EXPLORING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN 412-456-6666 | GROUPS 10+ 412-471-6930 BOX OFFICE AT THEATER SQUARE A PRODUCTION OF THE PITTSBURGH CULTURAL TRUST AND THE HUMANITIES CENTER AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY THE WRITERS OF THE ONION FRIDAY, MARCH 24 | BYHAM THEATER The award-winning satirical news organization is “arguably the most WELCOME popular humor periodical in world history” (The New Yorker). The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University welcome you to the 2017 BASSEM YOUSSEF: THE JOKE Pittsburgh Humanities Festival. IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD SATURDAY, MARCH 25 This three-day gathering in the Cultural District BYHAM THEATER brings together internationally-renowned The “Jon Stewart of the Arab World” was the host of AlBernameg, the first-of-its-kind political satire show in the Middle East. academics, artists, and intellectual innovators offering interviews, intimate conversations, and select performances focused on art, literature, KATHLEEN NEAL CLEAVER music, science, policy, politics, and more—all helping us to explore what it means to be & DENISE OLIVER-VELEZ human. It’s smart talk about stuff that matters. SUNDAY, MARCH 26 AUGUST WILSON CENTER These history makers (and former Black Panther Party members) will speak to issues facing women and people of color today. SPECIAL THANKS CORE CONVERSATIONS 90.5 WESA | 91.3 WYEP Humanities Center, MARCH 25 & 26 University of Pittsburgh At the heart of the Festival are 25 intimate Andy Warhol Museum conversations helping us to explore what it Humanities Scholars means to be human. Find the schedule and Carnegie Mellon Program, Carnegie Mellon speaker biographies on following pages. International Film Festival University Carnegie Museums Institute for the Arts of Pittsburgh and Humanities, Penn State University PARTNER EVENTS (MORE INFO AT TRUSTARTS.ORG/SMARTTALK) Center for the Arts in Diversity in Dance | Dance Theatre of Harlem & Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Society, Carnegie Mellon NEXT Pittsburgh MARCH 19 | AUGUST WILSON CENTER University Pennsylvania Zeyba Rahman: Managing Art and Social Impact City of Asylum Humanities Council presented by CMU Center for the Arts and Society MARCH 23 | CMU: HAMBURG HALL, A301 Crazy Mocha Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures Anthropocene Eventioneers Gary and Valerie Schaffer in partnership with Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival & Carnegie Nexus’ Strange Times series MARCH 24 | CMOA THEATER, CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART The Heinz Endowments World Affairs Council Abacus: Small Enough to Jail in partnership with Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival MARCH 24 | HARRIS THEATER (CULTURAL DISTRICT) MARCH 25 | CMU MCCONOMY AUDITORIUM Field Recordings: The Bang On a Can All Stars presented by Carnegie Nexus’ Strange Times series and as part of The Warhol Sound Series MARCH 25 | CARNEGIE LECTURE HALL (OAKLAND) 279 ALLEGHENY RIVER FORT DUQUESNE BOULEVARD FORT DUQUESNE BOULEVARD STANWIX STREET STANWIX SIXTH STREET COMMONWEALTH PLACE COMMONWEALTH PRICING HARRIS THEATER GENERAL ADMISSION STUDENT RATE CORE CONVERSATIONS PENN AVENUE PASS WAY TITO $20 $10 STREETTENTH 25 intimate conversations, interviews, STREETNINTH & performances on Saturday and Sunday TRUST ARTS PENN AVENUE FEATURED EVENTS (PER SHOW) $50 (best seats) $45 (best seats) EDUCATION CENTER The Writers of the Onion, March 24 $25 (best value) $20 (best value) 4TH FLOOR & PEIRCE STUDIO LIBERTY AVENUE Bassem Youssef, March 25 $20 (best price) $15 (best price) K. N. Cleaver & D. Oliver-Velez, March 26 CRAZY MOCHA MONONGAHELA RIVER & SMART TALK LOUNGE ALL ACCESS $120 (best seats) $105 (best seats) LIBERTY AVENUE All Core Conversations $70 (best value) $55 (best value) BOOKSTORE + All Featured Events $60 (best price) $45 (best price) (WHITE WHALE BOOKSTORE) 376 FORBES AVENUE FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE BOULEVARD OF THE ALLIES PARTNER EVENTS Dance Theatre of Harlem w/ PGH Ballet Theatre, Tickets Sold Separately Tickets Sold Separately STANWIX STREET Zeyba Rahman, Anthropocene, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail & Field Recordings BYHAM THEATER FORTH AVENUE 279 ALLEGHENY RIVER FIFTH AVENUE SIXTH AVENUE WOOD STREET TRUSTARTS.ORG/SMARTTALK SEVENTH AVENUE THIRD AVENUE FORT DUQUESNE BOULEVARD BOX OFFICE AT THEATERFORT SQUARE DUQUESNE BOULEVARD 376 EIGHTH STREETEIGHTH WILLIAM PENN PLACE STANWIX STREET STANWIX 412-456-6666 SIXTH STREET GROUPS PLACE COMMONWEALTH 10+ TICKETS 412-471-6930 PENN AVENUE WAY TITO SEVENTH STREET PENN AVENUE NINTH STREET TENTH STREETTENTH PENN AVENUE LIBERTY AVENUE MONONGAHELA RIVER LIBERTY AVENUE LIBERTY AVENUE 376 FORBES AVENUE BOULEVARD OF THE ALLIES SEVENTH AVENUE STANWIX STREET WOOD STREETSIXTH AVENUE FORTH AVENUE SMITHFIELD STREET THIRD AVENUE 376 AUGUST WILSON CENTER SCHEDULE 4TH FLOOR PEIRCE STUDIO HARRIS THEATER TRUST ARTS EDUCATION CENTER 10:00 AM Michael Bérubé: Demeatria Boccella Dana Gioia: Life as Jamie Knows It in Conversation with Can Poetry Matter? PAGE 8 Karin Legato PAGE 8 PAGE 9 11:30 AM Martín Espada: An Interview Suzie Silver Mark Clayton Southers: with Jim Daniels PAGE 10 Producing Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh PAGE 9 Playwrights Theatre Company PAGE 10 1:30 PM Virginia Johnson: Elizabeth Watkins: James Livingston: Art in Our Time On the Pill The End of Work PAGE 11 PAGE 11 PAGE 12 3:00 PM Steve James: Libby Otto: Teaching Bauhaus to the Lisa Tetrault: Documentary Filmmaker Children of Theresienstadt Concentration The Myth of Seneca Falls Camp — Friedl Dicker-Brandeis PAGE 12 PAGE 13 PAGE 13 SATURDAY, MARCH 25 SATURDAY, 4:30 PM More Just Communities –From Stories to Action PAGE 14 12:00 PM Yona Harvey in Conversation Elaine Frantz Parsons: The Ambassador John F. Maisto with Ed Piskor Ku Klux Klan in the History in Conversation with PAGE 14 of White-on-Black Violence Ambassador Dan Simpson PAGE 15 PAGE 15 1:30 PM Have-A-Chat for Humanity: Have-A-Chat for Humanity: Have-A-Chat for Humanity: PJ Gaynard Bergita Bugarija David Bennett PAGE 16 PAGE 16 PAGE 16 MARCH 26 3:00 PM Robert Christgau: Sharon Dilworth Chris Potter in Conversation with “The Dean of Rock Critics” PAGE 17 Patrick Doyle: Journalism in the PAGE 17 Age of Social Media PAGE 18 Osama Alomar Aaron Steinfeld: Human Reactions Linn Meyers SUNDAY, 4:30 PM PAGE 18 to In/Appropriate Robot Behavior PAGE 19 PAGE 19 FRIDAY, THE WRITERS OF THE ONION Members of the creative staff offer an intimate glimpse MARCH 24 inside the writers’ room of America’s Finest News Source. 8 PM PAGE 20 SATURDAY, BASSEM YOUSSEF: Dubbed the Jon Stewart of the Arab World, Youssef was MARCH 25 the host of the popular TV show AlBernameg - which was 8 PM THE JOKE IS MIGHTIER the first of its kind, political satire show in the Middle East. THAN THE SWORD PAGE 21 SUNDAY, A CONVERSATION WITH Former members of the Black Panther Party and other MARCH 26 organizations, participating in human rights, Civil Rights, FEATURED EVENTS 7 PM KATHLEEN NEAL CLEAVER women’s rights, and AIDS activism movements since the & DENISE OLIVER-VELEZ late 1960s. PAGE 22 DANA GIOIA: CAN POETRY supported by the CORE CONVERSATIONS Humanities Center, MATTER? University of Pittsburgh SATURDAY, MARCH 25 10–11 AM MICHAEL BÉRUBÉ: TRUST ARTS EDUCATION CENTER LIFE AS JAMIE PEIRCE STUDIO supported by the Institute Dana Gioia will be interviewed by for the Arts and Humanities, Susan Balée, Journalist and Doctoral Penn State University KNOWS IT Student at the University of Pittsburgh. SATURDAY, MARCH 25 Gioia is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. 10–11 AM Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, HARRIS THEATER Gioia is a native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent. Michael Bérubé will read from and discuss his new book, Life as He received a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Stanford University and Jamie Knows It, a sequel to Life as We Know It, which introduced an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Jamie Bérubé to the world as a sweet, bright, gregarious little boy The current Poet Laureate of California, Gioia will take part in who loves the Beatles, pizza, and making lists. At four, he is like conversation about the state of poetry, literature, and the arts in many kids his age, but his Down syndrome prevents most people contemporary American society. from seeing him as anything but disabled. Twenty years later, Jamie Gioia has published five full-length collections of poetry, most is no longer little, though he still jams to the Beatles, eats pizza, and recently 99 Poems: New & Selected. His poetry collection, makes endless lists of everything. In Life as Jamie Knows It, Michael Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. Bérubé chronicles his son’s journey to adulthood and his growing An influential critic as well, Gioia’s 1991 volume Can Poetry curiosity and engagement with the world. Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle michaelberube.com award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. In 2014 he won the Aiken-Taylor Award for lifetime achievement in American poetry. danagioia.com DEMEATRIA BOCCELLA IN CONVERSATION MARTIN ESPADA: AN WITH KARIN LEGATO INTERVIEW WITH JIM DANIELS SATURDAY, MARCH 25 SATURDAY, MARCH 25 10–11 AM 10:30–12:30 PM TRUST ARTS EDUCATION CENTER HARRIS THEATER 4TH FLOOR Martín Espada will be interviewed by Jim Daniels, Poet and Demeatria Boccella is the founder Screenwriter, Carnegie Mellon University. of FashionAFRICANA—one of the leading African-inspired Fashion and Espada has published almost twenty books as a poet, editor, Art events in Pittsburgh. Established essayist and translator. His latest collection of poems from Norton in 2001, FashionAFRICANA is Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (2016). Junot Díaz writes that celebrates the beauty and diversity this book represents “Espada at his brilliant best, the poet laureate of the African Diaspora through of our New America, with a voice that breaks heart, gives courage design, dance, music and curated exhibitions. The intent of and burns all illusions.” His honors include the Shelley Memorial FashionAFRICANA has always been to share the breadth and Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, richness of African textures, ethos and history through the the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.