Bella lived in Europe at the turn of the 20th century. That was bad news. In 1909, they met in their hometown of Vitebsk (gasp) and 1915, they married and moved to St. Petersburg (wedding bells). In 1916, they had their first child (child crying) and in 1917, the Russian Revolution began (rioting sounds). This would definitely be impactful for anyone living in Russia at the time, but it was particularly impactful for artists. More specifically, Jewish artists. Marc and Bella both use their work, painting and writing respectively, to express themselves and their views of the world. Marc ushered in a new era of avant garde art, characterized by experimental and innovative techniques and imagery. As the MoMA describes them, his paintings had “a distinct vocabulary of abstraction, characterized by fantastic colors and folkloric imagery.” He combined all types of artistic movements: cubism, symbolism, fauvism, expressionism, surrealism and modernism in order to convey his vision of the world: a whimsical, colorful, dreamy place. [piano music] While his style adapted and changed through time, his content remained consistent. In the words of one art historian Michael Lewis, his work was “one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk.” [village noises] Just as Marc used his chosen medium painting to express the story of the place, the Quantum Theatre used a given place to tell the story of a man. So how did they accomplish this? How can the place the performance is set in–Rodef Shalom–impact how the narrative is built? In order to explore this question, one must first have a little background knowledge about Rodef Shalom and Quantum Theatre themselves. For more in depth explanation, feel free to refer to other episodes in this podcast series about these specific organizations. For our purposes, it's sufficient to tell you that Rodef Shalom is a historic synagogue in Pittsburgh PA, which serves as the center of Reform Judaism and the vibrant Pittsburgh Jewish community. And it is here that Quantum Theatre chose to stage their play about “the quintessential Jewish artist of the 20th century.” Simona: Wait, so how did they decide to have the play at Rodef Shalom? Catie: Well, we’ll let Karla Boos, the founder and artistic director of Quantum Theatre, tell you herself. Karla: Here we are currently in Rodef Shalom for a play that is about the Chagalls and especially them as representatives of Jewish people, Jewish artists and what happened to them in the 20th century. Catie:How does this Jewish space make the show more meaningful? Karla: Right, I mean, you know, this beautiful building designed by Henry Hornbostel, has been home to Jewish people in Pittsburgh for generations, right? And so it's in the air, they own a couple Chagalls. They just brought them out and hung them where our audience can appreciate them. Isn't that magnificent? So I think where you started with others you've talked to see a metaphor, that is maybe what I would say there is a non literal sense of meaning that a place has for a community that is as good of a reason to do a play there as something like it's the right texture or color, or height or size, right? I'm looking at all those things, actually. And we don't have the key to the city. So there's also an element of happenstance and practicality that feeds into what makes the right match. Catie: As you can tell from Karla's explanation, place is a big factor in how a story is built, told and perceived. The use of a Jewish space allows for a uniquely Jewish story to be told more authentically, both as a love story, a testament to Jewish perseverance, beauty, and art, and also as a tragedy. Mark and Bella Chagall were in a unique position, as they both were witness to the thriving and beautiful civilization of Eastern European Jews, and then lived to see it disappear. Bella herself died from a bacterial infection that would have been curable if not for the limitations born from war. This Chagall's personal history thus coincided with the larger Jewish community’s political history, in a volatile violent way. And Marc’s art is a testimony to what was lost. Taya: That’s so sad. Simona: Yeah, it is. [fiddle music plays softly] Catie: In 1913, he painted the fiddler this vibrant cubist inspired painting shows a Jewish man playing the fiddle on a rooftop with contrasting colors that suggest the different occasions this music might be played… in a celebratory capacity, and a sorrowful one, marking weddings and anniversaries and holidays and festivals, or accompanying funerals and deaths. He thus immortalized a central aspect of Eastern European Jewish life in a very distinct way through his art. It actually inspired the Jewish musical Fiddler on the Roof. [fiddle music continues] In the performance, Quantum Theater masterfully pays homage to this iconic folksy piece through their incorporation of the Violins of Hope, a collection of violins, violas and cellos that survived the Holocaust, and were restored to play a musical tribute to their past players. Catie: Can you describe the collaboration process with Violins of Hope? How do these violins add to the story and change the sensory experience? Karla: Well, it's just so wonderful to be part of something that is city wide and bigger than that, you know, the creators of Violins of Hope in Pittsburgh, experienced this exhibit out in the world, and felt it would especially resonate in Pittsburgh. They got in touch a full year or more in advance with cultural organizations like Quantum and said, ‘Would you have a work that might be appropriate?’ Well, you know, did we ever have work. It couldn't have been better for us to hear and so we love that, that we’re maybe having audiences that last night they were at the symphony and the night before they were at the ballet and, and then they're with us, and they're really getting a multi layered experience of these violins and the ability to think about how they have survived and what they mean–continue to mean now. Catie: What is so impressive about the Quantum Theatre’s production of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk is the way that the audience is drawn into the narrative through the place that the show is set, and through the scenery that is used. Like all modes of storytelling, theater is limited by practical considerations and logistics like cost, staging, resources, etc. The production team had to contend with all that while still working to bring the non traditional theater venue to life in an engaging way. [Fiddle music continues] Catie: Can you describe the creative process for making the show? Was it any different than other shows you've put on in the past? Karla: For this particular show? Well all the shows have a group of artists that come together and know that it's not like work in other theaters where the theater is a known quantity. And often the designers do their work separately because they know the specs of the theater. In this case, the team had to work together for months and months, a good solid year. We had specific things that also played a role. Tree of Life's congregation has services in Levy Hall on Friday nights. So it's not just that we couldn't perform on Friday nights, but our set needed to be movable enough so that it could accommodate services. So that's what was behind the idea of the wonderful piece of scaffolding that you'll see that does many beautiful things for the play, and you'd never know that it had a practical thing behind it that we had to remove it, right? [laughter] Catie: And they do an excellent job at accommodating these logistical considerations while still using the site–Rodef Shalom–to its fullest potential. Onstage the set is composed of a main white piece that is turned at various points to create different places, several other small props, and a filmy gauze background onto which Chagall's paintings are projected. This drenches the stage in colors and immerses the audience into his dreamlike world. Taya: Oh yes, I love the projections Catie: In the back of the auditorium large colorful banners are unfurled with the 10 commandments written on them in Hebrew. Their design resembles Chagall's vivid works. Across the ceiling different wires hold props extended above the seats, colorful wings floating above the audience, a bouquet of flowers dangling, and a violin marked with the Star of David suspended in the air. Simona: Yeah, that was my favorite part. Catie: The rooms' upper balconies are incorporated into the performance as at one point Marc climbs a ladder and unfurls his artwork over the audience to show us. [piano music building]. And the show ends beautifully with Bella, transformed into an angel with colorful wings that resemble Marc’s famous stained glass windows, walking down the main aisle in death, turning the audience's heads as we perceive her the way Marc does: As an other worldly being, his muse, his flying lover. [piano music] Catie: Art is a form of expression. Above all it is meant to convey emotions and to tell a story. The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk focused on Mark and Bella Chagall, as two artists who are deeply in love and had a story to share. By telling their story in the format of a play, their chosen mediums of expression were able to be intertwined as Bella's words and Marc’s paintings combined to detail their romance. The Quantum Theatre was able to successfully translate their individual lives into a universally understood and felt story through their use of place. In the words of Karla Boos, the Flying Lovers of Vitebsk with “the right site would allow us to bring people into a Chagall painting” and so they “set it free to fly over the dome of Rodef Shalom like a dove.” [bird sound] Catie: Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk in Rodef Shalom. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all the episodes we produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secret pittsburgh.org. I’m Catie Grable. Simona Matiyevsky served as audio editor, and Taya Hoetzlein-Sirman wrote and researched this episode. See yinz later! [applause]
Episode 6
Show Notes
Our podcast episode discusses the Rodef Shalom Biblical Botanical Garden and the continued expansion of the Jewish community and Jewish expression through the growth of Reform Judaism at Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom synagogue. Works Cited Bird-Sounds-Nature-Birds-Noises-Royalty-Free-Sound-Effect. pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/birds/ Free_No_Copyright_Nature_Sound_Music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8unj-Zp2S0 Freehof, Solomon B. “Reform Judaism in America.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 45, no. 4, 1955, pp. 350-362. www.jstor.org/stable/1452937 Gentle_Solemn_Piano_Cinematic_Background_Music_for_Videos. www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2x4IiLi3zE Gilbert, Shirli. “Buried Monuments: Yiddish Songs and Holocaust Memory.” History Workshop Journal, no. 66, 2008, pp. 107-128. www.jstor.org/stable/25473010 Hopeful_Inspiring_Instrumental_Cinematic_Piano_Music-Royalty_Free. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJOzeIET0Gk Khristi, Barbara. Personal Interview. 3 Nov 2023. Magid, Shaul. “The Holocaust and Jewish Identity in America: Memory, the Unique, and the Universal.” Jewish Social Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 2012, pp. 100-135. Petronova, Dasya. Personal Interview. 3 Nov 2023. Sad-Violin-Music-Piano-Violin-Saddest-Song-No-Copyright-Music. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfFZl2Fho7I Scott Holmes Music – Deep Thinker Ident. freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Ho…thinker-ident/ Scott Holmes Music – Emotional Cinematic Ident. freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Ho…nematic-ident/ Tabachnick, Toby. “Rodef Shalom’s Biblical Botanical Garden is Testament to Jacobs’ Love for Plants, Each Other.” Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, 17 June 2015. www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jewisocistud.18.2.100
Transcript
Al Pratt 0:01 We had scheduled our site visits and finalized our plans to visit the Rodef Shalom synagogue before the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine. Our site visits were adjusted to reflect this reality and our exploration of the site involves its history and continued importance for the members of Pittsburgh's Jewish community and to everyone in the Pittsburgh community. Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh. In the past 15 weeks, we've traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh's people and places. Join us as we visit Rodef Shalom and revisit Violins of Hope. I'm Al Pratt, let's go. In this episode, we'll close out our discussion of the Violins of Hope and its significance. From there we will talk about Reformed Judaism, its history in the United States and Rodef Shalom, a Reformed congregation right here in Pittsburgh. If you recall from our previous episode, we discussed Violins of Hope, a moving exhibit based at the time of recording in our own Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This exhibit details the history of musical instruments owned by Jewish violinists during the Holocaust, describing the destruction that both the violins and the Jewish community faced during this time, and the words of Dasya Petronova, who we'll hear more from later in the episode: it's so historically significant. And if you're a history buff of any stripe, it's very much worth visiting. If you're a music buff, it's going to be heartbreaking. Yet, it is the music and careful love that these musicians had towards their instruments, that speaks to the promises of hope and renewal and strength of character embedded in every facet of the Jewish identity. Here's what Barbara Khristi a guide at the exhibit had to say about the project's message. Barbara Khristi 2:16 It's a mixture of the hope that can be seen from the past, the hope that can be carried to the future. And it's also a warning of the horrors that are created around some of the most beautiful things that we have in life. Al Pratt 2:42 There are a few things as universal as music, across the language across culture across continents across time, music carries a message from the composer to the performer to the listener. Music, according to the historian Shirli Gilbert was considered an integral facet of Judaism after the Holocaust, with many within the community seeing it as a contribution to the preservation of memory. Singing cultural songs in Yiddish and Hebrew during the Holocaust was a way in which to paraphrase Gilbert, these people exercised their agency and actively responded to the Nazi occupation. Barbara Khristi 3:15 These violins are living, and they carry history with them. They speak it, they sing it, they breathed it, they lived it. And that history is vitally important to society. And it encompasses the horrors as well as the brightness of hope. The fact that these instruments survived, that have survived through horribleness. And the fact that their history has been passed on to us, gives us hope. They gave hope for the moments that they were listened to or performed upon in the terrible circumstances. Al Pratt 4:17 By keeping their songs alive by preserving the music of the people who were either interned or murdered within concentration camps, the Jewish community could, quote, preserve the voices of the departed. Their simple clear words that tell us about their lives until their death. This sentiment, the overarching principle of Violins of Hope, demonstrates not only the everlasting hope of the Jewish people, hope for life, hope for survival hope away from persecution, but also keeps alive the voices of those who are gone. This exhibit keeps their stories from falling into obscurity. The Holocaust resulted in the mass displacement of Jews from Europe with around 200,000 coming to America. But even before that, there were generations of Jewish Americans buildings lives and legacies in our country, and in Pittsburgh. You may already be familiar with the Pittsburgh platform, for those of you who aren't this was a document created in 1885, that calls for Jews to adopt a modern approach to the practice of their faith. This eight paragraph document included among other things, an acknowledgement of some of the stories in the Bible as metaphors and not literal, an emphasis on the compatibility of faith and science, a leaving behind of traditional ideas of dress restrictions and kosher eating habits, and a doctrine of social justice. These tenants were not universally accepted by reformed sects, but the Pittsburgh platform remains incredibly influential. These differences in belief even made their way into the architecture of more recently constructed synagogues. As these distinctly American Jewish communities were forming from groups displaced from their home countries in Europe, they sought to place emphasis on their belonging in their new home city. Dasya Petronova of Rodef Shalom, a reformed congregation between Oakland and Shadyside, had this to say about the building. Dasya Petronova 6:23 Did she tell you about the direction that the Ark is facing? It is not in the same location as it would be in the other buildings, even in reform. So I don't recall the exact rule but I believe it has to face either east or in the direction of Israel. Ours does not. And that was done to indicate that the kingdom is everywhere. You don't have to turn towards a particular direction because you're here now and this is all the same holiness. So it's a really interesting building. Al Pratt 7:12 Rodef Shalom the congregation housed in the described synagogue has roots in Pittsburgh reaching back to before the Civil War. This congregation actually hosted the convention that produced the Pittsburgh platform. Solomon Freehof, a former Rabbi at Rodef Shalom was a spearhead in the American Reformed Judaism movements after the turn of the century. In 1955, he outlined the history and impact of the movement. As Rabbi Freehof describes, the reform movement began in Germany but it was only within America that it flourished, becoming an quote, essential part of American Jewish history. The beginnings of Reformed Judaism received pushback from more conservative leaning members of the community. Some viewed the new positions we described earlier, as an attempt to quote please Christians, a response to increasing anti semitism in Europe. However, in Rabbi Freehof's words, Reformed Judaism was not a movement to secularize Jewish people or make them seem more Christian. Instead, this group of American Jews wanted their Judaism to quote, fit them as modern people. This ideology of growth and adaptation has suited the congregation of Rodef Shalom well, it continues hosting services and serving as a cornerstone of the community. The most public facing part of Rodef Shalom's campus follows that same doctrine of adaptation and growth. Rabbi Freehof's eventual successor, Rabbi Walter Jacob and his wife Irene Jacob were both born in Germany during the rise of German anti semitism after World War One. At the end of the decade, Irene's father managed to move their family to England, where they spent the rest of the war. Walter's own family fled to the United States in 1940. According to Rabbi Jacob it was Irene's exposure to the small garden at their home in England that made her a lifelong horticulturalist or expert in plants cultivation, beginning her career at the age of 16. The couple settled in Pittsburgh in 1958, and while Rabbi Jacob began his career at Rodef Shalom, Mrs. Jacob spent much of her time in the nearby Phipps Conservatory in Oakland. She eventually sought to establish her own garden at the synagogue. We spoke again with Dasya Petranova, who's currently managing the garden, about its history. I asked to Dasya if they could, in their own words describe the mission of the Biblical Botanical Garden as it was founded and as they carry it on today. It was, they cut ground on the garden, I believe in 1985 and opened it in 1986. So we're coming up on the 40th year anniversary for the garden. It was the child of Rabbi Dasya Petronova 10:00 Jacob and Irene Jacob, when he was our primary rabbi, and that was his role for a very long time, he's an amazing person, you should be in the archives looking. But at that point, we just wanted to establish a garden that had biblical themes. And that was there, they put a lot of care into how things were arranged and displayed, I have the original inventory to the plants, and I can't replace them at this point, because laws have changed. So just obtaining these plants is illegal. The garden continued under Irene's care, until 2014, actually, no, I think before that 2013. And she had put the pavilion in, put the water features in, built up the land around it, all of the land that's around it, around the water feature, you can't tell by looking at it. It's been filled in with construction material, which is one of my challenges now is removing that, but it was built up so that it would support good soil, and there's a lot of good soil in there. It's amazing how they spent a lot of money getting that dirt, you don't think of dirt as expensive until you understand it. But after that she had written starting, I want to say in the late 80s, early 90s, a newsletter that goes with it called Papyrus, and it's not a complete archive log for me, but it gives me the original visions that she had. And it was very much the way that humans and plants interacted in the biblical sense. So anything that was like, the grains, there are five grains that are significant to Judaism, it's, they're called the Five Grains of Israel. And there's the species of Israel, which is a different set of plants, and that's going to be your date palms, your pomegranates, stuff like that. It's, it's really interesting to see from the inside, from a religious perspective, all of these plants, whereas I just see them as okay, this plant has this pollinator, it lives under these conditions. But now I'm doing it from an ethnographic point of view. Al Pratt 12:42 You said a little bit about the mission for the garden, what, in your words is that mission? Dasya Petronova 12:46 To educate people about botany of the Bible, the Hebrew Bible specifically, and the environmental conditions under which this entire philosophy was born. Also, to bring a little piece of the Levant here. Al Pratt 13:12 We visited the garden in October, after all of the plants had been carefully moved to a greenhouse. Biblical plants are used to a desert climate, as you can imagine, it's difficult to maintain them through the dreary Pittsburgh winters. Rabbi Jacob is perhaps the more well known of the couple within the wider Pittsburgh area. His life is detailed in his biography titled the 17th generation, the life's work of Rabbi Walter Jacob, but Irene Jacob is the mastermind behind the Botanical Garden. In addition to being a published botanist, Mrs. Jacob was, as Dasya describes, a very fiery personality Irene passed away in 2014. She was a prolific writer on the garden plants. We have several of her books in the gift shop and in my office, and she was a passionate plant person. She did a lot. Dasya Petronova 14:09 I wish I could have met her, I hear she was a riot she had, I have in the shed right now, a BB gun of hers that she would shoot the rabbit with and I have the rabbit too still lives there, the baby of the rabbit. But yeah, she was a she was an eccentric person. And it's a real shame that she's not here today. Al Pratt 14:34 In my nan horticulturalist eyes, Dasya is doing amazing work continuing the mission of the garden, finding close relatives of biblical plants that are able to survive in our frequently cold and wet Berg. They do an exemplary job continuing the work of Mrs. Jacob, who passed away in 2012. In addition to general renovation of the garden Dasya is working on creating themes for each year, such as animal or incense plants, and hosting more nature focus events within the garden Dasya Petronova 15:02 I am hoping this next season to get a birds of prey demo out there for the kids. I have the zoo coming out the zoo is going to be visiting too a lot of people who do come in that I strike up conversations with, they're troubled sometimes and they need just a quiet place to be. And that's what I hope they get when they're there. Al Pratt 15:35 They hope that over the next decade, someone with a passion for the natural world is inspired to take over their work and tend to the garden. I asked Dasya if they had any general advice for our listening audience. Dasya Petronova 15:50 Grow a plant. Just grow a plant, let it die, do it three more times, then you've got statistically significant results but you know, have an interaction with some plants. Al Pratt 16:03 For more information on the biblical Botanical Garden, visit Rodefshalom.org/garden. We'll include a link in our show notes. If you're in Pittsburgh between June and September, be sure to give it a visit. The synagogue bustles with activity on the morning of Rosh Hashana services celebrating the Jewish new year. Before the main congregation service there's a children's service. It's held in a more modern addition to the synagogue, complete with a projector and folding padded chairs. There's stained glass windows along the top of the walls that catch the morning light. One of the images depicting two hands forming the Hebrew letter Shin. This gesture was popularized by Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan salute the way he included his Jewish background into his roles. The room is filled with children ranging from those still stroller bound not entirely aware of what's happening around them to kids running up and down the aisles with their friends. Service includs singalongs, and apples and sticks of honey are passed around at its conclusion, representing a wish for a sweet new year. One of the rabbis who has been serving with Rodef Shalom congregation for years, mentioned that she knew some of the parents in the audience when they were attending as kids. And now they're bringing their own children to celebrate the holidays. As Dasya described, Dasya Petronova 17:19 It's an ecosystem. The religion is an ecosystem. And that's something I think was missed before. Al Pratt 17:28 And it is a flourishing ecosystem with a rich history here in our very own Pittsburgh, from the Orthodox communities in Squirrel Hill to Rodef Shalom's reformed congregation. Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of Rodef Shalom and its biblical botanical garden. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all the episodes we've produced this season. You can find this episode's show notes and transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. I'm Al Pratt, your host for this episode as well as the audio editor along with Neha Chakraborty. Alyssa Carnevali wrote and researched this episode. Thank you again for joining us. See Yinz later! Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Episode 7
Show Notes
In the second episode of the August Wilson series, Zoya takes us to Wilson’s childhood neighborhood the Hill District where we examine his childhood home that’s now a landmark, the restoration process of the home, and the changes that the neighborhood has gone through due to gentrification and the building of its new infrastructure. This episode features interviews from Dr. Ervin Dyer, a Hill resident himself, and Diael Thomas who serves as the Outreach and Engagement Curator for the August Wilson Archive within the University of Pittsburgh’s Library System. Works Cited August Wilson House, augustwilsonhouse.org. “August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand ~ August Wilson’s 10-Play Cycle: Scenes and Synopses.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 23 Dec. 2020, www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmaster…d-on-which-i-stand- scenes-and-synposes-of-august-wilsons-10-play-cycle/3701/. Bill Moyers, “August Wilson’s America: A Conversation with Bill Moyers,” American Theatre 7.6 (1989): 14. Bogumil, Mary L. Understanding August Wilson. The University of South Carolina Press, 2011. Dial, Thomas. Personal Interview. 3rd November 2023. Dyer, Ervin. Personal Interview. 7th November 2023. “Find Any Sound You Like.” Freesound, freesound.org/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2023. freesound.org/people/-CASK-/sounds/623288/ freesound.org/people/-CASK-/sounds/623286/ freesound.org/people/Migfus20/sounds/559850/ freesound.org/people/leytos/sounds/251000/ freesound.org/people/Danskin54/sounds/344624/ The Hill District (Pittsburgh, PA), a story aaregistry.org/story/the-hill-district-pittsburgh/ Zach Cene, “August Wilson House,” Hill District Digital History, accessed October 26, 2023, hillhistory.org/items/show/15.
Transcript
Zoya: Hello! Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh! In the past 15 weeks, we’ve traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh’s people and places. I’m Zoya and in this episode, “The Hill’s Hidden Histories and Lasting Legacies,” we will explore August Wilson’s former neighborhood, the Hill District, and his childhood home. August Wilson was never able to witness the transformation of his childhood home into a landmark as he passed away in October of 2005 and the house had its grand opening in August of 2022. During our class tour of the August Wilson House, it became evident that significant support and care had been invested in creating the community space it is today. The route to the entrance to this house is laid with bricks adorned with the names of contributors, including beloved actor, Denzel Washington—a symbolic representation of how donors helped construct the path to bring August Wilson’s vision to realization. The mission of the August Wilson House is to celebrate the literary and personal legacy of August Wilson. Also to serve as an arts center to nurture the historic Hill District community and arts and scholars influenced by his work. A fitting mission, considering August Wilson’s dream for his childhood home was not to become a mere museum, but a functional space that invited creativity and nurtured future artists in the neighborhood he grew up in. “It was on these streets in this community in this city that I came into manhood and I have a fierce affection for the Hill District and the people who raised me,” said August Wilson. The Hill District is not just the home of the famous playwright; it remains a vibrant community that many call home. We had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Ervin Dyer, an acclaimed news journalist and storyteller who’s known for his coverage of African-American life and culture. Dr. Dyer had some insight into the Hill District’s history. Dr. Dyer: And when he grew up here, he was born in 1945. The Hill at that point was a very cosmopolitan community. There were Jews, Italians, Syrians, African Americans, and other people living here all together, right? A mix of incomes, a mix of professionals. It was a dynamic, vibrant space. August Wilson’s family didn’t have a lot of money. But the hill that he came into was a place that was known as a crossroads of the world. Zoya: To gain a better understanding of the backdrop that influenced his work, let’s get into the history of the neighborhood to the present day. People began migrating to the Hill District in the early 1910s from various parts of the United States. In a lot of cases, those moving were a part of the Great Migration from the rural American South. The Hill attracted people from around the globe as well. The African-American population in the neighborhood increased from around 10,000 in 1890 to 37,000 by 1920. With increased residents and a system of segregation, housing for African Americans moving to Pittsburgh was almost entirely limited to the Hill District. The area was vibrant with life in the years leading to World War I. Black businesses thrived in the Hill. There were several nightclubs, bars, restaurants, shops, and markets. The sound of jazz could be heard from all over, making the Hill known for its musical culture. Much later in history, August Wilson would recognize the importance of jazz, drawing inspiration from its unique storytelling qualities. The Hill District, once a vibrant cultural center, faced the first wave of unwelcome changes in the mid-1950s. A substantial area fell under plans for redevelopment, leading to the displacement of around 8,000 people. Currently, the University of Pittsburgh is taking over the Hill District, with the athletic fields in Petersen Sports Center replacing the Robinson Court public housing. Like so many buildings in the Hill District, August Wilson’s childhood home became depleted and abandoned overtime. The process was long and expensive. Dr. Dyer, a Hill District native himself, who serves as a board member at the Wilson house, gave us insight on the multimillion restoration process. Dr. Dyer: By the time that it was decided that the house could be developed into the August Wilson House as a sort of community art center. Oh, it was in really, really bad shape. And so we had to first do the work of shoring up the house, fixing the roofs, doing some structural things to hold it together so that it wouldn’t further deteriorate, so that we could begin the process of restoration and redevelopment. That took about a decade or more to do because we had to raise funds. It convinced people of the importance of saving the structure and the story that was there. And because the house was so damaged, it was a lot of work bringing it back to life and making it what it is today. Zoya: Through the work of Dr. Dyer and colleagues and donations from Denzel Washington and the community, the August Wilson House is now a protected historical landmark. The vision of Wilson and the House board members is to nurture and curate an artistic community to help regenerate the Hill, and they do this through financially supporting artist fellowships and hosting Wilson’s plays for the community with the house as the location. Dr. Dyer: We have student groups like your age come to the house. We’re developing a curriculum there as part of our programming that reaches out to high school students. So I haven’t seen a lot of high school students come to the House. We do have an annual block party, and that's family-centered, so for a day in April around August Wilson’s birthday, which is April 27th, we do hold a block party. Zoya: But Wilson’s home isn’t the only place in the Hill District where residents are fighting for the protection of the community and its legacy. Dr. Dyer shared this: Dr. Dyer: The historic hill is a very desirable space, right? It’s very scenic. It’s close to downtown. It’s close to Oakland. So there’s a lot of people who see that property and that area as having value. There’s also a cultural and spiritual history that exists in the Hill that is worth protecting. And I think that is the work that you see of so many people who live in the Hill now is wanting to protect that history, that cultural history, that spiritual history, so that it’s not all sort of bulldozed over as if there was nobody there and if there was no history before the redevelopment came. So while in one hand, it’s wonderful to see the properties and everything redeveloped, I think we do want to see a place where it’s developed for all, and where the history of all the people who live in the Hill is appreciated and understood because it was not just a dead space when Black people lived there. There were people who were creative and business people and spiritual leaders and artistic people, and the Hill was very vibrant. And so it’s important, I think, for the people to consider that history. And the other thing that I really think is important, right, is like, you see so much activism because of the history that is a part of the Hill. At one point, the Hill District was known as little Haiti because the people in the Hill District so identified with the Abolitionist movement and the sense of independence that was coming out of a newly freed Republic that was Haiti.They so identified with that, that they call themselves little Haiti. And what I always argue is that this sense of self determination, this spirit of independence, this desire to be free and self determined really became this sort of intellectual architecture for the Hill, and that never died out, that it shows up in how the people continue to fight to create self determination and free spaces for themselves today. Yeah, I think people see themselves as guardians, right? I think they see themselves as guardians and caretakers for this rich cultural history for this rich political activism that was part of the Hill’s history. I think they see it as building a new community and a better community, safeguarding some of the creative spaces that have been a part of the Hill, recognizing the legacy and the history of the people who lived there who came before them. And so I think that’s really a lot of the work that we see going on with, with the development that recognize this sort of contribution of all the people of the Hill. And especially recognizing that many of these contributions came from people who identified as African American. Zoya: Pittsburgh at times has been overshadowed by the history of the steel industry and the exploitation of its workers by the well-known names of Andrew Carnegie and Frick. Wilson focused on telling the story of the complex lives of people that lived in the Hill District. Dr. Dyer: So Mr. Wilson became a storyteller, right, but he got his value of what stories could do from his mother. The stories of her work as a domestic in Pittsburgh and the challenges involved with that. But also the stories of her neighbors who worked as domestics. The story of the African crossing into the Americas. She would share all that with them. And because of those stories, Mr. Wilson developed a sense of pride and understanding of his people and his community and strongly identified with that. Zoya: August Wilson continues to influence Pittsburgh through the archives of his effects, acquired by the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library. August Wilson’s archive contains fan mail, the journals he kept throughout his writing career, playbills, and other personal effects that the University bought from his widow and his estate. We had the privilege of speaking with Diael Thomas the Outreach and Engagement Curator for the August Wilson Archive within the University Library System who gave us insight into her role as an archivist and how the archive continues to educate people on Wilson’s legacy. Diael Thomas: My role is focused out in the community. So we run paid programs from several large grants that we have for high school students, for high school and middle school teachers, for artists, and then for other general researchers. We were lucky enough to receive a 1 million dollar grant from the Hillman Foundation to do all this community outreach, because we recognize that the Wilson Archive had really important cultural and sociological importance in the region. I think that it’s been really powerful for the Hill District and for other Black residents to see their community and their culture elevated to this level. For them to be able to see, like, their everyday life brought to the stage and to really be seen as art and something worthy of talking about. A lot of the people that I talk to in this work, like, they are proud to be from the Hill District, and they’re proud of Wilson and what he accomplished. Zoya: Over 15 years after Wilson’s death there is still an effort to keep his legacy alive within the Hill District community and in Pittsburgh. The archives are a great resource for those who want to learn more about Wilson as it showcases not only August as a beloved writer but also August as a brother, husband, and foremost, a person. At the time of his death, Wilson had collected over 400 boxes worth of personal memorabilia, such as pictures of his family and siblings. As Wilson was the first of 5 siblings to pass away, there is an effort by his loved ones to keep not only his writings alive but also his memory. My group member Kelsey who served as the scholar for this episode had the opportunity to visit the archives and is here to share what her experience was like. Kelsey: My experience visiting the August Wilson Archives could be summarized as straightforward and informational. I scheduled a time to read over the materials I requested on the website and when I got there, everything was set up for me. The researchers working on the Archives were extremely helpful and went out of their way to make sure I was getting the material I needed. I will say, though, for those interested in checking out August Wilson’s notebooks, his handwriting is a bit difficult to read, which makes sense. I definitely don’t write neatly in my own personal notebooks. I instead focused on the fan mail he received. It ranged from a 3rd grader asking for advice on a project, a woman berating him for his representation of African-Americans, tons of praise and requests to meet, and surprisingly a great deal of letters asking him to quit smoking. Zoya: Thanks so much for sharing that Kelsey. And to our listeners, if you’re ever interested in checking out the August Wilson Achieve yourself, it can be found on the 3rd floor of the University of Pittsburgh Hillman Library or visit its website at AugustWilson. Library.pitt.edu. Before we close this episode, it’s imporant to note that Wilson stayed true to his humblest beginnings. Even through all his success, Wilson always made time to come back home. It’s often said that Wilson would be spotted walking around the Hill District, unnoticed by some as even through his fame, he still blended in with people he grew up with. Dr. Dyer: He would come home frequently because most of his family was still here. His mother was here. And even when his plays started becoming successful, he would come back to help his family. And I know that when his plays were being performed here, he would sneak into town, and sit at the back of the theater and just watch the audience’s reaction to his plays. I mean, if you knew him, you knew him. But if you didn’t, he just folded right into the fabric of the Hill. So he could listen, and he could hear, and he could capture people’s stories. And I just thought that was just amazing that he was able just to be so invisible and yet be so magnificent. So that’s one of my favorite memories is how he folded himself into the fabric of the community. And so he stayed very connected to Pittsburgh. So although he left to find his way as a writer, Pittsburgh never let him. One of his greatest inspirations was that the stories matter, right? You know, you sometimes think, oh, that’s not the story, who cares about those people? You go see his play. You hear him speak about the value of stories and his own experience, his mother's experience, and, say hmm, it does matter, I'm gonna tell this story. So yeah, just a reinforcement that everybody has a story and they matter. There’s a quote, let’s see if I can remember it, that Wilson uses: “Writing is like a journey across the landscape of the soul.” So it was something that was deeply personal. And because he was writing so much about the Hill District, he continued to cross that landscape. It remained a part of his soul, because those are the stories he told was about Pittsburgh people. Zoya: Once again, thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of the August Wilson House and the Hill District. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in to all the episodes we’ve produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. This episode was hosted and written by me, Zoya Arebamen, and my group members Mazin Al Ghanami and Lauren Myers who served as the audio editors, and Kelsey Shuck who also wrote and researched this episode. Thanks for listening!
Episode 8
Show Notes
The Carrie Blast Furnaces are at the core of Pittsburgh’s steel industry history. Accompany us to learn how Rivers of Steel works and their commitment to spread stories of this place, from inside, outside and strengthen community involvement, graffiti, festivals, arts and local identity. Works Cited Cindy, and Don. “Do They Still Make Steel in Pittsburgh?” Keystone Answers, 23 Jan. 2023, keystoneanswers.com/do-they-still-m…-in-pittsburgh/. Homestead Borough. “History of Homestead.” Homestead, 2021, homesteadborough.com/visitors/homestead-history/. Lukus, Sydney, and Andrew Niemynski. “The Waterfront.” Request Rejected, secretpittsburgh.pitt.edu/sp/node/347. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023. McCoy, Carly. “A Sustainable Look at the Arts and Grounds of the Carrie Furnaces.” Rivers of Steel, 15 June 2023, riversofsteel.com/a-sustainable-lo…carrie-furnaces/. McCoy, Carly. “Understanding Historic Preservation in a Dynamic Frame: The Graffiti Arts Program at the Carrie Blast Furnaces.” Rivers of Steel, 21 May 2020, riversofsteel.com/graffiti-arts-pr…-blast-furnaces/. Nuttall, Rebecca. “Pittsburgh Police Are Cracking down on Graffiti Artists, but Are Arrests Really the Best Way to Handle the Issue?” Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh City Paper, 4 Oct. 2023, www.pghcitypaper.com/news/pittsburg…wFullText=true. “Rivers of Steel Makes Way for New Creations in Old Sites of Industry (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 26 June 2020, www.nps.gov/articles/000/rist_b…es_graffitiarts.htm. United States Steel. “United States Steel.” Home, 2023, www.ussteel.com/.
Transcript
Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh. In the past 15 weeks, we've traveled across the city learning the stories of Pittsburgh's people and places. Join us as we explore the Carrie Blast Furnaces. I'm Jennifer Ponce Cori, let's go. If you're from the Rustbelt the Carrie Blast Furnaces are easy to miss. It's something that could go entirely unnoticed. It does not demand attention or want you to think about it. And that's not because of its size. In fact, the furnaces are huge. Its silos and towers rise far above from the tree line, spanning across 168 acres on the banks of the Monongahela River. The size might actually be one of the things that would garner a second look. But no. The furnaces go unnoticed because, if you are from the Rustbelt, It resembles many of the other coppery brown buildings that your dad told you used to be a mill. Used to bring jobs to Pittsburgh. Used to be important. If you do notice and take a second look from afar, it feels very unimportant. It looks hollow and very, very still. No smoke raises from the furnaces. No trains come and go delivering materials or leaving with a precious iron. None of the city port authority buses approached it. And why good they? What is there anymore besides the skeleton steel corpse? Turns out, there's a lot there. The Carrie Blast Furnaces lie in Swissvale, about an hour on the bus from downtown Pittsburgh, followed by a 20 minute walk onto the property. The coppery brown buildings peak up over the heads of developments and open fields. Standing in front of it, the whole structure is massive. Two brick buildings stretch about 100 yards away from the road, with a small grassy field between them. A huge metal exhaust pipe snakes around the buildings. Connecting them to the furnaces behind the buildings and the courtyard, two boxy Towers, furnaces number six and seven, stretch 92 feet into the air and once released, tons of a smog and pollution into the atmosphere. Today, however. The furnaces are perfectly still, save for a cool breeze that rustles the leaves throughout the property. The only voices are those of the tourists that walk through the various buildings. Everywhere you look, you can find flaking stone, rusting metal. Remnants of iron bits and graffiti, old and new. Plants spring out of the walls, over ledges, and through rock. The bright green color stands out brilliantly against faded red metal. From the outside, the whole place is remarkable. And in just the right light, makes for an almost beautiful complement to the changing Pittsburgh leaves. Inside the structure is a different story. Away from the light, the structures are no longer a warm, rusty brown, but instead a cold gray. Winding staircases lead up and out of sight. Pathways drop off suddenly. Shattered brick and chipped paint line the walkway. Since the workers have left and the doors close, it feels touched only by time itself. Rivers of Steel is deeply invested in maintaining the Carrie Blast Furnaces, along with other attractions in Pittsburgh associated with its rich history and still such as the Explorer, Riverboat, the Pumped House, the W.A. Young, and Sons Foundry and Machine Shop. So, what does this organization do? To start, Rivers of Steel maintains the Carrie Blast Furnaces. Reinforcing and maintaining the vast site is a major challenge. It has been over 30 years since the site has been a functioning mill, and with this time, ware and tear has taken its toll on the site. Rivers of Steel has put millions of dollars into the site to get it to the point where it safe to have tours for the public. This is one of the main draws of Carrie, being able to walk through these place and see what those of the past has seen. Combine this with the amazing tour guide of Carrie and you have a perfect storm to get an interesting story of the site while having a great time doing it. Keith Close is a current tour guide at Carrie Blast Furnaces. Here is what he had to say when asked about Rivers of Steel and their mission. “ Rivers of Steel is preserving a big chunk of Pittsburgh history. They are preserving the legacy of steel. The more important to me is preserving the people. The people are very important. So much is written about Andrew Carnegie or Henry Clay Frick, Phipps, the whole group of those people at the top. But we want to emphasize more the people that did the dirty work.” This speaks perfectly to what we have seen throughout our research of the site. Rivers of Steel also maintains the Boast Building, where it currently houses its headquarters. This building overlooked the Homestead Mill and served as housing for many steelworkers. Maintaining these sites and doing tours is great, but Rivers of Steel goes above and beyond these goals with captivating events such as the Festival of Combustion. These events are geared towards the public and keep engagement levels high since the closure of the mill. Art is at the forefront of the Carrie Blast Furnaces, with graffiti, not only acting as a way to engage the community, but also adding to the stories that the site can tell. Stories of steel, African American heritage, and many others can be seen covering the walls that surround the mill, making the site a vibrant canvas. Going forward, Rivers of Steel has many ideas for the site. One such idea is a separate museum building which could house artifacts from the site. This will further the draw of the site and keep people coming back to continue educating themselves on the rich history of Carrie. The world is a canvas and Carrie is used to paint the heritage of Pittsburgh. Rivers of Steel has made the Carrie Blast Furnaces into a great location that invites many to explore the heritage of the region through experiential learning. Education, it's a main goal of the site. Tours are offered and attended by many looking to learn something new or think back on the past. We, the producers of this podcast, attended one of these tours and were shown around by an amazing tour guide, Barney Terrell. Barney guided us through the complexities of the site and brought with him some thought provoking stories that make huge impacts on the group. Many of the stories told by Barney and the site show a connected team of steel workers bonded through the challenging conditions that they face. But how Is the community here in Swissvale receiving the site now? Has Rivers of Steel kept these people at the forefront of Carrie, just as how it was built and run? From everything that we have seen, yes is the answer. The Carrie Blast Furnaces are being actively used, keeping the community of the past alive through continued engagement with a craft that built not only Pittsburgh, but the entire nation. Swissvale is at the core of this engagement, with many of these events geared towards the people who currently live here. Tickets are offered to Swissvale citizens, often before the general public has access to them, as a way to thank the community. This keeps the community, that thrived due to the mills alive, and in turn, keeps the values of these people at the center of what is done here. Rivers of Steel has been working on getting a shuttle system for one of the local churches to the site to allow those without cars easier access to the furnaces. Expanding accessibility and outreach of the powerful stories of the site. Carrie is a place of continued use. And it's a remembrance of the heritage of Pittsburgh. Another site that has been preserved, that pertains to the Carrie Blast Furnaces, is the Bost Building. This place sits nestled in Homestead, directly across from the site that used to be the Homestead Mill. Its function was as a hotel or apartment for the steelworkers due to its close proximity to the mill. This piece of history houses archival materials that belongs to the Carrie Blast Furnaces. The collection includes safety posters, union pins, blueprints from the site, clothing, hard hats, tools used at the site, and so, so much more. By looking out towards the river, one can imagine what someone living in this space might have witnessed. The pride, greed, and mix of emotions the worker must have felt knowing what they were a part of. A Dollar Tree now inhabits this space. What does this say about the area and society? That I would like you to decide. The rest of the building, of what is not used as office space for Rivers of Steel personnel, is used to showcase materials from the steel mills of the past as well. This location is open to the public and continues the legacy of steel in Pittsburgh. This preservation is all thanks to the Rivers of Steel and the hard work done day in and day out by these people. Just because the gates of the Carrie Blast Furnaces is closed and U.S. Steel abandoned it, does not mean it was without life. Young people flocked to the site as the prime spot for graffiti art. Tags throughout the site can be identified, from the tops of the silos, to hidden crevices, to high out leggings. We spoke with Barney Terrell, who had studied the furnace's evolution from the industrial powerhouse to artistic haven. When we asked about the graffiti, He says that “if you are small enough and nimble enough, you can get just about anywhere in here”. Without any clear manager or authority, the site was largely unregulated, allowing for a flock of young artists to claim it. At the same time, nature too began reclaiming this site. Herds of deer returned to the grassy property to graze, something that would have been unheard of while the mill was operating. This reclamation by nature inspired an underground group of artists, the Industrial Arts Co-op, to construct a sculpture of a towering deer head using only materials found on the property. Here is what Barnie Terrel had to say about the importance of the steel deer. “You know, as Ron has said multiple times, that if that deer wasn't there, none of the rest of the art would be. It just really set, it set a new direction for everyone”. Clearly, this art piece has been crucial. In transforming the space. Artists work on this piece for a year. Collecting materials and shaping them into an animal all too familiar in Western, Pennsylvania. This piece is now a beloved hallmark of the site, representing a collaboration between artists and the property's reclamation by nature. This artistic spirit can be found all around the furnace, especially in the graffiti, something the site has come to welcome. Where maintenance once tried to keep the site free and clean of tags, Rivers of Steel now welcomes them with some guidelines. Artists may not paint on the actual buildings. Instead they are restricted to a wall that encloses the back of the property, visible to tour groups. For Rivers of Steel this method has work in keeping illegal graffiti away in a 2016 article with the Pittsburgh City Paper, Rivers of Steel Archives Director Ron Baraff said “if you provide an outlet for the artist, 98 percent of them are going to be so grateful for the outlet that they'll work within whatever parameters are there and it keeps illegal activity down”. With the freedom to paint the resulting artwork through the furnace property is remarkable. Paintings of animals, shapes, and elaborate tags bring bright color to the mostly dulled space. With the artwork, there is a sense that the space is still alive, still a place where things are being created and where people are collaborating. Even archived images of the mill workers are recreated on the walls, demonstrating an understanding of this place's story. This identity, both historical site and artistic haven, it's something that Rivers of Steel and the Carrie Blast Furnaces have embraced with open arms. Rivers of Steel wants to bring the historical industry back to life for Pittsburgh today. We attended the annual Festival of Combustion, an event that invites people to celebrate the story and art at the Carrie Furnaces. Demonstrations allowed festival goers to witness iron pouring, glass blowing, blacksmithing, and welding. Here, noise returns to the furnace. People return to the furnace. Fire returns to the furnace. Under a rare blue Pittsburgh sky, visitors are given a glimpse into a life at the furnace. Heavily clothed and masked smiths pour molten iron into molds. For many onlookers, including ourselves, this is our first time witnessing the metalwork that made this city. Barney acted as a tour guide on the date of the festival. “This is a blast furnace. It was hot. You kind of get that feeling from even the small one that they're using for these things. And you get artists that come in and are able to, to practice their craft. You know, I, I did tours that day and I probably took 70, 80 people around that day that had never been, most of them had never been there before. They'd never seen anything like this and all of them were like, Oh God, this is great. We want to be a destination for people to go to and things like the Festival of Combustion really push that because it's this this is what we can do.” From fences uncooled by the bright fall breeze, we watch the work ahead. They move in harmonious unison, pacing themselves and calling out their next move so as not to make a mistake. Some pull chains, others push a metal frame into place. One stands atop a platform feeding a blowing fire. From that fire, the glowing metal emerges, trickling in a bright orange. The crowd ooos at it, amazed to see the thing that once lit up this whole rusting building, that once tempted the greed of barons and titans, that fed a region for over a century, that built a city. To see that in this space felt like meeting a character out of a novel. But it's not just the steel that is celebrated at the festival. Blacksmiths hammer pieces still hot from their furnaces. A welder assembles a sculpture made of scrap metal, spark flying around his tent. Glass blowers twirled their still moving pieces in and out of the hot oven for the delight of their audience. The earth smells of fall leaves and fire. The ovens are hot, but the crowd is cooled by the breeze of the Monongahela River. The voices are joyful. Children amazed at the demonstrations, craftmen eager to talk about their trades and all men telling stories about their time at the mill. Remembering this site in younger days, remembering other mill that no longer stand remembering the smells, the voices, the stories, their craft. We talk with Colton Rohleder, a representative for U.S. Steel at the Festival of Combustion. He told us about his involvement with the festival. “The first time I went to the Festival of Combustion, it was also in 2019. It had previously happened. I had never heard about it until that year. and I was working at U. S. Steel. And I remember when I went to the festival, I was expecting to see U. S. Steel present. And You know, because obviously you go there and you quickly realize this is a blast furnace, steel used to be made here, and then I didn't see U.S. Steel present. And that kind of was a shock to me. It really did blow my mind that U. S. Steel wouldn't be there. So, ever since that, first time I went to the Festival of Combustion, I really made it my goal to make sure that U. S. Steel was involved.” It is amazing how Colton was able to involve U.S. Steel with the site once again. There is something new created at the Carrie Blast Furnaces, and something old that's remembered. In this space, the crafts that are so often deemed industrial are seen as art, and the site that was once a hallmark of pre-war industry is now where arts and history are held close. Thank you for joining us as we uncover one story of the Carrie Blast Furnaces. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune in in all the episodes we've produced this season. You can find show notes and. Transcript at SecretPittsburgh.org. I'm Jennifer Ponce Cori. Diego Cuevas served as an audio editor, and Margaret Ciesinski and Nicholas Kelly wrote and researched this episode. See yinz later!
Episode 9
Show Notes
Water in Pittsburgh often blends into the background. In this episode, we explore some of the public art in our community that puts water on display. Specifically, we focus on the 9 Mile Run Viewfinder project by Ginger Brooks Takahashi, and the 400 Million Years of Water Project by John Peña. We also sit down with John Peña to talk about the 400 Million Years of Water Project, and what it means to the community. Written Sources Holsopple, Kara. An Artist Wants to Give People a New View of an Urban Stream. 14 April 2022. Web. 17 November 2023. . Peña, John. 400 Million Years of Water. 2023. Web. 17 November 2023. . Peña, John. Personal Interview Kevin Collins. 14 November 2023. Takahashi, Ginger Brooks. Nine Mile Run Viewfinder. Ed. J Aharonov. 2020. Web. 17 November 2023. . Audio Credits Ambientsoundapp. "Kids Playing." 2020. . bsumusictech. "Nuts and Twigs." 2008. . Bugden, Ross. "Migration." 2023. . klankbeeld. "traffic horns city nervous busy." 2013. . TrackTribe. "Helium." n.d. .
Transcript
Kevin Collins: Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh! In the past 15 weeks, we’ve traveled across the city, learning stories of Pittsburgh’s people and places. Join us now as we explore Nine Mile Run and the buried streams of Pittsburgh. I’m Kevin Collins. Hunter Bash: And I’m Hunter Bash. Kevin: Let’s go! […] Kevin: In this episode, we will discuss some of the Public Art relating to the Nine Mile Run. We will focus on two works, specifically: the 400 Million Years of Water project by John Peña and the Viewfinder Project by Ginger Brooks Takahashi. Hunter: Hold on, before we get into that, what exactly is public art? Kevin: That’s actually a great way to get into the episode. In a basic sense, public art is what it sounds like: art that’s easily accessible to the public. Hunter: What qualifies as accessible? Kevin: In my opinion, accessibility means the lack of barriers around the art. Barriers can be things such as an entry fee or a membership to a museum, a need for transportation, or physical barriers, like a need for a lot of walking or something like that. Hunter: Ok that makes sense. The easier it is to get to the art, the more public, per se, the art is. Kevin: Exactly. There can also be barriers on the art itself. For example, imagine you’re… a math major, which I believe you are, right? Hunter: Yea. Kevin: So say you go to an art exhibit about the French Revolution which doesn’t have any context, explanations accompanying any of the works. As a math guy, you might not be able to enjoy the work like someone with a background in historical research could. Completely hypothetical scenario, but does that make sense. Hunter: Yeah, definitely get that, so could education be another barrier? Kevin: Of course! I only scratched the surface of what could qualify as barriers. It’s essentially impossible to create anything that’s completely barrier free, but public art definitely minimizes the amount of barriers around it. Hunter: Got it. So, it seems like it could be pretty impactful for bringing a community together. Kevin: For sure. It’s so important. Public art can do so many things by just simply existing. Besides just adding beauty to its surroundings, Public Art can inspire a sense of community, spark thoughts and actions, and provide a platform to raise awareness about just about anything in the public sphere. Hunter: Gotcha. I never really put too much thought into public art, typically I thought it just kind of looks cool. Kevin: Ha, there's nothing wrong with that! At the end of the day, public art is for the members of the community to enjoy however they want to. It only matters that it’s possible for the public to enjoy it. Hunter: I totally get that. So, let’s get into the 400 Million Years of Water project by John Peña. I really enjoyed seeing the project then actually getting to sit down with Peña and discuss it with him. Kevin: Same. I thought that was awesome. He provided such interesting insights. We’ll be playing parts of the interview with John Peña throughout this episode. We wouldn’t be able to do some of his quotes and explanations justice if we just summarized his answers. Hunter: That’s for sure. There’s nothing as valuable as insight into a creation directly from the creator's head. Kevin: Right. So, getting back on topic, the 400 Million Years of Water Project is located on the Fern Hollow Bridge over Fern Hollow Creek, which runs through Frick Park. Hunter: Remind me where that’s at again? Kevin: It’s on the Wilkinsburg side of Frick Park, right next to Regent Square. Hunter: Oh yeah, right next to that, that entrance down into the park? Kevin: Yeah, exactly. There’s also a playground area right next to it, on the Wilkinsburg side of Frick. Hunter: I remember that. It was a—it’s a pretty busy area. Kevin: Definitely busy. Actually, that—that’s one of the best parts about the location in my opinion. The Fern Hollow Bridge is really a perfect place to display public art. So many people pass by it in their daily lives. Hunter: Definitely seems to check the box of accessibility. Kevin: For sure! It’s extremely accessible. The bridge is open to cars and pedestrians, so regardless of how you travel, you can access the bridge. Hunter: Sounds like public art to me. I can’t think of any obvious barriers to community access there. Kevin: I totally agree. So getting into the actual work itself, the 400 Million Years of Water project consists of sandblasted patterns of bodies of water that have had an impact on Pittsburgh over the last 400 Million Years. It also has stainless steel placards giving the viewer a geological description of the water event that the pattern depicts. Hunter: Yeah, it was a cool contrast. The patterns were pretty conceptual and artistic, while the placards provided a really cool scientific perspective. Kevin: Yea, Peña also mentioned that the geological processes on the placards are also pretty poetic and artistic in a way. Here’s what he had to say: John Peña: So, I was like, ‘oh this is really beautiful and poetic,’ so I wrote this language up, and then I shared it with this geologist, John Harper, who was the main consultant for me. And he was editing it for me, like I was like, ‘hey can you look at the text I’ve written for these placards?’ And he just crossed all that out. All the poetry, right. And he’s like, ‘ah that’s just confusing people, you don’t wanna do that.’ And then I, like, first, was like a little defensive about it, I was like, ‘no this is like the artistic part of it.’ And then I sat with it and I was like, ‘no, wait, he’s right: it is poetic on its own.’ It doesn’t need language to tell people how insanely poetic the idea that this ocean is moving through the world through time. Like that in itself is insanely absurd, right? Hunter: It’s pretty amazing to translate something based on scientific fact into the form of public art. Kevin: Yeah it really makes the project accessible doesn’t it? Like, I could go there thinking as a scientist or thinking as an artist and have equally as valuable experiences. Hunter: Totally agree. Kevin: John also did an awesome job of explaining what the art looks like and feels like to experience. John: When you approach the bridge from either end on either sidewalk, the first thing you're struck with are these faint, kind of, drawings that look like almost like, charcoal or graphite on the sidewalk themselves of the pedestrian sidewalk. And if you look as you walk up to ‘em, you'll notice that they're actually etched into the concrete. And the first one you'll encounter will say Lake Monongahela in cursive. And that will be um, Lake Monongahela will be about 800,000 years ago and it'll say that on there. And then you'll have these water patterns literally carved, sandblasted into the pavement itself, and then stained with a, kind of a dark Gray stain. So on those water patterns, as you're exploring them, say you're on the north pedestrian side, for example. If you look to the South side of the bridge, you might see a placard on the railing and that placard will have text and drawings and stuff, but you won't be able to experience it unless you cross back over. So say you cross back over, it’ll say Lake Monongahela, 800,000 years ago, and then it’ll have a ton of information about that particular body of water. How it came into being, when it disappeared, what are the remnants that—how we know that it's still here, geologically speaking, scientifically speaking. So then, if you keep walking down the bridge further, you'll encounter more water patterns from different eras and different time periods, um, and the deepest one you go to is 3nine0,000,000 years close to the middle of the bridge. That's the Kaskaskia Sea. And, same thing, if you're on the north side, you'll experience just the etching, but then if you go to the South side, there'll be a placard, like a stainless steel placard on the railing that has images and stuff like that. Kevin: The layering adds to the accessibility too in my opinion. It makes the concepts of geological events tangible. Exactly as the older events are buried deeper underground, the depictions of the events are ‘deeper’ towards the center of the bridge. Hunter: Yeah such a cool way to simplify and show that concept. Kevin: Alright so by now I’m sure everyone has an idea of what the project looks like after that awesome description. We’ve also linked the website to the project in the show notes. So, now let’s move on to how the 400 Million Years of Water project factors into the community, and of course, the Nine Mile Run. Kevin: So the most obvious connection between the 400 Million years of water project and the Nine Mile Run is water. Hunter: Yeah and that one may seem obvious, but it actually could be quite important right? Kevin: Right. The 400 Million years of water exhibit makes you think about water that isn’t currently visible. Hunter: Water that’s not visible, but still impactful on our communities. Kevin: Exactly. The bodies of water depicted on the bridge that shaped current day Pittsburgh are not visible anymore, but their impact is a part of our daily lives as Pittsburghers. On the other hand, The Nine Mile Run is not visible, it runs under our feet, it’s hidden away, but it’s always ‘here’ running beneath us. Hunter: Exactly, and what else comes to mind when you think about impactful but hidden streams of water in the Pittsburgh community. Kevin: The Nine Mile Run. This project has a chance to spark interest in water in the Pittsburgh area, which in turn could lead to interest in the Nine Mile Run. Hunter: So the water events of the past might lead someone to think of the water events of today? Kevin: That's exactly what I think. Hunter: That’s interesting. I’ve talked with some water researchers and they told me a lot about restorative work that can be done for Pittsburgh watersheds. I wonder if learning about Pittsburgh’s water history could help people see the importance of Pittsburgh’s water future. […] Hunter: So what kind of public impact does this work have? We spoke about the general impact that public art has, but what about like specifically the 400 Million Years of—of water? Kevin: Great idea, I think the best way to start is the—I guess pillars of public art we laid out. Hunter: You mean community, accessibility, and awareness? Kevin: Yup community, accessibility, and awareness. So let’s start with accessibility: what’s more accessible than a public road that also has space for pedestrians? Not much. Not to mention, the bridge is surrounded by one of the largest public parks in the Pittsburgh area, a busy neighborhood— Hunter: Regent Square? Kevin: Yea, Regent Square. And there's even a public playground within walking distance from the Fern Hollow Bridge. Not only is it accessible, there are many reasons to visit the bridge Kevin: Now let’s move to another pillar, Community: This project is something that could really bring people outside to appreciate something they typically might not appreciate. Hunter: Yeah I get that, the Fern Hollow Bridge itself is kinda just a way to cross the Fern Hollow Creek, but the art makes it an experience. Kevin: Exactly. Remember when we visited Frick Park? Hunter: Which time? Kevin: The second time, when we drove there Hunter: Yeah, what about it? Kevin: Yeah, we drove right over the Fern Hollow Bridge, I think multiple times actually in our journey to find the parking lot. Hunter: Sounds about right. Kevin: When we drove over it, there was a large gathering of people on either side of the bridge just appreciating the art work. Hunter: Oh yeah I do remember that. I’m not sure I’ve seen a gathering like that on a regular bridge before. Kevin: I definitely haven’t. I doubt the people on the bridge that day would have been brought together if it wasn’t for John Peña’s art. Hunter: True, it brought a lot of people together too. Kevin: Right, that actually segways well into the last pillar: awareness. The 400 Million years of water project really makes you think about water, which is taken for granted by many people. Especially in Pittsburgh, when we’re surrounded by water daily. Even as an outsider, I’ve almost ‘tuned out’ the amount of water around me after 3 years of living here. I think ‘yeah there’s water all around me, but so what’. I’m sure as a Pittsburgh native you’re used to the water too, by now, right, Hunter? Hunter: Yeah, I mean, I like to get into the parks every once in a while, but it kind of just blends into the background at some point. Kevin: Exactly, I agree. This project sparks interest in water and its impact on our community, which ties back into the Nine Mile Run. Water could spark research into the restoration of the Nine Mile Run, which could possibly spark activism and inspire people to join the battle against the Run’s pollution issue. […] Kevin: So, our first site visit of the year was supposed to be the Nine Mile Run viewfinder project in Wilkinsburg and honestly I was very excited to see it. Hunter: Me too, even as someone from Pittsburgh, I never even heard about Nine Mile Run ‘cause it’s buried underground, surrounded by so much mystery. Kevin: Exactly, it was going to be so cool to see this stream that’s buried and hidden from public view. However, we ran into an issue… Hunter: As we did so many times this semester. Kevin: Yeah for real. So the day before the visit we get an email from Dr. Ryan reading, Dr. Elise Ryan: Imagine my surprise when I saw that the viewfinder manhole covers are completely removed and covered over with standard issue City of Pittsburgh Manhole covers! Hunter: Yea so that was really disappointing because the art exhibit sounded really cool. They were these see-through manhole covers that you could look through and—and see, and hear, and maybe smell the stream. Like I mentioned before, even as a Pittsburgh native, I had never actually seen the Nine Mile Run in-person, or even heard about it, before we were supposed to go visit the viewfinder project. Kevin: And that makes total sense due to the fact it’s buried. It almost seems like it wants to be hidden from the public eye, especially due to the history it has with pollution. Hunter: Exactly. And, as we discuss on our other episode on Nine Mile Run, stream burial was a way to avoid the problem of sewage being dumped into streams and facilitate urban development. Kevin: So, back to the viewfinders. The office of Pittsburgh public art sanctioned the project. Located in Wilkinsburg, the project replaced manhole covers above the Nine Mile Run with see-through covers, so people could look down on the stream that’s buried underground. The artist, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, mentioned periscopes as one of the inspirations for her project. She said in an article by the Allegheny Front that the viewfinders were like “opening a portal into another place.” That's what I thought would have been really cool about the viewfinder project: it brought this hidden, mysterious, underground stream of water to the surface, and it displayed it as a work of art, not just a stream. Hunter: I agree, and, we did end up visiting the location in Frick Park where Nine Mile Run resurfaces and even just seeing it in person made me feel closer to the stream. Kevin: Exactly, just imagine seeing it in the form of an art exhibit. In my opinion, it would’ve made the river even more tangible and accessible. Hunter: Yeah, and accessibility is really an issue with Nine Mile Run. In order to get there, we first needed a ride. The bus was a good way to get close to the park but left us in a difficult area to say the least. Kevin: Oh yeah for sure. The closest entrance to Frick Park from our bus stop was a steep hill with loose rocks. And I’m 21, and I consider myself in pretty good shape, but I really struggled to make it down the hill without falling and possibly injuring myself. Hunter: Same here, it would be very daunting for someone with any kinds of physical accessibility barriers to make the trip down to Frick Park from that entrance. Kevin: Exactly. Also, remember the second time we went in the car, we kind of briefly mentioned earlier? Hunter: Haha, how could I forget. Kevin: I wish I could, we circled the park for 30 or 40 minutes just searching for an open parking lot. It’s even hard to access with your own vehicle. Hunter: And we did all of this just to see the resurfacing of the Nine Mile Run. Kevin: And that wasn’t even easy to get to. It was basically this downhill obstacle course with random rocks, tree branches, and other loose impediments blocking the way. Hunter, if you didn’t go down first, I’m not even sure I would’ve made the trip down myself. Hunter: Anything to get some audio of running water. Kevin: Yea, exactly. So you might wonder what any of this side story has to do with public art. What’s so unique about public art, like we mentioned earlier, is its accessibility to the community and its members. Although we didn’t get to view it ourselves, we could guarantee that the Nine Mile Run viewfinder project provided the Wilkinsburg community with much more accessibility to the Nine Mile Run than they had before. Hunter: Yeah, accessibility is massive. When something is buried underground away from the public eye, it really loses awareness. Kevin: Especially when groups like Upstream Pittsburgh, who we go into depth in in the other Nine Mile Run episode, are working constantly to restore the Nine Mile Run. Any extra awareness helps greatly. To add on to this, the Viewfinders make the Run into a work of art. People are more likely to feel the urge to protect a work of art than a random, inaccessible underground river, in my opinion. Hunter: I think that’s completely true. The art doesn’t physically change anything about Nine Mile Run, but subconsciously it adds this beauty and meaning to the river. Kevin: Right, it makes it feel like it’s living and breathing Hunter: Yea. […] Kevin: Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of the Nine Mile Run. We hope you’re inspired to visit this place and find your own Pittsburgh stories. I’m Kevin Collins. Hunter: And I’m Hunter Bash. Kevin: This episode was edited by Veronica Close and written and researched by Kevin Collins and Hunter Bash. We would like to thank the artist John Peña for agreeing to interview with us. Please tune-in to all the episodes we’ve produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. See yinz later!
Episode 10
Show Notes
This episode is about the Quantum Theatre and their site-based mission of environmental theater and storytelling in a uniquely Pittsburgh context. It includes an interview with Quantum Theatre’s founder Karla Boos, and explores how performances can be changed by environment. Works Cited Boos, Karla. “Secret Pittsburgh.” Interview by Taya Hoetzlein-Sirman, Catie Gable, Simona Matiyevsky. November 3, 2023. Firestein, Stuart. “Experimental Theatre.” Nature (London), vol. 443, no. 7114, 2006, pp. 913–14, doi.org/10.1038/443913a. Fischer, Carol Anne. Quantum Theatre: A Language for the Voices of Contemporary Theatre. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2004. Henry.Osborne. “River Sound.” Freesound, 14 Sept. 2021, freesound.org/s/587087/ Innes, Christopher, and Christopher Innes. Avant Garde Theatre, 1892-1992. Routledge, 1993. JuliusH. “Piano Bar - Piano Lounge Background Chill Music.” Pixabay, 27 April 2021, pixabay.com/music/acoustic-grou…ckground-chill-musi c-4178/ Markedit. “Train upon us.wav.” Freesound, 13 June, 2012, freesound.org/s/157873/. McAuley, Gay. Site-Specific Performance: Place, Memory and the Creative Agency ... - Core, core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229426471.pdf. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023. Nathans, Heather S. “Pittsburgh in Stages: Two Hundred Years of Theater.” By Lynne Conner. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007. Theatre Research International, vol. 34, no. 1, 2009, pp. 92–93, doi.org/10.1017/S030788330800432X. Oversub. “Hammer.Wav.” Freesound, 19 June, 2022, freesound.org/s/639235/ Penguin Victory: CMUsound. “BM-PittPensCele.Wav.” Freesound, 30 Apr. 2009,freesound.org/s/71945/. Program for Daniel Jamieson and Ian Ross’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk at Rodef Shalom, Pittsburgh, PA. Quantum Theatre, 2023 Simon, Ed. An Alternative History of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Belt Publishing, 2021. “What We Are.” Quantum Theatre, 31 May 2023, www.quantumtheatre.com/what-we-are/. Zukerman, Natalia. Tumbalalaika. In MuseScore4. Adapted by Benny Hill. Uploaded by Jonathan Miranda. 1 December, 2023. musescore.com/user/26870840/scor…22?share=copy_link
Transcript
Catie: Imagine taking a deep breath in, the air cold and crisp in your lungs. Above you, a characteristically Pittsburgh sky sprawls on endlessly, steely and gray. The vivid skyline is pressed against it like the scenic backdrop of a play. Beneath you, the yellow bridge is sturdy and you can hear the Alleghany running, running, running... [river sound] Welcome to Secret Pittsburgh! In the past 15 weeks, we’ve traveled across the city, learning the stories of Pittsburgh’s people and places. Join us as we explore Quantum Theatre. I’m Catie Grable. Let’s go! The sounds of Pittsburgh are varied, distinctive, and often noisy… Clanging industry [factory noise], Cheering stadiums [fans cheering], And chugging trains [train goes by]. [piano music] They’re also emblematic of the very place they emanate from: gritty, nuanced, and unapologetic. There are thousands upon thousands of stories in and around and about Pittsburgh: Stories that have sunk into the Allegheny, that flow through the Monongahela, and float down the Ohio. Stories embedded in those jagged cliff cutouts, buried in the Appalachian mountain range next to the coal that powered the very industry that once defined this city. Stories that glow in setting steel and that rise through sputtering smokestacks. Stories that wind through narrow alleys and twisted streets and up steep steps, and stories that march proudly down Fifth Avenue. Pittsburgh is a place that lends itself to storytelling, with its distinctive geography, deep lore, illustrious history, and various unique places. It only makes sense that a company like Quantum Theatre would spawn here, in a city so conducive to their mission. Quantum Theatre, per their own mission statement, “is a company of progressive, professional artists dedicated to producing intimate and sophisticated theatrical experiences in uncommon settings, exploring universal themes of truth, beauty, and human relationships in unexpected ways.” They do this through site-specific productions and environmental theater that interacts with its surroundings. You might’ve already listened to our previous episode about how they put on the Lovers of Vitebsk in the Rodef Shalom synagogue, connecting a Jewish story to Pittsburgh’s Jewish heritage and places. We were fortunate enough to be able to discuss this site-based mission with Karla Boos, Quantum Theatre’s founder and creative director. What made you choose Pittsburgh specifically for your company? Karla: Yeah, I felt that the size of the city and the kind of approachability of the city would be something I could deal with. I was in Los Angeles, I didn't know how a person would start a theatre company in Los Angeles, truthfully. And at the same time, I felt that I was bringing something that Pittsburgh did not have. And those two things turned out to be true. And Pittsburgh, I gotta hand it to Pittsburgh, has been very adventurous and open and willing. And I say to young people who asked, you know, how do you get started? Well, never hesitate to ask for something that you need or want. You do have to deliver something that speaks to people. But if you do, I think you would find that this is a city where there's reaction and appetite. Catie: So our class, Secret Pittsburgh, involves thinking about how specific places inform and construct a narrative. This place based mission seems very similar to your site specific production. Can you tell us a little about the process of adapting a performance to specific environments? Karla: Yeah, we are so allied, and it's really great, to be talking to Secret Pittsburgh folks. I agree that place is this contributor to experiences, right? Because a place has the layers of history, the past is there right alongside the present, and maybe the future. And it just makes for such liveness and it highlights that people bring a lot of themselves to any experience that we have. And I really like collective experiences. You know, that's what the performing arts are about. That's why however great Netflix becomes, we still gather to experience something that we know everyone there in the room or the site is going to bring different things to it and come away a little bit differently from it. But it's like the act of coming together there that makes it so. I have a 30 plus year history in Pittsburgh, of kind looking behind that door, or learning that once upon a time this happened here. And I love the physical landscape of the city as well. I love the mix of architecture, the natural landscape with the hills and the rivers in the great amount of green space. So all of those things are like an endless quest that I'm on and it has never become boring to me. There's always another place. It really inspires artists, directors and designers, especially designers, so you know, yay, Secret Pittsburgh, keep coming to quantum please because you discover a place as well as you know, have an experience. Catie: Can you discuss Pittsburgh, specifically as a venue for this non traditional theater? Pittsburgh has a notable heritage as a place of industry and has garnered many monikers over the years: Steel City, City of Bridges, City of Champions. It is known for its immigration, its rich culture, and its impressive reinvention. Have you been able to incorporate these distinctive features in your performances? And if so, how have they manifested? Karla: Well, yes, you catch me- our last work was Hamlet staged at the Carrie Furnace, that monument to, in some ways hubris, right? There was a time when we were the kings of the world with our steelmaking, but it was an ephemeral time. And the Carrie Furnace stands as a monument to that ambition, and it's transformed in a beautiful way–if you've been there, if you haven't, you must go–to really a natural space. And yet there is that evidence of the industry that it once created. So this is just one example. We staged a play by Tom Stoppard in Allegheny Cemetery that was about loss and the passage of time and how the past informs the present. I think all cities probably have a version of what Pittsburgh does, but it does feel especially rich in Pittsburgh. [musical interlude] Catie: Those who study the performance arts like Gay McAuley make the argument that performance impacts a place, and place simultaneously impacts performance, thus launching a cyclical interplay. In his words, when a production is put on in a certain location, it “activates memories, enables the place to tell a variety of stories, and permits the past to resonate in the present.” At the same time, it “enhances the creative agency of the spectators, who bring their own knowledge and memories of that place, and others like it, to the performance, thus unleashing a dynamic and volatile meaning making process.” Quantum Theatre, as a site-based production company, thus takes advantage of this interaction between place and story to involve the audience and add dimension to their work. As you heard Karla tell it, Pittsburgh has a particular depth of history that offers a particularly rich landscape for story-telling. Their most recent show–The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk–was their 100th, and since 1990 they have staged productions all over Pittsburgh, in places ranging from outdoors in Mellon Park to a former burger place in the Waterfront, and all kinds of places in between. In each place they perform, the audience brings their own preconceptions and ideas that inform their perception of the play, and must be added to, changed, or deconstructed through the performance. In reviewing the places we’ve journeyed together throughout this podcast series, it’s incredible to consider the way in which our interactions with places have transformed our interpretations of them and the narratives associated with them. If you listened to the previous episode about the Carrie Blast Furnace, you are likely aware of its history of steel-making, and the associated injustices, as well as the way that it has revived itself into a place of arts and community. This is a common narrative throughout Pittsburgh. For example, the August Wilson House is located in the Hill District, a historically thriving black community that was targeted for redevelopment in the middle of the 20th century, displacing thousands and leading to an economic deterioration. It was this place, both its height and then its eventual fall, that inspired August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle. Since then, there have been efforts to revive the Hill District, and the August Wilson House is a manifestation of such efforts. They actually host their own theatrical productions in the house’s backyard. Likewise, the Nine Mile Run in Frick Park represents an effort to renew and restore a waterway that was previously polluted, and create beauty and natural access in an urban setting. It is another tale of revival. Quantum Theatre is a thread that connects all the places we’ve gone together. As the singular site without a physical location associated with it, the Quantum Theatre can claim all of Pittsburgh as its “place” as it seeks to find the stories hidden everywhere throughout the city. However, Karla was careful to note that while the performances put on by Quantum Theatre are aligned with the place they are held in, it is the play that comes first rather than the site. In her words: Karla: There are these gorgeous stone aqueduct-type structures that are under Panther Hollow Bridge near Phipps Conservatory. I think I would stage opera under there. I want to hear the power of the human voice, you know, really amazing music under those bridges. Right. So it's, it's more like that sometimes I'll say, I think it's, it's Shakespeare or, there's a magnificent place called the King estate. We want to stage this outdoors. It's at the end of Highland Avenue. And there's this beautiful bowl of green grass with a mysterious entrance into the woods. And a little Folly Tower. This is on Negley Avenue, right. So you know, there are places all around and how you come to make it happen is- is another part of the story, of course. Catie: So when you're kind of putting on these productions, do you pick a site first? Or do you kind of have a sort of show that you want to put on first and then you look for sites? Like what is your process of like, kind of choosing this season's productions and where they're going to be? Karla: Right, the play really comes first, although there are sites like I've just mentioned a few that live in my psyche, and I hope to find the right play for them, the way we go about it is we're doing a play and we choose the site, ideally with the director and designers involved for the play, for what will unlock its power. And often it's not a literal thing that we're looking for. It's something like the director will say I want great height, or I want to see the performers come from a great distance. We usually know when we want it to be outdoors rather than indoors because we'll be dealing with changing light. Right. So, it's always the work first though, in general, yeah. Catie: Through Quantum Theatre, we can see the way that place interacts with story, and story, in turn, interacts with place. Next time you find yourself strolling down one of Pittsburgh 446 bridges, lamenting the cloudy day or the cold wind off the river, think instead of “the broken beauty” of the city, and all the fragmented stories that compose it. We’ll let Karla have the parting thought, regarding the importance of place and the significance of the mission shared by the Quantum Theatre and Secret Pittsburgh. Karla: Well, I think I just want to say, I love that in this day and age where so much is virtual, or so much is mitigated by technology, you guys are about real places, real things and the discovery of them and the journey to find them, and all the things that happen to you along the way as you our journeying, you know, and how it makes you more empathetic, more connected to each other and to the city, to the past to the future. I just think that's great. It's deeply part of my mission. So keep it up. Keep going to live performance in general, right, not just Quantum but we all need to value that or else we'll lose it. Catie: Thank you for joining us as we uncovered one story of Quantum Theatre. We hope you are inspired to visit this place and to find your own Pittsburgh stories. Please tune-in to all the episodes we’ve produced this season. You can find show notes and a transcript at secretpittsburgh.org. I’m Catie Grable. Simona Matiyevsky served as audio editor, and Taya Hoetzlein-Sirman wrote and researched this episode. See yinz later!