City of Asylum

"An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children" is a witty, deeply original book for all ages, in which Jamaica Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world—and reveals their often brutal past. Immensely inventive, surprising, and telling about what our gardens reveal, complete with provocative and brilliant watercolor illustrations by Kara Walker, one of America’s greatest visual artists, there has never been another book like it.

Jamaica Kincaid visits City of Asylum on November 17! Learn more as she discusses the book and her process with Anderson Tepper, Curator for World Literature at City of Asylum. Then ask your own questions and have your copy of the book signed in person.

Free tickets: https://cityofasylum.org/program/jamaica-kincaid/

Thursday Night Jazz returns October 17 @ City of Asylum Pittsburgh. Enjoy dinner and a show!

Thursday Night Jazz: Yoko Suzuki Spotlights the Music of Toshiko Akiyoshi - City of Asylum This latest concert in Yoko’s ongoing series features the compositions of Toshiko Akiyoshi as well as some beloved jazz standards.

Congratulations to our friend Roger Humphries, who has delighted us with so many unforgettable concerts over the years!

Teenie Harris and Roger Humphries Are Recognized for Their Artistic Contributions in Pittsburgh Two Black Pittsburgh artists — Charles “Teenie” Harris and Roger Humphries — have been recognized with permanent tributes in the city.

Wonderful selections, including "Thirteen Months of Sunrise" by City of Asylum Writer in Residence Rania Mamoun!

8 translated works of fiction by acclaimed international wordsmiths to check out Storytelling without boundaries.

A congratulations to this year's MacArthur Foundation Fellows including poet Jericho Brown who visited City of Asylum in September of 2017 to read as part of the annual Jazz Poetry Festival. You can read his interview with Sampsonia Way here: http://archive.sampsoniaway.org/blog/2018/07/11/to-witness-unto-myself-an-interview-with-jericho-brown/

Here's who made the 2024 MacArthur Fellows list This year, filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, poet Jericho Brown and disability rights activist Alice Wong are among the recipients of the so-called "genius grants." Each fellow receives $800,000.

City of Asylum welcomes Sandra Cisneros to Pittsburgh to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her contemporary classic, The House on Mango Street, on October 20.

The House on Mango Street is a national bestseller and one of the most cherished novels of the last fifty years. The novel is acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.” This year marks the release of a special 40th anniversary hardcover edition of the beloved coming-of-age novel with a new introduction by John Phillip Santos.

Told in a series of vignettes—sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous—Cisneros’s masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery and one of the greatest neighborhood novels of all time. Like Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street or Toni Morrison’s Sula, it makes a world through people and their voices, and it does so in language that is poetic and direct. This gorgeous novel is a celebration of the power of telling your own story and of being proud of where you’re from.

Reserve your free tickets to attend in person or online at https://cityofasylum.org/program/world-literature-sandra-cisneros/

Rosita here with some new Japanese releases!📚🇯🇵

•”Suggested in the Stars” by Yoko Tawada. From New Directions Publishing

•”Spring Garden” by Tomoka Shibasaki. From Pushkin Press

•”The Real Osamu Dazai” from Tuttle publishing.

Tomorrow, September 28 at 8:00 PM EDT / 7:00 PM CDT, three Fall Residency writers and the poet Joy Priest will join renowned musicians Mat Maneri and Lucian Ban at the City of Asylum's LitFest 2024 for a one-time-only improvisational jazz poetry collaboration. You can register to watch the livestream FREE at this address: https://cityofasylum.org/program/litfest-2024-lucian-ban-mat-maneri-joy-priest-iwp/

The participating Fall Residency writers will be Phodiso Modirwa - Poet (Botswana), Nicholas Wong (Hong Kong), and Felipe Franco Munhoz (Brazil).

Exchange Programs - U.S. Department of State
U.S. Embassy Gaborone, Botswana
Embaixada EUA Brasil / US Embassy Brazil

Save your seat here: https://cityofasylum.org/litfest2024/

A little reminder we will be closing tomorrow at 2 PM for City of Asylum's Gala but back open all weekend for our annual LitFest featuring some of the most stunning writers to date! Some programs have a few seats left, snag them before it's too late⏰

Pittsburgh literary festival explores 'Affrilachia,' the ocean and more At City of Asylum's weekend-long Litfest 2024, Kentucky-born poet Frank X Walker will discuss his book of poetry, "Load in Nine Times." The collection evokes the lives of Black soldiers who fought for the Union in his home state during the Civil War.

A Special LitFest Jazz and Poetry Collaboration on September 28!

Mat Maneri & Lucian Ban return to City of Asylum this Saturday, September 28th at 8:00 PM for a FREE program of jazz and poetry featuring tracks from their latest record, Transylvanian Dance. In addition to improvised sets with Pittsburgh poet Joy Priest, they will collaborate with poets from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa Phodiso Modirwa, Nicholas Wong, and Felipe Franco Munhoz.

Reserve your free tickets now!

LitFest 2024: Transylvanian Folk Songs Meet Jazz Poetry with Lucian Ban, Mat Maneri, Joy Priest, & the International Writing Program - City of Asylum Musicians Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri play tracks from their new album and collaborate with Joy Priest and other poets.

Pittsburgh Magazine shares this weekend's LitFest lineup! Eight FREE exciting programs all in one place. Will you be there?

Celebrate Literature With City of Asylum's LitFest This Weekend City of Asylum’s LitFest celebrates literature with world-renowned authors, translators and musicians — all free to the public on Sept. 28-29.

Announcing City of Asylum's first ever Translation Slam with Ann Goldstein, Michael Moore, Nicola Lagioia, Rania Mamoun, Mayada Ibrahim, & Amani Attia!

On September 28 @ 6 PM, translators go head-to-head to see who can produce the better translation of the same source material.

Translators will be translating an Arabic text from City of Asylum Resident Writer Rania Mamoun and an Italian text from literary true crime author Nicola Lagioia. They'll compare and discuss their strategies and choices until one of them has proven their translation best embodies the author’s voice and is deemed the victor. One text, two translators…who will prevail?

Reserve your seat now to watch in person or online!

LitFest 2024: Translation Slam with Ann Goldstein, Michael Moore, Nicola Lagioia, Rania Mamoun, Mayada Ibrahim, & Amani Attia - City of Asylum Translators Ann Goldstein and Michael Moore go head-to-head to see who can produce the best translation in this translation slam.

🎉 Book Launch Sep 29! 🎉

Celebrate with us as Frank X Walker presents 'Load in Nine Times,' a stirring new poetry collection in which Walker reimagines the experiences of Black Civil War soldiers―including his own ancestors―who enlisted in the Union Army in exchange for emancipation.

Reserve your FREE tickets now to attend in person or watch online via livestream:

LitFest 2024: Black Poetry in Appalachia with Frank X Walker - City of Asylum "Affrilachian" poet Frank X Walker visits City of Asylum to discuss life in Appalachia and his latest book "Load in 9 Times."

FREE Concert September 29 @ 4 PM
🎵Music & Activism with Benjamin Barson🎵

In his book Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons, musician and activist Benjamin Barson dives into the birth of jazz, and unearths vibrant narratives of New Orleans musicians to illuminate the Black Atlantic struggles that informed music-as-world-making from the Haitian Revolution through Reconstruction to the jazz revolution. The work presents a “music history from below,” following musicians as they built communes, performed at Civil Rights rallies, and participated in general strikes, placing emphasis on the first emancipatory revolution in the Americas, and tracing the impact of Haitian culture in New Orleans and its legacy in movements for liberation.

This program will bring Ben’s research to life, as he takes the stage with a group of Pittsburgh and New York based musicians to reimagine the music discussed in the book and its resonance in our current moment.

LitFest 2024: Music & Activism with Benjamin Barson - City of Asylum Musician and Activist Benjamin Barson plays in this special reading and concert at City of Asylum, celebrating his book Brassroots Democracy.

📆 September 28 @ 1 PM ✍️

Writing Our Own Story: The Art of the Memoir

With Damon Young, Francine Prose, Abdelrahman ElGendy, and Caro Llewellyn

How do we write down our own stories? How are our stories interpreted and consumed by the masses? And how do those interpretations make us view our stories differently? Accessible and intimate, memoir is one of the most popular genres among readers today. In this panel, we invite three authors in different stages of memoir writing to consider these questions and share their experiences.

Reserve your seat now! we hope to see you there!

LitFest 2024: Writing Our Own Story: The Art of the Memoir with Damon Young, Francine Prose, & Abdelrahman ElGendy - City of Asylum Memoirists Damon Young, Francine Prose, and Abdelrahman ElGendy discuss the different stages of memoir in this panel.

Today City of Asylum Resident Writer Rania Mamoun is speaking at The Atlantic Festival!

At 1:40 PM EST, Rania speaks on 'Foreshadowing from Abroad.' Join the program live at The Wharf in Washington, D.C., or virtually from anywhere.

Links & Social Media Details
● Website URL: TheAtlanticFestival.com
● Direct link to purchase: live.theatlantic.com/en/AtlanticLIVE/TheAtlanticFestival2024/purchase.php
● Instagram / Twitter / TikTok: &
● https://www.facebook.com/TheAtlantic
● https://www.facebook.com/AtlanticLIVE/