Pittsburgh Humanities Festival @ Home Announces Upcoming Programs

Join the conversation this fall, wherever you are, as Pittsburgh Humanities Festival @ Home presents "smart talk about stuff that matters." Catch free and fascinating live-streamed interviews with artists, academics, and intellectual innovators exploring a range of topics - from health care and policy, to incarceration, technology, and creating opportunities for artists of color in Pittsburgh.

Originally slated for March of 2020, and canceled due to the onset of the pandemic, this virtual reboot of the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival features a selection of guests originally slated for in-person "Core Conversations" - a cornerstone of the usual in-person Cultural District experience. Designed as virtual opportunities for meaningful dialogue, including a live Q&A opportunity, these events will connect us for conversation when we need it most.

Life Sentences: The Amazing Journey of Walking Out of an American Prison

Speaker: Robert Wideman

Date and Time: October 2 at 7 p.m.

Robert Wideman will discuss his amazing journey of walking out of prison after 44 years including moments of joy and trials and struggles of reintegrating into life outside of prison after so many years of being incarcerated.

Robert "Faruq" Wideman will discuss his collection of essays and other writings Life Sentences: The Amazing Journey of Walking Out of an American Prison and his amazing journey of walking out of prison after 44 years. Included will be moments of joy after reuniting with family and the trials and struggles of reintegrating into life outside of prison after so many years of being incarcerated. He will recount memories and experiences like locking the door when he took a shower after being released and the outpouring of love that was so lavishly and sincerely given by family and friends.

Robert "Faruq" Wideman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in a 1975 murder. After more than 40 years in prison, his sentence was commuted and he was released on July 2, 2019. Wideman is the author of Life Sentences: The Amazing Journey of Walking Out of an American Prison.

Dance Maker: Blackness in White Spaces

Speaker: Staycee Pearl

Date and Time: October 9 at 7 p.m.

Staycee Pearl will discuss creating meaningful opportunities in movement and art residencies, classes and workshops for pre and professional artists of color through her work as a dancer, choreographer, and artist director.

Staycee Pearl will discuss creating meaningful opportunities in movement and art residencies, classes and workshops for pre and professional artists of color through her work as a dancer, choreographer, and artist director.

Staycee Pearl is the co-artistic director of PearlArts Studios and STAYCEE PEARL dance project, where she creates artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works in collaboration with her husband and artistic collaborator, Herman Pearl. Staycee received her initial dance training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Staycee is passionate about sharing resources and creating opportunities for the arts community by initiating project-generating programs including the Charrette Series, the In The Studio Series, and the PearlDiving Movement Residency.

Everyone Wants to Get to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die

Speaker: Jonathan D. Moreno

Date and Time: October 16 at 7 p.m.

Jonathan D. Moreno explores an unprecedented revolution in health care and explain the problem with America's wanting everything that medical science has to offer without debating its merits and its limits

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die is a primer for all Americans to talk more honestly about health care. Beginning in the 1950s when doctors still paid house calls but regularly withheld the truth from their patients, Jonathan D. Moreno explores an unprecedented revolution in health care and explain the problem with America's wanting everything that medical science has to offer without debating its merits and its limits. The result: Americans today pay far more for health care while having among the lowest life expectancies and highest infant mortality of any affluent nation.

Jonathan D. Moreno is called "the quietly most interesting bioethicist of our time" by the American Journal of Bioethics. Jonathan is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he is a Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) professor. At Penn he is also Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, of History and Sociology of Science, and of Philosophy. His new book, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die: Bioethics and the Transformation of Healthcare in America is co-authored with Penn president Amy Gutmann.

Public Open Call: Don't Google This - Offline Curiosity in an Online World

Speaker: Boaz Frankel

Date and Time: October 23 at 7 p.m.

Boaz Frankel takes us on a journey through the worlds of offline and online curiosity.

The Public Open Call provides a chance for a new voice to be heard at the Festival. The open call for participants is a web-based audition opportunity open to anyone interested in presenting / performing at the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival. This year's winner is Boaz Frankel.

"We're all born curious. Curiosity is what makes our world a bigger and more interesting place. But in an age where every answer is a Google search away, the ways we find answers and the paths we take have completely changed. Together, we'll explore the difference between online and offline curiosity. We'll look into the science behind it, the extreme places that curiosity can take us, and the surprising things that happen when we try to answer a question without a computer." - Boaz Frankel

Boaz Frankel is a filmmaker, writer, and talk show host who recently moved to Pittsburgh. Shortly after he moved, Boaz began a quest to make a documentary in each of Pittsburgh's ninety neighborhoods - he only has around eighty more documentaries to go. Last year, Boaz and his wife Brooke Barker co-wrote "Let's Be Weird Together: A Book About Love" which has been published in two languages. For six years Boaz hosted the Pedal Powered Talk Show, a talk show built into a bicycle that travelled all over the United States. When Boaz isn't breaking Guinness World Records for the most high fives in an hour or starring in a Dutch television segment called 'Boaz Goes Dutch,' he creates quirky documentaries, curates a kazoo museum, and volunteers at the Phipps Conservatory and Heinz History Center.

Past Open Call winners include:

2019: Len Caric - The New Normal: A conversation on the trauma of a school lock downs

2018: Jessie Sage - Phone Sex, Anti Sex Work Feminism, and Masculine Socialization

2017: PJ Gaynard - The Philosphy of Decision Making; Bergita Bugarija - Dive into the Migrant Journey; David Bennett - Behind Bach

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