Strategy: Culture

SkatePlus

SkatePlus is a non-profit project of Shred Your Fears with a mission of promoting health, creativity, and education through skateboarding.

We held our first workshop (Skate+Write) in December 2019 in partnership with Write Pittsburgh and Switch & Signal Skatepark. This event for female-identifying and non-binary teens ages 11-14 combined learning to skateboard with a creative writing workshop led by Shred Your Fears Founder Maya Haptas.

We are launching our next event Skate+Construct in Spring 2021. For Skate+Construct, artist Abe Dubin (Orange Man) will be constructing unique, skateable art from items collected during a community clean-up.

To be notified by email of future events and programs sign up here.

Tabitha’s Daughters

the project

“If you empower women, you can change the world.”  Tabitha’s Daughters believes this assertion.

Where women gather to transform an issue or challenge, you will find our stories of strength, resilience, and determination.  We want to change Pittsburgh!  In order to change our city – a city where women, and especially African-American women are living with health, educational, housing, and economic disparities that are ” the worst in the nation,” (based on the Gender Equity Commission Report of 2019), women must be a part of the solutions for change. In a city which claims to be the “most livable city in America,” women must force change in political, social, educational, and economic systems that impede our progress and keep us from participating in the growing prosperity of Pittsburgh.

Our project is a social justice initiative where women of all ages and ethnicities are invited to be a part of the transformational change that needs to happen in Pittsburgh.  Using the Gender Equity Commission Report as the framework, we will gather to analyze and honestly discuss this report, choose an indicator to attack, and build an initiative that will improve, via one of the 5 indicators, the living standard of women in our city.  This project will involve 3-4 mini symposiums where experts will assist us in being a part of what must change in our city.

the steps

Training the Trainers – Interactions that will employ techniques and strategies to train those who will lead the discussion group and build the strategies for affecting the negative indicators affecting women.

1st Mini – Symposium – Collaborating with experts on the Gender Equity Commisison Report that can lead the women who gather to understand and unpack the report.

2nd Mini- Symposium – Group “table talks” on what the report means to the women mentioned in the report (African-American, Latina, Asian, & Euro-American women)

3rd Mini- Symposium – Choosing one of the 6 indicators (health mortality, infant mortality, educational, housing, economic) to build a strategy of improvement and impact around.  Building out an initiative that partners with collaborators to continue to work the program and promote change.

why we’re doing it

Tabitha’s Daughters believes the “future is female.”  Women, who occupy more space on the globe than men, must be moved to leadership positions that allow us to be a part of our own solution.  Our project, through the information provided in the Gender Equity Commission report, allows women to take ahold of our own future.  This report gives us the problems and challenges; now, Tabitha’s Daughters wants to build out solutions to create equity within our city for women who live, work, worship, and support their families.

Our project will ultimately be a solution to the statistics housed in the Gender Equity Commission report through concerted action.  Whether educational, health, housing, or economic disparities, we will work one of these indicators to viable solutions and affect change in the city.  We believe that small groups can make a difference and this project is constructed to make that difference.

 

source: https://ioby.org/project/tabithas-daughters-framing-future

Unshakeable Motherhood

The “Unshakeable Motherhood” Project is a movement for new mothers, veteran mothers and soon to be mothers with similar desires and interest. Over the past two years, we have raised funding to support the training of seven aspiring African American birth doulas while offering community educational workshops that educated the community of doula support that lead up to a one-night event. Which offered the opportunity for each expecting mother to explore new options and find resources on the aspects of pregnancy, birth, babies, or parenthood that are most important to her. We provided attendees with the opportunity to consistently be refreshed, build relationships with a community of moms to be restored by education and proper guidance.

The mission is to establish a community of diverse women who support, exhort and encourage one another along the journey of motherhood. The goal is to ensure Pennsylvania adopts and maintains an adequate system for inspiring and educating women and mothers through proper parenting skills, financial foundations and navigation support.

The “Unshakeable Motherhood” project will extend to connect and build with the original selected birth workers that we have fund raised to support birth doula’s with training funds. As these birth workers will contribute maternity, birth, postpartum and beyond lessons. This would include parenting workshops, breastfeeding guidance, birth prep class, vegan eating guidance, virtual parent empowerment support group and inspirational talks with professionals. We will offer yearly membership options where mothers can have access to exclusive content that can help them in other areas after birth such as parenting and homeschooling methodology. 

As the app and membership hub of video lessons and tutorials will offer support, educate and exhort women in their motherhood journey. Unshakeable Motherhood teaching videos, free informational downloadables and blog series spotlighting mothers, physicians and therapists. Mothers will have the opportunity to select a mommy concierge based off her profile to be able to support her prenatal and postpartum lifestyle needs.

Visible Hands

Visible Hands creates a cohort of community mental health workers who are
certified to perform ICT, a unique form of community therapy that requires only short-term training, can accommodate groups from 15-200 people, and can be performed successfully in an online format.

Greater Pittsburgh Book Festival Sponsorship

Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books Sponsorships

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Seasons Project- DEMASKUS Theater Collective

Note on Commercial Theater by Langston Hughes

You’ve taken my blues and gone

You sing ’em on Broadway

And you sing ’em in Hollywood Bowl,

And you mix them up with symphonies

And you fix ’em

So they don’t sound like me.

Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.

 

You also took spirituals and gone.

You put me in Macbeth and Carmen Jones

And all kinds of Swing Mikados

And in everything but what’s about me

But someday somebody’ll

Stand up and talk about me,

And write about me

Black and beautiful

And sing about me,

And put on plays about me!

I reckon it’ll be

Me myself!

Yes, it’ll be me.

 

DEMASKUS is a national service-oriented collective of artists and administrators seeking to make known the messages of the marginalized. We achieve this through the production and presentation of quality, compassionate, and inclusive artistic events. Everything around us is changing, but our purpose has not. Now more than ever, we must share profound truths from formally marginalized voices that refuse to go unheard and may even offer solutions and solace in a world in dire need of uncompromising reminders of what makes us most humane.

Most Christians will immediately associate DEMASKUS with Damascus–the Syrian capital that is home to the road where Saul of Tarsus had his transformative encounter with God. God struck Saul blind and confronted him about his past. High-born and scholarly, Saul was prone to violence toward early adopters of Christianity. The Collective’s name embodies the idea of revealing the truths that lie beneath the mask(s) of our own blind behavior and beliefs. Art, at its best, helps us to rethink and reimagine that which we think we know. Consciously removing a metaphorical mask certainly requires self-examination. (Based on an exchange with DTC member the Rev. Dr. Leah Lewis, J.D., alluding to Acts 9:1-8). Another source of inspiration for our work is the historic and notable poem, We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Whatever the masks you wear, we invite you to lay them down and join us on a journey filled with crossroads, but free from the expectations and oppressive standards of others. Our art is about us, made by us at times and is always for us.  There is freedom here. Welcome home.

 

Images: You Wouldn’t Expect Production Photos © Martha Rial
Images: WINE IN THE WILDERNESS- Production Photos © Sager McDill

Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books

SPONSORSHIPS NOW AVAILABLE

Sponsorship information

OUR MISSION

The Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books (GPFB) will celebrate Pittsburgh’s vibrant literary history & showcase this modern city’s vital role on the national & international literary stage. With free, diverse programming showcasing both national & local acclaimed authors across age groups & genres, the festival will offer opportunities for readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, critics & others to connect with, learn from & support each other.

WHY PITTSBURGH?

Pittsburgh is a city filled with both national best-selling authors and budding writers, as well as established literary organizations; university presses; publishers of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction; independent and used bookstores; an active literary and arts community; and readers of all ages.

An annual Pittsburgh book festival will tie all these assets together in one celebration. What’s more, book fairs and festivals create and support a community of readers, attract all ages, introduce and enhance a lifelong love of literature in young readers. 

Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid

Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid provides resources and community support to low-wage restaurant and hospitality workers who have lost financial, housing, food, and healthcare security. Built as a coalition of service industry workers in response to the economic distress caused by COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, our goal is to create a mutual aid network that can address immediate needs, through this crisis and beyond, by distributing food, baby necessities, pet care items, cleaning and hygiene products, and small emergency cash grants.

In response to the closure of dine-in facilities in Allegheny County on March 15th, we partnered with the Irma Freeman Center in Garfield to set up the Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid Food Distribution Center. Since then, we have delivered close to 400 care packages to the front doors of low-wage restaurant workers in the region, from our next door neighbors to folks in neighboring counties. Our Food Distribution Center acts as a hub to collect donations from community members and partner organizations, assemble care packages, serve meals, allow neighbors to pick up groceries, and send out volunteer drivers with deliveries. These resources will aid low-wage neighbors to maintain food security for themselves and their families during times of need.

Through reaching out to our greater community for support, the folks who eat at our tables and celebrate at our bars, the communities around us that benefit from the vibrant culture created in our dining rooms and on our stages, we will be able to better recover from these hard times and welcome our guests back with open arms.

Make Music Pittsburgh

Make Music Pittsburgh’s mission is to connect all Pittsburgh community members, regardless of age, musical experience, or ability, to make and enjoy music every summer solstice, while also encouraging further participation in music-making.

Every year on June 21st, Pittsburgh neighborhoods are filled with music making opportunities. Make Music Pittsburgh aims to enhance the cultural vibrancy of every neighborhood in Pittsburgh by supporting the existing musical events, music friendly venues, and citizens interested in participatory music making opportunities. They facilitate events to play music outdoors and celebrate the joy and curiosity music can bring a community.

Make Music Pittsburgh aims to build a city where all community members are enabled to make music and feel connected and supported in their musical engagement.

Brown Mama Monologues

The Brown Mama Monologues is an annual showcase of 10 African-American mothers telling their unique stories around being a black mother in America with the purpose of redefining the American motherhood narrative to be more inclusive of the black mothering experience.

After six months of rehearsals and speaking and writing coaching our moms take the stage to vocalize their trials and triumps around topics ranging from co-parenting to adoption and mommy-guilt. Since its inception, the Brown Mama Monologues has boasted over 300 attendees per show. Audience members leave our theaters using words like “unifying”, “relatable” and “long overdue” to describe the experience of hearing a mom, like them, give voice to her most vulnerable moments.

In 2020, for the first time in three years, our show will debut outside of the Pittsburgh region as 10 moms from the DC Metro area take the stage at the Bowie Center for Performing arts to become storytellers under the Brown Mama Monologues banner.

Contact Us
Brownmamamonologues.com
brownmommys@gmail.com

RiverWise

RiverWise is a newly launched initiative in Beaver County focused on using our rivers and their surrounding communities as wisely as possible. At the heart of this work is a concerted effort to organize stakeholders to dream, learn, and collaborate about the future of our rivers. We are encouraging this process in two ways. First, we are forming ecodistricts in three communities (Aliquippa, Monaca, and Beaver Falls). Second, we are conducting community assessments in a handful of river facing communities (to be determined) aimed at growing the infrastructure on the rivers, creating access to the rivers, and generating meaningful connections between the rivers and the communities through which they flow.

It’s been an exciting first year for RiverWise and its growing list of partners. We’ve learned, dreamed, and collaborated together about the future of our region. We’ve set in place some very exciting projects. And we’ve bolstered relationships born out of shared vision and purpose. Take a look at this year-end retrospective of the work of our partners.

Watch the RiverWise Year One Video

The Future of Petrochemicals in Western Pennsylvania – A Community Perspective

Three weeks ago, on October 30, 2019, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto publicly announced his opposition to additional petrochemical development in Western Pennsylvania. Responses to the Mayor’s comments were substantial and swift, quickly generating the kind of polarization that has become all too familiar in public discourse about important and contentious topics.

To date, the vast majority of voices speaking into this matter have come from outside of Beaver County, home to the most substantial petrochemical buildout in Western Pennsylvania. When Beaver County voices have been present in this conversation, little attention has been paid to the complex issues faced by community members who are most affected by regional decision making. This document seeks to widen the terms of the ongoing conversation, bringing to bear insight gained from working alongside more than fifty community organizations and several hundred residents who are seeking wisely to navigate the quickly changing landscape that is Beaver County.

Make no mistake: Beaver County is forging a new path for our future. We are embracing competence and vision, moving toward wisdom, and enacting principled change. Continue reading…

Beltzhoover Institute of Arts & Sciences

“Through science, we shall know it to be correct; through art, we shall know it to be beautiful”

 

The South Hilltop Men’s Group is a non-profit project of New Sun Rising, directed by Beltzhoover native, Jmar Bey. Their mission is to promote environmental protection through community training programs that use sustainable practices. With a broader goal to create hope and opportunity for those who have none. Since 2015, the South Hilltop Men’s Group has been working to support the responsible and inclusive revitalization of Beltzhoover.

In order to address widespread problems like blight and abandonment, lack of resources, and excessive unemployment while preserving and developing assets within the community, New Sun Rising and the South Hilltop Men’s Group acquired 600 Beltzhoover Ave on November 1, 2019 to become the eventual Beltzhoover Institute of Arts & Sciences.  The proposed renovation will be led by the South Hilltop Men’s Group, creating a hub for revitalization and local jobs while addressing environmental issues. Allegheny County Economic Development has also approved a $250,000 CITF grant to support the initial phase of work.

The building is strategically located along Beltzhoover Avenue, a major artery that connects McKinley Park and Emerald View Park, serving as a hub for learning, training, and creativity and connecting related projects along an eco-corridor. To support work in combating blight the project will be anchored by two departments: the Wangari Maathai Environmental Laboratory and an Art Studio. Together, these departments will provide space and opportunities for residents to become engaged in the revitalization of the community.

The Wangari Maathai Environmental Laboratory will provide space for equipment, research, and education on urban environmental topics, focusing on green space management. The Laboratory is named after Wangari Maathai, who became the first African woman and first environmentalist to receive a Nobel Peace prize. Maathai studied at the University of Pittsburgh and later founded the Green Belt Movement, which creates employment to combat deforestation through sustainable practices. The Laboratory will be located on the same block as the Lots of Pride experimental research garden. This project is actively testing various methods for soil remediation using sustainable, low-cost techniques. The strategically located site provides outdoor practical research space that will be supported by the Laboratory.

In addition to the laboratory and art studio, this building will feature green infrastructure and sustainable technologies which will also serve as educational tools, as the building itself will be transformed into a living classroom. For example, a rooftop greenhouse will be used to incubate plants for the various neighborhood community gardens. Stormwater will be captured for irrigation and cleaning on the property. A 2,000 gallon fish tank will display Pennsylvania’s native fish species and spread awareness about the importance of wildlife management. Solar energy will be used to power any lighting or other equipment. Mesh networking will be used to provide free internet access to project participants and local residents. All of these various components serve multiple purposes with education and awareness at the heart of it all.

The importance of this project isn’t just about rehabbing a building. The importance of this project is about resurrecting a neighborhood and bringing hope to a broken community. This building serves as a metaphoric symbol of our neighborhood. Battered and blighted it stands as one of the last commercial buildings left, in a once beautiful and proud area. A once happy community full of friendly people and thriving businesses. A safe place for children with a good school and good neighbors. The kind of place to raise a family in.